The Role of Training in Interpretation and Translation

Interpretation and translation are practiced under a wide variety of conditions. Many interpreters and translators work full-time. Others, such as housewives, students, medical practitioners, engineers and journalists, work part-time, for supplementary income. Interpretation and translation work can also be as­signed occasionally or regularly to employees whose formal duties bear no relationship to such tasks but who happen to speak one or more foreign languages.

Translators can be required to perform highly creative work, as when they translate poems or other literature. Their work may also involve the acquisition and some deep processing of specialized information, in particular—but not exclusively—in scientific and technical translation. In other circumstances, translation involves low-level "recoding" of business letters, road signs, direc­tions for hotel guests, tourists, etc. Translators may have to accept much responsibility, for instance when translating or interpreting important political speeches and legal texts; on the other hand, they may have a modest role, for instance when translating the menu for a cafeteria. Their educational level varies from top academic qualifications to the very modest primary school level. Depending on circumstances, some enjoy much social prestige as "crea­tors" in their own right or as highly skilled language mediators, while others are regarded as minor clerical staff. Their work may be aimed at a single person, or be subject to much exposure, for instance when they interpret for television or translate a best-selling book. Some earn a great deal of money, and others have very low salaries. In other words, although they share the same title of "interpreters" or "translators," the question arises whether they can all really be considered to share the same occupation. This situation is not favourable to top-level professionals, because their status and working conditions tend to be dragged down by interpreters and translators at lower levels rather than the other way around. Because there are so many self-proclaimed interpreters and translators whose level of perform­ance is very low, since "bilingual" secretaries in companies do much of the "interpretation" and "translation" work, many a layperson is not in a position to (and does not necessarily wish to) see and acknowledge the difference between them and high-level professionals. Titles such as "conference inter­preter," "court interpreter," "community interpreter," "scientific translator," "technical translator," or "legal translator," which, incidentally, are not pro­tected by law or regulations in most countries, may afford some defence against this phenomenon by discriminating between specialties and levels of expertise, but not enough in most cases. For the person in the street, and even for many users of conference interpreting services, there is not even a clear distinction between interpretation and translation.

Beneath the diversity of performance levels and conditions, interpretation and translation can be defined as performing essentially the same function, namely reexpressing in one language what has been expressed in another. At the lowest levels of performance requirements, this function can be fulfilled by persons having a minimum knowledge of the languages involved, and no specific training. But as requirements increase, performance problems arise: comprehension problems, reformulation problems, technical problems. Some of these are solved naturally: Translators (capitalized Translation denotes both written translation and oral interpretation) extend their knowl­edge of the languages and the subjects they deal with while translating and by seeking to learn more through books, magazines and journals, lectures, etc. Their technical skills also improve with practice. Some actually reach top-level performance through experience and self-instruction.

However, many others never advance beyond a certain point. Some get stuck when they come up against specific difficulties. Some experienced translators say that they somehow never manage to free themselves from the source-language structure when writing their target-language text, and some experienced conference interpreters say that they feel they do not perform well enough in consecutive because they have had no formal training in note-taking techniques. Still other translators do not dare jump one step ahead, moving from general translation to specialized translation, from sen­tence-by-sentence interpretation to consecutive interpretation, or from con­secutive to simultaneous interpretation.

Clearly, the sometimes heated debate on whether "translators are born, not made” or "made, not born” is reductionistic. While certain "natural" aptitudes are prerequisites to high-quality translation, espe­cially literary translation, it does not seem reasonable to challenge the idea that guidance into translation can be useful, be it for the purpose of developing natural talents when they are present, or for instruction in technical procedures.

Interpreter and translator training can usefully be considered against this background. Although formal training is not mandatory, it can perform two important factors:

- to help individuals who wish to become profes­sional interpreters or translators enhance their performance to the full realiza­tion of their potential;

- to help such individuals develop their Translation skills more rapidly than through field experience and self-instruc­tion.

Formal training programs also have other functions, more social or pro­fessional in nature. In particular, they can help raise general professional standards by selection procedures, both at admission and at graduation. This in turn may help raise the social status of professionals, especially if standards are set at postgraduate academic level. Programs can also help beginning inter­preters and translators start their professional careers by introducing them to professional organizations and clients. This is a particularly important function in conference interpreting, as interpretation schools maintain close links with major international organizations and other important clients, and invite their representatives to take part in graduation examinations. Training programs may also help standardize working methods, give professionals a sense of belonging to a better-organized profession, and provide good observation opportunities for research into interpretation and translation. Indeed, the vast majority of research projects on Translation come from teachers, and much such research uses teaching for reflection, observation, and experimenting.

All these functions are important. However, they are to a large extent context-dependent, as they vary considerably from one country to the next and from one market to the next. On the other hand, the pedagogical function of formal training is essentially invariant, although clearly, the application of common principles is also context-dependent, as operational aims vary accord­ing to the nature, duration, and starting point of the training programs.