Wednesday 14 November 2012

Jak wypełnić angielski pozew o rozwód?


Większość z Was nie raz zmierzała się z niezrozumiałymi formularzami i wnioskami. Ze względu na terminologię prawniczą, formularze sądowe należą do grupy tych trudniejszych. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest ułatwienie Wam wypełnienie pozwu o rozwód. Należy podkreślić, iż poniższe instrukcje nie stanowią porady prawnej, ale jedynie zawierają wskazówki i wyjaśnienia pomagające w wypełnieniu pozwu.

W „Introduction” czyli wstępie natrafimy na zdanie: The petition is issued by... – tutaj należy wpisać swoje imię i nazwisko. Osoba składająca pozew to po angielsku petitioner, druga strona zaś to respondent. Punkt 1 to informacje o czasie i miejscu zawarcia małżeństwa, należy wpisać tam również pełne imiona i nazwiska swoje oraz małżonka/i. Kolejne punkty odnoszą się do zmiany nazwiska któregokolwiek z małżonków oraz do miejsca ich zamieszkania.

Kłopotów może nam nastręczyć punkt 3, w którym należy określić na jakiej podstawie sąd posiada jurysdykcję w Państwa sprawie. Podstawę tę stanowi głównie miejsce zamieszkania przynajmniej jednej ze stron. Zatem wystarczy wpisać odpowiednie sformułowane zdanie, np. The petitioner and respondent are both habitually resident in England and Wales – jeżeli obie strony mieszkają na stałe w Anglii lub Walii.

W wypełnieniu punktu 4. pomoże tłumaczenie terminów by occupation – „z zawodu” oraz resides at – „zamieszkały w/przy”. Punkty 5 i 6 dotyczą dzieci, należy zatem wpisać ich imiona i nazwiska. W przypadku, gdy małżeństwo jest bezdzietne, wystarczy wykreślić słowo except. W punktach 7-9 wymagane jest określenie, czy toczą się jakiekolwiek inne postępowania w sprawie małżeństwa, dzieci czy jakiejkolwiek własności należącej do którejkolwiek ze stron.

Punkt 10 należy wypełnić tylko w przypadku, gdy pozew składany jest po 5-letniej separacji. W 11-tce mowa jest o nieodwracalnym rozbiciu małżeństwa. Należy wykreślić ten paragraf, w przypadku gdy pozew składany jest o separację lub mediację. Jeśli zaś wnioskujemy o rozwód, należy uzasadnić dlaczego małżeństwo zostało nierozerwalnie rozbite. W tym celu musimy wpisać jedno z pięciu gotowych uzasadnień wymienionych w broszurze załączonej do pozwu.

Kolejna część formularza to Particulars, czyli szczegóły. W tym miejscu przedstawiamy zarzuty obciążające drugą stronę, a jednocześnie będące dowodem uzasadnień z punktu 12. Wystarczą daty, miejsca i krótkie opisy wydarzeń, nie opisujemy całej historii małżeństwa.

Prayer to kolejna część formularza, w której określamy, o co wnioskujemy do sądu. Jeżeli tylko o separację, to wykreślamy zdanie w punkcie (1) The suit i wpisujemy That the petitioner may be judicially separated from the respondent. W punkcie 2 uzupełniamy zdanie slowem respondent, jeżeli chcemy odzyskać koszty sądowe lub petitioner, jeśli nie chcemy by koszty były pokryte przez małżonka/ę. Ancilliary relief czyli zaopatrzenie małżonka lub dziecka (okresowe lub jednorazowe wpłaty), w tym punkcie wykreślamy te nakazy, o które nie wnioskujemy.

Na koniec musimy złożyć swój podpis, podać adres małżonka/i, załączyć lub przynieść osobiście akt małżeństwa oraz opłatę sądową. Jeśli w małżeństwie są dzieci, należy również wypełnić formularz Statement of Arrangements.

Warto zaznaczyć, iż aby wyrok rozwodowy był prawomocny, pozew musi być poprawnie wypełniony. Wszelkie pomyłki mogą wpłynąć na niekorzyść wnioskodawcy. Ponadto samo wypełnienie pozwu to nie wszystko; w niektórych przypadkach - jeśli strony nie dojdą do porozumienia w kwestii podziału majątku lub opieki nad dzieckiem - konieczne jest postępowanie sądowe. Jeśli potrzebujesz pomocy przy wypełnieniu pozwu rozwodowego lub w dalszym postępowaniu sądowym, skontaktuj się z Transliterią. Zadzwoń od numer +44(0)7851666508 lub napisz info@transliteria.co.uk Rozwód to bardzo stresujące doświadczenie, nie pozwól, aby bariera językowa była dodatkowym powodem do zmartwień.

