Huang Youyi - Translation as a cross-cultural communication tool

Huang Youyi is the vice chairman and secretary-general of the Translators' Association of China and the vice president of the International Federation of Translators (FIT). During his recent visit to Finland, Huang talked about the challenges faced by the translation industry globally.

While in Europe, Huang also took part in the 2009 CIUTI Forum (La Conférence Internationale Permanente d'Instituts Universitaires de Traducteurs et Interprètes/International Permanent Conference of University Institutes of Translators and Interpreters) at Geneva University.

Could you tell me about the FIT and your involvement in it

The FIT is the largest non-governmental association of translators from all parts of the world. Currently, it has 120 member organizations spread out in 60 countries across the world. The Translators' Association of China is one of the largest members of this international body. The FIT has a lot of committees that organize seminars to teach translators technical translation and many other things like literature and cross-culture communication. And every three years, there is an international conference of translators. The last time I was in Tampere (Finland) was in 2005, when the 17th World Congress of the Federation of International Translators was held here in this beautiful city. And last year, three years later, in 2008, we had the 18th World Congress in Shanghai. The next one will be in the United States in 2011. I think this is a very good platform for all translators and interpreters of the world to come together and discuss questions of mutual concern.

What kinds of issues is the federation tackling at present?

One major issue is the protection of translators' rights, because writers' rights are well protected, but translators are, first, poorly paid, and then their works are pirated in different parts of the world. A lot of technical advance is good for the spread of information, like Google Reader, but on the other hand, a lot of translators feel new technical things like Google Reader takes away their translated works, and they are not being compensated. So, that's one major problem. And also in some other countries, like Iraq, where there is a war, and whenever there is a war, translators and interpreters have to be there, but sometimes, they get killed and they don't get recognized.

How did you become involved in this federation? Do you have a background in translation?

Yes, I studied English as my major in university. After that, I got a job in a company, and I'm still there, the Chinese International Publishing Group, which publishes a lot of things in foreign languages, so I do a lot of translation. And then I became the secretary general of the Chinese Translators' Association. We have half a million members across the country. And I realized that translation is something that you cannot do within a country, you have to go out of the country. So I and my colleagues became very active in the international body and eventually we had many exchanges with translators from other parts of the world. Towards the end of this year, we will have the sixth national congress of Chinese translators.

Tell me about translation training in China

It's a big thing. In fact, there are two things indicating the growth of the translation industry – it's becoming a new industry. One is in the teaching of translation – for many years, people thought that if you know a foreign language, you can automatically become a translator or interpretor. But professionally speaking, that's not the case. Translation/interpretation is a special subject – you really have to study. It's not only the language, it's the culture that is involved. So universities in China are now very active in offering under-graduate courses of translation, and also what we call MTI, Master of Translation/Interpretation. And I'm the chairman of the National Committee for MIT education. Many Chinese universities are competing to offer this course, and our committee has to go around the universities and talk to professors and university authorities to see if they have the right concept to really teach students translation. And we have to make sure they have the right facilities. If you are teaching interpretation, you have to have video equipment. So, we have to do that – sort of investigative tours. And after that, the committee get together and discuss if we agree to have this university offer the course.

Are there enough translators in China to meet the growing demand for translations?

Normally, in the translation world, people say that to translate from mother tongue to another language is the wrong choice. But for us, Chinese translators, it's the only choice, because we don't have many people outside China, foreigners, who can translate from Chinese into foreign language – Chinese is too difficult for foreigners. So, we end up doing this job. And many universities in China have even focused on teaching students to learn to translate from Chinese into English. This is a growing discipline.

How do you see the work of translators evolve in the future?

Well, we have had tests – human translation vs machine translation. If it's a technical thing, like chemistry, it's easy- the machine does most of the work. But it it's culture, how people think, how people feel, then the human being still ends up doing this job. I think that the advancement of technology helps the translation industry, but it can never eliminate human translators.