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Manual of Spanish-English Translation Instructors Resource Manual
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Manual of Spanish-English Translation
Instructors Resource Manual
Assessment, Format, Error Evaluation
Tip: audio commentary is an up-an-coming assessment format for providing
formative feedback. According to “Audio Commentary: Response and
Relationship” (http://fpdc.kent.edu/resources/publications/activeinteractive/)
professors can embed audio in word files, or attach commentary in .wav or
mp3 format. MP3 files can also be burned onto discs, posted on Vista’s
Assignment, or even sent as Audio Inserts (in the Reviewing Toolbar of
Microsoft Word). The freeware “Audacity” may serve your needs. Some
professors have had great success integrating audio in their classes, and many
students prefer it.
Tip (2): Some instructors use the comment feature or a color-coding system
on electronic drafts of student work. This makes it easy for students (and their
professors) to track the type of errors they are making.
Manual of Spanish-English Translation Instructors Resource Manual, 12/23/08

Tip (3): In assessing errors, repeated instances of the same error should not be
deducted; it is also not sound to deduct points based on a “number of errors”
system—much more useful is a nuanced approach that indicates type and
severity of error, or ideally, one that takes a holistic approach to the target
text. See also House, Juliane, A Model for Translation Quality Assessment,
Tübingen: G. Narr Verlag, 1981.
Tip (4): Follow up the self-assessment task in Manual (c. 6) with individual
conferences. Compare your impressions of a student’s work with what they
self-report. Include a narrative self-analysis portion in your syllabus or as part
of a final portfolio; students can use reflective journal writing or blogging as a
more thorough and personal evaluative process than self-assessment based on
instructor feedback.
Tip (5): Grade drafts and final drafts separately; average the grades.
Tip (6): Develop a non-paternalistic way of keeping students on track in
drafting their translations. Experience has shown that many students start their
translations too late, which is counterproductive. Mid-week edits, discussed
below, is one solution.
Manual of Spanish-English Translation 2

Instructors Resource Manual, 1/15/09
Tip (7): Issue a one-page “common errors” page as follow-ups to each
workshop. Hold students accountable for persistent errors, and classes of
errors, from these lists.
Appendices
The appendices feature vocationally oriented professionalizing tasks.
Incorporate them into your lesson plans as appropriate. Expand to create your
own research assignments (e.g., “Compare MA program course offerings in
Europe and the U.S. What conclusions can be tentatively and comparatively
drawn about market needs?” or “Track job type and turnaround times on a
given networking or jobsite; chart trends visually and present to class.”).
The Use of Translations in Chapter Quizzes
Timed translations are a good idea even if the student has no Internet access
during the assessment activity. Consider using shorter texts on similar topics
(neighboring and parallel texts) for assessment. Be careful that the text is not
merely a vocabulary-building or recall exercise; also, have any new terms be
discernible from the context, and thus you build upon the students’ familiarity
with the terminology used in a recent workshop translation or similar activity.
Alternative: Have students to a gist translation, which keeps comprehension
uppermost in students’ minds, and thus is an optimal text-processing skill.

Alternative (2): Let the students have the text in advance to prep as much as
they need to, or give them two different ones, one of which will appear on the
quiz. (Note: It is a good idea to review the quiz suggestions and sample
questions offered here before delivering that chapter’s lesson.)
Note on Team Tasks
Students will group themselves according to perceived reliability, collegiality,
and talent. It often happens, then, that the weakest students may be "left over"
and thus form a group. Weigh your options if this occurs--the (far from ideal)
solution of pairing stronger with weaker students has the resulting drawback
of unequal workload distribution. To head off some of these problems, a
project manager on each team can hold team members to account, thus mutual
accountability will offset any weaker work habits. You will hear after the fact
on occasion that "Fulano didn't pull his weight on this task"--in some ways an
inevitable occurrence, as not everyone is 100% reliable. It is best to penalize
freeloading at the earliest opportunity, lest students become embittered at the
prospect of group work. Remember that translation within organizations is
rarely a single-person operation, so maximum opportunities for collaboration
and teamwork should be provided, and it will not always be ideal in class or in
industry. Individuals' hard work should pay dividends if reasonable efforts are
made through group dynamics to delegate and follow up on subtasks. In other
words, students should not be penalized when making good faith efforts to

complete a task but are hampered by one member’s lack of follow-through--
otherwise they learn isolationist tendencies, which is antithetical to translation
success.
A variation on the team translation: Students are made individually
responsible for segments of a long translation, though they share research and
glossary duties. A project manager can also set “pre-deadlines” for the team to
workshop or review text that team members may flag for group comment
before the deadline itself. Weaker students editing stronger students’ work can
be frustrating for all concerned, but it will happen on occasion. For workshops
or shorter, less complex tasks, a “think-(write)-pair-share” format may be used
to build consensus (and confidence) before the team regroups and engages
with the class.
Some translation teachers are lenient about informal collaboration on
individual translation assignments, and it makes sense to be: students learn to
self-police the amount of give-and-take that is fair game, and often give more
consideration to issues if they are confronted with varying opinions. It is
natural that translators not be working in mutual isolation; provided they not
abuse the privilege, it is usually all right to not prohibit discussion. However,
strongly discourage student deliveries of translations with whole passages
identical to other students’ work. Ultimately, this student practice hurts
workshop productivity, and makes individual feedback and assessment
problematic. If you see problems, design an activity in which students learn to
recognize plagiarized translation passages. Show students the difference

between plagiarizing words versus plagiarizing ideas, particularly as this
distinction applies to translation; potentially, even macrostrategies can be
plagiaristic, or seem so, in translation.
Service-Learning Projects
Lizardi-Rivera (109) describes a way that students can contribute directly to
the community at the same time they take ownership of a task:
From the beginning of the semester, participants in the class were asked
to reach out into their communities and select agencies or individuals (1)
who needed translations that would somehow benefit the local Spanish-
speaking community and (2) who, for one reason or another, were not able
to afford paying for those translation services. Learners were thus made
responsible for laying the foundations for the project and for being the
decision makers in the project. This had an empowering effect in
several ways. First, it made learners identify, access, and become
committed to a specific area of need within their communities. Second,
by selecting an agency and negotiating with the contact person, learners
become liaisons between their communities and the class.
Student Presentations

Any of the research tasks in Manual can be completed as written or oral
assignments. Students can also give oral summaries of writing/research
assignments. Dangers of student presentations are the trap of “point-click-
print” products that have no discernible analysis but are merely read from
Internet printouts. Almost without exception, information for presentations
should be synthesized and critiqued, as well as put into context with other
concepts from class. You may consider having students use only 3X5 cards
for notes; otherwise presentations can be self-defeating. Give students clear
benchmarks for oral presentations, including the approximate time investment
expected. It may be helpful to have students bring copies of parallel text or
texts used when they introduce a translation they did or when introducing
issues that arose in a workshop (which you can do weekly). More below in
Translation Workshops: Format.
Editing and Proofreading
Activities from Chapter 12 can be programmed into first semester curricula—
you may wish to treat the chapter as a materials bank rather than a chapter;
this way you can incorporate editing and proofreading into any lesson.
Note: In discussing client relations, posit for the students the (very real)
scenario that your (the translator’s) client on occasion will insist on
unreasonable lexical choices, while disparaging certain of yours. Role-play

exercises could be built around such confrontations; students should learn to
distinguish battles from wars. Idea: Give a list of semi-outrageous to
outrageous criticisms of a (staged) translation; students must draft a response,
deciding which choices should be defended, which need more feedback, and
which points to concede. The various letters could be compared. What do the
comparisons say about the translation trainees’ manner with clients? Chart the
students’ various defenses and concessions; then distribute. Discuss. For
maximum impact you may use students’ actual translations so they have more
invested; however, this is of higher risk pedagogically, as you do not want to
undermine students’ confidence in their work with the fictional client’s
demands.
Course Syllabus: Policies
Below are some policies you may consider adopting on your syllabus. They
will help clarify expectations and organize document delivery. Adapt as
appropriate.
Workshops or other jobs sent electronically and not labeled with the
student’s name as part of the file will not be considered for credit. End-of-
term translation projects must be accompanied with the corresponding
source text or appropriate link.

Email correspondence should include a searchable subject line referring to
the nature of the topic—not “homework”, but (e.g.) “48230: question on
Manual, p 322, Act. B”. If you are replying to a listserv mailing and
changing the subject, change the subject line. Do not write IM-style email
messages, i.e., without punctuation.
All assigned homework is to be written to turn in; it will be reviewed, and
may or may not be collected.
Do not clarify what the previous week’s assignment was at the class
meeting at which it was due!
“I couldn’t open the file” is not an excuse for coming to class without
assigned work—you are responsible for all assignments.
Do not begin assignments on the night before they are due—there is not
enough time for clarifications (to say nothing of insufficient time for the
work itself).
Do not use published versions of translations, even to check your own work
before delivering it. Existing translations are not parallel texts or resources
unless explicitly specified.

Proofread before delivery BY EYE, not machine—your spell-checker is not
responsible to the client for unwanted changes, you are.
Translation Workshops: Format
Monolithic, sentence-by-sentence reviews of a workshop translation—a
traditional procedure that is onerous to the student and ultimately teacher-
centered—should be minimized. The following alternatives can be tried and
varied to suit, though a determinant factor of suitability is that any method that
inhibits student participation needs to be reconsidered. Students should perform
metacognitively, articulating their reasons for their choices, not simply trusting
instinct (note that this idea follows how students progress through levels of
expertise, v. chapter 1). Don’t allow unexamined work—students will come to
rely on the path of least resistance if they are not trained to make a case for—or at
least be prepared to make one for--one option over another. This kind of
accountability will also catch weak research habits early (“But my dictionary had
x” sorts of defenses, or “I couldn’t find anything so I left it in Spanish”).
o Readarounds --Three student versions of a passage are read aloud, or
silently by each student, and differences discussed with
formative feedback.

o Issues elicitation --“What issues for translation did this text present?”
will elicit many points of entry for discussion, as
students will be glad of the chance to share hardships.
Talk them through their process, and particularly how
and in what ways they self-edited to arrive at their final
version (or draft version presented in the
workshop).
o Peer edits --A variation on the old-school peer edit is that students
bring a copy, meet with a partner, and compare and
contrast their versions, using this as a resource for their
next draft; at the sound of a timer (7-10 minutes), they
move to a new partner, who adds thought comments to
the new edits and the draft. This is repeated in two or
three rounds. Optimally this could happen at electronic
workstations, where suggestions could be verified.
o E-edits --Students are assigned an “editee” from the class; on
the fifth day, the editee sends their draft to their
assigned editor for review; that editor in turn is an
editee for another class member. Textual changes are
then made in time for the weekly class meeting or
workshop review.
o Translation --Students can share, in turn, their accounts of
logs difficulties. This method leads to greater accountability

and follow-through, since it amounts to a defense of
process and product.
o Breakout --Students hold their own mini-workshop review, come
groups to a group consensus on an assigned passage, and then
group spokespersons present that group translation to
the class at large for review.Variation: groups meet to
edit another group’s translation, and the report itself is
graded.
o Anonymous --Each student is assigned a few lines from the source
group text; when all target text is written up on the board,
edits instructor guides the students through an edit.
o Open --In “How New Technologies Improve Translation
elections Pedagogy”, Varela Salinas recommends that
translations and justifications be sent to a common
platform, then they can be voted on; assessment of
classmates’ justifications can be factored into the
grading
(http://accurapid.com/journal/42technology.htm)
o “Drawing --A deeply flawed version of the workshop text is
fire” presented for edit; a confidence builder and ice
breaker, the text should feature misreadings that the
students can readily spot and debunk. Variation: Present
the published version of a text (which should be strictly

off-limits for consultation during the translation
period). Variation (2): Present a manipulation of the
published version, from which students must discern
improvable from salvageable elements.
o Modeling --Authoritative versions are offered to breakout groups for
comparison to student versions. Note: It is ill-advised to
pass out a single model translation—students have an
overwhelming tendency to see it as definitive, “what we
should have put”. Instead, offer two versions of particularly
illustrative or troublesome passages, for example.
Overdoses of highly accomplished translations can
intimidate and demotivate. As much as possible, let
students voice a preference for model translation options,
and defend choices.
Fry et al (343) suggest the following:
As an alternative to ‘cold’ translation, students can be asked to prepare
a text in pairs by underlining any potentially problematic structures
and circling any unknown vocabulary. Ideas are then pooled in fours,
and groups subsequently brought together for plenary discussion.
Vocabulary and structures can be shared on an overhead with all
acceptable ways of translating a particular expression being listed and

[resources] being consulted collectively to further good reference
skills. The text is then set for homework. The advantages of this
approach are that the weaker benefit from collaboration with more able
peers and marking time is reduced as less correction of common
difficulties is required. The diagnosis of individual errors with ensuing
provision of targeted advice becomes much easier.
Criteria For Workshop Selection In Manual
--Text type representativity
--Difficulty level (appropriate; not necessarily increasing)
--Authenticity (texts actually or potentially used in industry)
--Pedagogical potential (not “traps” but recurrent problems, or focus on a
single area [e.g., terminology] or subdomain)
In some cases, availability of rights to a given text may have affected final
selections.
Note: It is instructive to let students search for their own texts for translation (see,
for example, the c. 4 workshop). Have them give a sense of the criteria they used
in choosing an appropriate text. Students might start at their own interest in a
topic (indeed, affinity with a subject is almost indispensable), but should end with
a sense of audience, of need, or else a translation is a solipsistic exercise. Also, if
you supplement Manual with workshop texts, explain your own criteria to

students; avoid using the old standby—newspaper articles, which, unless a
realistic brief is given, do not tend to simulate real jobs. Also, don’t give students
reason to suspect that texts presented to them for translation are minefields with
hidden traps and potential humiliations, rather than offers of information. Texts
with strong internal coherence are a “type” of workshop; so too are texts that
require tremendous research in order for a non-specialist to piece together the
logic of their assumptions. Both text types have their place in translator training.
Tip: Avoid “telegraphing” your own lack of interest in a given text or subject
matter; students are quick to mimic tastes, and will embrace generalizations about
their abilities in given domains (“I’m no good at legal”). More productive for you
and the student is to ascertain: Why does a particular student reject a certain field
outright? Left unexamined, such attitudes become self-undermining behaviors for
translation students. Train students to believe that the most interesting text in the
world is whatever one is in front of them.
Trap: Attempting to have students produce workshops only in the hot domains du
jour—using the logic of marketability—is somewhat wrong-headed. The market
is always changing. What it will look like when each student cohort graduates is
an unknown, as is the usefulness of some technologies in use today; let us strive,
therefore, to produce pre-professionals with good reading skills, research skills,
transfer skills, problem-solving skills, and people skills. The author does not
subscribe to the idea, in short, that only those texts currently being translated are
pedagogically useful.

Effective Study
Wankat (178) catalogues some textbook reading methods that students should
know, including: “Skim the entire book, including preface, appendices, and
index”; “read the text using one of the standard reading procedures: P2R: Preview
Read, Review. SQ3R: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review. PQ4R: Preview,
Question, Read, Write, Recall, Review.”; and “Take notes in the text instead of
highlighting or underlining.” This latter tip emphasizes the importance of students
actively processing information. The author also recommends students reflect a
day or two later after reading; this can be accomplished by assigning them an
occasional “one-minute essay” to check on comprehension and retention. Finally,
have students make explicit connections across concepts and from chapter to
chapter.
If future editions of Manual appear, a prime goal will be to include units
on extensive and intensive reading. Meanwhile, help students distinguish
strategies of text processing within each type. Also, concentrate on the respective
functions of extensive and intensive reading—how is each helpful to the
translator? In this age, students tend to be weaker in intensive reading, while
extensive strategies (skimming, scanning) are fairly well mastered.
Other ideas for course management

It is a good idea to have workshop texts for translation weekly. If needed, you may
supplement the Manual so that students have more translation than those at
chapter ends, which fall approximately every week to two weeks, depending on
your pace. Be sure students have early opportunities to produce strong work; texts
that are far too difficult are counterproductive.
Make clear your expectations about student attitude toward feedback, using words
to the effect of the following:
Feedback is the way we can adequately compare and correlate our performance,
and self-image, with standards and expectations outside of ourselves. If you put
the desire to improve above all else, receiving criticisms from instructors or
classmates is easier. Accept that you will make mistakes. Look at a critique of
your work not as a personal attack but as an opportunity to "raise your game".
And those of you giving critiques: Put yourself on the receiving end.
Focus on the positive. Don't make idle, ill-considered insults at another's
expense—learning is not a "zero sum" game (where one wins only by another's
losing). Do your research and make well-founded statements or well-reasoned
arguments. Successful learning in any class depends in large part on respectful,
continuous feedback. If it is received gratefully and patiently, and given
constructively, learning can be limitless.
If a student is disruptive, we are quick to point out that they are a
detriment to others' learning, but if a student is insightful, prepared, engaging, and
helpful, we tend not to acknowledge the considerable impact he or she can have

on the overall dynamics of the class and on each other student. Be a student that
others are glad to have in their class.
Impress upon students the importance of contacting the liaison or client (the
instructor) as early as possible in the assignment for clarifications or
troubleshooting. Clients will not be impressed by eleventh-hour haste—at the
worst, they may be greatly inconvenienced. Draw attention to post-facto queries
(“What were we supposed to have done with the illustration?”)
Insist from the first day that student bring Manual to every class meeting.
For fact-finding tasks low on the Bloom taxonomy, spice them up by having
students, in “expert groups”, create virtual scavenger hunts for others on a given
topic or subtopic.
Use Think-Pair-Share format when appropriate. Pairs can also be used for take-
home assignments.
Assign background readings in subject areas when appropriate.
Students will be inordinately concerned about their lack of translation speed.
Have students fill out anonymous “time cards” after a given translation, honestly
reporting time spent translating, researching, and reviewing. Shuffle and read the

time cards back—anonymously. Allow those students lagging considerably
behind to have a sense of where they stand in relation to the average. Naturally,
some students take longer, or have special needs, so be careful how this anecdotal
data is interpreted, if it is interpreted at all.
After reviewing a first draft of a class’s work, pass out a version that is a
composite of the class members’ strongest solutions, annotating the text to credit
the authors.
Assign or ask for a “Researcher” with a laptop to verify information during
class—this role can rotate.
Use homemade concordance lines of the whole class’s renderings of key passages
as a way to introduce hotspots. Align them insofar as possible.
Use an image projector to put up the source text during workshops. The
SmartBoard is probably the most ideal technology for this, as it allows for
students to interact as well, not just the instructor, and any notes made may be
saved and sent as pdf files.
During workshop reviews, whenever a felicitous solution arises that a class
member has used, be sure to acknowledge the fact—keep a notation system
and/or separate page if memory doesn’t serve.

Forbid absolutely any handwritten changes to deliverables—students must learn
to proofread and revise in time. If they can’t do something with a client, they
shouldn’t do it with you.
Assign a second version of a target text (ungraded) in which the students are
allowed to include all the information they would have liked to were it not a
translation and were it their own original text, leaving in all the research, stylistic
flourishes, etc., that they care to. This accomplishes the following: It lets students
purge all of the extraneous embroiderings and personalizing touches that would
skew a straightforward translation; it also lets them take out any frustration on a
poorly written source text. This second version allows students—particularly
many who struggle to conform to the text in spirit or letter—to exorcise and
exercise the “creative” impulse. You may have observed that sometimes in
translator training, the most thoughtful students have difficulty reining in the urge
to make a text “their own”; this same thoughtfulness will lead to an abuse of the
techniques of omission and condensation (“I thought that was redundant”; “I
didn’t really think that contributed much”), implicitation and explicitation; in the
best cases, they will perform insightful edits in this mindset, but in the worst
cases, they will develop the bad habit of becoming rough-house readers—
imperious manipulators of a text to suit their will. Ease them out of that habit
without them becoming convinced that translation is uncreative, which is the
danger here; the habit may bespeak the students’ overemphasis on the reencoding

phase, rather than the decoding. When many in a class are in this mode, do more
with reading and discourse analysis, particularly emphasizing subtleties of
interpretation and how the text itself constrains them. (Don’t suggest that literary
texts are playgrounds for a translator’s unrestraint—leeway exists, but literary
texts are not unlimited semiotically, nor is there more license to interpret freely;
this is a misunderstanding.) Often when students translate without restraint, they
are leaving the world of the text at hand.
Allow students to annotate their translations with discussion--professional in tone
and content, links, and anything process-oriented. In this way, students are
workshopping ahead of time. If texts are turned in before the class meeting, you
can flag certain annotations “Please discuss” (Note: Students ought not be forced
to discuss particular points if they are not comfortable doing so; my own
experience as a translator trainee, anecdotal but by no means unique to me,
confirms the sense that students participate best when they do so freely.) The
annotated translation or translation commentary allows—and forces—students to
identify and address translation issues; for a good discussion and examples, see
Armstrong (205-11). A useful feature to include in this approach is to have
students write you questions about details from their process: e.g., “Could I have
recast this? I was unsure how far I could go.”; “What other options exist here?” “I
felt like x was too associated with y text type—could I ‘borrow’ it
metaphorically?” etc.

Introduce students to the concepts of “top-down” and “bottom-up” processing. An
awareness of both will keep them from fixating unduly on the word level. You
may even try a debriefing whereby students summarize the issues they faced for
each kind of text processing on a given assignment.
Decide if native- and non-native speakers will be held to the same standard for a
given task.
Include some kind of self-assessment in translation workshops—“What could I
have done to have improved this translation? What resources did I not tap for this
exercise that I discovered after the fact? Was this translation my best effort? What
time-management methods can I use to improve for next time?” etc.
Have students include a word count at the end of their translations; this will help
cultivate a professional habit.
Stress pre- and post-translation activities, not only workshops. You may, for
example, present three parallel texts or a number of weblinks and challenge
students to rank them in order of relevance to a given assignment. Or you may
wish to have students extract terms for glossary building that is to be used for
follow-up activities of your own design.

Call all workshop texts “jobs” interchangeably with “workshops”. Observation: A
student who calls translations “homework” will far poorer than one who calls
them “jobs”. This is the amateur mindset versus that of the professional.
Vary the format from the monolithic “translation workshop” model—make
translation tasks negotiation tasks—try a “jigsaw translation”, with informants
from each subgroup asking questions of another subgroup and reporting back so
students are depending on each other’s temporary expertise to solve tasks.
Conducting translation workshops in English makes sense when working into
English; conducting the in Spanish makes sense when working into Spanish.
Striving for an “immersion” environment in a translation class sends the message
that language acquisition is the primary goal, which it is not.
In general, try to make accountability happen at the student level by putting in
quality controls before translations reach your desk or inbox. Don’t let students
ever have a justification for turning in sub-par work with the idea that it is “only a
draft” or that they can wait for the workshop and passively absorb “the right
answers”. Some instructors issue checklists of quality points that students must
fill out and turn in with all work.
Have students reserve a corner of their notebooks or use some kind of symbolic
notation just for unsolved questions, lookups, and any items for empirical

verification at home that arise in class but cannot all be checked. Be sure to follow
up in the next class. (e.g., In NGO funding applications, are grants usually called
donaciones or concesiones de subvención? Has someone who has entered a plea
pleaded or pled, and in what environments for each? etc.) Enforce detail-
orientedness.
For final project delivery, have students divide their work: Analysis, bibliography,
source files, terminology, translation files, Word files.
Resist “wrong”, “right”, “bad”, and similar absolutist language in assessment and
workshopping.
Ask macrotext-level questions of the students such as:
“Where are the points in this text where the greatest risk of confusion or
distortion in translation exist? What are the potential ramifications?”
“What solutions in your text might be different were this for another
audience or purpose?”
Or: “What terminology in your group’s assigned gist translation will you
need to standardize in consultation with groups B and C?”
Here are types of questions that can be used in workshops to critique, amend,
prompt, hypothesize, and build consensus:
“What advantages does this solution have?”

“How complete is the overlap with the source on this concept? Is there a
compensation strategy we haven’t thought of?”
“Is this as close as we can come on register here?”
“What would happen if we moved x over here, and y there? What effect
does that have on how this reads?”
“X is a great touch because it shows you did your research and an
awareness of the resonance that would have in the target culture. Do you think,
though, that it makes too explicit what might only be implied by the source?”
“What might argue against x being a valid rendering here?”
“When you say you think x ‘works’, you mean in terms of audience or in
terms of meaning of the passage as a whole?”
“X certainly sounds reasonable here, and it no doubt would be understood,
but is that Geneva Convention language? In other words, would an ideal reader of
this text expect that term?”
“Is your interpretation there supported by the logic of the text itself?”
This is not to say that measurable, “non-negotiable” criteria do not have a place in
the workshop—on the contrary, you can ask, “Did you find evidence of the phrase
‘ley común’ in any pages on Argentinean jurisprudence?” This is a request for
explicit information, which often has its place. Pym in “Text and Risk in
Translation” (www.tinet.org/~apym/on-line/risk_analysis.pdf) argues that both
binary (right/wrong) and non-binary (what he calls “right, but…” or “wrong,
but…” solutions) have their place in discussion. The idea, though, is to bring

potential points of vulnerability to the fore, the “ragged edges” where languages
meet—and don’t meet. More questions than statements mean more active
learning—statements can be absorbed or not; questions require engagement. As
Kelly (98) notes in discussing lecturing as a course delivery method, though her
words largely can be applied to the instructor’s place in the workshop: “Your role
is to select essential points, establish inter-relations, update, and apply content to
learning outcomes, not to transmit content which is readily available in other
forms.” Our job is to raise awareness, to focus student attention.
It is worth pointing out that not all students will learn at the same pace, nor learn
in the same order, nor even learn the same things from an identical assignment.
Important note on Manual of Spanish-English Translation: While student
professionalization is the goal of this textbook, translators are not formed in a
semester, a year, or even four years, but perhaps in a decade or more or deliberate
practice. Students should be simultaneously encouraged toward their goals and
dissuaded from thinking they will graduate as translators. (In c. 4 we look at
minimal qualifications for a U.N. translator, the default fantasy of the novice.
Emphasize that considerable experience is prerequisite for entering such a job;
give students a realistic look at the materials at the Competitive Recruitment
Examinations and Tests page at
http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/examin/exam.htm for the latest listings).
Students begin asking as early as their first semester about when they can “go

pro”, how much to charge, etc. Give them realistic expectations up front. You
may even consider adopting a policy about student translation—remember that
your school or department’s reputation is attached. If you must have students
experience paid assignments, there should be extensive editorial supervision,
particularly where the consequences of a weak translation are potentially grave.
Many translation professors actively discourage uncredentialed novices from
going on the market. If a student approaches you in his or her second year and
wants to take an opportunity to interpret a mental health interview, the message
about standards hasn’t gotten out. There are tasks in the world that are wildly
inappropriate for novices under any circumstances.
Students respond to the idea that the habits they form early will follow them, for
good or ill, hence the need for diligent practice now.
Works cited
Armstrong, Nigel. Translation, Linguistics, Culture: A French-English Handbook.
Buffalo: Multilingual Matters, 2005.
“Audio Commentary: Response and Relationship” Faculty Professional
Development Center 4.9 Jan/Feb 2007. Kent State University. 23 May,
2007. < http://fpdc.kent.edu/resources/publications/activeinteractive/

Barkley, Elizabeth, K. Patricia Cross and Claire Howell Major. Colloborative
Learning Techniques. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, 2005.
Fry, Heather, Steve Ketteridge and Stephanie Marshall. A Handbook for Teaching
& Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice. London:
Kogan Page Limited: 1999.
Kelly, Dorothy. A Handbook for Translator Trainers: A Guide to Reflective
Practice. Northampton: St. Jerome, 2005.
Lizardi-Rivera, Carmen. “Learning the Basics of Spanish Translation: Articulating
a Balance Between Theory and Practice Through Community Service” in
Construyendo Puentes (Building Bridges): Concepts and Models for
Service-Learning in Spanish. Hellebrandt, Joseph and Lucia T. Varona,
eds. Washington, DC: AAHE, 1999, 107-18.
Pym, Anthony. “Text and Risk in Translation” Ed. Maria Sidiropoulou and
Anastasia Papaconstantinou. Choice and Difference in Translation: The
Specifics of Transfer. Athens: University of Athens, 2004. 27-42 or
< www.tinet.org/~apym/on-line/risk_analysis.pdf >

Varela Salinas, María José. “How New Technologies Improve Translation Pedagogy.”
Translation Journal. Vol. 11, No. 4. October 2007.
<http://accurapid.com/journal/42technology.htm>
Wankat, Phillip C. The Effective, Efficient Professor: Teaching, Scholarship and Service.
Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2002.
Chapter 1
Note: The symbol [hand icon] will be used in this instructor’s manual for
optional handouts.
OJO: Refer to the appendices now to determine any exercises to be integrated into
Chapter 1 activities.
Note on chapter sequencing and time allotment: chapters may be covered in two
weeks each or four hours of class meetings. (Were every task completed, this
timeline could be stretched to three weeks or more per chapter; the assumption,
however, is that not every task will be ideal for every class, and some may be
passed over.) If you are using the book for only one semester, you may wish to

interpolate material from the domain-centered chapters (6-12) into the concept-
centered chapters (1-5) as you deem appropriate. Chapter 5 is a transitional
chapter that reinforces translation effects and “creativity” rather than literalism.
Tip: Have students fill out 3x5 cards the first day with translation-related issues
they are especially curious to explore (e.g. translation and second-language
learning, untranslatability, translation in international organizations, etc.).
Transfer them to a file; during the semester, create opportunities for each student
to research or report on these topics, or at the very least, to have the topics
addressed.
Tip (2): Include a “Translation in the News” moment at the beginning of your
class session, once a week. For two minutes, students can recount from memory
any translation (and interpreting) debates or developments in the news. Have them
check the BBC archives (keyword “translation”), http://www.translations-
news.com/, http://www.multilingual.com/mlNewsArchive.php,
http://inttranews.inttra.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi, etc.
Tip (3): Assign a research ‘blitz’ in which students compile hot trends in
translation, interpreting, and localization (some are presented schematically in a
handout, this chapter). They can look on www.globalwatchtower.com or
www.businesswithoutborders.info/, for example. At the time of this writing, some

examples include collaborative translation, “crowdsourcing”, and remote and
semi-automated interpreting.
Imagining Translators
Pass out a montage of 6-8 images of translators both iconic and contemporary: St.
Jerome in his study, missionaries working in collaboration, a bank of workstations
at an international organization, a woman at her monitor, translation in ancient
cultures (including glyphs). Be sure to include a variety of settings, ethnicities,
and both men and women.
Key concepts: colonialism, Bible translation, Greek and Roman translators, team
translation, international organizations, translation departments in private
enterprise, translator no longer as "lone wolf" but as collaborator, part of a
network of resources
Tip: Get "Traduttore, traditore" out of the way early. Prompt: Why and for whom
would the saying gain credence?
Prompts: 1. Depict translation visually, either figuratively or abstractly, freehand
or computer-aided. Share with the class. 2. Find an illustration by M.C. Escher
that could illustrate translation as process or product; explain the connection to the
class.

The bibliography of metaphors of translations is abundant. Students can follow up
brainstorming by keeping a semester-long documented log of metaphors (the
translator has been likened to a window pane, mirror, invisible man or woman,
actor, broker, scrivener, "female", ventriloquist, artist, juggler, craftsperson,
activist, ghostwriter, spy, procuress, curator, handmaiden, hunting dog, tightrope
walker, medium, art restorer, doppelgänger, ideal reader, author, messenger,
negotiator, animal tamer, hostage, host, strip tease artist, jailor, parodist, lawyer,
missionary, ambassador, matchmaker, tour guide, importer, escape artist, alter
ego, etc.). Tess Gallagher adds: “pirate, cannibal, smuggler, extortionist, and
lover.” (see Parnassus: Twenty Years of Poetry in Review) Encourage the students
to think critically about these and others, and to "unpack" the assumptions
implicit in them, particularly ones that prejudicially distort the act of translation or
the identity of the translator. The translator's healthy self-concept depends on
challenging misrepresentations that are still perpetuated (viz. the metaphor of “les
belles infidèles” and its implicit attribution of unfaithfulness to the ‘female’
text—le traduction). (see also chapter in Green, Yaacov Jeffrey, Thinking through
translation, Athens : University of Georgia Press, 2001)
Here is a useful metaphor for language use and translation:
“…using language is not similar to drawing a detailed map in which each object is
represented in one particular way and each point and line correspond to given

objects; rather, it is like using a set of road signs to point toward a destination. It
is up to the Receiver to reach that particular destination by interpreting the signs.
Each language and its associated culture can be likened to a set of available road
signs. When producing speech or text, Senders use the signs available in the
source language and place them along the roads on a particular route. Translators
use signs available in the target language and place them along the same roads.
Their main task is to lead the Receivers to the same destination as the Senders….”
(Gile, Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training, 71)
Remind students early what a self-concept refers to:
Self-concept may be defined as “the image of the translator’s social role, the
translator’s appraisal of his or her competency for translating a particular text, and
understanding of responsibility toward the other personalities in the translation
context of situation (author, commissioner, user, and reader). The translator’s self-
concept is a mental construct that serves as the interface between the translator’s
social and psychological worlds. The self-concept includes a sense of the purpose
of the translation, an awareness of the information requirements of the translation
task, a self-evaluation of the capability to fulfill the task, and a related capacity to
monitor and evaluate translation products for adequacy and appropriateness. The
translator’s self-concept allows for the integration of the social world of
translation into the cognitive one….” (Kiraly, Pathways to Translation: Pedagogy

and Process, Kent, OH and London, England: Kent State University Press, 1995,
100)
Tip: In this first chapter, it may be a good idea to hold up important translators
(famous or not) from the past and present to show a varied array of what
successful translators do. Stress that a translator may have different goals than
other well-known translators, or may be of a different race, age, gender, or
educational background.
Tip (2): St. Jerome’s Day (International Translation Day) falls on September 30.
Celebrating it may help instill professional pride in students. Check for the current
year’s theme (In 2007 it was “Don’t shoot the messenger”. Indeed.).
Tip (3); Have students search mainstream media archives for misuse of the words
“translate” and “interpret”.
Tip (4): In the first contact hours with translation students, pass out mistranslated
signage, preferably bilingual (not simply misused English), for students to
comment upon. Mistranslated signs (or labels, packaging, or product instructions)
serve several purposes: they heighten awareness to the ubiquity of translation, the
difficulty of communicating well multilingually, and the underestimated
complexity of the task of translation. Perhaps most importantly, showing poor
translations early in students’ exposure to the field can help them see the law of

unintended consequences at work—poor translation rewarded with (their own)
negative attention. Students are asked in c. 1 to bring in examples of photos of
bilingual signage found online—they might bring in the Neighborhood Watch
sign, customs signs from the border, retail directory signs, etc. Students need not
comment on the (high or low) quality of these, but may wonder about the reasons
for certain choices.
Tip (5): In 1999, the Association of American Publishers launched a project
called the Get Caught Reading Campaign. The Spanish-language version was
called “¡Ajá, leyendo!” Have students articulate what happened between the
English and Spanish names of the program, and what might have motivated such
a translation solution.
Tip (6): Task: Students compile from Internet sources tips frequently given on
working with translators. Who usually gives these tips? What traps do these
advice-givers warn against?
Competence
Note: Students return to competence at the end of c. 6. This feature is their
introduction; after a semester or more, they will have formed a clearer idea of
what this means.

Suggest specific courses at your institution that would complement translation
study. Even if they are part of the major or minor, it is a good idea to emphasize
early how these skills fit in.
Tip: In González and Wagenaar's model of competences, working in teams and
developing interpersonal skills is fundamental. Rather than assigning roles or
enforcing ways that groups should approach a task, let them work out the inner
dynamics on their own when possible. This will assist in letting them find their
natural competences or work on those they wish to improve. Conversely, if
students are always "playing to their strengths," vary tasks so that each participant
is challenged by being outside his or her comfort zone.
OJO: For the discussion question on whether translators are made or born, it may
be counter-productive to support the "born translator" side. Many factors in a
student's heritage and life experiences may give an advantage, but it is
pedagogically more sensible and responsible to promote the teachability of
translation. Natural instincts may play a part, but these can be refined in the
receptive student or go dormant in the unindustrious one; moreover, instinct alone
can make for a reckless, inconsistent translator, just as a "rule-governed"
translator without a good--somewhat unteachable--feel for language may sound
stilted. Be very cognizant of Anglo students who may be intimidated by more
bilingual members of the class; also, some heritage Spanish-speakers may present
their own unique learning issues as well. The class dynamics should be

cooperative for the class to work well; this may go against what has been
ingrained in the students, but rest assured they will be more productive, creative,
and content the more they see progress, a non-threatening environment in which
to share ideas, and common errors (the latter of which shows the comforting
reality that virtually every translation student goes through learning stages in
which certain types of errors appear, just as in language acquisition).
Tip: Offer evidence of how translation is both an art and a craft. Dispel any
illusions of instant proficiency.
You may also wish to discuss during c. 1 the damage that traditional foreign
language teaching has done by inculcating “translation” as the simple act of
inputting formal one-to-one correspondences for series of lexical items, rather
than a vastly complex series of operations in a purposive, social context that
privileges whole texts and their communicative purposes.
Norms
For the norms discussion (Task 1), you may want to go into the Lantra-L archives
or have students join.
It will be mentioned a few times in this instructors edition and in the Manual that
equivalence is now passé. Naturally, functional equivalence and other terms make

the rounds, but regardless, you may wish to discuss the fallacious implications of
this term borrowed from mathematics (i.e. that "sameness" in a kind of one-to-one
correspondence is possible or desirable; introduce the idea of equivalent effect
with different means, but be wary of any concept which promotes simple
substitution.)
(Task 2): Constraints (factors that reduce choice) are
"meaning constraints: both in source and target texts;
textual constraints: type, function, content (both in source and target texts);
translation constraints: depending on the social situation of the act of translation, law
and collegiate regulations, etc.;
ethical constraints at various levels;
communicative constraints: communicants, goal, vehicle, means and signals;
assignment constraints: deadlines, price and mercantile considerations;
conceptual constraints: depending on the concept of translation held by the translator;
ability constraints: the translator's skills;
risk constraints: the risks assumed by the translator."
(Mayoral Asensio 51)
Have students posit plausible examples of each type of constraint.
Follow-up: Cf. the work of Simeoni on the translator’s habitus, a notion used to
describe the impetus that structures translator behavior and is used to reinforce the

prevailing professional order. The term is often invoked in conjunction with
norms, and has been used to extend the discussion of the translator’s agency;
some have used it as a starting point for theorizations on translation and
resistance.
Sapir-Whorf
Consider nuancing this topic by bringing in strong and weak versions of the
theory, comparing and contrasting the work of Sapir with that of Whorf,
entertaining arguments refuting their work, and introducing specific examples to
"test" (be alert to the questionable veracity of the Eskimos (Inuit)-and-their-many-
words-for-snow example, which has been challenged.
Five Steps of Expertise
Reiterate that after the semester(s) of training, your trainees will not be experts.
Ask them where they think they will be, realistically, and diplomatically realign
any unrealistic thinking. The student is thinking: How will I be situated for 1)
breaking into the field and 2) making a living in the language industry? And, 3) Is
this for me?
A recent graduate can gain entry into the translation game, but discuss: 1) What
would that take? 2) Is it too early? 3) Should he or she gain other experience first?
4) What domain of expertise goes well in the language combination now, and
what trends can be perceived for 5-10 years out that can be anticipated and acted
on now? These questions don't have absolute answers, however important those
answers may be. But discuss them at least. The more the industry is discussed, the
harder it will be for students to relate passively to translation class.
Discussion: What should be translated?
This feature will serve as an introduction to audience and purpose in translation.
Formats in which translations appear will vary, and evolve with technology,
though some remain fixed, such as the double columns of tape recording
transcripts (transcription + translation) used in submissions to attorneys, clerks of
the court, or judges. Students should begin to develop a sense of why a given
format may be more appropriate for the circumstances, and learn to anticipate one
or another.
The article about shooting into the air on New Year’s Eve is a translation; many
Mexican-Americans in the target audience are likely to read the English. Those
who might shoot into the air are more likely to be reading the Spanish, since they
are less assimilated. Were the audience only Anglo, the article would most likely
never appear, and perhaps instead focus on other dangers.

Tip: Balance discussions of existing translations with the concept of translation
need. Have students survey city websites for places with high Hispanic presence
(El Paso, TX; Los Angeles, CA; Denver, CO; etc. In fact, pass out a list of the top
50 Hispanic populations for students to use). On this most basic level, which seem
to lag behind in bilingual presentation? Students will sense intuitively that some
constituencies are probably not as well served as others online; introduce and
elicit some underlying reasons.
Thinking about Translation
These are key questions; half of a class meeting or more could be spent profitably
in discussion of these issues. Don't worry if your discussion veers too
philosophical or literary--the point is exposure to the issues, not their solution or
the articulation of the mere pragmatics of translation. Students should try to
reason through their ideas, even if using a journal here helps--they can write down
their thoughts as a brainstorm exercise. The instructor's role here is that of Devil's
advocate. Isolate any biases or flawed thinking. Deconstruct conventional wisdom
the student will likely have picked up along the way. Let arguments run their
course (e.g., student 1 may insist that some translation is appropriative; student 2
may argue that translation furthers others' cultures, which trumps considerations
of exploitation; the instructor needn't have the last word). Very brief readings or
passages may supplement any of the ideas on which the students may need a little
more background.

Class brainstorm: translation one encounters in the public space (buses, bus
shelters, posters, etc.) and those encountered in the private space. Contrast the
text types found in each (e.g. bus ads: public transportation; bilingual voice-
activated Bluetooth software: private car).
Schäffner (2004, 115, following Hönig and Kussmaul 1991, 15-16) offers
a useful activity for the first week of class. Students are given the following
statements, for which they must reply “true”, “not true”, or “don’t know”. (You
might consider letting students use “not necessarily” or “depends” also). A debate
should follow. The questions are reproduced verbatim below:
(1) If we do not know the readership for a text, we cannot translate it.
(2) If it is obvious that a text is a translation, then it is a bad translation.
(3) Translating a scientific or technical text is more difficult than
translating general or everyday texts, because scientific or technical
texts contain many more unfamiliar words.
(4) It is always riskier to do a free than a literal translation because
translating freely can easily lead you away from the proper meaning of
a word.
(5) Translators need a bilingual dictionary because it tells them which
words to use in the text and where to use it.
(6) It cannot be the task of the translator to make a translated text easier to
understand for the readers than the original text is for its readers.
(7) Ideally, a back translation will reproduce the original text.

(8) In every language there are some words which are untranslatable.
(9) Even if two experienced translators translate one and the same text,
their translations will be different. This shows that subjectivity and
individual taste play such an important role in translating that it is
probably not possible to explain the phenomenon on the basis of an
objective model.
(10) The source text is the yardstick by which the quality of a translation is
measured.
Schäffner notes (116) that there is “a tendency to disagree with statement
(1) and agree with statements (2), (3), and (9), while the remaining statements are
greeted variously…. This is not the notion of translation that I would like them to
leave the module with…” Obviously, this exercise can be used as an awareness-
raising opportunity, and can be revisited later in the term.
Translation Survey
Assign and have the students save until the last class, when you can re-assign for
comparison (copy to make handout master). Students should be reassured that it is
for their self-awareness and self-growth only, not for a grade or to chastise
“wrong” answers. If shared, allow students a safe way to volunteer information in
small groups; e.g. what they may not have realized about their own inclinations,
what they’d like to delve deeper into, etc. Instructions to the student follow.

[hand icon] Take the following survey in order to compare your responses to each
index at the end of the term; you will be given a new form for your answers.
Answer honestly--this is for your own self-knowledge.
strongly agree agree agree disagree disagree strongly
somewhat somewhat disagree
__________________________________________________________________
1. I like discovering and building vocabulary, phrases. and awareness of text conventions.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. I enjoy “detective work”, filling in missing pieces of information.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. I have a wide range of subjects of interest to me, and work toward having more
interests.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. I like talking about language itself: its nuances, devices and peculiarities.
__________________________________________________________________
5. “Foreign” languages don’t feel so foreign—I have good intuition for what is expressed
even if each and every word is not known.
__________________________________________________________________
6. I’m sensitive to others’ cultures and take delight in sharing and celebrating differences
with the uninitiated.

_________________________________________________________________
7. I can put myself into another’s mindset; I can empathize.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
8. I have a good command of my mother tongue and its grammar.
______________________________________________________________________________________
9. I don’t usually collapse or give in under pressure.
__________________________________________________________________
10. I am patient and do not look for quick fixes or the “path of least resistance” while
troubleshooting.
__________________________________________________________________
11. I know how to delegate; I am not afraid to ask for help.
__________________________________________________________________
12. I am conscientious; I am detail-oriented; I hesitate to put my name on what I am not
satisfied with.
__________________________________________________________________
13. I am always open to technology as a possible resource.
____________________________________________________________________
14. When I convey the ideas and/or words of others it does not threaten or disable my
own sense of self.
___________________________________________________________________

15. I have an earnest desire to communicate and to aid communication.
___________________________________________________________________
16. I have a good verbal memory and repertoire in my mother tongue.
___________________________________________________________________
17. I have a good verbal memory and
repertoire in my primary adopted tongue.
___________________________________________________________________
18. I am a good salesperson for products I believe in, such as myself and my work.
___________________________________________________________________
19. I make educated decisions and commit boldly, without second-guessing myself.
_________________________________________________________________
20. I like writing.
_________________________________________________________________
21. I am an attentive reader with a receptive mind.
_________________________________________________________________
22. I value the cohesion—the “flow”—of a piece of writing, and can sense, and
fix, disjointedness.
__________________________________________________________________
23. I often naturally find myself mediating between groups of friends or relations,

“interpreting”.
_________________________________________________________________
24. I don’t “fit” in only one language or culture; I am “wider” than the language I
learned at birth.
_________________________________________________________________
25. I am actively learning second and/or third languages.
_________________________________________________________________
26. I am a “list-maker” or “list-user”.
_________________________________________________________________
27. I can find what I need by researching the most appropriate reference books and
online sources.
_________________________________________________________________
28. I can avoid editorializing or outright censuring material with which I disagree.
_________________________________________________________________
29. I am accurate and value accuracy.
________________________________________________________________
30. I am punctual and value punctuality.
________________________________________________________________
31. I can work alone without seeking distraction.

