50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 212: The Translation Room Shows Its Skills for the First Time

After Director Xie introduced Sun Zhiwei to everyone, the seven or eight translators in the English group cheered happily, while the translators of other languages ​​sat back dejectedly and continued to work.

Su Yongan, the leader of the English group, pulled him over to their side, arranged a seat for him, then stuffed a handful of information into his hands and asked him to start translating.

Sun Zhiwei was not so rash. Diplomatic translation and daily translation were two different things. He would never dare to start translating right away.

"Team leader, let me look at your translation manuscripts for a few days. Once I'm familiar with them, I'll try to translate one more. Once they're approved, I'll come back to help you. Sharpening the knife doesn't delay the chopping of wood."

Su Yongan smiled awkwardly, scratched his head, and said, "Look how anxious I am. This is the right thing to do. Mainly because our English team has the heaviest workload. The documents waiting to be translated are already piling up like a mountain."

"I'll give you some previously translated documents so you can take a look at our translation requirements."

Then, Sun Zhiwei received a huge pile of manuscripts, all of which were the work of the previous English group: notes to the embassy in China, government statements, and itineraries of foreign leaders' visits to China.

It didn't take him long to read these manuscripts, as he was very fast at reading documents.

However, speed alone is not enough. You also need to know the diplomatic vocabulary used in these manuscripts and how it differs from the words used in daily translations. You also need to understand the fixed formats of various translations.

For example, according to international practice, the wording at the beginning and end of diplomatic notes and formal diplomatic letters is the same all over the world, and the English is also ready-made, so there is no "innovation".

Sun Zhiwei would simply write down this format and use it when writing similar documents in the future.

There were also some that he did not quite understand. For example, in the sentence “With the highest respects,” the word “致” was translated as “express” in some documents, but as “renew” in others.

He asked other old comrades and learned that when two parties exchange letters for the first time, they should use "express", and after that they should use "renew".

If no one told him, he would have no way of knowing these details of diplomatic language, so he studied them very carefully and seriously.

If this is done wrong, it will become an international laughing stock. Diplomacy is no small matter.

It took him most of the day to read through all the documents, and then he asked other colleagues about his recorded questions. By the time he had figured everything out, the day was over.

When I got home in the evening, I told my family about my new work situation. I didn’t say much, mainly because I’m still in the learning stage and there’s not much to say.

He continued to work the next day. When he came to work in the morning, he found all the original manuscripts in the manuscripts and tried to translate them himself according to the knowledge he had learned. After finishing the translation, he compared it with the original translation of the old comrade and corrected each other.

This work took him two days. He translated and proofread more than 100 manuscripts again. When he felt confident, he went to see Team Leader Su of the English group again.

"Team Leader, I've finished reading the documents you gave me. I think I can give it a try today."

After learning about his learning process, Su Yongan was also surprised. If he wanted to thoroughly understand so many documents by himself, it would take him at least a week. Could it be that Sun Zhiwei only needed three days?

However, people in the diplomatic department have developed the habit of being reserved, and most of them will not point out problems to others' faces and embarrass them.

Su Yongan felt that Sun Zhiwei might have exaggerated a bit, but no matter whether he believed it or not, since the other party said it was okay, he just had to inspect it, and if it failed, he would naturally send it back.

"I have a diplomatic note here. Please try to translate it. When you are done, give it to me."

As he spoke, Su Yongan took out a document from the table and handed it to Sun Zhiwei.

"Okay, Team Leader. I'll bring it back when I'm done."

After receiving the translation, Sun Zhiwei returned to his seat. He first read the document, then took out a piece of paper, filled out the fixed format, and then tried to translate the content. The translation of a few hundred words took only about 10 minutes.

After the translation was completed, he checked the manuscript three times, first checking the vocabulary, then the grammar, and finally the semantics. Finally, he compared it with diplomatic language and official document format.

It took exactly 20 minutes to finish everything and confirm that there was no problem. Then he took the original manuscript and the translation together and found Su Yongan again.

Su Yongan, who was busy, saw him coming over again and asked, "Is there any problem? Bring it to me and I'll explain it to you."

Sun Zhiwei didn't say much, just handed over the original manuscript and the translation.

Su Yongan took the manuscript and asked, "What don't you understand? No, you, have you finished translating it?"

He couldn't help but raise his hand to look at his watch. When Sun Zhiwei took the manuscript just now, he clearly remembered that the time was 15:10. Now it is 15:30, with only 20 minutes in between.

Su Yongan glanced at Sun Zhiwei before turning his gaze back to the manuscript. After three minutes of careful reading, he was very sure that there was no problem with the translation.

But how is this possible? If I remember correctly, this was the first time he completed a document translation independently.

"Did you complete this independently?" Su Yongan asked again with doubt.

"Yes, Team Leader. Can you help me point out the problems? This is my first time translating, and I'm not sure about it."

Sun Yongan was silent for a moment before he said, "I need to take a closer look. So, I have an external announcement here that needs to be translated into English. Please do that as well and bring it to me later."

After handing a new manuscript to Sun Zhiwei, he looked at his watch again and it was 15:35 pm.

"Okay, team leader." Sun Zhiwei knew it was done, but he didn't show any expression. He took the new manuscript and returned to his seat to start translating the new manuscript.

The new manuscript was an announcement with not much content, so he finished translating it in a few minutes. However, there were some words in it that were not in the previous learning documents, so he still needed to confirm them.

He consulted two colleagues, modified the vocabulary, and then went through his own review process again.

First, do three checks: check the words, check the grammar, and check the semantics; then do two comparisons: check the diplomatic rhetoric and check the format of the official document.

After completing the process and confirming that there were no problems, he stood up again and went to find Team Leader Su.

This time, Team Leader Su looked at his watch again when he took the manuscript.

Two minutes later, he confirmed again that there was no problem with the translation of the manuscript.

This external announcement was not received until noon, and no one else in the group had seen it, so there was no question of other colleagues translating it and then giving it to Sun Zhiwei for reference.

Then he can confirm that this is the translation work he completed alone.

However, he didn't check for any errors at all, which is terrible.

A newcomer who has never been involved in diplomatic translation work can start independent translation with the reference of hundreds of old manuscripts?

(End of this chapter)