Response to Commentary: Bush's translator in Romania

[McGinnis, Scott]

From: Bernhardt, James E [mailto:BernhardtJE at state.gov]
Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 4:39 PM

Our office of Language Services comments that "The diplomatic protocol
requires that a Romanian interpreter hired by the Romanian government
interpret the remarks of the Romanian government's representatives into
English.  We are only permitted to interpret the remarks generated by
our
own government officials.  You are welcome to share this information
with
the individuals whose views are listed below."


James E. Bernhardt, Chairperson, Arabic and Asian Languages, Foreign
Service
Institute
This E-Mail is unclassified based on definitions provided in E.O. 12958



> 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
>
>
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