Know what you don’t know

I have long forgotten what everyone said in the first class meeting in college, but these words of the class teacher were deeply imprinted in my heart, and I did not seem to escape them in the next three years. This "terrible" prophecy came out. By my senior year, some things that were confusing before have become clear, and some things that were clear before are now confusing. Not long ago, I was smugly thinking that I was beginning to slowly enter the stage of "knowing that I know", but now I discovered that what was coming was "knowing that I don't know."

From the time I started working after the military parade holiday to last Friday (6th-18th), I worked (internship and odd jobs) for 13 consecutive days. During this period, I went to Ningbo twice, and I was "cleansed" every time. It opened my eyesight, increased my knowledge, and touched my pain points.” I've been very busy these 13 days, so I rarely update my official account. I'm really sorry. Today, let’s talk about the pain points I encountered in Ningbo last Friday, and the “knowing what I don’t know” that we faced.

(Morning Xinkang training, taken on 2015-09-18)

Last Friday, the company where I was interning invited an American cardiac rehabilitation expert to give training to a famous hospital in Ningbo , my big boss is responsible for translation, and I am the assistant (responsible for doing odd jobs). In order to avoid commercially sensitive content, this article has been simplified or omitted. American mental health experts will be referred to as G below. The whole-day training agenda was drawn up by me at the end of August, and it was bilingual; the PPT used for the training was originally meant to be translated by me, but then the PPT sent to me by G was bilingual. The consultant) helped with the translation. The translation was very professional and definitely beat me to the punch. I only had to do the proofreading. Because my boss (different from the big boss) said before that the big boss would be able to translate the training content, and I only needed to help with other things, so being lazy, I really just did a simple proofreading and that was it.

During breakfast on Friday, the big boss asked me if I had ever done this kind of training (consecutive interpretation) in college and if I wanted to try it today. He could be my strong backing. My face instantly turned red, and I had no choice but to answer awkwardly: I have an interpreting class for one and a half semesters, but the practice contents are all "big and empty" opening speeches and forum speeches, which will never involve such complex medical translation, and They paid for the training, and it would be embarrassing to not be able to translate well. I will observe it this time and try to do it next time. Although the big boss really only asked me to observe that day, I was still nervous all day long, worried that he would let me in at any time. "Opportunity only covets those who are prepared." Although this sentence sounds like chicken soup for the soul, it is indeed true. Looking back, if I had carefully proofread the PPT, after proofreading, I would have familiarized myself with the content of the PPT, learned the professional terminology in it, and then used the methods I learned during the Liangjian training during the winter vacation to prepare for translation, and practice reading aloud (I haven’t spoken in half a year) Passed English), I am actually competent. Because of laziness, I missed a real opportunity to exercise.

Before the training started in the morning, G wanted to copy the PPT, but there were so many files in his USB flash drive that he was dazzled, and the computer was in Chinese language. It took him a long time to find the latest version of the PPT file. My USB flash drive is usually empty. I only temporarily store the files I need and delete them after use. This makes it easy to find files. If I lose them, I don’t have to post a missing item notice on various social platforms or cry out that the files inside are important. This is a good habit. This time I backed up the PPT for G’s training on a USB flash drive, but when I saw that G was already looking for the PPT in his USB flash drive, I didn’t give him my USB flash drive. The service was not in place, and it turned out to be a big problem later. mistake.

When it comes to the sixth PPT, there is no Chinese, but I clearly remember that I translated that PPT. Didn't he check his email? Or did he open the latest version of PPT? (Note: The PPT G sent me was bilingual, and I only needed to proofread it, but later he added a few more pages of PPT, and I needed to translate the new parts). The training was still going on, so I just had a little doubt and continued to do odd jobs (taking photos). I actually forgot about this during Tea Break! ! ! The consequence is that the PPTs at the end of the training have no translations! ! ! Before the training started, when the hospital asked people who knew English to raise their hands, only the vice president (the highest-level leader attending the meeting) and the director raised their hands. I don’t know if the others really didn’t understand English or were just being humble.

