I'm in a bookstore looking at the English books. A middle-aged Italian man is reading the titles out loud. It's obvious he is feeling chatty and wants to strike up a conversation.
"Have you read this one? Wonder what it is about?" he asks, pointing to a book entitled something like Prison Break. He pronounces it Preeeeesown Brek.
"I haven't read it but I'd imagine it's about people who escape from prison. Not really sure. Maybe you could read the back cover..." I say. I pronounce the title correctly in an exaggerated manner, making it apparent that I'm a native English speaker.
"My daughter is a professional interpreter. She'd know." He whips out his cell phone and proceeds to call her right then and there for my benefit. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to walk away but seeing as though I'm still looking at the English books, I continue my browsing.
"Hi, honey. It's dad. I'm in the bookstore. I am looking at a book called Preeesown Brek. What could that mean? Oh....uh huh.....uh huh....uh huh. I see. Thanks, honey. I'll be home in a while," goes the conversation.
"She is a professional interpreter. She knows what it means," he says proudly turning back to me. "She said it means that they are in prison but they take a pausa. Like a snack break or a lunch break. Maybe it could refer to the guards."
I just give him a half smile and continue looking at the books. This man reminds me of those people who balk at my translation prices (which have not changed since the introduction of the Euro in 2001 and are in line with going rates out there. Some people throw out crazy high prices for translations; I do not and that's why I have repeat business, but I digress) and say things like "Well, my son studies English at school and could probably do the same thing..." One woman even showed me the translation her son did, and it was horrible. I tried to explain tactfully that if she wanted to present her company seriously in English, she'd need to be serious about the quality of the translation but she was more interested in saving a few Euros, so...I wonder if the man will be disappointed when he realizes that the book he is about to buy is not about what prison guards do while on break? I wonder if he will say to himself, "Maybe I should have listened to the interpretation of that native English speaker girl!" and feel bad that his daughter, the professional interpreter, gave a rotten translation? Naw, I doubt it.
Monday, September 10, 2007
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14 comments:
Well, in a way, she got it right... just used the wrong defination in this case! LMAO
But really, how tacky... or maybe proudness on his part that his daughter is super smart regarding her English skills!
Typical case of the deep-seated Italian distrust of foreigners. Or maybe he didn't even notice you were a madrelingua inglese...
I was thinking the same thing as rompipalle (about distrust.) I've been instructed about English by (non-English speaking) Italians so many times that I no longer give anyone the benefit of the doubt when they don't take what I say seriously.
That drives me nuts. It still happens to me too. I was once offered a "brand new COLOR english-spanish pocket dictionary" on the condition that I translate a techinical handbook for someone. All I could must was a WTF look on my face. I was so angry that they thought they could buy me off with a crap dictionary and I would translate a 120 page guide. Needless to say I said no thanks find yourself another sucker.
Oooh...a brand new English-Spanish dictionary! For only about 2 weeks worth of work. Wow! :)
Maybe it's not so much distrust of foreigners but over trust in the value of an Italian language degree. People who don't speak foreign languages often think that it takes years of hard study, training and a special kind of extra-brilliant brain to speak a foreign language - when, as we all know, all it really takes is living in a foreign country and being open to speaking it (and maybe some study.) As someone I know said "a trip to the Netherlands dispells the theory that you have to be extremely brainy to speak a foreign language - even stupid people in Holland speak decent English."
It drives me nuts sometimes when people oooh and ahh over my (rather pathetic for 2 years here) ability to speak Italian. I LIVE here - if I didn't speak Italian I would have no life.
Giulia,
Yeah, parental pride. Maybe I'll be that obnoxious one day...
Rompi,
Distrust the foreigner...who knows the language better than you do. I think he knew I was a native speaker even if we spoke in short sentences and I try very hard to hide my awcento amaireeecanno.
KC,
I get very defensive too. This time I just blew it off. I didn't want to burst his bubble about his daughter. All those years of interpreting school gone to waste over one title. You know, I wouldn't even mind if people prefaced things, such as "I'm no expert but I do know English quite well. I think it could mean..." but they NEVER seem to do that. They say it as if it is fact.
Alex,
I don't barter. This is not a swap meet or a flea market. You pay me or you don't. If you don't, I don't work.
Kataroma,
Italians always say things about not being able to speak foreign languages and are always beating themselves up about it. A lot of it is a matter of having all their shows and movies dubbed while in northern Europe they don't do that. I know Italians love to rave about how great their dubbers are, but if you got rid of the dubbing, people would begin to speak and understand better. Tutto qui.
That man might have figured out that you were madre lingua inglese, but AMERICAN mother tongue English. Italians assume (or at least they did with me) that you speak American and not English. I can't say how many times I was corrected or even complimented for my abilty to speak English.
A pausa what a hoot! Why can't people trust a madrelingua though and insist they know better? I'm still steaming over a recent translation I did on a business document. They then went in and changed numerous words I used into more simpler (less business-usage) terms. I think they just got a hold of an English Thesaurus and went wild. They argued with me over terminology and wouldn't believe me when I said that certain terms/styles are preferable in business English. But their madrelingua italian translators apparently know English better than I do. Hmph!
I've just been reading that book - it's a fly-on-the-wall account of what inmates do between mail bag sewing and rock smashing :-)
OMG, this is hilarious. Great story. Weren't you SOOOO impressed when he called up his non-native speaking daughter to translate? Love it.
hilarious! But how funny would it be if the book was really actually about what prison guards did during their coffee break. hahaha
I always get *corrected* by italians when I see something and say the name of it in english. Example - the name of a flower or something. And then they *correct* me, by telling me what it is called (in Italian). Well, both are correct, and I wasn't trying to say the italian name, just commenting on the pretty flower or whatever, and they act like I said it incorrectly. That drives me crazy!
This is just so sad...
Talking about incompetent translators, I remember watching an episode of Futurama when I was still in Italy. There is this car that is normal during the day and that on full moon nights turns into a bloodthirsty monster. The protagonists of the story refer to the car as "la macchina che era". At first I couldn't quite get the meaning of that name, but then I finally realized. I guess that the genius that translated "werecar" like that, must also have thought that the plural form of the verb was a mistake in the original script that had to be fixed...
priceless. LOL
Werecar=macchina mannara?
Maybe it was translated by computer. I've heard some stories about that including Italian surnames like "Mezzanotte" being directly translated (by the computer) as "Midnight."
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