Teaching Computer-Assisted Translation & Localization

Teaching Translation and Interpreting

Teaching Translation and Interpreting: Challenges and Practices

Edited by

Łukasz Bogucki

Teaching Translation and Interpreting: Challenges and Practices, Edited by Łukasz Bogucki

This book first published 2010

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2010 by Łukasz Bogucki and contributors

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or

otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-4438-2500-X, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-2500-9

Table Of Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………….........

1

Fiorenza Mileto and Luigi Muzii

Teaching computer-assisted translation and localization: a projectbased approach……………………………………………………........

3

Michał Kornacki

Teaching “computer translation skills” to English philology studentsat the University of Łódź……………………………..….……………..

15

Łucja Biel

The textual fit of legal translations: focus on collocations in translatortraining……………………………………………………………….…

25

Aleksander Gomola

Teaching translation of religious discourse in Poland………………….

41

Janusz Wróblewski

Sensitizing learners to multiple equivalence………………………...…

51

Marcin Zabawa

Teaching translation at the university: should students be taught theirnative language?......................................................................................

69

Adam Sitarek

Criteria for the selection of lexical items that are false friends between English and German, German and Polish, and Polish and English forthe curriculum of translator training in the Polish educational system...

81

Joanna Janecka and Magdalena Kizeweter

Perils or perks? Teaching translation as part of Practical Englishcurriculum for undergraduate English Studies……………………...….

99

Paulina Pietrzak and Mikołaj Deckert

Teaching translation to evening students at the University of Łódź –a perspective on directionality……………………………………...…..

121

Table of Contents

vi

Michał B. Paradowski

From catering college to the naked chef – teaching LSP and culinary translation………………………………………………...…………….

137

Jolanta Sak-Wernicka

Interpretation and interpreting – how does it work in RelevanceTheory?....................................................................................................

167

Janusz Sikorski

Interpreter aptitude in testing procedures................................................

179

Andrzej Łyda, Alina Jackiewicz and Krystyna Warchał To get what you want. Triggering agentlessness in the consecutivemode……………………………………………………………………

193

Zuzanna Łopacińska

Dealing with speakers’ errors in interpreting – indispensable skill for a well-trained interpreter…………………………………………………

213

List of Contributors………………………………………………….....

239

INTRODUCTION

Translator and interpreter training has recently received ample

attention, manifested in numerous articles, books and conference papers. However, many central issues still appear controversial. Should translation and interpreting be taught within the curricula of language studies or independently? What is translator competence made up of? Which of its elements can be developed through practice and which require coaching? What kind of translators and interpreters, if any, are "born, not made"? In an attempt to address these and other questions as well as to exchange experience and expertise regarding translation curricula in Poland and abroad, the Department of Translation Theory and Practice, part of the Chair of English Language and Applied Linguistics at Lodz University, has organised two conferences under the title "Teaching Translation and Interpreting"; the first was held in April 2008, the second almost exactly a year later.

The present volume is an outcome of these two events. It is meant as a response to the developments in translation didactics which result from the recognition of the role of the translator/interpreter and the consolidating status of Translation Studies. The rationale behind the publication is manifold. First, there is evidently a need among translation scholars and translators to exchange information on the process of becoming a translator – issues like the optimum profile of a translation adept, the most efficient methods for guiding students who wish to pursue the career or balancing formal education with practical training. What is more, the volume hopes to offer an opportunity to discuss the design of translation and interpreting teaching tracks as they actually function in different institutions within Poland and across Europe. The contributions talk about the challenges and solutions in a translation and interpreting classroom by combining theory and practice, hence allowing for implementation of the different methods in real-life situations. As the authors come from a number of institutions and countries, the volume offers varied perspectives on analogous issues to arrive at a comprehensive up-to-date account but also to discuss outlooks for the future.

The volume contains thirteen papers delivered at the aforementioned events plus one invited contribution. The first two articles address an issue of increasing relevance, that is teaching computer-assisted translation, contrasting the Italian perspective (Fiorenza Mileto and Luigi Muzii) with

2 Introduction

the local one (Michał Kornacki). The paper by Łucja Biel focuses on collocations in legal translation. Aleksander Gomola tackles the rarely addressed topic of religious discourse in translation. Janusz Wróblewski offers a variety of instances of ambiguity at word level and discusses problems trainee translators may face. Marcin Zabawa discusses the role of students‘ first language in translation classes. Adam Sitarek offers a comprehensive outline of false friends and ensuing translation problems in German, English and Polish. Joanna Janecka and Magdalena Kizeweter talk about teaching translation to undergraduates as part of the practical English programme. Mikołaj Deckert and Paulina Pietrzak follow up with a discussion of translation courses offered to postgraduates. Michał B. Paradowski comments on LSP in translation on the example of culinary language. The remaining four papers concern interpreting studies. This section opens up with a paper by Jolanta Sak-Wernicka on the application of Relevance Theory. Janusz Sikorski tackles the issue of aptitude for interpreting. Andrzej Łyda, Alina Jackiewicz and Krystyna Warchał focus on consecutive interpreting and agentlessness. Finally, Zuzanna Łopacińska embarks on coping with speaker’s errors in interpretation.

