Vol/51 No/4 2012AUGUST/SEPTEMBERTheLinguist25FEATURESsay pitch regulated upwind turbine with activeyaw in Romanian?'), some posed awkwardproblems that directly required the translator'sinterpretation. Take this example from aSpanish hotel catalogue:El hotel Balneario X cuenta con. unlujoso spa que recoge la tradición delhistórico balneario fundado en 1898 y laproyecta hacia la vanguardiaen un Spa dereferencia mundial.'The X Resort hotel has. a luxurious spawhich takes the tradition of the historic resortfounded in 1898 and projects it towards thevanguardin a world reference Spa.'Respondents made three suggestions forthe highlighted phrase: 'brings to the fore/forefront'; 'brings completely into the 21stcentury'; and 'makes them one of the mostinnovative (and technologically advanced)spas in the world'.8These three possibilitiesrevolve around different interpretations ofvanguardiaas 'forefront', 'very modern' and'innovative'. Indeed, the proposer of this last solution offers the justification:'Vanguardiaimplies one of the first to do new things and offer new methods andtechnologies in their field.' Some overlapbetween the two is apparent from therespondent's addition of the bracketed '(andtechnologically advanced)'. Other examples where translatorinterpretation was paramount were newlycoined terms in the communication andbusiness worlds, such as 'blue-sky explorationpotential' and the 'bleeding edge of webdesign'. Their coinage and evolution in Englishis worthy of a study in its own right, tracingtheir transfer from one collocation to another(eg, 'blue-sky thinking') and their acceptanceinto the mainstream. In translation, this typeof item causes problems irrespective oflanguage pair and often results in a moregeneral translation (eg, 'optimistic promotionpotential') or explicitation ('positiveexpectations in relation to explorationpotential'). These are further examples of risk-reduction strategies. The problem is thatsometimes the result can be not only risk-freebut also rather insipid and an example of theoften lamented 'translationese'. Jeremy Munday's Evaluation in Translation:Critical points of translator decision-making isout now through Routledge.Notes1Baker, M, 2006, Translation and Conflict,Abingdon, Routledge, 123-5; Mossop, B, 2007,'The Translator's Intervention through VoiceSelection', in Translation as Intervention, London,Continuum, 18-372 Kim, S, 2004, Strange Names of God, NewYork, Peter Lang3Ahmed, S, 2009, 'Bibles Seized as MalaysianMinorities Fear Fundamentalism', CNN, 29/10/09http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/10/29/malaysia.bibles.seized/4Speech viewable, with interpreting, atwww.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getVod.do?mode=chapter&language=EN&vodDateId=20100224-15:23:21-918, timing 16:14:10 to 16:16:475www.linguee.com/english-german/search?sourceoverride=none&source=auto&query=Leistung 6www.linguee.com/english-german/search?sourceoverride=none&source=auto&query=anspruchsvoll+7www.proz.com/kudoz8www.proz.com/kudoz/spanish_to_english/tourism_travel/4350977-proyecta_hacia_la_vanguardia.htmlSIGN OF CONFLICTProtestant Londonderry is changed toCatholic Derry on this road sign.Translating names can prove difficult,and choices can be politically charged because their value can shift and sodepends, at least in part, on the translator'sinterpretation. Take the German adjectiveanspruchsvoll. Equivalents are mainly positivebut not always so: 'demanding', 'challenging','sophisticated', 'ambitious', 'discriminating','exacting', 'taxing', 'discerning', 'upmarket','pretentious' and so on.6How is thetranslator to decide reliably?Surprisingly, some of the clearest indicatorsof attitude are sometimes overlooked. Oneexperienced reviser said that German modalparticles (auch, doch, eben, einmal, ja, schon,etc) frequently require revision in the texts shecorrects, while English attitudinal adverbs, suchas 'just', 'only' and 'even' are often omitted.Risk avoidanceIt is well-known that text type, genre andpurpose are crucial determiners of translationstrategy, but my research highlighted othersituational factors. For marketing texts, somein-house translators said they grant themselvesmore latitude than the freelancers with whomthey collaborate, since they are more familiarwith the image the company wishes to projectand have more opportunity to check possibletranslations with management. When doubts arise, the tendency is to'hedge your bets' and opt for something that'can't be wrong'. This risk-avoidance strategyis one that will be familiar to many translators,but its actual implementation would benefitfrom more research and discussion. I decidedto trace it in a sample of online translatorfora, including KudozTM.7These fora areuseful because the discussions reveal someof the reasons behind translation decisions. While the vast majority of the queriesconcerned technical terms (eg, 'how do youSEANMACK, 8/3/01 VIAWIKIPEDIA, CC BY 3.0

