The barrage of communication we have all had to deal with during the height of COVID-19 was undoubtedly overwhelming to all, but to those who were not proficient in English, language was an extra hurdle to overcome. For those health workers who found themselves working in an entity where their main language was not spoken, language also proved to be a barrier. Newspoint chatted with Dr Claudine Borg, literary translator and lecturer at the Junior College and Visiting Lecturer within the Department of Translation, Terminology, and Interpreting Studies, about how COVID-19 is still a challenge for translators, and why she is grateful to have gone down this career path.
What path did you take to become a translator and how long have you been translating?
After obtaining my first degree in French and International Relations, I landed a job in the telecommunications industry. It was a start-up company and I was engaged specifically to perform linguistic-related duties including translation of a wide range of material and interpreting during meetings.
This professional experience in translation and interpreting led me to enrol in the first Master in Translation and Interpreting course offered by the University of Malta in 2003. I graduated in 2006 and I was part of the first cohort of trained translators in Maltese. In the meantime, I started doing freelance translation work and in 2008 I moved into teaching.
In 2017, I obtained my doctorate in Translation Studies from Aston University, Birmingham. To answer your question, I have been translating in a professional setting for over twenty years but my main focus has now shifted to literary translation and research.
Do you think there is a good balance between the theoretical and practical aspect of translation studies for students?
In 2018, the Master in Translation and Terminology has been redesigned specifically to achieve such a balance. Students are exposed to both theory and practice. In fact, in 2019 the course was admitted to the European Master’s in Translation (EMT) network, a quality label for MA university programmes in translation. We are very proud of this achievement as the EMT label is very prestigious and selective.
COVID-19 has been termed by Wired.com as history’s biggest translation challenge. Do you agree? Why do you think it is so?
The challenge was twofold. Given the lack of vaccine, curbing the virus depended on the dissemination of accurate information and messages in as many languages as possible: wash your hands, stay at home, keep a safe distance, and so on. Getting the message across in community languages was certainly a challenge for authorities around the world and the reliance on all forms of translation, whether inter-lingual, subtitling, or sign language interpreting, was evident. Translation clearly played a key role in the fight against the virus.
On the other hand, COVID-19 was a challenge for the profession too. Many translators, like other professions, were hit hard by the pandemic: projects were cancelled, conferences and meetings requiring interpreting services were called off.
Are you in favour of using technology to help you with translating?
Yes, definitively. Tools and technologies such as computer-aided translation (CAT) tools and machine translation technologies have become part and parcel of a translator’s life. CAT tools are an asset for non-literary translators as they increase productivity and facilitate the translation process. Significant strides are being made in machine translation technology. In my opinion, we have no choice but to embrace new technologies and use them to our advantage.
What has been the hardest work you’ve had to translate?
As a novice translator, some fifteen years ago, I was assigned a document abounding with armament terminology which I had to translate from French into Maltese. My lack of knowledge on the topic and the lack of terminology in Maltese – back then terminology databases were not available in Maltese or unreliable – resulted in a very slow and painstaking translation process. It took me days to translate a few pages!