[...] Translators just didn't get recognition, they didn't expect to make much of a living, just get by. Very few people were actually trained as translators, but most had a solid college education and a solid knowledge of languages, at least their own language. I had a friend who fell exactly into that category and my circle of friends expanded to include other translators. I found them to be much more interesting as people, and discovered that we often had similar life experiences. I never had trouble making friends, but I always felt "different" and I'm sure they felt it too. When my friend retired, she recommended me as her replacement. I now entered the realm of Reinsurance, of which I knew nothing. I was also the only translator there, and didn't have much to fall back on. However, it was another notch up....
On my new job, I started looking through the files, asking questions and got the company to enroll me in Insurance courses. The College of Insurance was across the street, and I consulted fire codes, insurance policies and fire extinguisher catalogs in their library. I was learning what I had never had the luxury of being able to do before: research. The first time I had to translate a proposal for purposes of insurance of a nuclear plant, I got a call from the head man in that department, congratulating me on the job I had done. "Compares favorably with what we are used to," he said. What an upper! What happened was that I consulted a document in the files similar to the one I was tackling for guidance, but when I saw that my predecessor had used the word "nucleus" instead of "core", I realized that the files were useless to me. I went across the street to the library and looked up "nuclear plants." I immediately found all the terminology I needed.
It takes a great deal more than that to be a good translator these days, of course. [...] | [...] Tradutturi ma kellhomx rikonoxximent, ma stennewx li jkollhom xi introjtu tal-ġenn, kemm jgħaddu bih. Ftit ħafna nies kienu mħarrġa bħala tradutturi, imma l-biċċa l-kbira kellhom edukazzjoni sekondarja sogħda u għarfien solidu ta' lingwi, tal-inqas il-lingwa tagħhom stess. Kelli ħabiba li taqa' eżatt f'dik il-kategorija u ċ-ċirku ta' ħbieb espanda biex jinkludi tradutturi oħra. Sibthom ħafna iktar interessanti bħala nies, u skoprejt li ta' spiss kellna esperjenzi simili tal-ħajja. Qatt ma kelli problema nagħmel ħbieb, imma dejjem ħassejtni "differenti" u jien ċert li huma kienu jħossuha wkoll. Meta l-ħabiba irtirat, hi rrakkomandatni bħala s-sostituzzjoni tagħha. Issa dħalt fis-saltna tar-Riassigurazzjoni, li ma kont naf xejn dwarha. Jien kont ukoll l-uniku traduttur hemm, u ma kellix wisq fuqhiex inserraħ. Madankollu, kien pass ieħor 'il fuq... Fl-impjieg ġdid tiegħi, bdejt nara l-fajls, nagħmel mistoqsijiet u ġegħilt il-kumpanija tabbonani f'korsijiet tal-Assigurazzjoni. Il-Kulleġġ tal-Assigurazzjoni kien in-naħa l-oħra tat-triq, u kkonsultajt kodiċi, politiki tal-assigurazzjoni u katalogi tat-tifi tan-nar fil-librerija tagħhom. Kont qed nitgħallem dak li qatt ma kelli l-lussu li nkun nista' nagħmel qabel: ir-riċerka. L-ewwel darba li kelli nittraduċi pjan għal skopijiet ta' assigurazzjoni ta' impjant nukleari, irċivejt telefonata mill-kap ta' dak id-dipartiment, li feraħli fuq il-kompitu li għamilt. "Jitqabbel tajjeb ma' dak li aħna mdorrijin bih," qal. X'suċċess! Dak li ġara kien li kkonsultajt dokument fil-fajls simili ma' dak li kont qed nikkonsulta bħala gwida, imma meta rajt li l-predeċessur kien uża l-kelma "nukleari" minflok "ċentrali", intbaħt li l-fajls ma kinux tajbin għalija. Qsamt it-triq u mort il-librerija u fittixt "impjanti nukleari". Mal-ewwel sibt it-terminoloġija li kelli bżonn. Għandek bżonn ħafna aktar minn dak biex tkun traduttur tajjeb illum, dażgur. [...] |