Moral tasks of the translator

transleterProfession and professional ethics.

At the beginning of this work, I consider it necessary to answer the following questions: “What does the word profession mean”, “What is professional ethics,” “? What created the concept” and “is it inherent in all professions?”

Profession is a certain kind of work, which requires the necessary knowledge and skills acquired through training and long-term employment practices.

Professional types of ethics-are those specifics of professional activities, which are aimed directly at the person in different conditions of life and work in society.

As mentioned in Wikipedia, “professional ethics” – the term used to refer to:

• a system of professional moral standards (for example, “professional ethics of the lawyer”)
• direction of research on ethical grounds of professional activity

Based on this designation, we can say that professional ethics is a system of moral standards, principles and rules inherent to a specialist based on his professional activities and situations. Each specialist in preparation for employment should learn the specifics of their professional ethics.

Professional ethics are general and private. General professional ethics consists of generally accepted norms of morality, such as professional solidarity, a special understanding of duty and honor, and others. Private rules and norms consist of specific conditions, the specifics of work and expressed, as a rule, in the moral codes.

Moral norms, objectives and principles mostly concern those professions where there is a dependence of people on activities of specialist, that is, the consequences of these services have a great impact on the vital activities of other people.

That is why the traditional professional ethics, such as medical, legal, educational, engineering and others begin to stand out. Such profession as a translator is not an exception, as it has its own moral norms, rules and principles. To assess human personality, professionalism and attitude towards his work is important. For some of the professions, for example specialist, who manages lives of other people (education, training, healthcare and others), high moral standards are required.

The moral rules, norms and principles of translator.

Professional ethics of the translator studied by: P.Palazhchenko, A.Chuzhakin, G.Miram, A.Pago, I.Alekseeva and other famous interpreters.

Ethics of the interpreter, according I.S.Alekseevoy “includes moral principles, standards of professional conduct, the requirements of professional competence, a solid knowledge of their legal status, familiarity with technical translation maintenance.”

Adhering to the professional ethics of translator must transmit 80% of the original text information. Translator is a broadcaster who paraphrases text orally or in writing, to another language. Consequently, the text is untouchable for this profession. This implies that the translator has no right to change the meaning or the composition of the source text, cut it, or vice versa to expand it in translation, if there is no objectives from the customer to insert add, remove anything or adapt. The translator must strive to make maximum to convey the meaning, structure and composition of the original.

When translating orally, the translator, cannot add emotions to the content translated to the customer, as well as add own opinion on that matter and influence it. He must respect the freedom of the individual customer.

At simultaneous translation of politics, in the case of international dialogue, translator is clothed with diplomatic powers. In such cases, the professional may not accurately translate, maintaining diplomatic relations and preventing its complications. In this situation, he is not obliged to protect the interests of any of the parties. In other cases, the interpreter must not have their position in the translation.

In cases the customer has defects in speech; translator should not react emotionally or play them. The professional activity of the translator is obliged to be guided by norms of literary language, which guarantees high quality of its services.

In the written translation an interpreter is required to abide by the rules for its completion, ensuring the correct attitude towards the customer.

Confidentiality is a very common phenomenon that the translator must adhere to, if it is one of the client’s conditions.

Professional suitability is also an important part of professional ethics. Under professional suitability I. S. Alekseeva understands “natural prerequisites for the implementation of this activity, including mental attitude. Professional requirements – a broader concept, along with the professional competence include the necessary set of skills. “For the interpreter, professional suitability consists of such qualities as a good memory, psychological stability, and intelligence, speech reactivity (the ability to quickly perceive the other’s speech and generate your own). Speech reactivity – the most important quality of a professional interpreter when orally translating.

A good memory is also important, because we need to absorb large amount of information at the same time quickly forget irrelevant information. Long-term memory must contain a huge amount of vocabulary in their native and foreign languages.

With a high rate of speech, frequent switching, long speaking and lack of emotional response to other people’s thoughts- psychological stability is one of the most important qualities of an interpreter. The liveliness and creative mind, allowing you to apply the extensive knowledge at the right time, make it as important quality for an interpreter as intelligence.

Translator must know not only the language of the other countries, but also their culture and traditions. With this it will give a more professional translation, given the way of life of the other party.

Translator must also continue to develop and increase their vocabulary in both languages. The quality of translation depends on physical condition of the interpreter, so the person must take care of the health.

I believe that the above mentioned moral objectives, rules, norms and principles of the interpreter are necessary for the translation work.

3 thoughts on “Moral tasks of the translator

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