Thanks are due to Professor Piotr Stalmaszczyk, Dean of the Faculty of Philology as well as Professor Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, Head of the Chair of English Language and Applied Linguistics, for their support. Michał Kornacki, the technical editor, has put in a lot of effort into preparing the volume. while Paulina Pietrzak, Mikołaj Deckert and Janusz Wróblewski assisted with both events and the publication itself. Most importantly, however, all the contributors ought to be given credit for their valuable and relevant work.

Łukasz Bogucki Łódź 2010

CHAPTER ONE

TEACHING COMPUTER-ASSISTED

TRANSLATION AND LOCALIZATION: A

PROJECT BASED APPROACH

FIORENZA MILETO AND LUIGI MUZII

Introduction

Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Let me do and I understand.

Confucius

Globalization has become a synonym for commoditization of work, including knowledge work. In this framework, universities should be the place for continuing education, incubators of new ideas, approaches and solutions. Unfortunately, in our experience as students first, then as professional translators and localizers, and finally as trainers and teachers, we observed that, especially over the last few years, translation schools in Italy have become sterile conservatories for accepted ideas, and the level of expertise offered by graduates is far from the realities and requirements of the workplace.

This does not mean that translation schools should churn out instantly productive professionals like so many human widgets, yet we believe that students should not be considered only diploma products.

The approach used for teaching computer-assisted translation and localization at the faculty of interpreting and translation at the “S. Pio V” University in Rome is aimed at helping each student’s skills emerge by shifting his or her focus from grades to experience.

In fact, the common theoretical “conduit” view of learning still predominates in translator education, and students generally tend to focus to exams and grades rather than actual learning but when they get into business, they blame the university since they become impotent witnesses of the unwillingness of employers abdicating their responsibility to

Chapter One 4

educate and train their employees. On the other hand, the widespread practice of ceasing hiring in favor of short-term contracts confirms that certificates and diplomas are tickets to nowhere.

As business is the mainstay of modern translation practice, to help the development of translator competence, and the comprehension of all aspects of the translation process learning should be carried within the context of real translation projects.

This paper is a report of a five-year teaching experience starting with a post-graduate course in localization to continue in the curricular courses of computer-assisted translation and localization.

The teaching approach comes from professional experience and industry knowledge as well as from the continuous exchange of ideas with colleagues and students at LUSPIO and during seminars, workshops, and conferences. We came up with a “formula” to exploit class teaching at best, and help students to get accustomed to goal setting as they will typically bump into on the workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to outline our approach for student-centered classroom activity, with no theoretical or methodological claims.

The paper presents a parallel structure reflecting our individual experiences in a common effort to improve each one’s approach to teaching and evaluation. In this respect, special attention is given to the differences in the evaluation systems to appraise the students’ level of competence and maturity.

PBL

Project-based learning (PBL) is a constructivist pedagogy approach for classroom activity that emphasizes learning activities that are long-term, interdisciplinary and student-centered. This approach is generally less structured than traditional, teacher-led classroom activities; it is designed to be used for complex issues that require students to investigate in order to understand: in a project-based class, students often must organize their own work and manage their own time.

Within the PBL framework students are asked to team up, work together, take on social responsibilities, and find solutions to real problems. The students’ choices lead to artifacts representing what is being learned.

The approach is based on two key assumptions: − learning is enhanced when knowledge is activated;

Teaching Computer-Assisted Translation And Localization

5

− processing knowledge in a problem-solving approach to learning improves the ability to organize, store and retrieve it.

Not only do students respond by feeding back information, they also actively use what they know to negotiate, and devise solutions.

In PBL, traditional classroom activity integrates with “real world” issues and practices. Running a structured project allow students to practice “real-world” conditions in a “safe” environment, and finally deliver a synthesis of their learning experience in a factual product.

The teacher teach students how not be at loss in real life situations, and help them build strategies to be armed with to deal with whatever comes their way. The class changes from a teacher-fronted passive mass to a place of activities. Instruction has its goal to make the student a self-sufficient problem-solver.

Students are discouraged to be passive receivers of the information transmitted to them from the teacher or the textbooks. They will otherwise end up focusing only to the exam, trying to devise strategies to pass it with the minimum effort and maximum profit.

The Rationale

Over the last few years, the need has become acute to adapt educational practice in university-level schools for translator training to rapidly changing market requirements. Nevertheless, teaching is still based on a trial-and-error approach, reflecting the teacher’s self-deemed superior wisdom and the attempt to duplicate knowledge in students’ minds.

