Ethics of the translator

Ethics of the translator.

The translator has responsibilities. First of all, he must ensure that he constantly improves his professional level.

Ethical issues are mainly related to the work of an interpreter. It is he who must ensure that he is in shape during work in any state of health. In this sense, his profession is akin to that of an actor, a musician. The translator works in public, and therefore must be neatly and tidily dressed, must speak clearly and, if necessary, speak loudly. He must be extremely disciplined, in no case be late for the planned events.

In addition, a translator is a social profession. In other words, he must be reasonably sociable, polite, well-mannered. Its task is not to hinder, but to promote understanding between people.

During the translation, the translator should strive for neutrality and detachment, understand that jokes and witticisms are not intended for him, but for the audience, and react to them with restraint.

We will formulate the basic rules of translation ethics

Moral principles of the translator

1. A translator is not an interlocutor and not an opponent of the client, but a translator that re-expresses an oral or written text created in one language into a text in another language.

2. It follows from this that the text is inviolable for the translator. The translator does not have the right to change the meaning and composition of the text when translating, shortening it or expanding it at will, if the additional task of adaptation, selection, additions, etc. is not set by the customer.

3. When translating, the translator, with the help of professional actions known to him, always strives to convey the invariant of the original text as much as possible, focusing on the functional dominants of the original.

4. In a translation situation, the translator is obliged to observe the ethics of oral communication, respecting the freedom of the client's personality and not prejudice to his dignity.

5. In some cases, in an environment of consecutive or simultaneous interpretation, an interpreter is also a person vested with diplomatic powers (for example, when translating statements of major politicians in an atmosphere of international contacts). If these diplomatic powers are recognized for the translator, he has the right to sin against the accuracy of the original text, performing the function of an auxiliary person in supporting diplomatic relations, preventing their complication, but is not obliged to protect the interests of any one party.

6. In other cases, the translator has no right to interfere with the relations of the parties, as well as to reveal his own position regarding the content of the translated text.

7. The translator is obliged to take care of his health, since the quality of the translation depends on his physical condition.

8. The translator has no right to react emotionally to individual defects in the speaker's speech and should not reproduce them; in oral translation he is guided by the oral version of the literary norm of the target language.

9. The translator is obliged to immediately signal his lack of competence, and to correct the errors noticed by himself, and not to hide; it is a guarantee of high quality translation and the trust of others.

10. In a written translation, the translator is obliged to comply with the rules for its execution, which ensure a correct attitude towards the customer.

11. In necessary cases, the translator is obliged to maintain confidentiality in relation to the content of the translated text and not to disclose it unnecessarily.

The translator must know his responsibilities. Therefore, the company concludes a contract with the translator, which lists all of its functions and calls the payment for their implementation. For example, the contract should stipulate the form (oral / written or both) and the type or types (oral consecutive / simultaneous, etc.) of the translation that the translator should carry out, as well as from which language he should translate.

Consider the professional duties of a translator.

Professional requirements

1. The translator must have a professionally trained voice and be able to use it, as well as know how to restore the voice in case of overexertion.

2. An indispensable professional requirement is pure diction, absence of speech defects.

3. Knowledge of translation techniques is mandatory. These include: mnemonics (memorization techniques); the skill of switching to different types of coding; the skill of speech compression and speech deployment; the skill of applying complex types of transformation of descriptive translation, generalization, antonymic translation, compensation.

4. The translator needs to be able to use dictionaries and other sources of information.

5. It is desirable to know the translation notation or abbreviated notation.

6. The translator must have knowledge of a foreign language at a level close to bilingualism, as well as knowledge of the culture of the people speaking this language.

7. An equally important condition for the success of his professional activity is an active mastery of the main speech genres and basic types of text in both his native and foreign languages.

8. The translator is obliged to constantly replenish the active vocabulary in both languages.