“la parole exportée”

Too busy preparing the documents for tomorrow’s conference.

Clients who complain that conference interpreters charge high fees do not realize that we do have to spend some time before:

• reading their presentation papers (when they do provide them);
• preparing a glossary of words, acronyms, etc.;
• surfing the internet for articles and glossaries on their subject;
• and more generally spending as much time, if not more (especially for a one-day assignment) as we will spend interpreting.

And I’m not even mentioning:

• experience,
• years spent studying, then expanding our knowledge in various fields, etc.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I spent the whole summer 10 years ago visiting Boston and the Boston area with two teen and pre-teen daughters in tow. They didn’t know any English at all, so I was stuck playing Personal Translator the entire summer.

It went like this:

Someone somewhere would ask me something.

I would instantly feel this tug on one arm, then on the other, or both simultaneously, plus the question in stereo:

‘Keskidiiiiiiiii?’ (What’s he saying?) or its twin number:

‘Keskediiiiiiii?’ (What’s she saying?)

Then I would strive to answer the other person’s question, trying at the same time to keep the girls quiet by vaguely summarizing the question.

But then would come the ominous:

‘Kestadiiiiiiiii?’ (What did you say?)

So we had these multi-thread conversations, all summer.

By the time we came home, I was happy to get back into Proper Work Mode.

Epilogue: The girls have learned English and don’t need my services any more. Yes, I’m enjoying it, believe it or not.

Some time this year, a client asked me to proofcheck an article on dogs that she was going to publish. She is a researcher and her subject has a world of potential serious applications for humans, so she cannot be discounted as one of those pet owners who believe that their Archibald or Dusty is the most intelligent dog on earth.

As we were discussing her article, I felt emboldened to ask: ‘Why in your opinion does my dog yap and whine in front of the bath tub (when she hates baths) in order to bring to my attention the fact that her water bowl in the kitchen is empty?’ We ended up agreeing on one explanation built on scientific observation: When you talk a lot to your dog, your dog talks to you. Right.

Now, why is it that when my cat is begging to be allowed into the house, or is meewing because it’s mealtime, my dog comes to me and makes all sorts of noises to attract my attention and when I finally take notice, guides me to where the cat is?

I don’t have the answer and I’ll have to ask my client next time. However, I can suggest one probably silly explanation. Maybe a translator’s dog can translate. My dog hears that the cat is asking for something. I don’t respond, because I am lost in a translation. So she (being the smartest dog on earth) thinks: ‘I’d better translate that for her.’ So she comes and barks at me.

Now I just hope that I won’t start barking at my clients.

First Identified Cat-Dog Interpreter.

After this first experience, I retreated from formal voluntary work for a long time. I don’t have the guts to work for Amnesty International, for example, and I feel a little guilty in that department.

Having thus lost myself in translation for many years, there came a point in my life when I wanted to make myself ‘useful’ again, and I started voluntary translation (written).

But, how do you reconcile a busy schedule with voluntary work?

Voluntary organizations, especially the smaller offices, need a commitment that makes your work meaningful. I assigned one day per week to one particular organization. One day can mean a lot of money for a translator, so it wasn’t a fixed day, I was able to move it in the week as I needed in order to cover an urgent deadline, or I couldn’t work around a paid project. And with modern technology, I was still able to receive notifications of projects offered by my clients on my mobile, so I wasn’t losing anything.

From my observations, I can list at least 3 good reasons for doing this kind of voluntary work during your working life, and I can tell that this was truly a win-win venture. It has broadened my expertise into the field of community development, where I can now work with confidence and get paid, it has broadened my social network, as I made a few friends through my voluntary work, and my personal perception is that you can assert yourself more as a professional than when you are just a student or a beginner. I phased out after the one-point-five-million-word mark, it was probably more because I didn’t start counting from Day 1. I wasn’t bored, but I needed more personal time for other pursuits.

I also do occasional unpaid work for friends, but also for young people (not homework, though!). There is a young lady out there in a US university, whose transcripts I translated so that she could get accepted. I was so proud for her when she did (she got in because of her brilliant ratings, not because of my translation)!