It's a short drama about translation, and I'll watch it because of homework [tears]. After reading it, I found it really interesting, and I briefly wrote down the film review here.
In the first episode of the skit, "Bamboo Ceiling", the heroine Lily interprets the dialogue between the community administrator and the Old Lady of China. I was confused when I first saw the title and didn't understand what the theme of the video was. Seeing the back, I realized that the original theme was that the loofah rack needed to be demolished in violation of the rules. The most attractive scene in this episode is that in addition to Ming's mother-in-law chasing the community administrator around in a circle, it is Ming's reference to Tao Yuanming's ancient poems, which I think is the most exciting part of this episode.
The translation of ancient poems is indeed a difficult point, but in my opinion, this is also another manifestation of the profundity of our Chinese culture. More importantly, in the session of answering reporters' questions at the annual two sessions, state representatives also like to quote ancient poems to answer. As an interpreter, if there is no preparation before translation, it is indeed tricky to translate ancient poems on the spot. In this episode, Lily wanted to explain the meaning of the ancient poem roughly, but she did not translate it well, causing the community administrator to be unable to understand, and must find out the meaning of the ancient poem, and the scene was once embarrassing. In the end, thanks to Grandma Ming's words, she was allowed to "fool" through.
What should we do if we really want to translate ancient poems in reality? In my opinion, there are two ways: if we can read the meaning of the poem, we can try to use an explanatory translation to translate the general meaning of the ancient poem. If we encounter a poem that we cannot understand, we can use the coping strategy adopted by Lily to explain the current scene and say that the protagonist quotes an ancient poem, which can also play a certain role in communication. Of course, this method is used in small occasions such as daily dialogues where it is really impossible to translate, and if it is an important diplomatic occasion, the quotation of ancient poetry generally has its special significance, and it is very dangerous to adopt the strategy of "not translating". It can be seen that pre-translation preparation is particularly important.
In the second episode of the short drama, "The Golden Rule of the Emperor", the opening scene is in a forum dialogue. This time, the heroine Lily's identity is as an alternate interpreter. In a very vivid and vivid way of acting, she tells us the theme of this episode: how important the translator is to his or her role. Obviously, the most important and exciting part of this episode is the translation process of the Emperor's Golden Rules. In the play, when the host asked the Chinese guest where the inspiration for Ouyang's "Uterine Trauma" work came from, the Chinese guest's reference to "The Golden Rules of the Emperor" actually referred to a reality SHOW, while Lily, as a translator, misunderstood the "Golden Rules of the Emperor" referred to by Ouyang as an 18th-century Chinese literary classic, and muttered to herself that she loved it the most. Without confirming with Ouyang, she couldn't wait to start introducing the content of "The Golden Rules of the Emperor" to the audience, and it turned out that Lily completely deviated from the content of this dialogue, causing a very embarrassing situation between the two sides, to put it more seriously, she actually messed up the event. So, when we encounter personal names, place names, allusions or other references in real life, how do we do it safely? In my opinion, if the speaker is not very sure of what the speaker is referring to, the interpreter needs to confirm further with the other party and interpret it after confirming that it is correct. Secondly, the role of the translator is to translate and play a role in assisting communication, rather than to steal the limelight of the guests to show their knowledge and strengths. This is why we often see in front of the TV that the leader does not see the interpreter at the meeting or the interpreter needs to avoid it in front of the camera. In my opinion, the positioning of interpreters in their role is one of the basic professional qualities, and I believe that most interpreters can do this.
