Written and Electronic
Resources for Self-Training Translators:
An eye-opening
for translator trainees in Jordan
Mohammed Y. Abu-Risha
Department of
Translation
University of Petra
Perhaps it would not be far from the truth if we claim
that a fresh translation student would likely rely in learning translation
skills solely on the instructor and the bilingual dictionary. This is at
least a fact that it seems to be prevalent in many universities where I taught
translation courses.
Let us put aside the academia for a while and head for
the translation market. Many recruiters of translators in Jordan have complained
that applicants, who graduated from translation departments, failed to give
an acceptable translation, with the term "acceptable" measured by the extent
to which the editor of a translation has to work in correcting the mistakes
in that given translation.
The present paper addresses self-training resources on
the assumption that a student should not expect to get everything from the
university. These resources will be tackled for the purpose of this paper
and will be divided into two types: electronic and written. This is therefore
an “eye-opener” exercise, which, once mastered by the translation student,
he will be able to translate.
I will kindly ask you to pardon my resort to personal
experience here and there in this paper. While research papers are supposed
to be made under rigid measures, somehow disregarding subjectivity, it is
necessary to point out that personal experience is the touchstone upon which
the validity of all research is gauged.
0. Initial Remarks [1]
I wish from the outset to express my thanks to Atlas Global
Centre represented by Mr. Ghassan Al-Deeb, Chairman of the Board of Directors,
for their initiative and unprecedented blessed move in holding this series
of conferences to discuss matters pertaining to translation and lexicography.
I thank also Dr. Suleiman Al-Abbas, Atlas"s Manager General for steering the
organization of this remarkable event and for inviting me to present a paper
on translation.
It is good here, I feel, to underscore and hail the essential role
that the private sector can play in developing translation as a discipline
and as a career. In fact, the promotion of translation studies and profession
requires us academicians to cooperate with the private sector in building
up efficient translators. Unfortunately, the present position of translators
and translation is so gloomy and with many failing attempts to regulate the
translation profession due to two main reasons. First, students of translation,
who, supposedly, later on become translators, do not seem to fully understand
that translating a document or even a simple phrase is not a dictionary work
alone. The second factor is that our universities seem to have few connections
with the translation market and corporations, if at all. What raises the
eyebrow is that in the promotion literature of universities, the overtly expressed
goal for offering BAs in translation, is to "supply the market with efficient
translators", with the paradox being that such a slogan has not materialised
in better relations with public institutions and private enterprises. Let
me therefore from the very beginning suggest that you include in the recommendations
the establishment and the boosting of ties of cooperation between academia
and the private sector on the one hand, and among translation companies on
the other hand.
1. Introduction
Once I watched a famous film about the Roman Empire called "The
Gladiator" in which the Emperor wants to change the victorious empire
into a Republic for fear, as he told his awkward son, that upon his death
all Roman victories will be lost because the Emperor"s son was not skilful
enough to preserve the nation. The son who strived for the throne cried and
said that he did all his best to make his father happy with him but he was
always a failure. The emperor replied "You don"t understand. Your failure
as a son is my failure as a father!"
The same applies to us, translation teachers. "Their failure
as students is our failure as teachers!" A typical instructor of translation
courses may either underestimate or overestimate his students with either
practice resulting in misleading the student to what translation is exactly
about. Are there any resources for self-training in translation? Are there
any tangible steps to be used by the trainee that would ultimately secure
for him the coveted title "translator" or "interpreter"?
The answer is yes. Translation resources however are not used effectively,
and my evidence is the fact that the qualified translators and interpreters
in Jordan can be counted by the fingers of the one hand, following the Arabic
saying.
Translation is not only a talent. It is a skill that can be learnt,
improved and even lost [2].
In order for one to be a good translator, it is imperative that he relies
on rich resources. Without resources, it would be almost impossible, in my
opinion, for a trainee translator to practically give an error-free translation.
[3]
From my experience as a translator, interpreter and instructor
of translation courses, it seems to me that rarely do students know anything
about translation resources, and the very few who have access to such resources
do not use them appropriately. And, this is the problem to be tackled here.
