A word in your ear: the interpreters who speak for world leaders

There are few professions that offer a front-row seat to history, or a chance to rub shoulders with world leaders, as well as the odd tyrant. Interpreting is one of them, and it is interpreters who have given us some of the 20th century's best phrases. 

The Soviet interpreter Viktor Sukhodrev, who died in May, aged 81, famously rendered Nikita Khrushchev's threat to the west, made during his first visit to the US in 1959, as "We will bury you". (What Khrushchev actually said was, "Communism will outlast capitalism," but it was the more brutal, and not entirely accurate, phrase that stuck.)

Typically interpreters spend their days "in the booth". This means sitting in a soundproof cubicle, wearing a headset, listening to their own voice, one ear covered and the other ear slightly covered. They work in same-language pairs. Each does a stint of 30 minutes because "after an hour your brain explodes," one says. That simultaneous interpreting should be possible seems something of a human miracle. "I still don't know how I can listen and speak at the same time. There is something happening in my brain I can't understand," I was told.

Like acting, the best interpreters capture the personality of the person who is speaking: the emotion of Ahmadinejad, or the sardonic deadpan of Putin. (This doesn't signify approval, merely a fidelity of rendition.) Interpreters strive for the idiomatic rather than the literal; as one puts it, "You have your favourite synonyms and idioms, like pocket change."

Sitting in on top-level meetings and negotiations, interpreters strive to be invisible. Sometimes clients come up with specific demands. One interpreter who agreed to translate for the fashion designer Ralph Lauren was given a long list of instructions, including what clothes she should wear (black) and how to tie her hair and do her makeup. She turned the job down.

Here's how three translators recall their toughest assignments.

• Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/25/interpreters-world-events-gorbachev-reagan-deng-xiaoping-ahmadinejad

The Magic Number is EUR 0.15: Translator Rate Survey Released in Germany

Germany’s Federal Association of Interpreters and Translators [Bundesverband der Dolmetscher und Übersetzer e.V. (BDÜ)] published the fifth edition of its rate survey in January 2016. The survey is based on pricing information collected from almost 1,100 translators and interpreters and covers 35 language pairs.

According to André Lindemann, association president, the survey is meant to provide guidance to new translators and inexperienced buyers in this “fragmented and often opaque market,” but should also be of value to many other market participants. The authors of the study stress, however, that the survey in no way represents any kind of official pricing guideline by the Association as this would be against Germany’s anti-trust laws.

Germany’s market for translation and interpretation services is still extremely fragmented, per the survey. Pricing pressure continues unabated and, according to feedback the association received from translators and interpreters, has actually increased in recent years. The survey was conducted in August and September 2015 and asked for 2014 pricing data from participants.

Slator has reviewed the 60-plus-page German-language survey and highlights some of the key points. The survey presents detailed pricing tables segmented according to a number of variables, such as client group, pricing metric (lowest, highest, most frequently mentioned), and pricing standard (per word, line, hour, day, etc.). In terms of client groups, the survey asked for the rates charged to direct clients in government departments, colleagues, private clients, and direct clients in the private sector.

The rates listed below are based on those given for the category “direct clients in the private sector,” which typically received the most number of responses. For a number of language combinations the survey only collected data on “per line” pricing, which is still very common in Germany and Switzerland.

However, Slator decided to focus only on the combinations where a price-per-word was available.

As a result, the summary below does not represent the full set of data collected by the BDÜ but still provides a useful snapshot of market conditions for German-based freelance linguists.

The following rates are based on what the survey calls the “median price,” (i.e., the figure in the middle of a range of rates arranged from lowest to highest), which cancels out extremes at both ends. All prices are in EUR.

German -English	0.16	English – German	0.15
German – French	0.16	French – German	0.15
German – Greek	0.18	Italian – German	0.15
German – Italian	0.15	Dutch – German	0.15
English – French	0.15	Spanish – German	0.14

In addition, the survey also asked how Translation Memory matches are discounted. Again, Slator is using the median values.

Repetitions	70% discount
100% matches	70% discount
95-99% matches	50% discount
85-94% matches	40% discount
75-84% matches	20% discount
50-74% matches	No discount
No Match	No discount

Furthermore, the survey included a list of hourly rates (in EUR) charged for proofreading services.