We do not know of any formal study on translation teaching in Italy, and no figures are available to tell this is a universal practice; nevertheless, students attending the computer-assisted translation course and the localization course at LUSPIO are graduates from the major academic institutions in Italy.

In our experience, translation buyers and employers have definite expectations of new graduates in translation, and they are finding that the universities fall short of meeting their expectations regarding the skills and preparation for being on the workplace. The main obstacles encountered when hiring graduates are their preparation for dealing with specialized translation, terminology management and information technology, narrow exposure to culture, lack of practical training but also with their ability to organize themselves autonomously or work independently or in teams, solve problems or establish and effectively manage social relations on the job.

Chapter One 6

Anyway, comparing job profiles with academic programs will make the educational gap clear. We have been trying to reduce it by introducing a certification pathway and a real-life project experience to endorse each student’s skills.

In the traditional translation education scenario, the in-class instructional process is largely reduced to homework review: the instructor essentially identifies the errors in students’ drafts and provides “correct” solutions to translation problems. The teacher is supposed to possess absolute knowledge of how to translate, while translator competence emerges as the result of the collaborative completion of authentic translation work.

Gaming is a fundamental ingredient in learning, and to help students achieve a professional-like level of autonomy and expertise they should go through experience by being involved in the collaborative undertaking of authentic translation projects for real customers. Nevertheless, while newspaper texts are actually rare on the translation market they are still the all-but-exclusive practice material in classes.

The results achieved so far confirm the soundness of the approach, and the accomplishment of the educational goals: the rate of abandonment is next to zero, students are mostly enthusiastic in their comments in the questionnaires they are asked to fill anonymously at the end of courses, and the placement rate is largely satisfactory.

Last year, the SDL Trados certification exam was introduced at the end of the computer-assisted translation course: 18 students out of 28 passed the exam. 78% of students from the post-graduate course in localization, the computer-assisted translation course and the localization course are proficiently and satisfactorily working in the GILT industry, in Italy and abroad.

The computer-assisted translation course

Computer-assisted translation is increasingly made the object of study nowadays. A lot has been said and published on TEnT’s, while little has been written on their application to training. Teaching methodologies as to translation tools are out of the scope of this paper, which is just the report of a teaching experiment, and therefore does not take into account the relevant literature and any similar studies/experiments carried out elsewhere.

The purpose of this paper is to show that tech-driven courses need a different approach from traditional courses.


7

The teaching approach for the computer-assisted translation course is borrowed from the experience made in training translators and trainers for the GILT industry as well as organizations and academic institutions. This approach is aimed at reconciling education and work-linked training.

The computer-assisted translation course is aimed at introducing students to a working methodology different from “Word and dictionary” and based on translation tools as an integral and indivisible part of the translation process.

Therefore, it is important for students to learn about the industry, understand and evaluate their working environment, mature a teamwork attitude, and meet the deadlines, while getting accustomed to identify the technical aspects and skills to develop.

In this way, students can face a non-traumatic impact with the “real world”, while a first-time approach to computer-assisted translation can help the teacher take advantage of a total absence of habits and prejudices affecting long-time translation professionals. This makes it possible to integrate translation tools in the working process, and develop an unbiased view of a project.

Working strategy

The first step is to encourage students not to be in awe of and suffer from computer and software tools, possibly for poor rehearsal. Therefore, it is pivotal to foster a collaborative approach by setting up working groups whose members are able to compensate each other for weak points, and exploit the little time available at best.

The working strategy comes from the experience in training the translators where being acquainted with each other helps cooperation, and cooperation helps initiative and learning. Teamwork cannot be taught, but is more and more widespread in the workplace. Individual skills should therefore be used and students should be invited to rely on each other to solve the problems in the classroom positively moving the focus from the teacher to the class team.

The assisted translation course at LUSPIO starts by presenting the basic concepts of computer-assisted translation and the basic functions of a translation tool through increasingly challenging exercises where attention is focused entirely on technical aspects.

The next step consists in reviewing a ready-made work with a translation tool. The translation is chosen from those done during the course of specialized translation. Pros and cons of computer-assisted

Chapter One 8

translation are discussed, together with the texts that are best suited for processing with translation tools. Working strategies are finally evaluated that would have been faster and convenient. At this stage the development of termbases, translation memories, and specialized corpora is also suggested.

The project

Once the introductory lessons are over, students are called to participate in a translation project under the teacher’s guidance, who will set deadlines and assign tasks. Students are requested to team up and develop a time plan, while respecting the (virtual) customer’s instructions, starting with the style guide, to handle communications with all the parties involved, and solve any problems with terminology and translation memories. The student teams will have to deal also with any technical and logistic issues that could occur.

To help a contrastive analysis, the project is chosen from a bunch kindly granted for academic purposes, to anticipate problems and “challenges” that students must then confront and win.

