CI_07_84

Venezuela
La trad.uction
au Venezuela:
cOOlOle au
Québec
il y a 15 ans
L
es premiers diplômés en traduction
de l'École des langues modernes de
l'Université centrale du Venezuela à
Caracas sont arrivés sur le marché du
travail, il y a cinq ans à peine. Jusque-là,
tous les traducteurs pratiquant au Venezuela
étaient soit des autodidactes, soit
des personnes qui avaient reçu leur formation
professionnelle à l'étranger. Cette
situation rappelle un peu celle qui existait
au Québec avant la systématisation
de la formation des traducteurs: grande
diversité de compétence professionnelle
chez les traducteurs en exercice, anarchie
des tarifs pratiqués, conditions de
travail souvent incompatibles avec un
produit de qualité. Les diplômés de
l'École ont constitué un embryon d'association
professionnelle à laquelle ils tentent
de rallier les traducteurs en exercice.
Ceux-ci toutefois manifestent beaucoup
de réticence, craignant la concurrenca
des diplômés
Une seconde caractéristique de la situation
de la traduction au Venezuela, c'est
la forte prédominance du secteur privé
sur le secteur public comme employeur.
L'État emploie peu de traducteurs et d'interprètes
et ne recourt à leurs services
que d'une façon sporadique. Enfin, le
marché demande davantage de traducteurs
vers les langues étrangères que
vers l'espagnol.
Tels sont les renseignements qui se sont
notamment dégagés d'un colloque organisé
en juillet dernier à l'occasion du 10 e
anniversaire de la fondation de l'École
de langues modernes. Le colloque a permis
des échanges très fructueux sur les
diverses disciplines qu'on pourrait qualifier
de traductionnelles et a permis aussi,
sur le plan humain, l'établissement de
contacts qu'il serait intéressant de poursuivre.
Il ne fait pas de doute que l'expérience
du Québec et du Canada dans
ces diverses disciplines peut être profitable
à d'autres, mais nous pouvons aussi
retirer grandement de ce qui se fait
ailleurs. ~
Robert Dubuc
~"'Silvér
Tongues"
by Mary Coppin
"'SilverTongUe"conjures up the
image of an eloquent speaker who
shapes language gracefully to his
purpose. It is an apt image of the
translator or interpreter. .. Silver is also
the symbol of the 25th anniversary... "*
and it was in a festive spirit that, last
September, sorne 650 conferees came
from ail over the United States, to New
York where it ail began, to celebrate the
American Translators Association's
twenty-fifth birthday, and to enjoy the
one annual opportunity they have to meet,
to share experiences and to learn.
A number of Canadian translators and
interpreters travelled south to attend the
conference. The Société des traducteurs
du Québec (STQ) and the Association of
Translators and Interpreters of Ontario
(ATIO) were represented as was the
Canadian Translators and Interpreters
Council (CTIC). Anna 1I0va, President of
the FIT, lent prestige to the conference
by her presence.
ATA's programme committee went ail out
to provide variety for its gala conference
with two morning and two afternoon
periods, usually with five concurrent
sessions. There was almost an embarrassment
of riches. The conference
programme describing the sessions was
weil written and provocative, although,
on occasion, the session did not live up
to its description. Sessions were classified
in a number of subject fields. There
were translation applications dealing
with, for example, quality and quantity in
translation, and court interpretation.
André Caron and Monique Larichellière
of the Secretary of State's Translation
Bureau lent their expertise to presentations
on computer aided translation.
Other sessions dealt with government
issues, science and technology, translation
theory, translator and interpreter
training and ATA programmes.
Many of ATA's sorne 2 000 members are
foreign language translators (including a
few French translators!) and as a
consequence the language-specific
topics featured workshops in Arabic­
English, Japanese-English, in Italian,
Russian, German, French and Spanish
translation. One paper was given in
Spanish. Literary sessions also dealt
with Spanish and German writers and
sorne workshops in other subject fields
reflected the multilingual aspect of
ATA's membership.
Many presentations were of a "how to,"
"step by step" or in-class lecture type,
at times very detailed and very specific,
but others were of a more general and
theoretical nature.
One informative presentation was given
by Robert Serré, a member of ATIO, who
described his basic principles in establishing
entries for his vocabulary on erosion
(even if someone asked why anyone
wou Id want to know that much about
erosion !). Mr. Serré spoke simply and
clearly and his enthusiasm showed
through in a thoroughly engaging
presentation. He was followed by a
Spanish gentleman, Javier Collazo, who
produced the English-Spanish Dictionary
of Technology published by McGraw
Hill. In response to a query (shades of
Gordon Sinclair) on how much he had
made in royalties since his dictionary was
published in 1980, he said, "$220,000. "
Of course his dictionary was years in
the making.
If you cou Id judge by the comments of
conferees ATA was doing an excellent
job of meeting their needs. For example,
a session on the in-house translator may
have offered little that was new or
challenging, but the conferees loved il.
They asked countless questions and
aired their problems. It could have gone
on for hours.
For the first time this year, ATA presented
the Proceedings of the conference, in
book form, to each registrant. The
Proceedings, of 478 pages, include a
synopsis of the papers in each subject
field, an abstract of each paper, and the
papers themselves. A little curious,
perhaps, to publish the Proceedings
before the conference, but an achievement
nevertheless, and a practical
solution to an expensive distribution
problem. The book retails for $50 US.
A number of conferees 1 talked to make
the ATA conference an annual event, pay
their own way and use part of their
vacation to attend. What better commendation
can you have than that? ~
* Proceedings af the 25th Annual Canference
af the American Translatars Assaciatian,
Medford, N.J., Learned Information Inc., 1984.
Preface, page xii.
20 • CIRCUIT - DÉCEMBRE 1984