This presentation is intended to complement a previous
paper that I submitted at Yarmouk University 17th international
conference on literature, linguistics and translation. In that paper, the
main concern was how to teach translation. Now, it is how to let students
develop self-learning strategies of translation. We need, in this regard,
to emphasize that the word “learning” has been intentionally used to denote
the on-going process marked by the learning of translation.
I will first define translation resources then divide
them mainly into two categories: electronic resources and written resources.
Under electronic resources, the discussion is going to be based on dictionaries,
encyclopedias and online resources. As for written resources, MA theses on
translation, and economic and legal documents will be examined.
2. Translation Resources
2.1. Definition
For the purpose of this paper, I will mean by “the translator’s
resources” all the body of knowledge and instruments available for the translator
in either media: written and electronic to help the translator perform his
tasks efficiently and effectively. Resources are not restricted to dictionaries
and encyclopedias. They cover any resource that would bring insight into
the translator’s task. A digital camera catalogue, in view of the above account,
is an example of a good resource for a translator in charge of doing some
translation job on digital photography.
For purposes of brevity, the electronic resources will
discuss both materials available on CDs and online.
2. 2. CDs and Online Electronic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
A typical Arab student admitted to an English department at some local
university (let me say in Jordan, my country, for example) would face a problem
in finding the right path leading him to the mastery of the language he/she
has chosen to learn. Typical problems that a freshman, at the English/translation
department here in Jordan, faces would be related to learning new vocabulary,
guessing the meaning of new words he/she encounters while reading a piece
of English written material or translating from English into Arabic and vice
versa.
I have taught courses in translation, reading, communication
skills, paragraph writing and oral skills for a number of years at some Jordanian
universities. All these courses demanded the students to work hard in (1)
learning new vocabulary, and (2) using the learnt vocabulary idiomatically
in their proper context. To tell the truth, it seems that the majority of
our students, at least at the universities where I taught, were almost all
the time astray knowing not how to learn a new word or use it idiomatically.
Worse, they did not know how to make use of technology, beginning with the
written dictionary to the computerized translation programs in solving their
problem with words.
Being a teacher of translation and conscious of this problem,
I found it appropriate here to suggest a way that would lead the students
concerned to their goal in translation and vocabulary development. The hope
from the present discussion is that students would find learning English and
solving vocabulary-related problems both beneficial and entertaining.
The vocabulary problem is twofold. It pertains to the
type of dictionary a student should use and the way a dictionary should be
used.
2.2.1 Which Dictionary
As it is commonly known, a dictionary could be either monolingual or
bilingual. Which dictionary should a student choose: a monolingual or a bilingual?
To answer this question, let us review a number of dictionaries to see how
these can be utilized to the best.
2.2.1.2 Al-Mawrid Electronic Dictionary (A computerized
version) updated every year since 1999
- Components:
- The same material (entries and their paraphrases)
of the written versions of Al-Mawrid Dictionary (Arabic-English) and Al-Mawrid
(English-Arabic). A specialised linguistic dictionary is also incorporated.
- Recorded pronunciation for every entry (in English
and in Arabic).
- Pictorial illustrations for some entries
- Information Related Features:
- Vowelisation for Arabic words in the Arabic-English
dictionary is available. Vowelisation of some Arabic words in the other
dictionary is also provided.
- The English-Arabic dictionary gives all possible
senses (to the best of my knowledge) of an entry.
- Idioms are observed in both dictionaries. This would
be helpful in making a learner perceive as an idiom a group of words in
certain contexts.
- Tags are given for words that belong to special registers
(such as medicine). This feature is available only in the English-Arabic
dictionary.
- Tags are given to indicate the class of English words
(just the English-Arabic dictionary)
- Technical Features:
These features are really interesting. They save much
time and make the computerized versions of Al-Mawrid dictionaries far distinct
from the conventional written ones:
- The program that runs the dictionaries can be stored
on the computer hard disk, which means easier accessible to the dictionary
and quicker search results.
- Moving between the two dictionaries is easy. Just
click the dictionary you want to use, then immediately you can enter the
word you are looking up. It is good here to notice that if you type a
part of a word or if you misspell a word, the program will give you the
closest match.