Friday 19 October 2012

How to translate a divorce petition? Basic terminology of divorce proceedings in translation.


English legal terminology differs across each type of the area of law. Therefore, we may find diverse terms for the same notion e.g. in tort law and in family law. Equally, each area of law has its characteristic phrases and collocations. In this post, I will examine some of the terms, phrases and collocations used in divorce proceedings.

The Parties

In English law, the party who files a divorce petition is called a petitioner- in Polish rendered as powód (female: powódka). It is worth noting that Polish powód is also used in other civil cases and means claimant. Hence, while in English the term petitioner is reserved only for cases that involve filing a petition e.g. divorce or bankruptcy, its Polish translation is applied across all civil cases. Similarly, Polish pozwany (female: pozwana) refers to a defending party in all civil court cases, while its equivalent – respondent is used only in cases involving petition and in appeals.

The Marriage

It goes without saying that in order to get a divorce, a couple needs to be married. Undoubtedly, the marriage must be legal, and the collocation used in English law is lawfully married to... which should be translated as zawarł(a) związek malżeński z...  Note that the term ‘lawfully’ added to the English version to underline the legality of the marriage is omitted in Polish, since the very entrance into marriage already implies its lawfulness. Therefore, in the Polish Family and Guardianship Code (Kodeks Cywilny i Opiekuńczy) we find only zawarcie związku małżeństwa (entering into marriage).

The Divorce

When submitting a petition for a divorce, the petitioner claims that the marriage has broken down irretrievably which is rendered into nastąpił nieodrwacalny rozkład pożycia. Polish law goes further and tells about zupełny i trwały rozkład pożycia Article 56 (1) of the Family and Guardianship Code, where zupełny means complete, and trwały implies an irretrievable breakdown.

Having met the condition of the marriage being broken down irretrievably, the petitioner may ask the judge to dissolve the marriage, which translates into rozwiązać malżeństwo.

Prayer

The prayer of a petition is a request to the court in relation to the decision, costs and ancillary relief. Translation of the term itself should not pose any problems, although there is still a room for error, as translators might be tempted to use a common term prośba, which denotes a general request, yet given that the context is strictly legal, żądanie is a much more appropriate equivalent. With reference to Article 187(1) of the (Polish) Civil Procedure Rules (Kodeks Postępowania Cywilnego), żądanie is one of the obligatory parts of the petition. It would not be a mistake to translate the term into treść pozwu (literally: main body/content of the divorce petition), as – in this context - the term is sometimes used interchangeably with żądanie.

Ancillary relief defined as “a court order incidental to another order or application”refers to a financial provision order or a property adjustment order. These two are treated separately in the Polish law, and hence there is no umbrella term for both. Having said that, for the purposes of rendering the ancillary relief term, translators can reach for zaopatrzenie małżonka, which is the closest equivalent, although not widely used by Polish solicitors. When it comes to the financial matters of a divorce, the two main issues a Polish decree will cover are obowiązek alimentacyjnymaintenance order and podział majątkudivision of joint property. The court has also jurisdiction to rule on sposobie korzystania z mieszkania - the use of the residence. When faced with the alimenty term, it is tempting to resort to a calque alimony, which is entirely appropriate if the target language is American English, yet if the translated document is for a British client, the equivalent to be applied here is maintenance. Strongly related to this term is another legal phrase found in a divorce petition, namely a maintenance pending suit – initially misleading, as one may concentrate on the ‘suit’ and consider ‘maintenance pending’ as determiners. On the contrary, ‘maintenance’ here is the main lexical unit and its determiners ‘pending suit’ mean (during/for the time of the suit). The closest equivalent in Polish is alimenty na czas trwania sprawy rozwodowej.
Legal terminology of divorce proceedings has its own specific terms and collocations. In order to render them appropriately into Polish, translators need to be familiar with the basic rules of the divorce proceedings both in English and Polish law.

Friday 5 October 2012

Jak uzyskać brytyjski paszport dla dziecka?


Z założenia dzieci urodzone w Wielkiej Brytanii, których rodzice są Polakami, mają polskie obywatelstwo i przysługuje im polski paszport. Aczkolwiek, zamiast wycieczki do ambasady w Londynie i długiego oczekiwania na dokument, można wybrać znacznie łatwiejszą i szybszą (!) opcję składając wniosek o paszport brytyjski.