The opening scene of the third episode of the short series "Urology" is in the hospital. This time it was a medical interpretation scene, which was also quite professional and tricky. The content of this episode mainly revolves around a Chinese Teochew man, Mr. Zhao, who sees a doctor at a hospital in Australia but needs an interpreter to assist in communication due to language barriers. Although our heroine Lily had been well prepared for the professional medical terminology that may be faced when performing medical interpretation before the interpretation, due to the lack of prior communication, the interpreter Lily arrived at the scene and found that it was a "Teochew-English" translation, but she did not speak Teochew, and the doctor only had twenty minutes to consult, which led to her having to start calling her teochew-speaking friends on the spot for help. Even if she finally found a friend who could help translate in Teochew dialect, but because she could not understand Teochew dialect, she could not communicate with her friend in time and convey the doctor's words, which led to Mr. Zhao's operation in the situation of chatting with Lily's friend's mother, which would eventually lead to what problems Mr. Zhao had after the operation, but from this we can fully understand how important it is for the interpreter to understand each other's interpretation needs in detail in advance. Therefore, while describing their own interpretation needs, Party A like Mr. Zhao must convey the most specific interpretation needs with the interpreters, that is, it is not Chinese communication with foreigners must be "Chinese and English pairs", combined with the language needs of the Chinese side, knowing that it may also be the interpretation needs of "English-Cantonese" and "English-Dialect". If you agree without fully understanding the interpretation needs of the other party, it is possible that the content of this episode may occur. It is worth reminding that although the content of this episode is only the need of the plot, we must know that art often comes from life, and if we do not fully understand the needs of the other party to translate, then it is very likely that this episode will appear in reality.
The fourth episode of the show, "Straight Male Cancer", is also very interesting. When it comes to straight male cancer, straight man cancer is already a phrase that can be accepted by foreign media. And if foreigners want to clearly know the meaning of straight male cancer, "male chauvinist" can fully express this meaning! In addition, the English translation of the word "wall", Kabedon, is mentioned in the play, but the Australian does not understand the background and cannot understand the meaning of Kabedon, so Lily verbally explains it again: "When a man uses his bare hands to push a woman to a corner." The word Kabedon is derived from a Japanese anime, which originally refers to the action of a man forcing a woman to the wall and making a "bang" sound, leaving her with nowhere to escape. This episode is mainly about a man in his twenties who chose to find a short view because of a conflict with his girlfriend Zhang Wendi, the police rushed to the scene to rescue after receiving Zhang Wendi's complaint, but because of the language barrier, they needed to find Lily for translation assistance, but in the end, because Lily directly quarreled with the man during the translation process, and the fuse was that Lily brought in her own emotions, saying that the man was a straight male cancer, which directly led to the man's dissatisfaction and wanted to beat Lily! If such a thing happens in real life, it is really a serious "translation accident"! The reason is that personal emotions are brought in during the translation process, so it is still necessary to pay attention to the occasion and tone of the translation, and cannot bring in personal emotional biases without authorization.
The scene in the fifth and final episode of this short series is very fashionable, that is, to help the Australian eater Strawberry Love to do the interpretation, and in Lily's words, it is definitely best job ever! She can enjoy the food while working, which is simply amazing. The English title of this episode is also very interesting, Mukbang, which translates as a combination of live eating, which is a combination of Korean eating meokneun and bangsong playback. The theme of this episode focuses on whether to eat as an interpreter when eating. In my opinion, this is a question worth pondering. In major formal occasions, the interpreters are not seated, they usually sit in the back of the middle of the two guests. However, in many business occasions and even in private, both speakers are polite and will invite interpreters to sit down for dinner or even drink. Lily in this episode is similar to this situation. But in fact, when the two sides are communicating, there is not much time left for the interpreter to eat, on the one hand, because the interpreter needs to translate non-stop, so when they encounter a "meal" interpreter, it is best to prepare dry food in advance. On the other hand, eating during the translation process may not only lead to distraction and inability to translate, but may also lead to the situation that Lily encounters in the content of this episode, which not only delays the work of both parties but also may cause unnecessary trouble to herself. In this episode, Lily not only accepted the offer of the anchor Strawberry Love, but even took the initiative to pick up the chicken leg to eat the broadcast, but in the process of eating the chicken leg, she was accidentally "choked" by the chicken bone, almost bringing life danger, for this reason, not only did strawberry love need to give her first aid, but also delayed the work of strawberry love. Therefore, I think that interpreters should not eat in a meal.