The Importance of Translation | practice English with Spotlight

0:07 welcome to spotlight I'm Liz Waid and I garrets mod spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting it is easier for people to understand no matter where in the world they live [Music] ayyah is a student from japan she loves to read all kinds of books when aya goes to the bookstore she finds books written

0:56 by writers from around the world she loves Japanese writers like xuxa KU endo and Haruki Murakami but she also enjoys many other writers like Russian writer Leo Tolstoy and Scottish writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle aya can only read in her native Japanese language but she is able to read books that were originally written in many different languages aya never thinks about this

1:43 but she can read these books because of the work of translators today's spotlight is on the important work of book translation books are a special form of communication writers write books to communicate ideas about things like love faith culture and even politics books are a great way to exchange ideas between cultures however without

2:29 translation this exchange could never happen most people do not think a lot about book translators their names are not well known like writers but they do have a difficult and important job translators must be very good at understanding the books they translate they must also be very good at writing a translators job is not just about translating each word in a sentence from

3:15 one language to another translators must also concentrate on translating the writers original meaning to do this translators must think about groups of words or even pages of a book when they translate translators must also think about the culture of the readers they are translating for often ideas and even words are particular to one culture so translators must explain these cultural ideas sometimes a

4:03 translator can simply choose a different word to express a clearer translation of the writers meaning let us look at an example translators have translated the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in to almost 70 different languages German is one of these languages the British English version of the book is called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone but the term

4:50 philosopher's stone does not translate well into German the idea of a philosopher's stone is an old idea over many years the term has become a symbol of perfect knowledge the term has been used in English stories throughout history however translators did not think that German speakers would know this term well so the German translator changed the name of the book to Harry Potter and the stone of wisdom wisdom is a form of

5:41 knowledge stone of wisdom is similar to Philosopher's Stone the words do not mean exactly the same thing but in German stone of wisdom does express the idea of the term philosopher's stone changing a book's title is a major decision however translators make hundreds of small changes with every single book these changes make the meaning clear however translators must

6:29 be careful too many changes can change the style of the writing a books style is often what makes it interesting or easy to read so it is important that the translator writes the same way as the writer a good translation will be balanced it will clearly communicate the writers ideas to a new culture but it will also represent the writers style a bad translation does not capture the

7:18 full meaning of words and it does not make the reader feel the things the writer wants them to feel a bad translation can completely change how people react to a book or an idea Tim parks is a writer in the United Kingdom he wrote this in The Guardian newspaper if the translator is bad you will understand the ideas but not the style of the writer or the writing will

8:04 represent the writers style but we'll miss the ideas the good translate is the one who has a deep understanding of the original writing and the best resources in his own language this translator will bring style and ideas together this will be something new that is also faithful to the original writing [Music] becoming a good translator can take many

8:52 years Edith Grossman has been a translator for over 40 years she recently wrote a book called why translation matters in it she wrote as a first step toward creating a good translation translators need to develop a good sense of style in both languages they must expand their knowledge of the emotional effect of words they must know the society that surrounds the words and

9:41 they must know the atmosphere the words create translation has always been important for exchanging ideas between cultures however in the past it was often difficult for writers to get their books translated large publishing companies were not interested in translating most books translation was expensive it required difficult research and communication between foreign writers and publishing companies could be

10:26 difficult as a result only the best-selling books were translated to other languages however today people from different cultures are communicating and sharing ideas more than ever before this growing globalization has made translation even more important and it is changing the publishing and translation markets now it is easier for readers and publishing companies to learn about popular books written in other languages

11:15 readers are requesting translations of the books they want to read and large publishing companies are beginning to do more translation it has also become easier for foreign writers to communicate directly with smaller publishing companies in other countries some smaller publishing companies concentrate on only translating and publishing foreign works these smaller companies are better able to serve the foreign writer as the global publishing

12:03 market changes there is a greater demand for good translators however most people will still never know the names of even the most expert translators but translator Daniel Han believes that this is a good thing on the website words Without Borders org he wrote as translators our job is to be as unseen as possible the reader should not notice we are there at all the reader should

12:49 reach the end of the book and think wait I do not speak Portuguese how did that happen it is the highest honor when our work is not noticed [Music] the writer and producer of this program was Diana Anderson the voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom all quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by spotlight you can listen to this program again and

13:38 read it on the Internet at www.nadex.com [Music] you