I have tried interpretation myself, be it simultaneous or consecutive. It feels as if you are a split person, having the left side working quite differently from the right side of your brains! The ears would listen in 1 language, and the mouth would reproduce the words in another language, almost at the same time.

A good interpretor does not allow for a lag in the speech. He or she will start almost at the same time as the speaker. It is as if the interpretor is the speaker! It takes a lot of knowledge on the topic as well as understandingof the speaker. If the interpretor has worked with the same speaker for some time, he or she will be able to guess what the speaker want to say in the next sentence. This takes a lot of practise, and not to say, much more energy and concentration on the matter.

Why more energy? A good interpretor not only translates verbally the words, he or she would transfer the emotions of the speaker to the audience too!

Not all translators can be interpretors. For translation, you have all the time in the world to slowly “digest” the source and “spit out” the translated words. It is not so for interpretation. Even for consecutive interpretation. You would only have that sentence length of time to process the source and form the correct words.

It is a very challenging job and I did enjoy my experiences as an interpretor. So, for those who would like to try out interpretation, you can start with listening to some audio and translate on the spot. You can record what you have interpreted, so that you can check back on your translation later on.

Have fun!

Recently, I have been reading Og Mandino’s A Better Way to Live.  His books has sold over 50 million copies and has been translated into over 25 different languages.  Og remains one of the best-selling inspirational author till now.

In this book, the author features 17 simple “Rules to Live By”.  What inspires me is that each rule is so simple yet profound.  These rules are timeless principles which offer happiness and fulfillment to our life if we practise the principles daily.  I guess this is what they mean by “Happiness is always at your doorstep and all you need is to just open the door”

I  wish to share one rule from the book with my dear bloggers.  It is Rule Number 9. – Live this day as if it will be your last.  Remember that you will only find “tomorrow” on the calenders of fools.  Forget yesterday’s defeats, and ignore the problems of tomorrow.  This is it.  Doomsday.  All you have.  Make it the best day of your year.  The saddest words you can ever utter are, “If I had my life to live over again…”  Take the baton, now.  Run with it!  This is your day!

Yes, live this day as if it will be your last!  All us should strive to live out each day to our maximum potential.  We should treasure our time, our loved ones, our friends and ourselves preciously.  We should always count each passing day as our blessing.  If we have such mentality, we would pass each day with greater vigor, enthusiasm and passion.  And the problems of tomorrow would be like passing clouds, that temporarily dampen our heart but  not our spirit for all such things should pass us by.

Each new day is like a new course.  We are like a runner in this journey called life.  The “yesterday” runner would pass the baton to “today” runner…and the “today” runner would continue run the course but with greater passion and vigor than “yesterday”  runner.

Lets all make this journey a more colourful and exciting one!  Hurray!  Cheers on!

And thanks for your teaching, Og!

Have you attended wedding dinners before? Ever wondered what the usual programs or activities are during the dinner? It is usually the emcees doing the opening, then introducing a video clip of photos of the bride and groom from young till now, before the couple into the ballroom. This is a typical kind of opening for a wedding dinner.

Last night, I went to my cousin’s wedding. Her husband and her are quite “arty farty” kind of people, so instead of doing the photo collage, they came up with a comic strip – hand drawn by themselves. It was based on the lyrics of a song. As the song went on, the story develops. It was a different feel although I reckon that our elders understood what the comic strip was talking about.

It got me thinking, does a picture really paint a thousand words, like how the song goes? Somehow if you put many pictures together and have a song with the lyrics to go them, it does paint – well, maybe not a thousand words – but at least a story that everyone is able to relate to. Just like translation.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToEPFDIzhNA

I had lunch with my friend yesterday.  As usual, our topics are on global economics, people retrenched from their jobs, countries export figures getting lower, banks are not lending money etc etc.  Being a normal citizen, we could not do too much about it.

At the end, my friend sighed and told me that he was lost.  For a moment, I am speechless.  I could find no words to console him.  I could just muster a smile and acknowledge his feeling.

A thought flashed into my mind.  Suddenly, I remembered what I had read from Paulo Coelho’s “The Fifth Mountain”.  I began to share with him what I had learnt from this book.

Basically, all of us brought with us a gift when we come to this world.  This gift could be the joy, humorous, abundance, peace, love, humanity etc etc.  Some of us choose to share this gift with the people around us and hence living out their higher purpose.  But many of us choose to deny this gift…perhaps due to the pain, fear, disencouragement and guilt we encountered along the way.

