In August, I spent two splendid weeks in China. The trip was great in many ways, one of them was giving a talk in a completely different legal and otherwise culture. When the dean of the school of law at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, Sichuan invited me to give a talk and visit their faculty, I had no idea what to expect. So I just arrive, without much planning, and sure enough, it was different than any other talk I ever gave. First and foremost, it was a talk in translation. A wonderful young finance professor at the school was charged with translating my talk, which lasted for two full hours. I would speak for several minutes, and then she would translate. Same with the questions and answers. I had know that in many, indeed most, parts of China, most people did not speak any English. For some reason, perhaps completely unjustified, it took me by surprise that Senior law faculty at a prominent university also knew very little English. I learned after the talk that many of the more junior faculty and the graduate students who attended my talk could in fact speak English but they had refrained from doing so and preferred to also use the translator when they asked questions during the talk, in order not to outperform their seniors.
I felt that giving a translated talk loses many nuances that are otherwise emphasized in academic settings. I found myself simplfying the concepts I was working for fear that too much complexity would be lost in translation. I also simplified the talk because I know so little about Chinese law and legal scholarship and I wanted to put on the table some of the basics of my conceptual world before moving more in depth to the kind of research I am doing. But once the question and answer part began, I was delighted to learn that my words were not lost. The faculty reacted, argued with me, challenged my ideas, pushed things further. Joy. One of the younger faculty began his question by saying that “he does law and economics and he would like to see more clear numbers and models in the paper upfront”. I smiled and thought to myself that there is no escape from that sort of challenge, wherever I go in the world. One of the senior faculty who teaches employment and labor law asked me about the tradeoffs between American and Europeans models of regulating the workplace and I learned from her description of the law and problems they faced in Sichuan that despite all the vast differences between our legal and political enviornments, there was still quite a bit of commonality.
During the talk, one Phd student was charged with guarding my tea cup and filling it up whenever it got empty. The tea was so good [those of you who know me know that I am a tea drinker. No coffee here] that by the end of the two hours, all I could think about is how to say “where are the restrooms, please?” in Mandarin [Che-Shuo Zai Na-Li, Xie Xie]. When the talk ended, another unfamiliar experience: I was presented with gifts and each member of the faculty wanted both a group and individual photo with me. There is much more I could share about the visit and the trip in general. But for now let me ask about other’s experiences with talks in translation.
Posted by Orly Lobel on September 3, 2007 at 02:11 AM
Comments
The photo is of the golden statute on the top of Mt. Emei, near Chengdu, Sichuan. The mountain is sacred both for Buddhists and Daoists and at some point the emperor divided the mountain so Buddhists got the front of it and daoists the back. it is full of temples all the way up and beautiful scenery, as well as monkeys [one tried to snatch my water bottle]. The Buddhists say that climbing Mt. Emei is “worth 700 years of meditation” – and although i was surprised by the quantifying and putting value on something in that context, i was elated after the climbing.
Posted by: Orly Lobel | Sep 4, 2007 12:41:44 PM
What’s the photo?
Posted by: Bruce Boyden | Sep 4, 2007 12:12:20 PM
Congratulations on your successful experience in China! Next time please consider using services of professional interpreters, if English-speaking professors are not available to act as interpreters.
It might be helpful to go over the outline of your presentation with the interpreter in advance- to make sure the interpreter understands the key concepts of your presentation and can find the exact terms, or conceptual parallels for the legal concepts you’ll be discussing. That will alleviate the need to worry about too much complexity being lost in translation.
It is often helpful to have the presentation outline translated into the language(s) of the audience in advance, and hand out translations before the presentation.
Best regards,
Nina
http://www.translationforlawyers.com
http:///www.languagealliance.com
Posted by: TranslationforLawyers.com | Sep 4, 2007 11:29:57 AM