“la parole exportée”

I’m reminded of the following anecdote by a blog post written by Werner Patels.

It goes to show how obsessed with acronyms translators can be. Once upon a time, I interpreted at a rather hard meeting and at breaktime, we were lucky to get hold of the printout of the next presentation.

On one page, there was a diagram of a process, with, right in the middle of the page, in big bold evenly-spaced letters, this *acronym*:

E C H E C

So I asked the speaker: What does this stand for?

He looked at me with a funny look, and seemed a little uneasy.

So I asked again, in my best professional voice.

So he laughed. What? You don’t know what ECHEC means?

That was NOT an acronym, it was a REAL word!

Ever heard of the word ‘failure’? That’s what ‘échec’ means. If you didn’t do this properly, the process failed.

Of course I knew the word. But when you have very little time to talk to a speaker before his presentation, you tend to go for very technical words and acronyms.

What a laugh! (and how I hate to look so stupid! ;-))

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Yesterday and the day before, I interpreted at a conference in the software industry. Of course, I’ll get a check at the end of the day, or rather at the end of a few weeks, but there’s another priceless advantage that one can derive from this job, where we are, basically, observers.

Forget about insider knowledge. This was a public conference, so no confidential data was exchanged. And anyway, we work on a contract.

The interesting point is that at conferences, you don’t see the lame ducks of an industry. (Or if you do, you see how they are going to fix that). The companies that get showcased are those that are putting all their energy into building successful businesses, and those that have indeed succeeded and are striving to stay on top.

So you get to see the best. It’s not a seminar, but you get lessons live on how to succeed, how to market yourself, you get a view from the perspective of some of the most influencial players in a market. Of course we don’t see what goes on behind the scenes, so I’m not talking about taking everything at face value. But success doesn’t just happen. You have to put a lot of work and energy into achieving it.

So although using insider knowledge is forbidden, there’s no law to stop you from feeling energized, even as a tiny business, after an event like that, and lessons to be drawn.

And just think that I’m paid to get that education…

Today’s edition of the New York Times has an interesting story that could become a topic for discussion among interpreters, although I have a pretty good idea of what the answer should be.

According to the article, “An Interpreter Speaking Up for Migrants,” a legal interpreter has produced an essay about the conditions prevailing when he was working for Spanish-speaking migrants who were brought to justice for staying and working illegally in the United States.

Beyond the validity of the interpreter’s feelings and arguments, it raises an ethical issue for the interpreters and translators’ community at large.

For reasons of confidentiality, we are not allowed to disclose any information pertaining to the organizations and people we work for.

From a personal point of view, I can understand the reasons why this interpreter chose to make public some of the events that he was part of. However, this is a very dangerous game that could mean for us losing a lot of, if not all, our credibility.