ISSUES IN THE TRANSLATORS RELIABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY

Mona Arhire Transilvania University of Brasov 1. Translation errors and misconceptions There is a considerable difference between responsibility in translators social and political matters, and such responsibility resulting into translation errors. In the former case, I would call it negative responsibility rather than lack of responsibility, since there is a definite intention in semantically reshaping the source language text. On the contrary, in the case of errors and misconceptions, responsibility fails because of ignorance. The discussions hereby are trying to answer another question that has been raised in a previous paper, namely: why so many bad translations? One of the main reasons for translation errors might be the intrusion of fake translators or improperly (I would say) certified translators on the relevant local market, but also abroad. To be more specific as regards some reasons frequently bringing about errors in translation, here are the most frequent ones: a) the non-professional translator generally knows the source language quite well but has no notion of translation principles; b) the translator seems to be unaware that terminology should be checked and not invented, plus there is often a lack of knowledge of how to make correct and efficient use of a dictionary; c) the translator never seems to revise the paper; Apart form these internationally recognized reasons for translation errors, the list can be completed with issues that any serious translator should be well-aware of: knowledge of the text type, reading for translation, text analysis, equivalence, translation techniques according to various text types and end-users needs, cultural problems, dealing with ambiguity. The Romanian study by Magda Jeanrenaud refers to errors resulting from wrong appreciations of the tone and register within the political discourse, and errors as a result of ignoring cultural differences. For instance when Arafat died, the Romanian translation of Bushes God bless his soul was the traditional Christian, Orthodox Dumnezeu sa-l odihneasca or Dumnezeu sa-l ierte, translations being absolutely not suitable, even offending, considered a cultural blunder. Also, the question of objectivity and neutral attitude towards the SL text is to be raised. It is a fact that some translators feel the need to improve (which is necessary in some instances), others to embellish, seemingly disregarding the fact that they are compelled to preserve the writers personal style as a component part of the original writing. The reasons for errors in the field of translation go hand in hand with translation misconceptions, occurring very commonly with non-professional translators. Wrong conceptions of translators are often abusively transferred to the clients beliefs.

Here is a possible classification of translation misconception: 1 bilingualism naturally involves translation abilities; if you know a foreign language you can be a translator its not true even if someone might be fluent in two languages, although it is a very common misconception and probably the most damaging one; translators should possess apart from special training, knowledge in the field they translate, as well as cultural awareness corresponding to both SL and TL; 2 translating is easy further comment on this is needless, but that must be the explanation why clients ask for fast and cheap translation work; 3 some translator is competent in any field; this should make translation users think twice about the translators responsibility since covering more than two or three related areas is not possible in a proficient way. This is only a matter of irresponsibly advertising for translation. In this respect lone translators are not advisable to be approached, as not all the translators admit (or know) that they are not competent in all the fields possible; 4 a translator is competent in more than two or three language pairs; worth being added would be here that internationally it is considered, not without reason, that being a native speaker of the TL is one of the top requirements when it comes to professional translators, whereas those who translate into other languages are not part of the professional market; 5 - computers can do translations in fact, it is quite unbelievable that a translation program will ever be able to replace a human translator, irrespective of the rapid and amazing technological development. Although computers can provide perfect translations to simple one-dimensional sentences, they will never be able to tackle the complexities of a technical text, neither will they perform a satisfactory transfer of the subtleties of literary texts; instead, CAT or MAT are possible options in the translation activity, replacing paperback dictionaries or reference materials; 6 - having a professional translation is not crucial this misconception will be definitely acknowledged as such after problems start to show up: a trained and experienced professional worker is always preferred to an amateur if the job needs to be done correctly, as much as a professional translator should be addressed when accurate translation is needed. No matter whether it is plumbing, carpentry, medical assistance, legal advice or any other affair involved a professional is preferred. 2. The price of quality This last misconception discussed leads the way to the issue of quality, which is a watchword in translation as in any other field. There have been lots of discussions as regards the translation management, profitability, but less has been said about the ethics involved in this profession. The fact that people coming from professions that have nothing in common with the translation activity or language study might be the first reason for poor performance. Probably these people cannot be blamed for lack of knowledge in a field other than the one they have been trained in. Neither can most of them be blamed for the fact that they perform an unethical activity since people keep on coming, ordering translations and paying for them and since the owners of such a business has no idea of what their business should really be like.

Too many translation companies count on in-house staff, instead of hiring professional translators for the simple reason that the former are cheaper. They think that by hiring non-professionals they can earn more by paying the translators less, but the fact is that a poor translation or a translation that requires being rewritten or at least repaired will never be as good as a text translated from scratch. Such translators usually dont seem to revise the paper knowing that there is someone else behind their back why waste time and money, they might think. But the cost of a poor translation plus proofreading and correction is higher (two people need to be paid) than a professional translator employed from the very beginning. Besides, the quality is always better in the latter case and the time a trained translator needs is by far shorter, whereas the result in the former situation is a merely satisfactory translation at higher costs. Moreover, because of short deadlines, the final revision is often skipped at the end-users expense, which deeply affects the ethics of the translation activity. Especially when clients ask for translations into another language than their mother tongue and are not familiar with the target language of the translation required, they can hardly judge the quality of the product they pay for. However, the consequences wont fail to show. On the other hand, translation users should be warned that underpayment goes hand in hand with unprofessional work, i.e. most usually, only low quality is cheap. Without opposing to the idea of the real price for real performance, the craft of translation requires a period of industrious quality work at lower prices for beginners, as confidence needs to be gained in time possibly a long time. But constant quality work at reasonable prices could work wonders. As for quality work, it requires apart from the bilingual communicative skills and translation competence, a good management of time and resources, with time management meaning the correct appreciation of the sufficient time allocated for the material assigned for translation. Some translators rush into taking up a huge amount of work for fear they might miss a client if admitting that the work cannot be done in short. Accepting short deadlines means working hastily and giving up certain stages of translation, which make up the framework of the activity: reading attentively and proofreading or final translation. But before all, before getting to consider problems of management and organization, special training is the first step for would-be professional translators to take, more precisely for those who desire to enjoy long-term success, while sharing relevant moral values. 3. Translator training It is the systematic training in the field of translation that should aim at preventing abuses in this craft, by insisting on each and every component of this activity and thus doing away with ignorance and setting the issues of morality and responsibility right. In spite of there being numerous translators working in Romania, who lack any training, translation scholars almost unanimously agree on the necessity of systematic training in translation.

