Individual work

Theme: Oral translation

Checked by: Gamalina K.S.

Done by: Kubanychbekova Aidana

Plan
Introduction
1. Oral translation
 2. Types of oral translation
2.1 Consecutive
2.2 Simultaneous
Conclusion

Introduction
When you stop and think about it, everything in life is translation. We translate
our feelings into actions. When we put anything into words, we translate our
thoughts. Every physical action is a translation from one state to another.
Translating from one language into another is only the most obvious form of an
activity which is perhaps the most common of all human activities. This maybe
the reason people usually take translation for granted, as something that does
not require any special effort, and at the same time, why translation is so
challenging and full of possibilities.
There is nothing easy or simple about translation, even as there is nothing easy
or simple about any human activity. It only looks easy because you are used to
doing it. Anyone who is good at a certain activity can make it appear easy, even
though, when we pause to think, we realize there is nothing easy about it.
Translation in the formal sense deals with human language, the most common
yet the most complex and hallowed of human functions. Language is what
makes us who we are. Language can work miracles. Language can kill, and
language can heal. Transmitting meaning from one language to another brings
people together, helps them share each other’s culture, benefit from each other’s
experience, and makes them aware of how much they all have in common.

Oral translation
Throughout history, written and spoken translations have played a crucial role
in interhuman communication, not least in providing access to important texts
for scholarship and religious purposes.
Translation is a means of interlingual communication. The translator makes
possible an exchange of information between the users of different languages by
producing in the target language (TL or the translating language) a text which
has an identical communicative value with the source (or original) text (ST).
The theory of translation provides the translator with the appropriate tools of
analysis and synthesis, makes him aware of what he is to look for in the original
text, what type of information he must convey in TT and how he should act to
achieve his goal. In the final analysis, however, his trade remains an art. For
science gives the translator the tools, but it takes brains, intuition and talent to
handle the tools with great proficiency. Translation is a complicated
phenomenon involving linguistic, psychological, cultural, literary, ergonomical
and other factors.
The core of the translation theory is the general theory of translation which is
concerned with the fundamental aspects of translation inherent in the nature of
bilingual communication and therefore common to all translation events,
irrespective of what languages are involved or what kind of text and under what
circumstances was translated. Basically, replacement of ST by TT of the same
communicative value is possible because both texts are produced in human
speech governed by the same rules and implying the same relationships between
language, reality and the human mind. All languages are means of
communication, each language is used to externalize and shape human thinking,
all language units are meaningful entities related to non-linguistic realities, all
speech units convey information to the communicants. In any language
communication is made possible through a complicated logical interpretation by
the users of the speech units, involving an assessment of the meaning of the
language signs against the information derived from the contextual situation,
general knowledge, previous experience, various associations and other factors.
The general theory of translation deals, so to speak, with translation universals
and is the basis for all other theoretical study in this area, since it describes what
translation is and what makes it possible.
The general theory of translation describes the basic principles which bold good
for each and every translation event.
Contemporary translation activities are characterized by a great variety of types,
forms and levels of responsibility. The translator has to deal with works of the
great authors of the past and of the leading authors of today, with intricacies of
science fiction and the accepted stereotypes of detective stories. He must be
able to cope with the elegancy of expression of the best masters of literary style
and with the tricks and formalistic experiments of modern avant-gardists. The
translator has to preserve and fit into a different linguistic and social context a
gamut of shades of meaning and stylistic nuances expressed in the original text
by a great variety of language devices: neutral and emotional words, archaic
words and new coinages, metaphors and similes, foreign borrowings, dialectal,
jargon and slang expressions, stilted phrases and obscenities, proverbs and
quotations, illiterate or inaccurate speech, and so on and so forth.

The original text may deal with any subject from general philosophical
principles or postulates to minute technicalities in some obscure field of human
endeavour. The translator has to tackle complicated specialized descriptions and
reports on new discoveries in science or technology for which appropriate terms
have not yet been invented. His duty is to translate diplomatic representations
and policy statements, scientific dissertations and brilliant satires, maintenance
instructions and after-dinner speeches, etc.

