Tuesday, December 11, 2012

17 Weigh every word when you are in the presence of a translator

cartoon translator business jargon
Click image to enlarge

17 comments:

  1. you mean in the presence of an interpreter?

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  2. It would be great to have a cartoon in which Mox is forced to act as an interpreter (as we all know, everybody thinks all translators can interpret).
    Thank you for your cartoons, Alejandro.
    Au

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  3. Csaba, Mox is not working, he's merely listening to someone talking and asks for clarification.

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  4. And some people believe interpreters can translate?

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  5. I am "Anonymous" because I couldn't translate/interpret your "Select profile" options
    ALBERTO PEREZ PEREZ, otitrebla@hotmail.com

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  6. If translators could interpret, if interpreters could tranlsate... Sounds like si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait, tho I am not sure which is which in this case. Actually, interpret and interrupt do sound similar, so there are nice alternatives for the last line (who the hell invited).

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  7. This happens to me every day. People are slowly learning not to talk gobbledygook that appears intelligent in my presence...

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  8. It would appear that there is no greater crime in the language industry than to label a translator an interpreter, and vice versa. :)

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  9. These posts brighten up my day sooooooo much :D

    Perhaps 'everyone is talking about it' would sound a bit better though.

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  10. Oh, we love it! The inquisitive and slightly annoying translator! :)

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    Replies
    1. Haha you should have seen me and my University schoolmates at the cinema, annoying everyone sitting around us with our remarks about how good or bad the dubbing translation was :D

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  11. The last panel makes it clear imho that Mox is not working at this meeting (in which case he would be an interpreter) but is simply present at the meeting. As the title makes clear - "in the presence of".

    It would be nice if we could appreciate the author's humour a little more and stop being so pedantic about the terms interpreter and translator.

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  12. Nothing unnerves people more!
    As a translator, if I hear a word (never mind which language) that I do not know, I always ask what it means. I normally end up going home and looking it up. The answer I get from the person who used the word in the first place is seldom satisfactory.

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  13. @Craig: yes, you are of course correct. Mox is *not* working as an interpreter (in fact, he has not interpreted a word in his life as far as we know). He is just attending a meeting as the translator that he is. We have attended hundreds of meetings when big projects need to be implemented and the translators have to be actively involved. It looks like @Anonymous has not fully understood the cartoon, but we think it's pretty clear.

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  14. When I translate marketing blabla, especially from English to German, I can often reduce the number of words drastically without losing any of its meaning.

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