Czy jest to możliwe?

Tak, pomimo iż oboje rodziców dziecka nie są brytyjczykami, to ich pociecha może stać się obywatelem Wielkiej Brytanii. Na stronie Home Office czytamy, że dziecko może uzyskać brytyjski paszport tylko jeśli przynajmniej jedno z rodziców posiada obywatelstwo brytyjskie lub gdy rodzice są „settled” w UK. Cały sekret polega na interpretacji tegoż właśnie terminu, albowiem pracownicy infolinii „Passport Advice” wyjaśniają, iż chodzi tu o proces naturalizacji czyli nadania obywatelstwa przez państwo. W praktyce zaś, „settled” to nic innego jak warunek przebywania i przepracowania w UK ponad 5 lat. Wielu z nas spełnia ten warunek.


Co należy zrobić, żeby uzyskać paszport?

Po pierwsze, należy zdobyć i wypełnić wniosek, który można dostać w każdej poczcie. Istnieje również możliwość wypełnienia wniosku online. Do formularza musimy załączyć pełny akt urodzenia dziecka (odpis nie wystarczy), dwa zdjęcia (istnieją pewne wymogi dotyczące zdjęć, w przypadku noworodków mogą być zrobione w domu, ale twarz dziecka nie może być niczym zasłonięta, maluch powinien (choć nie musi) mieć oczy otwarte, tło powinno być jasne (szare lub beżowe). Dodatkowo, jedna z fotografii musi zostać poświadczona przez obywatela Wielkiej Brytanii, który zna jednego z rodziców dziecka przez conajmniej 2 lata. Osoba ta również musi spełniać pewne kryteria, a mianowicie winna mieć określony zawód cieszący się zaufaniem publicznym, np. prawnik, policjant, lekarz, nauczyciel itd. Pełna lista znajduje się na stronie www.direct.gov oraz w broszurce załączonej do wniosku. Poświadczenie zdjęcia polega na napisaniu przez tę osobę zdania o następującej treści: „I certify that this is a true likeness of [imię i nazwisko dziecka]” , podpisania zdjęcia i napisania daty.

Teraz czas na dokumenty potwierdzające, że przynajmniej jedno z rodziców przebywało i pracowało w Wielkiej Brytanii przez ponad 5 lat. W tym celu należy przedłożyć P60 z tego okresu.

Koszty

Wyrobienie paszportu standardowym trybem kosztuje £46,00, zaś w trybie przyspieszonym Fast Track (z założenia jeden tydzień zamiast dwóch, w praktyce tylko trzy dni!) to inwestycja rzędu £87,00. Warto nadmienić, iż w przypadku trybu standardowego, wniosek wysyłamy pocztą, wybierając zaś Fast Track musimy złożyć dokumenty osobiście w jednym z urzędów paszportowych (osoby mieszkające w Bournemouth i okolicach kierowane są do Newport w Walii).

Skoro jesteśmy przy kosztach, warto wspomnieć dodatkową usługę zwaną „Check & Send”, dzięki której nasze dokumenty i wniosek zostaną sprawdzone na poczcie, czy wszystko jest poprawnie wypełnione oraz czy niczego nie brakuje. Ponadto, wykupując tę usługę, możemy mieć pewność, że nasz wniosek zostanie wysłany specjalną bezpieczną przesyłką a także będzie szybciej rozpatrzony. Check & Send to dodatkowe £8,75, które, ze względu na korzyści jakie niesie usługa, warto wydać.

Czy warto?

Jeżeli chodzi o kwestie formalne, to wyrobienie brytyjskiego paszportu wydaje się znacznie łatwiejsze i szybsze niż w przypadku paszportu polskiego, głównie dlatego, że nie musimy jechać do Londynu,a tylko udać się do lokalnej poczty. Oba dokumenty są ważne 5 lat (do niedawna polski paszport była ważny tylko rok, od sierpnia zaś weszła nowa ustawa przedłużająca okres ważności dokumentu do lat 5-ciu). Pozostaje jedynie kwestia natury etycznej/ patriotycznej, a mianowicie, czy rodzice chcą, żeby ich dziecko było obywatelem Polski czy Wielkiej Brytanii.

 

Monday 24 September 2012

Translator as the "law-maker"?



     Before you dive into the post, I suggest you browse through the previous one (“Legaltranslation: differences in common and civil law related to judicial decisions”) as both are strongly related.