German	50
English	50
French	45
Italian	45
Russian	50
Spanish	50

Finally, the survey asked for interpretation rates. The rates below are full-day rates in EUR.

	Consecutive	Simultaneous (Conference)
German ↔ English	710	750
German ↔ French	625	727.50
German ↔ Italian	600	750
German ↔ Japanese	700	N/A
German ↔ Polish	600	725
German ↔ Russian	640	725
German ↔ Spanish	625	750

Overall, the pricing for both translation and interpretation services shows a remarkable consistency across language combinations. For translation services the magic number seems to be around EUR 0.15—still a fairly solid price point considering that many global agencies now offer end-clients a lower price while still promising all the QA bells and whistles.

Despite the buzz around machine translation post-editing, the survey did not collect data on post-editing services, which will doubtless be increasingly common going forward.

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http://slator.com/industry-news/the-magic-number-is-eur-0-15-translator-rate-survey-released-in-germany/

The greatest mistranslations ever

After Google Translate’s latest update, BBC Culture finds history’s biggest language mistakes – including a US president stating ‘I desire the Poles carnally’.

Google Translate’s latest update – turning the app into a real-time interpreter – has been heralded as bringing us closer to ‘a world where language is no longer a barrier’. Despite glitches, it offers a glimpse of a future in which there are no linguistic misunderstandings – especially ones that change the course of history. BBC Culture looks back at the greatest mistranslations of the past, with a 19th-Century astronomer finding signs of intelligent life on Mars and a US president expressing sexual desire for an entire nation.

Life on Mars

When Italian astronomer Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli began mapping Mars in 1877, he inadvertently sparked an entire science-fiction oeuvre. The director of Milan’s Brera Observatory dubbed dark and light areas on the planet’s surface ‘seas’ and ‘continents’ – labelling what he thought were channels with the Italian word ‘canali’. Unfortunately, his peers translated that as ‘canals’, launching a theory that they had been created by intelligent lifeforms on Mars.

Convinced that the canals were real, US astronomer Percival Lowell mapped hundreds of them between 1894 and 1895. Over the following two decades he published three books on Mars with illustrations showing what he thought were artificial structures built to carry water by a brilliant race of engineers. One writer influenced by Lowell’s theories published his own book about intelligent Martians. In The War of the Worlds, which first appeared in serialised form in 1897, H G Wells described an invasion of Earth by deadly Martians and spawned a sci-fi subgenre. A Princess of Mars, a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs published in 1911, also features a dying Martian civilisation, using Schiaparelli’s names for features on the planet.

While the water-carrying artificial trenches were a product of language and a feverish imagination, astronomers now agree that there aren’t any channels on the surface of Mars. According to Nasa, “The network of crisscrossing lines covering the surface of Mars was only a product of the human tendency to see patterns, even when patterns do not exist. When looking at a faint group of dark smudges, the eye tends to connect them with straight lines.”

Pole position

Jimmy Carter knew how to get an audience to pay attention. In a speech given during the US President’s 1977 visit to Poland, he appeared to express sexual desire for the then-Communist country. Or that’s what his interpreter said, anyway. It turned out Carter had said he wanted to learn about the Polish people’s ‘desires for the future’.

Earning a place in history, his interpreter also turned “I left the United States this morning” into “I left the United States, never to return”;according to Time magazine, even the innocent statement that Carter was happy to be in Poland became the claim that “he was happy to grasp at Poland's private parts”.

Unsurprisingly, the President used a different interpreter when he gave a toast at a state banquet later in the same trip – but his woes didn’t end there. After delivering his first line, Carter paused, to be met with silence. After another line, he was again followed by silence. The new interpreter, who couldn’t understand the President’s English, had decided his best policy was to keep quiet. By the time Carter’s trip ended, he had become the punchline for many a Polish joke.

Keep digging

Google Translate might not have been able to prevent one error that turned down the temperature by several degrees during the Cold War. In 1956, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev was interpreted as saying “We will bury you” to Western ambassadors at a reception at the Polish embassy in Moscow. The phrase was plastered across magazine covers and newspaper headlines, further cooling relations between the Soviet Union and the West.

