Folter Museum, Prater, und Theater

11.6.09

Donnie made us a wonderful breakfast of eggs to order. We were just like a little family sitting in the kitchen in our pajamas eating breakfast. 

Early in the afternoon, Tina, Vanessa, Ryan Godke (he's here with another group) and I wanted to go to the Prater. But it started to rain so we headed to Haus de

s Meeres (aquarium) where we met up with Marie Schramm. But entrance to the aquarium  was 10 Euro so we went around the corner to the Folter Museum (torture museum) which was much cheaper and our friend Ruthie Spicker met up with us. 

The museum was super creepy but even scarier than the machines, which were all the real thing, was the wax people used to demonstrate the torture devices. The figures were so old that they were disintegrating and it looked like rotten flesh. 

After the Folter Museum, we went to the Prater since the weather cleared up. We went on a ferris wheel, not the famous touristy one since it was so expensive, but a similar ferris wheel.

Everything at the Prater was so expensive. I'm used to fairs being relatively cheap because it's somewhat known as a white trash kind of place. But here in Vienna the Prater is more of a main attraction and there wasn't a single ride under 3 Euro!

After the Prater, we went to get ice cream, and then went to the theater. Our friend Ruthie works there and got us a great discount so we only had to pay 6 Euro instead of 10. The theater was very cute - only 10 rows and it was one of those where old people tend to go. We saw "Ein Mann für alle Fälle" (A man for every occasion). It was a comedy in German. I did find it rather funny, but what I enjoyed more was being able to sit down, and almost forget that it was in a language other than my own. I love being able to sink into another language - a completely other way of thinking and feeling.

Last day of class!

10.6.09

Today was our last day of class. All the coursework for the entire four weeks was due today, and it was rather apparent that most of us did not get adequate sleep the night before. In addition to turning in all of our papers, we each had to orally present our journals on translation. It was probably one of the most interesting classes we had, because the speaker and topic rotated every 20 minutes, rather than the same thing for 3 whole hours. We then all received our certificates for completing the program, signed by all of our professors.

After class, we were able to play in the translation booths, which was an absolute treat! I got in a booth and started fiddling around with the switches and stumbled across the channel of the booth next to me. The girl in there was taking an exam and was interpreting from Italian to German. I then played a German clip and attempted to interpret into English. It was so fast! I could understand just fine when I was only listening to it. But to listen to what is being said, translate that, while simultaneously listening to and absorbing what is currently being said while you're translating the previous sentence and formulating the next sentence is practically impossible. I felt like my brain was going to explode and I only did it for like 2 minutes. Every time I got a sentence out, I missed four others that went by while I was translating the first. I hope my audience doesn't mind getting only a portion of the story. Because interpreting is so taxing on the mind, interpreters are not allowed to work for more than 30 minutes at a time - due to mind fatigue. I only lasted 2 minutes in the booth and operated at maybe a maximum of 25%. Looks like I've got a lot of work ahead of me.

After the booths, we took a few hours to just relax. We had an intense morning of presentations and needed some quiet time. In the evening, we had our final group dinner at an Italian restaurant with the whole class and Professor Camilla Nielsen, Professor Bruce Murray, and Professor Lowe.  All in all it was a great day... except for the food poisoning from the Italian restaurant that caught up with me a few hours later. yuck.

Mistake at the Mozart House

6.6.09

While we were at the Mozart house, I stopped in the gift shop to do some browsing and stumbled upon a book about the real Van Trapp family and how the movie The Sound of Music compared to the real story. I was surprised to notice that after just a quick glance, I had already spotted grammatical mistakes. One section was discussing the life of Maria Augusta von Kutschera and referred to her as "it". The pronouns were incorrect. My guess is that the book was originally written in German and this was a mistake made in the English version. But it seemed like such an obvious mistake. It jumped right out at me. So many people visit the Mozart house that I would think having high quality texts for sale would be important. Apparently the editors didn't stress over the mistake too much because a person, a very important and well-known person, was referred to as "it".

OSCE

4.6.09

Today we went to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). It was serious business. We had to be professionals and go through security and get temporary id’s to be allowed in the building.  After going through all the security proceedings we met with Susanna Lööf, Press Officer, OSCE Secretariat.  She briefed us on the history and purpose of the OSCE.  The OSCE strives to bring stability, prosperity, and democracy in 56 states.

