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    Cultural Knowledge Og Portuguese English Language Usage in Translation

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    9 views12 pages

    Text 1 Cultural Knowledge Og Portuguese English Language Usage in Translation

    Uploaded by

    Fabiu Antes
    Cultural Knowledge Og Portuguese English Language Usage in Translation

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    of 12
    issues explored i these lectures, none of them hada that time been properly documented in written form she information ‘ould be shared with others interested inthe subject and passed ‘om for generations to come, That toundertake my eurent projec ‘the papers of those who participated inthe last series ofthe lecture project. ‘As an outgrowth ofthe idea of editing this book al the speakers were invited write on atopic related to culture and foreign language learning and aching. Consequently, sues such a8 progmates, translation, phonetics and phonology, intercultural communication atitude change, cultural identi, cultural beliefs, eultural sensitivity, polities of language more, sre al discussed here book can be an aid to those who are interested in addressing potential problems of foreign language leaming and teaching, especially those issues as they relate to their cultural aspects. Is my strong hope that all who are ‘concerned with English as a foreign language possess abasic ‘understanding ofthe culture within which he language they are studying is embedded. Afterall, sensitizing our students te cultural differences is now more than ever stoic relevant ‘tw our rapidly plobalizing word Diogenes Candi de Lima, Ph.D. CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE OF PORTUGUESE/ ENGLISH LANGUAGE USAGE IN ‘TRANSLATION: FINDING SOLUTIONS AND MAKING CHOICES ymin Aa el do Santon Many bilingual individuals, such as foreign-or second language teachers and students (and of course translators), are approached by porsons asking them to translate text, assuming that because they know two languages, a button «ean be pressed and, automatically out comes the translation, Although there area few who can translate easily, depending fn the topic and text, many bilinguals have found th ‘not always so simple. Robinson (1997, p. 102) waits that“in Peiree’s terms, .. novice translators begin by approaching text with an instinctive sense that they know how todo this, that they wil be good at it, that it might be fan; [but with Aheicfirst actual experience ofa text they realize that they don't know how to proceed”. Or, they may feel relatively good about the product oftheir efforts, when there actually much 00m for improvement This chapter reflects upon basic issues involved in translating, withthe main focus on finding and ‘considering possible translation slutions for extual tems and ‘making choices among them. The basis for these reflections 7 Seka titre tenn eae = sentra iierew epeeatetrenas accompa egestas isa text use in beginning translation practice classes at the University of Brasilia. The translation direction presented is Portugues into English. ‘There are several basic issues that influence the aetivity ‘of translating. One is, when we hear or say that someone is bilingual, what does this actually mean? Well, of course, the answer i that they know two languages. But how wel do they know the two languages? They may know both very well, ‘know one much more than the other ete And, thisknowledge ‘may vary according to their listening, speaking reading, and writing skills, Anoiber issue that people also differ inthe kinds of sub- Jjectmatterand topics they are familiar with according to their Tie experiences which brings forth the concept of culture ‘Many definitions have been given for the term “culture”. One | panticulaly lke for is soccinetness stat of Katan (2004, 26) “a shared system for interpreting reality and organizing experience”. Another explanation, subdividing culture into "thre perspectives, is presented by Nord (2000, p. 204): (Ctr iscomples system. can be subd ino puncte (the nes us ad ere tome al former society) aca the ‘within te see suas fr rareporal iy) and even octet clue oa in ‘al peso as opposed other adidas) “The concept of culture defined asa system that is “sha red” between or among socicties and groups, with individual ‘having their own idioculures, lads tothe interesting relation between language and culture: in general, language expresses and reflects culture. Here we are going to consider culture in the general tendencies of language usage: by one national culture as compared to another national culture, by ne group 16 ‘of people as compared to others, and by one translator as compared 1 others. "The issues then become: how much linguistic and eul- tral knowledge the translator has, when further knowledge is needed, and where to acquire that