- The program gives you choices to display in front
of you from both dictionaries (English-Arabic and Arabic-English) as shown
in Caption1 in the appendix.
- Buttons on the toolbar of the program have many functions
as follows:
- giving words that have been searched for
- opening each of the three incorporated dictionaries
- enlarging/reducing font size
- changing colors (display, entries etc.)
- viewing the illustration index
- printing out the results of a search
- moving to the first word in a given chapter of each of the dictionaries
(example: moving to the wordزائد when choosing ز ,
and the word ‘t’ when choosing the letter ‘t’)
- adding user words in case these are not available in the original
dictionaries. Such words are colored differently from other normal words.
They can be deleted at any time.
- copying an entry to be later pasted (with all its senses) in another
application document (like Ms Word).
However, there seems to be one major problem in the English-Arabic
Dictionary. An entry is usually given there in terms of a number of senses
that may in some cases, as in the entry ‘set’ for example, mislead the leaner
when choosing the right meaning of the word in question. But, there is no
need to worry about this problem. We will suggest a solution for it later
on.
In fact, we should always keep in mind that a non-perfect
dictionary is not necessarily a non-useful one. Let us suggest here that
a good learner is the one who tries to make use of the best features available
in a number of dictionaries rather than stick to one dictionary and be vulnerable
to failure in understanding a given word.
2.2.1.3. Al-Qamos, by Sakhr Corporation
1. Components:
2.2.1.4.
Lingea Lexicon, ver 3.1
Lingea Lexicon is a combination of a number of reference books. These
are:
1- Collins
COBUILD English Dictionary for Advanced Learners
(Year: 2001)
2- Collins
Thesaurus (Year 2001)
3- Collins
COBUILD English Usage (Year 1992)
4- Collins
COBUILD English Grammar (Year 1990)
5- Workbank
(Corpus from the Bank of English, year of publication not given)
As you can see in the captured images below, Collins Cobuild English
Language Dictionary gives the user the chance to form a better understanding
of the use of a given lexeme as it enjoys the following remarkable features
that are indeed essential for the translator to make sure about his decision
in choosing one word or idiom out of a number of very similar ones (see Appendix,
Caption 3)
1-
Under the label "D", you can check
for the meaning of the word, which preserves the standard features of paraphrasing
it with adequate illustrations. It is worth mentioning that the written version
of Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary proved to have used
the most efficient features to make a word understandable and easy to learn
(Farhan 2003). Here, the translator can understand the meaning of a new word.
2-
Under the label "T", the dictionary
lists a number of synonyms of the word "better" (superior, excellent,
well, cured, etc.) classified under a number of categories determining the
meaning of the word "better". Here, a translator may have the chance
to use other words similar in meaning to the one he is looking for.
3-
Under the title "U", the dictionary
provides the learner with the grammatical rules of using the word "better"
(see Appendix, Caption 4). Here, the translator can learn some grammar rules
of the word in question so that he can use it correctly and grammatically
in his translation.
As it should be the case in an optimal electronic dictionary,
Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary provides pronunciation
and it systematically uses a variety of colors as a part of its overall presentation.
2.2.1.5 Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary
What most interests me in this dictionary is the filtering device it
has. To the best of my knowledge, this feature is peculiar to it and not
duplicated by any other English-English dictionary. Let us assume that the
translator is to translate a line of poetry, in which case he needs a word
in English that rhymes with another word. The filter, (see Appendix, Caption
5), enables the researcher to look for a word that matches another one in
rhyme, sound (homophones) or even etymology.
2.2.1.5 Microsoft Encarta World English Dictionary
The Encarta Dictionary does possess the ordinary features
of a model electronic dictionary like pronunciation and sense relations.
Peculiar characteristics in this dictionary include: a dictionary of quotations,
a thesaurus, a dictionary of computer terms and an almanac. The most interesting
feature of this dictionary, however, is its powerful simplified search engine.
