EU Terminology in Interpreter Training: Selected Problem Areas Connected With EU-Related Texts

Abstract

The presentation refers to the entire area of translating legal terminology, in particular to the translation of EU law-related texts that are especially vital for translating the acquis communautaire. This area of translation (and interpreting) services has been developing rapidly. The language used in documents is specialist and, at the same time, specific, due to the terminology used. Both the translator and the interpreter face the responsibility and the obligation to observe and apply translation strategies, consistently selected and considering the already existing and valid names, terms, concepts, definitions etc., by means of such available sources of information as dictionaries, encyclopedias, lexicons or special glossaries. Problems that translators and interpreters may encounter focus, to a large extent, on (un)translatability of certain terms, ambiguity of EU-speak or textual coherence, or the absence of it, which results from unclear, vague or ambiguous style of the original. On the other hand, the challenge for the translator/interpreter is constant care of the quality of the text created in Polish, which substantially affects the standard level and quality of Polish that we use everyday. Quality is the concept in translation and interpreting closely related with successful performance and communication (with all its aspects). The attempt at quality description in this context, apart from subjective impressions resulting from our understanding of the importance of features that good - competent - translation and effective communication should have, cannot be devoid of focusing on three principal factors, i.e., the translator/interpreter (as the text author/producer), translation/interpreting process and product, which is the result of this process and, finally, involvement (and competence) on the part of the translator/interpreter. All the above aspects pose a real challenge for the translator/interpreter focusing on legal terminology. Selected aspects of the aforementioned issues shall be verified in a case study conducted on trainee interpreters.