Translating and

Interpreting Section

Ethical Issues

for Translators

Student’s Workbook


Acknowledgement

The following questions have been drawn from the compiler’s personal experience, and from a variety of sources, including: NAATI, AUSIT, and anecdotal experiences of various practitioners, who are all gratefully acknowledged.

Compiled by Luciano Ginori

Project Manager: Toula Markos

Edited by: Graeme Ford

First Published 2011

© TAFE NSW

This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission.


Guidelines for the use of this Workbook

1) Please remember that the NAATI Translator’s Test includes a segment on ethics.

“Three questions on ethical issues will be asked, two of which are to be answered by candidates. Answers should be clear and concise, averaging no more than 150 words.

Answers may be written either in English or the other language, no matter which direction the candidate sits”. [Source: NAATI]

2) The purpose of this workbook is to provide the student with an opportunity of practicing how to answer satisfactorily typical ethical issue question for translators.

3) When attempting to answer these questions, it is worth keeping in mind the following suggestions:

a) imagine being a translator actually on the job, faced by the situation presented by the question;

b) demonstrate that you have understood the question, by re-stating in your own words what issue/problem/dilemma presented by the question;

c) identify the principle(s) of ethics that are relevant to the issue in question;

d) provide an appropriate solution, which is in line with the relevant principle(s) you have identified;

e) you may also, if appropriate, discuss eventual consequences of the translator’s actions , which may not be in line with the ethical principles identified.


Question for Translation Ethics Workbook

1. Name and explain three important ethical principles for the profession of translating

2. Why is confidentiality important for translators?

3. Explain the meaning of “conflict of interest” and name the relevant principle that may be affected by it.

4. Why is it important for professional translators to know their limitations?

5. Should you translate statements that you know to be untrue?

6. How would you react to the criticism of your translation made by another translator acting as a checker?

7. What would you do if you were offered a translation assignment with which you disagreed on moral grounds?

8. As you are about to translate a document given to you by Centrelink, about a person applying for a NEWSTART allowance, you realise that the applicant is a friend of a friend but is using a different name. What would you do?

9. After having accepted a translation assignment you realise that you will not be able to meet the client’s deadline. However, you know some translators with whom you work who specialise in the field, and could help you. What issues do you need to consider? What would you do?

10. In the course of a translation assignment it becomes apparent to you that expertise beyond your competence is required. What do the ethics of a translator require you to do?

11. A Government department has sent you a document to translate, but it belongs to someone you know. What do you do?

12. A “Commercial in Confidence” document you are translating contains information that could be of advantage to you if you used it. What would you do?

13. After translating someone’s medical history you still have the draft of your translation and a copy of the source document. What will you do with these pages?

14. When checking a translation done by another translator you find that the translation is not up to standard. What should you do?

15. A relative asks you to translate a document for official use. Should you accept the assignment?

16. As you are translating a Health Department’s leaflet on HIV/AIDS you realise that some of the wording of the document would be culturally unacceptable to your target community. What will you do?

17. What would you do if a person asked you to translate a letter to a solicitor and you found that the letter revealed information that would damage the client’s case?

18. After having checked another translator’s work, your client asks you if you could have done the job better or cheaper. How would you respond to such a request?

19. A large fishing company has asked you to translate some documents that make it clear that the company intends to exceed the quota of the amount of tuna it catches. What do you do?

20. In the process of translating a highly technical insurance policy you realise that there is a less sophisticated insurance system in the other culture. In your translation would you simplify, paraphrase or explain in order to make the translated document easier to understand?

21. When checking a document translated by another translator you find that the translation was not up to standard. What should you do?

22. As a translator, what preparations should you make prior to assignment?

23. Confidentiality has always been emphasised by associations for interpreters and translators. Explain why.

24. In what circumstances can and should a professional translator refuse to perform the service that is asked of him/her?

25. Under what circumstances should a translator make comments on another translator’s performance?

26. In Your opinion, should a translator censor vulgar language (expletives)? Explain why.

27. In the event that a client offered you gifts or money in connection with an official translation assignment, what would you do?

28. In the course of a translating assignment, should a translator translate statements that he or she knows are untrue?

29. You were offered a bribe to suppress some information during a translating assignment. What action would you take?

30. A solicitor asks you to translate a record of interview between the police and an accused. You noticed that the record shows that the police have not cautioned the accused about his right to remain silent before the interview took place. What should you do?

31. You are asked to translate some documents to be presented in support of an application for Centrelink benefits. You realise the applicant is an illegal immigrant and has assumed a false identity, as you have had occasions to deal with him at Immigration. Would you advise Centrelink accordingly?

32. "If in doubt, leave it out.” Which principle of the AUSIT code of ethics does this go against?