When talking about this part of the PPT without translation, G asked me, and I had to tell him: "I've translated your PowerPoint, but the one you opened is not the latest." G asked everyone if they wanted to switch to the latest version of the PPT. Since it was already past 11 o'clock, the big boss said not to change. Thinking about it now, the service was still not good enough. If I had given him my USB flash drive at the beginning, and if I had not forgotten my suspicion during Tea Break, it would not have been so embarrassing. Therefore, those who assist must be careful and meticulous!

Let’s talk about the training translation in the morning. Big Boss was born in computer science at Tsinghua University. He went to the United States to study for a better master's degree. Now he is an American citizen and is engaged in the research and development of software systems related to central cardiovascular diseases in the medical service field. Therefore, he has also crossed over into the medical field (essentially still the software industry), and translation is just an additional skill for him. Throughout the morning training, he was doing consecutive interpretation (for G for the second time). This time he used pen and paper, but he only took notes occasionally. He didn't use up even half of the paper in a long time. I asked the hotel for pen and paper in the morning. I must bring pen and paper with me at all times when working! ! ! Last time I went to Changzhou, the big boss was discussing business with another boss and asked me to take notes. I actually forgot to bring paper and pen, so I had to use my mobile phone to write down key words. Although I could still recall the meeting minutes after the meeting, but in the eyes of the bosses Recording with a mobile phone in front of you seems very unprofessional. I forgot to bring it this time, so I asked the hotel for it, and finally gave it to the big boss for consecutive interpretation, but in the evening he asked me to write the minutes of the afternoon meeting with him next week, so I had to rely on my unreliable memory. There are no more than three things, and I hope there are no three things.

There are many standards for guiding and evaluating translation, from Nida's "functional equivalence theory" to Yan Fu's "faithfulness and elegance". There are many well-known standards, although I personally don't pay attention to these theories. , biased. I personally believe that the biggest purpose of an interpreter is to facilitate communication. From this perspective, I admire Big Boss’s translation. He achieved the purpose of communication, and when translating, he would add his own understanding and the cases he encountered when attending cardiovascular conferences in order to better convey it. Of course, adding one's own content to the translation is a taboo among academics (academics). His extensive simplifications, reorganizations, and even large deviations from the original translation are also controversial among academics. Different evaluation standards will lead to different evaluation results. If we have to use the consecutive interpretation at the annual two sessions press conference as a standard to measure Big Boss's translation, then objectively speaking, his translation rate is about 70%. I praise his translation because the purpose was achieved, and using my personal translation standard - comfort, to evaluate it, he translated it in a way that makes people feel comfortable. Again, different evaluation standards will lead to different evaluation results.

In the middle part of the morning training, there was a picture on the PPT which was a 12-lead electrocardiogram, excerpted from a medical paper. The big boss couldn’t understand the abbreviations on it, so he had to ask the deputy dean (female, mentioned above) for help. However, hereafter referred to as F). F explained it thoroughly and told everyone that the United States has been in the field of cardiac rehabilitation for 50 more years, while China is currently basically blank. I encourage everyone here to devote themselves to it, and it will be easy to produce results (publish papers in top journals). I mention this to encourage subscribers of this public account who specialize in Chinese medicine. Her translation reminded me of an article I read, which pointed out a common phenomenon today: there are often many senior executives of enterprises and public institutions who are proficient in English, but on the contrary, it is those middle- and low-level employees who have poor English. Language ability is only one of many abilities. Bachelor of Arts Wenyengge said that English is not everything, but no matter how much time and energy you invest in language, it is never too much. ***Mian!

There was a page with a very simple number at the back of the training PPT that was wrongly translated. The big boss pointed it out on the spot, but I didn’t notice it when I was proofreading! Later, this error appeared again in the next PPT. I speculate that the person who translated the PPT should use auxiliary translation software such as trados, because these software will remember your translation and prevent you from repeating the translation. But the disadvantage is that when translating a new content for the first time, if the translation is inaccurate, and when you encounter the same original text later, the software will automatically fill in the translation and if you don't check it, the same error will occur.

But the point is, I have to think about why I didn’t find such a low-level error when I proofread! After thinking about it for a while, I found that the reason why I didn’t find any errors during the proofreading was that on the day of proofreading, I found that the translation was very professional and definitely blew me away. So in the middle of the proofreading, due to time constraints, I just looked at the translation instead of the original text and only made adjustments. The translation sentences are not smooth. This is a big no-no in proofreading! ! ! No matter how tight the time is in the future, we must not do it again! No matter how good a translator is, there are times when he makes mistakes.