One of the projects was run on materials developed by Lou Cremers during his office at Océ Technologies in Venlo, the Netherlands. Océ materials proved particularly suitable for training purposes for their relative simplicity and the thorough compilation (style guides, instructions, files, and memories). Such “realia” allowed for the arrangement of a “real-world” working environment, and to “plan” a few incidents to stimulate technical abilities and problem-solving talent.

In this respect, the course is a convenient introduction to the localization course where a real project will be run, in a controlled environment.

Benefits

After a five-year experience, the use of a ready-made translation project proved to allow the teacher to have definite references and goals, while students can work freely and with full autonomy. In the same way, the teacher can reproduce the typical issues that students will find in the workplace and give them the chance to cope safely in a sheltered environment. These issues will be repurposed, in a harder setting, to the students that will attend the localization course.


9

The teacher can exploit the students’ curiosity to prevent them to approach translation tools in the future to mechanically reproduce a few tasks with no apparent convenience.

The most immediate and rewarding achievement is the abandonment of the exams-and-grades logic: the students’ efforts turn to be goal-oriented. Running a translation project requires students to waive mechanical or mnemonic learning: translation tools alone are not enough to solve the problems arising and fulfill the assignments; students must understand the business and operation logic behind them to use them actively and usefully.

The most ambitious goal, which results in greater satisfaction and durability, is the development of an integrated approach to translation tools and language and technical and management issues.

Assessments

Having experienced some traditional assessment systems with ongoing evaluation, the best way to assess the students’ achievements is to test the different skills they should have developed during the course. Therefore, the final exam consists of three parts: − a short essay presenting the features of a translation tool reviewed

during the course or a project done using a set of translation tools; − a working session where students must demonstrate to know how to manage a small translation project; − an academic session where students must answer a multiple-choice questions test; students are also given the chance to receive certification of their knowledge from tool vendors.

In many cases, the effort required to write the essay has led students to deepen the subject in their final dissertation.

The way the exam is broken down reflects the comprehensive combination of skills that students must develop for a profitable working strategy with translation tools. The final exam is aimed at assessing the integration of computer-assisted translation with the translation process and the working methodology, and the absence of any mnemonic and mechanical use of the programs addressed during the year.

In a five-year experience, even though the basic structure of the course has remained unchanged, small adjustments have been made to the final exam as to topics and duration. Only 15% of students fail when taking the exam at the end of the course, and only 10% run out of time. Typically,

Chapter One 10

this is the case of students who have erratically attended lessons or with poor IT skills.

The localization course

The course is aimed at teaching localization basics to translation students in order to provide them with some of the skills and competences needed to work in the localization industry.

Students are trained in translation techniques for localization, in the localization process, and in project management principles.

The PBL model in teaching localization is pivoted on the course program, its instructional goals, and its themes to facilitate student autonomy, and includes a syllabus and examination procedure, small classes, teacher-fronted lessons for basics, and teacher-students interaction.

Project contents are aimed at giving students the opportunity to become confident in participating in localization projects.

At the beginning of the course, students receive basic instructions to enable them to use their skills and knowledge confidently, flexibly, appropriately, and autonomously.

During the course, students are taught to devise and implement an overall project strategy that makes translation requirements easier to collect and understand and even apparent, although they are not, and help disambiguation.

Finally, every time, in every project, something unanticipated happens. Collaborative learning helps students forge a contingency strategy.

The business game for “real world” connections

In an applied localization program, assignments should mirror the kinds of job students will do in the workplace.

Connections are made with the “real world” in having students participate in a business game around an actual localization project. Most of the project is run completely out of the class as coursework to give students the opportunity to learn from experience.

At the end of the teacher-fronted lessons on localization basics, students team up. The teacher chooses the product to be localized, and plays the service provider’s role thus appointing a student as the project leader who will allocate role and assignments, and coordinate the


11

localization student team. The environment of a typical localization project is then replicated to simulate a workplace situation. The teacher will integrate experiences with further training during two or more project status meetings. During these meetings, the teacher can train students on specific points as the need arises. Assisting students with some aspects of the production allow them not to be overwhelmed by problem-solving tasks ahead of them.

Students are urged to report any problems and queries to the teacher, and to use a bulletin board system to post messages, queries, documents, and training material.

In running the project, students are asked to build an environment for the application of translation, computation, planning, and communication skills. They also get accustomed with the complex processes and procedures that are typical of “real-world” jobs.

Teamwork could prove very hard, especially for students who have secured high grades in exams, do not feel at ease in sharing their knowledge, and are usual at ruling.

Teamwork skills are pivotal in a traditional localization project made up of hundred thousands of words and limited time, and it is what market is requiring: not only does collaborative learning help students learn from each other, it helps students develop problem-solving attitudes, and become more creative. Group assignments bring “free riders” and slackers to emerge and team members face them and cope with their ability to exploit the extra efforts of peers, especially when groups are fairly small.