In other dictionaries, when you want to check the meaning of an idiom like
“green with envy”, you should try to find it under either entry “green” or
“envy”, a tiresome task indeed. Encarta Dictionary spares you this effort
by enabling you to search idioms as if they were separate entries. To search
for the idiom “green with envy”, just type in the search box “green with envy”
altogether and you will promptly find the answer (see Appendix, Caption 6)
“Multimedia” is another function provided by the Encarta
Dictionary. Just as some written dictionaries provide in the appendices pictures
and information related to a diversity of fields such as geographical locations,
by choosing the “Multimedia” function you enter a world made alive by either
the picture or the sound or both where you can learn useful information about
places, instruments, locations, schools of thought and so forth (see Appendix,
Caption 7).
2.2.2. The Role of Encyclopedias
An ideal dictionary must provide for the actual use of
a word in its natural context as used by native speakers. Since the dictionary
is not an encyclopedia, it is not expected to cover all details of the actual
use of a given word, a role assigned to encyclopedias.
The Encarta Encyclopedia from Microsoft is marked by both the bulk
of information and the powerful search engine it has. Now, let me assume
that I need to teach my students the translation of the word خرج from Arabic into English. A typical student
would simply check the bilingual dictionary and get a similar result to the
following (Al-Mawrid 1999):
خَرَجَ:
طَلَعَ, غادَرَ
to go out, come out, emerge, issue, egress; to walk out, drive out,
ride out, move out, exit; to leave, depart, go away
خَرَجَ:
نَزَلَ, تَرَجّلَ
to dismount, disembark, alight, get off, get out of, step out of
خَرَجَ:
بَرَزَ
to protrude, project, bulge, stick out, jut out
Obviously the translation student would be stunned as he now faces
more than one “equivalent” to the word خرج. The problem is how to
make sure that the word he is going to use in his translation is correct.
How to use for instance the word “bulge”? Can you say in English “He bulged
from the house”? What about “protrude”? And, most importantly, what about
you, the teacher of the translation course? Aren’t you supposed to know how
to answer such an anticipated question? A good solution, or even a perfect
one, is to resort to the Encarta Encyclopedia. Open the homepage of the Encarta
and search for the word “bulge” then “protrude”. The following results are
self-explanatory as they show how the words “protrude” and “bulge” are used
in a sense different from that of the general word خرج.
“Frogs have large, bulging eyes and moist skin.” (Encarta
2004: Frog (animal))
“The ears, lips, and brow ridges protrude, and there
is no tail.” (Encarta 2004: Chimpanzee)
This encyclopedia is also useful for interpreters. It
is a good resource from which they can seek background information pertaining
to issues and abbreviations required while performing the interpreting task.
Once again, it seems appropriate to refer to personal experience. The first
time I was asked to perform simultaneous interpreting was in a seminar related
to labor issues. The theme of the seminar was “Social Dialogue” and relevant
issues covered such key points as “collective bargaining”, “labor organizations
and conventions”, “social security in Jordan” and the like. A day ahead of
the event, I checked the Encarta Encyclopedia for all this information and
benefited a lot and the result was that my first interpreting task was brilliantly
performed. The idea here is that when you do the translation or the interpreting
job, especially when it is the first time, you have to be well prepared in
order to impress the client on the one hand, and to foster self-confidence
on the other hand.
2.2.3.
Online Resources
Information and sites on the internet can be divided for the purposes
of this paper into two types. The first one is that which has a direct relation
with translation training. An example is www.sattaratun.com, which is a useful resource
for legal translators. By inserting the word you want (English or Arabic),
this site opens a search-result page that shows where the word exactly appeared
in a number of resources including all conventions of the United Nations.
Caption 8 in the appendix shows how rich these resources are
Checking the word “provided” will lead to a search result
of 33 documents as shown in Caption 9 in the appendix.Bottom of Form
The second type of online resources I want to refer to is simply the
web various search engines. The procedure is simple. Assume that you want
to translate an article entitled تعديل
قانون حقوق الطبع
في الأردن. What you need to do is simply to open the homepage
of a good search engine and enter similar catchwords that can be for example
“Jordan” “amendments” “copyright law”. You will be surprised when you see
many results that show similar reports from which you can get the terminology
and the style that you need in making the translation.
