*Welcome to News with a Foreign Accent. This newsletter focuses on how using English as the global language affects the way we see the world. I’ve been a TV journalist for 20+ years in both Western and non-Western media and am one of the few second-language English broadcasters on mainstream UK/Western TV News. I believe language is culture, and I try to find the hidden angles and cultural mistranslations within mainstream stories.*
Like most of us, I’ve been watching a lot of Trump recently. The possible onset of WW3 can have that effect. Because of frequent travel, I ended up watching several Trump press conferences in random hotel rooms, his English dubbed into the local language of wherever I was staying.
That’s when I started to notice something:
When Trump was being simultaneously translated into another language for a non-English speaking audience, he seemed different.
Not just different. Better.
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More coherent. More predictable. More eloquent.
Statesmanlike, even.
When listening to him dubbed in a language I couldn’t understand, Trump’s intonation seemed more controlled. And when I could understand the language he was being dubbed in, his turns of phrase were less eccentric. Basically, the translation gave his speech a veneer of normality, when usually his English discourse - though obviously effective, considering he’s won two elections - can be erratic, to put it mildy.
In this video I speak to someone who translates Trump for a living and has been doing so for years: Desiree Berlangieri, a simultaneous translator for the Italian state broadcaster RAI. She has amazing stories and insights and let’s face it, a pretty challenging job.
She confirmed something I’d long suspected. When Trump’s speeches are littered with repetition of words like BIG, BAD, STUPID, GREAT, SAD, TERRIFIC, LOSER (and my personal favourite, TREMENDOUS) do the interpreters worry that the audience might think they’re the ones using simplistic language because they’re not eloquent enough to deliver a more sophisticated translation? Apparently, YES! Though we all should know by now that, regardless of content (and I realise the word regardless is doing a lot of heavy lifting here), the simplicity of Trump’s speech has often proved a strength in getting his message across and speaking to his base.
Desiree also explained the issue of ‘The beautiful and the faithful’ when dealing with translations.
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The beautiful and the faithful
‘The beautiful and the faithful’ is the phrase used to describe the balance that needs to be struck in translations: Do you stay perfectly faithful to the literal translation of what is being said, or do you ‘embellish’ somewhat to make the point of what the speaker is saying clear to an audience who not only does not speak the same language, but also doesn’t share the same cultural references?
That’s of the many topics Desiree and I talked about. I hope you enjoy the video and tell me in the comments section whether you think Trump sounds different in other languages or any examples of notable translations of his speeches you may have come across.
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