Translating a play the translator must bear in mind the requirements of theatrical
presentation, and dubbing a film he must see to it that his translation fits the
movement of the speakers’ lips. The translator may be called upon to make his
translation in the shortest possible time, while taking a meal or against the
background noise of loud voices or rattling type-writers. In simultaneous
interpretation the translator is expected to keep pace with the fastest speakers, to
understand all kinds of foreign accents and defective pronunciation, to guess
what the speaker meant to say but failed to express due to his inadequate
proficiency in the language he speaks.

In consecutive interpretation he is expected to listen to long speeches, taking the

necessary notes, and then to produce his translation in full or compressed form,
giving all the details or only the main [Link] some cases the users will be
satisfied even with the most general idea of the meaning of the original, in other
cases the translator may be taken to task for the slightest omission or minor
error.
The conditions of oral translation impose a number of important restrictions on
the translator’s performance. Here the interpreter receives a fragment of the
original only once and for a short period of time. His translation is also a one-
time act with no possibility of any return to the original or any subsequent
corrections.
The conditions of oral translation impose a number of important restrictions on
the translator’s performance. Here the interpreter receives a fragment of the
original only once and for a short period of time. His translation is also a one-
time act with no possibility of any return to the original or any subsequent
corrections. This creates additional problems and the users have sometimes to
be content with a lower level of equivalence.

Types of oral translation

There are two main kinds of oral translation — consecutive and simultaneous.
Interpreting requirements – depending on the type of interpreting one is
engaged in – can range from simple, general conversation, to highly technical
exposes and discussions. In consecutive translation the translating starts after
the original speech or some part of it has been completed. Here the interpreter’s
strategy and the final results depend, to a great extent, on the length of the
segment to be translated. If the segment is just a sentence or two the interpreter
closely follows the original speech. As often as not, however, the interpreter is
expected to translate a long speech which has lasted for scores of minutes or
even longer. In this case he has to remember a great number of messages and
keep them in mind until he begins his translation. To make this possible the
interpreter has to take notes of the original messages, various systems of
notation having been suggested for the purpose. The study of, and practice in,
such notation is the integral part of the interpreter’s training as are special
exercises to develop his memory.
Sometimes the interpreter is set a time limit to give his rendering, which means
that he will have to reduce his translation considerably, selecting and
reproducing the most important parts of the original and dispensing with the
rest. This implies the ability to make a judgement on the relative value of
various messages and to generalize or compress the received information. The
interpreter must obviously be a good and quickwitted thinker.

In simultaneous interpretation the interpreter is supposed to be able to give his

translation while the speaker is uttering the original message. This can be
achieved with a special radio or telephone-type equipment. The interpreter
receives the original speech through his earphones and simultaneously talks into
the microphone which transmits his translation to the listeners. This type of
translation involves a number of psycholinguistic problems, both of theoretical
and practical nature.
This is a highly specialized form of interpreting, which requires a special
aptitude. The interpreter has to be able to listen to the speaker and repeat the
same words in a different language almost at the same time. This takes a great
deal of training and experience, and is paid at a higher rate than consecutive.

Simultaneous interpretation may be required for such things as business or

professional conferences, training seminars, or presentations. A simultaneous
interpretation longer than two hours requires at least two interpreters to allow
for rest periods.
Consecutive translation is not full by definition. Firstly, even unique memory of
some legendary interpreters is hardly able to keep all the details of a long
speech, let alone the memory of mere mortals. Secondly, the consecutive
translation is fulfilled basically denotatively, i.e. this is not a word-for-word
translation of source text but its more or less free interpretation. This either
suggests differences and incompleteness.