However, considerations in this respect reflect sometimes that theory is useless, but practice is crucial and that training in translation is not an academic endeavour, but rather a professional training similar to computer programmes or accountancy. This is at least doubtful, as theoretical support is for any translator of help in that it raises awareness of the need to view the translation process in its entire complexity. The effective teaching of translation has to do with using theory to open up a series of possibilities, a series of alternative ways of translating, and then inductively questioning those alternatives in terms of the specific and general aims of translation, as well as teaching about the translators right and duty to make decisions. As for academic translation programs, they are always expected to offer a theoretical basis, even if practice remains an essential component. From the viewpoint of the translation industry, some of the international associations (at least CATS and ATA) share the opinion that a translator with academic training often does find entering the market easier and can command higher salaries, as well as possibly advance in a corporate setting rapidly. This should apply on the Romanian market as well, as it progressively learns to value the translators profession properly and acknowledge a difference between the trained translators and the intruders. It is not without reason believed that the training of translators should include content courses, so as to make them comfortable in the fields most demanded at the moment of training. Here, it is the translators turn to act as intruder and it is this highly necessary interference of translators with other fields than linguistics that made Douglas Robinson call them fakers, pretenders, impostors: while performing in the translation business, people pretend to be lawyers, doctors, engineers, etc. Hence, content coursework including terminology management in both languages should be integrated into a complete translation programme, without attempting at covering as many subject areas as possible, but focusing on only one or two related ones. This is a two-way relation since translators need special training in the fields they interfere with during the translation activity, and similarly people who are originally engineers etc. and attempt at translating should have attended special training in the field of translation. This would help on the one hand to acknowledge the real status of the craft of translation, and, on the other hand, it would improve the general quality of target language texts. Otherwise, engineers etc. are fakers in the field of translation as much as a translator is in the field of engineering. Another important domain of translator training that differentiates professional translators from amateurs is the development of reading and writing skills, as well as cultural sensitivity, areas that join the translators throughout their working lives. Still, there is a major question remaining: are there non-academic translation programmes for those who would probably be the perfect technical translators, namely the engineers, since for translators the systematic learning of engineering seems impossible? The question remains open so far.

4. Conclusions All in all, it goes without saying that users of translations should be aware of the fact that someone who claims to be a translator without being a trained and legitimate one is acting immorally and fraudulently. People should make sure to employ a professional translator at the real price as they will make sure to employ a real doctor for instance; as they cannot trust a doctor who claims to be able to cure any disease, they shouldnt trust translators who pretend to be able to translate in any field. In fact, the more specialized a translation is, the more likely it is to make mistakes and to bring about serious damage. In highly technical texts, expensive equipment can be damaged or people can be hurt due to improper handling. In medical translations it can be worse: people may get maimed or killed, while the translator is the assassin and excuses or offers for making things better are useless. As for the price, a professional no matter in what particular job knows the value of his or her work and prior training and will ask for a price accordingly. A very small price should bring about suspicion, as normally, we pay the real price for a real translation. Beware the translator who pretends to be fluent in several languages, who claims to be able to translate anything before asking to check the material, who assures to be faster than any other and who asks for the lowest price, even if they can prove that they are certified translators. Translation students should be made aware of their legitimate status and encouraged to fight for it (needless to say: under the conditions of high quality performance), as the image of freelancers is the most affected among the professional translators. They should be taught how to defend themselves and be aware of their social role and this is ultimately for the benefit of the end-user. The fact that a good translator is the outcome of practice and experience is irrefutably true. Still, I dont adhere to the opinion that theory in not needed at all, on the contrary it helps a lot in approaching the process of translation correctly, on condition it doesnt prevail over practice. Moreover, a translator having attended an academic training in translation cannot be expected to ignore the literature in the field. Here it is the translator trainers duty to indicate the relevant reference books to students and possibly have them read at home, while enhancing short comprehension discussions at school and focusing on guiding the practical performance of students. On the other hand, problems like ethics and deontology are first of all matters of theory. Why let freelance translators learn these rules from mistakes that come to affect their prestige, reliability and ultimately their success and job satisfaction? There are plenty of mistakes that do not fail to arise, as error prediction is never far-reaching enough and prevention works within limits. Needles to say, however, that there is unlimited opportunity for learning lessons from mistakes. So why not prevent the least that can be prevented? Ethics and all the other related issues are an essential part of the theory of translation and should be acknowledged as such first of all by translator trainers.