33. An Australian Company is setting up a joint venture in [your country]. You have been asked to translate the agreement, which contains a clause in that stipulates that a working day means 7 hours and that any work done after the 7 hours be paid at overtime penalty rates. You know that a normal working day in [your country] is 8 hours. Should you advise your Australian client that, by changing the normal working day to 8 hours, the Company could save a lot of money? Why?

34. You are approached to assist with a very urgent, important translation. However, the client can only afford to pay half the normal going rate for a similar job (say $15 cash for each 100 words, instead of $30). Would you accept the assignment, and why?

35. Your client (maybe someone you know well) gives you a duplicate of a legal document (e.g. divorce/marriage certificate, etc.) to be translated. Having done the translation, you certify it to be a true and correct translation of the original document.

36. You have been given and accepted to do a lengthy and complex translation from [your language] into English (say 50-60 pages). The translation is to be completed to an urgent deadline that you have agreed to when you accepted the job. However, as you are approaching the deadline, you realise that because of its complexity and the need more time for research you will not be able to meet the deadline. What should/could you do?

37. In February a man found me through the NAATI or AUSIT websites and asked me to translate his marriage certificate and provide an affidavit as he was applying to the Family Court for a divorce. Yesterday an agency I work for posted me a copy of the same marriage certificate together with an affidavit prepared by the law firm acting on behalf of the wife. It said: Proceedings: property. Therefore it seems likely to me that the divorce may have taken place and now the property settlement is about to happen. What are the options here? Should I inform the agency?

38. You operate as both a JP and translator. What do you usually do when you have a client who brings an original document, a photocopy of it and requests a JP certification and then a translation of the same document?

39. A NESB lawyer has interviewed an English speaking person serving a jail sentence in Thailand. The content of this interview is relevant to a case involving a NESB person somewhere else. During the interview, which has been tape-recorded, the lawyer asked questions that were interpreted to the prisoner in English, with his replies translated back into LOTE for the lawyer. Back in the other country, all the questions and answers in LOTE were written down.

They've sent me this transcript and asked for an English translation, but did not provide the tape, which they clamed to have been ‘lost’. After I have completed the translation, the client brings along the original tape-recording of the interview. So I listen to the tape and there are many differences between the LOTE on the tape and the LOTE text in the first document I received.

What is the ethical problem here? What document can I certify?

40. You are translating a text, which deals with various government and private organizations, indicated by their acronyms in the source language. Some of those acronyms are unknown to you and you cannot find them in your dictionaries or other reference material. What should you do? Explain your answer.

41. An immigration agency (with considerable experience in business migration) sends you a document to translate in support of their client’s application as a business migrant. The document is addressed to a member association of an overseas company, and is needed as evidence that he is a director and shareholder, and gives the value of his shareholdings. The document is very long and large parts of it relate to other matters such as the running of annual meetings, etc. To save the client unnecessary expense, therefore, the agency asks you to translate only a few selected clauses that identify the company and deal with the client’s directorship and shareholdings. However, when you see the document you form the opinion that a translation of those clauses alone would be out of context and meaningless and that several other clauses should be also translated to provide more context. What options are available to you to deal with this situation, and what principle(s) might apply?

42. A translation agency asks you to translate an official letter, to be signed by the Australian Minister for the Environment, inviting overseas minister to attend the VI International Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on International Wetlands. The letter is rather easy, but you are unsure how to translate the name of the Convention. You are convinced that the name must have an official translation, given that it is an international organization based in Switzerland. The agency refuses to help you. What do you do?

43. A client sends you a police report from an overseas country, which his solicitor needs to have translated to assist the client’s case in a legal dispute. At one point, the report mentions the police having been summoned to the client’s hotel room, and goes on to say that on arrival at the client’s room the police ‘spoke to them’. Your client objects when he sees your translation, believing that since he was the only person present, the police officer who made the report must have made a careless error, and it should read ‘spoke to him’. (The context of the rest of the report certainly supports this as the more logical reading, but the word used cannot be translated as ‘him’.) He asks you to amend the translation to read ‘him’, as he feels that the error could harm his legal case. What principle(s) might apply here, and how should you respond to his request?

44. You are translating a number of documents and references for a client who is applying for a job. When you contact the client to verify the spelling of her name, she tells you that one or two of the references actually refer to her cousin who has the same name. You have the distinct impression that the client will use all the documents for her own job application. What do you say to her?

45. A member of an extremist political group asks you to translate a pamphlet about the group. The group’s views are quit different from your own. Should you accept this assignment?

46. Apart from linguistic skills, what other essential qualities should translators possess?

47. Which is the most important principle a translator should remember in a translation assignment where there is evidence of a conflict of interest?

48. What is the difference between an offer of a present made to a translator before a translation assignment and a gift given after the job has been completed? Should a translator accept either (or both) offers? Why?