In the , I addressed the issue of languages with many regional varieties (i.e., Arabic, French, Portuguese, and Spanish) and how graders deal with such varieties in certification exams. One language notably missing from the list was Chinese, to which I will devote this column in its entirety.
A World Language
According to Wikipedia, Chinese (or at least a variety of Chinese) is spoken by 1.35 billion people, approximately 17% of the world鈥檚 population. It鈥檚 the official language of China, Taiwan, and Singapore, and is a recognized minority language in Malaysia. Chinese is one of six official languages of the United Nations system, including all its agencies, such as the World Health Organization and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Furthermore, as the map here shows, spoken or written Chinese is used daily in a great number of countries.
Written Chinese dates back to 1250 BCE. Its character system has evolved along with the spoken language, and historically it even influenced the writing systems of Japanese and Korean. The Standard Chinese of today was officially adopted in the 1930s and is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. Many varieties of Chinese are spoken within the Chinese mainland and in other Sinophone countries and regions, but all use the same characters (either in simplified or traditional form).
Thus, mutually unintelligible varieties, languages, or dialects (see the previous column regarding dialects), such as Cantonese and Wu, may look the same on paper, but once they鈥檙e read aloud they鈥檙e as different as Russian and Polish. In the 1950s, the People鈥檚 Republic of China (PRC) instituted a system of simplified characters for greater accessibility, and Singapore adopted that system, whereas traditional characters continued to be used elsewhere, and still are, in many cases. Chinese usage is regulated by the in China, and by similar agencies in Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. If you鈥檙e preparing to take ATA鈥檚 certification exam and have questions about accepted usage, you can probably find the answers there or in the resources that are allowed during the exam.
Which Chinese?
For any professional translator, having information about a text鈥檚 source, its purpose, and its target audience is critical for generating the appropriate target-language text (hence the importance of Translation Instructions in our certification exams). Professional translators of Chinese are no exception. They must ask their clients for this information so they can determine whether to use simplified or traditional characters, layout and punctuation, and what regional variations in terminology they must observe. An informational brochure on health care options for students from the PRC coming to study in the U.S. may need to be translated differently than such a brochure for Chinese-speaking residents of this country, as differences in usage and medical terms may apply.
In an effort to inform prospective candidates for ATA certification in Chinese>English or English>Chinese of what they might expect on the exam, I asked some graders in this language pair about the issues discussed above. Evelyn Yang Garland, a former Chinese>English grader, told me that candidates are offered source texts in both simplified and traditional characters and can choose which one to translate into English.1 The texts should be understandable to all educated, proficient readers of Chinese, regardless of their country or place of origin.
Two English>Chinese graders, Tianlu Redmon and Chaowei Zhu, kindly answered my questions about their requirements and expectations for candidates translating into Chinese. They reported that candidates can use either traditional or simplified characters, though most choose the latter, and no country or region is specified in the Translation Instructions. Regional variations in usage are not an issue, in their experience, and exam passages are general enough to be suitable for target audiences anywhere in the world. When I asked about the reasons candidates may not pass the exam, they cited poor understanding of the source text and inadequate mastery of the target language (which I would venture to say are the two main problems cited by graders in any language pair).
Conclusion
As I wrote in the previous column, exam candidates can rest assured that in all the language pairs we test, the passages chosen for them to translate don鈥檛 contain obscure regionalisms or arcane vocabulary. Graders allow a certain latitude in language usage, but they expect high standards of accuracy, consistency, and target-language fluency. At the conclusion of their grading of each translation, they always ask these basic questions:
- Can the target text be used for its intended purpose?
- Is it intelligible to the intended target reader?
- Does it transfer the meaning of the source text?
If the answer to each question is 鈥測es,鈥 the exam most likely passes.
If you have questions about ATA鈥檚 Certification Program you鈥檇 like to see answered in this column, please email me at hmikkelson@gmail.com.
Notes
- Special thanks to Evelyn for sharing with me a presentation she gave on the subject at ATA54 in 2013, part of which formed the basis of this article.
About the Author
Holly Mikkelson, CT is professor emerita of translation and interpreting at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. She is a federally certified court interpreter and an ATA-certified Spanish<>English translator with four decades of professional experience. She has taught classes and workshops all over the world. She has written many articles and books on various aspects of interpreting and is the author of the Acebo training manuals for court and medical interpreters. She serves as deputy chair of ATA鈥檚 Certification Committee. hmikkelson@gmail.com