Found in Language Translation: Saving Lives and Protecting Rights

Language translation touches every aspect of life. This is the main message of the just released book Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World, by Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche.

In June we brought you a post outlining the ten most widely held myths about language translation, according to Nataly Kelly, Chief Research Officer at Common Sense Advisory.

More recently we posted a two-part story concerning Ms. Kelly’s research on how language translation had played a role in shaping the presidency Jimmy Carter.

Now Ms. Kelly is once again in the news, together with her partner Jost Zetzsche, as co-authors of the book Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World, which was just released on October 2.

The book illustrates how translation affects every aspect of our lives - and not only by way of international politics and business. Kelly and Zetzsche have assembled a collection of interesting and entertaining stories that depict how translation affects each of us personally, through the books we read, the movies we watch, the food we eat, and even the opinions we hold dear. The authors also show how language translation and interpretation can save lives, perhaps even our own.

In chapter 1, entitled Saving Lives and Protecting Rights in Translation, Kelly describes in chilling detail her actual experience as an on call 911 emergency interpreter:

“The phone rings, jolting me to attention. It’s almost midnight on a Friday night…I pick up before it rings a second time. ‘Interpreter three nine four zero speaking, how may I help you?’ The dispatcher wastes no time with pleasantries. ‘Find out what’s wrong,’ he barks in English. He didn’t ask me to confirm the address, so I assume he must already have police officers headed to the scene. I ask the Spanish speaker how we can help. I wait for a response. Silence.

I ask the question again. No answer, but I can hear there’s someone on the line…Then suddenly, I hear a timid female voice speaking so quietly that I can barely make out the words. ‘Me va a matar,’ she whispers. The tiny hairs on my arm stand up on end. I swiftly render her words into English: ‘He’s going to kill me.’ Not missing a beat, the dispatcher asks, ‘Where is he now?’ ‘Outside, I saw him through the window,’ I state, after listening to the Spanish version. I’m trying to stay calm and focused, but the fear in the caller’s voice is not only contagious, but essential to the meaning I have to convey.”

The foregoing excerpt is but one true example of how critical translation and interpreting can be in a life and death situation. It’s because of such examples and others in this book that the authors hope readers will come away with an appreciation for translation and interpreting, and that they will begin to see these as a hidden thread that holds this world together. The goal is to highlight the importance of this work in society at large, so that people will pay more attention to it. As Kelly herself observes, “it’s like a big awareness campaign for translation and interpreting.”

Is there an aspect of your life that’s been affected by translation or interpretation? If so, please post a comment and share your story with us.

By Alex Dupont
Marketing Communications Specialist
Language Translation Inc.

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