After our meeting with Susanna Lööf we met with Elizabeth Kaufmann and Forest Atkinson, whose jobs it is to promote the U.S. in the OSCE.  The OSCE is not well known, partially because decisions and actions take a long time to put into effect. The OSCE operates on consensus, which means that all 56 states have to agree upon the same decision. Something I found interesting was that decisions are politically, not legally binding. This means that nations are somewhat held to only the honors system.  Because of the high probability that nations will not always uphold their end of the bargain, “Name and Shame” meetings are held, in which the OSCE talks about which states are not upholding their commitments.  Even though there are 56 states in the OSCE, there is a sense that everyone is unique with their own government yet at the same time they get along. They have barbeques together, go to café’s, and basically shoot the breeze together. A lot of diplomacy happens outside of the office and then the official decisions are made within the board room.

Then we went to observe the permanent council proceedings.  This was by far the highlight of the day. It was a gigantic room with an ambassador from every country in the OSCE and all of their assistants. Along the side of the wall you could see the translators in their booths. We all had headsets and could control whatever language we needed.  For example, when the ambassador of Kazakhstan was speaking, I toggled back and forth between the English and German translators.  It was fascinating to watch. The translators in the booths were listening to the speeches at the same time as everyone else and simultaneously translating them.  That is just so impressive to me. You have to be able to listen to what they are saying, remember it, simultaneously translate it, while listening to what is being said while you are spewing out the translation.  So they are listening and talking at the same time and always just a few words behind the original speaker. It was unbelievably impressive.

Sometimes a “relay” is used.  This is when the original speech is translated twice over.  For example, let’s say that a Kazakhstanian is speaking and it needs to be translated from Kazakh to English but there are no English speakers who know Kazakh.  But perhaps there is a French speaker who also knows Kazakh.  In a “relay” the original Kazakh would first be translated by interpreted one from Kazakh to French and interpreter two would listen to this French translation and translate the French into English.  This is all going on within seconds of each other so that the audience gets the message only moments after it is originally spoken.  That is complete craziness. I can’t believe anyone’s brain can function that quickly.  The “relay” technique is often used because it is impossible to find translators for every language into every other language.  So you get translators who can cover several bases, and then in a sense cross multiply them.

At the end of our minds basically being blown away by the intensity of the council proceedings, our group had another meeting with Nikolay Borovskiy, Chief of Language Services Section.  He informed us that the six official languages of the OSCE are English, French, Russian, Spanish, German, and Italian. The language services provided are written translation, oral interpretation, and editing. Additional money is spent to have important texts revised by another person to ensure perfection.  There are three different kinds of interpretation that the OSCE employs: consecutive, simultaneous, and whispering.  Whispering is a technique in which someone stands next to or behind someone and interprets directly into their ear. This technique was first used in the Nuremberg Trials in 1945.

All the interpreters and translators of the OSCE are freelance. They are hired for each session, which lasts approximately one year and they can also work daily contracts. Currently, French and Russian are the most in demand languages in the OSCE.

I was super excited to learn about the salary of the interpreters. 427 Euros/day for a minimum of 300 days/year is awarded whether you work those days or not. Interpreters are also allowed only a maximum of 8 meetings/per.  That comes to about 128,000 Euros, which is roughly the equivalent of $180,000. Every year. That sounds pretty darn good.

United Nations

3.6.09

Today in the afternoon we went to the United Nations to sit in on a briefing. We got a bit more insight as to how translation and politics combine in the United Nations. After our meeting, we got the chance to circle the floor and peak in on other rooms. We came across one meeting and there was a representative from every country in the United Nations and they all had head sets so they could switch to whichever language they worked in.  It was pretty awesome. Too bad pictures were not allowed. It’s all very top secret.