In relation to the arguments in the previous post, it can be claimed that judges are law-makers, since the judgments they issue are authoritative legal texts. Likewise, as Šarčevič (cf. 1994:301) argues in the context of multilingual law, the translated text shows no inferiority towards the original, hence both the source and the target texts are often referred to as authoritative, i.e. they have the same legal effect. At this point a question arises: if judges, as the original text producers, are called law-makers, can translators be considered law-makers as well, since they produce a text of the same legal effect, though in the target language?

However disappointing it may sound for the translators, the answer is simply negative; the text production by the judge differs considerably from the one of the translator, and the difference lies in the process of interpretation. Alcaraz and Hughes (2002:24) provide a clear explanation of this issue:

For the translator, the purpose of interpretation is to decide on the closest possible linguistic equivalent in the target language, while for the judge it is to match up the resulting propositions against the definitions established in existing law. The difference, of course, is that the translator’s work is over once the semantic hurdle has been negotiated, whereas the judge must go on to apply the results of the linguistic analysis and announce a decision in accordance with the rules and principles of law.

Bibliography



 Alcaraz, Enrique; Hughes, Brian. Legal Translation Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome

 Publishing, 2002.

Šarčevič, Susan. New Approach to Legal Translation. The Hague: Kluwer Law International,  

1997.

Wednesday 12 September 2012

Legal translation: differences in common and civil law related to judicial decisions


Legal translation is one of the most difficult areas to specialize in. Translators need to overcome not only linguistic differences but also discrepancies in the legal systems, namely common law and civil law (e.g. in the case of English – Polish translations). The main incongruity between common and civil law, which directly influences for example the judiciary and their decisions, exists on the level of legislation, i.e. the sources of law.

The continental civil law system, which has its origins in Roman Law, is a strictly codified law, thus it derives its authority from codes and statutes (Alcaraz and Hughes 2002:48). The judiciary then plays a role solely of applying the law while common law judges may state the law. This “authoritative source by virtue of the rule of precedent which obliges judges to observe the decisions made by their colleagues of higher courts” (Šarčevič 1997:12) is called case law. As stressed by Griffith (1997:5): “The common law is made as judges decide cases and state the principles on which they are basing their decisions, this accumulation of principles building into a body of law”.

Both the legislator and the judge are lawmakers. Nevertheless, the legislative (statutory) law-making is basically different from judicial law-making, and the statutory form of regulation prevails (Cappelletti 1989:54). Judicial decisions will never be of the same legal force as statutes. The basic rule which governs the case law is that judicial decision making is determined mostly by previous judgments (precedence) made by other judges (Gibbons 2003:6). Such practice though, is inconceivable in the civil law system, where judicial decisions appear “as standard and almost mechanical ‘applications’ of the law” (Cappelletti 1989:53). There seems to be no place for any flexible interpretation, nor for creativity, which by contrast can be observed in the common law jurisprudence; in case of doubt the judges decide how to interpret the statute and as a result, they define its meaning. Such authority, together with their creative function, make the judges’ work of considerable importance, since whenever the question of law arises, their decision will determine the subsequent cases (Griffith 1997:6). The functions of English judges were defined by Philips (2003:52), who, apart from the role of interpreting the law, recognized the function of declaring the law, which is the same as the creative function mentioned by Griffith, and of applying the law, i.e. fitting it to the particular situation.

Bibliography


 Alcaraz, Enrique; Hughes, Brian. Legal Translation Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome

 Publishing, 2002.

Cappelletti, Mauro. The Judicial Process in Comparative Perspective. Oxford: Clarendon

Press, 1989.

Gibbons, John. Forensic Linguistics: An Introduction to Language in the Justice System.

Blackwell Publishing, 2003.

Griffith, J.A.G. The Politics of a Judiciary. London: Fontana Press, 1997.

Philips, Alfred. Lawyers’ Language. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Šarčevič, Susan. New Approach to Legal Translation. The Hague: Kluwer Law International,  

1997.


Wednesday 5 September 2012

English - Polish Translation of English Courts Names


As a predominantly legal translator, I decided to share with you some knowledge on law and legal language. This is why this blog is going to seethe with English and Polish legalese and with advice on how to deal with it. Hopefully, it will be of some use to those of you who struggle with the language of law as well as to novice translators who will find it as a good source of reference.

The first post of the series will feature the names of the English courts, their jurisdiction and Polish translation. The names will be put in hierarchy from the highest court to the lowest.