The teacher needs to know his students and be prepared to help them adjust to this kind of learning. Some students forge ahead with self-directed learning, while others need guidance.

The project impacts mainly on students’ time, and the first lesson learned is on time management to accommodate assignments of different subjects and run the project, especially if students have never undertaken a lengthy project before.

During the production stage of the project, students learn to monitor progress and make changes to improve their work; they also discover spaces for product enhancement.

Finally, students are asked to give an open-ended written reflection on their experience. This offers the chance to give them a view on a typical project management task: writing a post-mortem report.

Chapter One 12

Benefits

The transition from dependence to independence for trainee translators is not an easy process, especially in an educational Italian system where spoon-feeding and rote-learning are common strategies.

The project approach encourages students to use their specialized skills and talents on individual tasks and responsibilities, but also to develop problem solving, and self-management abilities.

Since student groups perform best when they have common goals and joint rewards, students are told how the teacher will evaluate the group and the effect group performance will have on grades before any activity begins.

Students also know from the beginning that their performance will be assessed on content and skills using criteria similar to those in the work world. Teamwork is then encouraged to create products that are better than one individual could achieve on their own, peer review is used to improve planning, translating, and revising processes, and students are trained to view editors or reviewers in a collaborative endeavor to improve their work. At the same time, student editors are prevented from the unpleasant attitude to make changes purely to demonstrate their authority.

This helps create positive communication and collaborative relationships, and engages and motivates bashful or indifferent students.

Students are encouraged to take risks and fight frustrations; their responses and enthusiasm can be overwhelming, but their increased output and productivity become a reward in itself; at the same time autonomy help them build confidence and consciousness of skills learnt.

Finally, translation courses generally lack of an “economic” approach with the associated investigation of the cost of errors, thus eluding the problem of translation sustainability. Tools are increasingly spreading that reduce translation costs, therefore students are taught to take full advantage of appropriate technology to improve efficiency, use of resources, costs, and guarantee economic sustainability by standardization and large-scale use, reliability, and affordability.

During the years a few adjustments have been made, based on the cues given by students through the questionnaires they are asked to fill anonymously at the end of courses. These adjustments mostly relate to IT and translation skills. IT and computer-assisted translation skills are now a (non-binding) prerequisite for the course.

Since its establishment, no abandonment has been recorded, with a satisfaction index of 99% over the period. The students expressing


13

discontent have ascribed it to a faulty self-assessment of their compliance with the requirements for participation and with the program.

Assessments

A schedule and firm deadlines are established, missed deadlines are penalized. Periodic meetings are setup where progress, problems, strategies and solutions are discussed. These meetings are also useful to help students work to meet the deadlines and to catch up if they fall behind.

Most students still judge their educational experience by their grades. In this case, assessment is used mainly to improve the product and occurs at stages throughout the project. Students are involved in the development of assessment criteria and are actively engaged in the evaluation of their own work. Therefore, they must have a clear understanding of the project’s goals and the ways in which they will be assessed before beginning.

Performance is assessed on an individual basis: quality of deliverables, content understanding, and the contributions made to the ongoing process of project realization are taken into account. Students will be assessed also on the strategies and skills that are needed to complete the task successfully.

Future scenario

LSP’s are interested primarily in productivity and sales, and this should really matter to translators as well. Time to market is an important issue, and the demand for faster production times is increasing. Speed has becoming a larger pressure than quality — provided quality means the same for all.

Keeping costs under budget is a major, if not the prime challenge. Efficiency, global economics, and tools are a means to get those costs under control, and are leading to a collaborative, interactive, real-time production environment. Translation tools are evolving fast. Many free technologies are available now to manage huge projects in a much more efficient way than using standard tools. One is machine translation, and the big factor for making machine translation systems profitable and convenient is reducing ambiguity in the source text. In the coming future,

Chapter One 14

translators that are not using machine translation to pre-process their jobs

are doing too much work.1

As the translation and communication industries continue to be confronted with new technologies, the next step consists in educating translators in being conversant in the more “spendable” skills, to exploit the same tacit knowledge that people in the field tend to share through discussion and personal interactions. Special attention should then be given to social aspects (collaboration and sharing through social networks,

wikis and blogs) in a “Wikinomics”2 or crowdsourcing

3 perspective, and

translation students should be introduced to web-based translation environments, controlled languages, content management, and workflow management systems.

References

Barkley E., K. P. Cross and Major C. Howell. 2004. Collaborative

Learning Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty, Jossey-Bass Markham T. 2003. Project Based Learning Handbook, Buck Institute for

Education

1 This paper has been partly written in Italian and translated in English with a little help from

Google Translate. 2 The use of mass collaboration (also called peer production) and open-source technology

such as wikis in a business environment to be successful. 3 The act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and

outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an open call.

