Languages will lead you to FAO. UN celebrates Translation Day
Professional translators and interpreters are particularly valuable resources in any organization, especially in those embedded in the system of international relations as the United Nations (UN).
Staff in the UN language units and its specialised agencies have different nationalities, different experiences and work histories, even different temperaments and their own preferences when choosing word equivalents. But what they all have in common is a never-fading commitment to perfection and dedication to their profession.
Russian is one of the six official languages of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as well as the “big” UN. The FAO Liaison Office in Moscow has its own translation team, consisting of four professional translators/interpreters who, on the occasion of the International Translation Day, are sharing their experience and impressions of their work in the Organization today.
Anastasia Bespalova
Photo: Courtesy of Anastasia Bespalova
What attracts me most about being an interpreter is that we help people build communication. This is especially evident in the process of interpretation, whether simultaneous, consecutive or whispered (chuchotage). Knowing that thanks to you a dialogue is taking place and different people can freely communicate is very gratifying. This is a great reward for your work.
Another interesting aspect is the various linguistic discoveries when a particular situation calls for translating stable expressions in a way that sounds as idiomatically as in the original language. Ideally, for the listener, the translation should sound like a natural text in her/his native language. This applies, for example, to phraseology, proverbs, which sometimes arise in speech at the most unexpected moments. In our work, we often face new and unusual topics, which allows us to broaden our horizons and constantly enrich our knowledge.
Alberto Macchi
Photo: Courtesy of Alberto Macchi
In my opinion, translation is a great responsibility, a constant challenge and, of course, a great pleasure.
Responsibility because people's understanding depends on what we say during forums where our simultaneous interpretation is needed.
It is a constant challenge because you have to always set the bar high, the quality of translation should be impeccable … is that an easy job? Not exactly. That is why I like this job. It is dynamic and I believe that both translators and interpreters are constantly learning and gaining new knowledge that can improve the quality of translation.
It should be borne in mind that translations within our Organization are often of a technical nature, which means that, along with an excellent knowledge of foreign languages, it is necessary to master technical concepts and terms related to agricultural. How to master all this vast array of information? It is all about three allies. Patience, time and experience.
I started working as a translator and interpreter at the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation in November 2021, when I was taken on a language internship. I am proud to say that this was the most productive internship I have ever done. I was able to improve my language and related skills not only because we worked immediately during serious forums, but also thanks to my colleagues. Interpretation, especially simultaneous interpretation, is teamwork.
Photo: Courtesy of Alberto Macchi
Moreover, I believe that translation and simultaneous interpreting skills, although very different in practice, complement each other. When I translate, I have time (not that much sometimes!) to think about the constructions and understand the original text. I can then apply this knowledge in simultaneous interpretation when the time to translate sentences from one language to another is very short.
I am very proud to work for this Organization engaged in so many different sectors related to our life, and in such a wonderful team. I take this opportunity to congratulate all my colleagues on International Translation Day!
Quote: Virtute siderum tenus (With Valor to the Stars)
Marina Slobodianik
Photo: Courtesy of Marina Slobodianik
In my opinion, when we translate, the main task is to produce a text that is as clear and comprehensible as possible. This requires a good command of clichés and set phrases. In this sense, I consider translation mainly a technical process rather than a creative one. When translating into Russian, the main difficulty nowadays lies in a large number of borrowings from English, and I try to avoid anglicisms as much as possible and preserve Russian speech. It is necessary to look for a balance.
To translate into foreign languages, it is important to have a feel for the language. I try to do that by communicating with foreign acquaintances and friends who live or have lived abroad (in addition to reading books, media and watching films, of course). To sound more natural, there is a simple exercise: you need to choose any recording with a good speech in the desired language (e.g., podcasts) and repeat everything the speakers say. In this way, your vocal apparatus “rebuilds” and your pronunciation becomes better.
As for funny and just memorable cases from working practice, lately they have mainly been associated with the animal world. For example, during a seminar on the World Bee Day, I needed to interpret the presentation of a renowned expert, but I could not have any text in advance. As a result, when he began to describe in detail the anatomical parameters of the Burzian bee, Apis mellifera, I had to come up with something … fortunately, many terms could be translated literally, since these words in both Russian and English come from Latin. So now I will hardly forget the terms "tarsal index" or "сubital index".
Anna Kotsovskaya
Photo: ©FAO/Anna Glukhova
In my opinion, working as a translator and interpreter is a way to meditate, deadlines and work with infographics aside. It is a dive into yourself for hours in search of the best possible version of the wording. It is a meditative reading and editing of the text. It is a real pleasure to see your work finished, even if it does not seem like a translation benchmark to someone.
The main thing I have learnt is that there is no ideal translation in our work, but we do strive for it. The main thing is to make your translation easy for the reader to understand and as close to the original language as possible. That is the main creative challenge in translation.
In my view, the main difficulty of this profession is the ability to work alone with yourself. You may lack socialising with colleagues, joint daily brainstorming, which are sufficiently present in many other professions. If a person has a sociable nature and needs daily communication, it can be difficult at times. As for simultaneous interpretation, it takes practice and more practice! You need to gain a lot of experience to combine these two hypostases in your work and be at the proper professional level. So, at the moment, “I am not a wizard, I am still learning!”
I can say for sure that working as a translator and interpreter is a sought-after and interesting profession, but challenging for many reasons. It will take many more years of work before being confident in saying “Okay, I have more or less figured it out, let’s move on."
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The FAO Moscow Office congratulates translators and interpreters on their professional holiday and wishes them further success!
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On 24 may 2017, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/71/288 on the role of professional translation in connecting nations together, fostering peace, understanding and development – and proclaimed 30 September as International Translation Day.
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And you? Would you like to work at FAO as a translator or interpreter? Visit our employment website.
#TranslationDay
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The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).