Here we go!
Hierarchy of English Courts (source: www.hmcourts-service.com)

English Courts hierarchy and their jurisdiction in Polish:

Friday 24 August 2012

Translation (style) guides – guides to nowhere


In the translation industry, it is common practice for the clients to issue style guides that aim to provide a translator with specific instructions to follow when working on a project. These guidelines identify the purpose and the target audience of the translation; they may also enlist the terms that must stay in the source language, e.g. trade names. In essence, the purpose of style guides is to instruct the translator on the issues specific to this particular project.

Unfortunately, more often than not, this is just theory. Experience shows that clients misunderstand the role of translation guidelines making the following mistakes:

1.      They are written as if for beginners/amateurs.

Some of the style guides I received read like a study book for aspiring translators. It seemed as if the client wanted to educate the contractor on how to do the job. For example, they explained general rules of translating technical texts, giving examples of bad translations and comparing them with the good ones. This is basic knowledge that you could include in the first chapter of a book entitled “Introduction to Translation”. If you hire a professional to do a particular job, trust them. They should know their craft and be able to provide a high quality product. And if they don’t, teaching them the basics won’t help, neither will providing examples.
 

2.      They are too lengthy.

Mostly for the reason mentioned above. Extensive guidelines of let’s say over 20 pages with general instructions are a waste of time both for their writer and the reader. Unless there are special reasons behind such a lengthy guide, clients should limit themselves to a minimum. The bottom line is the shorter the better. Remember the KISS rule? Use it whenever you draft a style guide for translators.

The drawback of long guidelines is that reading them takes up too much precious time that could be otherwise spend on translation. Moreover, with so much information to digest, a translator may miss some of the important points.


3.      They do not take into consideration intricacies of the target language.

Each language is governed by its own rules. Take for example Polish - the language I translate into. It hates repetitions, whereas style guides repeatedly (pun intended!) instruct to use the same terms in one sentence or paragraph. In Polish, it sounds particularly artificial and simply horrible. Except for technical terms, almost every word has a few synonyms that very often have the same meaning and can easily be used as a substitution making the target text a much more pleasant read. The same can be said about pronouns, which are excellent to limit the number of repetitions. Still, clients insist that if a given term is used in the source text, it must appear in the target one the same number of times. I understand that consistency is key when it comes to terminology but the mental health of the reader is equally important.

Now a bit of a guidance to those drafting the style guides:

1.      Be brief. Lengthy guidelines take up too much time to read and are much more difficult to adhere to. Simple and concise instructions will do a much better job.

2.      Focus on specific instructions, avoid general advice. Professional translators know their craft.

3.      Don’t tell the translator how to translate. You’re in a client – contractor relation not a teacher – student one. If you are afraid that the project will be done by an inexperienced translator because they accepted a 0.02 USD per word rate, your ‘study book’ will not help at this stage.

4.      Be flexible. Bear in mind that some of your guidelines may not work in a particular language. In this case, you might want to listen to translator’s instructions especially if it’s their mother tongue and you are not particularly familiar with this language. Not saying that translators are always right, but they are aware of the intricacies and rules that govern the language they translate into.

5.      Respect translator’s work. By providing decent style guidelines, you’ll show that you value their work. In return, you will receive a top-notch translation exactly according to your instructions.

Thursday 5 July 2012

Translation done by language learners? I don’t think so...

