Interpretations Can Leave Room For Interpretation

AlJazeeraEnglish/YouTube

By Linton Weeks, NPR

People in the United States and around the world watched and heard Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak speak Thursday night.

But depending on your knowledge of Arabic — or more likely the interpreter on the network you were watching or listening to — you could get very different ideas of what Mubarak was saying.

In terms of English interpretations, the NPR person (who was provided through an ABC feed) told it one way, the CNN person said it another way and the Al-Jazeera intermediary recited it yet another way.

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The Rise of Chinese, Turkish and Arabic

European Commission report: More and more translation and interpreting students enroll for Chinese, Turkish and Arabic. In Brussels alone, there are over 300 students currently registered for courses in one of these three languages. According to an article published by RTBF (Radio télévision belge de la communauté française), especially registrations for Chinese language courses are increasing significantly over the last five years. Chinese is a hard language to learn and the pronunciation is very difficult, but most students realise that it is worth it. Speaking this language offers many opportunities for their professional life, particularly for working in international organisations and trade. ‘Chinese is the language of the future. We see it everywhere, even in Africa’, says student Tracy. Turkish and Arabic languages are also on the rise. This is partly because many students of Turkish and Arabic origin born in the EU want to speak the language of their parents well. In general translation and interpreting students, choosing one of these three languages, are very optimistic about their future. Two of the students graduated last June were offered a job in China shortly afterward. And who knows where the other students might end up?

Read more (in French)…