[...] Translators just didn't get recognition, they didn't expect to make much of a living, just get by. Very few people were actually trained as translators, but most had a solid college education and a solid knowledge of languages, at least their own language. I had a friend who fell exactly into that category and my circle of friends expanded to include other translators. I found them to be much more interesting as people, and discovered that we often had similar life experiences. I never had trouble making friends, but I always felt "different" and I'm sure they felt it too. When my friend retired, she recommended me as her replacement. I now entered the realm of Reinsurance, of which I knew nothing. I was also the only translator there, and didn't have much to fall back on. However, it was another notch up....
On my new job, I started looking through the files, asking questions and got the company to enroll me in Insurance courses. The College of Insurance was across the street, and I consulted fire codes, insurance policies and fire extinguisher catalogs in their library. I was learning what I had never had the luxury of being able to do before: research. The first time I had to translate a proposal for purposes of insurance of a nuclear plant, I got a call from the head man in that department, congratulating me on the job I had done. "Compares favorably with what we are used to," he said. What an upper! What happened was that I consulted a document in the files similar to the one I was tackling for guidance, but when I saw that my predecessor had used the word "nucleus" instead of "core", I realized that the files were useless to me. I went across the street to the library and looked up "nuclear plants." I immediately found all the terminology I needed.
It takes a great deal more than that to be a good translator these days, of course. [...] | [...] Prevoditelji jednostavno nisu dobivali zasluženo priznanje za svoj rad, niti su očekivali dobru zaradu, tek da sastave kraj s krajem. Vrlo je malen broj ljudi imao prave prevoditeljske kvalifikacije, no većina je imala solidno fakultetsko obrazovanje i solidno znanje jezika, u najmanju ruku onog vlastitog. Imao sam prijateljicu koja je spadala upravo u tu kategoriju, a mojem su se krugu prijatelja pridružili i drugi prevoditelji. Bili su mi mnogo zanimljiviji kao osobe i otkrio sam da često dijelimo slična životna iskustva. Nikad nisam imao problema sa sklapanjem prijateljstava, ali uvijek sam osjećao da sam na neki način „drukčiji”, a siguran sam da su i oni osjećali isto. Kad je ta moja prijateljica otišla u mirovinu, preporučila me kao svoju zamjenu. Našao sam se tako na području reosiguranja, o čemu nisam znao baš ništa. K tome, bio sam jedini prevoditelj u toj sredini i nisam se mogao ni na koga osloniti. Pa ipak, bio je to još jedan korak naprijed... Na novom sam poslu počeo pregledavati spise, postavljati pitanja, a uspjelo mi je i da me tvrtka upiše na tečajeve osiguranja. Visoka škola za osiguranja nalazila se preko puta, a u njihovoj sam knjižnici izučavao protupožarne pravilnike, police osiguranja i kataloge s aparatima za gašenje požara. Učio sam o onome što sebi nikad prije nisam mogao priuštiti: o istraživanju. Prvi put kad sam trebao prevesti ponudu za potrebe osiguranja nuklearne elektrane, nazvao me rukovoditelj toga odjela i čestitao mi na dobro obavljenom poslu. „Bolje je od onoga na što smo dosad bili navikli”, rekao je. Kakav vjetar u leđa! Dogodilo se da sam proučavao dokument iz spisa koji su bili nalik onom s kojim sam se hvatao u koštac ne bih li pronašao kakve smjernice, ali kad sam vidio da je moj prethodnik upotrijebio riječ „nukleus” umjesto „jezgra”, shvatio sam da od tih spisa nema koristi. Otišao sam do knjižnice preko puta i potražio „nuklearne elektrane”. Odmah sam pronašao svu terminologiju koja mi je bila potrebna. Želite li u današnje vrijeme biti dobar prevoditelj, naravno, potrebno je puno više od toga. [...] |