Yet when set in context, Khruschev’s words were closer to meaning “Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will dig you in”. He was stating that Communism would outlast capitalism, which would destroy itself from within, referring to a passage in Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto that argued “What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers.” While not the most calming phrase he could have uttered, it was not the sabre-rattling threat that inflamed anti-Communists and raised the spectre of a nuclear attack in the minds of Americans.

Khruschev himself clarified his statement – although not for several years. “I once said ‘We will bury you’, and I got into trouble with it,” he said during a 1963 speech in Yugoslavia. “Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you.”

Diplomatic immunity

Mistranslations during negotiations have often proven contentious. Confusion over the French word ‘demander’, meaning ‘to ask’, inflamed talks between Paris and Washington in 1830. After a secretary translated a message sent to the White House that began “le gouvernement français demande” as “the French government demands”, the US President took issue with what he perceived as a set of demands. Once the error was corrected, negotiations continued.

Some authorities have been accused of exploiting differences in language for their own ends. The Treaty of Waitangi, a written agreement between the British Crown and the Māori people in New Zealand, was signed by 500 tribal chiefs in 1840. Yet conflicting emphases in the English and Māori versions have led to disputes, with a poster claiming ‘The Treaty is a fraud’ featuring in the Māori protest movement.

Taking the long view

More of a misunderstanding than a mistranslation, one often-repeated phrase might have been reinforced by racial stereotypes. During Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai famously said it was ‘too early to tell’ when evaluating the effects of the French Revolution. He was praised for his sage words, seen as reflecting Chinese philosophy; yet he was actually referring to the May 1968 events in France.

According to retired US diplomat Charles W Freeman Jr – Nixon’s interpreter during the historic trip – the misconstrued comment was “one of those convenient misunderstandings that never gets corrected.”Freeman said: “I cannot explain the confusion about Zhou’s comment except in terms of the extent to which it conveniently bolstered a stereotype (as usual with all stereotypes, partly perceptive) about Chinese statesmen as far-sighted individuals who think in longer terms than their Western counterparts.

“It was what people wanted to hear and believe, so it took hold.”

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http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150202-the-greatest-mistranslations-ever?fb_ref=Default

The hottest job skill is...

The Army, NYPD and State Department can't get enough workers with this job skill. Neither can Fortune 500 companies, hospitals, local courts and schools.

Translators and interpreters are expected to be one of the 15 fastest growing occupations in the nation, according to the Department of Labor.

Roughly 25,000 jobs are expected to open up for interpreters (who focus on spoken language) and translators (who focus on written language), between 2010 and 2020, the Department of Labor estimates. That represents 42% growth for the field and does not include the military, which is also recruiting ferociously for more people.

In the last week alone, roughly 12,000 jobs posted on Indeed.com included the word "bilingual."

Amazon, for example, wants to hire a Brazilian Portuguese translator for its customer service team in Seattle. Apple is hiring technical translators who speak Korean, Mexican Spanish and Chinese.

A school district in Pasadena, Calif., is hiring Spanish, Korean, Armenian and Chinese interpreters to work part time for $40 an hour.

Related: Americans lacking in basic skills

Nationwide, workers in this field earn a median salary of $43,000 a year.

Far higher salaries go to people who work in the intelligence community on behalf of the military, the State Department, CIA, FBI or government contractors. These jobs can pay well into the six figures, as workers are required to pass high-level security clearances and enter dangerous situations.

"The government needs languages spoken in the Middle East and Africa. These people make the most money of all, but this is not just because of their language skills -- this is because of the high risk of the job," said Jiri Stejskal, spokesman for the American Translators Association. "They work in war zones. They may have a $200,000 salary but it's because they're willing to get shot at."

Not willing to put your life on the line? High salaries are also available to translators and interpreters who specialize in legal, medical, technical or scientific knowledge.

Which languages offer the highest returns? In government jobs, it's middle eastern languages like Arabic, Farsi and Pashto (Afghani). In the private sector, it's Scandinavian and Asian languages that pay.

In contrast, Spanish is the second most common language in the United States after English, and because it is so prevalent, it offers the lowest return.