knowledge. Armstrong. (2005, p. 1) in ropard to wanslting, language, cltue, and Knowledge, writes Isienot caffe one might wonder, (state guie ‘ny tha, avn se intangibles sachsen, ‘pe trlatr pode mia the very god teowledgof the tw lngingeaf ners? Since Tangunge i age pat clara cic, ery {ond node of he wo angen goetion Impl alo 3 high dee of gnc owed, fr aequintence ith te to ctr ele med of ow od ths now: Thee 2 urer element of suet hee = god gee Thowledge wil aca ecgation wht one snr koledgends bene when aefernce ‘cole “These thre variables (amount and typeof bilingual kno wledge of language usage, cultural knowledge of language usage, and when and where to acquire further knowledge) tuderlie the items chosen for diseussion inthis chapter. For ‘our purposes here, we are going 10 assume the translator has Strong shilsin Portoguese (LI - Brazil) and intermediate skills ‘in English (L2- US), having learned English in FFL (English fa Foreign Language) classes, not having lived abroad, and having litle orno experience in translating, Te text under discussion (ce Appendix forthe Portu- _gucae tent as published in Claste, the on-board magazine ‘of TAM Brazilian Aisne, in bilingual version (Portu- ‘gvese ~ English), and is intended for a general, somewhat formally educated sudience. The discussion inthis chapter is 0 ‘ot an evaluation ofthe translated text in English, which is ‘not included here, but a reflection upon some ofthe mainly ‘inguistic cultural items that could be considered inthe trans- lation process. Research for acquiring further knowledge or reflecting upon possible solutions has relied oa typical access {o resources that bilingual novice translator might hav English/English dictionary an English dictionary for leamers of English, a thesaurus, onjne dictionaries (Portuguese, En- alsh and bilingual dietionaries), the Interet in general, and ‘ther sources of information e.g natvelnear-natve speakers ‘of the two languages) Ler’ take, for example, the initial setion of the text: = Un cafcoho« wn pode gute. A miguna de cafe ‘semen como wn ocean pepe (pci eme de Ce der aie ‘Most beginning tanslators wll enthusiastically set about the words into English with something. like the following results: =A lve cof nd a cheese tread. The cee For general purposes, this tansltion will have conveyed the idea ofa transaction involving coffee anda kind of bread. ‘owever, there are items tha warrant a second look, which ‘can mean further reflection or research, Um cain cou be Tic” Salo ict neo ‘Thee possible choices involve cultural knowledge which word-for-word translating or bilingual dictionary ‘might not have yielded. From the star, then, itis evident that the translator will need to do research, consider options, and make choiees. The immediate decision ean be to simply opt forone ofthe above alternatives now, and later, upon evising, ‘make the final choice. ‘Options fore um po de quejo could include: “Shes end? ‘shen bc “eke pay” Pa de queio sa cltura item commonly found in many areas of Brazil, and (unfortunatly, in my opinion) is not typically availble inthe US. So, one must decide how best trexpress it in English. “Bread? suggests a format like a loaf Which ean be sliced. “Pasty” is usually sweet, explained in Webster's College Dictionary (1991) a “a sweet baked food ‘made of dough and in Food Dictionary (retrieved 2009) as “I. Any of various unleavened doughs, the basics of which Include butter (or other fat), four and water... 2-A general {erm for sweet baked goods such as Danish Pasties”. For purposes of helping the English reader visualize the item, 19 “rol “bisevit', or “put might be beter. However, since the tater three possiblities are stil cultural referents, there are further options, sich as an explanation ina footnote/endnote Orin teas for example, “a Brazilian cheese roll’. Wenow have the possible translation ‘a coflee and a Brazilian cheese roll”. “The question that should also come to ming i how im- portant ic might be, on one hand, 1 maintain the text with the attra explanations forthe reader ofthe translation (referred ‘orelgnizing” the text) oF, onthe other, to ty 0 repli- tate @ similar situation that i more familar to the receiver ‘Of the aslated text called “domesticting”the text), with, for example: “aco a doophna “Sie and bel “Nic anda ta “The answer to this question can be thatthe entire fext and is purpose as translation should be considered. Ifyou hhave nat been given this information it would be important to find out, fatal posible. In this ease the texts are for an ‘on-board inagazine for fights between Brazil and the US fnd wil be published sie by side, in both Portuguese and English. This suggests tht since the readers wil be going to ‘or retuing from Brazil, it could be interesting to maintain {he cultural context of po de quljo as it probably has been ‘or wll b experienced inthe country Upon reading the entire fen it