[...] 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. [...] | [...] Il-Tradutturi kien immaqsur ħafna, ma kienux jistgħu jiksbu rikonoxximent, ma tistax tikteb li kienu jistennew jiksbu ħafna minn ħajjithom, sempliċement għall-isbaħ. Ħafna persuni kienu qed jgħallmu bħala tradutturi b'mod formali, imma ħafna kienu jkollhom għarfien sod tas-saħħa u għarfien sod tal-lingwi, sal-maħżen bil-lingwa tagħhom. Kien għandi ħabiba li kienet tkun toqgħod fl-istess kategorija u ċ-ċerimonja ta' ħbieb tiegħi tkabbret biex tinkludiya bħala rikplament tagħha. Għameluni uħud wieħed minnhom ġewwa ċ-ċirku tal-ħbieb tiegħi. Sab li huma aktar interessanti bħala nies, u skopri li spiss konna għandna esperjenzi simili fl-ħajja. Ma kellix problema qatt li ngħaqad ma' ħbieb, imma dejjem kien hemm feeling ta' "differenza", u nistgħu ma nħossuhomx. Meta l-ħabiba tiegħi ritirat, għamiltha t-tfal li taqtilha bħala rikplament tagħha. Issa daħlt f'reġistru tal-Reassigurazzjoni, fejn ma kontx naf xejn dwarha. Kien hemm ukoll jien biss li kien ntraduċi hawn, u ma kienx hemm bosta li nista' ngħinlu. Minkejja hekk, kienet ta' pass li għadni għandni tissaħħaħ.... Fuq il-ħatra ġdida, bdiet nirrekurri d-dokumenti, sajtu mistoqsijiet, u nstabli nkompli niġġielduhom biex jitgħallmu li ma kienx kont qed nagħmlu qabel: ir-riċerka. Meta għamilni it-traduzzjoni tal-proposta għal skopijiet ta' assigurazzjoni għal inqas, ta' imwieled nukleari, irċeviet telefonata minn raġel għoli fis-settur huwa, jekk jogħġbok, b'kompliment tat-trab li għamilt. "Hija tajba bħalma nistgħu nħarsu għalih," qal. X'ebda obbligożità! Is-seħħ li seħħet kienet li bdilt fuq dokument li kien fil-fajl, simili lill-istess aħbar li kien qed ntraduċi, għall-gwida, iżda meta rajt li d-dokument kien jgħid "nucleus" minflok "core", nifhem li l-fajls kienu ta' ebda għajnuna għalija. Mort il-ktiebija u nbeda naqra dwar "imwieled nukleari". Mill-ewwel nstabt l-terminoloġija kollha li kelli bżonn. Dawn il-jum it-tiswija ta' traduttur tajjeb titlob aktar minn hekk, b'klaru. [...] |