Scientific and technical translation includes so many industry areas that practically devalues the notion “technical translator”, because makes it unclassified. How can technical specialties of translators be specified?
Vlad Belousov, member of the Union of translators of Russia, author of text-books and training courses for oil and gas translators and interpreters.
The topic for discussion today is so-called “scientific and technical translation” as it is defined in the professional standard “Translation and interpreting specialist” published in 2021. What is it? We will try to figure it out.
How can translation and interpreting be classified by type in principle? Somebody would think there is nothing to talk about, as any practicing translator can answer that there can be translation and interpreting, and in most countries of the world translator and interpreter are two separate professions. Interpreting, in its turn, is divided into consecutive and simultaneous. Whisper interpreting is considered as a separate category. Speaking about areas of translation, it can be literary (that is translation of literary works and poems), legal or judicial, medical, financial, military and scientific and technical. Such classification is primarily defined by similar classification applied in the USA and Europe.
But how many types of translation can each translation area contain? This issue remains a topic for discussion, as actually each translation area may contain many translation types. Of course, I am not going to review all translation areas, however, as long as my activities are also included in so-called “scientific and technical translation”, we will discuss this area.
So, what is “scientific and technical translation”? According to the translation standard, the translator who translates operating manuals for fridges and washers is a scientific and technical translator. A translator working in the area of scientific developments, for example, Institute of Nuclear Research, is also considered as scientific and technical translator. Are these two areas of activities similar, at least approximately? Probably only by one factor – both cases involve translation. And absolutely nothing else. Therefore, if we review it in a responsible manner, let us separate scientific and technical translation. I work in the oil and gas industry, and for me it is very difficult to imagine, how a scientific interpreter performs interpretation at a well for a drilling crew. Well, we are really different. There should be a technical interpreter there, but not a scientific one.
OK, we have figured it out. Now, let us think, and what is “technical translation”? As I have already said, translation of operating manuals for domestic appliances is technical translation. Let us move further. Translator’s work in the oil and gas industry – is it technical translation? Of course, yes! In construction? Yes! In machine-building? Yes! Nuclear power engineering? Yes! And now ask me, as a translator who worked in the oil and gas industry for over 30 years, if I can perform translation and interpreting in machine-building maintaining the same high quality? By no means! But how can it be? All of that is technical translation, and I am a technical translator! It is quite simple. Actually I am not just a technical translator, but a technical oil and gas translator. Just that and nothing else.
I would like to repeat, when you need a doctor, in each specific case you need a therapist, cardiologist, dentist or surgeon. It is also applied to translation. Very often translators try to translate everything they can, “any topics of any complexity”, and call themselves “do-all professionals”. In reality it means only one thing – without specialization in one or several areas such translators translate in all topics with similar poor result. It is clear for any reasonable person, and does not require evidence. In my opinion, “do-all professional” is a translator capable to work in specific language pair performing translation and interpreting, both to the language and back, because many translators do not have all of the above-mentioned skills and competences in combination.
Thus we can come to a very simple conclusion. Do we need the notion of “scientific and technical translation” at all? I think that in the context above – not at all. It is sufficient that all types of translation are combined in the common notion – “translation”. With the same success. And with the same result. “Are you a translator? Then just translate, you do not need to understand!” Of course, it is a kind of irony.
As a minimum, we need to separate scientific translation from technical translation, and also always consider technical translation with detailed classification by industry.
And here we have come to a very interesting and important issue. In order to stop all such confusion, in order to assure that at any translation industry event translators sit not all together, but in their separate sessions, and it is interesting for them to communicate with their colleagues, the translation should be embedded in a specific industry and belong to it.
Each industry should initiate development of standards in its translation area, and also professional standards for translators, jointly with translation associations and organizations develop relevant training programs and courses for training and certification of translators, and eventually create new professions of industry translators. This will provide for not only improvement but also a step change of technical translation in each individual industry. And then the notion “technical translation will be irrelevant. Indeed, such specialties as “oil and gas translator” or “nuclear power engineering translator” are self-explanatory. It is clear that these specialists perform technical industry translation.
In my opinion, detailed classification of technical translation types by industry must be included into the Translation and interpreting specialist standard published in 2021 in the process of its preparation for new edition.