will Be even more evident that it would be difficult to ‘Completely “domestiate”i, due othe political and economic information it contains Arigna de café eau be "ie fe mackie” Sameera ocala seh ‘tamer nd dancsing ounce re ns ne la “he cae maker? “The eapeno machine’ [A ‘coffee maker’ is usually & household appliance, as ‘opposed to 8 ‘coffee machine’, which is usually used for ‘commercial purposes. An “espresso machine’ can be found ineithereontet. Thus, the later two would be good choices. Gemeu at irs thought could be: 7 ‘ane Gemer according to the Michaclis online dictionary presents the following (notice especially nos. 5, 9, and 10): 1 Exprimi: por meio de genio. dor moral ou {fica "vit? Lasimarse, sor laments, ue {et ou mprcagen vd 3 Dir ow pert oire igomidor" Gomer wm qutcume. td # Last ‘Frowear: Gane ends oper do compare: ‘Gent pasa culpat ve 8 Prot rd ono “commits ranger ou vibrristemerte: A vets over gana quand sabriom ln 6 Sefer ‘oder Gomer acd eles aside. Po brepow, que mat gomer ainda! int? Cantarem shennan pom ome ee ‘el dee in pod Zt usr mare DPlangentomene” Gama or epee, sca Del vets 10 Abas. etl ranger O Kes odrpaen¢ talon Gm ett it 11 Vegan arcar, Gomi Bote como ps, 2 ‘ay og oan rade cee) por gue eso ‘ra mat drament oats vin 13 Fenders [ear Gomera fl amen dear" TE 2 omen eden —— Pha on pomp a ‘And the Michaelis online Porsuguese-English etionary shows: tf goa, oa, 24 wal, amet 340 Hewal ‘bemoan whimper, whine 8 To ih, ch 6 0 ‘rah sea, trate (os, windows ee) 7 {Srowr whl (waes win Btosng i wang orlementing™ “The translator now needs to make sense of this infor ‘mation to translate the term, which could, peshaps, refer to ‘iter sound or movement. As the contexts gemea como uma Tocomortva, one nos should imagine what kind of sound oF ‘movement locomotive could make that would represent a coffee machine, "Based on the above dictionary entries and further brains- toring the sound could include: 7 ‘ean aes “Sie” ‘crete? = iad” se ‘chteret" ‘ple FFE 1,20, tent sm enn co Monier eens ens, oa ‘And movement could include: “share “eembles = l(a be wound armnement rbot) “ued ‘ira “lara = Another option isto use two terms, such a sit hissed and [Now lets think about foeomoriva, which according to Michaelis could be: “tte emt prope a fo mor den ou ron emer a ‘atvar ve roen cage pu paages tx vas praca “rain engine. lncomita vapor eam engine, Icomi i a eae faomar e Gives this infomation, peaps fcomote co ‘locomotive’ or “steam engine’. ne Deptcodl be ‘arvana en Teeter 5 REASeS yf tom hy Andale ined rt gates ae 2 “towing? ‘ater sentence structures are atleast somewhat maintained, ‘after’ need a complement (eg, after tha, afer making the coffe} ‘then’ impliesan action will be explained typically im- ‘mediately following anther action or situation, “afterwards doesnot require a complement but can suggest some time has gone by, and may be a litle more formal than “then Tolle ‘Wing’ is similar to ‘after’, also requiring a referent; and tater” implies aTonger passage of time than i would probably take ‘tocany out the action in this text. So, perhaps the best choice “Young lady’ can meana young person from a somewhat high social class, ora girl who has now grown up and is ready to take ber place in society. "Waitress" doesnot carry any age implications with it however, in his context, how important ‘would this be? I is probably not that pertinent, "Young gil” points out thatthe girl is young and as the emphasis in this {extisnoton her age, would not typically be used here, "Gil" “Tndy’, and ‘woman’ all have age implications: “gin” would usually refer to a_younger female and lady’ or ‘woman to sn older one, Another option would be to provide sone infor ‘mation that i not explicit in the original txt, erring to the Seiting or the person’s roe, suchas “behind the counter” 30 the translator could choose o say “the gil behind the counter Py Pegou could be: as “pk ‘Um paozinho could be il po de quo ‘Or one ofthe other options discussed above for pao de queiio E me dew cold be “Se fande 0 Sn pati rot of me" bedi eo “ands td in ont fe” “aa tough tome" Putting these parts ofthe sentence together tomake sense, {his could become: “pike up apa de quo ond bough tt me? "rout he po de ue o me ‘So dois res: Here we have the issues of domesticating! foreignizing and singularplural forms. Domesticating the text would include replacing revs with “dollars, and also an ‘equivalent logical amour oe whats being ordered. Sing pal forms could/should be addressed forthe ver and for the Brazilian eurency reas, ‘There ae expressions in English used for communicating the amount owed when a customer is purchasing something: 2s aes Stacie ny (Ort the out ne seo rape)? Reais may not be recognized by a reader in English who ‘knows that corency in Brazil is referred to as real, and the reader would assume the plural tobe reas. A possibility is to use eais and then make