Review: The General Theory of the Translation Company

The General Theory of the Translation Company by Renato Beninatto
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you want to set up a translation agency, this book won't really help you. 

Don't get me wrong, it is very interesting and has a lot of background, history and theory. So it's quite informative and interesting. 

However, it doesn't really contain any actionable information, like How to set up a company, how to find clients, how to find good translators, dealing with payments, with competitors (although it has quite a bit of background and theory on this), with setting up bank accounts, or with legalities. 

Also, it seems to discuss agencies with in-house translators/employees more than anything. No discussion about freelance professionals, even though I think most LSPs use those these days. 

And it seems to focus mostly on larger LSPS (separate vendor managers and project managers, sales team, finance, team, supply chain manager, account manager, etc.)

But actually, this was pretty helpful in its own way. For example, by viewing my LSP as a larger one with separate departments, I can envision what I should concentrate on when wearing different hats (marketing, vendor relationships, finance, etc.)

In fact, I found this book pretty helpful in terms of ideas for focusing on my niche, etc., as well as not using the word "Agency". 

Anyway, you can find it for free here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWGISRZ0csY&list=PLbLEqr5KQOXN6XfpI7jTvpdvKfHMZILhH  so feel free to listen to it there, but I'd say it's not actionable enough to make it worth it. 

2.5 stars

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Review: Facing the Bridge

Facing the Bridge by Yōko Tawada
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really need to be in the right mood to read Tawada's books. This contained three short stories. I enjoyed reading all three, right until the end. They each seem not to end, but just to stop, without really saying or concluding anything. It is quite odd. 

Anyway, for the first story, I feel like she could have explained a bit more why Amo decided to do what he did at the end. In fact, I wasn't sure why Tamao was acting the way he was half the time either. 

In the second story, it seemed to be getting interesting, but abruptly ended (on a weird note). 

The third story was somewhat engrossing, and probably had more symbolism than I could catch. Once again the ending was very odd to me. 

Probably should have been a dnf, but I was curious about the last story since it was called "St. George and the Translator".

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Review: Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything

Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything by David Bellos
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book for the Translation Book Club: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TranslationBooks

This wasn't as entertaining as I hoped it would be, but should probably be required reading for anyone who wishes to take translation seriously. It contains a lot of the history of translation and reasons behind the things we do, and it goes through many of the intricacies of translation and interpreting for organizations like the European Union, etc. 

If you think you might be interested in translation, start with "Through the Language Glass" by Guy Deutscher. If you are already committed to translation, read this book. 

Some of my notes:

"The translator's job is to express the force of the utterance in those particular circumstances in forms appropriate to the target language and culture. Whether or not the chosen form of words corresponds to the sentence-meaning of the sentence that Jim uttered is beside the point".  

(p. 70)

'It's complicated' would be "C'est compliqué" in French. But the 2009 movie "It's complicated" (Alec Baldwin, Meryl Streep) was translated as "Pas si simple". Why? Because it worked much better in terms of the movie. In fact, in Spanish it was "No es tan facil". In Italian, it was "E' complicato", but I wonder if it would have been better as "Non è così facile" or something. 

(Taken from p. 79)

"To know a language is to know how to say the same thing in different words (p.102)

The whole section on 'class presumption' (p. 189) was fascinating. I've seen it in other instances, but this example is one of the clearest. 

"Translation is the opposite of empire" (p. 212)

The spread of a language as a 'pivot' is not due to its native speakers. Ex: China's Confucius Institute translates the Chinese classics into French, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi and Malay, but all 'on the basis of the English translation' (p. 223)

"Children and women with babes in arms" Do the children have babes in arms as well? (p. 246)

Shibata Motoyuki (p. 303)

Otto Von Bismarck's "Adjutant" vs. "Adjudant" incident (P. 315)

Translation is a thankless task. When a book is translated well, the author is praised. When translated badly, the translator is blamed. (p. 330)

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