Found in Translation

FINAL NOTE
This book began with a dedication to translators and interpreters, and many of
them have appeared as main characters in the stories we’ve shared. Now, as we
end our journey, we thought you might like to know a bit more about how
these often unsung heroes and heroines view their own work.
There are hundreds of thousands of translators and interpreters throughout
the world. Their lives and work are as varied as the stories in this book. The
situations they encounter, the languages they speak, and the places they work
are tremendously diverse. To give you a better idea of what their jobs entail,
we conducted an informal survey of people who work in these professions.
When we asked roughly twelve thousand translators and interpreters what
they loved most about their work, they had plenty to say. Even at first glance,
it’s clear they enjoy their jobs. In fact, when we asked about their work
satisfaction, 96.4 percent of respondents said that they were either “very
satisfied” or “satisfied.”
But how do they believe they transform the world? One translator wrote,
“No one can know every language in the world, but our work makes it possible
for people to read everything anyway.” Another explained, “Because of my
work as a translator of textbooks, children can learn in their native languages.”
A legal interpreter pointed out, “By preventing miscommunication, I am also
preventing lawsuits,” while a medical interpreter noted, “Medical interpreting
improves public health.” And one person who worked as both a translator and
interpreter summarized, “Without translators and interpreters, there would be
no trade agreements, no international business, no globalization.”
We also asked these professionals to tell us about the most unusual
assignments they had ever received. The responses included such diverse
answers as “going on a drug bust with the police” to “translating the daily
journals of French movie critics at Cannes” to “translating a crane operator ’s
manual.” Interpreters mentioned conveying the words of victims of trafficking,
Nobel Prize winners, heads of state, and guests on The Jerry Springer Show.
Translators mentioned converting Chinese phrases for tattoo parlors, due
diligence documents for one of the largest business mergers in the twentieth

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century, and a survey about the usages of toilet paper.
Some mentioned translating love letters, while others had to translate
correspondence for private investigators between a woman who was cheating
on her husband and the man she was cheating with. One respondent had
interpreted for Pope John Paul II, while another mentioned interpreting for
Fidel Castro. One person mentioned interpreting for a routine medical
procedure in which the patient unexpectedly died, while another mentioned
interpreting as a baby came into the world.
We also asked translators and interpreters to do the ultimate in linguistic
synthesis by picking a single word to describe their work. Some of the most
common words they chose were fascinating, challenging, intriguing, and
rewarding. A surprising number of them answered with the word
supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. But many also selected words like creative,
exciting, empowering, engaging, engrossing, fulfilling, interesting, stimulating,
and varied.
While the results of our poll seem to indicate that these folks are a happy
bunch, there is no denying that translators and interpreters work, for the most