translate them and sing them in English - themusic and the words are so necessary toeach other. You'd never get the same feelingby singing in translation. The African songsare a good example. You get the "mba" and"nga" sounds, which we rarely use in English.It's soft, percussive -the way you're usingyour mouth changes.'For the choristers, many of whom arebeginners, this additional challenge quicklybecomes a pleasure. Motivated by the 2006BBC documentary The Choir, Dennis Spencer-Perkins - a bus driver from Dagenham -helped Eaton establish their local choir.'Everyone who comes thinks it's going to bereally hard singing in all these languages, butit makes us put more emotion in, somehow,'he says. 'Sometimes a song's really powerfulI was using songs in mylessons but I worried itmight not be helpful. Iwas surprised how littleresearch there was26 TheLinguistAUGUST/SEPTEMBER www.iol.org.ukFEATURESCommunity choirs are increasingly popular, but canthey support language learning, asks Jessica Moore On Monday nights, between 8pm and 10pm,a beautiful sound flows from the Inter FaithCentre in Queen's Park, Northwest London.It'sunfamiliar. Uplifting. Not at all what you'dexpect to overhear on a residential city street.'Our community choirs sing in a range ofdifferent languages,' explains CatherineDyson, Founder and Director of Vocality,which currently runs eight a cappellachoirgroups at locations in London and Surrey.'There's a wealth of music out there - the littlebit of our rock and pop that most of us areused to hearing is just a drop in the ocean.World music is often perfect for singingunaccompanied, because a lot of it has beenpassed through the oral tradition, throughcommunities, from person to person.' Songs in languages as diverse as Zulu,Shona and Georgian are taught, using, saysDyson, 'as little paper as possible'. The choirleaders sing their hearts out, teaching byexample. The choirs have an all-welcomeapproach and a fun-loving attitude that'sevident in the sounds they produce.It's a risky strategy. 'People are oftenfrightened of singing in different languages atfirst,' admits Dyson. 'We tell them what thesongs are about, but the words are unfamiliar.We rarely sing in French or Italian, or otherlanguages that people are more likely tohave some knowledge of. In many ways, thatactually makes it easier -because you don'thave to think about the words: you associatethe sounds with the rhythm of the music.' 'Singing in a range of languages can be agreater challenge, but it makes for a moreinteresting programme,' agrees CharlotteEaton. Having worked as a choir leader forVocality, Eaton recently established her ownmulti-language community choir inDagenham, East London. 'The importantthing about the songs we choose is thatthey're from other cultures. We would neverTuning the mindand you feel the energy coming through. It'slike at football: we all sing as one.' It is a learning curve, however: 'In English,you use certain muscles, but in differentlanguages, you use different ones. You mighthave to roll your tongue, or pronounce a "j"like an "h".' An understanding of contexthelps. Spencer-Perkins adds: 'If you knowwhat a song is about - whatever language it'sin - you understand when your voice mightgo up or down, a bit sad or lively, whatever itis. It's story-telling.'The absence of a core language also has alevelling effect. 'You can have a choir withpeople from 20 different nations in it - so youmight have people who speak the languageof one of the songs,' says Eaton. 'I can askthem the best way to pronounce the words.'Dyson agrees: 'We do get people saying "Ispeak Swedish and it's not pronounced likethat", or whichever language it is. Thatmeans the people in the choir can contributeand then it becomes a community project ina greater sense. Everyone can contribute.'Far reaching benefitsThere could be other benefits of singing in adifferent language. Karen M Ludke, aPostdoctoral Research Fellow at the Universityof Edinburgh, has found strong benefits forsinging when learning a second language.Her postgraduate and doctoral theses soughtto evaluate whether listening to songs andsinging in a new language could help withlanguage learning, compared to moretraditional teaching methods. The results of her studies are remarkable.In a classroom-based intervention in Frenchlessons at schools in Scotland, Ludke says:'There were much stronger findings than Iexpected. Singing is fun and motivating, butthe results also showed positive effects ongrammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. We