Nataly Kelly - Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World

Advance Praise for

Found in Translation

Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche have assembled a treasure trove of interesting and entertaining stories to show how translation and interpreting affect all aspects of life. Anyone with an interest in languagesboth spoken and signedwill enjoy this book.

Marlee Matlin, Academy Awardwinning actress

A fascinating book about language and the importance of translation. Kelly and Zetzsche demonstrate how technology and translation help build communities and expand the quest for knowledge on virtually every subject.

Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Education, Microsoft

Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche have done essential work in capturing the stories behind translation, and how we all experience its value every day. As they observe, Right this very minute, translation is saving lives, perhaps even yours.

Laura I. Gomez, Localization Manager, Twitter

Found in Translation is a meditation, an expos, and practical guidebook to humanitys continued, painstaking ascent of our monumental tower of Babel. Without language diversity, we would be intellectually impoverished, and with it we are enriched. But without translators to interpret and bridge that diversity, we would remain ignorant and isolated, locked each of us in our own native tongues limited worldview.

K. David Harrison, PhD, Swarthmore College and National Geographic Society

This is by far the most meaningful book on the subject of translation that I have ever seen. The authors have managed to entertain, inform, and show how translation impacts all aspects of our life, from health to business to entertainment and technology, all supported with real-life examples.

Ghassan Haddad, Director of Internationalization, Facebook

During times of war, weapons make the difference. During times of peace, battles are won in conference roomsand those who can most clearly communicate their messages win. Found in Translation demonstrates to us all that translation and interpretation are the most intelligent weapons for triumphing in commercial, financial, or diplomatic settings.

Olga Cosmidou, Director General for Interpretation and Conferences, European Parliament

Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche focus in on what is the core issue for diplomats, entrepreneurs, non-governmental organizations, and everyday working people alike: language. With information now flowing both globally and instantaneously, translators and interpreters have already ascended into the ranks of the indispensable.

Sunder Ramaswamy, President and Frederick C. Dirks Professor of International Economics, Monterey Institute of International Studies

FOUND IN
TRANSLATION

How Language Shapes Our Lives
and Transforms the World

NATALY KELLY
AND JOST ZETZSCHE

A PERIGEE BOOK

A PERIGEE BOOK

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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FOUND IN TRANSLATION

Copyright 2012 by Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche

Text design by Laura K. Corless

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

PERIGEE is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

The P design is a trademark belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First edition: October 2012

ISBN: 978-1-101-61192-0

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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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ALWAYS LEARNING

PEARSON

We dedicate this book to translators
and interpreters everywhere.
Because of you, the world communicates.

Whenever I think about translation, Im reminded of the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The title refers to the three levels of encounter with an unidentified flying object (UFO) proposed by J. Allen Hyneck. Close encounters of the first kind are visual sightings of a UFO. Encounters of the second kind take place when, in addition to these sightings, we see people or objects affected by UFOs. Encounters of the third kind are interactions with UFOs, so that their contents begin to influence our lives and affect our understanding of what it means to be human.

Now replace UFO with translation. As the authors of this book demonstrate through their vividly presented examples, its not difficult to have an encounter of the first two kinds. All we have to do is watch translators in actioninterpreting for a personality in a television interview, signing an event for a deaf audience, or providing an alternative language on a web page. And we sense the effect of the translation when we note successful outcomes, such as the signing of an international treaty or the completion of a multinational business deal. Equally, we see the effect when a mistranslation causes misunderstandinga situation that, as the authors show in their anecdotes, can have all kinds of consequences, from the jocularly trivial to the seriously profound.

Few of us, though, take our appreciation of the role of translation to the third levelreally grasping how it influences the way we live. Translation affects every aspect of your life, the authors boldly state on their opening page. Every aspect? Thats a hugely powerful claim. But by the end of this book you will believe it. You will have seen, in the reading, how multilingual humanity depends on translation for its successful functioning. And you will be impressed, as I was, by the multifarious situations in whichusually without realizing itthe translators expertise has shaped the way we live. What we find, in Found in Translation, is ourselves.

Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche have performed an invaluable service in writing this book. They have not only dealt with translation in a fresh literary way but have made the subjectoften presented in abstract and abstruse termsaccessible and entertaining. It is storytelling at its best, with broad themes illustrated by engaging anecdotes and intriguing panels showing how translation enters into the realities of day-to-day living. And the stories, taken from their own experience as professional translators and incorporating a truly remarkable number of visits and interviews, explode some of the myths that surround the subject and bring home to us the enormous problems translators face.