Unless you are lucky enough to be truly bilingual, then you're going to be stronger in your so-called "mother tongue" than any other language. Does this mean that a native speaker of English will do a better translation from Polish into English than a native speaker of Polish and vice-versa?
Well, this depends on the native speaker of English's knowledge of Polish and the native speaker of Polish's knowledge of English. He/she may write beautifully in their native tongue but if they don't know source language and culture well enough, they risk making a mistake.
I remember one time when I was on my interpreting course in Poland and we were interpreting a speech by a Polish politician in Parliament who was angrily bemoaning the state of the country. "Children are going to school without shoes, without breakfast and are fainting in the corridors" he ranted. The word for "to faint" is kind of similar to the word for "to feel nauseous, and I didn't pick up on which word was being used. You can imagine the other people in the language lab laughing their heads off when I interpreted the sentence as "Children are going to school without shoes, without breakfast and are throwing up in the corridors."
The same applies to the native speaker of Polish. They may speak perfect Polish but if they are not sufficiently well attuned to the nuances of the source language, they can run into difficulties. It annoys me when I read subtitles which are badly translated into Polish on the BBC Prime station in Poland when the translator has clearly misunderstood. For example, once, the phrase "I'm not pissed at all" was translated as "I'm not at all angry." This would have been OK if the program had been an American one. But "pissed" in British English means "drunk" and not "angry." I've seen plenty of mistakes like this. If I had done the subtitles, there may have been a few grammar mistakes, but the viewer would have had a guarantee of the translator's full understanding of what was being said.
In a way, I feel more comfortable translating or interpreting into Polish because I know that I will fully understand the speaker. And coming from Britain, I am used to hearing a whole range of different accents. I remember once when I was living in Kraków there was an Indian gentleman who was part of an investment project in the local steelworks. None of the Polish interpreters could understand him! I, on the other hand, had spent my whole life listening to people from India speaking English so I could interpret into Polish for the gentleman.
And I know that often Polish interpreters prefer interpreting into English. English grammar is simpler than Polish grammar; often when you are interpreting into Polish you can only interpret after the whole sentence has been uttered to make sure you get all the declinations right. And a native Pole has valuable cultural knowledge that an native speaker of English may lack thus resulting in an erroneous translation.
Language and culture are inextricably entwined and so any interpreter has got to be familiar with the history and culture of the country where their source language is spoken. Only now, after years of living in Poland do I see how a knowledge of Polish history and an understanding of what the Polish nation has been though is invaluable when translating. Similarly any Pole wishing to translate well into English must be familiar with British history. Then, when there is a famous quote or saying, the interpreter knows how to render it properly.
Generally speaking though, a translator translates best into their native language. And this is what most translators do. If you want to work for EU institutions as a translator/interpreter, you interpret/translate into your native language. However, this only holds true on the condition that you have an excellent knowledge of source language and the culture of the people who speak it.
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Contributed by: Matt Hammo, a British-Polish translator based in Poland
Well, this depends on the native speaker of English's knowledge of Polish and the native speaker of Polish's knowledge of English. He/she may write beautifully in their native tongue but if they don't know source language and culture well enough, they risk making a mistake.
I remember one time when I was on my interpreting course in Poland and we were interpreting a speech by a Polish politician in Parliament who was angrily bemoaning the state of the country. "Children are going to school without shoes, without breakfast and are fainting in the corridors" he ranted. The word for "to faint" is kind of similar to the word for "to feel nauseous, and I didn't pick up on which word was being used. You can imagine the other people in the language lab laughing their heads off when I interpreted the sentence as "Children are going to school without shoes, without breakfast and are throwing up in the corridors."
The same applies to the native speaker of Polish. They may speak perfect Polish but if they are not sufficiently well attuned to the nuances of the source language, they can run into difficulties. It annoys me when I read subtitles which are badly translated into Polish on the BBC Prime station in Poland when the translator has clearly misunderstood. For example, once, the phrase "I'm not pissed at all" was translated as "I'm not at all angry." This would have been OK if the program had been an American one. But "pissed" in British English means "drunk" and not "angry." I've seen plenty of mistakes like this. If I had done the subtitles, there may have been a few grammar mistakes, but the viewer would have had a guarantee of the translator's full understanding of what was being said.
In a way, I feel more comfortable translating or interpreting into Polish because I know that I will fully understand the speaker. And coming from Britain, I am used to hearing a whole range of different accents. I remember once when I was living in Kraków there was an Indian gentleman who was part of an investment project in the local steelworks. None of the Polish interpreters could understand him! I, on the other hand, had spent my whole life listening to people from India speaking English so I could interpret into Polish for the gentleman.
And I know that often Polish interpreters prefer interpreting into English. English grammar is simpler than Polish grammar; often when you are interpreting into Polish you can only interpret after the whole sentence has been uttered to make sure you get all the declinations right. And a native Pole has valuable cultural knowledge that an native speaker of English may lack thus resulting in an erroneous translation.
Language and culture are inextricably entwined and so any interpreter has got to be familiar with the history and culture of the country where their source language is spoken. Only now, after years of living in Poland do I see how a knowledge of Polish history and an understanding of what the Polish nation has been though is invaluable when translating. Similarly any Pole wishing to translate well into English must be familiar with British history. Then, when there is a famous quote or saying, the interpreter knows how to render it properly.
Generally speaking though, a translator translates best into their native language. And this is what most translators do. If you want to work for EU institutions as a translator/interpreter, you interpret/translate into your native language. However, this only holds true on the condition that you have an excellent knowledge of source language and the culture of the people who speak it.
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Contributed by: Matt Hammo, a British-Polish translator based in Poland