________________________________________________________________
32. I network whenever necessary to get things done.
________________________________________________________________
33. I am aware of rhetorical (persuasive) aspects of a text when I read, the purpose behind
it, the audience intended, and the reaction expected from me as its reader.
_________________________________________________________________
34. I consider myself emotionally self-aware and “emotionally intelligent.”
__________________________________________________________________
35. I would be proud to work in the language industry (translator, project manager,
localizer, editor or terminologist) and would be a good ambassador of the field to those
outside it.
__________________________________________________________________
The Definitive Translation
The caveat that not all translations are equally valid is spelled out in this section,
even as the principle that more than one translation can be valid is affirmed.
Someone in every class will ask, "How are you grading us if it's all relative and
there's no definitive right answer?" He or she may even try to capitalize on this
philosophy, misunderstanding it as license to read texts as they like. A few

students will resist the notion of ambiguity, which thwarts the comfortable
certainties they've come to expect from traditional teacher-centered instruction.
Demystify the grading process by reiterating that poor translation choices obscure
meaning, convolute style, and in general, obstruct communication, and that
communicating well is not restricted to a single formula. You may bring in some
wildly flawed translations, ask for feedback, and then ask why certain passages
should be judged poorer translations than others. They will try to put in words the
answer to their own question. Incidentally, good examples of translation can put
before students to great effect. Have students not only declare them good, but
explain why they deem them so, or go as far as verifying and annotating the target
texts of strong translations. (Remember that with poor translations, many students
have a hard time editing others' work--in part because they cannot see errors that
to a professional translator are obvious; students can be eased into these exercises
by doing them as a class).
You may also give them translations of a given passage to rank, then ask
them to defend their choices. This will also give them sympathy and
understanding for the assessor's point of view. (To really empower them, give
them a draft of your own translation you may be working on and have them edit it
in groups.) How a translation is assessed may have empirical principles behind it,
but complex communication tasks are rarely reducible to the logic of right-wrong.
Students should have a rubric of the abbreviations you use to signal
translation errors, point systems, etc. It should be abundantly clear how their
drafts are to be weighted in their grades.

Optional: Read José Ortega y Gasset’s essay, “Misery and Splendor of
Translation”. How does he characterize the utopian goals of translation? Does his
argument suggest that certain kinds of works lend themselves to more “perfect”
translations than others? In your opinion, is his conclusion defeatist, or realistic?
ATA Translators' Code of Professional Conduct
While it is early for students to master the subtleties of translation ethics (if such a
goal were possible), it is vitally relevant that they be given a framework of best
practices and dubious practices at this stage so that they can internalize what is
expected. If you like, repeat some of the ethics exercises at the end of the
semester and see how students' perceptions may have changed. (Just as a child
should not find out about ethical behavior only after behaving unethically, neither
should emerging translators wait for market forces to correct their missteps.)
The Translator’s Charter by the IFT (International Federation of Translators,
1963/1996) might be worth comparing in class. Option: Use for translation
workshops a passage from texts you want students to know well, in this case
clauses from a statement of translator rights and obligations.
Ethics

Whatever the students' responses, have them defend them. You may have them
fill out anonymous questionnaires on this in advance, then you can tally the
responses, and reveal the results, which will interest the students greatly, since
they will be tuned in to how their peers respond. While there are usually no right
and wrong answers, there are cases that are more clear-cut (e.g. texts that promote
hate or are fraudulent) and cases requiring consideration of multiple factors (a
source text that is incorrect, an excessively nationalistic text that is to be exported,
etc.). Regardless, stress that personal and organizational ethics are important;
distinguish between "legal" and "ethical" (which many people confuse), and reject
the notion that ethical behavior hurts business. Challenge mercenary, "willing-for-
a-shilling" attitudes toward taking any and all work--clarify that there are
occasionally good reasons a job should be rejected. (A student once argued that he
would gladly translate for the environmentalists on Monday, and the timber
industry on Tuesday.) Business ethics come into the discussion in the commercial
translation chapter. Reasoning gap activities such as this one need not produce
consensus, but invite a balanced appraisal of variables; again, though, there are
censurable behaviors that the students should recognize from the start.
Consider a moderated debate in which two teams face off on opposite sides of an
issue: Is it all right to improve a poorly written text via translation? etc. Should a
translation student accept paid assignments before earning the degree or
certificate? After the debate, weigh in with factors students may not have
considered. The “right” answers are not the goal here—the goal is to consider the

issues. Variation: Form teams of two; one team member answers ethics questions
read to the class; scoring: the other must guess what his or her partner replied.
Have a sensible student serve as independent arbiter, another as question reader.
First team to five wins.
Follow-up: Have students generate other scenarios that may be ethically
questionable (conflict of interest, reviewing one’s own translations under a
pseudonym, changing disagreeable content clandestinely, etc.)
Follow-up (2): Consider this (actual) scenario with the students: A woman in
Mexico City is applying to several graduate schools to study in the United States.
An agency contracts a translator to translate all of her application essays, forms,
and correspondence into English. The woman doesn’t know a word of English,
and obviously will be required to know it when she arrives, even if she studies in
a predominantly Latino area of the U.S., or in a Spanish academic department.
Nowhere on her applications does she mention that she doesn’t know English
(yet), nor does the translator know of her timeline for learning it, if indeed she is;
the applications, moreover, do not mention that the essays are translations.
Independent of the woman’s abilities to learn English in the event she is accepted,
is this the most ethical protocol, or can (should) something be done to ensure
transparency? Whose ethical responsibility is this, primarily?

Tip: Whether or not your course includes interpreting, discuss or debate the
intervention of Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas, who testified as a court interpreter for
immigrant workers arrested in Postville, Iowa in 2008.
Directionality
Regardless of what direction students will be working commercially, much can be
gained by working into their L2 in class. Impress upon students that evidence
supports the contention that translation skills are transferable to the "opposite"
direction and even other language pairs. (The questions for discussion here will
elicit various answers.)
Tip: Have students brainstorm the plusses and minuses of working into the L1 or
L2. They should come up with at least the idea that understanding—successful ST
processing—is relatively assured>L2, while standard usage is relatively assured
>L1. Students may need more experience before registering strong opinions on
the matter, but positing the potential (dis)advantages of working in each direction
are not misplaced here, even if students’ perceptions ultimately prove contrary to
conventional wisdom.
Tip (2): Consult Campbell, Translation into the Second Language, particularly
chapter 4.

Procedure
No set-by-step procedure for translating is set forth in the Manual, since students
tend to develop a procedure on their own. They should, however, begin
systematically with a process that includes reading, glossing, research, translating,
troubleshooting, comparing to the source, and reading independently from the
source.
If you would like to hold the students to a specific procedure, chapter one is the
ideal place to introduce it. Be aware that some translators and translators-in-
training are far more detailed and terminology-oriented in their early passes than
are others, one reason that one procedure may not fit every translator's style. One
way to raise self-awareness here is to have students report back to the class on
their method--this can also be written in the form of a brief translator's log or a
visual diagram. After two or three translations, extend the discussion to: How do
you work best? Where? When? Robinson's Becoming a Translator may offer you
and the students ideas about different learning styles. Be aware also of Howard
Gardner’s model of multiple intelligences, particularly those that apply easily to
the translation classroom (e.g., Verbal-Linguistic, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal).

Optional: Have students try to dictate, instead of using word processing, some
easy passages directly into the TL. Explain that some translators do this as an
expediency.
Optional (2): Do a short passage with particularly torturous syntax; have students
work out a visual diagram or flow chart that works for them. Suggest and discuss
ways to recast—numbering segments, using slash marks to “chunk” segments of
text, etc. Get students reflecting on the mechanics and reasons behind text
organization, cohesion markers, sentence length alteration, etc.
The Translation Agency
If you have access to a lab, you may focus on a few agencies' sites that are most
instructive for the learner. Take the students through them; have them explore in
pairs, giving feedback as they go—encourage vocal critiques, as students will
have good instincts about design and usability. You may want to give them a
checklist of features to look for and compare between sites. Point out that
agencies frequently sign confidentiality agreements that prevent their disclosing
clients’ names.
You would do well to give students a realistic appraisal of their chances for
landing an in-house position, which is a relatively scarce option. In the majority,
at this writing, students become freelancers.

Tip: Invest in the digital download of The Savvy Client’s Guide to Translation
Agencies (2005 ed., Byte Level Research), available commercially on the Web. It
covers industry organization, jargon, traps, price quotes and samples of agency
listings. Critical thinking tasks can be built around this information.
Tip (2): Explain to students the basic distinction between MLVs (multi-language
vendors) and SLVs (single language vendors) and their different goals.
[hand icon] Some industry trends and innovations
Full-service solutions
(e.g. services + software to manage TM and production workflow)
Translation portals
(language service migration to the web for online management)
Offshore Production Management
(including project management)
Consolidation among vendors
(including acquisitions of translation agencies from outside the field,
decentralization; move to MLVs)

SMT (statistical machine translation) and software vendors overtaking
linguists in influence
(source for above: Byte Level Research, Inc.)
Workflow engines
Centralizing language data and sharing across companies, collaboration
portals
CMS (content management systems)
Implementation of quality standards such as J2450, an (automotive) industry-
wide metric
(results used for benchmarking standards; since adoption, GM has had 90%
reduction of errors and a reduced post-translation process)
http://www.lisa.org/globalizationinsider/2004/05/mission_impossi.html
CPD (continuing professional development/education)
E-learning
(Lionbridge has its own e-learning platform: “computer-based training, web-
based training, classroom-based instructional materials, XML-based re-usable

learning objects, self-paced certficiation and assessment programs, multimedia
applications, learning management systems and learning content management
systems.” (“South America Guide: Getting Started: Guide”, Multilingual
July/August 2007, https://www.multilingual.com/downloads/printSupp89.pdf)
Single sourcing
(facilitates reuse; e.g., “a printed document and online help that both need to be
delivered to the same end user; multiple versions of the same manual or help that
are needed for different purposes”: Global Vision International, Inc.)
Translation compliance with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability And
Accountability Act Of 1996) and other government regulations
Demand for Arabic and Chinese on the rise
Software, website, and game localization
Increased volume in healthcare translation
Translation/localization >es for U.S. Latino audiences
Participants in the Translation Cycle

Have photocopies of Nord 1997 available on reserve or as handouts, or a Power
Point summary. Concepts here are more important than some of the terms, which
can vary widely.
[hand icon] Handout: elements of the translation process (G. Samuelsson-Brown,
Managing Translation Services) [includes project plan, coordination of resources,
ongoing liaison with client, draft translation, glossary compilation, proofreading,
and delivery]. See also his chart on translation skill clusters. Gouadec (c. 3)
breaks down the translation process into more than 150 steps.
Melby 1998 also features a useful workflow; it appears in Celia Rico Pérez's
article, "Translation and Project Management", wherein the project manager's
tasks are enumerated. (http://accurapid.com/journal/22project.htm)
Tip: One way to illustrate the importance of a fine-tuned workflow is to post a
source text online, then give students the directive that they will all receive a
single group grade for whatever translation is posted at a certain time (say, two
days later at a certain hour). Assign no leaders. Make it clear that the translation
may be edited, Wiki style, by anyone in the class at any time up to the deadline.
Debriefing: Did students organize some kind of team and workflow, or were there
random entries and last-minute battling changes? Another format: Strictly
organize one group and set up communication channels for them (e.g. an online

forum, staging server, etc.); for the other group, allow no communication between
them--only unlimited edits to the online target text. Then compare work
experiences and outcomes.
Tip: Samuelsson-Brown's books are highly practical for the translator just
breaking in; the organizational and business aspects of the profession are covered
nicely.
[hand icon] Handout: Ranking the Top 20 Translation Companies (R. Beninatto
and D. DePalma). Or send students to link: www.translationdirectory.com/
article523.htm or project in class. Name recognition of these 20 largest translation
suppliers is important; it is instructive as well to watch acquisitions, mergers, and
other industry trends; this updated information may be followed regularly through
Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
Knowing the Marketplace
This task is introductory enough that it fits in c. 1; most other
professionally focused tasks can be found in the Appendices.
Insist on analysis here, not simply accumulation of disparate data.
Students should spend a good hour or two on this, and if done properly, this
exercise can be eye-opening and very successful. You may also wish to include it
as apart of a take-home translation exam. Either way, students will have much to

remark on, so allow time for debriefing this task. This task helps students learn to
trust their own perceptions of trends, marketing strategies; students tend to be
vocal, even cynical, about certain web designs or content, particularly since they
will approach this task with certain expectations, not all of which will match the
reality. You may do a follow-up in the lab, for example, searching
www.latpro.com, a job-search site for bilinguals; have students document the skill
set pairings for the different jobs on offer under the key word “translation” (e.g.
bilingual copywriting, customer relations, etc.). On www.lisa.org, click on the
“Job/CV/resume postings” tab; many learning opportunities can be made with
these listings, even as an in-class investigation. Insist that students don’t give you
chatty, vague, anecdotal data (“Another thing I found interesting is…”). This is a
fact-finding, critical thinking exercise about industry organization and marketing.
Expect insight.
Incidentally, some instructors like to use the 7- and 9-minute Speak Your
Languages DVDs (www.speakyourlanguages.com) to show opportunities in the
language industry; they may be more geared, however, toward high school
students.
Tip: See Gouadec, Daniel, Translation as a Profession (Benjamins, 2007)
Tip (2): Help students brainstorm work situations in which translation skills or
awareness may be needed though translation may not be the primary field, e.g.

journalism (covering Spanish-speaking interviewees), social work (preparing or
project-managing culturally and linguistically appropriate materials), tech writing
(authoring for translation), human resources (international personnel
management), marketing (for a Hispanic market segment), etc. Though Manual
assumes at al times that the student will go into the language industry, review
alternate scenarios in which translation expertise might be applied (evaluating
translations for a company, hiring translators, internationalizing a product or
website, etc.) In their working lives students may have to purchase translations or
evaluate competing bids—in other words, they will have to become informed
consumers of translations.
Tip (3): Show students user-generated translations in online communities, which
depend on the goodwill of members to disseminate key information in multiple
languages. An example is the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative®:
http://dublincore.org/resources/translations/. In reference to the video game world,
Aranda (7) writes of “fan translations”, translations by users into languages the
manufacturers have not provided for.
Tip (4): Have students try to correlate the individual clients on an agency’s client
list with the probable type of texts translated/localized or services rendered. In
other words, can the students determine a relationship between clients listed and
how those clients might use translation? As clues, have students use the sites’
descriptions of their specializations offered.

Tip (5): Remind students that bids are often put in on jobs for a document to be
translated into multiple languages at one time.
Language Consultancy
This section is included as a reminder to the student that the language industry is
more than translation.
Software Localization
You may wish to go further into this; here we include it for completeness, though
with little attention beyond an introduction to the concept. Chapter 3 revisits
electronic tools and may be the appropriate space for a more sustained
presentation, perhaps case studies (Microsoft, etc.). Be aware of students' varying
levels of technical expertise.
Localization (defined): "The term 'localisation' [localization] has become a
commonly used label to denote the process of adapting a product (and
subsequently the accompanying product documentation) to the specific
requirements and conventions of the target culture (primarily for marketing
purposes, i.e. in order to sell a product in another culture). In the literature,
'localisation' is predominantly used with reference to the adaptation of computer

hardware and software, concerning the layout of the keyboard, the layout of the
user information on the monitor, the structure of help menus, etc…. In a wider
sense, localisation also applies to providing relevant contact addresses for after-
sale service and/or maintenance and repair (see also Snell-Hornby, 1999: 112ff).
These aspects need to be taken into account when translating the accompanying
documentation as well." (Nord 53)
[hand icon] ATA Model Contract. Hand out and discuss clauses: method and
format of delivery, fees, confidentiality, translation and property of client,
indemnification and hold-harmless clause, etc.
Works cited
Aranda, Lucia V. Handbook of Spanish-English Translation. Lanham: University
Press of America, 2007.
Beninatto, Renato, and Donald A. DePalma. "Ranking the Top 20 Translation
Companies." Common Sense Advisory July 2005. 23 May 2007.
< http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/members/res_cgi.php/050701_
QT_top_20.php >.
Campbell, Stuart. Translation into the Second Language. London and New York:

Longman, 1998.
González, Julia and Robert Wagenaar. Tuning Educational Structures in
Europe:Final Report:Phase One. Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto. 2003.
Green, Yaacov Jeffrey. Thinking Through Translation. Athens: University of
Georgia Press, 2001
Mayoral Asensio, Roberto. Translating Official Documents. Northampton: St.
Jerome, 2003.
Nord, Christiane. Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches
Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome, 1997.
Pérez, Celia Rico. "Translation and Project Management." Translation Journal 6.4
(2002). 23 May 2007. < http://accurapid.com/journal/22project.htm >.
Robinson, Douglas. Becoming a Translator: An Introduction to the Theory and
Practice of Translation. New York: Routledge, 2003.
Samuelsson-Brown, Geoffrey. Managing Translation Services. Buffalo:
Multilingual Matters, 2006.

Sapir, Edward. Culture, Language and Personality: Selected Essays. Ed. D. G.
Mandelbaum. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1949.
Schaffner, Christina. “Developing Professional Translation Competence Without a
Notion of Translation”. Translation in Undergraduate Degree
Programmes. Kirsten Malmkjaer, ed. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John \
Benjamins, 2004.
Simeoni, Daniel. 1998. “The Pivotal Status of the Translator’s Habitus”. Target
10:1. 1-40.
"The Translator’s Charter." International Federation of Translators 1963/1996.
23 May 2007. < http://www.fit-ift.org/en/charter.php >.
Whorf, Benjamin. L. Language, Thought and Reality: Selected Writings of
Benjamin Lee Whorf. Ed. J. B. Carroll. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1956.
Suggestions for Chapter 1 Quiz
Note: To review the terms and concepts from Chapter 1, make up a “Translation
industry bingo” game with game cards, markers, and prompts. This is a good way

to summarize content. Bring a prize for the winner (an Easy-Reader book holder,
specialized dictionary, jump drive, mousepad, subscription to Translation Review,
etc.; if material prizes are too extravagant, play for points.)
A c. 1 quiz might include scenarios such as:
A client adds ten pages to your workload by the same agreed-upon deadline. How
does the ATA Code apply to this situation?
Or it can expand on, or ask for clarification of, precepts within the Code:
"Give two examples of disputes that the following clause is designed to prevent:
'I will clarify all aspects of my contractual relationship with my client, preferably
in writing, prior to performing any assignment…’"
In the first example, recall is tested, plus application of the general to the specific.
In the second, comprehension, deductive reasoning, and analytical skills are
tested as the student posits interpersonal conflict scenarios.
Note: A “casebook method” of teaching translation ethics—specific cases from
which students derive general principles—can be supplemented with a deductive
method, whereby students must interpret from a norm to a case instead of the
reverse. That is, the governing principle is given and the student must determine

applicability or imagine instances. Deduction is usually more difficult for
inexperienced translators.
Short essay
Name typical steps in the translator qualification process. [Be sure students are
assigned to read “Translation Tip: The Qualification Process” [(l10nbridge site:
http://partners.lionbridge.com/Qualification_Process.asp]
In what ways is the translator’s job description changing and expanding?
What are some characteristics of translations? What are some characteristics of
poor translations?
What are three pros and three cons of both freelance and in-house translation?
You know first-hand that being bilingual and being a translator are two different
things. But how well can you explain to the layperson why this is so?
“Study translation? You have to study that? I’ll just grab a guy who speaks Spanish
to translate my web site.”
Reply to this person as thoroughly as you can, drawing on what you have learned
thus far. Prepare some concrete examples and reasoned explanations so you are
ready for when you hear the comments above. Not if, when. Optional: Mock up a
“caveat emptor” feature for prospective translation buyers (website or brochure
copy).
ID (identification) [e.g. choose 5 of 10 to define or exemplify]

Tower of Babel
translation competences
norms
Sapir-Whorf theory
Spanish-dominant
domain
initiator/commissioner/translator/addressee/user
language consultancy
client education
localization
Research (can be given out beforehand and made into identification questions)
Define and delimit language-service provider.
Define GILT industry.
Compare and contrast translation organization charts at multinational
organizations (e.g. the EC)
Interlingual translation (en>en)
[Give a passage of officialese, economic jargon or another specialized language.
Intralingual translation—paraphrase—will serve as a measure of comprehension

and carefulness in re-encoding. Be sure the text has enough internal clues that the
task can be performed under exam conditions.]
Optional project: humanitarian translation
Produce a group translation in the domain of humanitarian translation (see
Appendices). Arrange it with an actual agency or international organization, and
submit, first making sure the collective product meets acceptable standards.
Chapter 2
Warm-up: As a group, brainstorm a working definition of translation. Students
can research before class meets. Lead students through each component of the
definition-in-progress, making sure the term is covered in as many of its
dimensions as possible. This exercise should force students to think in concrete
terms about what is involved with the complex activity that is translation. Prompt
them if any key notions are left out (e.g. audience). Don’t worry too much about

jargon, but question notions of "equivalence" if the word is suggested. Have five
or six definitions by scholars to work from or inspire suggestions.
[hand icon] Handout: Translation as a discipline and an interdiscipline (see Hatim and
Munday, 8)
Three Types Of Translation
Pictures can be combined with target-country words at first, until end-users learn
the intended associations.
Tip: Send students after multiple visual translations of a single meme or idea, e.g.
“Keep frozen”, which is represented variously as a penguin, a snowflake, and a
thermometer. Discuss findings from the cultural, linguistic anthropological, and
psycholinguistic points of view. Have students brainstorm other non-alphabetic
signifying systems (Michelin’s stars or forks, etc.)
Cultural Signs
Point out that street signs lend themselves to ambiguity: show students others
also--the electric shock sign (man electrocuted), the medical symbol (snake
around pole), etc. The idea here is to defamiliarize the familiar to show that
meanings ascribed to signs are conventional, not intrinsic.

The implications of signs for translation are tremendous. Take the case of
graphic interfaces. It is said, for example, that Macintosh’s trash can icon is taken
to be a mailbox by Britons!
Intralingual Translation
Be sure students don't use any idiomatic phrases (e.g. "cut the other driver off").
As a follow-up to this exercise, give students a brief text for them to restate in
their own words. Variation: make the task more challenging by giving them a list
of synonyms they can't use.
1. Storms are coming; it's going to rain hard tonight.
2. There are connections from people geographically distant from one another.
3. The same standards apply (or should apply) to men and women alike.
4. This material is a new way to help prevent rust.
5. At 10 p.m., one driver ignored traffic signs, driving into a second driver's lane,
which forced the second driver off the road.
6. In my humble opinion, good job. Talk to you later.
7. Thank you! / How kind!
8. I want a job as a garbage man. I am big, and I want a steady job.
9. I have had so much bad luck, I can't tell good luck from bad anymore.
10. Son, what is wrong with you?
11. You have to risk, think creatively, and improve performance.

12. She's very special.
13. [expression of admiration, exasperation, or surprise]
14. That idiot policeman wouldn't let me on the subway with my baby carriage.
15. I took action before others to see if it was safe to do so.
16. [exclamation of frustration]. Mother will be very angry when she sees you
(pl.).
17. Contains sugar, salt, and caffeine
18. One must have a fully stocked, integral kitchen, but those who know food
must be lively hosts.
19. The patient has died.
20. We sent spies, the hotel was broken into, then we tried to conceal our actions.
We made mistakes.
Reading as translation
(A possible intralingual translation:)
“Translation is a form of expression in which one is forced to make choices.
There are many ways that a writer or speaker’s meaning can vary in
interpretation. Translations must resemble their originals, though not at all
points—a translation may suggest alternatives that lie within the text, the reader,
and the translator. [One must project who is the creative force.]”

Point out to students how in common parlance, “translation” is often used to mean
clarification. (Ask them for an example of this usage. Explain that translation
proper does not perforce adhere to this meaning—the translator’s de facto task is
not to simplify, even if translators often do so.) However, translators interpret,
and understanding frequently entails simplifying to oneself first.
[hand icon]
6 Common Errors of the Novice Translator
1 -- Forsaking the mot juste (exact word) for a pleasant-sounding one, more
apparently learned one, or more dazzling one that causes distortion.
2 -- Sometimes as a corollary of #1, lacking the discipline to find the proper
register, tone or even meaning for a word or phrase.
3 -- Partially understanding the work being translated, glossing over the most
troublesome parts without scrutiny; often novice translators will "bury" their
misreadings in such a way that they--dangerously--go undetected.
4 -- Translating words vs. translating ideas (this sometimes as a corollary of #3).
Seemingly a case of misplaced fidelity, it in fact often stems from failure to recast
sentences or fully process meaning.
5 -- Settling for unnatural collocations or constructions, which produce an
unpolished or unfinished final version.

6 -- Leaving unchallenged one’s first reading of a word, phrase, passage or entire
text; in other words, delivering a text before running "diagnostic checks" for
potential problems.
These are general errors, and are treated here as errors in that they are decision-
based, be it with respect to procedure (choice) or quality control (thoroughness,
consistency, and accuracy of procedure).
Tip: “Unpack” student assumptions about translation with the prompt “A poor
translation _____________________” and “A good translation
__________________”; let students define these qualifications for themselves
first. Help them sift through the differences.
Genre Expectations
This exercise can be done at home. Select volunteers to read theirs aloud. As a
follow-up, ask what research was done to prepare the parody.
Tip: Do some comparative text-type analyses. Assign a pairs task: Create a small
corpus of English and Spanish texts in a chosen field; list apparent differences in
conventional usage norms. Focus on register, style, etc. Present summarized
findings to the class.

Textual Circumstances
Answers:
1. Patient education: www.colgate.com
2. Morgue (traditional sign at entrance)
3. www.fech.al/cpi/cpi/docs/sesion39.html
4. Academic meeting minutes
5. Mass transit sign ("How to use the bike rack"): www.riversidetransit.com.bus-
info/bikes-Span.htm
6. TeleBanker (Metropolitan Bank):
www.metropolitanbank.com/Spanish/telebanker_guide.htm
7. Library cataloguing (MARC record)
8. Letter of guarantee
9. Poetry (passage from Allen Ginsberg's Howl)
10. How-to instructions ("How to Build a Deck"), www.ehow.com
11. Menu disclaimer
12. Patent (excerpt)
As a follow-up to this activity, give students a scenario and have them name all
the possible connections translation could have with the given scenario; e.g.
airplane travel (air traffic control, in-flight magazines, safety brochures, signage,
money exchange, customs declaration forms, etc.) You might also given the
students pairs of similar text types and ask what features distinguish them. [Tip:
Consider the role of T & I in immigration—passenger interviews via language
lines. See, for example, Language Line Services, www.languageline.com.)
Idea: Play “Translation or not a translation?” Give students texts and have them
guess whether or note they are translations (exercise is from Tim Parks’
Translating Style). What assumptions do students bring to translation?
Determining Connotations
Positive (+), negative (-), neutral (N), depends (D). Note that the exercise seeks to
explore not individual or group responses to certain words, but to what extent the
words themselves have accumulated emotional charges. For example, some
groups are unsympathetic to the homeless; we cannot therefore call the word
"homeless" a negative word because some use it with contempt. We are also not
concerned with idiosyncratic redefinitions ("Being stubborn is a good thing.").
Answers may vary greatly here; see how discussion may persuade revision. The
handout follows below; below it are some possible solutions.
1. locuaz, elocuente, hablador, charlatán, bocón, lenguaraz, no tener pelos en la
lengua, tener mucha labia, hablar con soltura
2. femenino, afeminado, feminoide, feminista, fémina, mujeril

3. stocky, chubby, plump, heavyset, stumpy, gordo, gordito, rechoncho
4. bum, drifter, hobo, tramp, transient, vagabond, homeless, globetrotter,
vagabundo, vagamundo, golfo
5. inexpensive, cheap
6. stubborn, headstrong, strong-willed, determined, persistent
7. underground, undercover, clandestine
8. south, north, east, west
9. shrewd, sly, crafty, astuto, listo, ingenioso, furtivo, malicioso
10. mercantilism, mercantilismo
11. invention, contraption, newfangled, innovative, moderno, novedoso
12. cohort, accomplice, partner, co-conspirator
13. corporate, corporation, business, mom-and-pop operation, tax shelter, writeoff
14. notoriety, fame
15. witch, healer, medicine man, doctor, brujo, curandero, shamán
16. yellow, blue, verde, zona rosa
17. to support, to urge, to push, to insist, to pressure
18. malinger, simulate, pretend, imitate, fake, copy
19. to fire, to dismiss, to let go, to can, to ax, to discharge, to downsize, to
terminate, echar, correr, despedir
20. subterfuge, alibi, pretext, dodge, maniobra, manipulación, artimaña
Possible solutions:

1. locuaz (N) , elocuente (+), hablador (-), charlatán (-), bocón (-), lenguaraz (-),
no tener pelos en la lengua (+), tener mucha labia (+), hablar con soltura (+)
2. femenino (+ or D), afeminado (-), feminoide (-), feminista (D), fémina (N or +),
mujeril(D)
3. stocky (N), chubby (- or D), plump (-), heavyset (N), stumpy (-), gordo (-),
gordito
(-), rechoncho (-)
4. bum (-), drifter (-), hobo (N), tramp (-), transient (D), vagabond (N), homeless
(N), globetrotter (+), vagabundo (-), vagamundo (-), golfo (-)
5. inexpensive (+), cheap (D)
6. stubborn (-), headstrong (D), strong-willed (D), determined (+), persistent (D)
7. underground (D), undercover (N), clandestine (N)
8. south (D), north (+), east (N), west (N) [note: "to go south" is to break or fail]
9. shrewd [D], sly [D], crafty [+], astuto [D], listo [+], ingenioso [+], furtivo [N],
malicioso [-]
10. mercantilism [+], mercantilismo [-]
11. invention [+], contraption [-], newfangled [-], innovative [+], moderno [+],
novedoso [+] [note: moderno/a could conceivable be negative for an old-
fashioned person; students should be aware that the word can convey the idea of
"hip" or "trendy".]
12. cohort [D], accomplice [-], partner [N], co-conspirator [-] [a "cohort" can be a
group or an abettor]

13. corporate [D], corporation [D], business [N], mom-and-pop operation [D], tax
shelter [N], writeoff [N]
14. notoriety [-], fame [+] [Arguably "notoriety" may be desired by some,
therefore "D"]
15. witch [D], healer [+], medicine man [D], doctor [N], brujo [D], curandero
[N], shamán [N]
16. yellow [D], blue [D], verde [D], zona rosa [D]
17. to support [+], to urge [+], to push [D], to insist [N], to pressure [-]
18. malinger [-], simulate [N], pretend [N], imitate [D], fake [-], copy [N]
19. to fire [-], to dismiss [N], to let go [N], to can [-], to ax [-], to discharge [N], to
downsize [N], to terminate [- or N], echar [-], correr [-], despedir [N]
20. subterfuge [-], alibi [N], pretext [N], dodge [-], maniobra [N], manipulación [-
], artimaña [-]
Follow-up: Give students series of pairs of apparent synonyms, such as
“mentality” and “mindset”, and ask about their relative connotative charges.
Recognizing Euphemisms
Spanish-language texts with euphemistic language can be passed out for students
to find English terms or phrases that function in a similar way. Alternately, texts
with dysphemisms (in a subsequent chapter we will look specifically at insults).
You might compare (es<>en) for example, eulogies or obituaries on this point.

1. hijo natural (≈"love child") [Discuss: "out of wedlock"]
2. acompañante (≈"escort", "date")
3. indispuesto (≈"indisposed", "under the weather")
4. institución (≈"mental health facility", "institution", "home")
5. inodoro (≈commode", "facilities")
6. miércoles (≈"crud", "rats", etc.)
7. campaña aérea (≈"aereal campaign")
8. compañera (≈"friend", "partner", "significant other")
9. aventura amorosa (≈"[extramarital] affair") [Discuss: "fling"]
10. drogodependiente (≈"chemically dependent")
11. envergadura (≈"girth", "huskiness", "carriage"; adj.: "plus size", "heavyset",
"big-boned")
12. en vías de desarrollo (≈"developing")
13. verde (≈"off-color", "blue") [note: only certain collocations]
14. tripulante de cabina (≈"flight crew member")
15. estar en la tercera edad (≈"to be of a certain age", "golden agers", "senior
citizens")
16. entregar el alma (≈”to give up the ghost”, “to pass (on)”)
Discussion prompt: To what extent, if any, do you think euphemisms and political
correctness obscure the truth?

Optional: Give a sample text with euphemistic or dysphemistic language. Discuss
issues for translation.
Diminutives and Augmentatives > Activities
1. golpe (widest) > autogolpe (narrower) > fujimorazo (narrowest)
2. semaforazo = the culturally specific practice of robbery at a red light
golazo = a dramatic or important football (soccer) goal
paquetazo = [various possibilities:] economic shock; structural adjustment
package; austerity measures
3. muertitos = beloved departed family members remembered during Día de los
Muertos
4 dedazo = "hand-picked [successor]", appointment not by voters but by the
incumbent president; the antidemocratic, corrupt practice is much-maligned but
stood for many years in the PRI in Mexico
Tip: See also Guide to Spanish Suffixes, Dorothy M. Devney. Lincolnwood, Ill.:
Passport Books, 1992
Follow-up: On the NAJIT court interpreter list, one poster queried how the
headline “Cocazo!” could be translated; it refers to a seized ton or more of

cocaine. Try this one on students, varying the type of publication the headline
would appear in (New York Post, etc.).
Translation and Connotation (Case Study): George Orwell's 1984
1st excerpt: the notion of a target text that restricts and destroys the original, rather
than complementing it (a kind of anti-instrumentality); "should be literally
unthinkable": the relationship of language and thought (without the language,
thought is impossible). Words stripped of connotations artificially--sustainability
of a language without secondary meanings? With less though, less dissent
possible. Role of translation in modern life to propagate dissenting ideas (The
Communist Manifesto for much of the twentieth century was among the most
translated texts on Earth).
2nd excerpt: parable of context in translation--meaning is dependent on full
understanding of the language. Language is presented not as a system of
communication but of the destruction of meaning production. Certainly this has a
relationship with prescriptivist ideas of language, language as enforcing and
controlling force, politically, linguistically, and psychologically.
3rd excerpt: the project described is one of revisionism through translation,
essentially censorship via translation. Rather than individual works, the
wholesale translation of one language to another implies a misguided attempt at

thought control, one larger in scope but similar in kind to the "doublespeak" of
totalitarian regimes. The destruction of works from the past is a hallmark of this
type of government, usually under the pretense that these works are "decadent",
taboo, or subversive in some way; this contrasts with democratic societies, which
in general archive and memorialize their pasts' collective wisdom by preserving
their great works. The perverse irony in Orwell is chilling--translation, not book
burning, is the arduous, time-consuming task that was required to destroy these
works for posterity.
Translation Teaser: Guess the Context
Capitalized, these are common names given the Seven Dwarfs in Spanish.
“What dictionary should I get?”
Tip: Assign Orellana’s Glosario as a required text on your syllabus from the first
semester.
Tip (2): In class or in the lab, have students compare sample entries from
dictionaries and online forums such as www.proz.com/search, for example the
keyword <grassroots> or <outreach>, en>spa. Have students explore and compare
the offerings online and in print; best is to give a short (2-line) excerpt from an
international organization document including the phrase. Try a passage with a

word/phrase that renders most dictionaries out of date; e.g. <to network>, or
<uplink into the network>.
Tip (3): Start students off right: Remind them that dictionaries are for
brainstorming and confirming hunches, not for “translating” an unknown word or
phrase. They must unlearn dictionary habits in order to learn new ones. Forbid
pocket dictionaries in class, without exception. (Note: Placing specific general
dictionaries on the syllabus generally does not work well; shipping delays are
notorious. If a dictionary is put on order with your campus bookstore, insist that
the dictionary ordered be that one and no other, lest poorer substitutions be given
to you.)
Tip (4): Assign very short in-class texts that must be understood without the aid of
dictionaries. Students, out of force of habit, will grumble that they need them;
assign very carefully chosen texts that can be comprehended on the strength of
their own internal logic. Let students produce best-guess glosses for unfamiliar
terms and phrases. Then discuss. Students should be able to answer “What’s the
main idea in this text?” without resorting to the wording of the text itself. (See
also gisting, c. 4).
Tip (5): Tell students more about using dictionaries, including specific features of
bilingual dictionaries that are good to be aware of:
field labels: italicized, parenthetical indicators of semantic fields—e.g. "(Geol)"
if the word is used in that subject area. (More on semantic fields in Chapter 3.)

cross references: denoted by the symbol "="; an indication to see another entry, to
note alternate spellings, or to note usage in another geographical area (e.g. "rasar"=
arrasar)
homographs: a word written the same but of a different part of speech and with a
different meaning. These are often given separate headwords (bold entries)
marked with superscripts (raised numbers); e.g. fuga1 nf escape; fuga2 nf (Mús)
fugue
guidewords: words at the top of the dictionary page showing the alphabetical
range of words covered on that page
inflected forms: words with different syntactic functions made from the same
base; e.g., comparatives and superlatives from adjectives, forms of the verb from
an infinitive (run, running for ran)
Resisting Translation
Read this passage to students: “We will never grasp the spirit of the foreign
language if we first translate each word into our mother tongue and then associate
it with its conceptual affinity in that language—which does not always correspond
to the concepts of the source language—and the same holds true for entire
sentences.” Arthur Schopenhauer, “On Language and Words”
Lexical lacunae or culturally bound words and phrases are appropriate here. Give
students a few days to come up with some, then share in class.

1. Some others include: olvido, peña, arepa (and any number of other food items),
madrina (when used as a form of address), ya (often omitted or requires
supplement for emphasis), intervención (in the sense of one's participation in
something), fiesta, gentilicio, entremes (the theatrical genre), faena (communal
work to complete a task that is rewarded with a party for all workers),
togetherness (although convivencia can convey this in some circumstances),
troubleshooter, insourcing, double standard, etc. In model 5, the elusive sense of
duende appears, for example, in the phrase "tiene duende"≈ It has a
magic/charm/divine spark.
2. Many proverbs resist translation--"Camarón que se duerme, se lo lleva la
corriente", "Los hijos del zapatero no tienen zapatos", "Otra cosa es con guitarra";
they may, however, have partial counterparts: For "Camarón…", a more or less
serviceable saying in English is "Make hay while the sun shines". The argument
can be made that translation of proverbs will entail loss as long as understanding
depends on sayings that have fallen out of currency.
3. This category will take some thinking. Political cartoons, even if translated
with dazzling resourcefulness and cultural awareness, can fall flat without a great
deal of context. The same with much humor. Other text types qualify here.
Polysemy>Case Study: Choosing Plausible Meanings
Possible answers (student answers will tend to vary):

TT1: 5 / "We have been the closest of friends" (modulation: "He has been my
dearest friend."
TT2: 2/5 / "The U.K., committed supporters of peace" {discuss: staunch = loyal,
faithful, steadfast; advocate}
TT3: ø / "Working with chemicals involves/entails health risks/hazards." or re-
cast: "There are health risks associated with working with chemicals."
TT4: 5 / "My heartfelt greetings to out to my brothers in the Opiscopate."
TT5: 1 / "My dance begins in the belly and takes shape in the head" {discuss
"gut"}
TT6: 3/4 / "Martí in the belly of the beast"
TT7: 3 / "You can descend into the bowels of the earth like the great explorers"
TT8: 1/ ø / "The intestines are a special dish, and one that is highly typical of the
local cuisine."
Polysemy And Multilingual Virtual Libraries (optional task)
Determine what the word “translation” means in each excerpt below from the
LOGOS multilingual virtual library, Wordtheque.
Context information for: translation
Match N. 1
Author: Twain Mark

Title: Life On The Mississippi
Source: http://www.selfknowledge.com/lmiss11.htm
Subject: Fiction (813)
... violent spasmodic jerkings of his head and body, for some little time. Finally,
explanation to the effect that spirits often forget dates, such things being without
importance to them.) Q. Then this one has actually forgotten the date of its
translation to the spirit land? This was granted to be the case. Q. This is very
curious. Well, then, what year was it? (More fumbling, jerking, idiotic spasms, on
the part of the medium. Finally, explanation to the effect that the
Match N. 4
Author: Cunninghame Graham Robert Bontine
Title: A Vanished Arcadia
Source: http://promo.net/pg/_authors/i-_graham_r_b_cunning
Subject: English Fiction (823)
... suspension from all his functions. This the Jesuit who translated the documents
into Spanish for the purpose of publication drew his attention to. However,
Cardenas was not a man to be intimidated by so small a matter, but read the
translation to the people in the Cathedral, and intimated to them that the Pope
had given him unlimited power in Paraguay, both in matters spiritual and

temporal. Though Don Gregorio, the Governor, was present at the ceremony, he
made no protest
Match N. 5
Author: Freud Sigmund
Title: The Interpretation Of Dreams
Source: http://www.ul.cs.cmu.edu/books/FreudDream/interpre
Subject: Paranormal Phenomena & Arts (130)
... dream-symbolism, but also how in many cases it is imperatively forced upon
one. At the same time, I must expressly warn the investigator against
overestimating the importance of symbols in the interpretation of dreams,
restricting the work of dream-translation to the translation of symbols, and
neglecting the technique of utilizing the associations of the dreamer. The two
techniques of dream-interpretation must supplement one another; practically,
however, as well as theoretically, precedence is retained by the latter process,
which
Match N. 27
Author: Hardy Thomas
Title: Jude The Obscure
Source: http://www.mk.net/~dt/Bibliomania/Fiction/hardy/Ju

Subject: English Fiction (823)
... who called Jude `Father,'' and Sue `Mother,'' and a hitch in a marriage
ceremony intended for quietness to be performed at a registrar's office, together
with rumours of the undefended cases in the law-courts, bore only one
translation to plain minds. Little Time - for though he was formally turned into
`Jude,'' the apt nickname stuck to him - would come home from school in the
evening, and repeat inquiries and remarks that had been made to him by
Match N. 65
Author: Dyer Frank Lewis - Commerford Martin Thomas
Title: Edison, His Life And Inventions
Source: http://promo.net/pg/_titles/i-_e1.html#edisonhisli
Subject: Miscellaneous Writings (818)
... is true that in an electric-lighting system there is also a fall or loss of electrical
pressure which occurs in overcoming the much greater resistance of the filament
in an incandescent lamp. In this case there is also a translation of the energy, but
here it accomplishes a USEFUL purpose, as the energy is converted into the form
of light through the incandescence of the filament. Such a conversion is called
"work" as distinguished from "drop," although a fall of

Note: “The Wordtheque is a powerful interface with a massive database
(currently 707.737.941 words) containing multilingual novels,
technical literature and translated texts. Hits are highlighted in
context windows that can be expanded up or down. To go to the
source web pages (novels, etc.) click on the title - to run a
dictionary search click on the highlighted word or phrase.”
http://www.logosfreebooks.org/pls/wordtc/new_wordtheque.main?
lang=en&source=search, Output is from English >word =
“translation”.
1. (Twain): “Translation” here means conveyance to heaven
2. (Cunninghame): a version of a [religious] text
3. (Freud): interpretation, exegesis
4. (Hardy): to simplify
5. (Dyer): to convert, transform
“To translate” can also mean to move religious relics from one place to another,
or to go into raptures.
You may wish to show students a virtual library and hyperlinked concordances
(more in c. 3).
Puns (case study)

Puns are attention-getting, and perhaps equate in the reader/viewer’s mind the
novelty of their linguistic juxtaposition with the innovation of the product.
Ambiguity is an issue not just in literary and cultural translations. Sophie Hurst
(“Solid Foundations for Efficient Translations”) shows that word category
ambiguities can frustrate machines and humans alike: What, the author asks, does
“Name Display method” mean?—“Provide the name of the display method” or
“Method for displaying names”? (Multilingual: Writing for Translation (Getting
Started Guide), Oct/Nov. 2006, 7-9)
“Power plant” might work as planta de energía.
Optional: Polysemy (case study)
Tip: Give students a passage with the word “bid”, not in the sense of the tendering
of an offer (licitación), but more along the lines of venture, attempt (to attain
something). Repeat with other polysemous words.
Optional: See if students can find “bid” in the sense of potential Olympic host
sites—give them a short passage for context (tip: candidatura). Search strategy:
Arrive via <candidatos>.
[hand icon] Polysemy: Bilingual Word Search (Es>En)