a footnote explaining that rea is plural for rea Another point that requires attention isthe manner ia ‘which dialogue is expressed inthe text in Portuguese, with a ‘ravessdo (dash), whereas in English, quotation marks would be used So, allogether, the exchange could be translat Timea «ump oa | A calle wl po Te aoc Ain dof gene cm Te a msn se od ma ocomats Beet on | dase ies ce. Ten sou pcm eme du. |e gel bein he coop PS dl ra the py degen fom me hae tee | “The next section oF the text reads: Tasieogias pasa eaiaaa Havana ar ange Amc a peda pa Ps ae ‘omar pute camer opsode eo Rep popes nce anne inin Oates ghacentor Paguei no caixa could be "paid he asier “A paid at te es epister “paid a he ep” 26 ‘Any ofthe above would be good option, withthe frst and third perhaps being more typical sntebentoye “fending oo pil sagen oF ovis asa) ——e “separ ones" ‘A *boarding room is not used for sal de embarque. “Boarding area and ‘departure lounge’ are goad choices, with “boarding area” being more typical inthe US. boo Poi nce: ‘ood fal “good wil am" “Good faith is egal tem thats sometimes used in daily language. The Longman English Dietionary Online LDOCE. presents te following definition”: ood fh ‘hen a pecon, oun te intends to be nt wd ince {nd doer nt intend o dene gone In goo it The company ba acted in good ft senthow/genare eof god fits ‘Neeaseire was ecard 23 no god ah, FHT cohen dine th ” "Good wil 0 goodwil Dictionary (1991) is: according io Webster's College | ina isponion idl ep benevolence 2. Che ‘etl asquicenc conse 3. Am intangible salle sect ‘sing om the epaaton of tnnes alton wi "tone" n Miber Colge Dictionary: 1 opightess. ner mstwotioess 2. rable sins- rire fens 3. coho fom desi oud. ‘st at oun presente ip Mobo 1 rata on te fate strength, aiiy sy eof ‘eo orig: enfin? cnt expecta some thing hope 3 onience in he cera fate payment Forgery o gua sve, “trustworthiness is another form of “tust™ ‘Thetitl ofthis text is Boa Fé and the section that i highl- ted as asubitleor“teaser”is:Confiangare haf ima mesa Fungo da forca que mantém eoeso 0 micleo des dtomns. Sem las, asociedadk explodtria womicament. Altough any ofthe above tems could be good solutions depending on the place in the text where they are used, since the wo z and boa fé—are used several times, it could bea goed option ‘o aso maintain the same tanslation ofthese ters in English throughout the text “trust and “good Faith. rg ‘The textin Portuguese uses bo eros to refer tothe same person. In English ‘eustomer" and ‘client are typically used differently. Webster's College Dietionary (1991) presents the following definitions for “custome” and ‘cen 2» tint [a personor group thats th profane ‘rset awyer accountants ck 2 ‘Aperan who fieceving the bene secs, ee ‘focal welfveagnc. a govermentbareu, te S.xcutiome ‘A pesom who prchaer goods or services frm “These definitions do not make a clear dstnetion between the two terms for purposes of our tex, insinuating they are synonymous, according wo item 3 under ‘client. The Longman Dictionary of American English (1983) offers the following explanations. 1. apersn who pays a profesional yrs, ep. lawyer or hepa ace 2. camer se cusomer (sags) 1 pon who bye sod or serves fm «ore on relly. ‘Usage: When you go out bay tings yom we 3 shoe; when yo by good ro a prtelar soe ou art soe etatomer yon ae yng fer pofessona services om wer, {ouarea chen tun the case nei venies Soares pten” youre saying nao, you sen gues So, the usage explanations help differentiate between the two terms, pointing us inthe direction of ‘eustomer’ as the best option ‘The next paragraph reads: 2 i sds ia ped cra oa Ta ogni nna ns en tak et temo pastors mf tao vrs eared pl spiel rch ne cain do. zis orca que maniém eoeso 0 micleo das dtamos ‘A word-for-word translation ofthis phrase would not make sens in English, so we will cet expessit indifferent ‘words, for example, the translation that atually appeared in ‘he on-board magazine: the free that hold the nucleus ofan atom together’. Notice that dos toms (plural in Portuguese) fan become ‘of an atom’ (singular in English). seo Fetes nce “iy ‘cin es? ‘ermina” ‘ermina Webster's College Dictionary presents the following for meanings 7 and 8 under ‘terminal’ “7. a terminal part ‘of structure; end or extremity. 8. a, a point of termination ‘ora major junction within a vansportation system, b. the structures and service facilites tocated at a terminal.” Longman’ sexplains terminal 381. bus or alr station ‘su, in the center of town, esp. for passengers going to or arriving from an airpod". None of these explanations are particularly helpfal. One would need to know actial usage ‘nainports: terminal’ can be the passenger part of an aiport fran area of a airport, 20 For this context, a “concourse is defined by Webster’ College Dictionary asa large open space fr accommodating

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