“SAYING WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND” INDEED FUSES WITH, OVERLAPS AND COMPLICATES THE ART OF TRANSLATION TO MAKE THE PRODUCT OF IT WHAT IT IS – BUT IT’S IMPORTANT TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE AND DISTINGUISH THEM. DOES TRANSLATION INFLUENCE YOUR SPEAKING HABITS (IDIOLECT)?

Education (or lack thereof) / what you learn tends to shape the way you speak; I think we all agree with that one. And… well, it depends on exactly what you learn, whether or not the learning was intended by you and whether or not there was someone consciously intent on teaching you that stuff, huh? I think we all agree with that, don’t you? So when I’m not worrying about marketing or chasing unpaid payments (and that’s when I’m not actually doing translation work for clients), what are my chief concerns as far as my professional translation career is concerned when it comes to addressing my languages skills for what is, if not the ultimate test of them, certainly damn near it? I’m convinced my personal experiences shape the truths of both my language skills and my own particular language use tendencies and therefore my potential as a professional translator. Say what you want but at the moment I can conclude that talking with native French and German speakers could be beneficial in this regard.

When I mention “talking with native French and German speakers” here, I do mean on a reliable regular basis and not by chance. It’s not like when I’m at home, able to watch Youtube videos of speeches and interviews and stuff in French and German on the Internet or whatever, whenever I want. And that’s just on the FOREIGN language side of things. What about the MY OWN LANGUAGE SIDE of things? After all, to me it’s pretty much impossible to understate the importance of truly being able to choose the words I can and do use when I write a translation of something – even if the work of a given project were harder than I thought, I will always cherish it as a skill that I find useful and which keeps my confidence up when I just can’t escape frustration or confusion on the job.

Today I started wondering how much the regular practice of translation, such as I do, is prone to influencing the way you speak, including the words and expressions you use. Myself, as a professional linguist, no less, I can be as ready to e.g. watch Youtube videos of people whose mother tongue is not English, talking in English as I can to watch said “Youtube videos of speeches and interviews and stuff in French and German on the Internet or whatever”, for the purpose of investigating the particular English language words expressions that these non-English mother tongue speakers use when they speak English. If you are a native speaker of English and you can understand them when they speak that English they use, you will see that some get by even if they struggle, some speak English well, and some speak it very well. I find that it is only too easy to be impressed by the conversation that Geert Wilders musters in Hardtalk on British television

Especially when you consider that Wilders is basically here in what to him is a foreign country and under TV cameras, yet English isn’t even his first language and it’s not enough for me to say that I couldn’t have put that Stephen Sackur idiot in his place better myself (did he really never consider why Geert was living under 24-hour protection!?); with the possible exception of Pat Condell, I can’t think of any mother tongue English speaker who could! But, to stick to the topic at hand: as much as you have to give Geert credit for this thing, if you’re sitting in front a computer screen reading this you are now able to watch that video clip whenever you want, “whenever you want” being the opposite of “by chance”, as would be the case if e.g. someone you hadn’t seen for years met you in a pub and they showed you this clip on their tablet or whatever before you eventually said goodbye.

As I’m supposed to be talking about the “MY OWN LANGUAGE SIDE of things” (see the end of paragraph two) at this point, this is the point where I bring up the “ ‘With this’ thing.” It’s an example. However true it may or may not be that my own regular practice of translation has altered my speech habits (or “idiolect”), one thing I have noticed is a mild tendency I have to start sentences with “With this” as a general conjunctional phrase implying an explanation of why a given situation is the way it is – like a consequence / cause and effect thing.
It can have a place in legal material e.g.

“It is stipulated that the party of the first part shall pay for X for the party of the second part, up to a value of Y, and solely for the purposes of this contract. With this, every month the party of the first part shall transfer a sum of £500 to the party of the second part; the party of the second part may only spend such money on X – exclusively for the purpose of this contract – and shall itself bear any costs in excess of aforementioned £500. With this, the party of the second part shall retain receipts of legitimate purchases made with aforementioned monthly £500 capital and, if the party of the first part so requests, submit such receipts to the party of the first part within 48 hours; failure to do this shall justify an investigation for embezzlement on the part of the party of the second part. The party of the second part has agreed, at the request of the party of the first part, to pay accumulated unspent monthly amounts of £500 back to the party of the first part within one month after the end of the 12-month period stipulated herein; with this, failure by the party of the second part to do this shall be recognised as a basis for the part of the party of the second part being guilty of larceny.”

It can have a place in technical material e.g.

“If the engine of the device is overheated it can be a serious hazard; with this, the valve must be open whenever the device is active. The electrics must be protected, be kept dry; with this, the valve must be closed when the device is not active, to prevent moisture from entering in the device through that route.”

I like “With this” in that it’s a phrase of convenience that can be used amusingly commonly, but part of the reason why it’s so amusing is that it’s just so artificial… isn’t it? I don’t really want to get into the habit of using “With this” too much in my everyday, by-chance parlance.