[COMP: SET AS WORD SEARCH]
Find a conceivable translation (es>en) for each bold word in context. Find the
English vertically, horizontally, diagonally, backwards or forwards in the sopa de
letras (word search) and write in each solution on the proper line. Ojo: some false
solutions have been worked into the puzzle--be sure your solutions fit the context.
____________________________________________________________________________
j o i n t s d n a r r e a
g c e d u c a t i o n r s
n c u k n o w l e d g e p
i a q s m o u n t a i n o
n s u c t e s s u m m i t
i i l i s s e p r a y e r
a o h e t j n e w a l f o
r n s n a u t i r g n o r
t h a c i n l c a u o r d

x r n e n d n h s e f e e
s t i g s a c r e s t s r
m p i n t e r p r e t s d
p e r f o r m s c c i o n
____________________________________________________________________________
1. En esta coyuntura, no tengo nada que comentar. __________________________
2. Esa canción fue el éxito del año. __________________________
3. La oración es parte de muchas religiones. __________________________
4. Las cimas de las olas se ponen blancas en alta mar. ____________________
5. El profesor es un pozo de ciencia. __________________________
6. Se fue al monte a vivir de forma natural. __________________________
7. Mi formación fue en informática. __________________________
8. El diamante tiene una mancha nada pequeña. __________________________
9. Hago encargos por la tarde. __________________________
10. Ese cantante interpreta mal mi canción. __________________________
Solutions:
occasion (second column vertical)

hit (third to fifth column diagonal)
prayer (sixth row horizontal)
crests (antepenultimate row horizontal)
knowledge (third row horizontal)
wilds (ninth column backwards diagonal)
training (first column reverse vertical)
flaw (seventh row reverse horizontal)
errands (first row reverse horizontal)
performs (bottom row horizontal)
Lexical Differences: Distinguishing Terms (optional task)
Distinguish the following pairs, series of words, or phrases in the opposite
language of the language pair (es<>en). If there is no possible way to distinguish
the terms without circumlocution (roundabout description), note the fact; do the
same if any have identical referents. Go beyond merely looking the terms up in a
bilingual dictionary. Contextualize into linguistic environments in which the
distinctions would be meaningful. Prepare to discuss.
1. drug dealer, drug trafficker
2. abortion, miscarriage
3. cranberry, huckleberry, whortleberry, blueberry
4. nuts, walnuts

5. hangman, executioner
6. papa, batata, camote, ñame
7. picador, matador, torero
8. forastero, extranjero, ajeno
9. dove, pigeon
10. just, fair
11. morcilla, chorizo, salchicha, salchichón, longaniza
12. jai alai, pelota, pelota vasca, pilota (valenciana)
13. te quiero, te amo
14. cilantro, coriander
15. myocardial infarction, heart attack, heart failure, heart disease, stroke
16. freedom fighter, guerrilla
17. filibusterer, pirate, freebooter, corsair, buccaneer
Note: The TourisTerm database lists hotel de carretera for “motel”.
Discussion:
1. drug dealer, drug trafficker--narcotraficante for both
2. abortion, miscarriage--aborto vs. aborto espontáneo [the latter involuntary or
accidental]
3. cranberry, huckleberry, whortleberry, blueberry--arándano? mirtilos? the
calque mora azul?; cranberry can be arándano agrio--confusing since sometimes

just arándano [e.g. pavo con salsa de arándano]; arándano rojo?; note: a good
generic way to render "berries" is bayas or frutos secos, though not in all
countries [mercifully we will leave out the matter of dewberries, loganberries,
boysenberries, and gooseberries]
4. nuts, walnuts--nueces (generic), nogales
5. hangman, executioner--verdugo [Celestina quote]
6. papa, batata, camote, ñame--potato, sweet potato, yam
7. picador, matador, torero--borrowings: matador, torero; bullfighter; picador
rarely used in English except in more specialized contexts
8. forastero, extranjero, ajeno--outsider, foreigner, stranger
9. dove, pigeon--context only: paloma
10. just, fair--usu. justo [fair = balance of conflicting interests; eliminating one's
own bias; just = following a standard of what is right and proper]
11. morcilla, chorizo, salchicha, salchichón, longaniza--morcilla tends to be
"blood sausage"; chorizo, "pork sausage"; salchicha often is used as the generic
word for sausage or hot dog
12. jai alai, pelota, pelota vasca, pilota (valenciana)--jai alai, fronton [Florida]
13. te quiero, te amo--love ya, I love you
14. cilantro, coriander--cilantro is a borrowing and refers to coriander leaves;
coriander refers to entire plant; coriandro, cilantro, culantro
15. myocardial infarction, heart attack, heart failure, heart disease, stroke--
myocardial infarction and heart attack may be rendered as "infarto [del

miocardio]"; they differ in register. Heart failure = "insuficiencia cardíaca"; heart
disease = "patología cardíaca"; stroke may be apoplejía
16. freedom fighter, guerrilla--the first is more rhetorical; both usu. guerrilla
17. filibusterer, pirate, freebooter, corsair, buccaneer--filibustero, pirata, corsario,
bucanero
Cognates in Context: Consumer Text
Tip: Remind students to be cognizant of "casi cognados"--words that may be
understood in context but that do not collocate well--e.g. "el gobierno de
Carter">"The Carter administration" [not "government"]. Semi-false, this cognate
type is tempting, but creates viral, substandard locutions. There is also the case of
cognates that are serviceable but improvable: coincidencia for coincidence may
seem a good choice but it may not have the sense of ‘coincidence’ but rather
connote merely two events happening simultaneously; casualidad (in turn a
notorious false cognate) is to be preferred.
Tip: Examine Spanish-English Cognates / Los Cognados Españoles-Ingleses by
Richard D. Woods and Margaret McGinty Stovall, 2005 (www.univpress.com)
[hand icon] Read the newspaper column (below) on modern consumerism; it is
written in a geographically unmarked Spanish. For each word in bold, mark the

corresponding number with a " " to indicate those cognates that you think would
work as true cognates in an English translation; mark with an "≠' those cognates
you think are unequivocally false. For those cognates that you think are semi-false
or debatable (could arguably be true or false depending on one's interpretation),
or are potentially viable, mark with a "±". The cognates' status are to be
determined in the context of a translation of this particular text. Important: If the
cognate is not the best possible choice to use in the target text, you should not
mark it with a " ". Argue your choices in group discussion, and where you find
cognates to not be true, provide in the second blank space a word or phrase in
English that could be used to render it instead.
Ya no es posible callar algo que actualmente (1) amenaza la salud tanto mental
como financiera de nuesto país. Los mandarines de la propaganda (2), la gente
interesada (3) de Madison Avenue, manipulan nuestros impulsos inconscientes
de consumir, y tal situación nos deja a la merced de los fines lucrativos en vez del
bien común. La educación (4), lejos de ser una respuesta, parece más bien una
conspiración de silencio al respecto, y los niños ciegamente perpetúan los hábitos
de consumo de los mayores.
Para las etiquetas (5) de moda seductoras siempre hay un público (6) dispuesto a
gastar. Algunos hasta se matriculan (7) en el college que tenga más cachet o
renombre sin preocuparse por si el lugar puede servir bien sus necesidades.
Estamos cada vez más endeudados —la persona común y corriente ignora (8)
cuánto debe, los salarios (9) se mantienen bajos, y sin embargo seguimos
indispuestos (10) a ahorrar. Lo que no está al alcance de repente sí lo está con el
milagro del plan de pagos, que es un pacto (11) con el diablo. Los padres (12) de
niños sensibles (13) a su "imagen" se ven obligados (14) a dejar su brazo a torcer
a toda cuanta "necesidad" que surja. ¿A Pedrito le hace falta una computadora de
último modelo para su dormitorio (15)? ¡Regalada! ¿Susanita no puede sin una
carcasa (16) incrustada de joyas para lucir en la próxima fiesta (17)? ¡Carpe
diem! Todo al instante. Pero en el caso eventual (18) de que estemos subminando
las cualidades que más queremos inculcar (19) como padres —o sea, su
capacidad (20) de planear para el futuro, de cumplir con compromisos (21)
exigentes, y de trabajar con ilusión (22)— no ha llegado la hora de la famosa
autodisciplina?
Para mucha gente, comprar es la salida más rápida para la descarga de
cólera (23), de sentimientos de insatisfacción, o del aburrimiento. En el lecho de
agonía (24), ¿cuánto hay que tener? ¿y a qué precio (25)?
(solutions)
1. ≠; ‘currently’, ‘presently’
2. ≠; ‘advertising’
3. ±; semi-false: ‘self-interested’
4. ±; depends: ‘(formal) education’ or ‘upbringing’
5. ≠; ‘labels’ (‘designer labels’ in context)

6. ; ‘public’ or ‘audience’
7. ≠; ‘matriculate’ too narrow—‘enroll’
8. ≠; not ‘to ignore’ but ‘are unaware of’
9. ≠; not ‘salaries’ but ‘wages’
10. ≠; not indisposed but ‘unwilling’
11. ; ‘pact’ or ‘deal’
12. ±; semi-false—not ‘father’, but ‘parents’
13. ≠; not ‘sensible’ but’ sensitive’
14. ±; ‘obliged’ possible but ‘forced’ better
15. ≠; not ‘dormitory’ but ‘room’ [dorm is best as ‘residencia’]
16. ≠; extremely false—not carcass but ‘cell phone cover’
17. ≠; not ‘feast’ but ‘party’
18. ≠; not ‘eventual’ but ‘possible’
19. ±; ‘inculcate’ possible but very high register; ‘instill’
20. ±; ‘capacity’ conceivable, but ‘ability’ better
21. ≠; ‘commitments’, not ‘compromises’
22. ≠; not ‘illusion’, but ‘hope’
23. ≠; not ‘cholera’, but ‘anger’
24. ≠; not ‘agony, but ‘deathbed’ (lecho de agonía)
25. ; ‘price’ or ‘cost’
Alternatives to the Cognate

Possible solutions [note most are phrasals]: 1. come to order; 2. hedged / stalled;
3. bothers / bugs / annoys; 4. put at ease; 5. wanted / lusted for; 6. discuss / talk
over; 7. to tell apart / sort out; 8. get across; 9. shed light on; 10. to (take) leave
(of); 11. to unearth / root out / turn up; 12. come across / run into / find; 13.
needs;14. corrupted; 15. eaten away;16. lay aside / leave behind; 17. lay down /
lay out; 18. gaining / bearing down on; 19. take in; 20. looked over
Cognates In Context
The phrase "hombres en razón y urbanidad" should without question not be
rendered with the word "urbane", which is a false cognate, nor with the word
"courteous", which is completely irrelevant for this stage of human development.
The passage as a whole--which should be stressed to the students since it reveals
the key Latin American motif of civilization versus barbarie--describing the
arrival of law, society, farming and livestock husbandry. A key to the whole is
found in the Inca's statement "…como hombres racionales y no como bestias". In
other words, from beasts, they become thinking, reasoning beings. "Rational"
maybe is too suggestive of Enlightenment values. As for "urbanidad", the
monolingual Larousse tell us this refers to "comportamiento en el trato social con
el que se demuestra buena educación." Anything too modern such as "well-bred"
or "well-mannered" should be discarded. On a more basic level, this concept
suggests "civilized" (which ironically is still used with to connote refinement as

well as the opposite of savagery). "Civil" might be another strong choice, with its
overtones of peaceable people, which one is inclined to assume "bestias" would
not be.
The RAE lists “cortesanía, comedimiento, atención y buen modo.”
Discuss the possibility that this word’s meaning has drifted over the centuries.
Negotiating Cognates
"punto de venta"≈> "point of sale" literally; functionally, "upon signing"
[leaving the place implicit]
"que sí tiene detalles"≈> Now here's an apartment that's got it all! / Here's an
apartment with all the amenities of home! /This apartment’s got all the right
touches! /With this apartment, we truly have thought of everything! [This latter
option tries to combine two senses of detalle.]
"Calidad-Economía-Ubicación" ≈> Quality-Affordability-Location
"Entrega Inmediata"≈> Ready to Move In/Ready for Immediate Occupancy
"Sepáralos con sólo $80.000" ≈>80,000 down
"centro de Medellín"≈> downtown Medellín / Medellín city center
"unidad cerrada"≈> gated community [some discussion may arise here as to
what a "unidad" is--possibly this refers to the fact that each unit is self-contained]
"Zonas verdes"≈> lawn area, recreational park space
"Mucho ojo"≈> act now / hurry / don't delay [note functional translation called
for here]

How would you render the phrase "confort y comodidad"? Discuss.
--Merge to "comfort" or use a phrase showing nuances of both words.
For the English of "punto de venta", how is this defined in economics? Bring in a
good definition. Think of several different examples illustrating the concept. Find a
collocation with the term used as an adjective. Is there an alternative term for the
English you found? What is the difference between "POS" and "POP", if any, in
economics? [Answers will vary: Term “point of sale” may not even be the most
appropriate in translation in this context.]
What does "$" refer to in the text?
-Colombian pesos
Group Edit: Translating Meaning
First have a student give a summary of the meaning of this passage. Two ideas are
here: 1) a false choice between an autocratic order on the one hand or chaos on
the other is given to a frightened world; 2) examples of social malaise lead one to
seek a return to order and tradition. Students may point out that such a world
never existed; remind them that this is an editorial.

Intuitively, students may sense that the first sentence of the English is not
establishing the contrast well. One way to arrive at a better structuring of the ST is
to tease out the false cognates from “falso dilema”: this is in fact the fallacy, false
choice (give out a primer on fallacies). Ask or look for “sequestrations” as
improper word choice (prompts: Who gets sequestered?>Juries; Who deviates an
airship?>Air traffic controllers; What contexts does living together
occur?>Domestic living arrangements. Improvements: kidnappings, hijackings,
co-existence). Go to international organizations’ websites; find “peaceful co-
existence” and similar collocations. Important: A student may be seduced by
“deviations” instead of hijackings since there are more frequent ways of
expressing this in Spanish (secuestro de avión, piratería aérea, etc.). Remind them
that that argument plays the law of averages rather than responding to the text’s
logic. Students must see in the second sentence a series of calamitous events
(hence “facts” of urban guerrillas cannot be merely “facts” or even “existence”;
what is suggested here are acts [committed by]). Get students to see the idea of
arbitrary power in “orden indiscriminado”; i.e., authoritarian abuse. Ask if they
considered the issue of bias-free language (“shake the man”); offer ways around
that problem. Show them the entire article online in Spanish.
[Start Linguistic Note]
[hand icon] Linguistic Note
Spanish/English Interjections, Onomatopoeias, Echoics And Phatics
¡Puah!/Puoj! Yuck!/Ugh!

¡Fo!/Fuchi! Blech!/Pew!
¡Ñam, ñam, ñam! Yum, yum, yum (sound of contented eating)
¡Puf! Phew!
¡Hala! Get on with it!/So there!
¡Eh! Hey!/Huh!
¡Uf!/ ¡Ay! Ouch!/Ow!/Oo!/Ugh!
¡Chas! Splat!/Crack!/Thud!/Bam!
¡Clac! Crack!
¡Talán talán! Ding dong! (doorbell)
¡Tan tan! Knock knock! (also Wham, wham, as against metal)
¡Bú! Boo!
¡Uy! Oops!
¡Huy! Whoops!
¡Ta! Rat-tat-tat!
¡Tus! Good dog! / Here boy!
¡Tururús! So says you! / That’s what you think!
¡Uf! Whew!/Wow!
¡Jo! Jeez!/Yeesh!
¡Jo, jo! Ho, ho! (mocking laughter)
¡Ja ja! Ha ha (laughter)
¡Je, je! Hee hee (snickering)
¡Ah! Aw!
¡Ah!/Ay! Ooh!

¡Ha! Aha!/Ah!
¡Oh! Oh!
¡Ria! Haw!/Hup! (both to a horse)
¡So! Whoa!
¡Eco! ¡Ecole! Exactly! (Mex.)
¡Hurra! Huzza!/Hoorah!
¡Chitón!/¡Chis! Hush!
¡Yuju!/ ¡Eh! Yoo-hoo!
¡Aúpa! Upsy-daisy!
¡Rin rin! Ring, ring! (doorbell)
¡Vaya! Whew!
¡Ca! Not at all!/Never! (negation)
¡Brrum, brrum! Vroom, vroom! (motorcycle accelerating)
¡Zas! Zap!/Wham!/Pow!/(resonant blows only: Whang!)
Este... Um.../Hmm...
¡Ox!/Os!/Zape! Shoo!
¡Bah!/¡Pche! Pshaw!/Bah!
¡ñeeec, ñeeec! Squeak, squeak (mattress springs)
¡Sus! Buck up! Keep going!
¿Eh? Huh?/Hunh?
¡Achís! Achoo! (sneeze)
¡Tsst! Psst!
¡Miércoles! Fudge!/Crud!

¡Carape! Damn it!/Oh my!
¡Tintín!/¡Chin-chin! Clink (of glasses)
¡Caray! Good Lord!/Damn! (admiration)
¡Meca! Holy smokes!/Wow!
¡Mecachis! Darn it!
¡Glu, glu, glu! Glug glug glug (water pouring)
¡Tilín! Ding-a-ling (phone ringing)
¡Hip! Hic! (hiccough)
¡No! No!/Nope!/Nah!/Nuh-uh!
¡Plach! Splash!
Che! Oh dear! / Hey! / Who cares?
¡Piiii!, piiii! Honk, honk! (horn)/Beep, beep!
¡Cataplum! Bang!/Boom!/(for things falling only: Thud!)
¡Pum, pum! Pow pow!/Bang bang!/Rat-tat-tat (machine gun)
¡Híjole! (Méx.) Wow!/Man!/Dang!/Dude! (admiration; surprise)
¡Ni hablar! Nix!
¡Triquitraque! Clackety-clack (train)
¡Tris! Crack! /Rip!
¡Rataplán! Bata-boom/Rub-a-dub (of drums)
¡Anda(le)! So there!/What! (surprise)/Hurry up!/Come on now! (Mex.)
¡Olé! Bravo!/Well done!/ Yee-haw! (Chiefly
Southern)/Whoo-hoo! (cry of the spectator)
¡Bravo! Well done! (not as good as bravísimo)

[End Translation Teaser]
Componential Analysis
Componential analysis, whether or not we call it that as we perform it, is a key
cognitive operation as a translator measures the range of a term and the scope of
its overlap with potential counterparts in the target language. By isolating
"strands" of meaning, students can use this to determine tone, make distinctions
that are made in one language but not the other (e.g. the rincón / esquina example
offered elsewhere) or any of a number of intercultural variances (the
contextualized differences between confianza and trust), and, as described in this
Manual entry, to perform the groundwork for the technique of compensation.
Culturally Bound Terms
1. "sobresaliente" and "A" (on a transcript)--two different systems: the first is one
of 3 grades; the second, one of 5.
2. "siesta" and "nap"--siesta is broader, and can include traffic jams, the comida,
longer work hours at night; more ritualized due to midday heat.
3. "buey" and "cuckold"--differ in register and frequency; the "cuckold" is an
Elizabethan insult, buey is in a class of animals connoting the cornudo, or
cheated-on male.

4. "notario" and "notary public"--the notario is far more powerful, actually being
a lawyer; the notary public offers witness service and authentication of official
documents. Unscrupulous notary publics in U.S. border communities have been
known to exploit this false cognate among the unwary.
5. "la Raza" and "the race"--the first is politicized [see Día de la Raza discussion,
c. 4]
6. "rancho" and "slum"—rancho is a regional term for slum, but can mean ‘ranch’
elsewhere; ‘slum’ by now is rather pejorative.
7. "rector" and "chancellor"-- a rector is closer to 'President';
8. "S.A." and "Inc."--S.A. is a Sociedad Anónima; cf. SA de CV, which is closer
to a corporation [note: in translation into English, "S.A." usually maintained in
proper names of companies]
9. "criollo" and "creole"--criollo denotes something native or autochthonous
10. "modernismo" and "Modernism"--these refer to very different movements in
art; the first is the movement of Rubén Darío in Spanish America, the second
came around the time of WWI in Anglo-American art, and was led by such
figures as Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot
11. "charro" and "cowboy"—analogous but different—the charro is associated
with the Mexican rodeo tradition.
12. "rústico" and "redneck"—rústico can connote “backwoods” or “bumpkin”; a
redneck automatically implies a set of attitudes and behaviors associated with a
particular southern U.S. subclass.

13. "quinceañera" and "teenager"--the first is more particular, more or less the
arrival into young adulthood; a teenager is 13-19.
14. "churro" and "fritter"--the first is a specific pastry made of friend dough; the
second may be any of a number of foods that have been battered and fried
15. "mestizo" and "mixed race"--the first is Euro-Indo-African; the latter term is
broader in English
For discussion:
What strategy would you use to render the term "inner city" into Spanish?
[Provided it connoted a poor urban area, render the class and geography insofar
as it is possible: zona metropolitana/urbana pobre; barriada; barrio bajo;
suburbio; etc.; if not in city center, then del barrio periférico, de las afueras, etc].
Consider the connotations in English, and show how poorer areas tend to develop
in the Spanish-speaking world--not in the center of the city, but in outlying areas;
Mexico City is an example of this phenomenon. How many regional variants can
you find in Spanish for the poorest quarters in a city? How about the richest?
[Students should come to class with at least 6-10 for the poor quarters, divided by
country.] What is an urbanización? [development; residential area; housing
estate; community] How would you render "suburban" (OJO: false cognate) into
Spanish? [term denoting middle class, etc.] Does the English term have class
connotations? [cf. suburbia, suburbanite] How could the English borrowing
"barrio" (a semi-false cognate) be rendered (back) into Spanish? [barrio pobre]
Finally, can you think of a context or contexts in which "barrio" could, or should,

be rendered "borough"? [When the setting is New York City] As you work on
these questions, keep connotations in mind.
Follow-up: Ask students to solve the phrase “en la sombra” es>en in the
following passage on PayPal’s practices (from a site now inactive, author
unknown):
“PayPal frente a la competencia
PayPal protege a los vendedores mediante una serie de métodos distintos de los de
otras instituciones financieras. Por ejemplo, las entidades emisoras de tarjetas
suelen cobrar por las herramientas de prevención de fraude, pero en PayPal
encontrará dichas herramientas de forma gratuita. Los especialistas en prevención
de fraude de PayPal trabajan en la sombra para supervisar las actividades y los
posibles indicadores de fraude para garantizar una red extremadamente segura.”
Note: Discuss the connotations of “in the shadows” and the semantic frame it
creates (semi-legality, vigilantism, cartoon crime-fighters, etc.) versus “behind the
scenes”, which is more appropriate here.
Linguistically Bound Language: Self-Referential Phrases
Notes to exercise 1:
Here is the original Latin and a well-known English translation (a wider context is
given for the latter):
"Translata sunt, cum et ipsae res, quas propriis uerbis significamos, ad aliquid
aliud significandum usurpantur, sicut dicimus bouem et per has duas syllabas
intelligimus pecus, quod isto nomine appellari solet." (Sancti Aurelii Augustini,
41)
Chap. 10.--Unknown Or Ambiguous Signs Prevent Scripture From Being
Understood.
15. Now there are two causes which prevent what is written from being
understood: its being veiled under unknown, or under ambiguous signs. Signs are
either proper or figurative. They are called proper when they are used to point out
the objects they were designed to point out, as we say bos when we mean an ox,
because all men who with us use the Latin tongue call it by this name. Signs are
figurative when the things themselves which we indicate by the proper names are
used to signify something else, as we say bos, and understand by that syllable the
ox, which is ordinarily called by that name; but then further by that ox understand
a preacher of the gospel, as Scripture signifies...." (4) St. Augustine, De Doctrina
Christiana, X, 15

Notes to exercises 2 and 3: A technique that can be used, as pointed out on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation#Pedagogical_translation, is referencing a
specific language indirectly; the authors of this article suggest that "Do you speak
English?" can be rendered "Do you speak my language?" or "Do you understand
what I say?" Rather ingenious!
Notes to exercise 4: It is difficult to imagine a translation brief for such a text. Out
of English, few orthographic features would present a similar project, though it
would be easy to imagine acoustic features--e.g. tongue twisters--that would defy
translation.
Notes to exercise 5: The entire phrase "The literal translation…" would drop out
in Spanish, since it would have no use. One might expect that in Spanish,
attention would be paid to the origin of the word or the like, but not its translation.
Notes to question 6: One would need to use documentarity, including the Spanish
"gratis" and "libre" to show that the word bifurcates. The translator's first task
should be to find the license itself in English and quote the distinction made there.
The translator should maintain "software libre" in the last line, since it is literally
the language-bound problem under discussion; however, it would be wise to gloss
it in parentheses in a way that shows why it is a confusing calque when used in
Spanish: e.g., "software libre [lit., unrestricted software]". This demonstrates to a
person with no Spanish that libre is the wrong sense of 'free'. Use of the

expressions "freeware" and "free of charge" or “with no cost to you” may help
clarify matters.
Linguistically Bound Language
In the first Baldo comic strip, Spanish is a language learner's broken Spanish; in
the second, paradoxically, the speakers are using the language that presumably the
learner doesn't know. Wouldn't it have made more sense in the Spanish strip to
have them practicing English, and only know the Spanish word for some object?
Of course, that would transplant them into a different reality--the boy is an
assimilated Hispanic American who knows English far better than Spanish.
"Metaphysically", if the first strip is possible, the second is impossible, at least as
long as the first is possible.
Code-Switching
Possible solutions:
1. In the poem, English stands for authority, while Spanish is the language of the
supplicant, the outsider. (Bureaucratic values vs. human values). They are not
communicating--each wants something from the other. The poem is one of
alienation, dehumanization, and culture clash.

2. The non-standard Spanish reflects the (presumed) low level of education of the
speaker. He is vulnerable to the system. There is the expectation that, in order to
be understood, the Spanish speaker must assimilate, must conform. [Note: If the
students are asked, 'Do you think the English speaker is monolingual?', they are
certain to reply 'Yes'--it is much more likely that we can understand the plight of
another if we speak their language. This brings up a point: In situations where
interpreters are needed--legally and pragmatically-- the invariable assumption is
that the interpreter is provided for the non-English-speaking
patient/defendant/business person/etc. The reality is that interpreters interpret for
a situation, not a person--If a judge asks "Are you the interpreter for Mr.
González?", the reply could well be, "Yes, Your Honor, and I'm the interpreter for
the court as well." (You'd be right, but maybe in contempt too.)
3. The poem ends on "race", which hangs in the air at the end--the suggestion is
one of white privilege, man's inhumanity to man, the inexorability of the forces of
assimilation, and how conformity and migration enforce forgetting. The Spanish
speaker's affirmation of family ties--continuity, familiarity--contrasts sharply with
a bureaucrat's impersonal need for that information.
4. Not translatable in a conventional sense. Audience is a bicultural, bilingual
person. Other cultures could be substituted, though of course the interplay and
audience would be different. Instead of code-switching showing biculturality in
this poem, the two languages remain separate.
Translation Teaser: "Para Dummies®"

The "Para Dummies®" trademark capitalizes on the brand awareness from
English, and thus creates a kind of interlingual intertextuality for Spanish-
dominant consumers.
Workshop Text #1
[Note: Please do not allow students to post translations or exercises from this
book on the Internet.]
Notes and sample translations of selected passages:
Have students identify terms: "mortalidad infantil" (compare how "infantile"
collocates in English); cf. "mortalidad materna"; "indicador" "condiciones de
vida", "desaparecidos", etc.
A basic reference for texts of this sort are the Geneva Conventions and later
protocols.
"GUATEMALA" in the first line is "Guatemala City". Lead the students to this
by showing them examples of datelines in advance, and see if they apply the
general to the specific (very few are likely to catch this).

"ocupa el primer lugar"--students should avoid "is in first place" or any language
that suggests this is a prize or attainment. More neutral language would be along
the lines of "ranks first".
"El documento de la agencia internacional"--"The report issued by the
international agency"
"nacidos vivos"--discuss "live births"
"En lo que concierne a Guatemala, este indicador se suma a otros igualmente
graves"--"In Guatemala, this indicator is compounded by other equally sobering
statistics" [Note recasting of syntax, the use of 'compounded'--which has a
negative semantic prosody, the stylistic variation of 'statistics' once 'indicator' is
used]
"del istmo"--"isthmus" is a needlessly low frequency word here in English; use
"Central American"
"condiciones de vida"--contrast "quality of life", "living conditions", "standard of
living"; press students to determine what is used in this context and how it is
measured.

"conflicto armado interno"--Discuss why this cannot be properly rendered as
"war" (point to international organization jargon, following from Geneva
Convention).
"que vivió el país"--the country endured/survived
“guerra causó más de 2000,000 víctimas” [note: refine collocation for style
Try: <”caused * victims”> [The “*” is a stand-in for any number]
Try <”claimed * victims”>
Note that patterns of <claimed + # + victims> is most frequent.
(Key question: Is most frequent = best for the context? Not necessarily.)
"200.000"--review periods/commas in translation es<>en
"retraso"--by no means should this be rendered "backwardness". Recategorize to
avoid derogatory tone or neutralize: “current rank” on the neutral end to “poor
showing” at the other extreme. Students will try for a single word—e.g. lag—
which doesn’t work well.

"atención necesaria"--English needs particularization: "medical care/attention";
"attention" too broad; possibly simply “care”, or a recategorization with “tended
to” or the like.
"Los niños se incorporaron a la guerra"--This bit provides a good opportunity for
the students to use logic and background knowledge to decide if the children
joined (willingly) or were brought into the war (unwillingly), depending on how
the students view the verb (as passive or not). Nowadays child warriors exist in
ever greater numbers, but does that fit here?
"niños asesinados"--discuss the difference between "assassinated" and "murdered"
"familiares directos"--"next-of-kin"? "immediate family"? "direct descendents"?
"surviving family members"? [note: “direct family” is translationese!]
"las atrocidades cometidas durante la guerra aún las están cosechando los niños"--
Many students will miss that the subject of this predicate is "los niños", hence:
"Many children are still suffering the aftereffects of wartime atrocities". [No need
to translate metaphor-for-metaphor here; "reaping" would lead to melodrama:
bitter harvests, etc.]
Works cited

Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo. Sancti Aurelii Augustini De Doctrina
Christiana; De Vera Religione. Turnholti: Brepols, 1962.
---. De Doctrina Christiana. Trans. R.P.H. Green. New York: Clarendon, 1995.
Ginsberg, Allen. Howl: and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights, 1959.
Hatim, Basil and Jeremy Munday. Translation: An Advanced Resource Book.
New York: Routledge, 2004.
Marx, Karl. The Communist Manifesto. Chicago: H. Regnery, 1969.
Orellana, Marina. Glosario internacional para el traductor: Glossary of Selected
Terms Used in International Organizations. Santiago de Chile: Editorial
Universitaria, 1990.
Orwell, George. 1984. New York: New American Library, 1953.
Schopenhauer, Arthur. “On Language and Words” Theories of Translation: An
Anthology of Essays from Dryden to Derrida. Ed. Rainer Schulte and John
Biguenet. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Suggestions and Sample Questions for Chapter 2 Quiz
Term ID questions:
Jakobson's three kinds of translation [Which type would include the translation of
nonverbal signs?]
polysemy
cognates, false cognates, partial false cognates
documental and instrumental translation
code-switching
Short answer
Describe a dictionary's strengths and weaknesses for a translator.
When would using a glossary be preferable to a dictionary, and for whom?
How does Proz.com's term query system work? Who offers solutions, how are
they ranked, and by whom? [Expose students to this feature at Proz.com during
the dictionary/glossary discussions.]
Translation

Short, timed translation with electronic or print resources (20 min.-1/2 hour). You
may wish to choose something that tests awareness of connotation/denotation,
euphemism, or diminutives/augmentatives You may announce the topic
beforehand and allow open notes; this will put pressure on pre-reading research.
Essay (choose 1)
From what you have learned thus far, where do you stand on the issue of
(un)translatability? Defend your position (12-15 lines).
What aspects of translation do the George Orwell passages from 1984 bring to
light?
Chapter 3
Tip: In addition to Bowker’s book (discussed in this chapter), see also
Austermühl, Electronic Tools for Translators (St. Jerome, 2001). For more on
MT, see Readings in Machine Translation (Nirenburg, Somers and Wilks; MIT
Press, 2003).

Tip (2): On www.lisa.org, subscribe (free of cost). Using your login name and
password, download such publications as The Globalization Industry Primer and
LISA Best Practice Guide: Implementing Machine Translation.
Tip (3): Discuss with students the importance of saving translations, and how to
archive them efficiently. Translations can be mined to create or enhance personal
dictionaries and glossaries. Translations should be carefully filed anyway in the
event a discrepancy should arise; in the long term, they constitute a valuable
resource.
Tip (4): See the Universidad de Granada’s Aula.int, their virtual translation
course. In their Guía de Trabajo section
(http://aulaint.ugr.es/index.php?pag=guia), students can see how four stages of the
translation process--Documentation, Terminology, Translation, and
Editing/Formatting—are defined and articulated into a workflow. The page’s
links to translation tools is also worth a visit.
Tip (5): Review the notions of extension and intension in terminology.
Tip (6): Students struggle to recognize terms that are multiword strings. Teach
them to inspect noun clusters for different possible “batchings” rather than
assume that single words are terms.

Tip (7): Students should be trained to avoid providing “multiple choice” solutions
due to indecision or lack of thoroughness. One distinction to be made here is the
strategy of providing an alternate term in translation in order to account for
different users of a text: e.g., “Aventón/raite” was used in a parallel text found for
the “carpool” entry while students researched the survey task in chapter 4; both
terms are used commonly in the target population in question, so this arguably is
not a case of translator indecision.
Tip (8): Compare to the source English the Spanish output of a library database
that uses MT, such as EBSCO Host Español.
Object-Concept-Term
Advanced: Add an interlingual translation component to these tasks, or students,
given an object, concept, or term, improvise skits that plausibly identify all three
in the process. This can also be done for an up-and-coming or cutting-edge
domain for which new objects are being invented—in a single task, students can
invent, contextualize, and translate, and be judged on the ingenuity and relevance
of their inventions and translated object names.
Optional: The Food and Agriculture Organization has a page on “Economic
engineering applied to the fishery industry”
(http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/V8490E/V8490E00.HTM). In 2.3,

“Production Technologies for Fishery Products”, quite a number of industry-
related terms are used. See if students can agree on how many terms appear in the
section. What accounts for discrepancies, where they exist? Have students look at
the Spanish version of the page as well. You may wish to show term lists or
glossaries for another page so students have an idea how inclusive to be.
Terminology: The Multilingual Term Bank
(Answers will vary. Emphasize that this may be a first-stop resource, and fine
granularity is not necessary for this task, simply familiarity with this tool. Remind
students to file this site away for future use--not simply for this task, and enforce
its use when appropriate.)
en>es
interface= superficie de contacto eléctrico con las piezas a soldar
marketing=comercialización; marketing [note: also mercadeo]
joint=articulación
evolution= evolución
management=gestión [possibly "tratamiento médico"]
ramp=cargadero
bay= celda/posición/módulo
set=marco de entibación/cuadro/ademe
disc=lenteja/disco/cierre de válvula

rotation=rotación/alternancia/aparcelamiento de la finca
regulator=raqueta [students will have to look up "horology"]
orient=oriente [lower case---it's a descriptor for pearls]
cam=leva inversa
es>en
alterado=spoiled
elemento=item
giro=back
viga=scantling/gantry/stillage (Aust.)
paro=market sluggishness/slackness [discuss "bearishness"]
taco=slab
polvo=blow/cocaine/etc. [Have students consult domain= health, social questions]
cola=nasal inhalant
bala=pulp bale
onda=wavy cord
medio=half-carcass
malla=mesh
línea=strain
cuerpo=housing
ala=flange
Follow-up: Introduce also the EU’s multilingual term base: http://iate.europa.eu/

Consider having students gloss a treatise or parliament speech using this resource.
Follow-up (2): Share with students an important distinction made by Sager:
terminology can refer to:
1) an activity - “the set of practices and methods used for the collection,
description and presentation of terms”
2) a theory – “the set of premises, arguments and conclusions required for
explaining the relationships between concepts and terms which are fundamental
for a coherent activity under 1” or
3) “a vocabulary of a special subject field”
This tripartite conception emphasizes process and the concomitant
interrelationships between terms.
Follow-up (3): See Termium’s discussion of the one-concept-one-term ideal:
http://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/didacticiel_tutorial/english/lesson2/page2_5_5
_e.html
Terminology: Sports
entradas: innings
ponchó: struck out ["retired" is used more generally for to keep from reaching
base]
enemigos: "opponents", not 'enemies'; "opposing batters" (a particularization) OK

conectó un doblete remolcador: hit a run-scoring double / slugged an RBI double
[remolcar is to rope in, to tug]. "Slug" is only used for doubles, triples, and home
runs.
buen desempeño: strong outing / showing / performance / appearance
mis tres lanzamientos: my three pitches
Su apertura: His start [not "opening"!]; His outing [Question to students: Is it the
same
"apertura as in the last sentence of the ST?]
el serpentinero: the curveballer
no dio boletos: gave up no walks / walked none
anular: shut down / totally dominate / mow down / own
resolvió a la perfección el noveno inning: pitched a perfect ninth inning in relief
undécimo salvamento: 11th save
Tip: Send students to the Major League Baseball website before this task to
peruse the bilingual glossary for 20 minutes.
Translation tidbit: A translator's background knowledge or knowledge gaps
sooner or later are foregrounded. In the translated short story collection And We
Sold the Rain (Rosario Santos, ed.) there is a story called "The Perfect Game" by
Sergio Rodríguez in which a pitch hits the "outer edge" of the plate (131).
Passable, but not really baseball jargon; baseball people would usually say
"outside corner" of the plate. Translator Nick Caistor is British (at one point a

"nought" appears on the scoreboard!), and he may not have the first-hand
exposure to baseball (not to disparage his work, nor to suggest that British people
cannot master baseball terminology). Many translators believe that with careful
editing and much research, one can perform a credible job of translating many
common text types. "Slippage" of this sort, however, can betray lacunae. Baseball
texts in Spanish reveal the familiar rendered strange through language; it is easy
for the unwary, translating a piece on baseball history, to imagine that the
“Medias Rojas de Cincinnati” are the Red Sox, when there was never such a team
in Cincinnati (historically, they started as the Red Stockings)!
Optional research task (assign): Find out about the role translation and
interpretation play in baseball scouting outside the U.S. Interview a baseball scout
who has worked in the Dominican Republic or other major Spanish-speaking
markets, inside and outside the U.S.
Terminology Gap Activity: Mission Statement (Tech Company)
Filled-in words are in bold, as they appear on the company's website.
Nuestra Misión:
Somos una empresa de servicios dedicada a la implementación de sistemas
constructivos prefabricados que cuenta con recursos tecnológicos de última
generación, con productos de calidad y recursos humanos altamente calificados.

[possible rendering:]
Our Mission:
We are a service-oriented company dedicated to the implementation of
prefabricated building systems with support from cutting edge technological
resources, quality products and highly qualified human resources.
Talking points:
Discuss idea of frequency of hits; hint at parallel texts (upcoming in this chapter)-
-visiting similar manufacturers' webpages to verify term string "prefabricated
building systems". Students can search in http://images.google.com as well.
Synonyms for tecnología de última generación: tecnología de punta/de
avanzada/de vanguardia; English: state-of-the-art (tecnología al día), cutting
edge, next-generation
Follow-up: Using keyword searches, have students find, analyze and share other
bilingual-webpage mission statements.
Tell students that the translator-terminologist (who also possesses the skills of the
phraseologist), according to Gouadec (116-17), is a “fairly standard job profile in
the translation industry. Admittedly, each translator ‘deals with terminology’ or

‘has to be able to solve terminological problems’ but the dissemination of
terminology management software and the greater emphasis on terminology
consistency and standardisation mean that work providers consider the
terminology more and more as essential ‘raw material’ requiring special
processing over and above what is required for the translation proper.”
Discuss automated term extraction tools.
Tip: Assign a chapter from Harold Somers, Computers and Translation: A
Translator's Guide; Amsterdam ; Philadelphia: J. Benjamins Pub. Co., 2003.
Localization Tools and Services: Ads from Multilingual
Solutions (considering ads by all companies listed) may include:
information technology
e-learning
product testing
internationalization
technical translation
translation memory
terminology management
entry into international markets (aka international market penetration)
DTP
product testing
compiling (turning statements written in a programming language into
machine language)
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
workflow analysis
value-added features include:
accurate
on-time
workflow management
time-to-market
A demo of any of the company's software listed here would enhance this lesson.
Tip: A good spot to find descriptions of some translation memory products is at
SDL: http://www.sdl.com/localization-information/products-briefs.htm
Tell students about controlled authoring—the writing of materials for translation
in part by limiting vocabulary and designing texts to be re-used, a practice
common with user manuals especially, but used industry-wide to avoid redundant
work. Mention the related trend of single source authoring.
Discuss the practice of foreign companies translating their manuals into
English, then using the English as a source text.

Case Study: Terminology
This task comes as close as we can to showing process, particularly the thought
processes of a translator at work on a specific textual problem. It also shows the
activation of schemata in problem-solving. The translator uses lecture notes from
academia to orient his or her choices--remind students of advanced searches (here
using the .edu suffix). The failure of dictionaries here is noteworthy. What this
narrative shows is the need for a vertical and horizontal understanding of the
field--classification is revealed as a kind of understanding in that it helps locate
objects and words in their place in a hierarchy or series based on the presence or
absence of features and the objects' similarity or difference with objects of the
same class. The process as revealed is similar, though much more stylized and
controlled, to a think aloud protocol. For this task, students can use consultants
(professors of criminal justice), parallel texts, usergroup transcripts (real time or
archived), etc. Remind them of their brief, which will help them focus on
audience and communicational situation--the U.S. system of jurisprudence. Some
considerations and editorial comments for discussion:
cold steel > too literary?
edged weapons / side arms > too historical?
white weapons > too "fantasy fiction"?
sharp-edged weapons > too general?