Related: The best job you never thought of

Most interpreters and translators work on a freelance basis, which can be both a blessing and a curse. The work schedule can be flexible, it can be unsteady and come without benefits.

"Since the majority of people in our field work as independent contractors and run their own business, the volume of work of course is subject to fluctuations," said Dorothee Racette, a German-English translator and president of the American Translators Association. "Compensation varies a lot based on language combination, years of experience, area of specialization, and the country or region where customers are located."

Interpreters tend to get paid by the hour, half-day or day, with a range of $300 to $1,000 per day. The highest caliber interpreters are often certified by the International Association of Conference Interpreters, and can command the largest wages, Stejskal said.

Translators, on the other hand, are usually paid by the word. The average rate for translating the 30 most commonly used languages on the web was 13 cents in 2012, according to market research firm Common Sense Advisory. Rarer languages command higher per-word rates but also tend to be lower in demand.

Speed is crucial to making the highest salary. For example, good translators who can do 2,500 to 3,000 words a day, would earn $325 to $390 a day, whereas a newbie to the field may be capable of far less.

Related: Make $30 an hour, no bachelor's degree required

Kari Carapella, a senior recruiter for staffing firm Adecco Engineering & Technical, is currently trying to fill a job for an engineering translator in Big Falls, NY. The ideal candidate must not only be fluent in Japanese, but also understand electrical and mechanical engineering blueprints and documents.

"It's especially tough to fill as both the technical and translation skills must be in place," she said.

Pay starts around $30 an hour, she added. 

http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/30/news/economy/job-skills-foreign-language/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Final stretch: Two more days for EU law on right to translation and interpretation to become reality

A concrete step in the making of a European area of Justice is just two days away. On 27 October, the deadline for member states to implement the first EU law on rights of suspects in criminal procedures will expire. The EU law guarantees citizens who are arrested or accused of a crime the right to obtain interpretation throughout criminal proceedings, including when receiving legal advice, in their own language and in all courts in the EU. The law was proposed by the European Commission in 2010 (IP/10/249) and adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers in a record time of just nine months (IP/10/1305).

“This can be an historic moment for justice in Europe: the first ever law on fair-trial rights for citizens will become a concrete reality – if member states live up to their legal obligations,” said Vice-President Viviane Reding, the EU’s justice commissioner. “This is the first to enter into application from three proposals made by the European Commission to guarantee fair trial rights for people everywhere in the EU, whether they are at home or abroad. The Commission is delivering on its promises to strengthen citizens’ rights everywhere in Europe. I expect Member States to deliver too. The European Commission will soon report on who has done their homework. We will not shy away from naming and shaming – after all, this law goes to the very heart of citizens’ rights.”

Background

There are over 8 million criminal proceedings in the European Union every year. On 9 March 2010, the European Commission made the first step in a series of measures to set common EU standards in all criminal proceedings. The Commission proposed rules that would oblige EU countries to provide full interpretation and translation services to suspects (IP/10/249, MEMO/10/70). The proposal was quickly agreed by the European Parliament and Member States in the Council (IP/10/1305). EU Member States have had three years to adopt these rules, rather than the usual two years, to give authorities time to put translated information in place.

The Directive on the right to interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings guarantees the right of citizens to be interviewed, to take part in hearings and to receive legal advice in their own language during any part of a criminal proceeding, in all courts in the EU. The Commission insisted on translation and interpretation rights throughout criminal proceedings to ensure full compliance with the standards provided by the European Convention on Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, as well as with the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Translation and interpretation costs will have to be met by the Member State, not by the suspect. Without minimum common standards to ensure fair proceedings, judicial authorities will be reluctant to send someone to face trial in another country. As a result, EU measures to fight crime – such as the European Arrest Warrant – may not be fully applied.

The right to translation and interpretation was the first in a series of fair trial measures to set common EU standards in criminal cases. The law was followed by a second Directive on the right to information in criminal proceedings, adopted in 2012 (see IP/12/575), and the right to access to a lawyer, adopted in 2013 (IP/13/921). The Commission is set to continue with its roadmap in this area of justice with proposals for another set of fair trial rights for citizens expected before the end of 2013.

For more information, click here.

http://www.eureporter.co