In consecutive translation the interpreter should rely on as much as possible set

of wide and universal equivalents, on the context and on maximally full
common and special knowledge base. Context plays the most important role in
consecutive translation in contrast to simultaneous translation where the wide
context practically absent and the choice of equivalents given by the dictionary
is to be made according to the situation and background knowledge.
Professional simultaneous translation is the type of oral translation at
international conferences which is realized at the same time with the perception
of the message by ear given instantaneously at the source language. The
interpreter is at the booth which isolates him from the audience. During the
simultaneous translation the information of a strictly limited volume is being
processed in the extreme conditions at any space of time.

The extreme conditions of professional simultaneous translation sometimes lead

to the statement of a question about appearing the condition of stress at the
simultaneous interpreter.
Simultaneous translation is always connected with huge psychological works
and often with stress and it is quite natural, because to listen and to speak
simultaneously is impossible for a usual man it is a psychological anomaly. It is
impossible to translate simultaneously without special equipment. The translator
needs earphones, a special booth and most of all he needs skills and translation
devices. During the translation the reporter speaks or reads his text to the
microphone in one language and the interpreter hears it from the ear-phones and
translates it into another language simultaneously with the speaker. When the
interpreter speaks to his microphone the audience, which hears his translation
from the ear-phones, must gain an impression that the speaker reporter speaks in
their language.

The specialists pay special attention to the following factors which determine
the difficulty of simultaneous translation:

– Psychophysiological discomfort caused by the necessity to listen and to speak

simultaneously;

– Psychophysiological strain connected with irreversibility of that the reporter

has said into the microphone. The reporter won’t be stopped and asked to
repeat;

– Psychological strain connected with big audience and irreversibility of the

translation. It is impossible to excuse and to correct;

– Psychophysiological strain caused by quick speech. The simultaneous

interpreter must always speak quickly without pauses otherwise he will be left
behind. But the pauses in speech bring not only semantic but
psychophysiological work: to take breath, to collect one’s thoughts.

– Difficult linguistic task of tying up the utterances in the languages which have
different structure during the simultaneous translation, when the context is
extremely limited and there is lack of time for translation;
– A difficult linguistic task of speech compression which helps to compensate
the translation into the language which has long words and verbose rhetoric.

These factors work in the ideal case when the reporter speaks in a usual speed in
a clear literal language, when his pronunciation is standard and he understands
that he is being translated and he is interested in that the audience to understand
him. But this happens rarely.
The simultaneous interpreter must always be ready morally and professionally
that the reporter will speak very fast or will read the text of his speech;
The reporter’s pronunciation will be indistinct or nonstandard;
The reporter will use nonstandard abbreviations in his speech, which weren’t
entered beforehand, or professional jargon words or expressions.
All these difficulties may undoubtedly present at consecutive translation but
there always exist a feed-back with the reporter. The interpreter may ask again,
ask to repeat and there is always a contact of the interpreter with the audience
where is surely someone who knows the language and subject of the speech and
he will always prompt and correct benevolently, as a rule, if the translation is
well in general.
Conclusion
Oral translation plays very important part in the world. Russian and foreign
businessmen, scientists and politicians work side by side at different countries
and therefore they need translation during commercial talks, signing of
contracts and everyday communication.
As a kind of practical activities translation is a set of actions performed by the
translator while rendering ST into another language. These actions are largely intuitive
and the best results are naturally achieved by translators who are best suited for the
job, who are well-trained or have a special aptitude, a talent for it. Masterpieces in
translation are created by the past masters of the art, true artists in their profession. At
its best translation is an art, a creation of a talented, high-skilled professional.
Oral translation falls into consecutive and simultaneous. In consecutive
translation the translating starts after the original speech or some part of it has
been completed. In simultaneous interpretation the interpreter is supposed to be
able to give his translation while the speaker is uttering the original message.

In simultaneous interpretation the translator is expected to keep pace with the

fastest speakers, to understand all kinds of foreign accents and defective
pronunciation, to guess what the speaker meant to say but failed to express due
to his inadequate proficiency in the language he speaks.

In consecutive interpretation he is expected to listen to long speeches, taking the

necessary notes, and then to produce his translation in full or compressed form,
giving all the details or only the main ideas.