Discuss: bladed weapons
Could the metonymy "stab wounds" solve the problem by effacing the weapon, or
does this recklessly omit an important item--the implement itself--from a legal
text?
Tip: Send students after the term "armas negras", which likely contrasts with
"armas blancas" in a way that will reveal the differentiating feature.
Have students use Black's Law Dictionary.
Tip (2): Have students write industry-specific intralingual translations featuring
jargon or other in-group language:
e.g. Patron: We’ll get two coffees, milk and I’ll have two fried eggs
with the yolks hard.
Server: Flop two cackle fruits, let the sun shine! Draw two for the
two-top!
Have students try one in Spanish, using research tools.
Collocations

Tip: Register for password-protected Web-based corpora in advance. Also, be
aware that, for lab work, on some sites it may be difficult for a whole class to
access given sites at the same time.
Tip (2): Build a collocation activity around the Spanish-language corpora (100
million+ words) at http://www.corpusdelespanol.org/x.asp
A. (Answers may vary.)
B. [Non-native speakers of English will find this task very difficult.]
evil------------warlord
confirmed-----liar
guilty----------party
cruel-----------taskmaster
knee-jerk------reactionary
ambulance-chasing--lawyer
flesh-eating---bacteria
undead--------zombie
incurable-----romantic
killer----------robot
blithering-----idiot
bleeding-heart--liberal
soulless-------monster
old-------------bachelor
raving---------lunatic

capitalist------pig
unsavory------element
absent-minded---professor
C. Jarritos task
Read the product label below. The legal language lends itself to familiar
collocations in English.
First, consider the product: the leading Mexican soft drink brand in the U.S.--
"Jarritos"--whose very name evokes a cultural context: beverages served from an
earthenware jug. Notice the bilingual label ("Tamarind/Tamarindo")--why do you
think it is produced that way? Who is/are the audience/s? [Anglo and Hispanic or
acculturated Hispanics]. Notice the bold lettering on the back panel: "For
complete official rules in English…", the only English used on the back. Is the
Spanish source text targeted for the Latin American or Spanish market, or for the
U.S. Latino market? Give evidence to support your answer. [U.S. Latino market:
apart from U.S. addresses and tax structures mentioned, there are certain U.S.
Spanish locutions: e.g., “El juego expira”.]
What kind of game is a "sorteo" here? (contest? giveaway? promotion?
sweepstakes? drawing? raffle? etc.) [a drawing as part of a promotion] Does the
"Destapa tu suerte™" feature give you a clue? What kind of tops does this

product use (the text says "corcholatas")--are they pull-tabs, twist-offs? [metal
bottle tops, despite the product’s name] Can you think of a name for "Destapa tu
suerte"? (careful with the collocation) [Instructor’s edition suggestions: “Pop
Your Lucky Top”, “Flip Your Lucky Lid”]
What month is 31/5/01? [May] What is a "sobre tipo número 10"? [business
envelope, called #10 at stationery stores] If you don't know, what is your hunch?
Where can you look to follow up on this?
Now try to activate your experience as a consumer: Render these "fine print"
phrases as they are commonly used in English, then read the "Notes" below:
NO SE REQUIERE COMPRA __________________No purchase necessary__
premios instantáneos _________instant winners/prizes___________________
un sobre previamente estampillado _________a self-addressed stamped
envelope (an SASE)______________________________________________
deberá ser sellado ____________must be postmarked___________________
límite de una solicitud por sobre __________limit one entry per envelope_____
Premios que no se reclamen __________Unclaimed prizes__________________
Juego disponible sólo para residentes ________Only US residents eligible to
play / Game open to US residents only________________________________
agencias de publicidad __________ad agencies___________________________
El sorteo se anula ________Contest void / Offer not valid__________________

o donde la ley lo prohiba ______and where prohibited by law______________
Notes: Notice the word "solicitud" above--did you avoid the trap of "application"?
"Publicidad" is semi-false here. Go back to the phrase "previamente
estampillado": did you think to omit "previamente" in English? There is a way to
imply "previously stamped" without saying it. There is also a common
abbreviation for the phrase in English--did you think of it? In the phrase "deberá
ser sellado", the word "sellado" is used in a way probably unfamiliar to you, but
context should give you the idea (hint: it does not refer so much to an action by
the sender as by the office sending it).
Tip: Build a transcription/translation activity into English around the radio and
video spots featured on the Novamex® webpage:
http:://www.novamex.com/Jarritos.sstg#media
Tip (2): Bring Jarritos for the class.
D. Identifying collocations
"Eager souls, mystics and revolutionaries, may propose to refashion the world in
accordance with their dreams; but evil remains, and so long as it lurks in the
secret places of the heart, utopia is only the shadow of a dream."
Nathaniel Hawthorne, quoted in Lionel Trilling, "Reality in
America", The Liberal Imagination, p. 5

Collocations and frequency (accessed 5/21/07):
"eager souls" (Google hits: 633)
"mystics and revolutionaries" (Google hits: 10,200, but many indexed this quote]
"refashion the world" (Google hits: 510)
"in accordance with their dreams" (Google hits: 13,100)
"evil lurks" (Google hits: 195,000)
"secret places" (Google hits: 453,000)
"secret places of the heart" (Google hits: 13,300)
"the shadow of a dream" (Google hits: 22,200)
Take the discussion now, by way of debriefing, toward the idea of marked and
unmarked collocations: Why would "revolutionaries and mystics" be over a
thousand times more common than "mystics and revolutionaries"? What
implications does this have for the translator? Why and how do collocations
occur? Are there collocational patterns discernable across languages? Must they
be learned--internalized, or can they be accessed in another way?
Optional: Devise some exercises with collocations for a given text type, e.g., a
clinical history. Give the students potential collocations: “fast recovery”, “quick
recovery” and “speedy recovery”. Challenge them to go beyond raw hit counts –
frequency—to consider appropriateness to text type. Discuss the validity of

synonymous collocates (“frutas y vegetales”, “frutas y hortalizas”, “frutas y
legumbres”)—what factors account for these differences? Introduce students to
phraseologisms, described at the Pavel Terminology Tutorial at
http://www.termiumplus.gc.ca/didacticiel_tutorial/english/contributions_sp/
guide_phra_rech_lang_e.htm.
Translation Trap: Marked and Unmarked Collocations
The following collocations from the list are marked or non-existent, in some cases
distorting unmarked collocations in common use: "hamhock legislation",
"foregone occlusion", "complete and udder", "indemnify and hold guiltless", and
"shucking onward".
Synonymy, Hyperonymy and Hyponomy
A. Gambling task
Possible answers:
Gambling -> Jugar [hyperonym; note that the Spanish gains its force in
collocation with "compulsivo"]
home life -> vida familiar [hyperonym; the Spanish assumes a family!]
trouble -> los problemas [hyponym; trouble is a kind of problem]

escape -> olvidar [To forget your troubles is different from escaping
them, both in intention and connotation--"escape" in
this context is darker; one can "forget" in more
benign ways than engaging in addictive behavior.
Arguably a departure. For our purposes, a hyponym
through contiguity of meaning; forgetting is but one
kind of escaping.]
Discuss: Are “losses” narrower than “lo que se ha perdido”?
Key: Emphasize to students that uses of hypernyms and hyponyms are strategies
that may be more or less successful; they are not value judgments about non-
overlapping scope of meaning. In the case of this text, possibilities exist that
would come closer to the spirit and letter of the source.
Also point out to students:
*The particularization: "for debts" -> "para pagar deudas"
*The use of the infinitive in Spanish to render "-ing" words.
*The non-use of a preposition in Spanish to render "by gambling" -> "jugando"
*"Illegal act" and "delito" for our purposes have complete overlap, although "acto
ilegal" exists.
*The problem of "signs": In English, "signs" is working as a plural signifier--as
part of "stop sign" (viz., the shape of the illustration), and as "sign" in terms of a

telltale indication of--in this case--a problem. "Signo" in Spanish works in the
second case ("signos y síntomas is a set phrase), but fails in the first ("señal de
alto" is a stop sign). "Señales y síntomas" is also a set collocation, thus it would
be a better choice here than "Signos y síntomas" in that "Señales" captures both
senses.
Tip: Remind students that a word may translate 1-to-1, 1-to-many, or 1-to-ø.
B. Answers will vary. This task should be assigned in advance of group
discussion as students can research. Point out that translators make decisions
between words like this intuitively., but often need to research further before
deciding.
[hand icon] Nuances of Usage (Oral Pairs Exercise)
Determine the difference between the following pairs in bold. In what context(s)
would each be preferred? With a partner, offer collocations or examples to defend
your assessments. You may wish to compare the words in terms of
hyperonymy/hyponymy, but also in terms of abstraction/concretion and of
domain-specificity.
Model: sombrero> sombrero / hat ["Sombrero" is a narrower word than hat, since
a sombrero is a type of hat—a broad-brimmed straw hat familiar in Mexico and
the U.S. southwest. Contexts calling for "sombrero" might include specific
geographic or cultural cues that would warrant its use.]

1. cadáver > corpse / cadaver
2. libertades > liberties / freedoms
3. sombra > shade / shadow
4. costumbre > custom / habit
5. instrumento > tool / instrument
6. alegría > happiness / joy
7. césped > lawn / grass
8. responsabilidad > responsibility / liability
9. niño > child / boy
10. espíritu > spirit / soul
11. vergüenza > shame / embarrassment
12. capacidad > capacity / ability
13. tenso > taut / strained
14. dolor > sorrow / grief
15. presidente > president / CEO
16. sitio > site / place
17. detenido > detained / arrested
18. frontera > frontier / border
10. infierno > inferno / hell
20. búsqueda > quest / search

Quotes and Intertexts
Students should know that familiar quotations are often translated in predictable,
even enforceably predictable, ways: “I think, therefore I am” (itself a translation
of cogito sergo sum) is far more likely to be rendered “Pienso, luego soy” than
“Pienso, por lo tanto soy”, regardless of grammatical correctness or preference.
As a research task, give students patterns such as “No * please, we’re *” or “It’s
the *, stupid!” and have them collect permutations and try to discover their
“rules”. Other memes can be found to show how language works intertextually; as
a more advanced task, students can map these patterns across the language pair.
Often, titles of news items rely on intertexts (“Hallowed Be Thy Brand Name”).
Research Task: Lantra-L
Be sure the students' replies follow online "netiquette". Students may wish to
discuss the use of English in the bed and bedding industry ("cama tamaño twin"),
whether sheets are similarly sized and how to determine this; whether the
measurements are similar between systems; etc. ProZ provides a discussion that
reveals twin>individual; full>matrimonial; and king>king. Students should use
this as a starting point--they should have gone to an e-tail mattress supplier in
Spanish America to verify terms. Discussion lists can also be found with
expatriates discussing the cross-cultural particulars of mattress sizes in great

detail. Students should have picked up on MERCOSUR as a South American
economic bloc, and thus any discussion of Spain here is irrelevant. Students
should be encouraged to ask the poster to ask the client what country the project is
for, as variations are inevitable. (Students can go to the board and make a graph of
them.) This is a good exercise for disabusing students of the notion that systems--
or the elements in a system--are commensurate across borders. (NB This has
worked well as a take-home exam question, since students have to sift and weigh
competing information.)
Workshop Text #2
Notes:
Note the paragraph beginning: “Esto significaría pasar del 25 por ciento del
auditorio que actualmente capta la radio de AM… según A.C. Nielsen” (a bit
more than halfway down). The NIELSEN RATINGS people (Nielsen Media
Research) do audience measurements for TV, radio and Internet. A clue that
“total”, “radioescuchas”, “público” can all boil down to “ratings” or “share”,
since it’s all measured in percentages (“share” = “percent share”) or “points”.
Lesson: valuable information can come from unsuspected places. Collocations: to
PICK UP ratings (≅ earn), to BOOST ratings (also modal verbs with “up”—to
drive up, pump up, jack up (informal), rack up (if it’s a lot), to notch up (if it’s
incremental), to burn up (if it’s wildly successful), to lock up ratings (to have

programming that’s sure to beat the competition’s); to clock up (accumulate); to
drum up ratings (promote support for programming); also, to GARNER a share.
For “campaign”: to mount, to launch, to orchestrate, to organize.
flamante ganadora de un automóvil último modelo: the grand-prize winner of a
brand new car [avoid “late model car”, which one would hear over a police radio;
flamante can go many ways, except “flaming”]
control remoto ≅ remote controls, remote broadcasts, live remote feeds
El rally se efectuó con el fin de dar a conocer lo que se ofrece ≅
The promotion was held to raise awareness of what the AM dial has to
offer [note: ‘awareness’ taps into the collocation ‘brand awareness’ (i.e. publicity
creating name recognition)]. Another option: to spread the word, advertise,
promote. (Notice how ‘inform’ etc. are somewhat stiff).
Item: is a "rally" in Spanish the same as a rally in English? Don't we call
these "promotions" of some sort? Borrowings can turn into partial false cognates
(case in point). Instalaciones is another notorious one (and it appears near the end
of the text). You may choose to particularize: "studios". Be sure the sus that
modifies instalaciones is referring to the stations; i.e., this is not referring to visits
to student hangouts or schools.
anuncios en la propia radio ≅
on-air spots

heading: Hay de todo ≅
A lot to choose from
ya derivó un número mayor de radioescuchas, sobre todo entre los jóvenes ≅
has already earned a higher market share [higher ratings; a larger
audience/listenership], especially among young listeners / the younger
demographic
radionovelas is going to sound a bit strange in English, whether you opt for ‘radio
serials’, ‘radio soaps’, etc. Here’s why: they’re anachronistic in Anglo culture
(when TV was invented, they, and the word for them, dropped somewhat out of
use). Inevitably an English speaker is going to think of the old radio dramas like
The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, etc. from the 1930s. The word novela—even
unitalicized--is working its way into English (have students do a search with
English words related to the genre + “novela” to see if the word has crossed into
mainstream usage.)
la banda de amplitud modulada ≅ the AM dial / AM radio
[part of what is happening in this solution is a modulation, a change of
point of view, in this case the image of the dial; modulations and other techniques
will be covered in Lesson 4. Perhaps students tried a modulation instinctively.]
Works cited

Austermühl, Frank. Electronic Tools for Translators. Northampton: St. Jerome,
2001.
Black's Law Dictionary. Ed. Bryan A. Garner. St. Paul: Thomson/West, 2004.
Gouadec, Daniel. Translation as a Profession. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John
Benjamins Publishing Company, 2007
Ramírez, Sergio. "The Perfect Game." Trans. Nick Caistor. And We Sold the Rain.
Ed. Rosario Santos. New York: Seven Stories Press, 1996.
Readings in Machine Translation. Ed. Sergei Nirenburg, Harold Somers, and
Yorick Wilks. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003.
Sager, Juan. A Practical Course in Terminology Processing. Amsterdam;
Philadelphia : J. Benjamins Pub. Co., 1990
Somers, Harold, ed. Computers and Translation: A Translator's Guide;
Amsterdam; Philadelphia: J. Benjamins Pub. Co., 2003.
Trilling, Lionel. The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society.

Garden City: Doubleday, 1950.
[Different combinations are possible, depending on information/activities stressed
over the course of the chapter]
I.D.
Term (What is a term versus a word?)
“Identify the terms in the following passage” [provide passage]
CAT tools
MT
TMS
ISO standards
integrated workflow [have students research in advance]
collocations
hyponomy/hyperonomy
wordnets
intertext
Passage for translation:

Mission statement (tech company, translation-related or not) -or-
Another passage related to radio broadcasting industry or Nielsen ratings
Role-play: evaluating translation quality:
Students are given two passages with a brief and must objectively evaluate which
is more adequate (appropriate for the audience), which is of higher quality, and
why.
Parallel text evaluation:
Give passages from three parallel texts; students must determine which is most
appropriate. You may wish to include information from an unreliable website in
one of the options, or options that contradict one another but that logic can solve.
Short essay:
Localization tools and services (explain the utility to the translator/agency)
Methods of testing translations
Corpus analysis:

Give students two corpus outputs showing competing options to solve a particular
passage (also provided). Student must choose and defend choice.
Take-home portion:
Brief terminology management research -or-
Glossary building exercise –or-
“Terminology log” [students produce a case study similar to “armas blancas”
terminology case study in Manual—they can be assigned a term and context or
they must find one (more difficult); work is assessed on appropriateness of
resourcing—process—and product.
Chapter 4
Tip: In this chapter, be sure to not only review but demonstrate some of the more
basic search techniques, such as using common keywords from both English and
Spanish to try to “trap” Rosetta stones: e.g., <“telepago”+ “payment”> might also
yield information in English about what telepago is, what has been translated
about it, and any bilingual pages that feature it. For content-rich information about
telepagos, show students to try <”telepago es”> and similar strings to yield
definitions. Teach students to try for keywords they are reasonably certain of in
both languages; this kind of approach is invaluable in the documentation phase of
pre-translation. You may give a short text and ask what, in order, the most
efficient search engine queries might be in order to find needed information for
starting a translation. Follow up on some of the students’ suggestions and see how
they are researching. Here are two other basic problem-solving “moves”: 1) to
determine a translation candidate for the phrase “untoward reaction to bee stings”,
use a synonym of “untoward” (e.g. “adverse”); then try the cognates: <reacción
adversa>. This is a basic strategy. If the student is not certain of what “untoward”
means, he or she can 2) try <untoward or * reaction>. This will produce a self-
translated phrase with a “definition” in bold. For this example in Google
(searched 12/8/08), the words given included toxic, adverse, unexpected, undue,
unwanted unusual, and destructive, more than enough to gain a reliable sense of
the meaning in context.
Tip (2): To help students with the social action involved in translation, have them
fill in the gaps of a missing brief. First, give the students a text for translation.
Assume no brief has been given for it. In groups of 2-3, have students brainstorm
(and create a flowchart based on) questions for the—hypothetical—client and
possible follow-up actions. (e.g., Do similar or parallel texts exist? Previous
editions or versions? Has the ST been published, translated into other languages?
Do(es) the author(s) know the TL, and is he/she (are they) available to consult?
etc.

Tip (3): Ken Hyland’s Metadiscourse: Exploring Interaction in Writing is quite
apropos of many of our discussions of audience in this chapter. You may wish to
develop his ideas for exploring metadiscourse in the classroom (188-9), which we
will quote here:
“* locating and removing all cases of a particular feature and discussing
the effect this has on the comprehensibility, impact and reader-orientation
of the text;
* identifying all hedges in a text, substituting a statement of certainty and
discussing the effect this has on the negotiability of statements;
* rewriting a text for a different audience by varying their likely reception
of the argument (agreement vs hostility), their relative knowledge of the
subject (experts or novices) or their relative power or status (equal or
superior to the writer);
* rewriting a text as a letter to a newspaper, a poster for display, or for
children;
* summarizing and rewriting a science text for a popular science journal
and considering what metadiscourse changes are needed;
* transforming a spoken text, such as a lecture, into an essay, attending
particularly to engagement markers and self mention;
* adding or removing all frame markers from a text and commenting on
the effect this has on its cohesion and readability;
* translating a text in the student’s L1 into English for a similar audience

and purpose and comparing how metadiscourse differs in the two
languages;
* using a concordancer to locate and identify all frame markers expressing
purpose or discourse goals (I argue here, my purpose is, I propose) in a
corpus of research abstracts or introductions. [...]”
Tip (4): See “Guidelines for the Translation of Social Science Texts” by the
American Council of Learned Societies, Appendix F: Examples of Literal
Translations (http://www.acls.org/sstp_guidelines.pdf). These texts make a good
handout to illustrate literal translation and translationese; they are paired with
improved versions.
Tip (5): What does it mean that “translation is not a commodity”? The answer lies
in the specifications of skopos. See and assign this short text:
www.atanet.org/docs/translation_buying_guide.pdf
Précis Writing
Use an approximately 500-word passage for this task; coordinate the level so that
it is appropriate to your group (excerpt if necessary). Be sure students' have a
clear audience in mind; discuss how their choices were conditioned or constrained
by their chosen audience. You may want to use an international organization
publication for your source text, for example, The Seville Statement on Violence,

easily accessible online. It is written in very plain language and would be a good
introductory text for this sort of exercise, though it is slightly longer than needed
(just over 800 words). As a follow-up, students can do a gist translation of the five
propositions from the Statement into Spanish.
Variation: Give out the passage first; give the students 5-7 minutes to study it.
Then give a multiple-choice quiz on the translation of certain phrases (if the text
is in Spanish, the quiz is in English, and vice versa). Don't review the quiz yet--
the idea is to generate language, and trigger ideas. The student then incorporates
solutions from his or her quiz into their précis. This reduces lookup and helps
them convert passive to active knowledge. In reviewing the précis you may focus
on how they processed and leveraged the language from the quiz. You may,
alternatively, make part of the quiz comprehension-based, but in the opposite
language of the pair. The students absorb the language used in the quiz, and this
facilitates the translation, which they do as a follow-up.
"Dicto-Comp"
Instructions to the student: Listen as your instructor reads a text out loud. The first
time, simply listen. On the second dictation, listen for units of meaning as you
take notes. Write down the three main ideas in the order they appear. When you
are finished, re-read the text below for yourself and write a one-sentence

summation of the single most important idea. Finally, as a free writing exercise,
transform the idea into a school motto.
To the instructor: Here is the text for reading aloud (then copy and distribute):
If academic learning is not just about acquiring knowledge, is it really different
from the acquisition of everyday knowledge? We learn a great deal about the
world very successfully outside academic institutions, with no help from any
didactic process. The tradition of pedagogy that stretches back to Dewey's
rejection of the classical tradition of passing on knowledge in the form of
unchangeable ideas, has always argued for the active engagement of the learner in
the formation of their ideas. More recent exponents of the latter tradition are
Vygotsky, Piaget, Bruner, all of who argue for the active engagement of the
learner rather than the passive reception of given knowledge. These psychologists
have had an effect in schools, especially at primary level, but in universities, with
their continued reliance on lectures and textbooks, the classical tradition of
'imparting knowledge' still flourishes.
(Text from: Laurillard, Diana. Rethinking University Teaching. 1993. Routledge.
Activity and text a variation on:
http://www.appliedlanguage.com/articles/testing_and_evaluating_in_the_translation_
classroom.shtml)

Variations on this task can be performed with similar texts; the objective is to
identify and extract the main idea from a text; secondarily, to transform the text
for different purposes. It actually makes for a good warm-up--consider using
passages in Spanish with this same technique; you can even use upcoming texts
for translation as a pre-reading activity in this way.
Ask volunteers for their one-sentence summation and compare. If some do not
understand the passage, go over it. Ask what antitheses are at work in the passage
(active vs. passive models of learning). Another example: learning "about"
translation, vs. learning--through translating--to translate well.
Summary (Gist) Translation
You may wish to give half the students a 250-word text and have them do an
information-only timed translation for in-house use. The other half performs a
translation for publication. Samples are read aloud; students are paired with a
member of the opposite group to discuss differences.
Translation and Ideology: Columbus Day and Día De La Raza
In many respects, el Día de la Raza is an "anti-Columbus Day", or stated less
harshly, a day of resistance: Día de la Resistencia Indígena, as it is known to
some. In other words, one could argue that Columbus Day is a celebration; Día de

la Raza, an observation or commemoration. "Día de la Raza" is primarily the
name by which October 12 festivities are known in many Spanish American
countries.
The immediate purpose of the signs here is not ideological, though, even if the
effect definitely is. The sign is merely to tell patrons that the bank will be closed,
and why. What is most of interest here is this appearance of an unmediated
translation--the cultural substitution involved is a political one, whether the
translator or end-client realizes it or not. (A fact to keep in mind: the phrase "Día
de Colón" exists.) The purpose of our discussion here is not to show a "bad"
translation--one could argue that from one point of view, it is perfectly
appropriate; a more important purpose is revealing that the sign does show
mediation between a locutionary act (information) and the choice of a name that
is almost perlocutionary--a politicized name the use of which raises consciousness
and assumes a shared position; as Hatim and Mason (1989) define perlocutionary
act: "the effect of the utterance on the hearer/reader; i.e., the extent to which the
receiver's state of mind/knowledge/attitude is altered by the utterance in
question."
Follow-up: One of the best short text pairs in Spanish-English to demonstrate
translation and ideology is a piece from the UNESCO Courier. In it, sympathetic
indigenism is translated with a decided Eurocentric shift in point of view,

including marked terms for unmarked ones in the source. See Hatim and Mason
(1997), 153-6.
Audience Activity: "Prince Hamlet In Africa"
One of the greatest essays about audience in translation was actually not written in
the context of translation as such, but cultural anthropology. A classic study from
1966, Laura Bohannan's "Prince Hamlet in Africa" (also known as "Shakespeare in
the Bush") details the cross-cultural adventure of an oral storytelling session and
what happens to Hamlet during the negotiations of meaning between an American
field worker and the Tiv tribespeople of West Africa. For many students, this is one
of their most memorable readings from their education, and it bears perennial re-
reading for its affectionate humor and wisdom. Bohannan gives revealing lessons in
how what we assume to be universal frequently is culturally specific, and how the
making of meaning truly depends upon a shared understanding between sender and
receiver of a message. Read the piece in Natural History (Aug-Sep. 1966 v. LXXV
#7) or it can be found in several anthologies (e.g. Philip K. Bock, ed., Culture
Shock: A Reader in Modern Cultural Anthropology, New York: Alfred Knopf, Inc.,
1970). Write individual reaction papers (1-2 pp.) in light of translational issues.
Discuss as a class. The reaction paper allows students to give candid reflections;
don't grade the paper, merely dialogue with the students' impressions.
Translation Teaser

Jakobson's article describes the combination of two known words or concepts to
create an unknown one. This strategy follows how cultures in contact often make
sense of one another's worldview, as well as proceeding according to the well-
known epistemological tenet that we learn from the known to the unknown. For
hint 2, for example, the Internet might be likened to sound waves that carry long
distances across the forest, or vines or branches on a single tree. In other words,
interconnected systems + communication are concepts that can be combined and
conveyed, if not literally then conceptually. Moreover, many so-called primitive
societies are no strangers to the idea of communicating with absent people (e.g.,
the dead). The idea from physics, "Neutrinos lack mass", may involve a series of
explanations, each of which depends on the previous one: the acceptance of the
idea of atoms, then subatomic particles, then behavior and characteristics of
subatomic particles, etc. What is uncertain--probably--is not that the idea is
communicable or incommunicable, but what importance this knowledge may
have for a culture not given to abstraction in such matters. In other words, the
problem of relevance.
Register
Tip: Show examples of how a single text type may have instances of variant
registers—e.g. recipes (for beginning cooks vs. for gourmets, etc.).
Tip (2): Have students graph the registers from the following quote from As You
Like It, Act V, scene I, Touchstone: “Therefore, you clown, abandon,--which is

the vulgar, leave—the society—which in the boorish is company,—of this
female,—which in the common is woman; which together is, abandon the society
of this female, or clown, thou perishest; or, to thy better understanding, diest; or,
to wit, I kill thee, make thee away, translate thy life into death.” (William
Shakespeare, qtd. In Ullmann, The Principles of Semantics, 109)
Discuss how Shakespeare “self-translated” for audiences of different educational
levels; e.g. “No, this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, /
Making the green one red.” (Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2, lines 54-61).
Register (Case Study)
This is argot español, Spanish slang. Student may wish to give performances of
their translation for the class. Have them translate, memorize, and rehearse their
parts. Let them swear at will. (Note: The vulgarity of the source may lend itself
better to a written assignment; get a sense first of what students feel comfortable
doing.) Allow them to transcreate rather freely but within reason--they have to
understand the source text and the function of the speech acts. Give them free
reign on what characters they want to create--mobsters, rich kids, etc. If there are
Spanish-speakers from Spanish America, you may have them perform a regional
intralingual translation--Mexican Spanish or what have you. It may be of great
interest to discuss locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts in reference
to this text; also a discussion of the classifications of speech acts [Traugott and
Pratt (1980), following Searle (1976)] would be fruitful: representatives,

expressives, verdictives, directives, commissives, and declarations (Hatim and
Mason [1989], 59-60).
You may wish to include in-depth studies of regional language variation (caló,
lunfardo, etc.) Bring in regional dictionaries of indigenous words, Mexicanisms,
Peruvianisms, etc.
Students are invariably fascinated to realize that the slang one uses as a teenager
is the slang one uses one’s entire life. (This accounts for many of our
grandparents’ odd expressions.) Ask students about their experiences acquiring
and using slang in their B language, and what they learned about the boundary-
maintenance function of slang. Are they, for example, accepting of non-native
English speakers’ use of “their” slang? Tie in slang to implications for translation.
Ask them what they would do if they encountered ten-year-old slang in a teleplay
or another kind of script for translation. Introduce the terms synchronic and
diachronic translation.
Language Variation: Localizing Out Of U.S. English
Assign for homework or do as a blitz (time-constrained workshop). Tips:
Shoe sizes should be converted.
Language should be localized ("trainers" for "sneakers", etc.)
Cultural equivalents should be used ("x" for "food court", etc.)

Boilerplate should be localized ("Same day dispatch" for "Same day shipping")
Icon should be localized (trolley for shopping cart)
Student should use e-commerce sites, found with advanced search and ".uk"
suffix.
Tip: Have students learn basic conversions (miles>kilometers; quarts>liters;
Celsius>Fahrenheit; clothing sizes)
Register: Baroque Journalism
Many details in this article would be too personal for U.S. mainstream journalism:
e.g., describing the man as "humble"; the gruesome, intimate details of his death.
Legal issues such as including the man's license plate (!) would be impossible,
perhaps unless he were a fugitive. And the editorialization in the form of the
indirecta, the mild rebuke of the late-arriving coroner.
1. "Baroque" may be discussed in terms of its artistic manifestations, but more
pertinently, business correspondence tends to use baroque style, in part, perhaps,
as a way of maintaining the traditional formalities until confianza is established.
2. Clearly, the students' rewritten versions will be more fact-based, closer to a
police report, in keeping with U.S. journalistic practices, and the psychology and
legality of privacy. Discuss U.S. use of "allegedly". Were this an editorial, some

of the more "emotive" language could be retained--by U.S. standards, the article
mixes functions almost comically.
Address this student question in class: “Why don’t writers just say what they
mean? It’s almost like they’re trying to trick us.” (actual quote)
News Magazines: National and Transnational
Discuss “weasel words” and buzzwords in the news. Have students devise
contextualized translation exercises (with their own formatting and design)
around such multi-purpose words as fórmula, coyuntura, on the ground, nuestra
realidad, and other vague or overused words or expressions. This task will: 1)
heighten awareness of these “traps”; 2) elicit critical thought about precision in
language, and the degree to which hazy or hasty thinking is reflected in much
public discourse; and 3) begin to help students develop resources for dealing with
news-speak.
Note that news from non-English-speaking countries often is not translated by
professionals. Give this passage to students from a recent CNN story, and have
them do a re-write based on what the probable Spanish was:
“We have tried to pay this overdue social debt with a program of housing without
parallel in Ecuadorian history, which certain corrupt members of the press -- in

function of their political interests -- now want to discredit, pointing out the
inevitable houses that -- out of 80,000 -- are going to have defects," he said. But
he said such complaints were outweighed by the "tens of thousands of happy
families with their own worthy little houses ... and all the people who can testify
to the success of the program." (Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa,
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/12/12/ecuador.default/index.html)
Let the students try a version first, then you may wish to give them the actual
source quote (below) for them to make yet another revision. Note the departures
and distortions in the CNN translation. (Variation: Half the class edits the CNN
quote; the other half translates directly from the Spanish. Compare.)
“Hemos tratado de pagar esa tan postergada deuda social, con un programa de
vivienda sin parangón en la historia ecuatoriana, que cierta prensa corrupta en
función de intereses politiqueros, ahora quiere desprestigiar, sacando las
inevitables viviendas que de 80 mil van a tener fallas. Pero creo que la mentira es
tan burda que se derrumbará por su propio peso, ahí están las decenas de miles de
familias felices con sus casitas dignas, ahí están los constructores y toda la gente
que pueda atestiguar el éxito del programa.” (“Presidente dispuso el no pago de
los intereses de la deuda externa y asumió la responsabilidad de sus
consecuencias”, http://www.elciudadano.gov.ec/2008/12/presidente-dispuso-el-
no-pago-de-los-intereses-de-la-deuda-externa-y-asumio-la-responsabilidad-de-
sus-consecuencias/)

Tip: Media translation is booming. Have students explore the 6th largest
translation company, SDI Media, particularly their work in corporate multimedia,
mobile content, and broadcast television: (http://www.sdimediagroup.com/).
Tip (2): Have students gather and summarize discussions from cyberspace on the
most promising prospects and tools for translating RSS feeds.
Tip (3): Explore the 8-page El País English Edition with students. What can be
determined about the translation process for newspapers, as compared to
newsmagazines?
Tip (4): Give students the daily syndicated poker (or other card game) column
from the local newspaper. What terminological issues does it present for
translation into Spanish? Discuss resources. Have students consider whether
regional variations in terms come into play, and the question of where the text
might be needed in Spanish.
Tip (5): If you wish to introduce press releases now, see c. 7, where they are tied
to legal content.
Tip (6): A partial bibliography on news translation from the Warwick site, should
you wish to assign oral presentations (or tasks in another format, including book
or article critiques):

Bassnett, Susan (2004) “Trusting the Reporters: Translation and the News”, The
Linguist. December 2004-January 2005. Vol. 43, Issue 6.
- - - (2005) “Bringing the news back home: Strategies of acculturation and
foreignization” in Susan Bassnett (ed.) Language and Intercultural Communication.
Special Issue: Global News Translation vol.5:2 (pp 120-130). Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters
Boyd-Barrett, Oliver, Tehri Rantanen (eds.) (1998) The Globalization of News.
Thousand Oaks / London: Sage.
Boyd-Barrett, Oliver. (1997) “Global news wholesalers as agents of globalization”.
In Srebreny, A., Winseck, D., McKenna, J., and Boyd-Barrett, O. (ed.) Media in
Global Context. London: Arnold.
Chalaby, J.K. (ed.) (2005) Transnational Television Worldwide: Towards a New
Media Order. London: I.B. Tauris.
Cheng, M. (2002) “The principles and strategies of trans-editing for the news
media”. Journal of Translation Studies. 7, 113-134.
Orengo, Alberto (2005) “Localising News: Translation and the global-national
dichotomy” in Susan Bassnett (ed.) Language and Intercultural Communication.
Special Issue: Global News Translation vol. 5:2 (pp. 168-187) Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters.
Preston, P., A.Kerr (2001) “Digital media, nation-states and local cultures: the
case of multimedia 'content' production. Media and Culture and Society 23 (1),
109-31.

Pym, Anthony (2004) The Moving Text. Localization, Translation, and
Distribution. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Tsai, Claire (2005) “Inside the television newsroom: an insider’s view of
international news translation in Taiwan” in Susan Bassnett (ed.) Language and
Intercultural Communication. Special Issue: Global News Translation vol.5:2 (pp
145-153). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Vuorinen, Erkka (1997) “News translation as gatekeeping”. In M. Snell-Hornby,
Z. Jettmarovà and K. Kaindl (eds.) Translation as International Communication:
Selected Papers from EST Congress, Prague1995 (pp. 161-171). Amsterdam:
John Benjamins.
[hand icon] [Start Linguistic note]
Linguistic Note
El Subjuntivo Está Muerto —¡Viva El Subjuntivo!
The death of the subjunctive mood, as Mark Twain responded to reports of his
own demise, is greatly exaggerated. Which of the following expresses the Spanish
adequately?
ST: Lo importante es que estés feliz.
TT1: The important thing is that you're happy.
TT2: The important thing is that you be happy.
If you chose TT1, how would someone know that the person is not actually happy
(in the ST, the person is not declared to be happy--or unhappy, for that matter; what
is conveyed is that it's important for the person to be happy).

The fact is we use the subjunctive with "should", "could", "might" and other
words, and fail to recognize it as such. Hence many speakers drift into saying "If I
was rich" and then deny the subjunctive. Sometimes we express the subjunctive
with "may be" ("…though he may be unavailable"), since "be" alone in a relative
clause can sound antiquated, on the order of "Be this madness?" Other examples of
"may be" in subjunctive roles:
Puede que esté contaminada It may be contaminated.
Quienquiera que seas Whoever you may be ('Whoever you are' works too,
since '-ever' conveys subjunctivity)
The subjunctive in natural roles (examples from modern English):
If I were you (the 'hypothetical' usage)
May you live to one hundred
It is required that all translators be competent
Lest you forget
Let it rain
Be that as it may
I insist she give of her time
Be they Democrat or Republican
If need be
They requested he take his business elsewhere
Be it ever so humble
The idea is for you to become fluent
Have a nice day (not a command! It's short for "I hope you have a nice day."

Need proof? Here's the Spanish: Que pases un buen día.)
Realizing the subjunctivity of an English phrase can help capture a feasible
Spanish:
No Child Left BehindLey Que Ningún Niño Se Quede Atrás
Ripley’s Believe It or Not! ®Aunque Ud. No Lo Crea
Get well soon! ¡Que se mejore!
Tough luck! ¡Que se aguante!
Any dateless girls may call Joe SchmoeToda chica que no tenga pareja, que
llame a Fulano.
[End Linguistic Note]
Tone
For the "optional" task, you may provide students with a short text to rewrite in
another tone. Don't be afraid to keep this light, as with all creative writing
activities--students will free themselves up if they sense they are in a supportive,
risk-friendly environment.
Translation Trap: Irony
Hatim’s brief discussion (191-5) of irony in terms of flouting and obeying
Gricean maxims and of the complexities of intertextuality is fascinating, and
relevant to the translator’s task.

Follow-up: Find articles including “A Modest Proposal” in the title. Do Spanish-
speaking cultures have a similar ironic tradition? Discuss with students.
Translating Surveys
Terminological difficulties of this text may center around the neologisms and
corporate jargon such as "telecommute", "compressed schedule", and
"carpool"/"vanpool", the latter of which are used in mainstream culture but are
culturally bound. The shorthand answers to 3b, "9/80", "4/10", and "3/36" would
not be readily understood by many Hispanics more familiar with other systems or
notations. The concept of "outreach" in the program name is a challenge, as is
“advocacy” on similar texts.
Note that in one parallel text (Encuesta de Vivienda y Transporte para los
Trabajadores Agrícolas en el Condado de Mendocino) found for this task,
Spanglish terms such as “raite” and “raitero” were used.
The point should also be made that some surveys are adapted to literacy
levels; e.g., an audiotaped mental health evaluation tool for migrant workers.
Tip: See also Behling (2000), Harkness (2003), and Rand Health’s “Basic
Guidelines for Translating Surveys”
(http://www.rand.org/health/surveys_tools/about_translations.html). In this
model, the translator meets with the survey user to clarify difficulties.
Tip (2): Explore customer satisfaction surveys as well.

[hand icon] Translation Traps
Common Strategic and Theoretical Pitfalls
1. “I don’t know ‘x’ word; I don’t use ‘x’ word; it must be the wrong word.” Your
translation vocabulary must exceed your own working vocabulary. Fallacious
corollary: “I know ‘x’ word; I use ‘x’ word; it must be the right word.”
2. “The original writer would have written 'hogar', not 'casa' had she meant 'home',
since she had both words available in Spanish, so I can only render 'casa' as
'house'.” This assumes that words are equivalencies (they are not), that cognates are
the translator’s first obligation (not necessarily), and that writers are writing for
translators, “telegraphing” their target language choices (absurd).
Overwhelmingly, writers write for readers, more rarely for translators. A translator
cannot ever simply assume a writer is using the most common sense for any given
word.
3. “Had the original writer been writing in English, he or she would have used ‘x’
here.” Theorist André Lefevre cautioned against this train of thought, reasoning that
this kind of subjunctive daydreaming can lead into a blind alley, namely because
had the original writer been writing in English, they wouldn’t be the same writer. In
other words, the translator should recognize this game as speculation, nothing more.
Once you assume a non-existent quality for the original, you cannot then take it as a
given. An unfortunate corollary to this is: “That’s just how we say ‘x’ in English.”
Arguably, this is a semi-fallacy. Quite often this thinking will yield a valid
translation. But what if you’re translating not from the stock of existent locutions

but from radically new utterances? Remember that not every text is written to
appear familiar to the reader. (Take these lines from Julio Herrera y Reissig’s poem,
“Solo verde-amarillo para flauta, llave de U”, for example: “la lujuria perfuma con
su fruta / la púbera frescura de la ruta / por donde ondula la venusa junta.” Let’s
see… how do we say that in English again?
[End Translation Traps]
Register Challenge: Yearbook Copy
1. This register is urban, youth-oriented, "hip hop" in its sensibility. It speaks its
audience's language, which not all advertisers try to do.
2. The sentence length in this text is vital to the rhythm. Any translation of the
source must be performative. The secondary information that is being presented is
that of group identification. Stress to students that a normalizing translation would
miss the tone; demonstrate this by giving an exaggeratedly poor, information-only
translation. Ask them what's missing.
Optional: Students make the whole text rhyme.
3. Have students consult native Spanish speakers on campus.
Lexical Gaps: Regionalisms

1. habichuelas negras
2. espuejuelos
3. ¿Mande?
4. huachito or guachito (remind students to search for variations) may show
endearment, depending; it would not automatically be an insult—the denotation is
“orphan”; whether pity or sympathy is implied depends on contextual factors
5. lejía (lye>”lie”); North American Spanish uses “Clorox”
6. gerente general
7. guajolote
8. cauchos
9. corpiños
10. los aeromozos
Tip: Show students the following (for #8, for example):
1) go to "Google Venezuela": http://www.google.co.ve/
2) click Buscar en: páginas en Venezuela and enter "rubber" in the search
box
3) click on the first hit of the directory page, "Goodyear Tyre and Rubber"
4) click on "Catálogo de productos"
5) click on "Navigator" under the first tire icon
6) what are tires called here? >>cauchos
7) verify by running "caucho" in Google Venezuela (the ".ve" hits are Venezuelan

pages) and examining—actually opening—several pages
Tip (2): Convey to students that translations with an inappropriate regional
orientation can not only not be effective, they can be insulting or offensive,
especially considering how easily some words can turn vulgar from one Spanish-
speaking community to another. Also, some of these communities have deep and
longstanding enmities between them—to be sold to in a rival country’s local
language is not conducive to receptivity.
Tip (3): Guard against students being receptive only to words they use in their
home countries. Have them localize short texts including terms with wide
variation from country to country (e.g. “kite”>papalote, chiringa, cometa,
barrilete, papagayo, volador, etc.)
Tip (4): Give students a passage or two from Irvine Walsh’s Trainspotting. They
can a) Translate the Scottish youth dialect into another vernacular; and b) discuss
options for translation into Spanish.
Recognizing Dialectical Variation
1. Buenos Aires/River Plate region
2. Costa Rica, Panama
3. Spain

4. Mexico
5. Puerto Rico
Supplement this activity with authentic materials: news, blog excerpts, fanzines,
graphic novels, “pennysaver” booklets, song lyrics, signage, packaging,
interviews, etc. Quiz students on the source country or region. Make a team sport
of it if you wish; throw a few curves.
Tip: Help students uncover regional bias—occasionally, features on
www.elcastellano.org are patronizing or possessive about the Spanish language.
See if students draw the same conclusion. (Incidentally, that site’s “Rincón del
Traductor” column often has topics of interest.)
Tip (2): Below are two points of view on poorly written STs. Define where you
fall, or if you reconcile the two positions.
1) It is best for students to scrupulously avoid poorly written source texts,
as they are not cost-efficient for the practicing translator; learning to
recognize poor writing is essential staying in business. Moreover, the
better the STs they can choose, the better their work will tend to be.
2) It is best for students to be given poorly written texts so they experience

the challenges they pose; in students’ future working lives they will face
these texts, so they need survival strategies for them.
OJO: Emphasize the difference betweeen poorly written source texts and texts
with regional usage. On occasion there will be Spanish-native students whose
sensibilities will be offended by other Spanishes, and may even protest (wrongly)
that a given source text sounds like a translation, or has been contaminated by the
English. If the protest comes from the student’s unfamiliarity with other varieties
of Spanish, alert the student to the fact. (The same phenomenon may occur in
English-native students.) Students should also be on the alert about using only
terms familiar to them, rejecting others as “wrong” for the mere fact they are
unknown to them. It is instructive, and imperative, for students to realize there are
Spanishes and Englishes beyond their own. Stated more categorically: Don’t let
anyone get away with chauvinism or other myopias in the classroom. And some
jobs will be “contaminated”, poorly written, or of uncertain provenance. Not
every job will be to translate Cervantes.
Spanglish
The Spanglish text is by Eduardo González
(http://accurapid.com/journal/38spanglish.htm). He includes a helpful glossary
that can be used for class discussion after students have had a try at understanding
the text first on their own.

In Ixa López Paláu’s En Arroz y Habichuelas: Diccionario del Habla Popular
Boricua are found these: souey (“subway”), loizada (“Lower East Side”), jarata
(“heart attack”), jolop (“hold up”), grasa (“grass”), furnitura (“furniture”), flipar
(“to flip out”), and fairesquei (“fire escape”).
It should be noted that other linguistic phenomena such as Chinglish
(Chinese and English) are in evidence, though they may often reflect poor
translation or language misuse rather than hybridization from language contact.
Students can offer other examples and speculate on them.
A related phenomenon is that of pochismo, a border slang consisting of
English words given a Spanish form or pronunciation. Students can be prompted:
What kinds of texts include such words?
Tip: Show “Do You Speak American? Episode 3” [videorecording] Princeton,
NJ: Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 2005, which investigates Spanglish
and “Chicano English”.
Tip (2): Remind students not to leave unsolved terms in the target text—the
reader instantly loses confidence. Some students, upon learning of the strategy of
omission or foreignization, conflate the two separate issues of unsolved terms and
borrowing, and so deliberately leave problem terms in the source language,
convincing themselves they are ‘untranslatable’ (because unfamiliar); or worse,
they do not proofread carefully enough to catch unsolved terms before delivery.

Tip (3): Give students the campesino letter in non-standard Spanish discussed at
www.gis.net/~andyk/essay.htm (“Problems of Translation in the Social and
Natural Sciences” by Andy Klatt). Let them discuss how they would approach it
for the circumstances given.
[hand icon] “Gentlemen of Corpoamazonia, of the Ombudsman,
agriculture, how are we campesinos going to survive if the
goverment fumigates evrything we have? Along with the ilegal
crops, they also fumigate the legal ones. We’re suffring from
hunger. Our pasturs have been fumigated along with the plantain,
the yuca, the corn, the rice. We campesinos what we want to do is
make the goverment understand that like you we to are humans,
that we are also Colombians that like you we have childrin too.
The only diference between your childrin and ours is that your
childrin will never be herd to say Im hungry like we hear alot from
are childrin after the fumigation and the only thing we can say is
the plane truth that the government did away with evrything”
(Letter to Ombudsman’s Office, July 26, 1998. Emphasis added;
spelling and grammar reflect the original)
Here are the authors’ notes on strategies for translating this text, and a sample
translation in English (see web address):

“The letter […] was written to a government by a group of campesino coca
growers. It presents a special challenge to the translator because it employs an
unusual hybrid register, being well conceptualized but expressed in nonstandard
language. This is a problem more frequently confronted in the translation of
vernacular fiction. The most obvious difficulty is to represent its poor Spanish
spelling in English. Some authors may have corrected the spelling in the Spanish-
language quote so as not to stigmatize its authors and not to distract attention from
its content. But the translator must follow the lead of the author, who in this case
had her own reasons to preserve the original orthography and style.
[…]
The simulated errors in English had to be like those that either natives of English
or Spanish-speaking immigrants could logically make. They needed to be
consistent and apparently motivated by the poor phoneme-grapheme
correspondence of English. The definite article was inserted in “the yuca, the
corn, the rice,” in order to maintain some of the Spanish flavor, as though
immigrant workers in the United States had written the letter with interference
from their native Spanish.
Jentelmen of Corpoamazonia, of the ombudsman, agriculture, how are we
campesinos going to servive if the goverment fumigates all we have? Along with
the ilegal crops, they also fumigate the legal ones. We are suffring from hunger.
Our pastures have been fumigated along with the plantain, the yuca, the corn, the

rice. We campesinos what we want to do is make the goverment understand that
like you we to are humans that we are also colombians that like you we have
childrin to. The only differince between your childrin and ours is that your
childrin will never be herd to say Im hungry like we hear alot from our childrin
after the fumigation and the only thing we can say is the plane truth that the
goverment did away with evrything. (Spelling and grammar intended to reflect
those of the original letter in Spanish. Emphasis added.)
The words campesino and cocalero are not translated. ‘Campesino’ better evokes
the North American image of the Latin American peasant than does the word
“peasant” itself. In fact, to many speakers of North American English, campesino
specifically means campesino latinoamericano, so the non-translation is strategic.
Cocalero is a neologism written with italics even in Spanish. Its translation would
be cumbersome, as in the context of the peasant movement, it includes not only
small coca growers but also íthose who work for wages in the harvest or in
processing.”
Pass out and discuss the author’s sample translation with students; compare
students’ approaches.
Suggest to the students that register itself may be another strategy—lowering the
level of the words without resorting to a (condescending) series of misspellings.
The issue of register will be especially crucial in medical translation (chapter 8).

In a recent round table on language issues, Maria Cornelio noted, for example,
that a recent health survey had a question concerning the reason for having a
mammogram. For the entry “Follow-up for previous breast cancer”, the
translation “Seguimiento por la existencia previa de cáncer de mamá”, the
expression “existencia previa” conjured images, for the Spanish-speaking
patients, of a past life. (Molinero, “Round table on language issues in health
care”)
Translation Tip: "Rosetta Stones"
Students should be reminded to compare multilingual Rosetta stones—often
different strategies can be discerned from language to language.
Technique “Scramble”
This task may seem somewhat in the language acquisition mold; the expected
outcome, however, is not to teach the idioms in question, but to exemplify
strategies and to solidify students’ understanding of them.
Modulation
An example of modulation can be given to remind students:
La máquina está descompuesta -> The machine is out of order.