CHAPTER TWO

TEACHING “COMPUTER TRANSLATION

SKILLS” TO ENGLISH PHILOLOGY STUDENTS

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ŁÓD`

MICHAŁ KORNACKI

Introduction

The profession of a translator has no strict definition in Poland. Virtually anyone can translate a text and call themselves translators. But is it enough just to translate to claim that one knows the trade? Or maybe there is something more to it, hidden beneath the glamorous cover of sophisticated language skills that make us, translators, professionals?

Having been a teacher of translation for some time, I think I can try to answer these questions, at least partly. Of course, language skills are vital in this profession – without the knowledge how to render a body of text into another language, no other skills will make us translators. Yet, those “other” skills are important, too, since they make us efficient in what we do, and efficiency is one of the factors that the number of jobs we have depends on.

I use these words as an opening to the translation course I conduct at the Institute of English Studies, University of Łódź. Since our students have the opportunity to attend various classes on translation, such as English-Polish or Polish-English translation, ESP (English for Specific Purposes) or literary translation, my primary concern in to make them aware that being a successful translator does not only mean to translate properly. I try to show them that developing and applying a number of skills, which many would refer to as “technical”, is equally important. Translating is one thing, but working up to the standards of the market is something else. My goal is to make them at least partly ready for the challenges they will face in their professional life, especially that the pace of technological progress increases and it is often the case that, as Celia Rico Pérez puts it, “an individual translator cannot carry out the task of

Chapter Two 16

managing an entire project alone in a reasonable amount of time unless he or she works in a team; (...) translators need to adapt themselves to this [changing translation market] new environment and learn new skills” (Pérez 2001).

The purpose of this paper is to present some of my experience and methods of teaching computer translation skills, which I used as teacher of translation (EN-PL. PL-EN, ESP) at the Institute of English, University of Łódź.

Definition of “computer translation skills”

It is nothing new to say that global computerisation, visible in almost every aspect of our lives, resulted in the need for translators to use computers. It is generally perceived as an advantage, since it is easier to create, edit and send translations over to our customers; however, it also forces everyone to use the same (or at least very similar) applications and document formats. Using computers in translation is so obvious today that very few people do stop to think about it. How do I translate using a computer? What skills and applications do I use? Asking such questions and answering them not only will give us a better idea of our efficiency when using a computer but also it will enable us to help others in this respect.

Generally, “computer translation skills”, as I regard them, include such trivial issues as general use of computers, handling e-mail applications or communicating via internet messengers. What is more, they include a number of other things such as the use of word-processing software, computer-aided translation (CAT) tools, optical character recognition (OCR) and other relevant software. The final skill that needs mentioning, and probably one of the most important ones, is related to searching for information on the internet. Although mentioning “such” skills may seem obvious at first, it is worth to think about them for a minute. My experience with 1st and 2nd year students (2nd-year MA course) shows that having mentioned abilities is generally taken for granted by them. It is only when someone points out the gaps in their knowledge that they see them. This applies also to regular freelance translators who often have problems with document formatting or searching for data on the internet. I do not mention more major issues like project management since my aim is only to introduce students to some technical aspects of translation, leaving more complex issues for classes (i.e. post-graduate translation courses) strictly devoted to highly advanced aspects of the trade.

Teaching “Computer Translation Skills” to English Philology Students 17

Computer knowledge that students have vs. computer

knowledge they should possess

There is a huge discrepancy between students’ actual knowledge and the knowledge they should possess. When asked about tools they use in translation, the majority of answers were “a dictionary.” The fact is that most people do not recognise the computer itself as a translation tool. It has become a part of our everyday lives to such an extent that nobody bothers to think about it. Even when it was pointed out to the students, they were unable to specify which computer tools in particular are helpful. A number of supporting questions revealed that a vast majority of students used MS Word as their primary word-processor and Google for internet browsing. However, their knowledge of MS Word software and of Google was very basic. One or two students mentioned OCR software – which was totally unknown to the rest of the group. Nobody used CAT tools, which was not that much of a surprise since they were just starting as translators and CAT software is quite expensive and mostly useful for more advanced professionals.

Our role as teachers of translation should be to introduce our students to the trade and to show them how the market works. Students generally do not know what to expect in regards to translation requirements, i.e. they do not know which computer skills, if any, will be useful to them while translating. A really gifted translator will face many problems in the beginning of his/her career if he will be unaware of, for example, the requirements of translation agencies regarding the final form of a document. This is only one example, but dozens could be mentioned. Once, when I was beginning to work as a translator, I received series of scanned documents which contained stamps at the end of each document. Since I did not know what to do with it, I used graphic software to cut the stamp and the signature from the original and paste it onto my translation. Nobody taught me that the standard is to describe the stamp and put the description into “/ /”, i.e.: /stamp reading: XXX/ /signature illegible/

In most cases, translation agencies require translators to write that a handwritten signature is illegible, unless it is in capital letters or followed by name and surname in print. Why do I bring this example up? Recently, I have noticed that my own students do the same mistake, trying to reproduce graphical form of the original stamp. How are they supposed to

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know what to do? Sometimes the knowledge when not to use our advanced computer skills and do something in a simple way is a skill in itself.