/picture: New Yourk Times/

Translation can be done by anyone” - this idea appears to have become a general misconception which has been ravaging the translation profession and exasperating its representatives. The world has already admitted that translation cannot be done by machines. Now, Luis von Ahn, the founder of Duolingo, thinks that language learners would make excellent translators. How wrong Mr. von Ahn!
It is tempting to think that if you know a foreign language, you are able to translate. Why not? If you know what a word or a sentence means in a foreign language, you can easily convert it into your mother tongue. You can for example start translating correspondence at a simple level – saying what the author of a letter meant. Straightforward as it sounds, even a simple letter can pose a struggle, as there’s the tone, feelings and unexpressed intentions that need to be taken into consideration, meaning that the translator needs to read between the lines and skilfully render its sense in another language, really anyone can do it?
Another misconception about translation is that it is just a matter of finding words in a dictionary. Well, in that case everyone can flip pages of a lexicon and have a random pick from a word list. How would a language learner know which word to choose if three or more have a very similar meaning? Only professional translators can pick up on these subtleties and render them in the target text. The choice of words in translation is not determined solely by their meaning but equally by the register, tone, context and cultural background for that matter. Surely, studying a foreign language is not enough, unless it is supplied by pragmatics and applied linguistics.
Now, in the light of these facts, imagine that an army of language learners will translate the web, i.e. texts that you will later on read, gain knowledge from and sometimes even rely on. Inaccurate translation, poor language and lack of cohesion will definitely make the websites content deteriorate linguistically. And since we are exposed to the language of the web on a daily basis, it will influence the way we communicate.
The philosophy behind Duolingo was explained in the New York Times some time ago. The author of the article says that “ For online content providers wanting translations, Duolingo offers, for now at least, free labor.” – for now? Does it mean that in the future, companies will have to pay even for translation done, with all respect, by people who can’t do it?
Now consider this: “Because it is still in its early days, there are no independent assessments available of how accurate or efficient it can be.” No one will assess accuracy and efficiency...hmmm Essentially, you’ll be buying a pig in a poke. And I mean buying because: “People and companies can submit their content to Duolingo for translation, a service the company may begin to charge for.”  Seriously, would you agree to be operated on by a 1st year student of medicine and pay for it?
Mr von Ahn – the founder of Duolingo explains its philosophy: “You’re learning a language and at the same time, helping to translate the Web. You’re learning by doing.” Right, great idea but don’t make other people rely on what the students of Duolingo have learnt and more importantly, don’t charge anyone for that.
He also compared this idea to using machine translation, “Google Translate, by contrast, relies entirely on machines to do the work — and while it usually captures the essence of a piece of text, it can sometimes produce bewildering passages.” Well, on this one, I couldn’t agree with you more Mr von Ahn.
However, I am more than worried by reading this: “Mr. von Ahn is thinking of taking on Wikipedia as his first translation project.” – please don’t fiddle with Wikipedia! Too many people rely on it as a source of knowledge and reference source.
“For Duolingo to work well, it needs a huge crowd of learners. The more proficient they become, the greater the chances of accurate translations.” First of all, getting an accurate translation is not winning a lottery ticket; no one should speak of it in ‘chances’ terms. Secondly, by saying that translations will probably get better as the learners progress, Mr von Ahn actually said that at the beginning – when the learners are just beginners - the translations they’ll produce will be even poorer. You couldn’t ask for a better advert, could you?





Thursday 28 June 2012

New website! www.transliteria.co.uk



It was high time to make some changes into the old website which (let’s be honest) wasn’t anything to be proud of:  simple Wordpress  template, plain background, nothing much going on there. It just needed that oomph to look more professional and elegant.

The .com ending in the domain had to be substituted by co.uk to indicate that I am based in the United Kingdom.

I knew that I am not much of a web designer, and that I can be creative when it comes to language rather than graphics. Moreover, when translation projects keep coming in there is never enough time to do anything else. This is why I decided to find a professional for the job. After receiving a few quotes I chose a freelance web designer,  who did a brilliant job. I simply loved his approach: he did not slavishly follow my suggestions just to get it done, but he was coming up with his own ideas, which more often than not turned out to be better solutions.

 And here it is! My new website! Revamped, restructured and rewritten. Another great milestone in my business. The step up has been made, time to prepare for another...

Wednesday 20 June 2012

It's More Than Words: “I understand what they’re saying, but I don’t know what they mean”


