Saturday, July 24, 2010

Help me not be one of those assholes

One of my biggest pet peeves is people who cannot see the point of view of a mindset that they themselves have had. For example, parents who can't look at a situation from a kid's point of view, married people who can't put themselves in the shoes of someone who lives alone, professionals who have forgotten what it's like to be in university, etc.

Now I'm afraid I've become one of those assholes. Please rescue me!

First, some background: My first language is English. We spoke English in the home growing up and I went to school in English. The first language I learned in school was French. I got rather good at it and took more and more French classes, then went to university to study translation, started working at bilingual jobs, and eventually graduated and became a translator.

Here's how my job works: I receive texts in one language, translate them, and deliver them to the client in the other language.

When you were reading that sentence, which language were you picturing me receiving the texts in, and which language were you picturing me delivering to the client in? Please mentally answer this question before you read on.

Okay?

The fact of the matter is that I receive texts in French and translate them into English. (Some of you already knew that, I know.) This is standard operating procedure - the optimal situation is for translators to translate into their mother tongue.

But most non-translators, when they find out I'm a translator, think I translate from English to French.

Why do they think that? Did you think that when I asked you above? If so, why?

Here's where the assholery comes in: I used to think that myself. When I was aspiring to study translation but hadn't been accepted into the program yet, I thought I would be translating English to French. That's just how I assumed it would work. And I remember feeling vaguely disappointed when I found out it's French to English, as though that's something of an insult to my intelligence. But now I can't for the life of me remember why I thought that, which makes me one of those assholes.

Please, save me from my own assholery! Why did I think I'd be translating English to French?

9 comments:

travelmaus@rogers.com said...

Hmm... interesting topic ! When someone mentions a translator to me, I also , initially, assume it's from English to French or to German or to Spanish, for example. I think it has to do with the fact that we live in a mainly English speaking country, and the first thing we, as English speakers, think of is that "English" is assumed and the "other language" is what it's being translated into. So you see, I'm also one of those assholes who got it all wrong :)

impudent strumpet said...

Nonono, the getting it wrong doesn't make you an asshole! I'm the asshole because I'm sitting here going "Durrr, they think I'm translating into French! Why on earth would they think something ridiculous like that?" when in fact I myself used to think that. As the person who has been in both mindsets I'm the one with the duty to understand them both and serve as a bridge between people who have only been in one, and failing to do that makes me the asshole.

I think you might be onto something with just assuming English though. I have encountered people who are quite genuinely unaware that there are people in Canada who speak French but don't speak English at all, and they either don't understand or refuse to believe that if something is in English but not in French it will be impenetrable to a segment of the population. Maybe this stems from that.

Christopher said...

from being into literature and paying attention to how translation works i figured you were translating the french, but, from a practical standpoint and from my experience there are a lot of spanish speakers here in chicago, if i have to grab someone to translate something quickly i dont look for a native english speaker to translate because who knows if they speak spanish? i grab someone that looks like they're of spanish descent because theres a good chance that they know both languages, just a thought

Mac said...

This might come from the fact that you knew English first and then learned French, so the idea that you would receive a document in English to translate it into French involves the same process or flow.

impudent strumpet said...

Actually, I think you're on to something. Before I started translation school, all the translating I'd ever done was in language classes, where we'd translate primarily into the non-English language specifically as a language instruction exercise.

laura k said...

This might make you question your assumption of assholery re people who no longer see a POV that they once held, because you now know that it's easy to forget.

Which is not to say I disagree with you, because I find parents who don't see a child's POV maddening. But it appears to be the norm, so I figure it must be the default setting.

impudent strumpet said...

I think it would be even more assholic to deem something non-assholic solely on the basis that I myself have done it.

laura k said...

Ah-ha! Totally. Yes.

laura k said...

Look at me, assuming "the default setting" and "assholic" are mutually exclusive, rather than mutually reinforcing.