I think I'll join Nanna in wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July weekend - and then ask that we get back to discussing "Do you translate into a foreign language?" - and so there is no misunderstanding, here's a translation - "do you translate PROFESSIONALLY into a foreign language?

I think we need to establish first what a foreign language is, because it may mean different things.

I think the problem is a little bit more complex than that: I meet young people in court who came here at  the age of 10, or 8, and at the age of 16 they don't speak any language well. There is not only language acquisition, but also losing of certain linguistic abilities, especially for very young people, with each year spent abroad. Also the level of language proficiency for some native speakers is really blow any acceptable lines, in some places.

I don't quite get the question.  What does it matter what you call it?  If you are sufficiently proficient so that you can translate into that language to a professional level, then why not do so?  My mother tongue is German.  I was born in Germany and spoken only German until coming to Canada at age 5 1/2 and I continued speaking it at home as well as learning to read and write in that language at the usual age.  My degree includes German as one of my majors and I got top marks.  Nonetheless, I do not translate into German because I don't consider my proficiency to be at a level that I would consider professional.  Yet I would in no way consider German to be a "foreign" language because obviously my mother tongue cannot be such a thing.  And why the cut-off age of 16?

Originally written by Maxi Schwarz-Bastami on July 4, 2009 2:05 AM I don't quite get the question.

I also find the question to be a little odd. The question and the conditions do not cover all bases. By using terms like "only", "as a rule", "#2" (the options are not numbered!), "if you disagree with that practice", "this month", and a number of others, many people will be shut out.

I don't disagree with the practice and I haven't done it this month (I did it 3 months ago but that was not "reluctantly") so I cannot choose "No" (#1??).

My language of predominate commercial spoken and written use is German, it is my default language with everybody but my own wife (I use German with other men's wives) so it is my language of habitual use (although I would not call it a "habit") but it is not my mother tongue so I cannot choose "Yes" (#2??).

Another awkward term is "translate". Better might have been "translate commercially", i.e. for payment.

I don't know if it has been beaten to death already but another consideration is that anybody with access to Google or Babelfish can "translate", the distinction required is probably between "translate well enough for the stated or assumed purpose" and "not translate well enough for the stated or assumed purpose". For example, I am occasionally asked to translate something "so that the client can see what it is all about", the result would probably not be good enough for publication, or more accurately, I would not be able to tell whether it was good enough for publication or not but it could well be made so if the client passes it by his in-house editor.

A more illuminating option might have been: "Are you fluent, error-free, spoken and written, in your source languages?". I suggest that any competent translator who can answer that with "yes" is morally entitled to translate into those languages. If you impose any higher standard than that then you are probably going to exclude quite a number from translating into (or even writing in) their native language (to judge from these forums occasionally - no names, no pack drill!).

Derek

Amazing!

This poll is more than three years old and covers more than 33 pages and only now do you (generic) question the questions asked.

"Baby, I am amazed ..."

Nanna

Originally written by Nanna Mercer on July 5, 2009 5:42 PM Amazing! This poll is more than three years old and covers more than 33 pages and only now do you (generic) question the questions asked.

Like God's, the TC mills grind slowly but they grind exceeding small! (after Sextus Empiricus, 200 BC)

The problem is that TC sends out a notification only after we have posted once in a thread, there is no way to get an automatic notification every time a new thread is started so it is all just a little too random for objections always to be raised in real time. Occasionally I get bored and drop a hook and line into the old, apparently moribund, threads to see if I can't catch a fish.

What is to me even more amazing is that I can often get a bite within seconds, any time, day or night, so I am inclined to deduce that TC never sleeps, or at least that the sun never sets on it which is quite reassuring, somehow!

Derek

Originally written by Dodo Kaipdodo on July 2, 2009 7:35 PM Option 1. Majority, it would seem, and no surprise, as Translators should only translate into their mother tongue.

You say that but you do not give any justification. Don't you have any editors, correctors, proof-readers and the like in Lithuania?

A natural corollary would be that writers should write only in their mother tongue but that is clearly unworkable. Nabokov wrote "Lolita" in English, for example, and claims that it could not have been written in Russian. Joseph Conrad (Polish) learnt English at the age of 21 and wrote not only error-free English but in an inspired style.

English literature would have been poorer without them and many others!

I have always suspected that the rule you state is a sure sign that the translators concerned are not fluent enough in their source languages and are trying to cover it up by making their own rules (present company excepted, of course).

Derek

Originally written by Derek Thornton on July 5, 2009 7:09 PM  Occasionally I get bored and drop a hook and line into the old, apparently moribund, threads to see if I can't catch a fish. What is to me even more amazing is that I can often get a bite within seconds, any time, day or night,

"Merda taurorum animas conturbit"

or said another way... We are here to serve.

Nanna