Simple sounds...the phoneme

Phoneme: the most basic meaningful sound unit of a language. Every word can be broken down into a series of sound units or phonemes, and different phonemes can share similar characteristics which allow them to be grouped together, as we'll see in later posts!


Phonemes are not the same as letters. In English the letters of the alphabet are our way of representing these sounds. The group of sounds that make up a language are known as the phonetic inventory of that language. 


Phonemes are often represented by the phonetic alphabet and you've probably seen examples of these in a dictionary although you might not have been aware of it! Why not have a look at the International Phonetic Alphabet symbols for English.

How should you teach translation?

How should you teach translation? There's a good question, if there ever was one. As a student, in France, I was confronted to fairly "traditional" translation classes: we were given a literary text, and we had to translate it. Full stop. The linguistic challenges of the text were tackled, and working on a short story by Roald Dahl or texts by Iris Murdoch was certainly fun. But were these classes teaching us translation? No consideration was given to the context or the target reader, no critical analysis of the text was done with professional translation issues in mind. We translated, but that didn't make us translators.

Having now moved to the "other side of the desk", and teaching at Heriot-Watt University, where the courses are very much focused on translation and interpreting, I've had a chance to approach the question of translation classes from another angle – and with a renewed consideration for the purpose: the training of future professionals. Students come to us to learn a trade, not just language skills. Sure, they need to read (really, dear students: you need to read!). Culture is essential, humour and intercultural awareness is what raises us all above the level of Google Translation. But a good translator also needs, first and foremost, to know what's happening in the world – and to be familiar with issues which are the object of international discussions. Because these are the fields in which his professional skills will be needed.

So gone are the good old Lagarde et Michard; students now translate from The Guardian, The Economist, Le Monde, L'Express, El Pais, etc … They are given conference papers, they have to translate web-pages and most viciously, we even given them texts in pdf format (and ask for the translation in the same format, yes). Following the example of the excellent translation course at Pablo de Olavide, in Seville (check this space for Elisa Calvo's post, she teaches at this well-known Spanish university), students are now also given mock professional translation projects: they are organised in a team, one person is project managers, there are translators and editors, and of course, tight deadlines. They may even get a badly written text to tackle. Why ? Because there's more to translation than just words.

Fanny Chouc is a Teaching Fellow in French at Heriot-Watt University, and also co-organises career events on campus around translation and interpreting, in partnership with the ITI and Routes into Languages. She teaches on translation and interpreting courses. Follow the departmental blog and see what's happening in the School of Management and Languages on Twitter .

Nothing should be "lost in translation"

Good communication is essential for any business but it's even more important when it crosses linguistic and cultural boundaries. When communication breaks down or fails, meaning is not the only thing that can be "lost in translation", your reputation and business credibility also suffer.

Why run the risk with a poor quality translation that fails to make your voice heard?

The Spanish-speaking world is composed of 21 different countries, each one with variations in language and culture. That makes a professional translation service all the more important so that your voice is heard in new and emerging markets.

Millions of people speak a foreign language but a good translation involves more than just knowing the language. 

Translation is a specialised skill which requires:

• an advanced linguistic knowledge of both the source and target languages,
• an insight into the subject area of the document being translated and
• an in-depth awareness and understanding of the target culture.

That's why a good translation does more than communicate words, it expresses the ideas and nuances of a language that only a native-speaker would fully understand and appreciate.

For more information and a free consultation about how your company can benefit from the skills of a translator, contact me at www.paul-kearns.com

Phonology

Phonology: the analysis of the sound system of a language so that an inventory of sounds common to that language can be developed. Phonology also looks at how these sounds are combined within a language and this explains why people from different cultures struggle to pronounce certain words or combination of letters.

Google Translate: Friend or Foe?

In the world of translation and proofreading, we are often on alert for a “Google Translate job” – a document in which the dishonest or incompetent translator has made unauthorised use of machine translation or simply a piece of complete gibberish. And as translators, I’m sure we’ve all had occasion at one time or other to have a chuckle at the expense of some particularly nonsensical phrase turned out by this tool.

Why, then, in a recent survey of professionals at Proz.com did 42.9% of respondents dub machine translation “a translator’s foe”? Perhaps, despite its imperfections, they too are noticing a growing trend for requests for machine translation post-editing at a fraction of their normal rates.  And as often as we protest that computers will never replace human translators, lingering doubts remain....

But can Google Translate be used in our favour? I’m inclined to answer “yes”. To a certain extent. For example, inserting a single term generates a rather impressive bilingual thesaurus, of sorts, from which to draw inspiration. And at the end of a long day, brain frazzled, faced with a typo that changes the meaning of the entire sentence, that little “Did you mean?” is a most welcome contribution. Almost the freelancer’s equivalent of a helpful colleague, sad as it may seem. Nevertheless, while I appreciate that Google Translate has its good points, when it asks me “Would you like to contribute a better translation?”, I’m afraid the answer is still “No, thanks!”

Lisa McCreadie is a freelance translator based in Edinburgh, Scotland, working from French, Spanish and Italian into English. After graduating from Heriot Watt University, Lisa set up her own business and specialises in creative translation (music, drama, cinema, literature and marketing.) She has enjoyed many exciting opportunities collaborating with companies all over world. For more information or to contact Lisa, visit her website  or see her professional profiles at Proz.com and LinkedIn.  

Fantastic Guest Blogs are on the way!

I'm very pleased to say that over the next month or two I'm going to be posting some guest blogs written by language professionals working in different language fields.

The first guest blog post has been written by Lisa McCreadie, a freelance translator and interpreter based in Edinburgh and will be published on Friday 4 November entitled "Google Translate: friend or foe?".

Other articles will follow, and include posts from Dr Elisa Calvo de Encinas from the Universidad de Pablo de Olavide in Seville, and Fanny Chouc from Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh...so keep an eye open for them!

Please comment on the posts and share your thoughts, feel free to share the link to the post with your friends and colleagues.

When is it too late to learn a language?

Recent comments from the Education Secretary Michael Gove highlight the sad reality that British children are just not learning languages at an early enough age to foster real language ability*. In most European countries speaking more than one language is the norm and it’s regarded as a fundamental part of education. Not here in the UK.

At what age then should kids be exposed to a foreign language? The idea that children get “confused” if exposed to more than one language in childhood is absolute nonsense. In fact the opposite occurs - such exposure helps develop a child’s cognitive and communicative ability. As far as language learning is concerned the earlier the better.

One of the issues this raises though, is the question: Is there a point of no return when it is just too late to start teaching a foreign language? For decades linguists have explored the idea that there is a critical period for language acquisition - a window of time where children have the best chance of learning a language as if it were their native language. When that window closes, language learning becomes hard work.

There can be no doubt that language acquisition becomes harder - but not impossible - as we move out of puberty and into adult life. The existence of a critical period is not clear. It may be that the critical period is broken down into chunks of acquisition which apply to different aspects of language, so that language learning is not a granite slab but a series of individual bricks that all come together over an extended period of time.

From an educational standpoint, language teaching should ideally start in primary school. Anecdotal evidence suggests that young children are more enthusiastic and less inhibited about using a foreign language compared to teenagers. However, there needs to be some cohesive policy that allows qualified language teachers to follow a defined course structure so that children build on what they learn at primary school when they reach secondary school. That requires policy, educational planning, teacher development and above all a recognition that language learning should start at an early age.

*http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15135560