(Pairs excerpted from Introducción a la traductología)
[hand icon] Index cards (one phrase from each pair on each; shuffle):
1. No tiene la fortuna que se le atribuye.
He hasn’t as much money as people credit him with.
2. Dejó de servirle la ropa.
The clothing no longer fit him.
3. Cambiar de idea
To have second thoughts
4. Las unidades fundamentales del lenguaje
The building blocks of speech
5. Disposición de ánimo

Frame of mind
6. Para el ojo experto
To the practiced eye
7. Ir de paseo en barco
To go for a sail
8. Advertirán mi ausencia.
I will be missed.
9. El se encargará del resto.
He can take it from there.
10. Poco amistoso
Unfriendly
11. desvestir a un santo para vestir a otro

Robbing Peter to pay Paul
12. Ya caigo
I get it now.
Recategorizations
(Pairs excerpted from Introducción a la traductología and Manual de traducción)
[hand icon] (Index cards; one phrase per card; shuffle):
adverb/verb
1. The application of hard work should eventually produce a heaven on earth.
La aplicación del trabajo diligente acabaría por producir un paraíso en la tierra.
2. I just call up a number.
Me limito a llamar un número.

3. Of a potentially catastrophic scale
Que puedan alcanzar proporciones catastróficas
adverb/adjective
4. We have been participating vigorously.
Hemos tomado parte muy activa.
5. To clarify as fully as possible
Para indicar con la máxima claridad
verb or pp to noun
6. We haven’t heard from him for a long time.
No hemos tenido noticias suyas por mucho tiempo.
7. They intended to separate.
Su intención fue de separar.

8. Why couldn’t you think of something else to talk about?
Por qué no pudo encontrar otro tema de conversación?
verb/adverb
9. It kept raining during our vacation.
Llovía de continuo durante las vacaciones.
noun/verb or pp
10. There would be no ties now to the past.
Ahora no habría nada que le atara al pasado.
verb/verb phrase
11. Refrigerate
Guardar en la nevera

12. To assume
Tomar sobre sí
***************round 2*************************
noun/verb or past participle
1. During the remainder of the term
Hasta que expire el mandato
(o: En lo que queda del mandato)
noun/verb
2. This is a follow-up report.
El presente informe complementa…
3. suffering and confession are the sinner's lot
el dolerse y el confesarse es propio del que peca

adjective/noun
4. The system has proved very useful for our purposes.
El sistema resultó de gran utilidad para nuestros propósitos.
5. There’s something cold, austere, something barren and chill, about this
architecture.
Hay en esta arquitectura una austeridad fría, una desolación helada.
6. But I would be less than candid
Pero faltaría a la sinceridad
7. I’m not being melodramatic.
No estoy haciendo melodrama.
adjective/verb
8. It seems to be incompatible with

No parece armonizar con
p.p./ adjective
9. The man gave a disgusted grunt.
El hombre dejó escapar un gruñido colérico.
possessive/definite article
10. He spends his money carelessly.
Gasta el dinero sin cuidado.
misc. parts of speech
11. In the course of any proceeding under this subsection
En el curso de un procedimiento previsto en la presente subsección
12. looking sorry for himself

cariacontecido
Translation Techniques
1. modulation
2. modulation
3. recategorization
4. recategorization
5. modulation
6. recategorization
7. explicitation
8. modulation
9. explicitation
10. particularization
Bonus: generalization (the feminine ending is neutralized); modulation;
transposition
Tip: Remind students that translation techniques reveal how similar ideas may be
expressed with different means across languages;
e.g. Ella se gana el pan ≠ She wins the bread.* but
= She is the breadwinner. (Or: She brings home the
bacon.)
Note: a good review of the translation techniques from a functionalist perspective
is Lucía Molina and Amparo Hurtado Albir’s “Translation Techniques Revisited:
A Dynamic and Functionalist Approach”, Meta, XLVII, 2002
Tip (2): Introduce students to Vinay and Darbelnet’s procedures list. Send
students after <> examples of each from a given database (for example, of general
texts, academic abstracts, online help systems, or dosing instructions).
Tip (3): Reveal to students how the choice of an implicitating translation may
respond to text conventions; e.g. 2,4 millones (M en lo sucesivo) > 2.4 million (m)
[i.e., there is no need for “hereafter” or the like—the parenthetical abbreviation
performs that function]
Tip (4): Show students the McGill Pain Scale in English; ask them how they
might render the complex pain descriptors (“gnawing”, “wrenching”, etc.) in
accessible Spanish. After giving them some time to attempt this strategy, compare
the version in Spanish that uses comparisons as a strategy (“como un tirón”,
“como si arañara”, “como si raspara”, etc.) instead of word-for-word lexical items
(see Tabla IV, p. 115, http://revista.sedolor.es/pdf/2002_02_06.pdf). Students will
appreciate the effectiveness of an instrument that makes actual experience
relevant, rather than somewhat esoteric linguistic categories.

As an example of a culturally specific pain scale, see also the Oucher:
http://www.oucher.org/differences.html
Translation Strategies (Case Study): Photocopier Warning
The strategy used is one of inversion—a positive is modulated to a negative. The
idea of “unwanted” is implicitated—any lines not in the source document are
understood as unwanted marks. There is a modulation in the shift of temporal
perspective from preventative to trouble-shooting.
Translation Strategies (Case Study): Computer Manual Captions
1. They refer to on-screen prompts, which will be in English; the parenthetical
Spanish provides a gloss.
2. Soporte and other Anglicisms are commonplace. Discuss whether “support”
could be, or has been, translated in other ways in similar contexts.
3. Students should search “support flyer” and potential translations, then “support
flyer” together with “support [block]”. Discuss the possibility that the same term
is rendered differently due to its collocation.
[hand icon] Undertranslation and Overtranslation

Consider the following translations of this phrase; assume the statement to be a
precept, relatively invariable in different contexts:
ST: "Sin resolución uno no llega a ningún lado": ≈>
TT1: "Determination is everything."
TT2: "Unresolved, one cannot get far."
TT3: "Lacking heart, one cannot make headway."
TT4: "One has to want to succeed, or else one falters."
TT5: "Without an iron will, one cannot achieve big things."
TT6: "One can achieve only if determined to."
TT7: "Wanting is achieving."
TT8: "Your progress will be thwarted if you lack
sticktoitiveness."
TT9: "You have to have the desire; otherwise you have
nothing."
TT10: “Have fixity of purpose, or you’ll only go in circles.”
TT11: “Running in place? Get some direction.”
TT12: (write your own):
Not everyone uses the concepts of undertranslation and overtranslation, but they
can be quite useful for describing a type of translation error. From the various
examples above, what do you think these terms mean? On the side of
overtranslation, translators also use related terms from various registers to
describe wayward or willful readings given a text, passage, phrase or even word,

including inappropriate paraphrase, embroidering, padding, distortion, or
especially, addition.
[pair discussion icon] / [class discussion icon] Discuss TT1-10 with a partner,
then as a group, focusing on undertranslation and overtranslation. Which, if any,
do you think are successful? What kinds of distortions appear in the less
successful renderings? What do you think the most grossly under- or
overtranslated phrase is? Discuss. Can you "piece together" a version for TT12
from the others that improves on the one you wrote?
Follow-up: Find or write a moral or ethical principle in Spanish; write it on the
board, and see how different are the versions your classmates produce from it.
Note: There is a rhetorical force to the phrasing “uno no llega a ningún lado” from
which a positive spin in English would be departing. Colloquially (TT2): “If you
don’t have determination, you can’t get far in life.” Several of the options are
distorted by omission (TT1 is reductive); others by commission (TT7 adds the
idea of achievement that is lacking in the ST).
Warning Sign (Case Study)
Loosely, the translator tried to reproduce the sound patterns to create a memorable
catchphrase (assonance instead of end–rhymes). Note how variant terms for “rip
current” were worked into target text. Have students recognize the
particularization, agite las manos.

Works cited
Behling, O. and Law, K.S. Translating Questionnaires and Other Research
Instruments: Problems and Solutions. London: Sage Publications, 2000.
Do You Speak American? Episode 3. Dir. William Cran. Princeton: Films for the
Humanities & Sciences, 2005.
Harkness, J. 2003. “Questionnaire Translation”. In Harkness, J. Van de Vijver,
F.J.R. and Mohler, P. (eds.) Cross-Cultural Survey Methods. New Jersey:
John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2003.
Hatim, Basil, and Ian Mason. Discourse and the Translator. London; New York:
Longman, 1989.
--. The Translator as Communicator. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Jakobson, Roman. "On Linguistic Aspects of Translation." The Translation
Studies Reader. Ed. Lawrence Venuti. New York: Routledge, 2000. 113-
118.

Klatt, Andy. "Problems of Translation in the Social and Natural Sciences." Andy
Klatt's Translation Website 23 May 2007.
<www.gis.net/~andyk/essay.htm >.
Laurillard, Diana. Rethinking University Teaching: A Conversational Framework
for the Effective Use of Learning Technologies. New York: Routledge,
1993.
López Paláu, Ixa. En Arroz y Habichuelas: Diccionario del Habla Popular
Boricua. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Ediciones Lego, 2007.
Molina, Lucía, and Amparo Hurtado Albir. "Translation Techniques Revisited: A
Dynamic and Functional Approach." Meta 47.4 (2002): 498-512.
Molinero, Leticia. “Round Table on Language Issues in Health Care”. vol. 13, No.
2, Apuntes, http://intrades.org/Translation/apuntesdisplay.html.
Searle, J. R. "A classification of illocutionary acts." Language in Society 5.1
(1976): 1-24.
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs, and Mary Louise Pratt. Linguistics for Students of
Literature. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980.

Vázquez-Ayora, Gerardo. Introducción a la traductología: curso básico de
traducción. Washington: Georgetown UP, 1977.
Zaro, J. J., and M. Truman. Manual de traducción: textos españoles e ingleses
traducidos y comentados = A Manual of Translation. Madrid: Sociedad
General Española de Libería, 1998.
ID:
communicative and semantic translation
three text types according to function: informative, expressive, operative
[expressive,
informative or vocative, acc. Newmark; you may want to introduce Hatim's text-
type
foci: Exposition, Argumentation, and Instruction.]
the translation brief [Note: You may also give variations of a translated text and
have the students infer the brief.]
summary translation
register
client portal
calque
borrowing
Rosetta stone
denominalization
Short answer:
Describe particulars of any given job that a client should communicate clearly to
the translator.
What are the differences between information-only translations and translations
for publication?
Name two “translation universals”.
How can you determine if a website is likely to be reliable?
[Use newsmagazine tasks as home prep assignments—choose content for students
to provide on the quiz, unassisted by notes.]
Name three adjustments a translator might make on a text depending on its end-
user.
Do you think translations ever have multiple, serial end-users, not only one?
Hypothesize. What do you think a translator should do in such
circumstances?

Précis writing:
[You may wish to introduce simultaneously précis writing and the art of
condensation--reducing longer text, which is especially useful for website copy,
and most especially, wordy website copy. Précis exercises are good for learning to
capture main ideas, and to connect them coherently.]
Translation techniques:
Compare TT passages and ID underlined segments. E.g.:
ST: {5694} 29. SOS. Señor, la causa de su muerte publicaua el cruel verdugo a
vozes, {5695} diziendo: Manda la justicia que mueran los violentos matadores.
TT: SOSIA. The cause, Sir, of their deaths, was published by the cruell
executioner, or common hangman, who delivered with a loud voyce; Justice
hath commanded, that these violent murderers be put to death.
[La Celestina]
(Answer: splitting)

Translation:
[Have students translate the same passage twice—once for information only, once
for publication.]
Take-home portion:
Find a(n) obituary/travel brochure/newspaper editorial or advice column/jury
instructions in English and in Spanish. Compare for style. Identify elements that
distinguish cross-cultural differences.
What debate surrounds the concept of “neutral Spanish” What do you see as the
motivation for its (theoretical) existence? Where do you stand on the issue?
Find Spanish translations for the most common freedoms, including freedom of
speech, freedom from want, etc. What are the most reliable sites you can find to
verify your terms? Document. Can you find a Rosetta stone for them?
Chapter 5

Note: If you are not including literature in your course(s) you may wish to attempt
a group translation of the Lorca poem presented in c. 11. It presents the challenge
of figurative language, polysemy (“pigeon” or “dove”?) and intertextuality
(Genesis).
Idioms
Shuffle the cards well beforehand. Impose a time limit (3-5 min.). Have the fastest
group read back their solutions; upon their first mistake, the group loses its turn,
and you move on to the next-fastest group. If no group gets through all 25, the
winner is the group that gets farthest.
[hand icon]
SL cards TL cards
1.tener el pico de oro to be well spoken
1.tener el pico de oro to have killed the golden goose
2. dar el visto bueno to OK
2. dar el visto bueno to look on the bright side
3. se armó la gorda all hell's broken loose
3. se armó la gorda the big prize is ready to pay off
4. Me pone los pelos de punta It freaks me out

4. Me pone los pelos de punta It drives me up a wall
5. un día sí, un día no every other day
5. un día sí, un día no randomly
6. refrénate hold your horses
6. refrénate lay off
7. estar hecho polvo to be exhausted
7. estar hecho polvo to be on "the junk"
8. echar la bronca a uno to give someone a piece of your mind
8. echar la bronca a uno to pretend to have a coughing fit
9. ¡qué vaina! What a nuisance!
9. ¡qué vaina! Such a deal!
10. Eso es pan comido. Easy as pie.
10. Eso es pan comido Nobody would want it now.
11. hacer su agosto to make a killing
11. hacer su agosto to "veg" out
12. estar a la edad del pavo to be at that awkward stage
12. estar a la edad del pavo to be young and impressionable
13. porfa pretty please
13. porfa go on
14. estar hecho una ruina to be a mere shadow of one's former self
14. estar hecho una ruina to be down on oneself
15. donde el diablo dejó el poncho in some godforsaken spot
15. donde el diablo dejó el poncho "where the sun don't shine"

16. pleitista troublemaker
16. pleitista lawmaker
17. papar moscas to gawk
17. papar moscas to kill time
18. sangripesado/a nasty
18. sangripesado/a sluggard
19. decir algo de
dientes afuera to pay lip service to
19. decir algo de
dientes afuera to hope against hope
20. hora pico rush hour
20. hora pico witching hour
21. suerte perra rotten luck
21. suerte perra doggedly
22. tener hormigueo to feel a tingling sensation
22. tener hormigueo to have piles of useless old junk
23. como si tuviera monos
en la cara like I had three heads
23. como si tuviera monos
en la cara as if I were trying to hide my excitement
24. en la onda hip
24. en la onda on the radar
25. tener palanca to have friends in high places

25. tener palanca to have a gift for trash talking
Answers:
1. tener el pico de oro>to be well spoken
2. dar el visto bueno>to OK
3. se armó la gorda>all hell's broken loose
4. Me pone los pelos de punta>It drives me up a wall
5. un día sí, un día no>every other day
6. refrénate>hold your horses
7. estar hecho polvo>to be exhausted
8. echar la bronca a uno>to give someone a piece of your mind
9. ¡qué vaina!>What a nuisance!
10. Eso es pan comido>Easy as pie
11. hacer su agosto>to make a killing
12. estar a la edad del pavo>to be at that awkward stage
13. porfa>pretty please
14. estar hecho una ruina>to be a mere shadow of one's former self
15. donde el diablo dejó el poncho>in some godforsaken spot
16. pleitista>troublemaker
17. papar moscas>to gawk
18. sangripesado/a>nasty
19. decir algo de dientes afuera>to pay lip service to
20. hora pico>rush hour

21. suerte perra>rotten luck
22. tener hormigueo>to feel a tingling sensation
23. como si tuviera monos en la cara>like I had three heads
24. en la onda>hip
25. tener palanca>to have friends in high places
Idioms: case study (Kodak's gateway page)
While this page was not for translation per se, it does present comprehension
problems for non-native English speakers, or those unfamiliar with the rather
dated idiomatic expression. In Spanish, a translator could play on rayado
(meaning 'trippy', 'kooky', etc., but also 'striped'); another option is to play on the
expression dar color a (to bring life to). Considering this photograph, one is
sorely tempted to try something with "A caballo regalado no le mires el diente",
but this saying implies that one should not to find fault with something given
freely, which is not the company's message here at all! A usual pairing of "horse
of a different color" in Spanish is "harina de otro costal"--flour from a different
sack, which doesn't go with the visuals. One could play with the black-and-white
idea by suggesting "Ponte de mil colores", which pushes the boundaries of that
expression's meaning from blushing to buying into the multi-colored product line.
Insults

[Possible solutions:]
cachondo > 1. horny; 2. joking around, goofing
cagado/a > chickenshit
chulo > pimp
engendro > freak
gabacho > frog
huevón > slug, bum, slouch
malalecha > nasty
marrullero > brown-noser; toady; suck-up; kiss-ass
repipi > precocious snob; poser
tiquismiquis > fusspot; fastidious (adj.)
torpe > 1. dense 2. klutzy; lame 3. immoral; torpón > klutz
vacilón > joker, prankster
Optional: Have students write extensive definitions in Spanish of English-
language insults (e.g. chump, punk, sucker) or other invective.
Optional (2): Consider giving passages for translation from Cela's Diccionario
secreto [This idea courtesy of Dr. Donna Rogers.]
Translation Teaser: The Mano Cornuto

Names and meanings for this sign are manifold: the devil, good luck, etc.
This would be a good point to discuss gestures--obscene or decent--and their
differences across cultural boundaries: the "OK" sign (obscene in Brazil and
elsewhere); the corte de mangas; etc.
Translation Teaser: “Frankly, Scarlett,…”
Some talking points for discussion: How would you find out how strong "damn"
was? What was the intended effect of using the word "damn"? And would you use
the same strategy if you were translating it for today's audience? If you would
strengthen the epithet to produce a similar reaction to that of the 1930s generation,
does that mean, by extension, that you would make other 'updates' to the film if
you could, including deleting or changing perceived 'dated' scenes or values? Is "I
don't give a ****" a possible subtitle (with the asterisks instead of an offending
word)? Is it stronger to read swear words, to hear them, or to supply your own?
Explain your position or your ideas. You may want to see how the phrase is
subtitled on the DVD Spanish version, and compare how strongly other language
tracks have rendered the phrase; also, the translation of Margaret Mitchell's book
(on which the film was based).
Proverbs and Sayings

Note that proverbs may gain nuances in different contexts, but usually have
autonomous meaning on their own, hence they are often transformed and survive
across vast spaces and time.
[Possible solutions are in bold.]
A.
Confidencia quita referencia.>>Familiarity breeds contempt.
El dinero gobierno el mundo.>>Money makes the world go round.
La práctica hace al maestro.>>Practice makes perfect.
El comer y el rascar, todo es empezar.>>Well begun is half done.
Cuando el río suena, agua lleva.>>Where there's smoke, there's fire.
Querer es poder.>>Where there's a will, there's a way.
A lo hecho, pecho.>>What's done is done.
Borrón y cuenta nueva.>>Turn over a new leaf./Let bygones be bygones.
El que no quiere aventurar, no puede gran hecho acabar.>>Nothing ventured, nothing
gained.
A cada puerco su sábado.>>Every dog has his day.
Cuando el diablo no tiene que hacer con el rabo mata moscas.>>Idle hands are the
devil's workshop.
Gusta lo ajeno, más por ajeno que por bueno.>>The grass is always greener.

Note: Then there's "Las cañas se vuelven lanzas", Spanish's equivalent to "It's all
fun and games until someone gets an eye poked out." (Not really a proverb, but
maybe someday.)
B.
1. People are wisest when on familiar ground.
2. If you don't ask, you won't receive.
3. To be chosen is to be recognized; to be called is to be obliged, hence of lower
status.
4. Use the right tool for the job.
5. To obsess over insignificant money matters, particularly where small savings
are concerned, while one's general spending habits are reckless.
C. 1-f; 2-a; 3-g; 4-c; 5-d; 6-e;7-b; 8-h
Translation Teaser
"Ojos que no ven, corazón que no siente" here is akin to "Out of sight, out of
mind," or more prosaically, "You can't miss what you never had." The two have
different nuances. (Discuss.) You may have students put the idea into their own
words, then translate into a proverb. You can do this with a number of different
proverbs. If you wish, find a study of the proverbs in Don Quixote and see how
they have been translated into English. In general, students will have a limited
recognition, and even more limited production, of proverbs.

Metaphor
The bibliography on metaphor is abundant, but attention from translation theorists
is relatively recent. See, for example, "On Translating Metaphor" by Antonia
Alvarez (Meta, XXXVIII, 3, 1993). An important modern work that helps define
a "cognitive" approach to metaphor is Metaphors We Live By (Lakoff and
Jonhson, 1980). For non-native speakers of English, Collins Cobuild offers a
guide to usage, English Guides 7: Metaphor, which shows how words in different
areas of human experience are used metaphorically in English.
Translating Humor
1. [Possible solution: How does a vampire get to work?]
2. [Possible solution: Students must hold their tongues and find a joke based on
the confusion between two consonants, comparable to rosa/losa; if possible the
same letter should be transformed throughout ('l' for 'r').
3. [Possible solution: If there is a great beyond, this must be the not-so-great
beyond. / {This solution loses the más/menos, allá/acá oppositions}]
4. [Possible solution: How did the guy who invented the stone bed die? A pillow
fight.]
5. [Possible solution: How can you tell a broom is unhappy? It's always weeping

(/s/ /weeping/). By a curious coincidence this solution uses the diametrically
opposite meaning (crying substitutes for laughing) to achieve the pun.]
6. [Possible solution: All right, Johnny, can you give us three parts of the body
beginning with a "d"? Johnny (with a thick New York accent): "D'ears, d'eyes, and
da nose". There is a similar joke in English wherein a teacher asks the students to
use the following words in a sentence: defeat, deduct, defense, detail. The student
writes: "The defeat of deduct went over defense before detail".]
7. [possible solution: "--If an elephant were crushing you to death, what would
you do?
--Have a good cry to get it off my chest." Have students improve on this by
substituting homonymic pairs that work in this formula. Another possibility is to
somehow use the water image of ahogarse/desahogarse>Who would you look for
after a flood?--A therapist, so I could pour my heart out.]
Tip: Listen to Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s On First” routine:
http://www.phoenix5.org/humor/WhoOnFirst.html Using excerpts from the
transcript, determine as a class how to solve some of the more obvious problems
involved in translating the gags en>es.
Piropos
Piropos differ from “pick-up lines” (to which students will liken them) in that
piropos have some degree of finesse for their own sake; the piropo in its finest

moments is closer to a genre of the verbal arts than a purely instrumental come-
on, whatever the intentions of the piropeador.
In general these sound unconvincing in English. Discuss what explains their
failure, and work with the class on adapting “Anglopiropos.”
Discuss where piropos might appear for translation.
Translation Teaser: El Cuerpo de Paz
"Vocational training? More like vacational training!"
Figurative Language in Pragmatic Domains
Have students isolate figurate language in an academic abstract source and target
text. Review: strategies, including modulations. See if students can, based on
studying 20 abstracts, deduce the essence of this genre (e.g., What tense? Active
or passive? What degree of redundancy? Is the work of others quoted? How
would you characterize the style? Are conclusions stated? etc.) Have students in
groups of four pool their abstracts and compare their deduced rules. Do their rules
hold up under the new evidence? See if the class can come to a consensus on the
minimal characteristics and the optional characteristics of an academic abstract in
a given field.

Follow-up: Give out a self-translated academic abstract and have students edit it.
Look for one (see the medical offerings in Ebsco, for example) in which the
terms, argumentation, cohesion, or general thesis are obscured by writing
(translation) choices.
“Click it or Ticket” Campaign
See the English/Spanish multimedia versions of this campaign at
www.txdot.state.tx.uslservices/traffic_operations/clickit_ticket.htm
Translating Greeting Cards
Note that Spanish-language greeting cards like to use dichos as the basis of their
messaging and themes (e.g., Lantingua Designs has a “congrats on your new
position” card reading “¿Quién le dio vela en este entierro?”)
Task: (possible translations: Note: actual greeting cards are extraordinarily
difficult to secure rights to reproduce, therefore this is a semi-authentic
composite):
A. My most heartfelt wishes that your special day be memorable and that you be
blessed in all things for years to come.
B. Best wishes for you and yours. Happy new year.

Optional: Groups write greeting cards for other groups to translate.
Note: “Sweetheart” candies with Valentines messages are now available in
Spanish translation.
Workshop #4
One possible version of this passage from wkshp. #4:
Aparte de la belleza de esta composición, su logro más extraordinario es la
captación del aire, de la atmósfera que interpone entre los cuerpos de los
personajes, y que Velázquez logra pintar desdibujando los perfiles y matizando
los colores de las figuras colocadas más lejos, para que aparezcan a los ojos del
espectador tal y como podrían ofrecérsele en la realidad.
This composition’s most outstanding achievement—apart from its beauty—is
its skillful depiction of mood, the intermediate space between its subject’s
forms, and that Velázquez, by artfully blurring contours and blending the
hues of the furthermost figures, has created an image that to the viewer’s eye
seems true to life.
Notes: First, notice how the first clause is restructured to put the parenthetical
information after the subject, verb and object--this draws the reader's attention

better to the main idea. Second, notice that ‘hues’ goes with ‘blend’, since there is
a subtlety to ‘hues’ that ‘colors’ doesn’t have--the background figures are subtle.
“La captación” might also work well as “how it captures” (note how the nominal
“its capturing” is avoided—too weak in English! "Capturing the air" is too literal
in that the mind imagines actual "air" rather than the in-between space);
“captures”, as a verb, collocates nicely with “mood”. “Artfully” is a transposition
of “logra + verb” (the ‘logra’ part, anyway); it means skillfully, or by extension,
an accomplished effect. “True to life” (or “lifelike”) condense “as they might
appear [i.e., to the eye of the beholder] in real life”—nothing lost or gained in the
target; the idea is that they look as realistic as if the spectator had wandered in on
the real historical subjects, as they might have been lived (what the French call
tranche de vie. “Image” in the last clause could be “scene”. Students will produce
many different renditions for "desdibujando"--have them defend their reading of
this idea by describing the technique in their own words. Ask for an artistic
volunteer to demonstrate.]
OJO: Students will include anachronisms in their translations—“bodyguard”
(though there is some historical precedent for this term), “nannies”, etc. Remind
students of the need for historical terms here.
Note: For the interpictorial translations see also Richard Hamilton’s “Picasso’s
Meninas”.
Works cited

Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de. Don Quixote. Trans. P.A. Motteaux. New York:
Dutton, 1954.
Rushdie, Salman. The Satanic Verses. New York: Viking, 1989.
Text for translation
[Use a text with idiomatic phrases, e.g. an ad (e.g. a passage from a regional
tourist brochure, witness testimony, direct mail, horoscopes, video game scripts,
oral histories, interview transcripts, video scripts. Define the brief as thoroughly
as possible.]
Chapter 6
Tip (1): Give students Internet world stats (internetworldstates.com/stats7.htm) to
show them relative percentages of language communities on the Internet.

Tip (2): Stress the connection between “creative” language—the focus of chapter
5—and the applications to business and business translation, our focus here. This
continuity can be reinforced with activities featuring rewritings of business
correspondence, for example, to adjust for flatness of tone. Or send students to
research white papers, which are classic hybrids in that they combine persuasive
prose with technical detail and marketing content.
Tip (3): Use the U.S. Department of Labor’s Hispanic Outreach Quick Start page
(navigate there via http://www.osha.gov/). There you will find materials for the
Spanish-speaking workforce. You can use this material here in chapter 6 or in the
technical chapter (c. 9), in which training materials are specifically treated.
Alternate task: (Directions to the student:) Open the OSHA dictionary of
construction terms. Give five scenarios (text types, users) where this glossary
would be useful.
Tip (4): Have students propose a translation project (en>es) for your school’s
financial aide website. They must produce a needs analysis, establishing scope,
timeline, audience served, and funding. They may want to consider a glossary, the
need for term standardization, options for video, etc. They can brainstorm by
considering existing pages similar to what they wish to propose.
Tip (5): Here is an example of how corpora analysis software can help elucidate
tendencies in a given text type across languages: In the article, “A Comparative
Study of Metaphor in Spanish and English Financial Reporting” (Jonathan
Charteris-Black and Timothy Ennis, English for Specific Purposes, Volume 20,
Issue 3, 2001, Pages 249-266, 2001, published by Elsevier Science Ltd.) the

authors compare the use of metaphor in a corpus of English and Spanish financial
reports published in newspapers during the stock market crash in October 1997.
They find that “both languages share conceptualisations of the economy as an
organism, of market movements as physical movements and of sharp downward
market movements as natural disasters. These conceptualisations show in a
number of similar lexical metaphors relating to, for example, physical conflict,
physical and mental health, mood, extreme weather conditions and earthquakes.
However, while in Spanish reporting there is a preference for metaphors based
on psychological mood and personality, in English reporting there is a higher
frequency of nautically based metaphors.” (emphasis mine) Share these findings
with students. Can they find examples that support or contradict this tendency?
What other cross-cultural considerations in translating economic and financial
texts might be relevant? What intuitions could be tested empirically?
Tip (6): See that students guard against the following common pitfalls:
advertising <> propaganda (propaganda in the political sense=propaganda
política)
billion <> mil millones (≠ “billón”)
“The third largest Latin American economy”<> “La tercera economía
latinoamericana”
Tip (7): A good overview of some website localizations (MySpace en español,
etc.) and other issues related specifically to Spanish<>English can be found at

https://www.multilingual.com/downloads/printSupp89.pdf. Have students
summarize 2-3 articles of interest there.
Translating Print Ad Slogans
(Possibilities for selected ads:)
“Campanas MEPANSA, la máxima aspiración para su cocina.”
"Ever feel like venting? We do every day." [Note: Campanas are for heat
exhaust.]
“Precisión inalterable” (SEIKO)
"Timeless engineering" [Note: Their actual slogan]
“La tónica SCWEPPES sabe magnífica sola.”
"Exschwepptional by itself."
“El arroz FLORA es más resistente.”
"Flora: When your brand of rice can't take the heat."
“Flan DHUL, igual que el de la abuelita.”
"Just like grandma used to make." / "Always a Dhul moment."
“El padrino de los vinos, VINOS CASA” [Students should probably avoid
“godfather” imagery, which connotes the mafia in English.]
"Vinos Casa: Just like one of the family" /
"You can go home again: Vinos Casa" /
"Come home to Vinos Casa"

“GRAN DUQUE DE ALBA, el brandy de los brandies.”
"The brandy-drinkers' brandy."
“Ahora libérate, vive y deja vivir a tus prendas de punto” (WOOLITE)
"Woolite. Just let it all hang out."
“Listerine: Estrena tu boca.”
"Listerine. When your mouth is ready for its close-up."
“Hay personas que tienen razones de peso para preferir endulzar con
NATREEN.”
"Natreen users have seen the LITE!" /
"Not sweet by nature? Try Natreen!" /
"Natreen. It's off the scale." /
"The weight is over: Natreen."
“SEAT: un pequeño gran coche”
"We do the big car little." /
"Size doesn't matter."
“CAJAS DE AHORRO CONFEDERADAS. El interés más
desinteresado.”
"Where banking's in your best interest."
“Coke. The Real Thing”
"Lo genuino" [Note: actual slogan]
Important: It is a good idea to introduce students to the notion of transcreation at
this point. Hispanic marketing will sometimes use this term, as will certain

translation theorists in reference to literary texts (particularly the Brazilian
“Anthopophogy” or Cannbalist school of translation). The term is relevant again
in chapter 10 when you discuss imitation, adaptation, etc.
Follow-up: In groups, have students design an advertising slogan in Spanish for a
bank in Mexico, an international airline, an ad campaign to get people to vote, and
a local pawn shop.
Follow-up (2): Have students ascertain the difficulties of bilingual packaging, a
burgeoning trend.
Follow-up (3): Assign Cynthia Gorney’s New York Times article, “How do you
say ‘Got Milk?’” en Español?” (9/23/07) You may also consider assigning for
discussion “Chapter 4: The Role of Language in Hispanic Marketing” from
Korzenny and Korzenny, Hispanic Marketing: A Cultural Perspective
(Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005).
Follow-up (4): Show the subtitled Spanish-language video ads at
www.gotmilk.com.
Follow-up (5): Send students after wordless or nearly wordless ads, e.g. Levi’s.

Follow-up (6): Have a student-to-student quiz of translated taglines—students
give the Spanish, class must guess the product.
Tip: Defuse the potential offense implied in discussions of low education levels
among Hispanics. This is a statistical finding, not an impugning of anyone’s
intelligence. Spanish-speaking students who are highly educated sometimes
bristle at the real or implied suggestion that all Hispanics are alike in this regard,
which they certainly are not.
[hand icon] Marketing post
Someone in a recent forum (http://www.english-spanish-translator.org/spanish-
english-marketing-translation/5502-tecnicismos-de-marketing.html) asked the
following:
Me han mandado un trabajo en la facultad sobre tecnicismos de
marketing y hay unas cuantas palabras que no se por donde
cogerlas. A ver si hay alguien que me pueda echar una mano
viajes de incentivo, presentaciones de productos, participación
en salones profesionales, grupos de familiarización, jornadas
de promoción, lanzamientos de destinos,…

Notice how difficult it is to answer without more context. Find three resources to
send to this poster. In pairs, solve the terms.
Localizing Ads (optional task)
Present these pairs of ads to students several times each, asking them to notice
differences. The spots are from the “Get a Mac” series; on YouTube, they are
listed as the “cajas” ad and “ven a mac (español latino)”;
caja:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfSBsdcnRc8&NR=1 (Spain)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ5jxm9QFdk&feature=related (Lat. Amer.)
surgery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekBJoZtfVu0 (Lat. Amer.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ETA7oFtM9w&NR=1 (Spain)
[differences for the first pair include:
Spain Latin America
Un Mac [un ordenador] Una Mac [una computadora]
¿qué vas a hacer tú? ¿cuál es tu gran plan?
película doméstica película casera

página web sitio web
cámera interna de serie cámera ya incluida
software de prueba un software demo
drivers controladores
disco [“disque”?] duro disco duro
Es caso es que… De hecho…]
Follow-up: Now watch this ad from Spain and localize with U.S. Spanish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDaJ7FcrhEM&feature=related
[Suggestions: replace “ordenadores”, “chulo”, “chatear”, “genial”]
Follow-up (2): Remake Mac TV ads with voiceovers for a given market: Mexico,
U.S. Spanglish-speakers, etc.
Ad analysis
Provide an ad from a Spanish-language periodical, preferably one with cross-
cultural signifiers and that has a clear strategy.
Translation traps

Avoid recycling the old list of poorly written English signs found in hotels around
the world (the one featuring “Please leave your values at the front desk” and the
like); this list has made the rounds for years, but there is no evidence these are
really translations. Also, research the veracity of the “Chevy no va” legend if you
must repeat it. Better, have students try to verify it.
Here is a translation cautionary tale to tell:
“When officials asked for the Welsh translation of a road sign [reading “No entry
for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only”], they thought the reply was what
they needed. Unfortunately, the e-mail response to Swansea council said in
Welsh: ‘I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated’.”
That is the phrase that appeared on the sign where the translation should have!
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7702913.stm)
In another cross-cultural mishap, the Max Planck Institute wanted some
beautiful Chinese caligraphy to adorn the cover of its journal. The problem: they
chose, unawares, an ad for a Macau brothel.
(http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cross-cultural/intercultural-communication-
translation-news/category/translation-news/)
Tip: Tell students about brand analysis. Agencies (for example, Choice
Translations out of Charlotte, NC and Lima, Peru) coordinate surveys that clients
pay for in order to determine if product names mean anything offensive or
unintended in different languages and dialects.

Tip (2): Students tend to have trouble with "cotizar" and "cotizaciones", and the
multiple meanings of each. Bring in financial columns or headlines with different
usages and have students sight read them.
Tip (3): Send students after mortgage documents in Spanish from U.S. lenders.
Are they information-only?
Infer Translation's Role
Task 1: Possibilities are legion, but include:
business correspondence
business plans
IPOs (Initial Public Offerings)
annual reports / quarterly reports
white papers
corporate minutes [note: actas, not minutos]
financial statements
contracts
insurance claims
investment marketing documents
promotional material and advertisements

market surveys
e-commerce
website localization
balance sheets
cash-flow statements
You may bring in examples or have students do so. You may also prompt them
with questions on the order of: How does a white paper differ from an
publireportaje? How are market surveys distributed? Who reads quarterly
reports? What subtypes of contracts exist? etc. Introduce commercial and
financial text types by explaining functions, showing examples, and prepping or
translating (e.g. search <organigrama> in Google Images and have a mini-unit on
organizational charts as a supplement to discussions in this chapter on titles and
forms of address.) The workbook to Doyle et al’s Éxito comercial has a wide
variety of authentic economic documents as well.
Tip: Have students discuss how they would determine what translations of
business education materials exist, including business textbooks. Help them
determine how these are contracted, in what direction the work tends to flow, who
is publishing them (e.g. Pearson Education de México, S.A.), etc.
Translation And Marketing: "Libros En Español"

Let students also try bestsellers en español on other sites, wherever they can find
viable titles.
Educational Marketing Email
The only serviceable cognates are patrimony and immersion. “La novedad este
año…” will need a noun supplement (e.g. “A new offering this year…”). Ask
students for versions of selected passages featuring the cognate in question.
Linguistic Note: Localization and Global Business
The website Yunker gives of companies that have produced Spanish pages on
their websites is worth exploring fully: http://bytelevel.com/global/es/. Students
can spend time in pairs in the lab navigating these sites and then bring their notes
on them for discussion. Alternatively, you could make this a "scavenger hunt"
style task, with prompts such as "Find a partially localized site", "Find a site with
the navigation bars in English, and the text copy in Spanish", "Find a site with
multiple varieties of regional Spanish", etc. Yunker has a good article on the top
10 global websites, which is well worth assigning:
http://www.globalbydesign.com/blog/2007/06/19/the-best-global-web-sites-and-
why/

Tip: Have students do a comparative analysis of competitors’ sites for a
given product, e.g. cars-let them compare the Spanish pages for Toyota, Ford,
Nissan, etc.
Many sites’ Spanish pages include “espanol” in the address, not “español”.
Discuss usability issues.
Knowledge Organization Activity: International Trade Documents
Solutions for the x’s:
Transaction Document(s): invoice or commercial invoice
Transport Documents: bill of lading [conocimiento de embarque]
Banking/Payment Documents: letters of credit, amendments to letters of credit,
various advices
Import Documents: entry form; commercial invoice
Translation Task: Shipping Company Advertisement
Discuss the headline “servicios por todas las vías”. Be sure to point out the
incoterms in the text (CIF, DWT), shipping terms (poca tara>low tare). Discuss
whether the designations DES and Ex Works overlap with any of the ST

descriptions. Discuss also “by air/ sea / rail / land” and the options “airway /
seaway / railway / roadway”.
Incoterms
[hand icon] Print out the incoterms in bilingual format from
http://www.colomguia.com/Export/Exportpag4.htm
Make students aware that they are often borrowed into Spanish (non-translation).
A good description of each of the terms can be found at
http://www.Itdmgmt.com/incoterms.htm
Optional: Show students an example of a constancia de conformidad (certificate
of compliance).
Translation Teaser
The answer is "c", zero down. A down payment is usually a "pago inicial" in
Spanish, or "el pronto", among other terms.
Follow-up: Have the class discern the meaning and English counterpart of
"descuento por pronto pago", and decide in what circumstances they are used.

Tip: Remind students that connotation is important in more than advertising.
Consider Korzenny and Korzenny’s discussion of the word “mortgage” (Hispanic
Marketing: A Cultural Perspective, Oxford: Elsevier, 2005, 91):
If [“mortgage” is] translated as hipoteca, the consumer may be
turned off, even if this term is possibly the most accurate translation.
This is because the marketer, the translator, or both may not have
considered the emotional charge of hipoteca. Here is where consumer
understanding impacts translations and consumer reactions. In many
parts of Latin America a hipoteca is a course of last resort. When
someone is in dire straits they may resort to taking a hipoteca on
their home. But that is generally seen as a negative course of action
because one endangers the patrimony of one’s children. Also it means
that the borrower is not doing well. Almost the opposite to what
happens with Anglo consumers in the United States. If they get
their mortgage they are starting a prosperous life. A more positive
term in Spanish would be préstamo, or loan.
Business Letter Task (Case Study)
Students should take careful note of the use of "sírva(n)se + verb" as a formula for
"kindly" or "please". The inadvisability of translating literally many phrases found

in correspondence, for example "looking forward to hearing from you", should be
emphasized. Stress especially long units of translation for this text type.
Tip: See Hurtado Albir (ed), Enseñar a traducir, Edelsa: España, 1999, 94-8, for
tasks related to business letters.
Tip (2): Introduce students to the Business Letter Corpus:
http://ysomeya.hp.infoseek.co.jp/
Tip (3): Have students assess the United States Postal Service ® Spanish
readiness. What goods and services are, or could be, offered in Spanish to
increase this organization’s competitiveness in the twenty-first century? Tip (3b):
Bring in a bilingual UP package notification (the sort left on doors for missed
delivery). The front and back have bilingual text.
What Can We Know about an Absent Source Text?
See http://www.mbrt.net/HispanicMBEProfile.pdf for a representation of
Hispanic businesses by industry sector for 2002.
1. False {no precedent or reason for the English to read that way}
2. True
3. False {far more likely is "amount" for "cantidad", since quantity is usually for
counting inanimate objects}
4. True

5. True
6. True
7. False {does not follow in the series}
8. False {"remediation"; "clean-up" also used}
9. False {"social help" is not used}
10. True
11. False {it exists; remind students that retailer=detallista, minorista, and sells al
por menor; a wholesailer is a mayorista}
12. True
13. True
14. False {the collocation is right but the logic is not}
15. False {unless all such plurals are sexist, in which you could argue "True"}
Contract Activity: The Insurance Policy
(Possible answers:)
Asegurado: Names insured [distinguishes from 'Additional Insured']
de conformida con las condiciones de esta póliza: in accordance with the terms of
this policy
Marca: make
Motor No.: VIN {Vehicle Identification No.}
Límite de responsabilidad: limits of liability

Choque: collision
Daños a propiedad de terceros: third-party property damage / property damage
Alborotos populares: popular uprising
Plazo establecidos para el seguro: policy period / period covered by the policy
Prima: premium
Conformes: I/We agree to the above
Agente del asegurador: Insurance agent
Follow-up: Have students find three solid es<>en insurance glossaries produced
for standardizing in-house documents but posted for public use.
Translating Trade Fair Calendars
Tip: Have students take their best guesses at the calendar section ("Ferias
organizadas por IFEMA") before they check online. Have them preface their
guesses with a "degree of confidence" for each (0-100%).
Notes:
IFEMA, Feria de Madrid es uno de los primeros organizadores europeos de ferias,
actividad que lidera en España gracias a la solidez de sus convocatorias y a su
fortalecido posicionamiento internacional.
[uno de los primeros organizadores: one of Europe's foremost/leading fair

organisers/institutions; gracias a la solidez de sus convocatorias y a su
fortalecido posicionamiento internacional: which Spain leads due to its quality
events and strengthened international competitiveness [also: competitive position,
standing]
Sus recintos feriales, ampliados y mejorados en los últimos años, conforman un
elemento diferencial de primer orden, junto a su equipo humano y un modelo de
gestión caracterizado por la eficacia y capacidad para ofrecer un servicio de
calidad en el ámbito de ferias y convenciones.
[conforman un elemento diferencial de primer orden: set them a cut above the
rest / are a world-class feature that sets this venue apart ['world-class' a slight
stretch, however]; en el ámbito: ø]
Feria de Madrid se integra en la zona más vanguardista de la ciudad, exponente
del nuevo Madrid de los negocios. Muy próxima al Aeropuerto Internacional de
Barajas, y rodeada de las vías rápidas de acceso a Madrid y a la red de carreteras.
El cómodo acceso en transporte público, a través de la red de autobuses y Metro,
le permite un traslado privilegio al aeropuerto y al centro de la ciudad.
[la zona más vanguardista de la ciudad: [students should avoid language that
would be unlikely to appeal to businesspeople--e.g., 'hippest', 'hotspot', etc. Best
to stress modernity, contemporaneity, fashion; 'avant-guard' likely too restrictive,
as it refers largely to the arts--the text suggests that it is a technologically and
architecturally advanced area; exponente del nuevo Madrid de los negocios:

emblem of the new business Madrid; un traslado privilegiado: affords a
comfortable trip;
El atractivo de las convocatorias y espacios de reunión de IFEMA se beneficia de
las propias características de la Región de Madrid, cuyo dinamismo e
infraestructuras de todo orden, junto a la calidad de su oferta cultural y de ocio,
propician un entorno idóneo para esta actividad.
[dinamismo: vitality / energy]
Team Task: Author and Create A Glossary for A Business Plan
[hand icon] Optional task: business loans [hand out in class and answer questions
in groups]
Catálogo de Servicios de la S. I. -» Solicitantes -» Empresas -» Fomento
Empresas TIC
EBT/Capitalización de Empresas de Base Tecnológica
Web: Ayudas a Base Tecnológica
Los beneficiarios de este programa serán las empresas financieras.
Este programa tiene por objetivo la concesión de préstamos a entidades
financieras de capital-riesgo para su participación temporal en el capital de

Empresas de Base Tecnológica no financieras, que comiencen su actividad o que
lleven menos de dos años de funcionamiento.
Las condiciones financieras de las ayudas son:
* Los préstamos se concederán a interés cero, sin avales ni garantías adicionales
a la viabilidad del proyecto.
* El plazo máximo de amortización será de siete años a contar desde la fecha de
formalización de la toma de participación en el capital de la Empresa de Base
Tecnológica.
* La cuantía máxima del préstamo será el 50% de la participación de la entidad
inversora en la Empresa de Base Tecnológica, que no podrá exceder de 500.000
euros.
* La liquidación se realizará en función de las plusvalías/minusvalías
conseguidas en el momento de la desinversión.
(Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio)
http://www.mityc.es/DGDSI/Secciones/PorSolicitante/Empresas/FomentoEmpres
asTIC/
Questions:
1. What does “base tecnológica” refer to?