Translation forums are also of importance. The following I a brief
on these forums/newsletter groups and the role they can play for a better
translator’s performance:
1. Arab Professional Translators’ Society- Arab Translators’
Network (ATN-APTS)
The Arab Society for Professional Translators is a virtual
society. Its address is www.arabtranslators.org.
The newsletter group is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/atn-apts.
The services provided there are as follows:
- Through the yahoo group, a translator can ask for help
in the translation of a word, term or expression (or anything else) and
peer translators will give their opinions. The group members have already
helped each other in solving problems that they faced in translating given
texts very efficiently.
- In the forums, ATN-APTS offers translators the chance
to discuss translation issues related to all aspects of translation career
and academic matters. Some translators even chose to post their own glossaries,
which are very useful for peer translators. Training courses in translation
are also offered through the forums for free. Members of the forums can
also post useful dictionaries on translation in all fields.
- The president of ATN-APTS, Dr. Nabil Chaiban published
on the site his dictionary on business and management, which is a useful
source for translators.
2. Arab Translation and Intercultural Dialogue Association
(ATIDA)
ATIDA is a very active association. Members meet in the forums where
they discuss matters pertaining to translation. New terms are introduced
and links to useful sites, dictionaries and glossaries are regularly posted.
Their site address is: www.atida.org
3. PROZ
Proz is a website that brings together professional translators. Briefly,
this is very useful and efficient site as it allows translators to post their
questions on the translation of a term of phrase. Amazingly, peer answers
begin promptly to appear. A good feature of this site is that it allows peer
translators to give their degree of confidence, and increase/reduce the degree
of confidence for other peer answers until a high-point answer is reached.
The site address is: http://www.proz.com/kudoz.
3.2.3.
Ancillary Resources
3.2.3.1. WinHTTrak
Website Copier 3.33
This is a wonderful program that allows you to copy the whole content
of a website with all its links. It makes the website run smoothly on your
PC when you are offline.
3.2.3.2. Virtual PC
Al-Mawrid Electronic Dictionary (1999) is better in performance and
is much smoother than later versions with one serious setback: it does not
run under operating systems newer than Windows 98. Virtual PC allows you
to install a virtual PC system, like Windows 98, from which you can easily
install Al-Mawrid Electronic Dictionary.
2.2.4.3 Abu-Risha Online
After I graduated from the University of Jordan in 1999,
I was asked by many students of translation to help them prepare for their
exams. For that reason came http://aburisha.tripod.com, which includes
all terms and expressions that must be learned by a student before he or she
graduates from the university. Frequently asked questions about the theory
of translation, a list of 1090 vocabulary items/expressions, and a collection
of translated texts are also included in the site.
3.3. Written
Resources
It is obvious that written dictionaries are among the written resources
of a translator, but here I would point out more important resources with
special reference to those resources available for the Jordanian trainee.
Once again, for the purposes of brevity, I will just refer to these resources
with short explanations.
2.3.1. The Five Year Socio-Economic Plan
This is available at the Ministry of Planning both in Arabic and in
English. To translate an economic document, this resource is useful because
it is full with economic terms used “undecontextualised”, which means a good
understanding of the term to be used in a translation.
2.3.2. The Lower House
It is possible for anyone interested to get useful pamphlets
from the Lower House Supplies Department (in English and Arabic). These include
the Jordanian Constitution (English and Arabic), the Parliament’s Bylaws (English
and Arabic), and other similar documents.
Let me here point out to a personal experience with the
written resources. In early 2005, I was assigned to train the Iraqi parliamentary
delegation of translators. Their one-week intensive training proved to be
more than efficient with a package that compiled many written materials including
the socio-economic plan and the Parliament’s documents.
2.3.2. Nabeel Law Office Online
Though www.nabeelaw.com
is an electronic website that provides legal information online, I will classify
it for the purposes of this paper as a written resource in light of the various
important documents it has in Arabic and in English. [4]
Let us assume that a translator is asked to translate
the trademark law of a given country from Arabic into English. The quoted
website is useful because it provides a good translation of the Jordanian
trade mark law. Now, the translator should find it easy to translate the
following terms and expressions:
-التعدي
على العلامة التجارية
-
السجل التجاري
-
الجهات المختصة
-
يشترط لتسجيل
العلامة التجارية
أن تكون ذات صفة
فارقة
-
توخيا للغرض المقصود
من هذه المادة...