By choosing to live out your higher purpose, it could take you on a path less traveled by others.  This path will definitely be adventurous and full of challenging obstacles.  But not all of us will accomplish what we are born to be. Most of us will be disheartened and gave up along the way.  But for those of us who are focused and persevered on, we will live out our higher purpose ultimately.

Now, what is our higher purpose?  I would said that it is solely based on individual’s definition.  Some would define it to building a wealth foundation for the poor, leaving a legacy for their future generation, travelling to exotic places, volunteering in some charity organisation etc.  Or it could be as simple as just giving one true self and love to your loved ones each day.

I do know is that when we are walking on the path towards our higher purpose…the Universe will align and magnifest itself to achieve what we want.  I truly feel it is happening to me  and every day is like a miracle to me.

Mother Theresa once said,” I could not do great things but I can do small things with great love”

I did not know what my friend think after he heard my sharing.  But I could sense that he felt much better.  I hoped that I have touched his life.

This will sound similar to the words of Master Oo-Gui from the Kungfu Panda. One of his many famous statements: “Quit? Don’t quit?”, “Noodles? Don’t noodles?” So do we “Copywrite? Don’t copywrite?”

Of course it is definitely cheaper not to copywrite your piece of advert, that is, to only directly translate the source copy into the targeted language, without any thoughts of whether the copy would attract anyone to read it.

There has been more and more needs to produce good copies, since there is an ever increasing amount of lines of products and services, and who is to say which one of them is better than another? There are different kinds of consumers. Some are loyal, whereby they stick to one product to the end of their lives. Others, are simply product-hoppers. So it is very important to even let these people take a quick glance at your poster or flyers! So first impression counts a lot.

It is therefore not easy to capture the attention of your audience, given that there are so many advertisements out there aiming to do the same thing. As a copywriter, it not only takes a creative mind to come up with a good copy, he must also understand the needs of the consumers. Consumers needs can be created or they can be already present. For a copy to attract, it must address the needs and create an everlasting impression. It must be able to jump out from the 2D poster or billboard or TV screen and scream at the audience to “BUY ME!”

You don’t have to be a total language expert. But you need to be a whiz with wordz.

As the saying goes…”Whatever happens, happens for a reason”

After I have read Paulo Coelho’s The Fifth Mountain, I continue to read his another book entitled “Like the Flowing River”.  This is a collection of reflections from Paulo Coelho. In this riveting collection of thoughts and stories, he offers his personal reflections on a wide range of subjects from archery and music to elegance, travelling and the nature of good and evil.

What actually caught my attention is when I read a particular short story on “The Other Side of the Tower of Babel”.  In this story, he pays his respect to the Holy Translator, Saint Mesrob.  Below is an extract of what Paulo had wrote and it best summarize the importance of a good book translator:

“Today is 9 October, 2004. The town is called Oshakan, and Armenia, as far as I know, is the only place in the world that has declared the day of the Holy Translator, St. Mesrob, a national holiday and where they celebrate it in style. As well as creating the Armenian alphabet (the language already existed, but only in spoken form). St Mesrob devoted his life to translating into his mother tongue the most important texts of the period, which were written in Greek, Persian or Cyrillic. He and his disciples devoted themselves to the enormous task of translating the Bible and the main literary classics of the time. From that moment on, the country’s culture gained its own identity, which it has maintained to this day.

The Holy Translator. I hold the flower in my hands and think of all the people I have never met, and perhaps may never have the opportunity to meet, but who, at this moment, have my books in their hands, and are doing their best tremain faithful to what I have tried to share with my readers. I think, above all, of my father-in-law, Christiano Monteiro Oiticica (profession: translator), who is today in the company of angels and of St. Mesrob, watching this scene. I remember seeing him hunched over his old typewriter, often complaining about how badly paid translation was (and, alas, still is). He would immediately go on, though, to explain that the real reason he translated was because he wanted to share a knowledge, which, but for translators, would never reach his own people.

I say a silent prayer for him, for all those who have helped me with my books, and for those who have allowed me to read books to which I would never otherwise have had access, thus helping – anonymously – to shape my life and my character. When I leave the church, I see some children writing the alphabet with sweets in the shape of letters and with flowers and more flowers.

When man grew ambitious, God destroyed the Tower of Babel, and everyone began to speak different tongues. However, in His infinite grace, he also created people to rebuild those bridges, to enable dialogue and the diffusion of human thought. This person, whose name we rarely take the trouble to notice when we open a foreign book, is the translator.”

