One of the things I love about my work is meeting business owners with widely varying skills and learning more about what they do. Working with a translator gave me new insight into the challenges he faced, particularly when trying to translate a particular public figure. It taught me a lot about how life in translation works.
Translation sounds fun
I’ve been slightly fascinated by the world of translators ever since I read the Asterix books as a kid. My grandad worked for Brockhampton Press, which published children’s books, including the Asterix series. They were originally written in French, and academics at the University of Leicester worked with the authors on the English translations.
The tricky part was translating French jokes and puns into English humour. Re-reading them as an adult, I realised that they didn’t just succeed in that but also in including some jokes that kids would understand and others that were just for the grown-ups.
The story came back to me when a friend put me in touch with a translator who needed my help.
The goal
In early 2017, I spoke to a translator with a science and engineering background. He had started a translation business and formed a network with translators speaking different languages. His goal was to network more, and he was keen to build his online presence by writing blogs.
He had various ideas for topics and shared some helpful resources with me. These included articles about language skills, customer service, and the role translators could play as the UK navigated Brexit. They helped me understand how he worked and how a translator could help with cultural awareness and language barriers.
Of course, the Brexit vote wasn’t our only political upheaval in 2017.
How to translate Trump
In January 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in for his first term as the President of the United States. Working with a translator gave me a different perspective on this event besides the political debate. I discovered that the president is extremely difficult to translate because he doesn’t speak like a normal person. He uses slang, and his speech patterns differ from those we usually expect from elected officials. His tendency to go off-script also leads to sudden tangents. Translators struggled as their clients often thought they must be getting the translation wrong because it wasn’t the kind of language they expected.
We’re entering a second Trump administration in the USA, and I wonder whether translators are still having trouble with his speeches. Or does everyone know what to expect this time around?
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