Fountain and flags outside the UN:

That night we met up with some Austrian students of Professor Camilla Nielsen and went out to eat at a Heurigen.  We were all Americans studying abroad in Austria and they were all Austrians wanting to study abroad in America so we thought it was a good trade off.  The only thing that was disappointing was the Heurigen itself. The food looked good, but was above all of our budgets so we ended up not even having dinner that night.  And what’s more, they had very a limited drink selection.  No pop, juice, or even water. The waiter was thoroughly insulted when I asked him if he had one of these options.  Apparently Heurigens only sell drinks that they produce themselves, which is wine and beer. The waiter rudely told me that I shouldn’t have come if I didn’t like beer.  Yet another fine example of the excellent service here in Vienna. psh.

Night at the Movies

31.5.09

So I went to a German movie and it was filled with translation opportunities. Before the movie there was an advertisement being played on the screen and I found it interesting that the advertisement on the screen was in German but it was being read in English.  I don’t understand why they did it that way.

Before the movie began, I was looking at the movies titles and how they differed from the original English titles.  The movie Maid of Honor, for example was translated as Verliebt in die Braut. While the title accurately describes the plot of the movie, it’s not very close to the English title. Another movie, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, was translated as Der Womanizer. Another failure in my opinion.  It gives the movie a sort of negative vibe that just isn’t there in the English title.

When the movie was playing, I relied on the German subtitles to understand the French conversations. Doing subtitling exercises last semester made me pay attention to the formatting of the subtitles in Illuminati. We had learned that there should be no more than 36 characters per line, including spacing and punctuation and that there could be no more than two lines at a time. The subtitles in Illuminati, were much more than 36 characters per line. Probably more than twice that amount. I had to physically move my eyes from left to right to read the lines rather than being able to see the whole line in one glance, which is how they are supposed to be formatted.  They most definitely did not fit the requirements of standardized subtitling.

Sour Service

29.5.09

As an American, I have become accustomed to excellent service. Salespeople are always eager to get you another size or help you in any way they can. This is not the case in Europe. The service is very unfriendly. There's no "hello, how are you today" or smile or "have a good day" or anything. But that's just how the culture is. There's a generally emotionless quality or distance when it comes to service. It may be the culture, but to me it seems the salespeople are not just unfriendly, but outright rude. They snatch whatever item you're looking at out of your hands the moment it seems it may be a bit too pricey or they seem incredibly insulted when you ask them to describe what is in a dish at a restaurant, as if service had nothing to do with their job description.

But it's hard to decipher if they're singling us out or not. There's a lot of animosity against foreigners and the service workers treat you very differently when they see that you're foreign and not a native Austrian, even if you speak German. They want Austria to revert back to its pure roots and will certainly not lift a finger to assist a foreigner like myself in any way...at least not when it comes to shopping.

This whole unfriendly approach to the Austrian (or maybe European) service industry makes me question even further how translation is even possible.  If you're translating a brochure or advertisement for a store, let's say Express because it's my favorite, there are sure to be sayings that would never occur in the other language. The English advertisement might in some way welcome a client into the store with a warm greeting. But in Austria, they don't give warm greetings. So how do you translate it? Do you keep it as a sort of greeting but just turn the warmth factor down to negative thirty, thereby accommodating the culture change? Or do you try to keep it close to the source text? Even if it doesn't quite make as much sense in the target language? It's all very confusing, but I just know that I can't wait to go shopping in America again where people smile when you say hello.

Language Diversity and Multilingualism in the European Union

28.5.09

Today we went to the European Union and sat in on a presentation regarding language diversity and multilingualism in the European Union.  There are currently 23 official languages of the European Union and 800 translators.  Getting a law passed is a long and involved process within the EU. It can be summarized with three general steps: communication within an organization, communication between organizations, communication from an organization to the people it supports.  It was also discussed how one might acquire a position within the European Union.  The EU is always searching for people who have a wide array of knowledge to supplement their language. For example, a translator is more marketable if he/she also has a degree in medicine because you then have a specific set of vocabulary at your disposal and you don’t have to look up every scientific word.

