By Paula Robertson | Senior Member
Not long after I started my current editing job, I knew I was working in a completely different world. While editing English text online, Chinese characters began to appear with each keystroke! Somehow I had activated a translation tool hiding in my company laptop. After my initial surprise and then panic, I resorted to uninstalling the tool so I could continue to work.
That is, until an upgrade of the tool magically popped up several months later! It was the result of routine maintenance, but this time I had to ask for help from a colleague in China to translate the options on the uninstall dialog. By the Chinese calendar, it’s now the Year of the Dragon. Sometimes I wonder, is the mystical dragon still hiding in my laptop poised to spring to my aid?
I work with a team of native U.S.-English-speaking editors, who are home-based across the United States. Originally written in Chinese, the content we edit comes from an even greater distance. We edit English translations provided by native Chinese-speaking translators at Huawei Technologies in China. To target western consumers, Huawei, an information and communications technology (ICT) company, outsources editing and localization of some of their documentation through Huawei’s U.S. Documentation Professional Services Team.
Unique Variety
What I do seems to be quite rare. In U.S. business, translation and localization of English into other languages are hot topics, but some still find it surprising that companies around the globe translate their native tongues into English. I enjoy seeing people’s amazement when I describe what I do.
Another unique aspect is that each day’s work is a surprise. I usually don’t know what I’m going to edit until I receive my daily assignment. Most assignments are due later that evening, so they are turned around before the next workday begins in China. The content might be network engineering guidelines or hardware feature descriptions. I have edited internal, confidential content such as HR processes and business group strategies. I’ve also been assigned to edit speeches of high-level executives, website content, and articles for periodicals.
Though not responsible for technical accuracy, I do a lot of research to verify facts and my own understanding of the subject matter. My virtual team of editors is often my best resource. Sometimes I find that I must be a kind of translator to interpret the meaning still hidden in the translated text.
Translating Thought
From my limited exposure, I gather that the language structures and thinking patterns of eastern and western cultures are generally direct opposites. Chinese culture and language are highly contextual. For example, Chinese has no linking words like prepositions or articles. From a minimalist source language, translators must translate implied thoughts, not just words. The translator is like a second author, who transforms source content—not just into a different language, but into a vastly different language style.
As an editor, I am the third author in the process of localizing technical information. Extensive rewriting is sometimes necessary for the sake of the English-speaking end user. Other times no degree of mental effort on my part can find any sense hiding in the text, which means the translation is not ready for editing. But it’s hugely satisfying when I can discern what thoughts the author or translator intends to convey, so I can reveal the changes that result in clear communication.
Understanding from West to East
The diligent Chinese translators are eager to learn from the edits and seem the most appreciative when I find more issues rather than fewer. In response to one of my edits, I received the following from our Huawei coordinator, Nicholas Xie:
To my understanding, an editor shall torture a poor document rather than tolerate it…. I think this could be a very good example…. Both the translator and [I] have benefited a lot from your edits…. All of us look forward to efforts that are done this way to help us improve.
I appreciate the dialogue when a translator responds, either to explain why my understanding was incorrect or to ask me to explain my reasoning. In these exchanges, I probably learn more than they do. My understanding is enriched along with theirs. From my perspective, translating thought is about more than commercial gain. It is about finding understanding between cultures through a common human language.