The above extract has touched my heart when I read it.  In this commercial world, some people has failed to comprehend the importance of translation.   They fail to understand that a translator takes much effort and time to produce a good translation work.  My kudos to those professional translators in the world.  Thanks for being the Bridge Across Cultures in this world!

I have just finished reading “The Fifth Mountain” by Paulo Coelho.  For those who do not know him yet, he is the same author who wrote the international bestseller “The Alchemist”.  This book “The Alchemist”  has been translated into over 60 different types of languages and has sold over 75 millions copies!

As I am reading “The Fifth Mountain”, I found that it is immensely intriguing and it keeps me reading on to find out what will happen to the main character, Elijah.  It is a story about a person finding his own courage and commitment to his higher purpose.  All of us have our higher purpose when we are born, but many of us choose to ignore or defy that purpose.

Well for me, this book brings a great sense of inspiration to me.  I will follow my instinct and achieve my higher purpose in life – to serve mankind through better communication and education.

Because Paulo is a Brazillian writer, so I assume that the book is written in Portugese and translated into English and other languages.  Kudos to the translators who did a marvellous job.  The whole book is very well written and the principles behind it are timeless.  I believe the team of translators and editors have spent lots and lots of time doing research, translating, proofreading, re-editing and proofreading the content before it is good enough to be published.  The team effort and synergy is enormous.

I guess the translators and editors have a great responsibility to the author and the readers.  The writing style and flow must be consistent  without losing any flavour as compared to the original copy.

We are in the midst of doing a book translation.  Hence, we can share their feelings and responsibilities.  We will definitely keep you update on our new book launch.

For those who would like to have a read of the reviews or to get the book, here’s it:

Recently, I just watch this movie “Slumdog Millionaire”. It is a very compelling movie illustrating a man’s journey in finding his own dreams, true love and destiny.

It strikes a deep thought for me. We will never know our true purpose until we step out and start this self-discovery journey. We just gonna keep on believing and taking actions towards our dream.

When I first joined my friend’s translation company, a lot of my people (even my family members) start to question me. Are you making the right move? What if the situation does not turn out the way that you want? Are you getting enough to spend each month? Blah…Blah…Blah. Lot of negativities being thrown to me.

I have been with my company for almost 2 years now. Looking back, it has been a very fruitful experience for me. We have led our company to new heights each year. Our team of translators has also grown in size to over one hundred till now. This is definitely a more challenging experience than my previous engineering job. Besides equipping with good translation skills, I also need to do project management, sales and marketing and leading my own translator teams. The true joy is seeing your company and yourself growing daily.

If you ask me, what it takes to be a Successful Translator? Is it…
a) Passion
b) Perseverance
c) Continuous Learning
d) Continuous Improvement

Well, my answer is all of the above. Hopefully at the end of our journey, we would become a better person to our society and this world. And not forgetting, to fulfill our ultimate destiny and purpose in life.

Well, some said it is written.

Often, we will get client inquiring for translation service when in fact, they require interpretation service. Then we will spend the next few minutes explaining to them what is the difference between the two terms.

So why people get mix up with the 2 terms? People associate translation as “converting” from one language to another language. So anything to do with language conversion, it will mean translation whether it is for document or verbal. Interestingly, interpretation means oral translation.

I will usually explain to them that if anything that is to do with writing or brochure, it is translation. And if anything that is verbal, it is interpretation. Upon hearing this, our client is more aware of the difference. Hence they can tell their inquiry to us clearly. In this way, we can also tend to their inquiries faster.
This is what we call effective communication and good services to our clients.

So do you know the difference between translation and interpretation now?

Many people may get confuse over the difference between copywriting and translation. They are sets of very different specialised skills. Where copywriting is using words to sell or promote a person, business, opinion or idea, translation is to interpret the meaning of a text and communicate that in a different language.

Although clients may seek not to have the text in a direct translation form (which is supposed to be so, given that structures of sentences formed in different languages varies), translators do not regurgitate directly what is being given and spit out in the exact same way as it was in the source language. The translator should take into account the localisation required. The flow of the sentences translated within that paragraph should flow in its target language, and not force it to flow like the source texts.

We should not equate translators to copywriters. Copywriters are creative people responsible for an advertisement’s verbal or textual content, and they are in charge of bringing out the vibrancy of the copy that will sway the audience.

So do put this in mind when you are looking for that copywriter or translator to do your job. Know what you want, so that the people serving you can give you their best.