Vol/51 No/2 2012APRIL/MAYTheLinguist19FEATURESOne vivid example of a non-Punjabi, ruralcharacter is the servant of Petruccio (calledSifarish Khan in our adaptation). As a Pathanwho comes from Khyber Pakhtunkwa, he hasthe tendency to mix up his genders whenspeaking Urdu. This has the dual effect ofbeing comic -perfectly in keeping with hisrole -and injecting ambiguity into hisdialogue. At one critical juncture in the playKatherina agrees to submit to Petruccio in allhis wishes. Petruccio's servant then says tohim, 'go thy ways, the field is won'. Wesimplify this to 'you have won'. However, inSifarish Khan's style of Urdu the verb has afeminine ending suggesting that perhapsKatherina has also won. Although theaudience will understand that Sifarish meansto refer to his master it will not escape themthat he sounds as if he talks of Katherina.Another challenge presented by the textwas in certain aspects of culture, which, ifdirectly translated, could go so far as to causeoffence. A signature line of the play is 'Kiss meKate'. This is said three times in the course ofthe play and is accompanied, at the very leastin the last instance, by an actual kiss. This line and its attendant action areimportant indicators of the state of Petruccioand Katherina's relationship, with changes intone and gesture reflecting a progression intheir feelings. However, in most Islamiccultures there is a clear restriction on showingphysical intimacy in public, and Pakistan is noexception. Hence, Petruccio's repeateddemand to 'kiss me' was like coming upagainst a brick wall, culturally speaking. Wetransmuted this line to a rather lesspassionate (and for us dissatisfying) demandto hold hands. Although we are restricted in what actionswe can show on stage, there are usually nolimitations on language laden with sexualinnuendo or even on direct references to sex.The first time Katherina and Petruccio meetthey engage in a bawdy battle of wits thattranslates extremely well, hopefully preservingthe sexual chemistry of the original. Another area of cultural sensitivity came inthe religious references of the play. AfterPetruccio and Katherina's wedding, one ofBianca's suitors explains that during theceremony the Bible fell to the floor. It wouldhave been blasphemous to replace the Biblewith the Quran so, instead, the nikah namaormarriage papers flutter down. Other elementsof the religious ceremony, such as wine, weresimilarly transmuted.Apart from the linguistic, cultural andcontextual gauntlets thrown down by TheTaming of the Shrew, we also had to dealwith a more mundane one; each of us is newboth to translating literary texts and tocollaboration. We started to work togetherover Skype while divided by continents. It feltvery much like jumping in at the deep end.We all share the sentiments of Lucentio, thesuitor who finally wins Bianca's heart, whenhe confesses to feeling:'.as he that leavesA shallow plash to plunge him in the deep,And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.'In the main, the challenges weencountered have been surmountable and insome instances positively enriching. This is inno small part due to Shakespeare's wonderfulamenability to translation.This adaptation will be performed on 25-26May as part of the Globe to Globe Festival.See globetoglobe.shakespearesglobe.com.As a Pathan, he mixesup his genders. Thishas the dual effect ofbeing comic andinjecting ambiguitywe decided not to use a straight translationhere. Instead we called our adaptation (ilaaj-e-zid dasteyaab hai) or'Cure for Stubbornness Available'. This is areference to the kind of signs commonly seenin shop windows, trying to sell cures for avariety of ailments.Shakespeare's use of rhyme, often withcomic effect, proved incredibly amenable totranslation with the retention of both rhymeand comicality. Urdu is a very lyricallanguage, and the genre in which it has mostflourished is poetry, so this should not havebeen such a surprise. In a scene from Act IIIwe had to come up with an equivalent forthe use of Latin poetry by one of Bianca'ssuitors. This was relatively straightforward asthe relationship between Latin and English isvery similar to that of Persian and Urdu.Persian considerably precedes Urdu and hasbeen a strong influence, particularly in itspoetic contributions. The characters in The Taming of the Shrewhail from several different cities in Italy(Padua, Verona, Pisa). An important aspect ofour adaptation was the choices we maderegarding the origins and ethnic backgroundsof their Pakistani counterparts. In many areasof the country, such as Khyber Pakhtunkwa(formerly NWFP) and Sindh, Urdu is not thefirst language. Characters coming from theseregions speak Urdu with particular linguisticquirks. The added challenge of conveyingtheir different vocal flavours proved awonderful way to showcase the vernacularrichness of the language. Although most of the action centres onLahore, the capital city of the Punjab, most ofthe characters are not Punjabi. This was, forus, a welcome departure from thepredominance of the Punjab as the subject ofmuch of our media's output. Additionally, themix of rural and urban characters inShakespeare allowed us to explore thedynamics between dominant and otherwiseunder-represented communities.0/ .-,+*) ('& %$#"!