2. What does “amortización” refer to?
3. What does “toma de participación” refer to?
4. What does “entidad inversora” refer to?
5. What does “liquidación” refer to?
6. What does “desinversión” refer to?
7. What does “minusvalía” refer to?
[Possible answers: 1. technology-driven [technology-driven or –oriented]
companies; 2. repayment; 3. acquiring a stake; 4. investing entity; investing party;
5. debt repayment/settlement; 6. note: disinvestment= withdrawal or shrinkage of
capital investment from a company (e.g. a boycott), while divestment is the
disposal of a business or investment; 7. losses]
Business Ethics
This BBB text is a good introduction to business ethics and a good text for
working into Spanish. It reviews the mission statement text type, plus introduces

the public service organization and the resource for conflict dispute (which
hopefully your students will never need as professional translators). Many of the
phrases are typical for this text type. Be sure students address what to call the
BBB in Spanish with due consideration; also be aware of parallelism in their
constructions on the bullet-pointed items.
It may be useful to do an activity with a passage from a Transparency
International Report on comparative international ethics, e.g. from 2003 (see the
article on “Saneamiento del sector público”). PDFs are easily found and
downloaded from the Web.
Silent Translation
“Silent translation” is to translation what sight translation is to interpreting. It can
be a large part of any reading regime, but also serve best translation practice—
trainees should practice silent translation focusing not only on the word level
(glossaries can be built), but using recasting and other syntactic strategies. You
may assign a week’s reading on a certain webpage leading up to an in-class
translation, which can be culled from the week’s texts.
Workshop EN>ES: The Internal Revenue Service's 2001 1040EZ
Instructions

This task is of interest especially since there is little consensus on terminology;
terminology management will prove elusive for students here, and, more than
usual, perhaps, they will have to develop criteria for choosing one valid term over
another that may also be viable. Discuss how a translator can minimize risk when
term proliferation occurs like this. Follow-up: What resources did they find
deficient (internally inconsistent or of poor navigability) in their research? How
did they resolve discrepancies? What changes would they need to make were this
not a text into U.S. Spanish?
Team Translation EN>ES (Workshop #6): Strategic Plan
Ask students what kinds of commonalities appear in translation service providers’
strategic plans.
Print copies of your school’s strategic plan. Discuss: How does the language
compare to this one? How concrete is it? What marks it as academic discourse?
Issues:
“Great Smoky Mountains” vs. “Grandes Montañas Humeantes”
Terms:

Enabling legislation (legislación habilitante, legislación de ley de autorización)
Provided {this is not a condition—e.g. con tal que—but resolution; viz.,
“Disponiéndose”; the key to seeing this distinction is the comma that follows}
OJO: “Act of Congress” > Ley del Congreso
Have students identify the language that typifies this text type (“revenue
enhancement”, etc.)
Self-Assessment
Note that this self-assessment task comes at approximately the halfway point in
Manual. This might be a good time for students to reflect on how far they have
come, and to identify problem areas.
[hand icon] An aspect of translation of which I have a strong command is:
___________________________________________
An area I would most like to improve is:
____________________________________________
I have made the following specific error(s) more than once:
____________________________________________
The following is a deliberate strategy I can follow or step I can take immediately to see
improvement: ________________________________________________

In column 2 of the chart below, rank (1-5) your error types in the order of frequency to
date. Include all translations for which you have been given feedback. Compare
carefully #8 and #9—when you have translated too literally or too freely, on which side
of this divide has your work tended to fall? Review in your mind what self-diagnostics
you can run on your work to catch this flaw.
ATA Framework
1=INCOMPLETE PASSAGE
2=ILLEGIBLE
3=MISUNDERSTANDING OF
ORIGINAL TEXT
4=MISTRANSLATION INTO TARGET LANGUAGE
5=ADDITION OR OMISSION
6=TERMINOLOGY, WORD CHOICE
7=REGISTER
8=TOO FREELY TRANSLATED
9=TOO LITERAL, WORD-FOR-WORD
10=FALSE COGNATE
11=INDECISION, GIVING MORE THAN ONE OPTION
12=INCONSISTENCY, SAME TERM TRANSLATED
DIFFERENTLY
13=AMBIGUITY
14=GRAMMAR
15=SYNTAX (PHRASE/CLAUSE/SENTENCE STRUCTURE)

16=PUNCTUATION
17=SPELLING
18=ACCENTS AND OTHER DIACRITICAL MARKS
19=CASE (UPPER/LOWER)
20=WORD FORM
21=USAGE
22=STYLE
Works cited
Doyle, Michael Scott, T. Bruce Fryer, and Ronald Cere. Exito comercial:
prácticas administrativas y contextos culturales. Boston: Thomson Heinle,
2006.
Korzenny, Felipe and Betty Ann Korzenny. Hispanic Marketing: A Cultural
Perspective. Burlington, MA and Oxford: Elsevier, 2005.
Short essay
What are some issues involved in advertising to Hispanics? Give examples.

Describe translation’s role in at least two commercial or financial domains; list
text types and typical users of translations.
What features did you look for in determining the marketability of a book to
Hispanic audiences (i.e., determining the potential success of a translation)?
How are local and global values reflected in commercial websites?
Short answer
What HR documents are routinely translated? Describe the variety of online
“yellow pages” and similar directory listings in Spanish in the U.S. Are these
translations?
[banking, e-commerce website copy, tourism, business correspondence, import-
export, etc.]
Take-home portion
Go to www.socialsecurity.gov, then follow the links to the Spanish pages. How
would you characterize these pages? Is the operability between languages logical,
complete? Is the localization complete? What text types appear here?

Find out about national and international economic organizations and how they
handle translation in-house. Draw a flow chart of how translation is handled from
initiation to end-user. Document sources.
Chapter 7
Tip: Assign readings from Alcaraz Varó and Hughes’ Legal Translation
Explained. (At this writing it is difficult to acquire, so plan ahead.) Students can
contribute questions they write based on the readings, which can then be included
on a quiz. Deborah Cao’s Translating Law (Multilingual Matters, 2007) is useful
as well. Chapter 7, “Translating International Legal Instruments” can be assigned
and the relevant databases and terminological tools explored (UN Official
Document System, United Nations Multilingual Terminology Database, CELEX,
etc.). The reading in question also discusses the important concept of equal
authenticity between original language texts and official language translations,
which by extension maintains equal status among the languages.
Tip (2): If you have time, work with trial transcripts—expert witness testimony,
depositions, etc.—and other materials commonly entered into evidence in civil or

criminal court; at least show examples of these. (Mikkelson’s works are quite
useful for an overview and practice texts, mostly for interpreting but suitable for
our purposes. In fact, many interpreter’s listservs, glossaries, and other resources
are quite helpful to the translator as well.)
Note: Chapter 7 also includes historical translation.
Tip (3): An index of all U.S. Government departments and agencies with pages in
Spanish may be found at http://www.usa.gov/gobiernousa/Agencias/index.shtml
Tip (4): Have students assess the degree of localization of the IRS site (menus,
forms, etc.)
Tip (5): Have students assess the U.S. Department of State’s links to embassies,
consulates and diplomatic missions in the Spanish-speaking Americas and
Europe. (http://usembassy.state.gov/) The focus may be on terminological
consistency, navigation, etc.
Tip (6): Students can be assigned to find and analyze lawyers’ Spanish-language
website content. What services do they tend to offer? Is there a difference
between Spanish and English content on individual sites? Have students compare
sites geographically to see if certain client services correlate with intuitions about
what services would be in higher demand in given areas.

Tip (7): Contact the legal aid societies in your state. Ask about their need for
translated outreach materials. Work some into your curriculum on a timetable.
Tip (8): Assign students sight translation of the ‘terms of use’ pages from
websites (e.g. www.hallmark.com) into plain English.
Tip (9): Begin the legal chapter with a discussion of the language of law. Student
groups can collect and report on legal terms from Latin legalese, Old English,
French, etc. Discuss: Why do they persist? Review Joos’s five styles (frozen,
formal consultative, etc.) vis-à-vis legal styles. Remind students that casual
style—slang, profanity, ungrammaticality--can be “legal” in a courtroom setting
(Woods’ Describing Discourse has a good section on oral legal discourse,
including police interviews; Woods’ book is also good for elucidating medical
discourse).
Tip (10): Send students after the Pinochet judgment delivered by the High Court
in Britain. Identify with students the various sections and other macrostructural
features.
Tip (11): A good website to have students explore is the U.S. Supreme Court
page; the professionally translated Spanish may be found at:
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/visiting/foreigntranslations.html

Tip (12): Students can compare the English translations of speeches made by
Fidel Castro (1959-1996) with the original Spanish. See the Castro Speech Data
Base: http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/cb/cuba/castro.html
Exploring Translators' Own Attitudes about Bilingual Materials
Be sure to examine the author's argument, rather than allowing discussion to
devolve into politics. E.g., Will's line that declaring "English the national
language is a mere gesture" may be seen as a disingenuous way of asserting the
belief in the need for such a declaration, since even many of those who support it
would recognize that it is a clear statement of public policy on immigration and
language use, not a "mere gesture". As always, allow different points of view to
be aired; intolerance, however, should be challenged directly. Tip: Read Gentzler,
10-12, “The hidden translation history of the United States”, which discusses
linguistic rights for minorities, and the fact that the Constitution itself was
translated into multiple languages in the early days of the United States.
You may wish to have students find out more about voter material translation
(e.g. oral ballots in non-English languages in the U.S.), related costs, the chain of
production, and areas of greatest need, not only in the U.S. but in other countries
as well--how is the issue of multilingual ballots handled in different places around
the world?

Official Translation
Loyalty on official translations lies with the recipient because initiators or clients
may have a highly vested interest in the target text reading advantageously; in
some ways this is a conflict of interest, and thus an ethical, issue--one cannot
ethically pay a translator, for example, to make a four-year degree appear to be a
five-year degree.
Tip: If students translate their own birth certificates, have them attach the
template or parallel text on which they based their version. (Note: "Template" is
being used here to mean a blank form with no information filled in, versus a
parallel text, which would be an actual document.) Remind students that “last
name” on a Spanish-language form should be rendered “apellido(s)”. Follow-up:
Introduce students to the solicitud de acta de nacimiento and its instructions. How
does the procedure for obtaining a birth certificate differ in other Spanish-
speaking countries?
Go over sworn translation, certification, etc., and the situations and countries in
which these phrases are used.

Students should be alerted to the competitive advantage of having screen capture
software for transfering non-text features (e.g. seals) of birth certificates, death
certificates, transcripts, etc.
Cultural Note: Certification
Pass out an example in English; e.g. ABC Translations in Los Angeles, CA (see
www.abctranslations.com). Explain the notarization process. Be sure that a notary
and a notario are differentiated. (Notaries have been known to exploit the semi-
false cognate and pass themselves off as notarios, who have a much wider
powers.)
Academic Jargon: Activities
This activity works well in a lab setting; allow at least 50 minutes. For #1, you
may divide students into groups, each with their own subtype and own
subglossary to make.
#4 is done best as a take-home workshop. It is a very good example of the kinds
of translation challenges that translators of transcripts face. It will also be the
students' first exposure to describing everything on the page: e.g. "There is an
illegible signature", etc.--everything should be accounted for. The line including
"El No Presentado no consume convocatoria" appears at

http:///www.euce.ua.es/Curso05_06/cas/Academica/Convocatorias.htm. To
workshop this text, you will find it useful to have students form crossover groups
(each student finds 1-2 new members each mini-session, discusses new
information, adds his or her own, hears feedback on that, changes groups again,
up to 3 or 4 times), followed by a class regroup and discussion.
Academic Major Catalogue Descriptions: El Traductorado Público
This can be done as a follow-up, in class. It also makes a good take-home exam
question.
[possible solutions to questions:]
1. A traductor público does not exist as such in the U.S.—the closest would be
an ATA-certified translator. Courses of study are analogous but not the same. The
ATA Code coincides on the point that translators must be up to date on their
continuing education. By contrast, in the Uruguayan text are mentioned public
trust and the intellectual nature of the profession.
2. Liberal professions traditionally are private, providing service directly to
clients rather than to employers.
3. expert (cf. testimonio pericial)
4. necessary precondition, a legal term
5. (terms will vary)

6. a. Uruguayan laws determine the sworn translator’s procedural norms for
processing documents originating or sent from abroad
b. courses have a mandatory attendance policy
c. He/She practices a liberal profession and is an authority [trustee of the public
trust]
d. Once these are passed, candidates must etc. …
e. if applicable
Translation and School Administration
This is an often neglected area of translation pedagogy, though much intercultural
and interlingual communication is done in schools, particularly in an ad-hoc
capacity, and more needs to be done.
Some ideas on the role of translation and interpretation in school-related contexts:
a bilingual homework helpline; translation of memos, surveys, press releases,
report cards; course development for heritage speakers; on-call interpreters for
parent-teacher conferencing; Spanish cover sheets or checklists for student
progress reports, multicultural web content authoring; a school closing
notification system; automated alerts, etc. IBM’s WebSphere® Translation
Server, part of the ¡TradúceloAhora! grant program, allows website and email
translation between parents and teachers and other stakeholders partnering with
schools and non-profits. Other kinds of outreach and parent education could be

made bilingual. At the more advanced level, the Self Directed Search (SDS)
career interest inventory has been translated into more than twenty-five different
languages. This fact suggests that other kinds of career guidance materials—
certainly college prep and recruitment materials--could be appropriate for
translation. At the college level, courseware is now frequently made available in
multiple languages; see, for example, MIT Open Courseware >Translated Courses
(http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/lang/index.htm). Follow-up: Is the
Head Start program bilingually equipped?
Optional: Rhetorical Strategies (Case Study): A Document in the Political
Struggle
Optional: Build an activity around César Chavez’s “Letter from Delano”, a
monument in the history of organized labor. Its use of rhetorical strategies is
unparalleled.
Chavez's letter is a masterpiece, and can be studied from many points of view. It
is also a good example of a text that might be preceded, annotated or otherwise
contextualized differently depending on the end-users: students, workers,
historians, etc.
Not much has been written on the role of translation in grassroots activism,
though it is beginning to get attention in international conferences (e.g.,

http://www.translationactivism.com/). Remind students that the fact of speaking
Spanish in itself can be considered an act of solidarity, almost independent of the
message. Compare, for example, an open letter in Mayan written to Mexican
legislators and demanding rights--the language of such a text cannot but be
politicized.
Discussion questions
1. Describe the tone of this letter. Identify the points where Chavez sees matters
from the executive’s point of view. Why do you think he does this? What is the
effect on the writing? Are there any features of oral rhetoric Chavez borrows for
the letter? What are they? (Consider register, phrasing, etc.) Any intertexts? Does
it rely on a value system readily understood? Universally followed? What part
does the line “Men are not angels” play in his discursive strategy (i.e., why does
he make this observation in his letter)? Do you think the sender had more than E.
L. Barr, Jr. in mind as his reader?
2. What issues or challenges would translating this document present for the
translator?
3. Name at list three constituencies who might be interested in seeing this text in
Spanish. Where would it appear? Describe what different metatextual apparatus
(any notes, introduction, or vocabulary accompanying the text and helping it to be

understood or received in a certain way) would be best for each. In introductions
to Chavez’ life, what different tones or register might appear? Give examples of
how different tones might be constructed.
Optional: Find out more about this letter and its place in history, the boycotts, and
the Farm Workers Movement. Does the letter exist in Spanish? If so, how and
where has it been used? If not, what would ideally qualify a person to translate it?
What are the circumstances in which texts were produced in Spanish during their
fight, and what texts in English? What about bilingual texts? [Hint: Search “¡Sí,
se puede!”]. Can you find evidence of translation or interpretation playing a
historical role in the movement?
[hand icon] Linguistic Note
City Names with Commonly Used Equivalents (Spanish<>English)
Nueva York: New York Amberes: Antwerp
Filadelfia: Philadelphia Estocolmo: Stockholm
Londres: London Varsovia: Warsaw
Ginebra: Geneva Pekín: Beijing
Belén: Bethleham Estambul: Istanbul
Lisboa: Lisbon Francfort: Frankfurt
Niza: Nice Bruselas: Brussels
Sevilla: Seville Puerto Príncipe: Port-au-Prince

[hand icon]
[Start Translation Teaser]
Translation Teaser
What about U.S. state names? Is “Misuri” or “Missouri” correct? “New Jersey” or
“Nueva Jersey”? “Tejas” or “Texas”? If the answer is “It depends”, then on what?
Can you determine a pattern or a rule for the translation of cities, states, rivers, and
mountain ranges? Is it the same for country names? In what environments (for
what text types) do your rules hold? Check translations. What determines “Nuevo”
or “Nueva” for state names?
What Dutch city do the Spanish call “Brujas”? What German city is called
“Maguncia” in Spanish? Is Cambridge (UK) called “Cantabria” in Spanish, or is
that a different place? Considering the spelling of “Zaragoza”, what would you
guess its frequent English spelling would be? Is “St. Petersburg” the same as the
Spanish “Leningrado”? What do we call “Santiago de Compostela” in English
texts?
Can you name a toponym of Spanish origin but that is pronounced with
English-language phonetics, and in Spanish is called by a totally different Spanish
name? (Hint: It’s a river.)
[End Translation Teaser]
[Start Translation Tips]
Translation Tips
Rules Of Thumb for Translating Names

 Use your judgment on translating names of establishments and services; a rule of
thumb is that if they are not transparent or need to come across semantically, then
err on the side of surplus information; e.g., the Museu Picasso de Barcelona can
usually remain in Catalan or be glossed with a parenthetical doublet: (Picasso
Museum); the Procuraduría General del Estado should be translated; Corte Inglés
[the retail store] should not. These decisions will be affected by whether or not the
text type conventions call for a documental translation.
 Proper names are not translated as a matter of course unless they have a known
corresponding name in the target (José< >Joseph in the Bible). Sometimes this
practice is ambiguous, unilateral or unevenly applied (Some Spanish speakers are
happy to domesticate “Guillermo Shakespeare” but conversely would be appalled
at “Michael Cervantes”). Some names are virtually always translated (Charlie
Chaplin < > Charlot).
 Names of fictional characters (e.g., la Celestina) can, where needed, be glossed
parenthetically to show function ('matchmaker'), or, where appropriate, called by
their conventionalized name in Spanish (e.g. el Hombre de Hojalata [The Tin
Man] or la Masa [The Incredible Hulk]). When a name has already been
established in translation, it should be used, unless there are strategic reasons for
not using it.
[End Translation Tip]
[hand icon]
[Start Translation Tip]

Translation Tip
Gender and Proper Names
When working into Spanish and translating names borrowed from English, use
the article that would correspond were you using the Spanish common noun
instead of the proper noun.
E.g. La Ford Foundation (because of fundación)
La Web (because of red)
El Institute for Knowledge Management (because of instituto)
What article would you expect “Internet” to take in Spanish?
[End Translation Tip]
"Internet" in Spanish, one would expect, takes "la"; but it also takes "el".
Video-On-Demand (Case Study): Domestic Violence Protection Order
This task brings aural skills, which are by no means irrelevant to translation, into
the equation. It may be best to have students perform this task with headphones if
they are in a lab setting; they may confer with a partner to compare notes before
the class re-group, but essentially this is a solo project at the core of its first phase:
listening and mental comparing. (The Virtual Self-help Law Center videos may be
considered an optional follow-up.)

The tasks for this entry are related to safety and victim assistance/law
enforcement.
Tip: Have students write, in teams of two, a Spanish-language skit using as its
primary resource an interpreter’s Spanish-English legal or law enforcement
glossary, then translate it. This will force them to contextualize while they learn
common pairings.
Tip (2): Compare Spanish-language 9-1-1 services between different jurisdictions.
Research Task: Legal Query
Students should be given the background on Miranda rights, and taught about
where in the law enforcement/criminal trial procedure it is used. Students should
know it is used as a passive and active verb ("to mirandize", "to be mirandized").
Students should be able to account for the version they chose, whether because it
is canonical due to the authoritative source, the verifiable content, or both.
[hand icon] This may be a good time to provide a handout of the U.S. court
system and a basic bilingual glossary; a good one can be found by searching
"courthouse"+"glossary"+"Spanish".

Tip: Instruct students to use interpreters' materials, whether online or in print
form. Interpreters have many newsletters, glossaries, mailing lists, etc., that can
be of great use to legal translators too.
Infer Translation's Role: Legal
You may wish to stress lease agreements, since it is a very frequent centerpiece of
litigation. Ask students questions about their own leases. Discuss cultural content
or assumptions contained in leases. For more on trial transcripts, see references
related to court interpreting, which are abundant. See the appendix to Mayoral
Asensio for birth and death certificates in English (if you wish to work into
Spanish); otherwise, good examples for working into English abound online.
It is recommended that students research news archives and report back on
national security scandals involving translators and interpreters; they will be more
personally invested if they find material themselves, particularly about scandals,
than if they are given the material in lecture form.
Task 3 is probably the most eye-opening for students--many complaint forms,
chronically underused, exist to attempt to stem the tide of scams perpetrated
against Hispanics. Hispanics as a group (or group of groups) underreport fraud for
cultural reasons, but perhaps too out of fear, naiveté, and unfamiliarity with "the
system", and are more vulnerable to these abuses than the general population.

Alert students to the Trafficking in Persons and Work Exploitation Task Force
(TPWETF).
Incidentally, Mayoral Asensio's book may serve as a good reference for this
chapter. You may wish to go more into the categorizations of "official translation"
and "unofficial translation" and what they mean in this country.
Tip: Prompt students to explain how the Global Legal Information Network
(www.glin.gov/search) can be used as a translation resource.
Press Releases
You may wish to give a press release as a class workshop text (see
hispanicprwire.com), after which the published version can be compared.
Univisión also has many press releases issued in Spanish and English.
FCICE
Sight translation is a skill from the interpreter's skill set, but a translator,
particularly if interested in community interpreting, can warm-up or practice with
sight translation. A sample FCICE training exam can be downloaded and used for
classroom activities, particularly the multiple choice and comprehension
questions.

Translating Race and History: Art Captions
The illustration is not strictly necessary for this task. Students will definitely want
to use monolingual dictionaries as part of their work (in fact, you may wish to
forbid bilingual dictionaries for this task).
Frame discussions in their historical contexts and, naturally, treat the issue of race
with due sensitivity. Remind students that you are translating diachronically
(across time).
Case Study: Life Histories of Women Workers in Mexico's Assembly
Industry
Two keys here: First, the first passage must be differentiated in tone and register
from the 2nd and 3rd, which are oral. Second, oral passages must sound natural—
they cannot sound either bookish or dated.
Notes and possible renderings [a published version of this translation from
University of Texas Press is also available]:
#1:

olor picante > pungent odor
aquella mancha>[Students habitually associate this with stains on the workers’
smocks, but in fact, this arguably refers to the workers themselves forming a
“sea” of colors, as in the UT Press translation]
#2:
Conciliación y Arbitraje>[discuss the importance of the actual name of the offices
vs. the idea: conflict management team? The Labor Board?]
Luego luego>[This is a Mexicanism for a short while later]
“mitoteras”, “revoltosas”> “hellraisers”, “troublemakers”/“agitators”
nos barrían>they shunned us; they’d give us the cold shoulder
Así nunca puede haber reunion>[Not a specific meeting but more like “worker
alliance”, “coming together”, even “solidarity”]
#3:
curiositas> [The original footnote was not included here in the source text: This
word means “pretty” in content.]; ergo, muchachas curiositas>pretty young things

vagas>[This word is tricky: Some students will be tempted to go for “idlers”,
which is not ideal; others will (over)commit to “hookers”. The most accurate
rendering here is probably “girls hanging around” or the like—readers can draw
their own conclusions about what idleness leads to. Discuss: Why can’t girls be
“bums”?
Translating Human Rights
Human rights may seem universal, but prove to be culturally inscribed. You may
want to look at their origins with students, and also explore further the role of
power and censorship and their impact on translation. You can also review
notions of translation and ethics, and the translator’s social responsibility (v. c. 1).
The UN Declaration of Human Rights is a text you can use for follow-up if you
wish.
Follow-up: Consider also the documents involved in nonprofit charitable
organizations and related giving. See, for example, those related to the
Hispanophone communities: Hispanic Scholarship Fund, The National Alliance
for Hispanic Health, the Hispanic Youth Foundation, Hispanic Business
Association, etc. Have students assess their translation needs. Students can
priortize services based on the greatest perceived threat to Hispanics’ civil rights.

Gisting Task: Legal History/Human Rights
The source can also be assigned for straight translation (have students do 500
words target count; include the abstract).
Workshop #7: Political Science
This text is journalistic, though it includes a good deal of language common to
international meetings. It works very well as a workshop, though it also works as
an in-class assignment [provide students some of the glosses that shouldn’t be
expected to memorize or have come across in their pre-reading research]. You
may wish to give them the topic in advance and give this "sight unseen". The text
is online at http://www.rebelion.org/economia/osvaldo220802.htm
Assign as many words of the text as is feasible for the time allowed.
Talking points and possible renderings:
Do pre-reading discussion on the Rio Summit, Rio+10, Kyoto, the Basil
Convention, and other international environmental conferences. Note: Rio de
Janeiro has no accent on the “i”.
Have students collocate carefully—the summit will be held, or the city will host it

definir nuevos derroteros para la superación de la pobreza crónica >outline new
strategies for overcoming chronic poverty
El evento se anuncia espectacular > The event promises to be spectacular
organizaciones no gobernamentales > non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
zona de Gallagher > [Here is an example where background reading makes all the
difference: This reference is to the Gallagher Estate]
“el desarrollo que satisface…” > [Quote must be verbatim from UN, not back-
translated: “development that meets the needs and aspirations…” etc.
equidad > [“equity” is an economic concept; students should be encouraged to
keep this term]
conservación de recursos naturales > [“conservation”; discuss “stewardship” of
natural resources; or “enivironmental stewardship”]
Propósito que apela… > [Students should provide a full sentence here where
Spanish can get away with a fragment]

mecanismos de decisión > decision-making mechanisms [much better than
“decision mechanisms”]
Una agenda incumplida > Unfinished business
evaluar el cumplimiento de los compromisos > sets out to evaluate how well the
commitments […] were met [Note: Insist that students avoid nominal
constructions: e.g. “the fulfillment of commmitments”]
se trata de un programa bueno pero debilment aplicado > It is a sound but poorly
implemented program [Students should be alerted to “se trata de” here as “is”, not
“deals with” or the like]
pecan por insuficiencia > fall short [Students should avoid all mention of
“sinning”, since this phrase is idiomatic; also, this sentence needs restructuring in
English to avoid artificial syntax]
tanto x como y > [This is a perennial literalism in English, but it really is a
formula meaning “x and y”]
emisión de gases invernaderos > greenhouse gas emissions
[discuss the rise in the use of the more value-neutral term “climate change” vs.
“global warming”]
[hand icon] Tip: Hand out the following grid of levels of translation quality:

http://accurapid.com/journal/grid.htm
Although the source text is French, students will be able to recognize the
hallmarks of translationese in the supplier 1 & 2 version. Focus their attention on
the supplier 3 translation and the qualities that make it superior. Then give them
the following passage to edit in small groups, improving the phrasing to a supplier
3 level:
Group Task: Change from a supplier 1 or 2 translation to a supplier 3 translation:
Original: Los balances
realizados en una
multiplicidad de espacios no
gubernamentales, tanto en la
esfera nacional como
internacional, casi si
excepción coinciden en
señalar que la aplicación de tal
agenda ha sido mínima o
nula.>>>
Supplier 1/2: Balances made
in a multiplicity of non-
governmental spaces, both in

the national and international
realms, almost without
exception agree to point out
that the application of this
agenda has been minimal or
non-existent.
Works cited
Alcaraz Varó, Enrique, and Brian Hughes. Legal Translation Explained.
Northampton: St. Jerome, 2002.
Gentzler, Edwin. Translation and Identity in the Americas. London and New York:
Routledge, 2008.
Mayoral Asensio, Roberto. Translating Official Documents. Northampton: St.
Jerome, 2003.
Will, George F. "Bilingual Ballots Won't Serve New Citizens." Seattlepi.com 28 May
2006. 21 May 2007. <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/271640_will26.html
>.

Woods, Nicola. Describing Discourse: A Practical Guide to Discourse Analysis. London:
Hodder Arnold, 20
ID
official translation
common law vs. civil law
press release
Short answer
What is attested in a sworn translator’s certifying statement?
What kinds of contracts are translators called on to translate? List their common
features in detail.
What are the parts of a patent? Why are they translated?
Short essay [consider for take-home portion]

What is the role of translation in law enforcement on the international level, i.e.,
national security?
[Excerpt from a school transcript or trial transcript, international agreement, or
lease: let students prep beforehand and use notes. This time may be severely
constrained; for example, advise them they will be sent the text only 24 hours in
advance of the quiz so they have to plan accordingly. You may want to make the
brief more international by adding legal precepts that differ from the source text
format or information offer, forcing students to adjust their translation for
adequacy.]
Chapter 8
Notes: You may consider assigning the medical article and chapter reviews from
the end of this chapter before beginning the chapter itself. Students can either
present main ideas or critiques of the readings or summarize and post on an
electronic bulletin board for classmates' use.

If your course includes interpreting, the medical chapter is one place to introduce
it, since role-playing (filling out forms, etc.) and sight translation can be
incorporated as authentic elements from actual practice. Accordingly we include
some sight translation in this chapter. You may have students write skits; first
give them a constraint: terms in the L1 that have to be incorporated accurately in
the target (L2) skit. You may wish to spend class time on interpreting protocol
and activities from Bridging the Gap. You may also wish to revisit ethics in this
chapter. Have students run down the code of professional conduct for
translators/interpreters in your state. Discuss neutrality, confidentiality, scope of
practice (e.g., can interpreters advocate, summarize, etc.?)
At the end of the chapter are listed some suggested readings in this domain.
Online can be found an excellent report on Latino access to health care: “Latino
Access to Primary and Preventive Health Services: Barriers, Needs, and Policy
Implications” by Marilyn Aguiree-Molina and Anna-Nanine S. Pond. See
www.mdanderson.org/pdf/mamolina-final%20report-fl2006.pdf See also
http://www.apuntesonline.org/V13N2.pdf, the Apuntes newsletter, and the
Apuntes Online site, which frequently features issues on translation for health
care (http://www.apuntesonline.org).
Tip: See Herrera McElroy et al, English-Spanish Spanish-English Medical
Dictionary; the 3rd edition (not the 1st or 2nd) has a useful appendix of en<>es
common medical forms.

Tip (2): A good source for medical acronyms is http://invention.swmed.edu/argh/
You can have students use it as a resource for a medical documentation
assignment (an eye exam, radiology report, etc.). Explain about medical
transcription, medical editing, and the latest related technologies.
For medical eponyms, see
http://www.whonamedit.com/azeponyms.cfm/A.html.
Translators can also use medical subject headings as a super-dictionary: here,
simply enter the search term in one language, and the MEDLINE descriptors or
keywords in the other language of the pair appear:
http://babelmesh.nlm.nih.gov/index_spa.php?com=
Medical Translation Text Types
This activity is well worth taking class time to review; an option might be to have
students give handouts of their summaries to classmates, the content of which the
class would be responsible for on a quiz. Another alternative would be to have
each student write three questions about their own presentation; each chooses one
to ask of the class aloud. To increase the accountability level, each student can
choose the individual they would like to answer. With 12 students this process can
take between an hour and an hour and a half.

Tip: Place Montalt and González Davies (2007) on Reserve. Assign a follow-up
on 61-92, “2.5 Some common medical genres”. Students can be assigned to bring
in Rosetta stones or STs with parallel texts to pass around, or you can focus on
cross-cultural differences in content or format (categorizations from the authors):
Fact Sheets for Patients (FSP)
Informed Consent (IC)
Patient Information Leaflet (PIL)
Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC)
Case Report (CR)
Clinical Guidelines (CG)
Clinical Trial Protocol (CTP)
Review Article (RA)
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
Drug Advertisement (DA)
Evaluating Parallel Texts: El Resumen Clínico
Tip: Bring copies of a clinical summary in English and have the students compare
and contrast textual features.
Medical Translation Task: Outreach Spanish ("Med Ed")

Provide students with an outreach text in English on smoking cessation. Students
work into Spanish. One option is to search websites of advocacy groups.
"Intercesiones" is often used for "advocacy"; have students discuss and sort out
other options ("abogacía", etc.)
Listings on www.medtrad for "Second-hand smoking" include "Tabaquismo
involuntario", "tabaquismo pasivo", and "inhalación pasiva de humo de tabaco".
Follow-up: Mayo Clinic's translation process, see Karen Engler, "Multilingual
Medicine: Translation at Mayo Clinic", ATA Chronicle, August 2002
Tip:  Show students "Translating Materials for Non-English Speaking
Audiences", a "how to" for service providers put out by the Center for Medicare
Education. (Available online.) Also of interest online is "Translating the GAIN
Instruments for Use in Spanish-Speaking Populations" (Janet C. Titus et al), a
description of the translation process for field testing health information
instruments. Both articles give insight from the point of view of the health
provider about how to create useable translated materials through the organization
of appropriate feedback.
Tip (2): Work with bilingual, facing page skits and readings from Spanish-English
Handbook for Medical Professionals; interpreting activities can also be built

around them (e.g., Laboratory tests and MRI scanning, 66-67). A good level for
in-class texts are medical press releases, which are commonly available.
Tip (3): Have students look at translated/localized hospital homepages, as well as
partially translated/localized ones (www.childrensmemorial.org). Search <páginas
en español> + <hospital>.
Tip (4): Hand out and discuss the 14 CLAS standards for cultural and
linguistically appropriate services.
Translating Government Nutrition Policy and Promotion Materials
At least the first page of the new Pyramid is available online (Anatomía de
MiPirámide). It uses such off-register terms as la cúspide for the "tip" of the
pyramid, which is ill-advised given that a large user group for this kind of
materials are schoolchildren.
The second page provides a wonderful series of challenges, from the idiomatic,
snappy slogans in the category titles to the regional decisions that the text forces
(habas, frijoles, or habichuelas?) A good text for discussion; let students prep or
use as a blitz text if you have access to a lab.
Quiz Text: Guided Translation

Answers:
1. a 2. b 3. b 4. c 5. e {ø, since you can use "quarantine regulations" or
"quarantine requirements"} 6. b 7. c 8. c 9. b 10. c
Patients' Bill of Rights
The following are plausible:
"You have a right to participate in decisions about your health care treatment."
"Patients have the right to considerate, respectful care."
"Emergency services are covered wherever acute symptoms are of sufficient
severity that a 'prudent layperson' could reasonably expect that the absence of
medical attention would result in serious risks to health."
"El paciente tiene el derecho de que su proveedor de cuidados de salud le informe
acerca del diagnóstico, el curso de tratamiento, las alternativas, y los riesgos de su
caso."
"Al paciente de una instalación de cuidados de salud que no entienda o hable
inglés, hay que proveerle un intérprete."
"Ud. tiene derecho de rehusarse a recibir su tratamiento."
Living Wills

Answers in order:
health care providers
surrogate
incapacitation
comfort care {discuss: used when diseases do not respond to curative treatment;
cuidado paliativo}
being taken to
viable
condition
Spanish:
directiva a los médicos y familia {note: also 'Testamento en Vida'; advanced
directive: directiva anticipada}
a los facultativos que le asisten
suplente / apoderado
directiva a los médicos y familia
un cuidado que provea alivio
su traslado a
capaz de sobrevivir
estado

Follow-up: Assign the Living Will Statement as part of an in-class quiz.
Quiz: Medical Greek And Latin
Answers:
1. c. opsis (appearance)
2. d. clot / embolism
3. muscular tissue (folds)
4. f. both c and d (lungs and breath)
5. narco-
6. enlargement of the thyroid, a symptom of abnormal thyroid secretion;
hypothyroidism due to a lack of iodine; the Spanish is bocio
7. b. gastrointestinal function
8. Non-existent neologisms are: choriotomy, melancolitis, and esophophagus
9. Valid pairings are: a, b, d, and e
10. oedema ('edema' in U.S. spelling; formerly "dropsy") is swelling due to fluid
build-up in the tissues.
Medline Plus® Interactive Health Tutorials

You can also reverse directionality. A good choice going es>en is acúfenos o
zumbido de oídos. De-brief students about aural component of this glossary-
building task.
Prescription Instructions
1. a. brand name (textual markers: no trademark, etc.) b. denominación común
2. pain reliever and fever reducer
3. popular medications, descriptions, brand names
4. primary categories of drugs for drug interaction safety; substratos;
inhibidores; inductores
5. [answers will vary; have students find in both English and Spanish]; two are
the Merck Manual Online Medical Library and the USFDA.
6. narcótico; "misused" means taken otherwise than as directed; abusado/a; over-
the-counter medicine (OTC)<> "sin receta"; ritonavir is a protease
inhibitor>inhibidor de proteasa, an anti-HIV drug; lactancia [difference is the
same as that between "lactating" and "lactation"]; no
7. Patient information leaflet> folleto informativo para el paciente
8. adictivo; para
9. cold, clammy skin>piel fría y pegajosa; piel fría y húmeda
10. [answers will vary]

Tip: Go to Rite Aid site (>Pharmacy>>drug info [search]>en español for parallel
text.
Medical Documentation (Case Study): The Mcgill Pain Questionnaire
Different pain questionnaires are available; this one is perhaps the most
"cerebral", and thus the extent of its relevance can be limited. Find or have
students find others in use, including ones that rely heavily on illustrations.
You may find it effective to start students on this task armed only with
monolingual dictionaries and grouped in Spanish- and English-speaking pairs.
After a time spent attempting to distinguish the overlap quotient of words such as
"vacilante", estremecedor", "pungente", "pulsante", "palpitante", and "latiente"--
surely a maddening exercise if left to continue--show them how the Spanish
translator approached the task with similes and counterfactuals ("como si x" etc.).
Componential analysis can get one so far, but a resourceful approach from the
beginning will yield a more comprehensive product here.
[hand icon] Handout: Cuestionario McGill Pain (MPQ) [McGill Pain
Questionnaire in Spanish]
See:
http://www.medynet.com/elmedico/aula2002/tema9/tablasyfiguras/figura1.gif or

http://www.fma.org.mx/Educación/PAC/Anestesiaregionalydolorpostoperatorio/V
aloraciónintegraldeldolorpostoperatorio/tabid/289/Default.aspx
[pair discussion icon] / [class discussion icon] Study the translations in the target
“Figura 1. Cuestionario McGill Pain” in your pairs and then comment on the
strategies as a class. Do you find the macrostrategy of using similes and
counterfactual constructions to be valid and effective? What else is worthy of
comment about this translation? If you were a monolingual client, what might you
want to know about this translation in order to assess its potential utility? How
would you find this information out?
Optional: Try translation in groups a few of the categories using adjectives. Can it
be done effectively? If not, does this change your appraisal of the sample
translation given?
Workshop #7
Tip: Assign from the second paragraph through the first sentence of the seventh
paragraph ("..implementación de la vigilancia epidemiológoca de rotavirus.")
Notes:

[Alert students to the use of "sanitario/a" as "health" in many collocations,
including here]: "tecnología sanitaria"> "health technology"
"importantes vacunas"> better as "major vaccines" than "important" ones
Ample reading in parallel texts will yield many of the abbreviations needed for
this text: Hib, MMR, DTP, etc.
"esquema nacional": The cognate “scheme” is to be avoided here for U.S.
audiences> e.g., "national program"
Students should recognize "tecnologías adjuvantes" as a term: "adjuvant
technologies"
"vacunas ya autorizadas": Not "authorized" vaccines but "approved"
"primera o segunda causa de muerte"> leading or second leading cause
"vigilancia epidemiológica">"epidemiological surveillance", though "e.
monitoring" is also possible

Works cited
Engler, Karen. "Multilingual Medicine: Translation at Mayo Clinic." The ATA
Chronicle Aug. 2002: 33-35.
Pérez-Sabido, Jesús. Spanish English Handbook for Medical Professionals =
Compendio en inglés y español para profesionales de la medicina. 4th ed.
Los Angeles: PMIC, 1994.
Titus, Janet. C., et al. "Translating the GAIN Instruments for Use in Spanish-
Speaking Populations." Chestnut Health Systems 25 May 2007.
< www.chestnut.org/LI/gain/VGNI/CPDD_Poster_2005.ppt >.
Short answer
Define the purpose and users of the following medical text types [any of the
examples covered may be given]

[Use a text with many of the en<>es medical terms; a patient intake form or
medical insurance form—have students look for documentation on these text
types beforehand or provide a few parallel texts; optional: have students make a
glossary for one of the interactive health tutorials on Medline. Another option:
introduce a text type new to them and have students translate or research its
features (e.g. patient diaries).]
Chapter 9
Note: See “Article and Chapter Reviews” at the end of this chapter for
recommended assigned readings.
Tip: Remind students that a term in one domain or text type may not be
appropriate in another, and terms should not be confused for ordinary language or
give their most common non-term meanings. Students should translate term for
term and not paraphrase.

Tip (2): have students build a glossary of common English borrowings on
Spanish-language tech web pages. Remind them why these terms proliferate.
Tip (3): Review with students that the number of hits in a search engine for high-
traffic fields should be well into the thousands or millions, though it may be
slightly more or less depending on the subfield, how recent the technology is, etc.
Students should be aware that often many terms will appear in relatively high raw
counts, but are in fact poor translations, Verifying terminology requires searching
reliable sites related to the domain; terminology extraction also involves
awareness of phraseologisms—the co-occurring words used in its grammatical
environment.
Tip (4): Give students technical passages of various lengths, purposes and
difficulties, prompting them to give the meaning of a given term or concept within
them. Choose with an eye to forcing the student to draw inferences about the term
from patterned conventions in the text type, not simply to find terms that are
readily available in term banks or glossaries. An authentic example (sent by
former Kent State University student Tere Roldán):
What does the construction “-fold” mean in the following source text?
"... These models predict within 5-fold and 10-fold of the actual value with 90%
and 95% certainty, respectively. Overall for wildlife species, the program predicts

toxicity within 5-fold of the actual value with 85% certainty and within 10-fold of
the actual value with 95% certainty. Models predict within 5-fold and 10-fold of
the actual value with 90 and 97% certainty for wildlife..."
This kind of reading enforces understanding at the same time it familiarizes the
student with technical language. Collect samples until you have enough for a
small group assignment, or in-class lab activity. (You may wish to save technical
questions from online forums or queries from former students working in the
field; no other information was given about the provenance of the text, which of
course you can add and use to help students develop translation solutions.) The
bilingual dimension can be added as you wish.
Tip (5): Assign students a research “blitz”: What are the hot fields in scientific
and technical translation right now? (Conversely, you can list emerging fields or
industries—e.g. recycling--and ask students to produce text types that the field is
generating, and for what audiences.)
Typology: Identification of 30 Text Types in Written Technical Translation
English names for the technical translation text types listed may include the
following [English solutions courtesy of Paul Grens]:
Acta de reuníon técnica _______Technical meeting minutes_________________

Anuncio en medio especializado ______Specialized media advertisement______
Anuncio técnico en medio general _________Technical ad in general media____
Artículo comercial ______________Business article________________________
Artículo divulgativo _____________________Investigative article____________
Carta técnica _______________Technical memorandum___________________
Certificado técnico __________________Inspection certificate (Spain)________
Comunicación interna de empresa _____Internal memo_____________________
Descripción técnica _________Technical overview_________________________
Enciclopedia técnica __________Technical encyclopedia____________________
Folleto informativo publicitario ______________Advertising brochure /booklet_
Folleto publicitario informativo________Informational flyer_________________
Informe técnico ____Technical report___________________________________
Instrucciones de trabajo _______Work instructions________________________
Listado de piezas _________Parts list____________________________________
Manual de instrucciones especializado ______Advanced users manual_________
Manual de instrucciones general _________Users manual____________________
Manual técnico _______________Service manual__________________________
Memoria anual ________Annual report__________________________________
Monografía divulgativa _______Exposé___________________________________
Norma laboral ______Labor standard____________________________________
Norma técnica ______Technical standard_________________________________
Patente _______________Patent_________________________________________
Plan de estudios ______Curriculum______________________________________

Plan de producción _____________Production schedule_____________________
Pliego de condiciones _______Specifications, Bid specifications, List of conditions
Prospecto de medicamento ______Patient information leaflet (UK); dosage/usage
instructions (U.S.)______________________________________________
Proyecto técnico ____________Technical overview_________________________
Publirreportaje _____Advertorial________________________________________
Solicitud de desarrollo del producto ____Product development request_________
[included in Manual-omit] Follow-up: Byrne (48), following the National
Writers’ Union’s delineations, claims three broad areas for technical writing:
technology education: for non-specialists
traditional technical writing: for a specialist audience
technology marketing (“marcom”): for an audience equally specialized
[hand icon] Types of translation (Fang Mengzhi, Meta, XLIV, 1,
1999)
There are types of translation for different sci-tech purposes. In technical
translation the following five general types can be distinguished (paraphrased
from Mengzhi):

a. Complete Translation: the entire SL text is translated, usually sentence by
sentence, and with no omissions.
b. Selective Translation: only part of the SL text is translated. For example, for
an original research paper, only the description of the experiment process and the
results may be translated.
c. Condensed Translation: the TL text systematically abridges an SL text,
retaining basic information, perhaps rearranging it, but deleting what may not be
of use to scientists.
d. Summary Translation: a summary of the SL text, retaining the key words,
preserving the main points of the SL text, and reorganizing information.
e. Composite Translation: an amalgam of two or more SL texts in the same
subject area. Two or more translators may contribute to it if the sources are
written in multiple languages. The purpose of this type of translation is to know
about current methods in the chosen field; a composite translation forms part of
such feasibility studies.
Technical Translation: "EST" Registers

This section offers a review of register with the added dimension that it is
considered as it maps onto technical usage. Tip: Explore www.ttt.org, the CLS
Framework.
Translating User Manuals and Product Instructions
Group translation: electric shaver
Students enjoy this task. Distribute the text (from Silvia Gamero Pérez, La
traducción de textos técnicos (Editorial Ariel, 2001, p. 276). Consider reading the
short Cortázar piece, as it offers a good parody of a manual's linguistic
conventions.
Let students prep this in class for 15 minutes, then try a group sight reading.
Follow-up (blitz activity): Hand out actual clothing tags in English and have
students produce the Spanish (Internet-assisted). Alternatively, have them create a
bilingual phrase bank of care label instructions (e.g. Use non-chlorine bleach
when needed—Usar blanqueador sin cloro cuando se requiera).
For more on software documentation and software user guides, see Byrne, 52-96.