Heard the one about the Bangkok dry cleaners who invited their foreign clients to “drop your trousers here and have a good time”? Or the Japanese hotel who invited guests to take advantage of the chambermaid? A Swiss restaurant was proud that their wines “leave you nothing to hope for”.  A Black Sea resort guided visitors to the beach and assured them that they were welcome to it.
These are translation gaffes apparently gathered from around the world by airline staff, and whether they’re true or not, do show that translation is a minefield.
To be sure, there’s nothing wrong with any of the grammar or the choice of the words. And the sentiments are very well-meaning. But these examples make a serious point. However painstakingly put together, they do not mean what the writer wanted them to mean, and the result, at least to English speakers, can be hilarious. Of course, in these cases, there’s no harm done. But General Motors executives were not laughing when they had to re-brand their “Nova” car in Mexico. In Spanish, “no va” means “ doesn’t work”.  At Heathrow, an operative threw the panic lever when he discovered a crate marked “bombas”, which in Portuguese can mean two things – bombs or pumps. The fact that airline terrorists aren’t usually so helpful in labelling their merchandise didn’t occur to anyone.
Communication Competence
Such mistakes can cost fortunes and illustrate the requisite for any company operating internationally, which these days can be almost any company, to have what can be termed communication competence. That is, the ability to recognize the underlay of meaning in any exchange – written or spoken. Within our own language, to extract precisely the meaning of any stretch of language can be difficult enough. How many times have you struggled with a device whose instruction leaflet, although in English, is unintelligible?
But taken to an international dimension in commerce, you have to be even more diligent, more aware of the linguistic setting. It doesn't matter what the transaction, an error can be a costly one. From the simplest transaction of obtaining money on holiday, through to marketing a new product, or to negotiating the intricacies of a cross-border contract, you can’t take anything for granted.
The Role of the Translator
So what about the role of the translator? In literature the translator can bring a creative touch to the material, which is almost as vital as the author’s.  But in the corporate world, the translator can often be seen as an academic inconvenience, unskilled, even, in the ways of trade. And now automatic translation programs such as Google Translate and Yahoo! Babel Fish, which, to be fair, can be invaluable tools, often provide the cost-cutters with an excuse to dispense with the human translator altogether.
But an able native speaking translator can help a company to avoid commercial disasters, especially when it comes to slang, colloquialisms, abbreviations and other linguistic subtleties. The translator’s brief must be to preserve meaning and nuance to translated content, for this can ensure commercial success.
The Power of Language
Take the law.  Legal power, it is said, resides solely in language. What about the growing numbers of foreign nationals, legally resident or not, who need recourse to the law? In many cases, there simply aren’t enough translators to go round for minority languages, so dialogue within the tribunal or the courtroom can be blocked. Even where translation services are readily available, a person’s life consequences can depend on a fair, accurate rendition of the facts.  The translator wields significant power within the law.
Of course, English speakers have it easy. The world has never seen a language so widespread, so strategically located around the globe, with American English at the core of the explosion.  Travelling around the world you’ll witness Russians speaking to Koreans, Chinese negotiating in Brazil, Spaniards writing to Finns, all in English.
It can be argued that this makes English native speakers lazy. And it’s a fact that the demand for foreign language learning by native English speakers is shamefully low.  In some cultures, a family will have, as well as their GP or dentist, their English teacher. But language is fixed by need – and right now English native speakers don’t feel the need to learn a foreign language.
The fact is that if we were more interested in foreign languages, we’d become more interested, and more proficient, in foreign cultures.

by Imogen Reed imogen@linegray.com

Friday 1 June 2012

Transliteria is on Facebook!


Transliteria is on Facebook! This simply had to happen, after a successful year on Twitter, and about two years of blogging it's time to conquer Facebook and then carry on elsewhere.
Social media are an inevitable part of our lives and businesses for that matter. They indirectly dictate our on-line behaviour and have revolutionised the way we consider the Internet. Social media have also imprinted their mark on business promotion. Now thanks to sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+  and recently Pinterest, marketing has gained a new dimension. Can you imagine a large company not promoting their products or services via social media? Me neither.

Therefore, I decided to extend my marketing to Facebook, where I will be updating you on interesting facts and recent events related to translation, language and Poland. I will be also sharing with you my blog posts as well as some secrets and details of my work.

Feel free to ‘like’ my fanpage and share it with your friends. In exchange, I will do my best to keep it as much interesting and interactive as possible. See you on Facebook!

Wednesday 30 May 2012

Linguistic debate over the Polish EURO 2012 slogan


With the EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine launching in less than a fortnight, a controversy has recently arisen in relation to a slogan promoting the event and welcoming visitors to Poland. Contrary to some of you might suspect, the slogan is not offensive in any way but simply incorrect.

The concern is that the phrase "Feel like at home" will make the Europeans chuckle rather than feel homely. The slogan is a literary translation of the Polish "Czuj się jak u siebie w domu" (czuj się - feel; jak - like; u siebie w domu - at home), and it is supposed to constitute a warm welcome to all the visitors who come to Poland to enjoy Euro 2012, encouraging them to feel comfortable and at ease.

A debate has arisen with the Anglophiles claiming that in English we say: "Feel at home", and that the incorrect slogan is simply a disgrace, humiliating Poland as the host of the UEFA European Championships. The argument has mounted to such an extent that the advertising agency CAM Media SA - a company responsible for the promotional campaign of Poland for the EURO 2012 decided to take a stance and explain what lies behind the slogan.

According to the managing director of the CAM Media SA, Krzysztof Przybyłowski, the language of advertising - just like art - is subject to its own (here: linguistic) rules: "Our campaign focuses on two fundamental, but very internally diverse groups of addressees: Polish citizens, whose command of English is of various levels and football fans from 15 European countries in 13 of which English is not an official language. Such a diversified group of receivers requires maximum simplicity of communication in order to achieve a common basis allowing to understand the message."