-
يقتصر تسجيل العلامات
التجارية على....
-
العلامات التي
تدل على صفة رسمية
2.3.3. Atlas Encyclopedic Dictionary
A good English-Arabic written dictionary must be encyclopedic
because a pocket dictionary or even a big one that just gives the meaning
of the word is not enough for the translator. The editorial of Atlas Encyclopedic
Dictionary mentions some features characterising this dictionary. It
says it saves the researcher or the translator the time of checking many reference
books to answer many questions in mind related to meaning and grammar. It
incorporates various useful appendices including one for abbreviations. When
defining the meaning of a word, it goes beyond giving the meaning and pronunciation
of the various senses of the word as it gives other important features such
as: verb regular/irregular forms, countable/non-countable nouns and word inflections.
Giving the semantic domain of a word when necessary is also an advantage for
this dictionary.
2.3.4. MA Theses on Translation
Students of translation in Jordan are advised to check MA theses on
translation, which can be found at the libraries of Yarmouk University and
the University of Jordan. These theses deal with problems of translation
in a number of areas such as collocations, intertextuality, pragmatics, Quranic
translation, translation criticism, contrastive textology and so forth. Examining
the problems and solutions posited in these studies is very useful for a translator
as you can have about 100 pages written about the process of translating a
few utterances. A student who cares to deal in depth with the process of
translating would have a plus advantage over any other translator who has
never encountered these studies.
Besides, all MA theses provide theoretical background,
reviews of related literature and lists of bibliography. This is very useful
and would enable the trainee translator to be briefed of translation theories
in a way that does not consume his/her invaluable time.
2.3.5. Newspapers
How would you use newspapers
as a good resource to translate a sentence like: "غادر
الرئيس الأمريكي
إلى منطقة الشرق
الأوسط في رحلة
تشمل ثلاث دول."? The answer is very simple:
check an English newspaper. The more challenging question now is “What chance
would I have to find the required translation when checking an English newspaper?”
The answer is once again simple. With newspapers, a translator should keep
himself in an ongoing self-training process in translation whereby he/she
reads an Arabic newspaper and an English one making sure that both were published
on the same day. The Arabic and English versions would most likely highlight
the same events. This means that the expression that you found difficult
to translate from Arabic might appear, now, in English in the other version.
Considering our example, by following this way, Abu-Risha (2006) found the
following translation:
“US president left for the Middle East in a three-leg
tour.”
The next step now is to build up your own notebook with
all these expressions. This notebook will serve as a dictionary of sentences
and expressions. Consider the following examples (Abu-Risha, 2006: p. 27)
وبعد الانفجار
لو تعلن أي جهة
مسئوليتها عن
الحادث.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for
the bombing.
ورفض المسئولون
الفلسطينيون
تحمل مسئولية
الانفجار.
Palestinian officials rejected responsibility for the
bombing.
في تلك البلاد
التي دمرتها الحرب in that war-ravaged
country
4. Conclusion
The present paper is an attempt to shed light on several
important resources that can enhance the translator’s job. Electronic and
written translation resources can dramatically change the way in which a translator
does his job, and I do hope that this paper has adequately explained that.
In the translation pedagogy, a lot of efforts are needed to reach a stage
whereby a trainee in translation can self-train himself so efficiently to
support the Arab translation market, which suffers a lot from a dearth of
qualified and ever self-developing translators.
Some
say translation is a gift while others assert it can be learnt by assiduous students. The idea of this paper is to open the eyes of the translator trainees to the fact that one can learn even master the craft of translating by skillfully using translation resources. The paper is based on personal experience with translation students at Jordan universities, public and private. For them, to be a translator is an unachievable dream. Translating, however, as this paper asserts, requires its students to use certain resources skillfully in their ongoing process of self-training. These resources are available and accessible in Jordan and the main purpose of this paper is to shed light on them.