Follow-up: Give students brief quick start manuals for in-class blitz translations.
Have them document their terminology with hyperlinks inserted with the
“comment” function.
Translating How-To Manuals
[Spanish version of “A pintar” Lowe’s brochure here; hard copy on file with
Pearson]
As a follow-up to the Lowe’s® task, give them this print ad the company is
running in Sports Illustrated Latino:
“EL QUE SABE, SABE.
Usted sabe que lo más difícil de construir es una buena reputación. Lowe’s tiene
marcas de calidad como Owens-Corning, Georgia Pacific y Werner, parra mejores
trabajos, y siempre en las cantidades que necesita. Así puede dedicarse a lo que
mejor sabe hacer.”
The accompanying graphic is a photo of a roofer at work. Discuss with students
how they might approach “EL QUE SABE, SABE.” Have them produce four or
five possible versions.

Note Lowe’s® slogan in Spanish is “Juntos mejoramos su hogar”. Have students
try a version from the English before revealing this actual slogan. Discuss what
else might be effective.
Tech Ads (Case Study): Microsoft and Apple
One option for this task is to use the popular “Less is more” and “More is more”
ads for notebook computers.
Note: An excellent group sight-reading warm-up is the car ad for the Lancia
Thema at http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.es/preview/1986/06/21/pagina-
14/32887946/pdf.html
[hand icon]
Linguistic Note
Internet Neologisms EN<>ES
English Spanish
weblog (blog) bitácora
internet la red, Internet
web site, site sitio web, sitio
link enlace
folder carpeta
password contraseña
click (imperative) haga clic (Ud.); haz clic (tú); pinche (Ud.)

mouse ratón
download descargar; bajar; capturar
upload cargar; subir
run (execute) ejecutar
user name nombre de usuario
inbox bandeja de entrada
outbox bandeja de salida
@ (at) arroba
dot com punto com
browser navegador, explorador de Web; oteador
attached files archivos adjuntos
surf navegar
search engine motor de búsqueda; buscador
bandwidth ancho de banda
drop-down menu menú desplegable
keyword palabra clave
lurker mirón
newsgroup grupo de noticias
to manage gestionar
bold negrita
netiquette la ética de la red; normas de buen comportamiento;
la ‘netiqueta’
to support ser compatible; soportar

pop-up window ventana emergente
(Primary source: http://www.lingolex.com/internet.htm)
See also Belda Medina, José R., El lenguaje de la informática e Internet y su
traducción, Alicante: Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alicante, 2003 and
Kaplan, Stephan M., Wiley’s English-Spanish, Spanish-English Electrical and
Computer Engineering Dictionary, Wiley, April 1996 (a bit older but still useful).
Online you can also find Rafael Fernández Calvo’s Glosario básico inglés-
español para usuarios de internet for downloading.
[End Linguistic Note]
Text For Prep: Semi-Technical
First, ask students about their background knowledge on this topic. Let them prep
alone or in groups, 5-7 min. Group translate (whole or in part).
Some useful terms: sistemas de intercambio de archivos de par a par>peer-to-peer
(“P2P”) file sharing application
le presenta al usuario una ventana>pops up a dialog box
conteo regresivo: countdown
después de ser cerrado: after unzipping/unpacking
las raíces del sistema operativo: [an unusual metaphor—this may refer to the hard
drive]

…el sistema se bloquee>the system goes down [note: a crash is a cuelgue]
usuarios que no se han actualizado>users who have not upgraded
los antecedentes de los sistemas de intercambio>the file-sharing history
[hand icon] In-Class Translation Activity (Optional): La Hoja De Coca
Part I: Read all you can on the following topic in both English and Spanish: the
consumption of the coca leaf in the altiplano of Peru. Spend at least 45 minutes
learning the vocabulary you might expect to come across in a general text for
translation on the subject. Your instructor will be giving you a text for in-class
translation; after it is passed out you will not be able to use the Internet or other
outside resources, only dictionaries and whatever notes and glossaries you have
made. If you like, use index cards so you can alphabetize your terms for the in-class
translation. You will have the entire class period to complete the translation. Write
longhand and legibly. Do not bother to re-write if you have cross-outs; make your
edits neatly on top of your first draft. Brief: Translate for a private organization’s
website that defends coca leaf production in the Andes and is mounting an
international education effort to combat misunderstandings about the crop.
Consider the following issues: What are the controversies surrounding the use of
this plant? What are the names of those who grow it? How do many of them feel
about the repression of this, what for many is their only means of subsistence?
What is the difference between cocaine and the coca leaf? What are some of its

chemical and nutritional properties? What were some of its uses in the 19th and
20th centuries? How is it consumed, by whom, and why? What legal battle
surrounds the crop today? Where do you stand on the controversy surrounding its
use? After researching the topic, do you feel the same? Do you think a translator's
attitude about the subject matter of a text can affect a translation? Prepare to
discuss.
Part II: [Your instructor will present the following text or a similar one for a
timed translation. The students' first time seeing the text should be only after
doing general research. Students should translate and proofread as far as they can
under a set in-class deadline, budgeting their time accordingly. They should not
worry about finishing the entire text. Briefly some situational features should be
given and discussed, according to the instructor's discretion (text type, purpose,
etc.). Your instructor will follow up with a discussion of difficult passages,
unfinished sections, terminology, tone, and common errors; if the class has access
to computers, a follow-up session can be used to peer edit or produce revisions]:
Por qué Defiendo la Hoja de Coca
Por Rodolfo Faggioni
Defiendo la hoja de coca porque es un alimento. Es un alimento riquísimo en
vitaminas A y C, y rico en calcio, hierro, fibras, proteínas y calorías. Los primeros

testimonios del uso alimentario de la hoja de coca en la región andina datan de
hace 4.500 años. En aquella época, y en esa zona, la planta de la coca
(Erytroxylon coca) era cultivada y los seres humanos hacían de ella un uso sano y
sensato, como se hace hoy en los campos masticando las hojas, muchas veces con
un reactivo como las cenizas o el bicarbonato de soda.
La coca es una planta alcaloide, así como lo son el té y el café, que contiene
varios alcaloides; uno de ellos es la cocaína (presente en una cantidad mínima,
entre 0.5 y 1.1% en las hojas de coca) que durante la masticación, por acción de la
saliva, se combina con el resto de elementos alcalinos, descomponiéndose, para
transformarse en ecgonina: esta substancia contribuye a quemar las grasas
acumuladas en el hígado generando glucosa y, por lo tanto energía. Sin haber
conocido al detalle tales procesos químicos, ya los incas, y antes de ellos los
aymaras y quechuas, sabían que masticar hojas de coca proporcionaba bienestar y
fuerza. El simple acto de pijchar o chajtar hojas de coca, o sea masticarlas y
mantenerlas en la boca en una bola compacta y fibrosa, significa para el
organismo una fuente de energía y nutrición.
La reputación de la coca, sin embargo, sufre en 1860 una valorización negativa
cuando un químico alemán, Albert Neimann, consigue aislar el alcaloide de la
cocaína. Es el inicio de la difusión de ésta como droga devastadora. Se ha tratado
de un amino terciario que podría haber sido un buen anestético si su fuerte
toxicidad y la dependencia psíquica que provoca, no hubieran orientado a los

investigadores a soluciones obtenidas modificando en laboratorio la molécula de
la cocaína. De este modo ha nacido la novocaína y muchos otros anestéticos de
síntesis, mientras la cocaína, a partir del siglo XX, ha obtenido cada día mayor
éxito como estupefaciente. Han bastado 150 años para poner en riesgo milenios
de cultura, identidad y de bienestar.
No han faltado en el último siglo los usos para alimentos de la hoja de la coca. A
principios del siglo XX un químico corso, Angelo Mariani, inventó un preparado
alcohólico a base de hojas de coca, el Vin Mariani, que cosechó un éxito
inmediato como tónico y remedio contra el dolor de garganta. En Estados Unidos
se parte de esa receta para alcanzar, con sucesivas adaptaciones, quitándole el
alcohol y añadiéndole cola, un tipo de nuez africana que contiene cafeína y
jarabe-caramelo, la fórmula de la Coca Cola: y es este el caso más clamoroso de
uso alimentario de las hojas de la coca que han sido descocainizadas antes del
uso. Pero ni siquiera esto ha impedido que en 1961, en la Convención de la ONU
en New York, Estados Unidos incluyera la hoja de la coca, y no la cocaína, como
uno de los estupefacientes más dañinos. Producir cocaína de la coca no es simple.
Son necesarios decenas de elementos químicos y laboratorios especializados.
En la actualidad, aquellos cocaleros de los Andes, del Chapare y de los Yungas
que no quieren ceder a las lisonjas del narcotráfico, deben hacer arreglos con las
pesantes intervenciones de la DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration)
estadounidense, que les ofrece idemnizaciones ridículas para la destrucción de los

cultivos de coca con vagas promesas de reconversión de los cultivos. Una
reconversión que nunca llega, así, cuando se acaban los dineros de la DEA, los
cocaleros se convierten en fuerza-trabajo para el narcotráfico. [621 words]
http://www.mapuche.info/indgen/ecoportal040929.html
Todos los derechos reservados © 1999-2004
Reproducción autorizada solo mencionando como fuente EcoPortal.net y con
enlace en caso de ser en Internet
Tip: Other good texts to include for this sort of activity may be found in the field
of anthropology and architecture; consider something on Machu Picchu, for
example, see the travel site http://www.cuscotrips.net/peru/machupicchu.htm; a
variant would be to have students evaluate the difficulty and estimated time a
prospective job might take: For example, send them to
www.inah.gob.mx./index.php, the Instituto Nacional de Antropología homepage.
How many estimated words, what difficulties are foreseen, what localizing issues,
technical issues, etc.? Have students assess and bid on the job.
For a terminology verification or source-target comparison task, try a chapter
from Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time in English and Spanish.
Optional task: Ethnobotany: Terms and phrases for research and discussion, Tales
of a Shaman's Apprentice

[hand icon] Read Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice. Find solutions (en>es) for the
context given in the reading; if more than one apply, hierarchize and prepare to
defend your choices; have some idea of your sources.
p. 6 predation
p. 6 astringent tang
p. 6 "bitters"
p. 7 "strategic commodities"
p. 7 synthetic drug treatments
p. 7 resistant strains
p. 7 "wonder drugs"
p. 7 screened
p. 7 temperate plants
p. 8 vasodilator
p. 8 platelet activating factor, a bronchoconstrictor that diminishes oxygen intake
into the lungs
p. 8 Pacific yew tree
p. 10 tribal healers
p. 10 rain forest
p. 10 voucher specimen
p. 12 hallucinogenic snuff
p. 14 sulfa drugs

p. 14 the cardiac beta-blocker visken
p. 16 vinblastine
p. 16 mitotic spindle poisons
Harnessing Parallel Texts: The Beaufort Wind Scale
[hand icon] Give student groups cut-out slips (mixed up) with the following
descriptors to be placed appropriately in a Beaufort Scale with information gaps:
Calma
Ventolina
Flojito (Brisa muy débil)
Bonancible (Brisa moderada)
Fresquito (Brisa fresca)
Fresco (Brisa fresca)
Frescachón (Viento fuerte)
Temporal (Duro)
Temporal fuerte (Muy duro)
Temporal duro (Temporal)
Temporal muy duro (Borrasca)
Tiempo huracanado (Huracán)
Missing terms: specifications:

1. rizos; 2. olas pequeñas; 3. olas algo mayores/crestas/borreguillos; 4 --; 5.
Rociones; 6. --; 7. engruesa/nubecillas; 8. torbellinos/nubes blancas; 9. romper;
10. empenechadas [also: have students translate missing line: “The ‘tumbling’ of
the sea becomes heavy and shock-like”]; 11. bancos de espuma; 12. –
[hand icon] (Escala de Viento Beaufort with description gaps: use the Spanish
version with M (mar) and T (tierra) descriptions—omit chunks that students ought
to know from research)
Editing Task: Technical Data Sheets
Optional: Give students source and target technical sheets from different domains.
Show data sheets that include marketing language.
[hand icon]
[A01-IRM]

[A02-IRM]

[A03-IRM]
Translation Workshop #8: Monterey Bay Aquarium
Note: Spanish-speaking students are at risk for spelling "Monterey" with an "rr".

Tip: Well in advance, buy and put on reserve the Guía de campo del acuario de la
Bahía de Monterey, an invaluable parallel text for this project. Many terms can be
found therein.
Students should be aware of the rhetorical dimension of the text--discursive
strategies should include controlling tone and register, since schoolchildren and
people of all education levels may be using this text. Remind them that the names
of exhibits refer to real spaces on a museum map, and so they have to know what
strategy to use (e.g. pragmatic explicitation) to deal with any names that aren't
labeled in Spanish in the exhibits themselves; otherwise aquarium-goers could get
lost.
Tip (1): Isolate each group's rendition of the following phrases into Spanish and
compare as a group:
"go eye to eye with hermit crabs"
"Rocky Shore in the wild"
Tip (2): Have students make and append lists of sources--neighboring and parallel
texts--to their translations.
Tip (3): A good example of a supplement can be shown in this line:

"On our outer decks mechanical waves bring the aquarium tide pools…">
"Olas creadas de forma mecánica…"
Note how this expansion makes the relationship between the noun and the
modifier clearer and more visual.
Tip (4): Have students pivot off the Latin to try to find the Spanish: e.g.
surfperch>Percidae>perca (surfperch); also as a diagnostic check.
[hand icon] Optional task:
Term Identification (Case Study): Flow Control
Read the following passage from the FAQs of a tool manufacturer. Then, a)
identify all terms; b) distinguish them in terms of their smallest unit of translation
or segment.
Optional: Gloss for Spanish terminology. Optional (2): Tag parts of speech (word
categories).
“What are flow control systems?

Flow Control Systems are sets of downhole tools and equipment that are used to
control the fluid flow between casing and tubing and within the tubing. Reliable,
high-performance flow control systems ensure optimum production and well
longevity and minimize equipment repairs and rig downtime. Placing the flow
control equipment strategically along the production string adds substantially to
the flexibility and versatility of the completion. Typical flow control devices
include sliding sleeves, blanking plugs, nipple profiles and chokes. Baker Oil
Tools has pioneered flow control technology for decades and is the industry’s
leading supplier of downhole flow control systems.”
http://www.bakerhughes.com/Bot/completions/flow_control/faq.htm#1
Article and Chapter Reviews: Scientific and Technical
The following are some ideas for article or chapter reviews. Each student can be
assigned one reading to critique and present main ideas to the class. Other relevant and
available readings may be used.
“Technical Translation” (c. 14), A Textbook of Translation. Newmark, Peter. New
York: Prentice Hall International, 1988.
"c. 13 Technical Translation". Thinking Spanish Translation. Hervey, Sándor, Ian
Higgins, and Louise Haywood. London/NY: Routledge, 1995.
“Introduction: Transfers of Learning, Questions of Influence”; c.7. Issues and Examples
for the Study of Scientific Translation Today”; c. 8. “Conclusion: Gained in
Translation”, Science in Translation: The Movement of Knowledge Through

Cultures and Time, Montgomery, Scott. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2000.
“Language: General and Scientific”/“The Latin And Greek Languages” Greek and
Latin in Scientific Terminology. Nybakken, Oscar. Ames: Iowa State College
Press, 1959.
"c. 2 Botany" Medical Terminologies: Classical Origins. Scarborough, John. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.
“Technical Language” / “Standardized Terminology”, Scientific and Technical
Translation. Pinchchuck, Isadore. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1977.
“Terminological Equivalence and Translation”. Reiner Arntz, Terminology:
Applications in Interdisciplinary Communication. Sonneveld and Loening, eds.
Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1993.
“Origins and Development of Terminology”/ “Theoretical Issues in Terminology”,
Essays on Terminology. Rey, Alain. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins,
1995.
Excerpts from Hann, M., The Key to Technical Translation, 2 vols.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1992.
"The Terms and Arts of Patentese. Wolves in Sheep's Clothing", Lawson,
Veronica, in Wright, Sue Ellen and Gerhard Budin, Handbook of
Terminology Management, John Benjamins, NY and Amsterdam, 1997.
171-183.
"Patent Claim Translation", Meraw, Leonard J., in Wright, Sue Ellen and Leland
D. Wright, Scientific and Technical Translation. NY and Amsterdam:

John Benjamins, 1993. 109-119.
Suggestions for Chapter 9 Quiz
Annotate a text from the chapter and translate in class; alternatively, allow open
access to computers and assign a portion.
You may wish to give information from Jody Byrne’s Technical Translation:
Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation. Dordrecht:
Springer: 2006.
Works cited
Byrne, Jody. Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical
Documentation. Dordrecht: Springer: 2006.
Cortázar, Julio. "Instrucciones para subir escaleras." www.literatura.org 22 May
2007. < http://www.literatura.org/Cortazar/Instrucciones.html >.
Faggioni, Rodolfo. "Por qué Defiendo la Hoja de Coca." ecoportal.net 7 Dec 2005.
EcoPortal y Ambiente y Sociedad. 22 May 2007.
<http://www.ecoportal.net/contenido/temas_especiales/pueblos_indigenas/
por_que_defiendo_la_hoja_ de_coca >.
Mengzhi, Fang. "Sci-tech Translation and Its Research in China." Meta 44.1
(1999): 185-197.
Chapter 10
Address student aversion to or fear of literary translation. It may be wise to avoid
playing up this domain as "the hardest kind", which is highly debatable and not a
pedagogically productive qualification. Ask students instead what they think
might be the challenges of these text types. Teach them that the creativity often
associated with this kind of work really has less to do with the fiction or poetry
itself, and more with the imperative literary translation puts on the translator to
work creatively to overcome constraints or even to use the constraints to one's
creative advantage. The literary translator doesn't have a blank canvas, but that
condition doesn't need to feel confining--convey this idea early and often.
Challenge students to find and express what they find "creative" in this type of
work. Stress that a good literary translator must be above all a good reader--some
say the best close reader a text can have--and that these reading skills are
transferable to other domains. This idea counteracts the too-narrow utilitarianism
that may strike reluctant students--with enough drafts, patience, research, and
attention, they can produce credible, even surprising, literary translations.
(Students on the whole will need more encouragement for literature than for other
domains. Don't dismiss literary translation --consciously or unconsciously--either
as a lesser art or an unworthy pursuit for a serious pragmatic translator-in-
training: Students will be quick to disengage if they see you do so. There will be
at least one young translator in every group, if not two or more, who will thrill to
try literary translation, and others who in time will come to love it.)
Whenever possible, let students work through many drafts in consultation
with you, make multiple versions from the same prompt or source text, and read
the work of the masters. You by all means should bring in published work on
occasion that is inferior to what the students have produced--their reaction will be
to have greater self-confidence, and disillusionment: they cannot sustain the
unexamined notion they have that anything published must be of uniformly high
quality. Foster the notion of multiple translations and re-translation as healthy in
literary translation. Try to define the various needs of different literary translation
consumers (broadly, the trade and academic markets, but discuss also specialists
and non-specialists, etc.)
At the end of this chapter, students are de-briefed; you may anticipate this
by reading over that segment now.

Tip: Have literary translation students record their work, i.e., perform it; post
works together on discussion list or webpage or hold a virtual recital with
PowerPoint (automatic slides but student recordings) or download an audio player
or a streaming audio arrangement of another sort.
Tips (2): While workshopping drafts of rhythmic poetry, set up a metronome to
have the student keep a steady pace. Experiment with different tempos.
Tip (3): Do a theatrical translation as a group; have the translators perform a
scene. To warm up the students to the language of theater, have them spot
translate the descriptions of the plays running at Teatro 8 in Miami
(www.teatro8.com).
Tip (4): Have students translate across genres; e.g. transform a poem into a play
or a play into a memoir. Review and interculturally contrast literary genre
conventions, which UNESCO lists as: aesthetics, biography/memoir, chronicle,
correspondence, epic, essay, folktale, history, letters, linguistics, literary criticism,
novel, oral poetry, oral tradition, philosophy, play, poetry, prose, religion, short
stories, sociology, tales, theater, travelogue.
Tip (5): See Jeremy Munday, Style and Ideology in Translation: Latin American
Writing in English. New York: Routledge, 2008.

Tip (6): Remind students early and often that their interpretations should not
preclude other interpretations; we don’t translate literature to close off meanings
to the exception of our favorite readings, but rather we translate to activate those
meanings in a new environment. Review with students the famous seven kinds of
ambiguity.
There are countless ways to approach reading literary translations, e.g.:
1) comparing source and target(s);
2) comparing L1 target and an L2 target of an L3 source;
3) reading a target against the translator’s preface (or stated goals);
4) playing “which is the translation?”—(confronting the student with two
texts and asking which is the original; task is from Tim Parks’ book, Translating
Style).
In producing literary translations, there are also a number of formats:
1) workshopping;
2) brainstorming task: translate from a language you don’t know at all;
3) black out words from a poem for which a translation exists, creating a
new poem. See if the same can be done with the translation;
4) translate a text phonemically;
5) use a new set of constraints (English>English: modern vs. archaic,
rewrite in another register, translation-parodies [exaggerated translations into an
identifiable writer’s style], etc.)

6) “meta-edits”: take three versions into English of a Spanish source, do a
mash-up, taking the bits that you like, editing them so they fit together, justifying
your choices to the class [this is for in-class use only—students should not claim
the products as new translations]; you may also experiment with the following:
print two or three different translations, each on a different color paper. Give
students scissors and glue sticks, and have them cut and paste segments from the
translations into a master “file” (a blank sheet of paper). Have them discuss their
results with a partner.
7) heteronym task: invent a poet and biography; write a poem by him or
her. Translate.
A Few Issues In Literary Translation ES>EN
Discussions on the United States' trade imbalance in cultural matters can be
renewed here. You may wish to use Douglas Robinson's Western Translation
Theory: From Herodotus to Nietzsche, which has short excerpts from translation
theory through history, in order to compare Greek and Roman translation
practices.
Observation: Special translation constraints often arise with each individual
writer. Gabriel García Márquez, for example, has an aversion to adverbs ending in
–mente, and his translators must avoid –ly constructions when possible.

Domestication and Foreignization
After working with these two passages, have students domesticate and foreignize
the same passage, or divide the class and have each half work on one or the other.
Give a paragraph from the theorist Lawrence Venuti condemning domesticating
practices in U.S. publishing. Discuss.
'Triangulating" Translations: The Spirit from the Letter
The virtue of this task is severalfold: Students are introduced to a work not from
the Western tradition, they see that a work of ineffable mystery such as Laotzu's
may be rendered in multiple ways, and they work at seeing beyond the surface
text.
The Most Translated Writers in the World
The inclusion of both Shakespeare and Dean Koontz on the same list should
evoke comment from students. Discuss: Why are they the most translated?
Group Task: "Voices from the Field"
This can be done in any domain, but you may find that literary translators tend to
be more used to writing about their practice, since many are from academia (not

all, however, and many pragmatic translators, too, write regularly on what they
do). Discuss: Why do you think many literary translators are academics? What
(dis)advantages do you think this presents?
Task: Translators’ Introductions
The translator's introduction can virtually be considered a "genre" unto itself;
though clearly these are prologues, many are excerpted or otherwise
recontextualized as literary translation theory. From question #4, compile a
consensus-based description of the translator's introduction. Have students orally
offer the outline of one for the work they are presently translating.
Tip: Bring in or project a translator's footnotes that you think are relatively
effective, and ones that are detracting or self-defeating (notes that bemoan the
difficulty of a pun, term, or passage without the translator first attempting a
solution). Effective ones may be definitions of obscure terms, cultural allusions,
etc.; ineffective ones may be too erudite or obscure for the audience, they may
make unreasonable demands on the reader's interest in translational issues, etc.
Phonemic Translation
Pick a volunteer to read each excerpt aloud; then try them both at once, or in
rounds.

Semantic Fields
Semantic fields are not a luxury, but essential to recognize; a huge number of
translation distortions come from broken fields--ignored or unseen relations. Until
the translator is trained to see them, semantic fields can be easily crowded out
from the translator's field of view by other considerations.
Possible solutions:
C.
1. a) astronomy b) trail [vs. wake>ocean] c. 'cometa' signals the fact that this trope
is in the field of astronomy
2. a) prison/slavery b) sin trabas [not 'libre', which is rhetorically different] c)
bondage/title of the piece
3. a) war b) impregnable fortress c) 'trinchera de ideas'
4. a) Genesis b) Torre de Babel c) universal to the fragmentary [antithesis]
5. a) art/representation b) glass [by ext., looking glass] c) river/mirror/water d)
The idea that you can't step into the same river twice
[hand icon] Variation on 2b.5. activity: Cloze set: Using the Jorge Luis Borges
poem, “Arte poética”, create a Cloze set activity by replacing the following words
in the poem with blank spaces; then, pass out the Cloze set version of the poem to

students, along with the box of options below. Students then have to reconstruct
the poem.
From stanza 1, line 1: remove “río” and “agua”
From stanza 2, line 1: remove “la vigilia”
From stanza 2, line 4: remove “noche”
From stanza 3, line 2: remove “hombre”
From stanza 3, line 4: remove “una música”
From stanza 4, line 1: remove “la muerte”
From stanza 4, line 3: remove “pobre”
From stanza 4, line 4: remove “la aurora”
From stanza 5, line 2: remove “el fondo”
From stanza 6, line 2: remove “amor”
From stanza 6, line 4: remove “eternidad”
From stanza 7, line 2: remove “cristal”
From stanza 7, line 4: remove “interminable”
________________________________________________________________
carne el río el fondo
hombre la vigilia eternidad
noche cristal agua
pobre la aurora amor
interminable la muerte una música
________________________________________________________________
Tip: Compare multiple versions of Pablo Neruda's "Walking Around"

Include Felstiner’s, Belitt’s, etc.. Don't prompt students about which translation is
"best" of the three; let them volunteer their opinions freely. They will do so even
more strenuously if they are tasked with doing a "meta-edit" (see above) of bits
from the three versions (which you can do as a follow-up)--students will have
very well-defined preferences and aversions. Tie the reactions to concrete
reasoning by exacting defenses for the comparative success or failure of given
segments--if the student volunteers that something sounds "horrible", press him or
her to the realization that a given bit is antiquated language, or un-Nerudian
diction, or inconsistent with other choices, or what have you.
Optional: Have students research the translator's introduction originally published
with each translation (in the case of Felstiner, they can use his Translating
Neruda: The Way to Macchu Picchu [1980]).
Tip: Assign an exercise from Tapscott, Twentieth Century Latin American Poetry:
Students have free choice of author and poem; they bring in copies (enough for
class members) of the ST and TT as published for critiquing with the class.
Diachronic Translation: Jorge Manrique's "Coplas A La Muerte De Su
Padre"

Done well, student re-translations of Manrique could be quite clever, given
parameters that the students are familiar with--translated into certain song styles
or free verse.
Tip: Assign archaizing and contemporizing tasks; e.g. take well-known texts from
centuries past and have students intralingually translate, accounting for all
elements. Alternatively, they can gist translate (purely as an exercise, since this
would be an unlikely assignment).
Tip (2): Share other rhymed translations, successful and not-so-successful.
Prompt to the students: If you have distorted in order to achieve rhyme, what is
really accomplished?
"Songs of Ourselves"
Borges has also done a version of this Canto that you may want to include in the
discussion. (This author has found at least ten versions in Spanish, many of which
vary quite revealingly.)
Translation Tips: Submitting to Literary Translation Journals
Tip: Often journals such as eXchanges feature special issues devoted to student
translators' work; investigate well in advance if you feel your class would be

game for polishing and submitting. You will have to give thought to what
coherent theme or style or author you will put work together on.
Stress to students that the best translator would not likely get far without good
marketing--i.e. business--sense. Good record-keeping and people skills are musts.
Since ALTA is mentioned here, describe the ambience at a literary translation
conference if you have been. Mention student scholarships and other awards, and
the camaraderie commonly shown to newcomers. It is never too early to attend a
professional conference! Even undergraduates nowadays are giving papers at
certain conferences; it is a good way for a neophyte to get the lay of the land and
decide if they would feel at home in such a career, or side career.
Tip: Advise students to keep abreast of Spanish-language literary awards (e.g.
Casa de las Américas, Biblioteca Breve, Premio Xavier Villaurrutia, etc.) for the
most heralded recent works. For the truly serious, a long-term strategy is to travel
to book fairs such as the large events in Buenos Aires, Guadalajara, and Madrid to
find books and make contacts.
Children's Literature
Possible end-of-term project: Have students research what domestications have
been performed on fairy tales, particularly where the translator's agency is

involved. (Bruno Bettelheim's work may be helpful here, particularly his works in
which he explores the psychoanalytics of fairy tale characters, and the stories'
transformations across cultures.) Alternatively, bring examples of the most radical
shifts (including censorship or bowdlerization) that occurred in well-known
stories. This discussion should remind students that their childhood narratives in
many cases came courtesy of translators: the Brothers Grimm, la Fontaine, Aesop,
etc.
Tip: A good database of children’s literature in Spanish (original or translation)
may be found at http://csbs.csusm.edu/csbs/www.book.book_home?lang=SP
Optional: In the not-too-distant future, whole books will be written about Harry
Potter’s fate outside of English. See what issues have arisen thus far. (One is
surely the incredible speed, propelled by demand, with which these works have to
be completed. Pirate editions appeared online and on the black market before the
authorized translations—readers are rarely translation initiators! Allegedly, in the
Chilean fan translation, the translator simply gives up on certain passages and
writes: "Here comes something that I'm unable to translate, sorry.") Are
translators in on the royalties? Are there different Harry Potters for Spain,
Colombia, Venezuela, and the Spanish-speaking U.S.? Consider: Would a
Mexican child embrace characters speaking River Plate Spanish the same way as
if they spoke a Mexican variant? Does the author collaborate on or authorize
translations? Can you find glossaries of terms that translators have used for the

various invented names and creatures in the series (e.g. los Mortífagos = Death-
Eaters)? What cultural challenges do these books pose for the translator into
Spanish? Find examples, or bring in translations for comparison of passages.
Experiment: Translate a particularly British passage of Harry Potter into
American English, or translate marked regional Spanish versions into another
regional Spanish. Follow-up: As a group, come to a consensus about what
authorized translation means in all its possible contexts.
Optional (2): Do a unit on banned or challenged books, which frequently are
works of children’s literature. Bring up the idea of translation as a subversive act,
as contraband. What translations of U.S. writing abroad have met with censure?
Note: According to the American Library Association’s 100 Most Frequently
Challenged Books of 1990-2000, only one translation was on the list: Isabel
Allende’s House of the Spirits.
Translation Tip: Royalties and Copyright Ownership
Have students compare a literary translation contract to a non-literary translation
contract.
Tip: Send students to survey 15-20 popular translations to see under whose
name(s) the translation is copyrighted.

Activity: Like Water for Chocolate Translation Comparison
Have students write a thorough analysis for this, not simply a list of "errors". To
that end, be sure that the effect of translation choices are considered cumulatively.
As an alternative to the types of meaning mentioned, students can also use
Berman's deforming tendencies as a framework.
Workshop #10: Prose Fiction
Pre-translation tasks: Have students identify domains: architecture, history
(local/national), geography, botany, music, politics, funerary practice/funeral
rites. Then have them identify genre (documentary/historical fiction + prose
poetry). Third, they might begin the workshop by noting special terms or issues
encountered. Finally, volunteers can read their entire versions aloud for feedback.
After workshopping your version as a class, compare the published English
version of the passages (Helen Lane, trans., Viking Books).
Students should know background that it was rumored that Evita's embalmer
made multiple copies of the corpse so the body could not be used for political
ends.
Talking points:

cúpula de jirafa: [students should try for the image—the idea--here]
se había desangrado atendiendo las súplicas de las multitudes: "she had been
drained of her life's blood answering the pleas of the multitudes" [official
translation from the published English]; note the difference if you use a different
pronoun: "Evita died and her body was guarded…where it had been bled dry…"
[i.e. both a natural and supernatural reading are possible]
la difunta estaba representada por: the deceased was shown/displayed [not
represented]
tres metros de altura: Students should transculturate for U.S. audience
Nuhuel Huapí: should be Nahuel Huapí [students should catch error]
Have multiple versions of <<Ya esa mujer no tiene más ancla con la realidad que
los números>> and the following sentence, which should cohere (note that the ST
repeats 'la realidad", for a reason)
Para satisfacer la súplica de que no la olvidaran: [background knowledge or
knowledge of the novel is required to know that it was her plea that she not be
forgotten]

Prose poetry section: Students should maintain ambiguity. A good test of reading
skills is found in "Ella responde con elipsis"--How do students interpret this?--
trailing off? fading in and out? fading silence? pregnant pauses? expectant
replies?
Tip: [hand icon] Pass out Helen Lane's published version of these passages.
Tip (2): In light of the wordplay section of Manual (c. 2), have students consider
what they would do with this passage:
[hand icon] "[El Coronel] [e]nsayó ejercicios de respiración: EVITA. Verb.
Conjug. 3a pers. sing. pres. de evitar (del lat. <<evitare>>, <<vitare>>). Estorbar.
Impedir. Hacer que no ocurra cierta cosa que iba a ocurrir.
"Evitaría la palabra evita. Evitaría las malsanas palabras de alreadedor:
levita / prenda masculina; levitar (Ocult.) / alzarse en el aire sin apoyo visible;
vital / adjetivo, de la vida. Evitaría todo lenguaje contaminado por el mal agüero
de esa mujer. La llamaría Yegua, Potranca, Bicha, Cucaracha, Friné, Estercita,
Milonguita, Butterfly: usaría cualquiera de los nombres que ahora rondaban por
ahí, mas no el maldito, no el prohibido, no el que rociaba desgracia sobre las vidas
que lo invocaban. La morte è vita, Evita, pero también Evita è morte. Cuidado. La
morta Evita è morte."

p. 131, Santa Evita, Tomás Eloy Martínez, c. 5: "Me resigné a ser víctima"
De-Briefing
Tip: Introduce excerpts of readings, fictionalizations of translators and
interpreters, to discussions. Carlos Fuentes’ “Las dos orillas” (from El naranjo)
tells the story of a translator-traitor. Other choices include John Crowley’s The
Translator, Salvador Benesdra’s El traductor, Pablo de Santis’ La traducción, or
several works by Javier Marías.
Tip (2): Students can compile an annotated list of publishers who commonly
publish translations into English from Spanish. Have the students identify
potential publishers for a given job (e.g., their final project). Show them sample
cover letter queries to publishers.
Works cited
Benesdra, Salvador. El traductor. Buenos Aires: Ediciones de la Flor, 1998.
Berman, A. "Translation and the Trials of the Foreign." The Translation Studies
Reader. Ed. Lawrence Venuti. New York: Routledge, 2000. 284-297.

Crowley, John. The Translator. New York: William Morrow, 2002.
Felstiner, John. Translating Neruda: The Way to Macchu Picchu. Stanford:
Stanford UP, 1980.
Fuentes, Carlos. El naranjo. Madrid: Santillana, 1993.
Martínez, Tomás Eloy. Santa Evita. New York: Random House, 1995.
Parks, Tim. Translating Style. Northampton: St. Jerome, 2007.
Santis, Pablo de. La traducción. Barcelona: Destino, 1999.
Twentieth-century Latin American Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology. Ed. Stephen
Tapscott. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996.
Western Translation Theory: from Herodotus to Nietzsche. Ed. Douglas Robinson.
Northampton: St. Jerome, 2002.

Give a literary passage for translation, a microcuento, or short fiction by Marco
Denevi, Mario Benedetti, or Eduardo Galeano. Option: Give two versions of the
same source text and assign descriptions of each translator’s approach, departures
in meaning or style, and identification of techniques on the micro level.
Research/role play: Have students identify and defend three works for translation.
Set criteria such as: the writer should be underserved in English, translations of
the work in question should exist in major languages (but not yet English), similar
works have been well received, etc. Students should write a letter to a publisher
convincing them to take on the project. (The letter need not be sent.)
Optional: Give students a handout of Berman’s deforming tendencies (see Venuti,
ed., 284-97) as a guideline—grade them on the degree to which semantic
pluralities and intertextualities are respected or captured.
Chapter 11
Note: The designation “consumer-oriented translation” is from Hervey et al.
Translation Teaser: Movie Dubbing or Titling?

Tip: First, have students learn the mathematical and spatial constraints of
subtitling. Then, task them with titling a segment of film of a given length. (They
can make slides to replicate screen captions.) finally, have them log a description
of their concrete strategies and their overall sense of what is involved in the
subtitler’s craft.
Tip (2): Have students try titling a script segment of “The Simpsons”.
Tip (3): For a longer-term investment, license subtitling software for your lab and
let students develop their own projects as they learn the various functions.
Tip (4): Use Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling (Jorge Díaz Cintas and Aline
Remael), St. Jerome, 2007.
Tip (5): See Munday, Style and Ideology in Translation, c. 7, pp. 173-196, 2008,
for style in audiovisual translation, particularly film.
Translating Songs
Tip: Listen to the well-known version of "Guantanamera" (lyric adaptation from
José Martí's poem by Julian Orbon) and have students compare the English and
the Spanish "on the fly", taking no notes.

As with all workshops, students should give frank, useful critiques, accentuating
positive and negative aspects, as they see them; you may use a participation grade
to assess the frequency and insightfulness of a student's feedback given to peers.
If those on the receiving end view their presented songs as works in progress, they
will be more receptive; alternatively, feedback can be seen as a chance to see how
material "works" before committing to a final version. Under this latter
conception, a feedback session can come early, and performances can come after
changes are incorporated. If you would like to do this activity all in one session,
have one student serve as timekeeper so presentations and discussion doesn't run
long, which it easily can.
You will be surprised at the creativity in your class, particularly if you encourage
free rein; however, be clear that students should not adapt freely for this task (we
look at adaptation in the following task). If students are more comfortable
adapting to new formats, contemporizing, etc., have them do two versions: a
translation and an adaptation. Suggest at the outset the option of vocalic rhyme
and other strategies; students should avoid padding, which is undisciplined
translating.
Tip (2): As an option, you can have a translation talent show: an anonymous vote
by the class on the best performance according to the criteria enumerated in the

Manual. Students can film their work and upload their videos to YouTube or a
similar site.
Adaptation
This task may present a good opportunity to introduce some of the different
historical conceptions of adaptation, imitation, etc., and even cases of what we
would call plagiarism today. This would also make a good end-of-semester
project, particularly if students can compare how similar approaches are termed
differently across different cultures or time periods.
Tips: Review the use of "after", e.g. "after Lorca". Ask what students think
motivated some of Cohen’s particularizations and other types of shifts. Show
some examples of radical adaptations, and some that are ingenious, including
across different media (song to a poem, ekphrasis, etc.).
Tip (2): Adapt a passage of a well-known work especially for children. You may
even wish to adapt Lorca’s poems.
Translating Titles
Students are fascinated that source language titles are often scrapped in favor of
whole new titles (viz. Dr. Strangelove)--explore with them why this is. Also, there

are the curious cases of non-translation. A special category is the literal
phoneticization of a film into the target language, such as "Down By Law"
appearing in Brazil as "Dombilô", which is nonsense in any language. And then
there’s the Chinese title of “The Shawshank Redeemption”, which back-translates
as “Excitement 1995”!
The title, considered as a genre, has rules that seem to obey the market as much or
more than the content of the work it represents. Thus, as students should be
reminded, producers, editors, marketers, and distributors have a hand in these
decisions, just as they do in translations of literature. A poor title can nevertheless
be familiar to its intended public, so it sometimes is too late to "re-brand" a work
with a different title in translation; many titles persist, but sometimes they are
changed. And of course, the same movie may be known by twenty different titles
in twenty different countries.
Tip: Note that the titles on the American Film Institute's list (which you can pass
out, or use another well-known list) fall into the following categories:
a. names: proper, place name, profession, metaphoric
b. idiomatic phrases
c. song titles
d. adjective + noun
e. adverbial phrase
f. gerund

g. metonym or synecdoche
h. full sentence
Follow-up: Have students intralingually translate, shifting categories once they
have established where each title falls; for example, if the film is "The
Godfather", they have to re-name the film from a category b-h.
Follow-up (2): Send students to the multilingual film title database called
Lumiere, and see if they can deduce more categories than those already listed:
http://lumiere.obs.coe.int/web/search/
Follow-up (3): Students can compare bilingual children’s book titles to discern
shifts (e.g. Juan Felipe Herrera’s Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros
remateros).
You may have students read more on literary titles in Clifford Landers' chapter,
"The all-important Title".
Titles (Case Study)
Do as a follow-up to the discussion on literary titles.
Cross-cultural Negotiation: The Tradition of the Cortejo

Students will have to get in tune with slightly archaic language for this: courtship,
courting, ball, to ask for her hand, etc. They should supply “suitor” for
pretendiente. Disimuladamente might work as ‘discretely’ or ‘secretly’. Remind
students stuck on el novio podía ver a su novia that they can shift strategies and
use ‘the young couple’ or ‘the bride- and groom-to-be’. OJO: meeting
casualmente in the park most likely is closer here to ‘by chance’ than ‘casually’.
Translating Sacred Texts
A great deal of translation theory has come down to us via Bible translation
scholars. (If you are concerned about introducing religious elements into the
classroom, balance this activity with theory and sacred texts from many traditions;
include, for example, the guidelines “Buddhist Text Translation Society's Eight
Regulations”.) For more on the cultural transformations of the Bible and the
controversies of Biblical translation, see the excellent video, "The Bible in
Translation: God's Word vs. Man's Words" (www.films.com). See also Willis
Barnstone’s The Poetics of Translation, which uncovers translation’s role in the
history and pre-history of the Bible, works by Eugene Nida (particularly 1969’s
The Theory and Practice of Translation; minimally, look at his concept of
dynamic equivalence. Doug Robinson’s Western Translation Theories has many
key excerpts from the Western tradition. Read the famous introduction to the KJB
with students. You may want to look at the brief chapter “Holy Communicative?

