[...] 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. [...] | [...] No es reconeixia el valor dels traductors, no esperaven guanyar-se bé la vida, tan sols sobreviure. En realitat molt poques persones rebien formació com a traductors, però la majoria tenien una educació universitària i de llengües sòlida, com a mínim en la seva pròpia llengua. Tenia un amic que encaixava exactament dins d'aquesta categoria i el meu cercle d'amistats es va anar expandint per a incloure altres traductors. Els trobava molt més interessants com a persones, i així és com vaig descobrir que sovint teníem experiències vitals similars. Mai he tingut problemes a l'hora de fer amics, però sempre m'he sentit una mica diferent i estic segur que a ells els hi passava el mateix. Quan la meva amiga es va retirar, em va recomanar a mi com al seu substitut. Així és com em vaig endinsar en el món de les reassegurances, sobre el qual no tenia cap coneixement previ. A més, era l'únic traductor allà, i gairebé no tenia a qui recórrer per a trobar suport. Allò era un altre nivell... Així és que vaig començar per rebuscar entre arxius, preguntar molt i fer que l'empresa m'apuntés a cursos sobre el món de les assegurances. L'Escola Superior d'Assegurances estava just davant i allà és que vaig consultar codis d'incendis, polítiques d'assegurances i catàlegs d'extintors d'incendis a la seva biblioteca. Estava aprenent a fer el que mai m'havia pogut permetre: investigar. El primer cop que vaig haver de traduir una proposta d'objectius d'assegurança d'una planta nuclear vaig rebre una trucada del cap d'aquell departament, felicitant-me per la bona feina. «Comparació favorable sobre el que estem acostumats» em va dir. Vaig al·lucinar! El que havia fet era consultar un document similar al que estava traduint als arxius per a tenir una referència, però quan vaig veure que el meu predecessor havia utilitzat la paraula "centre" en comptes de "nucli" em vaig adonar que els arxius no m'eren de gaire utilitat. Vaig travessar el carrer per anar a la biblioteca i vaig buscar "plantes nuclears" i immediatament vaig trobar tota la terminologia que necessitava. Està clar que cal molt més avui dia per a ser un bon traductor. [...] |