Guest Post #001 – La localizzazione software: un inquadramento analitico

Il primo guest post di My Life In Translation è a cura di Roberto Silva Perluzzo, traduttore e localizzatore presso Localsoft e dottorando di ricerca in Video Game Translation presso la Dublin City University. È un onore avere lui come mio primo guest blogger perché mette tanta passione e dedizione in ciò che fa e studia. Il testo che segue è tratto da un suo saggio e lo possiamo definire un’introduzione alla localizzazione software. Buona lettura!

P.S.: se sei interessato a diventare il prossimo guest blogger di My Life In Translation, contattami via e-mail all’indirizzo learningbytranslating @ gmail.com.

LA LOCALIZZAZIONE SOFTWARE: UN INQUADRAMENTO ANALITICO

Sin dagli anni ’90 il termine “localizzazione” è stato quello più comunemente usato per indicare una delle industrie linguistiche più redditizie dei giorni nostri. Con il notevole sviluppo, infatti, avutosi nel predetto decennio nel campo dell’informatica, in particolare per quanto concerne lo sviluppo di software e di siti web, la localizzazione è stata una delle forme più praticate, ma anche quasi mai analizzate, di “traduzione”. In base a quanto si accennava si è soliti pensare al traduttore come uno scrivano impegnato assiduamente nella resa del messaggio da lingua di partenza a lingua d’arrivo.

Per quanto, ovviamente, di fondamentale importanza per la realizzazione finale della localizzazione tout court, il processo di resa linguistica, di “traduzione interlinguistica o propriamente detta” si rivela esclusivamente una sola delle fasi complessive che compongono il processo localizzativo. La traduzione, difatti, è molto spesso vista solo come una piccola parte della localizzazione, mentre al contrario la localizzazione è sentita come forma molto elaborata di traduzione. I due termini potenzialmente antagonisti, tuttavia, definiscono in sostanza semplicemente modi diversi nell’approcciarsi a una comunicazione interculturale, seppur l’uno di natura particolarmente “settoriale” per la specificità del passaggio linguistico – culturale in ambito informatico e l’altro “generalista”.

Una definizione molto chiara che esplica in maniera immediata la varietà di concetti che ruotano al termine localizzazione la fornisce Esselink:

“In linea generale la localizzazione è la traduzione e l’adattamento di un software o di un prodotto web che includa anche l’applicazione software in sé e tutta l’annessa documentazione”. E’ subito lampante, quindi, come il termine racchiuda in sé diversi altri procedimenti che vanno ben aldilà della già citata traduzione “propriamente detta”.

L’adattamento al quale si riferisce Esselink come parte integrante della localizzazione stessa non è altro che l’applicazione del testo tradotto (più opportunamente chiamato in gergo informatico inserimento) nelle stringhe testuali del codice sorgente del software originario per un dato mercato di destinazione. Tradizionalmente, infatti, la traduzione propriamente detta è solamente una delle attività all’interno di un ben più vasto progetto di resa linguistica il quale include normalmente anche ricerca terminologica, correzioni di eventuali refusi e revisione testuale.

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How George Orwell Liked His Tea

I really enjoyed reading (and translating) this article for the English Language and Translation course I’m attending. It was first published on the Evening Standard on January 12, 1946.

George Orwell - A Nice Cup of Tea

If you look up “tea” in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points.
This is curious, not only because tea is one of the mainstays of civilisation in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.
When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden:
First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays—it is economical, and one can drink it without milk—but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who uses that comforting phrase “a nice cup of tea” invariably means Indian tea. Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities—that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britannia-ware pots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse: though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad. Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water. Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing this is not an idea that can be realised on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than 20 weak ones. All true tea-lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes—a fact which is recognised in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners. Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly. Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about.
The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that this makes any difference. Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle. Eighthly, one should drink out of a breakfast cup—that is the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one’s tea is always half cold before one has well started on it. Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste. Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.
Lastly, tea—unless one is drinking it in the Russian style—should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tea-lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.
Some people would answer that they don’t like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.
These are not the only controversial points that arise in connection with tea-drinking, but they are sufficient to show how subtilised the whole business has become. There is also the mysterious social etiquette surrounding the teapot (why is it considered vulgar to drink out of your saucer, for instance?) and much might be written about the subsidiary uses of tea-leaves, such as telling fortunes, predicting the arrival of visitors, feeding rabbits, healing burns and sweeping the carpet. It is worth paying attention to such details as warming the pot and using water that is really boiling, so as to make quite sure of wringing out of one’s ration the twenty good, strong cups that two ounces, properly handled, ought to represent.

Communication as Translation

This post is about what I learnt in class today.

Each communication act can be considered a translation. Not necessarily should communication acts be between two languages or cultures, you can even “translate” a thought into spoken words, a gesture into an explanation of its meaning and a book into a film, to make some examples.

