(With our thanks for the segnalazione to Charles Lambert, author of the books Little Monsters, Any Human Face, and The Scent of Cinnamon and Other Stories.)
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They’re Talking about No Peanuts!
La Repubblica e le traduttrici invisibili! - from âL'Accademia de' Pignuoliâ di Daniele Gewurz | Traduttori, non accettate le briciole! - from âoperaidelleditoriauniteviâ | Working for Peanuts? - from "Alta Verba " | Los traductores no viven de cacahuetes - from "El Eterno Indeciso" | Don't Be A Monkey - From Kevin Lossner's "Translation Tribulations" | Translators: Stop working for peanuts! - from Tony Baldwin's "non compos mentis" | No Peanuts, au service des traducteurs? - from "Ma voisine millionnaire" | Si vous nâĂȘtes pas un singe, ne travaillez pas pour des cacahuĂštes - from "Le mot juste en anglais" | Un joli badge tout neuf - from "Les piles intermĂ©diaires" | Of Peanuts and Monkeys - from Judy & Dagmar Jenner's "Translation Times" | Movimento No Peanuts! - from Giuseppe Manuel Brescia's "Smuggled Words"
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I am sorry but the answer to this question is: “yes, but why pay for a translation?”. The macaroni English that is used and sometimes even boasted, by so many Italians is highly embarassing. The worst category is that of the young skilled professionals (lawyers, engineers, top managers, etc.) boasting their intricate written English (there are plenty of such macaroni monsters online). The problem in Italy is that some people just think that translating into English is easy, is an “anyone-can-do-it” job and it is not worth to pay for it. Therefore, it happens that a company hires a so called “stagista” (intern, but better translated as slave) and that this poor “stagista” ends up doing any job the others are not willing to do…though he or she should namely work to learn something relevant to his/her studies…Maybe, it happened that a young “stagista” with a degree in video editing and a basic knowledge of English (raised to “good” on the CV) was asked to update the website frames with an English version…and here you have what RAI (Radio Televisione Italiana, very rich and prestigious) uploaded on the company website.
Of course, this is just my imagination, maybe at RAI they actually spent money for it, but they were cheated.
However it was, bad translations in Italy are a real problem, more and more widespread. Languages are a profession that should be assigned to linguists…and linguists should be paid for it.
Gabriella
I do agree with Gabriella Gentile. 90% of the Italians when it come to translations think as follows:
“I don’t need to pay for this… I know a guy that will do it for free, it is not big deal.”
That applies to anything, why pay a trained Technician to fix your computer when someone’s cousin once fixed a computer for few bucks?? Pick up the phone and call the untrained lad that eventually will mess up the system, at that point you will realize that perhaps a trained IT was a better choice – still, the gambling was too exciting to give up, and the next time you have a problem you ask someone else’s cousin to fix your computer before calling the IT (again).
That’s Italy.