[...] 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. [...] | [...] Tradutór sira labele hetan rekonhesimentu, sira labele hein katak sira bele hetan moris ki'ik liu, de'it bele sobrevive. Ema kiik de'it ne'ebé hetan formasaun ba tradusaun, maibé barak maka iha edukasaun kualifikadu iha universidade no konhese solidu kona-ba língua sira, iha minimu língua nia. Ha'u iha amigu ida mak fó hamutuk ho kategoria ida ne'e no sira nia krúz ho tradutór sira seluk mós amply. Ha'u hetan sira nudar ema ne'ebé boot liu, no ha'u deskobre katak ita boot hamutuk iha esperensia vida ne'ebé simila. La ho problema ba ha'u atu hetan ema boot, maibé ha'u senti katak "diferente" no ha'u konfiadu katak sira mos senti ona. Kona-ba amigu ha'u nia, wainhira amigu ha'u aposenta, nia rekomenda ha'u nudar substituisaun nia. Agora, ha'u lakohi servisu iha área Reasseguramentu, ne'ebé ha'u seidauk hatene barak. Ha'u mos maka tradutór ida mak iha, no laiha ne'ebé bele hola baze. Maibé, liu liu, ne'e hanesan de'it mais boot... Iha servisu foun ha'u, ha'u hetan atu hare katak ne'ebé iha pasta sira, atu husu pergunta no ha'u hasoru kompañia atu inskreve ha'u iha kursu Seguru. Kolejiu Seguru nian tuir malu, no ha'u konsulta kódigu fogo, polítika seguru no katalogu espintór fogo sira iha biblioteka sira nia. Ha'u hela ho oportunidade atu hetan sa deit tanba pesquisa, ne'ebé ha'u la iha antes ne'e: peskiza. Iha ohin loron, ha'u hetan karik la'ós data atu tradús proposta ba seguru ba usina nuklear nian, ha'u hetan telefonata husi xefe departamentu ne'e, parabéns ha'u tanba servisu ne'ebé ha'u halo. "Kompára favorável ho ne'ebé ita uza normalmente," nia ko'alia. Ki'ik de'it! Ne'ebé akontese, ha'u konsulta dokumentu iha pasta ne'ebé fo indikasaun ida atu hare komo hamutuk ba orientasaun, maibé ha'u hare katak predecessor ha'u nia uza "nucleus" iha kotuk deit "core", ha'u konprende katak pasta sira la'ós ajuda ida ba ha'u. Ha'u simu biblioteka iha leten dalan, no hare ba "usina nuklear". Ha'u halo imediatamente kumpretera hotu kona-ba términu ne'ebé ha'u presiza. Hodi sai tradutór di'ak iha loron ne'e, presiza maka ne'ebé boot liu, klaru. [...] |