Studying/informal translation with a chronic illness

Tue Jun 15 17:17:54 UTC 2010

Stephanie,

don't forget that 'human' translators are also prone to error.  Court interpreting is a hugely controversial area here in Ireland.  Russian interpreters were recently thrown out of court for not being able to translate 'ambiguous'.  Google would have been very useful in those circumstances!  On a less serious note, I once attributed the adjective skromnyi to the composer Mussogorskii as I didn't know Modest was his first name.  With the online translators, I find it fun to translate back as you rarely get the original.

Anne Marie 

> Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:59:55 -0700
> From: oothappam at EARTHLINK.NET
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Studying/informal translation with a chronic illness
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> 
> Good grief, Stephanie! Don't feel bad!
> I also have a chronic illness(Progressive Multiple Sclerosis). I am in a wheelchair and can only use my left hand. I get tired just lifting a teacup.Sometimes there are simply NO spoons left.
> I am not advanced like you are with Russian. But I think that using Google translator sometimes is not bad. You know it won't be accurate and is sometimes very funny. You can see the results you get and use a dictionary like Multilex to confirm or decide against words, and refine the text to your liking, as you know! I suspect that this whole tweaking process is beneficial to us as learners, as we learn new words this way.It would be cheating,in the translating process I think, if you used the translator and just did not go over and repair the errors. But the way you do it, I think it's ok...
> Best wishes,
> Nola
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: Stephanie Briggs 
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu 
> Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 7:47 AM
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Studying/informal translation with a chronic illness
> 
> 
> Dear SEELANGers,
> 
> As I mentioned in the email about my trip to Russia, I have a physical
> disability, cerebral palsy, plus chronic pain. I've been studying Russian
> since 1999, and got a BA in it, and will be applying for a Master's program
> in Translation Studies soon.
> 
> I realize the importance of translating by oneself using a dictionary amd
> one's own skills, but as I was writing a note to a Russian friend of mine
> whose son is very ill, I found myself, instead of reaching for my dictionary
> and verb book, going to the dreacded Google Translate, and typing in the
> short phrase that I wanted. I checked the translation myself, and tweaked it
> a bit before writing it out. Google of course isn't perfect, so I used it
> and expected that it would come out rather...weird, simplifed maybe, needing
> some help to refine it.
> 
> Now I feel guilty at all for using a computer translator, which can never
> really replace a human. But I used it because I am very low on energy, and
> didn;t have the energy to look up, decline and etc all the words I needed.
> It's very hard to read tiny dictionary print when someone has shoved an
> icepick in your eyes. I know for sure that in professional translation, one
> is expected to use one's brain (as well as whatever software to do a rough
> translation), and the traditional dictionary, verb book, etc. Not just leap
> to the easy translating machine.
> 
> Can I be forgiven for slipping this once and doing it the easy way?
> 
> Stephanie.
> 
> *****************************
> ~Stephanie D. (Sures) Briggs
> http://sdsures.blogspot.com/
> 
> Come have a look at my handmade knitted afghans and scarves!
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> 
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> me too!)
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> 
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