Translating Jokes

27.5.09

Today we talked about jokes and comedic sayings and the difficulties that come with translating them.  Freud was very interested in analyzing jokes and how they relate to the unconscious. He concluded that the pleasure one receives from hearing a joke is “due to the suspension of the expenditure of energy upon maintaining repression”[1]  But the definition of what is funny differs between social groups and genders. What is hilarious to a man might be offensive to a woman and what is funny to a Caucasian person may be offensive to an African American.  This creates difficulties when translating a joke because it is being converted into a different culture and mindset.  “The very structure of the joke embodies the distancing of existing attitudes and their replacement by a new language of science.”[2]  The function of Jewish jokes was to provide an escape from anti-Semitism by laughing at it.[3]  Does this go to say that a Jewish joke will never be fully understood by someone who is not Jewish? Maybe so.  Most of understanding a joke lies in the experiences and perception one has of the culture from which the joke stems. 

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[1] Viennese Laughter, 107

[2] Viennese Laughter, 113

[3] Camilla Nielsen, lecture 27.5.09

Cafe's

27.5.09

Coffee houses in Vienna differ greatly from those in America. They have a much more leisurely atmosphere about them. In America, if you sit at a table for more than an hour a waiter usually asks if you want anything else or in some way indicates that you should leave. Often they give you the bill just moments after getting your food and say “whenever you’re ready” but really they mean sooner rather than later. In Vienna the concept of a coffee house is completely different.  No one is going to ask you to leave after a while.  In fact, people often spend the entire day in a single coffee house. It is a place where one can go to read the newspaper or read a book.  In the past, there were even showers available because travelers would often come and want a place to freshen up and relax.

Difficulties of Translating Freud

26.5.09

Sigmund Freud was a very complex individual and reading his works is difficult enough but translating them presents a whole new slew of complications. He used a lot of scientific words (some of which were coined by him) but spoke about them in a very artistic fashion.  The words he chose also have specific meanings that might not be reached when only looking in a dictionary.  It is important to look at the context of the text – who was writing, what was that’s individual’s lexicon – what was the period flavor and literary style.  There are many things to take under consideration.  When Freud talked about “die Seele” he more likely meant “the psyche” rather than “the soul” which is typically associated with the word “Seele.”  Similarly, Freud used the word “die Kranke” to refer to the patient, not someone who was ill.

Word for Word

25.5.09

It has been said that there is no such thing as an untranslatable text. Everything should be able to be expressed in each language in some form or another. But I think it’s safe to say that a translation will not always match the same format as that of the source text. For example we can examine the German word “Vergangenheitsbewältigung.”  There is no one word in the English language that sums up the sense of “Vergangenheitsbewältigung” but in general it means “(the process of) coming to terms with the past.” So sometimes the translator must take a few liberties with the text to obtain the overall sense of the word/phrase/text, since sometimes a word for word translation is just not possible.

“Make tour today?” - A Need for Native Speakers as Translators

24.5.09

At the opera house someone wearing a costume said, “make tour today?” That proves that while some Europeans (especially shop owners or workers) know enough English to get their point across but that they are by no means fluent. Native English speakers must be the ones doing the translating into English otherwise you end up with sentences like “make tour today?”

Leonard Orban and Multilingualism

According to Leonard Orban, the European Commissioner responsible for multilingualism, “many Europeans already speak a great number of different languages. But still, language skills are unevenly spread across countries and social groups in Europe”. [1] Vienna is a very multicultural city and most everyone here speaks several languages. But this is not the case throughout all of Austria or all of Europe.  People residing in larger cities speak several languages because of several reasons. They are near Universities and with higher education comes multilingualism. Large cities attract tourists and foreigners, which by default introduces new languages.

Orban also made the point that multilingualism has increased with the recent economic downturn.[2]  Shop owners cannot afford to turn anyone always simply because of a language barrier.  It is very common for business people to know enough of several languages to make a sale.  Because money is tight these days, shop owners are making a great effort to accommodate their customers.

It is also true that the work field for translators has increased since the economic crash. It is becoming more and more important to converse with each other on a more global level. With tensions running high all over the world, it is important that all messages are accurately and appropriately conveyed.  When non-native speakers translate, they often make mistakes, whether it be in grammar or colloquialisms or what have you.  It is important that the translator not only be a native speaker, but also exceptional in that particular language, to ensure that everything is translated to the highest degree.

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[1] Orban, Leonard. A Bridge to Mutual Understanding, http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/orban/news/docs/speeches/090515_discurs_Cluj/Discurs_Cluj_EN.pdf

[2] ibid