20 TheLinguistAPRIL/MAYwww.iol.org.ukFEATURESIs going multilingual in business avaluable asset or simply a necessity,asks Inkaliisa Vihonen in our recent EU study on multilingualism inbusiness it was revealed that the digital ageand globalisation have changed theEuropean business environment in a shortperiod of time, and that companies and theiremployees now deal with different languagesand cultures on a daily basis. in this context,it could be said that multilingualism shouldno longer be considered an asset forcompanies, but a mere fact of life. According to the 'Mapping Best MultilingualBusiness practices in the EU' report,1commissioned by the DGt (Directorate-General for translation of the Europeancommission), businesses have come up withmultiple solutions to deal with the challenge.these include localisation, and collaborativelanguage management and outsourcing.the 2011 study gathered case studies fromcompanies, both big and small, all withEuropean headquarters and many withoffices throughout the world. Faced with thismultilingual reality, they had adopted anumber of innovative business practices.these included intercomprehension (ie, the parallel use of different languages thathave similar structures and vocabularies);collaborative interpretation (expertcolleagues used as interpreters in meetings);and the use of language technology tools, such as machine translation andterminology management.the companies stressed that socialnetworks and collaborative methods had ledto increasingly complex and technicalcontent, as experts on the substance matterwere solely responsible for producing andfinalising texts, without help from languageexperts. An increased demand for qualitytranslation and other language services wasreported, as the company image was felt tobe at stake if its foreign language usage wasnot up to standard.As companies were interviewed in detailon their multilingual practices, it also becameclear that multilingualism is a sensitive issuein the business environment. it can beconsidered as a strategic issue, or even asconfidential. Some companies did not wantto make official statements about theirmultilingual business practices, although theycertainly had them in use. perhaps somefeared that disclosing their multilingualbusiness strategies would be detrimental tothem, decreasing their competitiveadvantage. in other companies, informationon multilingual practices is not disseminatedsufficiently and may not be well known orwell supervised, with the result thatexecutives prefer not to make officialstatements about them.A flexible workplacethe study covered everything from bigmultinationals operating on a Europe-widescale, such as GDF Suez, to small enterprises,including cafès Novell. GDF Suez has officesin 60 countries and uses its vast, multinationaland multilingual resources to operate allaround the world. With 130 employees inSpain and italy, cafès Novell uses multilingualwebsites to reach its customers. Despite the difference in size, both are opento multilingualism and stated that they hadBusinessessentialsthis, in turn, has led to a boom in thelanguage industry, which provides solutionsto the language barriers in business. With increasing globalisation, the businessenvironment has changed throughout theworld, but this is particularly striking in theEuropean Union, which accounts for about 25 percent of global imports and exports. in2007, the EU was responsible for 18 percentof world trade, making it the world's largesttrader, followed by the United States (16%),china (11%), Japan (7%) and canada (4%). itis the biggest exporter and the secondbiggest importer in the world, and since theexpansions of 2004 and 2007, its GDp hasbeen higher than that of the US. in 2009,approximately one-third of the top 500 globalcompanies had their headquarters in Europe.© iStockphoto