[...] 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. [...] | 译者并未得到认可,他们只能以此勉强度日,并不能谋生。 实际上,没多少人接受过专业的翻译培训,但大多都有本科背景,并且对语言,至少是自己的母语,有着自己深厚的了解。 我有一个朋友正属于此类,朋友圈里也有各种译者。 我发现他们的普通生活更为有趣,我们也都有着相似的生活经历。 虽然在交际上,我从未遇到什么难题,可总是感觉自己格格不入,我相信他们也深有同感。我朋友退休时,她推荐我作为接替。现在我进入了再保险领域,但对此我一无所知。 我也是那里唯一的译员,无人作陪。 当然,我的水平又进一步提高了...... 面对新工作,我查阅文件,列出疑问,并让公司为我报名保险课程。 保险学院就在对面,可以在他们的图书馆查阅消防法规、保险单和灭火器目录。 我学习的是以前从未有过的奢侈之物:研究。 当我第一次翻译核电站保险提案时,我接到了该部门负责人的电话,他为我所做的工作专程道贺。 “比我们之前的要好太多了,”他说。 这是多么大的进步啊! 我在查阅工作相关文件寻求指导时,发现上任译员使用的是“核能”而非“核心”一词,我意识到这些文件对我来说毫无用处。 我穿过马路去图书馆查找“核工厂”词条,很快便找到了需要的所有术语。 当然,在当今社会,要成为一名优秀的翻译,要做的远不止这些。 |