Yet, first of all, I believe we should explain to them what they will need in translation as far as computers are concerned. The first thing, the most basic one, is rather obvious: a computer. Can it be any kind of a computer? Not exactly. If they are serious about translating, we should give them advice regarding configuration of their workstation. To start with, any up-to-date CPU will be sufficient – computational power of modern processors is more than a successful translator will ever need. Hard drive – two smaller drives seem to be better than one large one due to the need for backup copy storage. As translators, we are often required to use our older translations for whatever reasons, which is why keeping an archive is so vital. It is also important to backup such archive in case of primary hard drive failure. If students ask about memory, the answer is simple: the more, the better. Display unit we work on should be large enough not to exhaust our eyes too quickly, at the same time enabling resolutions which will allow us to display two windows side by side so that we can read a text from one and translate into the other one. Last but not least, we should mention the keyboard. It is very important to buy one which is comfortable and relatively silent, which again has an effect on how fast we get tired while working. Though such issues seem to be obvious and only vaguely related to translation at first, they are an invaluable piece of advice for people whom we train to be translators. Teaching computer translation skills – theory and practise

Today, teaching translation involves much more than focusing on how to put one thing into another language in the best way. Technological progress forces us to devote a portion of our time to strictly technical aspects of translation. That is why my first step in a new translation-focused group is to interview them, check what they know and to give them theoretical base for later practical activities.

The Internet

The theoretical base should include general information regarding the translator’s workshop and the issues one should be familiar with. I always start with websites devoted to translation, which are available on the


Internet, i.e. ProZ (www.proz.com), Globtra (www.globtra.org), Branżowe Forum Tłumaczy (www.forumtlumaczy.com), etc., which will help them advance in their career. Such sites contain a lot of information about translators’ everyday work and they unveil many problematic issues a young translator may experience.

The next thing worth discussing is the role of the Internet as a source of information. More and more often we need to verify if a given notion was translated before, and if yes – how. It is important to use the translations which have been on the market for some time and are recognised by other people. This is where the internet becomes very useful for it allows us to search for a given information (google.com, yahoo.com, altavista.com, etc.), use online dictionaries and corpora, or compare different language versions of the same site (Wikipedia the Free Encyclopaedia and the ability to switch between different languages defining a given notion – www.wikipedia.org). Google itself is a powerful tool since it allows us not only to search for information on webpages, but also it indexes *.doc and *.pdf files stored on servers, allowing us to browse through their contents in search for a context.

Software

A successful translator needs to know how to handle various computer applications in his/her work. That is why basic software used to compress and decompress files should be mentioned (WinZip, WinRAR). Do not forget about PDF and multimedia files readers (images, audio). Discuss differences in using different word processors and the (remote) need for audio recording software. Describe how an OCR (Abbyy Fine Reader) and localisation (Alchemy Catalyst) software work. It is important to mention CAT tools, how they work and whether a beginner translator should invest money in them. And finally, above all, great attention should be paid to the word-processor which, in fact, is our primary working environment.

In Poland, most people use MS Word (versions XP, 2003 or 2007). Other software is also present (OpenOffice), but their use is marginal, which may be partly attributed to Microsoft software superiority and its general popularity. The more people use it, the less frequent compatibility issues become.

Due to primary and secondary school requirements, as well as thanks to informatics classes, most people are familiar enough with the software to create new documents, open and edit existing ones and change basic formatting types. However, interviews with students revealed that it was

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all they needed, and, as a matter of fact, all they knew about the software’s functionality. Our task, as teachers, is to make them realise that the world of translators requires us to use our word-processor more extensively.

There are several issues that need to be covered, both in theory and in practice in class. As teachers, we should be thorough and avoid taking things for granted. That is why I always try to go through the interface first and how to adjust it to our preferences. I mention such seemingly obvious things to do as setting auto save function to 1 minute interval or the default file format to *.doc, instead of *.docx which can be problematic for owners of older software versions. Another tool I mention at the very beginning of a course is word count tool (Figure 1). The tool is most useful since it allows a translator to count how many characters including spaces there are in the document to be translated. Translations are mostly calculated based on a standard translation page which contains 1800 characters including spaces or, which becomes more common nowadays, 1600 characters including spaces (EU standards). Using this tool, a translator learns about the size of the document and how much he/she will earn by translating it, e.g. the screenshot to the left was taken from a document containing 10.936 characters with spaces, which amounts to 6.5 (1800 characters, rounded up) or 7 (1600 characters, rounded up) standard pages. It is a very simple tool, yet, many people do not know how to use it or where to find it.

