The business of translation

Over the last 2 years, the dollar has lost more than 18% of its value against the euro (sinking from $1.20 to 1.42 per euro). This foreign exchange (forex) reality means that the cost of translation into Western European languages paid by American companies has gone up by the same rate. Conversely, translations into English done by American translators for European LSPs have become cheaper.

We are in the midst of updating our research on translation pricing. Our surveys thus far have shown that LSPs have not yet transferred these increased forex costs to translation buyers, choosing instead to reduce margins or to renegotiate rates with suppliers so as not to lose business to their competitors. But LSPs tell us that they are feeling the squeeze. When the euro reaches $1.45 or $1.50, the market will adjust. U.S. translation buyers will see their invoices rise by $0.02 or $0.03 per word — that’s 10% or more of the average list price for translations.

Source: http://globalwatchtower.com

The EU: Translation and Interpreting

The EU is a community of 27 countries, whose unity and diversity is expressed via 23 official languages, as well as plethora of other national, regional and local languages. It is home to nearly 500 million people with diverse ethnic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Multilingualism contributes to European values of democracy and equality. The European Parliament is committed to debate and discussion in all EU languages. The reason for this and how it is achieved is explained in this focus.

Preserving this unique linguistic diversity is a big challenge. As the EU has recently started operating in 23 languages, it is worth looking at the meaning of multilingualism, its benefits and its costs.

The EU is a “multicultural, multilingual democracy” and it uses three alphabets: Latin, Greek and Cyrillic. To set the stage for the rest of our article here are a few statistics about multilingualism and its costs * For 2006 the cost of translation in all EU institutions is estimated at €800 million, in 2005: the total cost of interpretation was almost €190 million.
* Multilingualism expenditure represents over one third of the total expenditure of Parliament.
* The EP translated 673,000 pages during the first half of 2007 (165,000 of them externally).
* Since 2005 the EP has translated over a million pages a year.
* EU system on average requires over 2000 translators and 80 interpreters per day.

Source: http://www.europarl.europa.eu

Photo journal: Breaking down the EU language barrier

Introduction

The largest interpreting service in the world is becoming even larger following the enlargement of the European Union. BBC News Online spoke to Philippe Gratier, an interpreter at the European Commission for over 30 years, about how this is changing his professional life.

 

 

Getting ready

Today I am translating into French, my mother tongue, from English, Italian and German. We are two interpreters in each booth and we share the work, taking it in turn to translate into French roughly every half an hour. We are sometimes given background documents or press releases ahead of a meeting to help us prepare our work. We are also given glossaries by the terminology service. Before I begin, I look at acronyms or meanings of words I want to have clear in my head. We may discuss with colleagues the translation of certain words.

 

  

Relay work

Because we are at the press conference with Chinese PM Wen Jiabao and Commission President Romano Prodi, we will be doing what is called relay translation. This means the original language, Chinese, will be translated by an official Chinese interpreter into English, which we will then pick up to translate into French. We will be doing more and more relay interpreting with enlargement. There are more risks of errors with this form of translation and one gets less of a feeling for what the speaker says. 

 

 

 

 Close up

I first got into interpreting in my 30s. I had been teaching linguistics in London, but had the idea I wanted to work for the Commission. I came for a visit and someone suggested interpreting. This was followed by six months of intensive training and two years of practice before the final test to qualify as an interpreter. Interpreting is a combination of intellectual and linguistic skills. It is different from translating which deals with the written word. It is about understanding the importance of what is being said and get a message across. One has to be fast, accurate and concise.

 

 

 

 Language menu

For this press briefing, we have nine booths and are interpreting into nine languages. Two are missing – Greek and Portuguese. On this occasion, we do not have enough room to accommodate the nine languages of the union’s new countries either. In one of the previous enlargements, we anticipated by recruiting interpreters early on even if the country ended up not joining as with Norway. Now we have to wait for a new country to join before recruiting interpreters from that country.

 

 

 

 Dominant language

In 1973, when the UK joined, it was thought English would become more predominant. But it didn’t because the diplomats posted in Brussels knew French. French lost its influence with the 1995 enlargement, when Austria, Finland and Sweden joined, because very few representatives from these countries knew French. Since then, English has become more dominant and I don’t see that this year’s enlargement will modify the trend. 

 

 

Schedule check

I can look up my schedule from various points inside Commission buildings, or I can do it from home. We have a common room for French interpreters where I have a locker and access to a computer. When I am not interpreting at specific meetings, I can be on call and work at short notice. We also do what is called “whispering” – standing next to a speaker and translating into his ear. Some speakers are easier to translate because they have good delivery and are interesting to listen to – such as Commissioner Chris Patten. 

 

 

 

 Time out

In this room, we can come and read the papers. This is an important part of the job of interpreting. We read to improve our knowledge of current affairs and our vocabulary. We may also go on trips abroad to perfect our knowledge of local institutions or improve our knowledge of the local language. I have been as far afield as Ethiopia and Botswana, and was once mistaken for the commissioner I was interpreting for in Martinique. He wasn’t very happy. 

 

 

 

 

 Looking ahead

In one year’s time, we are due to move to the Berlaymont building where we will have more space. This goes to show the importance of architecture in our business! We have 450 full-time interpreters, but some 700 people – staff and freelance – work here on any given day. It can take one to two years to train a new interpreter to EU standards. This means there are not many interpreters from the new countries in Brussels yet. I am coming to the end of my career so I will not be learning a language of a new member state, but younger interpreters are being encouraged to do so.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk