On translating TEDTalks into Dutch
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0:01 - 0:06Did any of you translate Erin McKean's talk? For those who haven't, here's a small extract.
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0:06 - 0:10'Lexicographical' is the same pattern as higgeldy piggeldy.
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0:10 - 0:12Right? It’s a fun word to say, and I get to say it a lot.
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0:12 - 0:17I would add to that: higgeldy-piggeldy is also a fun word to translate.
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0:17 - 0:21In Dutch, I used 'olleke bolleke', as in…
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0:21 - 0:24Olleke bolleke, rubisolleke,
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0:24 - 0:27olleke bolleke, rubisolleke, olleke bolleke, knol!
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0:27 - 0:30Luckily, this nursery rhyme is known
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0:30 - 0:33in both of the major regions where Dutch is spoken.
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0:33 - 0:37Dutch is the mother tongue of 23 million people,
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0:37 - 0:40of whom 16 million live in the Netherlands,
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0:40 - 0:446 million in the Northern part of Belgium, also known as Flanders,
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0:44 - 0:48and 400.000 in Suriname, in South-America.
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0:48 - 0:51We have an official 'Dutch Language Union'.
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0:51 - 0:53So where's the problem?
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0:53 - 0:57Dutch from the Netherlands and Dutch from Flanders
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0:57 - 0:58sound very different.
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0:58 - 1:01If you meet Johan Cruyff in the morning,
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1:01 - 1:06and if you're lucky, he will say 'Goeiemorgen' to you.
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1:06 - 1:09Kim Clijsters will say 'Goeiemorgen'.
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1:09 - 1:12In subtitling, this is of course irrelevant.
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1:12 - 1:15So once again: where's the problem?
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1:15 - 1:18We also use different words.
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1:18 - 1:20A Dutchman will call this a 'klokkromme'.
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1:20 - 1:23In Flanders we call it a 'Gauss-curve'.
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1:23 - 1:28Last but not least, each group has their set of 'typical doubts',
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1:28 - 1:30or deviations from Standard Dutch
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1:30 - 1:33that occur more in one or the other region.
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1:33 - 1:37Over the years, the Dutch have lost their sensitivity
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1:37 - 1:39to the gender of Dutch nouns.
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1:39 - 1:42And so only a Dutchman might wonder
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1:42 - 1:45whether a cow is male or female
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1:45 - 1:47… or so we teasingly say, in Flanders.
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1:47 - 1:51In Belgium, on the other hand, whether we like it or not,
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1:51 - 1:55our language is influenced by our French-speaking fellow countrymen,
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1:55 - 1:59leading to sometimes awkward constructions borrowed from French.
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1:59 - 2:02So there's the problem:
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2:02 - 2:04if a reviewer from the Netherlands
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2:04 - 2:07reviews the work of a colleague from Belgium,
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2:07 - 2:10she might see a text which she herself
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2:10 - 2:12would never have written that way,
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2:12 - 2:13and the other way round.
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2:13 - 2:15If she starts correcting it,
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2:15 - 2:17before she knows it, she will be caught up
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2:17 - 2:19in an endless yes-no-discussion.
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2:19 - 2:22It happened to me in my early TED days.
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2:22 - 2:26I even confess that for my very first translation,
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2:26 - 2:29I made sure I asked a translator from my own country
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2:29 - 2:32to review it, because I felt uncomfortable
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2:32 - 2:34with a review from the 'other side'.
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2:34 - 2:37But I quickly learned that if you stick
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2:37 - 2:39to a limited number of ground rules,
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2:39 - 2:42you can easily overcome this difficulty.
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2:42 - 2:45This is what I want to share with you today.
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2:45 - 2:49The best way to stop discussions about 'who is right',
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2:49 - 2:51is to agree on the standards you use.
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2:51 - 2:53For Dutch, that is quite easy.
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2:53 - 2:56The official thesaurus, the main dictionary
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2:56 - 3:00and the standard grammar are all accessible online.
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3:00 - 3:03All three are widely used and accepted
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3:03 - 3:05in the Netherlands and in Belgium.
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3:05 - 3:07If you indicate from the beginning
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3:07 - 3:09that you will use these as a standard,
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3:09 - 3:12you can avoid a lot of tension and discussion.
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3:12 - 3:14But even if a word 'exists',
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3:14 - 3:16it may be highly unusual in one of the two regions.
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3:16 - 3:19Take the 'klokkromme'.