Fig 2-1. Word Count in MS Word 2007 PL

Furthermore, primary settings of the software should be covered step by step, i.e. Font menu, Paragraph menu, Page Layout and Insert (tables and images) tab and Styles menu (see Figure 2). It is vital to cover them since most users do not know how to access advanced settings for fonts or page layout, which are necessary when we need to retain the plan of the original document. It is often the case that we have to deal with complex formatting which cannot be altered and our only option is to use advanced formatting options.


Fig. 2-2. Main options bar in MS Word 2007 PL

While discussing the settings, it is important to point out to students that there are certain general rules regarding formatting of the target text, but we should observe customer’s instructions. If there are no such instructions, we should retain the formatting of the source document and apply general rules only if the source is written carelessly and without consideration for the reception of the document. Students should be made aware that in such a case they should align the text, fix any bullet-pointing and numbering issues there may be and, the most important thing, delete any double spaces. Double spaces are most unwelcome in output translation and a translator who leaves them (even if they were made by the customer) can be seen as a kind of scrounger. That is why we should remove them before and after translation, possibly all at once by using “Ctrl+F” (Find) keyboard shortcut and change all double spaces to single ones (Figure 3, dots imitate spaces).

Fig. 2-3. Find and replace option in MS Word 2007 PL

The option can be accessed by using “Ctrl+F” shortcut, then selecting

“Change” tab and typing in the item to be changed in “Find” line and target item in the “Change to” line.

The last important issue that needs to be discussed in relation to MS Word is Track changes option (Review->Track changes). The tool is most useful in translation when we can translate and replace source text with our translation. It is also very useful in proofreading – we can mark our

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changes easily and the person who will read the document after us will see them clearly and will be able to accept or dismiss them quickly (Figure 4).

Fig. 2-4. Track changes tool in MS Word 2007 PL

The reason why I explain MS Word in such detail is that it is completely overlooked in translation, which should not happen. As a primary tool, both in regular translation and when using CAT tools, it should be an environment which holds no secret for a power user like a translator. Classes on the topic, offered as a part of the informatics classes on a regular MA course, are not enough. That is why theory should be followed by practise – students should complete numerous exercises where they need to restore specific formatting to a document which was cleared of it, make new formatting to a document according to specific instructions, or transfer the text from PDF or some other media files to DOC format and prepare it for translation. Only after such introduction can students proceed to pure linguistic aspects of translation. Even though specialised translation poses much greater challenge than general translation in respect to the form of the document, all students will benefit from thorough and detailed course on the word-processor and their skills in that area will surely be valued by their future employers.

As I have mentioned before, apart from MS Word, I present how other useful software works (using personal laptop), if only to show students that there is such software out there, should they ever need it. I usually make short presentations on Trados/Wordfast, Alchemy Catalyst and a bit longer one on OCR software, since it is a must in the translator’s workshop (a real time saver at times). I mention also few handy tricks how to send larger volumes of data (broadband in Poland is still much slower than in Western Europe) – web servers, FTP connection, etc. – when such need arises.


Conclusions

Students of the translation track are frequently offered only the basic training in translation, which involves developing various, purely linguistic, translation skills. However, graduate students often face difficulties upon the start of their career as translators on the Polish market. They quickly learn that translation is not only about ‘translating’ a document. It also involves a number of “technical” skills, knowledge and proper application of which increases the number of orders for translation they receive. That is why teaching such skills should become a part of the curriculum.

Teaching the so-called “computer translation skills” should not take up the entire time of translation class. On the contrary, students should be made familiar with the subject (theory and practise) so that, with time, they would not think about the technical aspect of translation and they could focus on translation itself.

Personal experience shows that most students were more interested in MS Word and its use than in CAT tools, which may be attributed to the fact that a word-processor is required for translation, whereas CAT tools are not. The word-processor is not the only tool students should be familiar with. Hence, time should be divided between the most important issues (in-class practise) and theory regarding those issues which can be covered at home, but are not as vital.

In fact, only two to three classes are sufficient to cover the theory and to introduce the practical aspects of a word-processor and other basic software. Further education in this respect should be based on translation assignments (to be carried out at home) which would explore and solidify their skills. This way we can check if students are making progress and what areas need additional explanation or practise.

While it may be argued that such issues should be covered at postgraduate courses, I cannot agree. I believe it is better for students if they learn the basics during a translation class since they can shift easily from translation class to professional work and choose postgraduate courses to broaden their knowledge and work on professional (CAT) tools in greater detail, rather than treating them as obligatory.

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References

Pérez, Celia Rico. 2001. "From Novelty to Ubiquity: Computers and Translation at the Close of the Industrial Age. Translation Journal, 5 (1). Available at: http://tinyurl.com/yf2au5o (accessed 12 December, 2009).

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Teaching Computer-Assisted Translation & Localization