Tuesday 3 March 2020

Translating books into English

is something I would have no idea  how to do. To my shame I do not speak a second language although I can, with difficulty and a dictionary, read several others. I am self taught. Languages other than English were not taught in the rural schools I attended.  I did some Latin under the watchful eye of the Senior Cat. I did it as an extra subject and did not enjoy it. (The textbook was full of soldiers and war and spears and the like.)
I don't know how many books get translated into English every year. It is unlikely that we translate nearly as many as we should or even could. 
Yes, I know translation is expensive. I needed two words in Russian several years ago and the minimum charge was going to be $90 with a three week wait. (As it was a communication board needed immediately I put out a request to the small Russian speaking community here and a native speaker and former teacher translated both words and checked the entire board for the price of a coffee and conversation. I was grateful but it doesn't happen often.)
Good translation is also difficult. There are subtle differences that are almost impossible to convey.
But readers of English are lucky. There are more books published in English each month than anyone could hope to read in a lifetime.
I was talking to someone recently about education in a country like Syria. Quite apart from the war there and the lack of libraries there are very few books published in Arabic - and the various versions thereof.
I did a little research. There were only about 350 books published in Arabic last year. Compare that with Greece which published closer to 2000 in Greek. There are far more people who read Arabic than read Greek.  Since the 9thC there have apparently been only around 100,000 books translated into Arabic. Last year Spain translated about the same number of books alone into Spanish.  Children in Scandinavia are exposed to English language television from the earliest of ages.  When I was in Norway and Sweden many years ago every child, even those with disabilities and the profoundly deaf, were able to understand enough English for me to communicate with them. They also have access to books in English as well as Norwegian and Swedish. 
There is a vast amount of on-line material if you can read English but much, much less in Arabic. It is a major issue for universities in Arabian speaking countries.  Part of the problem is cultural and religious but it is also social and economic and environmental.
Yes, easy to say "everyone should learn English"  but each language on the planet has a different way of thinking too. We need that. The answer to a problem like that of climate change or the corona virus might come from someone who speaks Arabic as well as English - or something else.

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