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3:19 - 3:22It's a word hardly any Belgian would use,
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3:22 - 3:24but on the other hand it is not difficult to understand
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3:24 - 3:27-- especially not in context,
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3:27 - 3:29as is the case in TED Talks.
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3:29 - 3:31There's really no point in replacing it
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3:31 - 3:34with a term that no Dutchman would ever use.
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3:34 - 3:36I much rather treat it
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3:36 - 3:38as a 'word worth spreading'.
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3:38 - 3:41Of course, if the unusual word is difficult
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3:41 - 3:43to understand, the story is different.
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3:43 - 3:44But then again,
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3:44 - 3:47rather than replacing the word with a Flemish one,
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3:47 - 3:50I invite my translation partner
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3:50 - 3:51to look for an alternative
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3:51 - 3:53that is acceptable to both of us.
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3:53 - 3:55I would like to end with a few words
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3:55 - 3:57about what I try to to keep in mind
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3:57 - 3:59when reviewing or translating into Dutch.
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3:59 - 4:03First of all, I keep my audience in mind.
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4:03 - 4:05I am writing for people from different regions.
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4:05 - 4:08I might as well try to step into their shoes
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4:08 - 4:10and avoid words or expressions
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4:10 - 4:12that I know are confusing.
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4:12 - 4:15Secondly, I keep in mind my translation partner,
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4:15 - 4:17especially when reviewing.
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4:17 - 4:18In one of my early reviews,
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4:18 - 4:21I made the mistake of marking the translation as reviewed
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4:21 - 4:24without having contacted my partner.
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4:24 - 4:27After all, I thought I had only
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4:27 - 4:29corrected some obvious mistakes.
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4:29 - 4:32Since then, I always contact the translator
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4:32 - 4:34and invite them to let me know
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4:34 - 4:35whether they agree with my proposals.
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4:35 - 4:39Thirdly, I keep in mind that I translate for TED
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4:39 - 4:40in order to help spreading
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4:40 - 4:43the interesting ideas of the speakers.
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4:43 - 4:45It's not about “winning” discussions
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4:45 - 4:46with other translators,
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4:46 - 4:48it's about working together
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4:48 - 4:50to provide access to TED
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4:50 - 4:52to as large an audience as possible.
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4:52 - 4:56Last year, a TED Translator from the Netherlands
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4:56 - 4:58asked me whether I thought we should
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4:58 - 5:00have separate sets of translations
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5:00 - 5:02for Dutch from the Netherlands and from Belgium.
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5:02 - 5:04I told him that to me
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5:04 - 5:06that made no sense at all,
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5:06 - 5:08since it would only double the effort
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5:08 - 5:10to spread the ideas.
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5:10 - 5:12It did spur me to get better
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5:12 - 5:15at finding common ground across the regions.
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5:15 - 5:17Last but not least, I can tell you
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5:17 - 5:19that translating for TED has been
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5:19 - 5:21an immensely enriching experience to me.
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5:21 - 5:23My closing thoughts are therefore
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5:23 - 5:25for my fellow TED Translators.
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5:25 - 5:27I would have liked to create
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5:27 - 5:29some kind of ‘Hans Rosling’ graph,
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5:29 - 5:30but you will have to do
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5:30 - 5:32with a wordle
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5:32 - 5:33in which the size of the name
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5:33 - 5:36represents the number of times I worked with them.
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5:36 - 5:40I wish all of you an excellent workshop
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5:40 -and an exciting TED Global 2011.
- Title:
- On translating TEDTalks into Dutch
- Description:
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Els De Keyser's contribution to the TED Global 2011 Translators Workshop.
Subtitles:
Dutch:
Translator: Els De KeyserEnglish:
Transcript: Els De Keyser
Review: Krystian ApartaFrench:
Translator: Hugo WagnerGreek:
Translator: Dimitra PapageorgiouItalian:
Translator: Elelena MontrasioPolish:
Translator: Krystian Aparta - Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TED Translator Resources
- Duration:
- 05:47
Krystian Aparta approved English subtitles for On translating TEDTalks into Dutch | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for On translating TEDTalks into Dutch | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for On translating TEDTalks into Dutch | ||
Gaurav Gupta accepted English subtitles for On translating TEDTalks into Dutch | ||
Reiko Bovee edited English subtitles for On translating TEDTalks into Dutch | ||
Reiko Bovee edited English subtitles for On translating TEDTalks into Dutch | ||
Reiko Bovee edited English subtitles for On translating TEDTalks into Dutch | ||
Reiko Bovee edited English subtitles for On translating TEDTalks into Dutch |