Response to Commentary: Bush's translator in Romania

[McGinnis, Scott]

-----Original Message-----
From: Dumitrescu, Domnita [mailto:ddumitr at exchange.calstatela.edu] 
Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 3:26 PM
 
I agree with you, he might have been better the other way around, and I
don't understand either why things were done half way only. Thanks!
-----Original Message----- 
From: McGinnis, Scott [mailto:smcginnis at nflc.org] 
Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 11:55 AM 
To: heritage-list at Glue.umd.edu 
Subject: Response to Commentary: Bush's translator in Romania 
Sensitivity: Confidential 
 
From: Kathryn_Good at brown.edu [mailto:Kathryn_Good at brown.edu] 
Sent: Sunday, December 01, 2002 11:44 AM 
Many thanks for this email.  Before heading off to ACTFL sessions in 
Salt Lake, I watched the broadcast of the President's speech.  I noted 
that most of the young Romanians in the crowd reacted to Bush's words as

he spoke them in English.  It was a credit to English language 
instruction in Romania and a stark contrast to the preceding minutes 
when the Romanian hosts had spoken at length welcoming Bush, etc. SANS 
translation.  Since I do not speak Romanian, I am left with no 
translation.  I am certain that Bush's word were not the only important 
ones spoken this day, and ashamed of the American press and government 
for so blatantly disregarding their host nation's remarks.  It surely 
would have been interesting to hear what Romania had to say as they 
entered a new alliance.  Perhaps the skills of Bush's translator would 
have been stronger going from Romanian to English.  It is a shame he 
wasn't asked to try. 
Kathryn Good 
Director 
Intensive English Language Programs 
Brown University 
> 
> From: "smcginnis at nflc.org" <smcginnis at nflc.org> 
> Date: 2002/12/01 Sun AM 10:44:07 EST 
> To: heritage-list at Glue.umd.edu 
> Subject: Commentary: Bush's translator in Romania 
> 
> From: Dumitrescu, Domnita ddumitr at exchange.calstatela.edu 
> Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 17:15:04 -0800 
> 
> I felt the need to share with you my frustration, and that of many 
> Romanian-Americans, who listened to the speech Bush gave in Bucharest 
last 
> Saturday, and to the monumental errors the translator made. I was 
indeed 
> puzzled, and furious, because Romania has plenty of very skilled 
conference 
> translators fluent in perfect English, but I was told that the Bush 
> delegation brought its own translator from the States. I don't know 
who he 
> was, but if there is any way to let somebody up there know about the 
kind of 
> job he did, please let that person know it was just terrible! My 
> ex-colleagues at the University of Bucharest cannot stop wondering how

this 
> could happen and laughing at translations like: going to war "hip to 
hip" 
> instead of going "shoulder to shoulder", just because the sounds of 
the 
> English word "shoulder" are similar to the sounds of the English word 
"hip". 
> And there are many examples of impossible syntactic constructions and 
> undertranslations, like when Bush says that he is "honored" to be 
there, in 
> that "great" country, and the translator says that he wanted "to be 
there in 
> that country." I have a full list of things like that. 
> 
> I am telling you this just because Romanian is another heritage 
language in 
> America, and it's a shame that "the most powerful country in the 
world" 
> cannot find a decent translator to do the job, just like when they did

not 
> have Pashto translators for the documnents before 9/11. 
> 
> Thanks for listening, 
> Domnita Dumitrescu, PhD 
> Professor of Spanish Linguistics 
> Department of Modern Languages and Literatures 
> California State University, Los Angeles 
> 5151 State University Dr. 
> Los Angeles, CA 90032 
> Phone: 323-343-4235 
> Fax: 323-343-4234 
> E-Mail: ddumitr at exchange.calstatela.edu 
> Web Page: www.calstatela.edu/faculty/ddumitr 
> 
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> mail2web - Check your email from the web at 
> http://mail2web.com/ . 
> 
> 
> 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/heritage/attachments/20021202/4691bf1f/attachment.htm>