Current Approaches to Bible Translation Worldwide”, 89-101, c. 8 of Translation
and Religion: Holy Untranslatable (ed. Lynne Long, Clevedon: Multilingual
Matters, 2005), which touches on relevance theory in relation to this text type.
Finally, you might compare Spanish<>English passages in translation from key
theologians, e.g. Jon Sobrino. See www.biblegateway.com to compare multiple
versions in English and Spanish.
John Wyclif (c. 1330-1384) was accused of heresy and burned at the stake for
rendering the Vulgate into the vernacular. Modern translators have been killed,
including the Japanese translator of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.
Note: UNESCO’s Index Translationum features a section on Biblical translation.
In it, the authors note that since 1979, 760 translations of the Bible have been
made into English; 759 into Spanish.
Translating Tourism
Adapt this task to your time constraints. At least discuss macrostrategies.
Color Terms (Case Study): Translating Crayolas
This task is designed to force students to think about the situatedness of their own
culture and the assumptions they make. It is true that all the color names

constitute a text in that they reflect shared cultural experiences and values. Be
sure to discuss issues such as regional appropriateness and register (does a child
need to "get" the multiple puns in "jazzberry jam"?) A real issue is the classism
that arguably is privileged in some of these color names (as was, formerly, the
racism present in them)--could an "abusive translation" democratize these names?
Source and Target Gap Task: Board Game Instructions
This task helps students practice inference as they read. They make their best
guess based on the logic of the text--and the game. Students must become familiar
with the rest of the text before they can fill in the gaps; in essence they must use
the text itself as a parallel text for the gaps.
Group Task: Performance Testing (Everyday Stretches)
This task is can't-miss if you choose the right person or persons to perform the
stretching. Divide the group into subgroups, each with their own stretch
descriptions to translate. As always, it is a good idea to form "Anglo-Hispanic"
subgroups so there is a good balance of native speakers and non-native speakers
in each, to the extent possible.
The amusing part of this task is that students are forced to self-correct their
translation on the fly if the stretching volunteer goes wrong; as the translation is

performative, it will immediately be obvious to all if the volunteer is positioned
improperly. Students may have to provide coherence to their target text in order to
make the sequence of movements natural. As noted in the prompt, you may wish
to have the volunteer not study the drawings in advance.
Tip: Bring in a bed sheet or small blanket for the stretcher to perform on.
Tip (2): Don't let a volunteer become uncomfortable with any stretch, physically
or otherwise.
Workshop #10: Philosophy: Ensimismamiento y alteración
The title itself should warrant some discussion. Students will need to become
familiarized with the language of philosophy, so consider assigning some parallel
text or neighboring text pre-readings.
Tip: As part of the pre-reading research, hand out copies of Ortega's "Man Has No
Nature" from 1941's Historia como sistema. Select philosophical jargon from the
translation (e.g. "ready-made") to compare to the source. The text is available in
Kaufmann's Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre and on the Internet.
Notes:

paragraph 1: "…el animal vive siempre alterado…">discuss ways to make this
word "alterado" tie in with "alteración". Remind students that "alter" is the Latin
for "other". Is "othered" possible? Or is a more natural rendering to be preferred:
"rendered other"? What of the medical valences in "alterado" can or should be
retained: disordered, disturbed? Can another coinage be possible?
paragraph 3: the same dilemma appears with "ensimismamiento" in the title, and
"ensimismarse", which the author even tells us "sólo existe en nuestro idioma".
The translator may see this as a justification for making this word stand out,
marking it as a concept: "inselfment", "inselfing"?
Follow-up: Discuss Ortega and Unamuno's reception in translation.
Tip: If you have a student adept in French, you may suggest a final paper in which
French, Spanish, and English philosophical terminology are compared for a given
school of philosophy.
Tip (2): Show students passages from philosophical treatises (Derrida, Foucault,
etc.) in which key source terms are left in French and “doubled” with an English
term. Discuss why these terms are left untranslated. (Is it always because of
conceptual ‘untranslatability’? Or is there an attempt at standardization going
on—a way of linking the source and target terms together for scholars, readers,
and even future translators?)

Works cited
Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film. Ed. Aton Egoyan and Ian Balfour.
Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004. 118-119.
Borges, Jorge Luís. "On Dubbing." Movies. Ed. Gilbert Adair. London: Penguin,
1999. 216-217.
Diaz Cintas, Jorge and Aline Remael, Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling.
Manchester, UK: St. Jerome, 2007.
Rich, B. Ruby. "To Read or Not to Read: Subtitles, Trailers, and
Monolingualism." Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film. Ed. Aton Egoyan
and Ian Balfour. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004. 154-69.
Germann, Christophe. "Content Industries and Cultural Diversity: The Case of
Motion Pictures." Cultural Imperialism: Essays on the Political Economy
of Cultural Domination. Ed. Bernd Hamm and Russell Smandych.
Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2005. 93-113.
Kaufmann, Walter Arnold. Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre. Cleveland:

World Pub., 1956.
Landers, Clifford. "The All-important Title." Literary Translation: A Practical
Guide. Buffalo: Multilingual Matters, 2001. 140.
Ortega y Gasset, José. Historia como sistema y Del Imperio romano. Madrid:
Revista de Occidente, 1941.
SUGGESTIONS AND SAMPLE QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER 11 QUIZ
Adapt one of the activities into a quiz, in-class or take-home.
Chapter 12
Tip: Devise deficient texts for student proofreading with the common
proofreader’s notations.
Tip (2): Expose students to electronic editing tools and their advantages. Compare
spellcheckers in Spanish.

Tip (3): See Mossop for more editing and revising activities.
Tip (4): Insist often that students edit “by eye” and not only with the spell-check
function—penalties should be steep for errors resulting from failure to self-edit.
Tip (5): Devise an ST and manipulated TT for students to discuss how
organization changes emphasis or main focus of arguments. This type of closed
task (with an approximately fixed number of features to be found) can be used for
review of linguistic issues that have come up. Be sure the ST is authentic or semi-
authentic; include a brief. The TT may be flawed in numerous ways; don’t reveal
in advance all the error types students should be expected to find.
Tip (6): Give time-constrained editing tasks. Some students will, inappropriately,
get caught up in details before attending to more important edits. Introduce them
to the idea of triage, particularly appropriate for editors: the most vital fixes are
made, then the next-most-vital, and so on. This is a time-management skill, but
also a classification skill—students should be able to assess, prioritize, and revise
substandard work to conform to a given set of product requirements.
Tip (7): (task for students): Profile and compare online translation agencies’
quality process: How many steps are typical? How many individuals are involved

in evaluation? At what stage does it begin? Where do points of completion occur?
Draw up a “typical” workflow of the process.
Evaluating Translation Quality
TT1 is a good example of a literal translation and the problems that can ensue
from this strategy--this translation fails to focus on the goals of the text itself: the
introduction of cultural concepts such as decencia, machismo, compadrazgo, etc.
The rendering of decencia as decency is the first indication of this defect. There is
little idiomaticity, almost as a machine would translate this passage, and slavish
imitation of the ST syntax.
TT2 does a better job processing the text linguistically and culturally. The second
time decencia appears it is left as a borrowing, a foreignizing strategy that is
perfectly appropriate to such a pedagogical situation (remember Schopenhauer's
quote about acquiring concepts when we acquire a language--Resisting translation
exercise, Instructors manual c. 2). The initial use of a doublet--an exegetic
addition or pragmatic explicitation ("'Decencia', or respectability") is insightful.
Tone is more controlled, accuracy is stronger, as partial false cognates are
avoided; naturalness is also better as evidenced in idiomatic phrases ("social
order" vs. TT1's "social staircase") and denominalization. Interpretations occur,
showing a generally more intelligent reading of the text. Some editing is needed

("flashier, showier, superficial aspects"; "appearances of the dress and behavior"
is a meaning error--the ST refers to lifestyle and behavior).
1. TT2 is preferable for the reasons discussed above; students can lead this
discussion and offer their own defenses. TT1 creates so many distortions it could
not seriously contend for a contract at a reputable press. One has more faith in the
TT2 translator--extravagances and all--than the TT1 translator, who gives no
indication that he or she understands the text well. Remind students about the
major responsibilities of a project manager, which include the hiring of
translators. Students can be introduced to more details about what is involved.
2. Each text could be read by a third party, who could be tested for
comprehension.
3. These concepts could be translated in a similar vein--with a documental
explicitation.
4. Answers may vary. Be sure to assess, on the microtext level, strengths of TT2
as well as weaknesses. Discuss whether TT1 would be acceptable to edit, or if it
should simply be returned to the translator.
5. Potentially; have the class weigh each for register, and come to a consensus.
For the passage "Hay quienes creen que cuando se cierran las puertas de la
justicia hay que empujar las puertas del compadrazgo", one could use "knock on
the door", instead of "push", which maintains the door image; one could use
images of roadblocks, clipping one's wings; machinery or wheels of justice,

cutting one's strings or pulling strings, when the law turns its back, etc.; for a non-
figurative version, "When all legal recourses have been exhausted [or denied], one
must depend on family ties [to make one's way in the world / to get ahead]."
Linguistic Note: The Persistent Myth of Back-Translation
For this item you can combine the "shorts" for translation game (what Gonzalez
Davies calls "accordion" translation), essentially a variant on the childhood game
of "telephone". Be sure you show both the uses and the limitations of back
translation, whatever your stance on the practice happens to be.
Translation Exercise: Punctuation
“Existen muchas definiciones del lenguaje, pero casi todas pecan de unilaterales,
limitadas, parciales. Pretenden definir y caracerizar el lenguaje basándose en
alguno de sus muchos caracteres. Nada más inútil: el lenguaje, por su propia
naturaleza, es una realidad muy compleja.”
A possible translation:
“There are many definitions of language, but nearly all of them suffer from
onesidedness or do not go far enough. They seek to define and characterize

language based on a single one of the many traits it has. This is an unproductive
approach, as language by nature is a highly complex phenomenon.”
Discuss: Does the hyperbole of “nothing could be less productive”, or a similar
translation, sound like overkill in English?
Tip: A good site for overviewing orthographic errors in en>spa translation is
http://xcastro.com/ortotipo.html
Editing Interlanguage
[A possible rendering:]
Dear friend:
I’m sorry but meeting is out of the question. I really am at my limit—I have too
much to do.
Last week I started up a limited liability corporation, a small import company,
with a friend. One division of the company will deal in real estate. If successful,
this will be a good business.

I called that secretary many times. Unfortunately every time I set something up
with her, things came up. The other day I told her to get dressed up nice and I
would take her out to dinner. Wouldn’t you know it—my watch broke and I
showed up a little late—three hours, I think. Talk to you soon-- Ramón
Editing Task: Nobel Prize Toast
Note: The translator has worked from the wrong source text. Follow-up: Have
students edit English translations of Nobel lectures from the Nobel site.
Texture: Coherence and Cohesion
Assign for homework. Have a volunteer read the text in sequence.
Text passages in the correct order: 8, 12, 4, 13, 7, 9, 14, 6, 5, 11, 1, 15, 10, 2, 3
Tip: Hand out other STs from your own commercial translation work in
disassembled form for students to put in proper sequence.
Editing: Various
Untranslated foreign text: Discuss with students the different editorial styles for
dealing with quoting foreign text. There appear to be four schools of thought: 1)
give only the SL quote; 2) give the SL quote + a TL quote (your translation or

another person's); 3) give only the TL quote +annotation "my translation" (but no
SL quote anywhere). A fourth option is: 4) one’s own translation, and the SL
quote is then put into a footnote. Which of these strategies have students seen,
which are preferable in what contexts, which do students prefer and why, etc.?
Notes on Mexican Legislature Website:
Pleno<>plenary session
Cámara de Diputados [note: typo in the Spanish should be caught]<>House of
Representatives [better for U.S. audience]
para la integración del quórum<> to constitute a quorum
integrantes<>members
sesionar<>1. to be in session; 2. to meet
competencia<>jurisdiction; discuss: sphere of competence
Comisión<>Committee
elaboración<>[the more literal meaning here would be "drafting", but in context
this might go as far as "issuing of"]
en su seno<>from [among] its members
Dictamen<>ruling; resolution
punto de acuerdo<> head of agreement [a type of memorandum of understanding]
Minuta<>Bill; abstract
efectos correspondientes<>relevant purposes
promulgación [de una minuta]<>enactment of a bill; promulgation of a bill

Style Sheets and Style Guides
Case Study: World Bank Translation Style Guide
The emphasis in the Style Guide is on plain English. For typical documents, see
www. worldbank.org/
Answers:
a. English (disclaimer notice, p. 9)
b. 'not for news wire transmission, websites or other media until a specified time'
(p. 9)
c. No--at the end of a sentence or last word to which it refers
Spanish:
a. No--Señor(a) Gobernador(a) (p. 10)
b. No
c. Siglas are abbreviations spelled out (FMI); acronyms are pronounced as words
(e.g., UNICEF)
d. Billion=1,000 million (British English: million million); Spanish=mil
millones. Billón, then, is a million million, as in British English.

e. No--países en desarrollo
World Bank Mission Statement
[hand icon] Distribute the Spanish.
La misión del Banco Mundial
Nuestro sueño es un mundo sin pobreza
Nuestra misión
Combatir la pobreza con entusiasmo y profesionalismo para obtener resultados
duraderos.
Ayudar a la gente a ayudarse a si misma y al medio ambiente que la rodea,
suminstrando recursos, entregando conocimientos, creando capacidad y forjando
asociaciones en los sectores público y privado.
Ser una institución excelente, capaz de atraer, entusiasmar y cultivar a un
personal dedicado, con aptitudes excepcionales, que sepa escuchar y aprender.
Nuestros principios

Ser una institución centrada en los clientes, que trabaja en asociación, responsible
de obtener resultados de calidad, dedicada a la integridad financiera y a la
eficacia en función de los costos, inspirada e innovadora.
Nuestros valores
Honestidad personal, integridad, consagración al trabajo en equipo; con espíritu
abierto y confianza dar participación a otros y respetar las diferencias, fomentar
la asunción de riesgos y la responsabilidad, disfrutar de nuestro trabajo y de
nuestras familias.
Notes:
Have students ID and characterize organizational jargon first.
In the TT, "para obtener" is an addition; it clarifies the idea.
Remind students that the gerundive "by +'-ing'" constructions simply use the
gerund in Spanish: "by providing"<> suminstrando

"creando capacidad": This is an organizational term. A machine might recognize
"building capacity" as maximum occupancy! "Creando" is to be preferred to
"construyendo".
"forjando asociaciones": Note that "socios"/"sociedades" would have no place
here, as they are used for economic partnerships.
In the paragraph beginning “Ser una institución…”, note that the noun rightly is
supplied in the Spanish. In that same paragraph, the notion of “diverse” is missing
from the Spanish.
"eficacia en función de los costos": You will also see costo-efectividad used.
"consagración al trabajo en equipo": This solution compresses commitment with
teamwork, a slight distortion; it does, however, avoid the problem of
"commitment" (which could, conceivably, follow the solution above and use
"dedicación"). OJO: "compromiso" and "compromise" are fatally false cognates.
"espíritu abierto": a particularization (an overparticularization?). Discuss
transparencia.

"dar participación a otros": a concept-for-concept translation of an English
buzzword. Discuss—how thorough is the overlap of participación with
empowerment? You will often see apoderamiento in the relevant literature.
"asunción de riesgos": This term doubles as the tort law concept of "assumption
of [the] risk", which, according to Black's 8th ed., conveys the idea that one who
incurs risk cannot sue for loss, injury, or damage. La toma de riesgos may be
preferred, since this is not really a legal context so much as the idea of
encouraging entrepreneurialism; hence, a perhaps better way to render this might
be "espíritu emprendedor". This avoids any confusion (which is easy enough to
fall into, since "risk" and "responsibility" seem to suggest this passage is referring
to the strictly legal senses of these words, but this is not the case).
Editing Exercises: Scientific Style
Find and distribute if desired.
Translation Survey
[hand icon] Copy and hand out self-survey again (c. 1); have students compare
their earlier answers.

Works cited
Mossop, Brian. Revising and Editing for Translators: Translation Practices
Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome, 2001.
Suggestion For Chapter 12 Quiz
Follow Mossop or use variations on his proposed tasks.
Task students with creating a bilingual, bidirectional glossary for the quality
assurance page of a translation company (e.g.,
http://www.mcelroytranslation.com/services/softwarewebsitelocalization/qualityassu
rance/).

Appendices
The following exercises can be reproduced and passed out for classroom
discussion or as homework assignments.
Appendix A
_________________________________________________________________
Translation-Related Organizations
American Translators Association (ATA)
http://www.atanet.org/
ATA Spanish Language Division
http://www.ata-spd.org/
American Literary Translators Association (ALTA)
http://www.literarytranslators.org/
National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT)
http://www.najit.org/
International Federation of Translators (IFT, FIT)
http://www.fit-ift.org/en/news-en.php
The Translators and Interpreters Guild (TTIG)
http://www.ttig.org/
ProZ (Translators and Translator's Resources)
http://www.proz.com/
Translator's Cafe
http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/default.asp

Traductores Sin Fronteras
http://www.traductoressinfronteras.net/
PEN American Center
http://www.pen.org/
NOTIS Directory of Local, National and International Translator Organizations
http://www.notisnet.org/links/orgs.html#United%20States%20-%20National
Appendix B
_________________________________________________________________
Useful Resources
Real Academia Española Diccionario de la Lengua Española
www.rae.es.
American Heritage Dictionary Online
http://www.bartleby.com/61/
Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online

http://www.m-w.com/
UNESCO Thesaurus and Glossary Database
http://databases.unesco.org/thesaurus/other.html
LANTRA-L Translators and Interpreters Language Listserv
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7110/lantra.htm
GlossPost Listserv of industry-specific glossary links for translators and
interpreters
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/GlossPost/
The University of Wales Swansea Translation Links Page
http://www.swan.ac.uk/sel/tranlink.htm
Organization of American States
http://www.oas.org/main/english/
Conference/Events Diary for the Translation Scholar
http://www.monabaker.com/tsresources/cediarychronological.htm

The Translator's Home Companion
http://www.lai.com/lai/companion.html
Center for the Art of Translation
http://www.catranslation.org/
InTrans Book Service
http://intransbooks.com/
Schoenhof's Foreign Books
http://www.schoenhofs.com/
Fetchbook—New & Used Books Price Comparison
http://www.fetchbook.info/
Torre de Papel Publishing House and Translation Company
http://www.torredepapel.com.ar/
Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. Ed. Mona Baker. New York:
Routledge, 2001. Much of this book's content can be found online, free, at:
books.google.com.

The Alternative Mexican Spanish Dictionary
http://www.notam02.no/~hcholm/altlang/ht/Mexican_Spanish.html
Note: Appendices A and B were researched by Paul Gren.

Appendix C
_________________________________________________________________
Use the following job-related tasks as appropriate.
Translation Task: Job Advertisement Analysis
Task: Go online and research current ads in the language industry (including EC
job profiles, international language service providers , and non-profit
opportunities). Here are some sites to start you out:
• http://www.proz.com: translation job listing and exchange service
• www.aquarius.net: job posting site
• tr_jobs: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tr_jobs/
• Jobs For Translators Mailing List: http://www.jobsfortranslators.com/
• Jobs-Translators Mailing List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jobs-translators/
• LANTRA-L Mailing List: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7110/lantra.htm
• sci.lang.translation.marketplace:
http://www.news2mail.com/sci/lang/translation/marketplace.html
• www.dice.com (Techjobs, including jobs requiring language skills and
localization skills)

Consider also www.TranslationDirectory.com and www.elance.com.
Take detailed notes about common, "most wanted" features in a translator,
localizer, or project manager. What are the most desirable traits mentioned? The
typical requisite experience sought?
Now take stock: What would you most like to gain or improve between now and
when you go on the market? Identify ways that you can get that experience or
refine your skills (hints: Does the regional division of the ATA nearest you offer
technical workshops? Have you sought out internships? Have you approached
working translators to ask about opportunities or collaborations in the area? Have
you considered ways to improve your business and bookkeeping skills? Have you
looked into investing in business cards, a fax machine, a homepage or at least
website creation software, or a business name? Does your school, adviser, or
career placement center refer appropriate translation "odd jobs" to student
translators? Have you looked into NGOs, relief agencies, migrant centers, and
non-profit organizations in need of volunteer translators? Have you considered a
Masters program or other continuing education in translation?)
Draw up an ideal description of what you would like to be doing as your first in-
house translation job. Do the same for a free-lance project: What would the ideal
domain, conditions, and pay be? (within reason: remember to set your
expectations on realistic, achievable goals). See the ATA website for salary poll
information.
Survey agencies, making a chart of those you find to have most affinity with your
domains of interest. Survey freelancers. What are the marketing strategies they
use? Make a list of these; rank them according to how effective these strategies
seem. Can you think of other ways that would work for you?
[class discussion icon] Your classmates can give you feedback by asking you
questions about why a particular position appeals to you, the advantages it has
over other listings, or any other questions they may have for you. Share with the
class anything else you learn from your research and compare impressions. What
did you find most encouraging? What did you find most intimidating? What
hiring trends do you see? Does one’s geographical location seem to matter as
much as you thought it did before this exercise? Are you encouraged to learn
another language besides the ones in your combination?
Task (2): Write your CV (curriculum vitae) tailored to your first translation job.
What translation sample of yours would you most like to include? Optional 2:
Write your translation CV for a date ten years in the future. What would you like
it to look like? Write it, date it, and set it aside to look at in ten years' time.
Optional 3: List all the formatting changes necessary in a CV translation en>es.

Task (3) Your instructor may wish to lead a discussion comparing a well-written
translation CV and a poorly written one (examples pp. 20-1, Nov/Dec 2007 ATA
Chronicle)
Task (4): Write up 10 face-to-face interview questions that you would expect to
be asked for the job(s) you chose, and 5 you have for the interviewer.
[pair discussion icon] In your pairs, role-play with your partner as the interviewer.
Task (5): Bring in to class at least three translation-related ads from a general job
search site such as www.careerbuilder.com/, www.monster.com,
http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/, or www.dice.com that most closely match what you
would like to be doing in five years, given your present interests and assuming a
realistic timeline for acquiring the needed competences for your goals. Approach
this task as if it were really your preliminary fact-finding stage of your future job
search.
Task (6): Search a general job search site such as http://newyork.craigslist.org/
from the point of view of a client or project initiator. Vet the translators on offer
(service: translation) as potential hires. About what percentage makes the grade?
Can you devise a foolproof “filter” for eliminating unprofessional translators from
the pool of potentials?

¿? Do you have versions of your CV in both English and Spanish? The time
spent now preparing them just might serve you well should you be asked for them
on short notice.
Above all, don't despair at this exercise--all translators have to start somewhere.
Preparation is the key to avoiding amateurishness. Knowing what is prized in this
field is a good start toward getting the work you want, and toward keeping clients
happy.
Judy Wakabayashi's list of links, in part reproduced above, is gratefully
acknowledged.
Translation Tip: Languages on Your CV
When listing your languages on your CV, consider using the notations “native”,
“near-native”, “advanced”, “intermediate”, and “novice”. For languages you read
only, rather than speak, note the fact with “Reading knowledge” or “Some reading
knowledge”.
Beware of overstating your level of proficiency—Americans tend to
assume fluency when really what they have is situational fluency (Hall’s term),
familiarity with the language in certain contexts. Don’t misrepresent your
qualifications in any way on your CV or supporting materials. If you are unsure
of a credential or descriptor, ask a mentor to advise you.

On the topic of how multilingual you are, it is far better for a translator to
have near-mastery of one foreign language than a smattering of two or three (or
more). The answer to “How many languages do you speak?” is not terribly
informative if the depth and breadth of those languages are not taken into account
as well.
Translation Tip: Promoting Yourself
Translators may be the withdrawn, retiring sort in many cases, but professionally,
they can ill afford to be. Many translators’ gregarious side comes out at
conferences or online, and they are often eager to share their knowledge with
beginners. You can learn from them about how to attract work—ask them, and
watch them. Whether online or in person, translators must “work the room”. It is
not too early to start thinking about some of the tools one will need to compete:
business cards (even if they only include “student of translation” as your
credential)
your own web site
a profile posted on translation job search sites
a presence online—membership and participation in newsgroups
word of mouth
an up-to-date, professional CV

cover letters (customized for each potential agency or client)
translation samples (which you will accumulate)
Do you know that old saying, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will make
a beaten path to your door”? Half true nowadays. You must focus also on the
cheese. Without marketing, no one will know you’re there.
Demand for Translators and Translator Training
Trends in demographics and industry point to a pressing need for translators and
translator training. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports on the tremendous
growth in the field, from which follows a need for training at earlier stages of
their careers if students are to be prepared for the demands:
"Employment of interpreters and translators is projected to grow faster than the
average [21 to 35 percent] for all occupations over the 2002-12 period, reflecting
growth in the industries employing interpreters and translators. Higher demand
for interpreters and translators in recent years has resulted directly from the
broadening of international ties and the increase in foreign language speakers
in the United States. Both of these trends are expected to continue, contributing to
relatively rapid growth in the number of jobs for interpreters and translators. […]
Job prospects for interpreters and translators vary by specialty. In particular, there
should be strong demand for specialists in localization, driven by imports and

exports, the expansion of the Internet, and demand in other technical areas such
as medicine or law. Rapid employment growth among interpreters and translators
in health services industries will be fueled by relatively recent guidelines
regarding compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which requires all
healthcare providers receiving Federal aid to provide language services to non-
English speakers."
(emphasis mine; source: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos175.htm, June 8, 2005)
You are also in an ideal language combination (Spanish > English, English >
Spanish, or conceivably, Spanish <> English), the prospects of which are getting
better all the time.
Translation Tip: Small Jobs
In translation, the two-page assignment you do a professional job on today could
lead to a 500-pp. job tomorrow—or better: a years-long, mutually profitable
relationship with a client. Small jobs are frequently the way clients minimize their
risk when taking on new talent. So treat whatever work comes your way with the
utmost conscientiousness.
Don’t forget that translation can be something you do part-time or full-time. Some
translators have a successful career simultaneously as community interpreters (the
demanding but common “interpreter-translator” career path). Pursuing translating
and interpreting at the international organization level, however, is not feasible.

Interpreters and translators quite often are two distinct psychological “types”, and
each with different strengths. In most cases, you either become one or the other,
not both at once, since each profession is demanding, requiring exclusive focus
and continuing education.
Also: Don’t neglect one domain of translation because you’re convinced it holds
no place in your future as a translator. Get the most out of each domain; you never
know when you may be called on to develop it quickly, or when the market may
demand it.
Tip: See NYU-SCPS’s panel of industry insiders discussing “The Business of
Translation”, on video at:
http://www.scps.nyu.edu/areas-of-study/foreign-languages/continuing-
education/multimedia.html
Taking Stock of Your Informants
Reflect on who you know personally who is a native speaker of the “opposite”
language in your language pair (i.e., someone whose A language is Spanish if
yours is English, or whose A language is English if yours is Spanish). Include
professors—current and former, friends and classmates, relations, professional

contacts. Include those you know as “keypals” or penpals—long-distance
acquaintances. List them here:
Name Translation domain(s) in which
informant is potentially useful

Now, contact each of your informants and ask what contacts they have. Perhaps
an informant’s relative works in horticulture, for example. List these people
above. (Listing them does not commit anyone; this exercise is simply to show you
how your circle of contacts can reach further than you think.)
Now evaluate online newsgroups in domains of your interest. List three domains
you would like to work in: _______________________________________ ,
_________________________________________, and
__________________________.
Give three web addresses of translation lists that are dedicated to each domain:
Domain List or Group Name Web Address
#1
#2

#3
Now find an online bilingual glossary that potentially could be of use for each of
the three domains:
Glossary Type Web Address
#1
#2
#3

Now reflect on your lists. They should give you a clearer sense of where you
stand in terms of some of your documentation. What domains do you have
“covered”, at least potentially? Do you have other potential assets in your stated
domains, apart from informants, newslists and glossaries?
[brainstorm icon] Would you like to expand your informant list? Brainstorm ways
to do this (consider, for example, organizations in your department and campus
community. Have you thought of forming a translation club? Are you involved
with your chapter of a Hispanic or Latino student association or the like?
International student unions? Have you thought of a semester or summer abroad?
Working abroad? Posting a “situation wanted” ad for a language exchange as a
way to expand your pool of contacts? What can you do to heighten your profile
online?)
Research: Look into voice-over-Internet protocols as a means of communicating
with informants and colleagues. Describe the logistics of setting this up, and how
information-seeking is currently carried out via this mode of communication.
At What Rate Are Translators Paid?
To the instructor: Students naturally are interested in this issue; a few will press
you for a hard figure. You may direct them to ATA surveys of average translator

salaries. For further reading, see Chapter 8 in Gouadec, which addresses rates and
invoices.
Possible discussion topics in addition to those addressed in the Manual: how the
bidding process works; the practice of underbidding or lowballing; translators and
taxes; overhead; estimating word counts; programs for determining accurate word
counts; minimum fees; deadlines; typical payment discrepancies; unreliable
payers; factors that lead to different per-word prices from country to country;
translation as an income supplement vs. translation as a full-time career;
negotiating and client relations; the costs and benefits of joining translator
organizations; and the perennial topic, breaking in. Sound business principles that
are applicable to translation--and most of them are--will enhance these
discussions.
Remember that your own translation experiences will be of great interest to your
students; draw on them frequently, and share candidly, including "learning
experiences" that didn't work out as you'd planned.
Tip: Successful translators must be successful business people. And arguably, the
better business is, the more opportunities to be a better translator present
themselves.
Tip (2): Debate the pros and cons of job sites employing systems that award
translation contracts to the lowest bidder.

Tip (3): Tour http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/CommunityRates.asp, where
the baseline rates for different language combinations are surveyed.
Translators may be paid according to a number of measures:
--by the character or keystroke
--by the word (source or target; ‘¢x / per word’ or ‘$x / per 1000 words [for
books])
--by the line
--by the page (source or target)
--by the job
--by the hour
--by the contract (“on retainer” or in-house)
Sophisticated electronic counters of words and characters exist—the type of
software to be used for counting, and your agreed-upon amount per unit, should
be determined in advance. Often these variables are negotiable, and you will be
asked as a matter of course what your pay schedule is. (Avoid misunderstandings:
Many clients are used to rates based on the number of source words, not target
words.) That is not to say your rates will be accepted—some clients defend this
bottom line tenaciously; others, relatively less so. Occasionally you will be told
categorically, particularly by a client quite used to working with translators, what
their pay rate is.

Discuss the pros and cons of each rate of payment. For some types of work, such
as editing, what pay rate makes the most sense to you?
[hand icon] Pricing
Don’t price yourself too high or too low when starting out. Too high, and you’ll
lose work; too low, and you’ll lose (self-)respect. (You can study going rates
online at several sites where such surveys are conducted.)
Communicate unequivocally about your rates; don’t be bashful—it’s business.
If you are offering a ‘get-acquainted rate’, be sure you make it clear that your
regular rates would apply for any subsequent jobs. Don’t be full of surprises.
Frequently asked question: Do some translators “pad” their translations with extra
words so they are paid more? Of course they do. But obviously it’s not best
practice--if clients become wise to this, they will use very few words to show a
translator, metaphorically speaking, the door.
Ojo: Don’t approach clients in instrumental terms, thinking what you can “get out
of them”. Think in terms of offering value—strive to set yourself apart. Think:
they need a service, you provide a service. Try to make it so everyone wins.
Getting a client once is not terribly difficult—getting repeat clients takes people
skills. Money, in the end, is not necessarily the deal-breaker or deal-maker people
think it is—people want to be treated well. On sites where translators bid for
work, the low bidder may take more jobs, but he or she won’t necessarily keep
more clients.
[hand icon] Contracts
Get the explicit go-ahead to start or a signed contract before proceeding with a
translation. Few sights are more agonizing than a translation you’ve just done
that, you discover, had not been given final authorization.
Follow-up: Analyze the content of the vendor contract at
http://www.cityofseattle.net/purchasing/VendorContracts/Docs/0000001325v2a1.
doc
[hand icon] ISO 639:1988 Code for the Representation of Names of Languages
You will find languages listed on job sites with the following common
abbreviations in lower case:
ca—Catalan
de—German
en—English
es—Spanish
fr—French

pt—Portuguese
zh—Chinese
Critiquing Job Seeking Posts
[class discussion icon] Critique these posts seeking work; think of ways the
writers could improve their chances of a positive contact:
1. hi! i love languages and i’m willing to do what it takes to brake in. i’m a
people person could anyone mentor me or do you have an internship in
Xlation? thanks! ;) SpanishGrrl/09
2. Hello. I am seeking any and all work Eng and Spa though my languages
are Por-Rom-Swe-Ger-Ita-Cat-Dut and Fre too. I can pretty much handle
all text typologies. Auf Wiederson, amigos!
3. My name is Hans. I will not work for under US$0.25 per target word or
the equivalent in Euros. My minimum is 30 pages, and only in the domain
of satellite tracking or perhaps aerospace if I decide your document meets
my standards. I do not work on short notice and do not bid blind for jobs.

Now compare this post below. Discuss what this poster does that sets him
apart:
4. Seeking Technical es>en Translation Internship: I am a 22-year-old
biochemistry and Spanish double major graduating in May of this year
from Respectable State U., am available for immediate relocation, and am
motivated to find an internship that engages my technical skills and my
desire to refine my competencies with computer-assisted translation tools.
I have limited but successful experience with WordTagger and some
corpus-building and terminology background (under supervision). I am
hard-working, and focused on becoming an in-house technical translator
and proof-reader at an established agency on the eastern seaboard. Dossier
including academic and professional references and translation sample
portfolio available. For contact information and content and syllabi
samples from my coursework, see my home page under construction at
www.josepreparado.com. Jose Preparado
Follow-up: In small groups, try to assess the hireability of the translators bidding
on http://www.translatorplanet.com/. Separate the professionals from the not-so-
professionals.
Design Your Own Business Card / Informal Interviews

Brainstorm some mock-ups of a business card you would use in gaining contacts
in the industry at a translation conference or similar event. Use graphics; you may
use your own design. Choose a final version and finalize your text and images.
Print at least 10 and bring them to class.
Role-play a “meet and greet” job fair event in which you exchange business cards
with classmates and in 3-minute informal conversations briefly size one another
up as potential employers/employees. Role-players rotate at three minute
intervals; each student should get a chance to play both roles an equal number of
times. The interviews can be done while standing, as if at an event set up for such
meetings. Prepare for your roles as both agency owners and freelancers vying for
translation work.
Afterward, the class will hold a secret vote on which student had the best
presentation, according to the most appealing, well-prepared, and professional
card and informal interview.
The Translation Exam (Sample Test)
Translation exams are recruitment and assessment tools that agencies
(vendors) send to prospective translators who initiate contact in search of work or,
perhaps better, a working relationship. The exams, or sample tests, are short
paragraphs for translation, roughly 300-500 words (unpaid), used to evaluate a

translator’s general skills and perhaps his or her suitability for particular jobs. The
texts may be general, but more likely, they will lie in the specialized area in which
the agency does the most business or for which they have ongoing need of
linguists. The translator candidate may be asked to edit a faulty translation as
well. As part of the qualifications requested, you are usually asked for a
translation sample from those you have done in the past. (In the interest of
confidentiality, identifying and proprietary information should be blackened out
for all these materials, but regrettably they are often not—birth certificates with
National Identification Numbers are other sensitive legal documents are routinely
sent out without a second thought.) You may be administered the exam regardless
of your certification status or prior experience; accept that each new client will
want to get to know you (and you them). In no case should a translator assume
that he or she is above doing these tests. On the contrary, a qualified candidate
should be glad to prove that he or she is a good “fit” for an agency. Re-
qualification is a fact of our business. Some translators are unhappy having to do
them, but this may stem in part from not knowing the purpose of the text, or its
wider context, which can be disengaging, and still others are suspicious of what
use will be made of them. (Stories circulate that unscrupulous agencies have used
them to complete a job free of translation costs.) You will almost never be told
why the particular text or texts were chosen. But the hardest part of sample tests
for some professionals may be this: They do not guarantee that you will be
offered work—you may or may not be given feedback, and you may hear back in

days, months, or never. Many sample tests pay off, however, and few would argue
against being open to them when breaking in to the business.
Tip to the instructor:
Bring in a sample test from an agency (preferably one that they have rotated out
or have given you permission to use in the classroom) and use passages to give an
idea of the level. Be sure to delete any sensitive identifying information first.
Increasingly, agencies send a flawed target text and task the applicant with editing
it as a portion of the exam.
Translation Tip: The Qualification Process
Freelancers usually follow a qualification process similar to the one outlined here
in detail: http://partners.lionbridge.com/Qualification_Process.asp
This page covers recruitment (i.e., where the agency will look for you),
qualification, the translation test, and the process of Business Review
(performance evaluation).
Translation Tip: Try Non-Profits
If you are interested in non-profit translation work--one way some translators
break in and get experience--try www.idealist.org, the web site of Action Without
Borders. Enter, for example, the keyword "translation" or "Spanish". Non-profits

can offer exposure to certain text types, and are a way to help others through
translation. The site lists jobs, internships, and volunteer opportunities.
You'll notice, too, that the Web site has been localized (French/Spanish).
The term humanitarian translation is catching on; it’s used to refer to language
services provided for relief efforts, whether donated or for a fee.
Follow-up discussion: Does the translator have a social responsibility? If so, in
what way or ways? Are there multiple ways of meeting (or not meeting) this
responsibility?
Optional: Start a blog (for the class’s viewing only) called Rate My Local
Translation Agency, which will critique translation agency websites from your
city (or nearest city). Use a forum so the class can collaborate. Consider using a
rating system.
ATA Certification
The ATA exam is a relatively long way off for the novice translator, but it is a
good idea to be aware of it from the outset, since to many it is an objective
measure of competence. Some facts and observations on the American
Translators Association accreditation exam (facts compiled from Novas Van
Vranken, Bohannon and Hanlen, 3-12):

1. ATA certification (formerly accreditation) is awarded for passing an open-book
exam in one direction of a specific language pair. (Dictionaries are permitted but
no electronic resources are allowed). One is only certified in the direction for
which the exam is testing; for example, spa>en.
2. One must be an ATA member to take the exam, as well as proof of education
and work experience.
3. The examinee translates two passages, 225-275 words each, of typical
difficulty for a professional translator. One passage is general (expository or
journalistic); the candidate chooses between two passages in
science/technology/medicine and law/business/finance. Time limit is 3 hours.
4. a. Grading: error points are subtracted based on the seriousness of errors (1, 2,
4, 8 or 16 points apiece), with a maximum of three “quality points” awarded per
passage for individual particularly skillful solutions. 18 or more points is failing.
Exams are each scored by two graders. You are not given feedback if you pass; if
you fail, the review process (for a fee) gives you access to your marked errors.
b. Categories of errors: Incomplete passage, illegible, misunderstanding of
original text, mistranslation into target language, addition or omission,
terminology or word choice, register, too freely translated, too literal (word-for-
word translation), false cognate, indecision—gave more than one option,
inconsistency (same term translated differently), ambiguity (meaning is clear in
the source but ambiguous in the target), grammar, syntax, punctuation, spelling,
accents and other diacritical marks, case (upper/lower), word form, usage, style.

5. ATA accreditation is not a lifelong credential—it must be maintained by
continued membership in ATA and supplemented with 20 credits of continuing
education credits every three years; these may be earned in various ways (see
below).
In summary, as of January 1, 2004, new candidates and accredited members alike
are held to the following requirements:
To be eligible for the accreditation (certification) test, candidates will
have to: a) demonstrate past experience as translators and/or post-
secondary education, and b) sign a statement that they have read and
understand ATA’s Code of Professional Conduct and Business
Practices, and that they pledge to abide by it. To fulfill the requirements
for continuing education, within the first three-year period after
accreditation (certification) holders will need to complete an ethics
workshop or course. During that same three-year period, and over
successive three-year-periods, they will need to complete at least 20
hours of continuing education credits through coursework, seminars,
conferences, and other activities as evidence of involvement in translation
and/or interpreting. (“International Certification Study: ATA’s
Credential”, Jiri Stejskal, The ATA Chronicle, July 2003, p. 15)
Observations:

Many clients and people outside the field recognize the ATA certification
standard. Translators with this credential invariably list it under their names to
attract work. It is not, however, the only path to becoming an established
translator.
Translators not very far along in their careers have passed it, while highly
distinguished translators have failed it. As with all exams, test-taking skills are
being tested along with competence.
Intermediate and advanced translators-in-training tend to become uneasy about
this exam long before even entering the market; there is no rule of thumb on how
much experience one should have before taking it, but if you are deeply anxious
about taking it, you probably are not ready yet. Take it when your chances are at
least reasonable; experience alone can tell you when that is.
A candidate, theoretically, can translate brilliantly but make eighteen minor
punctuation errors, and thus, fail. A candidate can, theoretically, make a major 16-
point meaning error and pass.
Issues: Some have questioned the assessment methods of the exam itself, which
involves subtracting points from an ideal final product, an approach, like Western
medicine, that attacks “what’s wrong” instead of seeing parts and processes

interdependently and holistically; moreover, the very conception of a translation
error is challenged or more nuanced in some circles. These arguments are worth
consideration. Observers have also noted that the exam does not reproduce “real-
life” conditions, in that one is confined to a room, artificially incommunicado
except for print resources, and without electronic tools. (For security and
logistical reasons, the present conditions are necessary.) Finally, a perennial
objection is voiced that the exams are graded subjectively. (Since the exams are
graded anonymously, and the examiners are themselves qualified translators and
graders, it may be hard to make the argument that they are any more—or less--
biased than an actual stakeholder, say, a client, would be. Graders should be
assumed to represent intelligent readers. Remember that language is not a bar-
code algorithm that one decodes in inescapably predictable ways. Readers aren’t
robots. At least, not at this writing.)
You can warm up and develop strategies for the exam by taking a graded practice
test ($40 fee). See the ATA web site, and be aware that prices quoted here are
subject to change.
A description of point deductions (0-16) based on type and severity of translation
errors may be found in Michael Scott Doyle’s article at:
http://www.languages.uncc.edu/doyle%5CDoyle%20Translation%20Pedagogy.pdf
A flowchart is available also in selected ATA publications.

Sample Job Post with Sample Text (Aquarius.Net)
Go to the aquarius.net, a virtual translation marketplace based in Amsterdam:
(http://www.aquarius.net/). Register (it’s free). You are likely to find information
in the “jobs” link along the lines of the following template:
[Domain and text type of project-general description]
Posted by: (name)
[Number of] reviews. Average rating: [1-10]
Posted: [date and time]
Project viewed: [number] times
Language pairs: English (All variants)-Spanish (All variants)
Expertise: [text type, specialized domain]
Volume: [number] lines, pages, hours, etc. [or “ongoing”]
Description: [e.g.:] We are seeking highly qualified translators specializing in
[domain]. Website texts (in [x format] and software localizers using [x tools]).
etc.
Sample text: [lines from source text]
Quote on this project
Unit rate (lines)
Project rate

Motivation. Why should the poster choose you?
Max 255 characters
Submit quote
Now find a project that interests you. Fill out the quote section above for this job,
and translate the sample text. Solicit feedback from your group on your quote and
translation. After integrating their feedback, meet with your instructor to discuss;
after your revision, he or she may wish to have you deliver this task for credit,
even as part of the final portfolio of your work. Variation: A lead member of a
group can act as project initiator, and other group members can bid; the lead
member chooses the most appealing bid and translation sample. Or the entire
class can bid on the same job, and all class members can vote for their top choice.
Follow-up: A freelance job may be solicited from an agency that knows you or to
which you have been referred. Usually it pays to monitor your email closely, as
jobs can get reassigned to another vendor in a matter of hours if you aren’t
available. Here is a sample offer:
“I have a Brazilian Portuguese>US English translation project of sales/accounting
matter and strings laid out in .xls files. (The files total almost 7000 words.) If
you’re available, the translation needs to start tomorrow and finish by the end of
the day Thursday. Our rate is x per word.”

Follow-up (2): Log on to www.dice.com, www.jobopenings.net (>“Translators
and Language Jobs”) or elsewhere, search for jobs in translation or project
management, and pick the job best suited to your current skills.

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Manual of Spanish-English Translation Instructors Resource Manual

Chapter · August 2009

Richard Kelly Washbourne

Translations Banned and Smuggled: 'Quantum Demographics' v. HB2281 View project

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Instructors Resource Manual

Assessment, Format, Error Evaluation

Tip: audio commentary is an up-an-coming assessment format for providing

formative feedback. According to “Audio Commentary: Response and

professors can embed audio in word files, or attach commentary in .wav or

Assignment, or even sent as Audio Inserts (in the Reviewing Toolbar of

students prefer it.

professors) to track the type of errors they are making.

Manual of Spanish-English Translation Instructors Resource Manual, 12/23/08

deducted; it is also not sound to deduct points based on a “number of errors”

system—much more useful is a nuanced approach that indicates type and

Tübingen: G. Narr Verlag, 1981.

conferences. Compare your impressions of a student’s work with what they

self-report. Include a narrative self-analysis portion in your syllabus or as part

of a final portfolio; students can use reflective journal writing or blogging as a

more thorough and personal evaluative process than self-assessment based on

Tip (6): Develop a non-paternalistic way of keeping students on track in

translations too late, which is counterproductive. Mid-week edits, discussed

below, is one solution.

Manual of Spanish-English Translation 2

workshop. Hold students accountable for persistent errors, and classes of

errors, from these lists.

The appendices feature vocationally oriented professionalizing tasks.

own research assignments (e.g., “Compare MA program course offerings in

given networking or jobsite; chart trends visually and present to class.”).

The Use of Translations in Chapter Quizzes

merely a vocabulary-building or recall exercise; also, have any new terms be

with the terminology used in a recent workshop translation or similar activity.

Alternative: Have students to a gist translation, which keeps comprehension

uppermost in students’ minds, and thus is an optimal text-processing skill.

Manual of Spanish-English Translation 3

questions offered here before delivering that chapter’s lesson.)

Note on Team Tasks

Students will group themselves according to perceived reliability, collegiality,

of unequal workload distribution. To head off some of these problems, a

inevitable occurrence, as not everyone is 100% reliable. It is best to penalize

freeloading at the earliest opportunity, lest students become embittered at the

prospect of group work. Remember that translation within organizations is

rarely a single-person operation, so maximum opportunities for collaboration

made through group dynamics to delegate and follow up on subtasks. In other

Manual of Spanish-English Translation 4

otherwise they learn isolationist tendencies, which is antithetical to translation

A variation on the team translation: Students are made individually

or shorter, less complex tasks, a “think-(write)-pair-share” format may be used

with the class.

Some translation teachers are lenient about informal collaboration on

individual translation assignments, and it makes sense to be: students learn to

consideration to issues if they are confronted with varying opinions. It is

strongly discourage student deliveries of translations with whole passages

identical to other students’ work. Ultimately, this student practice hurts

workshop productivity, and makes individual feedback and assessment

problematic. If you see problems, design an activity in which students learn to

recognize plagiarized translation passages. Show students the difference

Manual of Spanish-English Translation 5

distinction applies to translation; potentially, even macrostrategies can be

plagiaristic, or seem so, in translation.

Lizardi-Rivera (109) describes a way that students can contribute directly to

the community at the same time they take ownership of a task: