Comments on: Translation in action http://chilco.textdrive.com/~dmahugh/2007/04/23/translation-in-action/ Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:48:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: Doug http://chilco.textdrive.com/~dmahugh/2007/04/23/translation-in-action/#comment-20001 Doug Wed, 25 Apr 2007 15:58:49 +0000 http://chilco.textdrive.com/~dmahugh/2007/04/23/translation-in-action/#comment-20001 Hmm, a cross between an oxygen mask and a powder horn. Sounds fun. Hmm, a cross between an oxygen mask and a powder horn. Sounds fun.

]]> By: Tom http://chilco.textdrive.com/~dmahugh/2007/04/23/translation-in-action/#comment-19974 Tom Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:25:59 +0000 http://chilco.textdrive.com/~dmahugh/2007/04/23/translation-in-action/#comment-19974 We have been going to various kindergarten orientation things lately, and there's a large Spanish-speaking population in Evanston now. So they have a guy who doesn't sit in a booth, he sits out in the open but with a thing he speaks into. It looks almost like a cross between an oxygen mask and a powder horn, and he sits right there and speaks softly into the thing while people in the audience with receivers listen over headphones. I thought it was fascinating (distracting, in fact, as I kept trying to figure out how he could do it so well without being at all audible). But the Spanish-speakers in the room all nodded at the same time as the rest of us (plus five seconds or so), so I assume he was actually talking into the thing. I wonder how much of the irritation you reported from your translators was in part due to having to sit in a little box for eight hours. My own experience with being translated comes down to about five minutes in an airport (I was being translated into Mandarin by a very kind traveler at O'Hare who was helping me get an older Chinese couple to their gate), and that was terribly distracting. I can't imagine eight hours of that -- you must spend a lot of energy trying to keep yourself from learning Chinese from translations of yourself. I know I was totally engrossed in what she was saying to them. We have been going to various kindergarten orientation things lately, and there’s a large Spanish-speaking population in Evanston now. So they have a guy who doesn’t sit in a booth, he sits out in the open but with a thing he speaks into. It looks almost like a cross between an oxygen mask and a powder horn, and he sits right there and speaks softly into the thing while people in the audience with receivers listen over headphones. I thought it was fascinating (distracting, in fact, as I kept trying to figure out how he could do it so well without being at all audible). But the Spanish-speakers in the room all nodded at the same time as the rest of us (plus five seconds or so), so I assume he was actually talking into the thing.

I wonder how much of the irritation you reported from your translators was in part due to having to sit in a little box for eight hours.

My own experience with being translated comes down to about five minutes in an airport (I was being translated into Mandarin by a very kind traveler at O’Hare who was helping me get an older Chinese couple to their gate), and that was terribly distracting. I can’t imagine eight hours of that — you must spend a lot of energy trying to keep yourself from learning Chinese from translations of yourself. I know I was totally engrossed in what she was saying to them.

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