The Specialized Translation and Interpreting Master's degree at the heart of a cooperation with Le Monde diplomatique: "glossary and lexicon" project

Our work organization

In order to complete this prestigious project, we worked in teams of two to four members according to our oriental languages of Korean, Polish, Japanese, Chinese and Arabic. Leo, the only student of Russian, and Alice, the only Hebraist, were mainly responsible for proofreading.

The specifics of this project and the complexities encountered

Very quickly, a general observation emerged when we embarked on this mission: the relative absence of context made the task tricky and increased the risk of misinterpretation. To deal with this difficulty, we used specific tools for each of the languages and carried out research specific to each culture we were working on.

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As an example, the team of Korean language students (Laura, Marina and Megan) found it essential to use Naver, the main database for this language. She also consulted Korean websites (mainly online newspapers) to ensure the correct terminology was used.



Olivia and Sylwia, our Polish language students, quickly came to the conclusion that choosing between two possible translations for the same word is sometimes complicated. To avoid ambiguity as much as possible, they mainly used Reverso Context as well as more Polish-specific databases such as PONS or Glosbe.



For our Japanese speakers, this project was no mean feat, and Claire, Janaïna, Mélissa and Toma came up against some definite difficulties. Indeed, French and Japanese are languages so dissimilar in their approach that one web interface can sometimes totally differ from another. So it was complicated, if not often impossible, to find a perfect equivalent.



In addition, the meaning of words in Japanese relies heavily on context. For example, the suffix "-tachi", which forms the plural, is rarely used, as it is more often understood in context. In addition, translating single words like "articles" using the plural doesn't seem quite right on a Japanese website. However, the students sometimes found it necessary to specify the plural in order to mark the distinction from the singular, even if the translation lost slightly in naturalness and fluidity.



In addition, the lack of context also hindered the understanding of certain terms, even before they were translated. Some words or expressions, such as "way of seeing", although literally easy to translate, were unclear to the team, which split into two to divide the work more efficiently.



Another tricky point, and not the least, was to localize the interface itself, as certain terms don't really exist - or at least aren't based on the same representations. For example, the expression "countries and geographical areas" posed a problem, as geographical divisions are made differently in Japan. Through their research, the students found that Japanese newspapers contrast "Japanese territories" with "the rest of the world's territories". The French term does not indicate this, so the translators came up with not just a linguistic, but also a cultural equivalent.



Finally, the team also had to take into account another specificity of the Japanese language: the multiplicity of alphabets such as hiragana, katakana and kanji. While hiragana and kanji are normally used to transcribe any word or phrase in Japanese, katakana are generally used to phonetically transcribe foreign terms.




Antoine and Imane, our Chinese language students, were surprised to find that translating isolated technical words is no easy task. Indeed, they had to search many times on the Monde diplomatique website for what certain terms referred to. The example of the word "voir" (to see) speaks for itself: "Voir", without any particular context, has multiple uses in the French language and therefore a large number of equivalents in Chinese. After some research, the team was able to identify that on the French site, "voir" is used to specifically designate content to be read. It therefore decided to translate this term as "阅览", which actually means "to read". Other terms - even simple ones - such as "en kiosques", "blog", "livre" or even "mot" proved to be interesting challenges for our translators, who had to show their finesse and creativity.

During the pooling, Antoine and Imane realized that they had translated the same terms differently (for example, the item "by author"). They confronted their submissions, explained their choices, and sought together to standardize their proposals.

A formative project

The project report is the fruit of extensive research and analysis by all the teams. It testifies to their linguistic and translation skills. Of course, knowledge of languages and their subtleties is essential, but we also had to put into practice what we had learnt in our localization courses, and verify the importance of knowing the cultural codes specific to each of these languages.



From the outset, the group operated in "project mode": each team sequenced its work phases, taking into account the proofreading and checking phase. From the outset, each team drew up a detailed back-planning schedule, which they scrupulously adhered to, in order to meet the deadlines.



Last but not least, this project was only possible thanks to collaboration, listening and teamwork. The pooling stage, which was ultimately more delicate than we had imagined, led us to formulate and receive criticisms, questions and proposals, to refine our thinking, to reconsider our convictions and to take into account feedback from our teammates. A great learning experience during this crucial stage in the harmonization of texts, which was supposed to be a formality!



Conclusion

We can't close this report without emphasizing how much we enjoyed being part of such a project. Despite certain obstacles, we feel we have learned a great deal and are proud to have been able to make our contribution to this edifice.



Team members



Arabic: Basma BOUBAKER and Lyticia KADJITE

Chinese : Antoine PETITOT and Imane MESKERKID

Korean: Laura QUENSON, Marina DA ROCHA and Mégane BURKHART

Japanese: Toma DECLIPEUR, Claire BAILLY-MONTHURY, Janaïna GEOFFRAY and Melissa BOUSEKSOU

Polish: Olivia BUKOWSKA and Sylwia PODEDWORNA

Back office: Alice TAIEB and Léo DUCA



Find out more about the Master's Degree in Specialized Translation and Interpreting.