In the video above there are some examples of translation, even in the broader meaning of the word:

• Italian gestures are translated using an explanation of their meaning;
• there’s an oral description, made by one of the travelers, of what a vigile does, and the other one is surprised to hear that in Italy a traffic warden carries a pistol. At the end of the video, there’s the typically Italian applause adressed to the pilot after a plane lands;
• the captain translates his announcement into English by talking with a very strong Italian pronunciation and, when he doesn’t know how to translate something, he uses onomatopoeia.
• there’s also the use of subtitles, i.e. a translation from oral verbal language into written one.

Un blog di ricette americane!

L’ho scoperto oggi grazie a una compagna di università che ho su Facebook ( thanks Chiara! )… parlo del blog “Le migliori ricette americane”. Sono una fan della cucina americana, mi piace sempre provare nuovi piatti. Per esempio, qualche tempo fa ho provato le nachos con il formaggio fuso (davvero buone!); poi vado pazza per la salsa barbeque, le patate cotte/fritte con la buccia, bacon and eggs, onion rings, muffin e cheesecake, a parte i classici hamburger e hot dog che vengono subito in mente quando si pensa alla cucina americana. Tra i piatti che mi piacerebbe provare, ci sono il pollo fritto, i pancakes, i mozzarella sticks e le tortillas.

Poi, questa pagina è molto utile quando si leggono o si devono tradurre ricette con misure inglesi.

My Greeting Card for This Year!

Yes, it’s definitely a tradition of this blog to wish you a very happy International Translation Day with a greeting card!

International Translation Day is celebrated every year on September 30th on the feast of St. Jerome (Patron Saint of translators).

  Past greeting cards: 2010 – 2009.

New Layout Work in Progress

I’m going to reorganize the site… as you can see, there’s a new theme!

Be back later.

Sunday… er, MONDAY Seven

Sunday Seven: Name your seven things you’re looking forward to doing now that the weather is about to start turning cooler.

1. Wearing sweaters/hoodies (like the 1UP one I bought last year)
2. Wearing BOOTS (in the interpreting booth! I’m joking! I’m no conference interpreter, I just wanted to make a play on words)
3. Wearing grey nail polish like this one
4. Attending University classes
5. Practicing my languages more
6. Going out with my friends more often
7. Celebrating my birthday (next month!)

Consecutive Interpreting Techniques Fascinate Me

Yes, you read right.

Since each interpreter has his/her own note-taking style (it can differ in structure, the way words are written/abbreviated, the symbols used or even in the language in which notes are written), I like reading examples of consecutive interpreting notes. Every time I read an interpreter’s notes, I always think nostalgically of interpreting classes I attended during my undergraduate course. While attending my first consecutive interpreting class I might have thought: ‘How will I manage to write all those things while still listening to the speech?’ I remember I had difficulty in splitting my attention between listening and taking notes at first, but I guess everybody went through that stage. You know, interpreters are made, not born. By trial and error, I eventually realized that (worrying about) writing EVERY. SINGLE. THING. was counter-productive, and that it was important to find a balance between listening and taking notes. It’s better to focus on the speech and write only the most important details, the essential ones. My note-taking style improved over time, but I think it’s still improvable. As a saying I particularly like says, practice makes perfect.

I started reading books and online interpreting resources to improve my note-taking, and I always try to use this technique when taking notes because it works for me. Experimenting with different methods while “in training” is okay, but you eventually have to choose one that works for you (it’s the same for symbols and abbreviations). Writing notes horizontally isn’t for me because it takes me a longer time to read them and I would be tempted to write a lot more than I should, which is not good, because I would get distracted. As far as the language used is concerned, I try to stick to the source language but, if I already think of a translation or words/abbreviations of the target language (I even use English words and abbreviations a lot, even when the target language isn’t English), I immediately write it down.

Here’s an example of my notes (under the cut):

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Sunday Seven

Sunday Seven: Name seven gifts you’d really like to receive if tomorrow were Christmas morning.

1. A new smartphone, preferably one with Android installed.
2. 32 GB iPod Touch
3. A FixDesign or Guess purse
4. A DSLR camera
5. A new running watch (mine recently died after almost 5 years, R.I.P. Polar watch )
6. A new bike
7. Money

Friday 5: Long Journeys

1. What is the longest distance you’ve traveled (in one trip) by foot? When I was 20, I ran a half marathon (13.1 miles or 21.097 km). It took me 2 hours 44 minutes to get to the finish line.
2. What is the longest trip you’ve taken by car? When I went on a road trip with my parents for their 25th wedding anniversary. We visited the Cascata delle Marmore, Assisi, Verona, Padua, Venice and then we went to Sicily (I’m actually 1/3 Sicilian!).
3. What is the longest trip you’ve taken by plane? When I went to Budapest in my final year of high school. It happened 6 years ago.
4. What is the longest trip you’ve taken on some kind of water craft? Last year’s one from Palermo to Naples. I even got to see the sun rising!
5. What is the longest trip you’ve taken aboard a bus or train? When I went to Rimini, Ravenna and San Marino with my classmates, 8 years ago.