He justified the use of a deliberate error by the fact that in advertising many borders are being crossed, and that it is particularly true for slogans. When creating them, advertisers resort to various linguistic operations such as unusual collocations or rarely used forms. The catchier a slogan, the easier to remember the message it carries.

Przybyłowski claims that the error in the "Feel like at home” catchphrase did not result from the lack of knowledge of its authors but it was a well-thought-out move aiming at “differentiating the message and making it more memorable”. In support for his justification, the managing director of CAM Media SA quoted widely recognised slogans such as "Think different"  (Apple), "Real news" (CNN) or "I'm lovin' it" (McDonald's).

He underlined that the creation of the EURO 2012 slogan was an informed decision made upon consultations with linguists and native speakers of English. "The main reason for such a choice was the diverse group of addressees that I have already mentioned. The linguistic form that we went for is closer to the global variation of English, and more literal than its original, idiomatic and hermetic British version. We simply used an exaggerated form that is undoubtedly not burdened with any errors," says Przybyłowski. Apparently, the slogan is supposed to greet European football fans in an informal, warm and honest way. The warmth, according to the CAM Media, is implied by the word 'like' in "Feel LIKE at home", while 'at home' could also be interpreted as 'play on your home field or ‘feel like on your home stadium’.
A question to you: as a linguist or a potential visitor coming to Poland for EURO 2012, what are your impressions of this slogan? Would it make you smile or laugh out loud? How do you think others might react? I would love to know your views so please share!

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Judicial Decisions in Polish and English classifications of legal texts



Judicial decisions, belonging to a category of legal texts are produced in a special language generally called the ‘language of the law’. The language of the law is different in each legal system; therefore, the English language of the law will fail to have the same characteristics as the Polish język prawny (legislative language). Divergences already occur at the level of the classification of these languages. The first suggestion for the division of the Polish language of the law was made by Wróblewski, who in 1948 distinguished język prawny, which is applied to legislative texts and is used by legislative authorities (in Poland the major legislative authority is the Parliament (Sejm and Senat)) and język prawniczy (non-legislative language), which is employed, for example, by lawyers or public administration bodies and is applied to texts other than the source of law. This dichotomic division was further developed by Zielinski, who suggested the term języki okołoprawne (non-legislative languages) for the earlier term prawnicze, with the former term being superordinate to the latter. In his classification, Zieliński divided język prawniczy into język praktyki orzeczniczej (jurisdictional language) and język praktyki pozaorzeczniczej (non-jurisdictional language), where the former is subdivided into język postępowań sądowych i quasi-sądowych (the language of proceedings and quasi-proceedings) and język rezultatów tych postępowań lub ich uzasadnień (the language of these proceedings or their justifications). In view of their nature and function in the law, Polish judicial decisions belong to the last category, i.e. język rezultatów postępowań lub ich uzasadnień. A slightly different approach is presented by Marczyk, who argues that język praktyki orzeczniczej belongs not only to the group of języki prawnicze but also to język prawny in its broad sense, the function of which is to describe the state of affairs. Generally, the criterion for the division of the Polish legal language is the sociolect, however, there are other typologies which make use of stylistics as the principal criterion.

As far as the English language of the law is concerned, there is no clear-cut distinction (although it is tempting to use Polish standards and distinguish ‘legal language’ from the ‘language of the law’). English legal theorists devised a “bipartite system in which language has two primary functions: regulatory and informative”. This system served as a basis for Šarčevič to group legal texts with regard to their function into: 1) ‘primarily prescriptive’, which contain laws and regulations, codes, contracts, treaties and conventions; 2) ‘primarily descriptive but also prescriptive’ also called ‘hybrid texts’, these include judicial decisions, appeals, requests, pleadings, etc.; and 3) ‘purely descriptive’ such as legal opinions, law textbooks, articles, etc. If we were to juxtapose this classification with the Polish typology mentioned above, it could be noted that the legal texts included in the first group might be compared to the Polish język prawny, while the texts belonging to the second and third group to język prawniczy. Such a comparison would function only in the Polish system, since in the English legal system both the first and the second group of texts ‘contain legal instruments used in the mechanism of law’, whereas in the Polish legal theory only the first group of texts has legal force. The table below presents the comparison of English and Polish legal texts.



               Types of texts
English legal theory
Polish legal theory
1) primarily prescriptive
teksty prawne
(judicial decisions)


teksty prawne
2) descriptive and prescriptive
teksty prawnicze
(judicial decisions)


  3) purely descriptive


               teksty prawnicze




General classification of legal texts in the English and Polish legal system with reference to the Polish terminology.