Significance of translation and interpreting

2  Significance of translation and interpreting

The importance of translating and interpreting in modern society has long been recognized. Practically not a single contact at the international level or even between two persons speaking different languages can be established or maintained without the help of translators or interpreters.

Equally important is translating and interpreting for the functioning of different international bodies (conferences, symposia, congresses etc.) to say nothing about bodies like the World Piece Council or the United Nations Organizations with its councils, assemblies, commissions, committees, sub-committees. These can function smoothly only thanks to an army of translation and interpreters representing different states and working in many different national languages.

Numerous branches of national economies too can keep up with the up-to-date development and progress in the modern world thanks to everyday translating/ interpreting of scientific and technical matter covering various fields of human knowledge and activities. The latter comprise nuclear sciences, exploration of outer space, ecological environment, plastics, mining, chemistry, biology, medicine, machine building, electronics linguistics, etc. Nowadays translation of scientific and technical matter has become a most significant and reliable source of obtaining all-round and up-to-date information on the progress in various fields of science and technology.

The social and political role of translation/ interpreting has probably been most strongly felt for the last hundred years or so. Since the birth of Marxism in the second half of the 19th century and Leninism in the 20th century translation has acquired an extraordinary significance providing for the dissemination of revolutionary materialistic ideas and philosophy in the minds of proletarian and working masses throughout the world.

Translating is also a perfect means of sharing achievements and enriching national literatures and cultures. The many translations of the best prose, poetry and drama works of world’s famous authors into different national languages provide a vivid illustration of this permanent process. Due to masterly translations the works by W. Shakespeare, W. Scott, G. G. Byron, P. B. Shelley, C. Dickens, W. Theckeray, H.W. Longfellow, Mark Twain, J. London, T. Dreiser and many other authors have become part of many national literatures. The works by Ukrainian authors have also been translated into English and some other languages, the process being increasingly intensified with each passing decade after the Great Revolution. As a result when before 1917 a few poems by Taras Shevchenko were translated and published in English outside our country. Brilliant works by Lesya Ukrainka, Ivan Franko, Mykhailo Kotsyubinskiy, Vasyl Stefanyk, Andrii Holovko, Oles Honchar became available for foreign readers.

But whatever the kind of the matter (belles–lettres, scientific or technical, didactic, etc.) and irrespective of the form in which it is performed (written or oral) the linguistic significance of translation remains unchanged. It promotes enriching the lexicon of the target language. As a result of the unceasing translating / interpreting throughout the world the wordstock of national languages is constantly increasingly. Thousands of words being originally specific national notions only have become an integral part of practically each language’s lexicon. Hence one one can speak of translating/ interpreting as a means of enriching the lexicon of national languages too. But it is not only the wordstock of languages that is constantly (and most evidently) enlarged due to translating/ interpreting. Many stylistic figures of speech, ways of saying and even (though rather rarely) syntactic structures are brought to target languages through translating/ interpreting. It can be proved by the existence of a lot of words and word-combinations having in different languages the same or similar lingual form and identical lexical meaning: leader лідер, box бокс, boycott бойкот, sport спорт, borshch борщ, borzoi борзой, deep gratitude глибока вдячність, black ingratitude чорна вдячність.

Whole sentence structures have been adopted in the process of translating/ interpreting. He laughs best who laughs last – Той сміється найкраще, хто сміється останнім; Strike the iron while it is hot - Куй залізо, доки гаряче.

All that can also be a testimony to the versatile influence of language contrasts. But whatever the origin, the structural identify of word – groups and sentences facilities their translation from English into Ukrainian or vice versa.

3  Translation in teaching of foreign languages

Translation as means of teaching foreign languages has no independent means of translating only. Still translating in a foreign language teacher’s arsenal should not be ignored completely since in many a case it remains not only the most effective but also the only teaching means for achieving the necessary aim. That is why translating is often resorted to in the following cases:

1. When introducing abstract lexical notions which cannot easily be explained in a descriptive way or by actions (gestures): think, hate, love, actual, invincible, generally, peace, turn, etc.

2. In order to save time and avoid diverting the attention of students by lengthily explanation of the meaning of words, word-combinations or sentences in the process of reading or listening to an unfamiliar passage.

3. When checking the comprehension of the lexical material (new words, expressions) and in order to avoid the unnecessary ambiguity which may arise in the process of teaching through pictures since a picture of a tree, for example, may be understood as “a tree” or a kind of tree (oak-tree, birch-tree, pine-tree, etc.).

4. To explain while introducing (usually at the initial stage of learning) the new grammar/ phonetical material especially the phenomena which do not exist in the native tongue (e.g. the continuous or the perfect forms of the verb, the tunes in questions, etc.).

5. When revising the lexical or grammar material studied at the lesson/ at previous lessons in answering questions like “What is the Ukrainian/ English for the “gerund,” the “continuous/ the perfect forms of the verb?”

6. While discriminating the meaning of synonyms or antonyms of the foreign languages.

7. To control the knowledge of students in written and oral tests on lexical or grammar material.

8. When introducing phraseology which is quite impossible to teach and learn otherwise than on the basis of translating.

9. Before learning any text by heart (poems, excerpts of prose, the roles of characters in plays).

10. When dealing with the figures of speech like metaphors, epithets, similes, hyperboles, etc. in the process of reading or translating the belles-lettres passages at the advanced stage.

11. When comparing the expressive means in the source language to those in the target language, etc.

Translating helps the student to master the expressive means in the source language and the corresponding means in the target language. In the process of translating the students establish sets of equivalent substitutes in the target language for the corresponding lexical, grammatical or stylistic phenomena of the source language. No wonder that the students at any stage of learning a foreign language when not understanding some word, word-combination or sentence always resorts to intuitive translating of it.