After lunch, three beautiful nurses from the hospital invited us to go to Starbucks to drink coffee and discuss the problem. During the period, G taught one of the most valuable methods of psychological relaxation. Although he says this is for people with anxiety, I think it applies to everyone. The method is: lie flat, maintain normal breathing, focus on the left leg, tighten the muscles of the left leg, tighten and then tighten, and then suddenly relax. After finishing the left leg, use the same method to do the right leg, left hand, right hand, perineum, buttocks, abdomen, and finally the whole body. Keep breathing smooth during this process and do not hold your breath. In the afternoon practical class, G led everyone to do it again, and it was indeed effective. F has practiced yoga and said that it is a method evolved from yoga to achieve psychological relaxation through physical relaxation. After chatting at noon, the three beautiful nurses said that they learned much more in this one and a half hour chat than in the morning training. Therefore, what I feel most deeply is that if you have the opportunity, you should invite more people who are worthy of your study to drink coffee or tea, chat and discuss some issues while drinking. The gains you get from it will definitely far exceed the money you pay. (If anyone wants to drink coffee or tea on weekends from now on, come to me. I'll pay for it. I'm serious!)

In the afternoon, there is a practical course, analyzing three real cases. At the beginning of the training, the big boss said that this was my case, and I felt nervous again. Firstly, I am afraid that my translation will make mistakes, and secondly, I am afraid that the big boss will ask me to do consecutive interpretation because I am the translator and I am the most familiar with the material. Fortunately, neither of the two worrying things happened. Let’s talk about the translation of these three cases. To be precise, these three cases were translated by my colleagues. She has a background in sports medicine. The boss gave her the task of translating the cases and asked her to proofread them and make the sentences smooth. But when she translated the first case and sent it to me, I collapsed when I saw her translating "78 years" into "78 years" and saw that the following sentence made no sense at all. So, I told her that as long as she looked up all the professional terms in the case, such as "sinus heart rate, femoral artery, circumflex artery opening, power bicycle, upper limb fluid resistance, treadmill", etc., I would do the rest. Improve efficiency for both parties. Only then did she realize that she had done it with the help of Kingsoft PowerWord online translation. Of all the online translations, I personally tested Google Online Translation as the most reliable! But each online translation can only provide you with a reference, and substantial revisions are necessary!

Although she looked up some professional terms, she could not find other terms and had to look them up herself. Some of the terms she looked up were wrong and I needed to look them up again. Therefore, the translation of the three cases really made me want to vomit! Encountered something like "90% stenosis of the opening and proximal section of the first diagonal branch, which is a bifurcation lesion, and 50% stenosis of the middle section of the right coronary artery. A stent will be implanted in each of the first diagonal branch and the proximal section of the anterior descending branch." "Sinus rate, left anterior fascicular block, complete right bundle branch block, premature ventricular contractions, ST-T changes" Really devastated. Even if I looked up the terminology, I still don’t understand the Chinese, and it’s really torture to have to translate it into English. These three cases are still relatively simple cases. If they really involve translation such as medical oncology surgery, it will not just collapse. I met a big V in simultaneous interpretation, with many years of experience in medical simultaneous interpretation, and a bachelor’s degree in English, and I was instantly in awe. They have also graduated with a bachelor's degree, are self-taught simultaneous interpreters, or are medical interpreters. The gap between people is really not that big!

In the afternoon, Big Boss took significantly more notes on the consecutive interpretation, and his response speed was not as fast as in the morning. Obviously, the translator was really tired. I had to do consecutive interpretation all morning, and I had to help with translation while drinking coffee at noon (I also assisted in translation, but my contribution was not significant), and then continued consecutive interpretation in the afternoon. It was really tiring to think about it. If it were me, even if I had the ability to do consecutive interpretation, I would have to lie down tiredly in the afternoon without taking a break at noon, and my brain would be absolutely in a state of mush. Translation is not only a mental job, but also a physical job!

In the evening, the hospital invited us to have dinner at the century-old restaurant Zhuangyuanlou in Ningbo. The Zhuangyuanlou was actually inscribed by Yu Qiuyu.

After entering the building, I realized that Ningbo has produced so many top picks in the past. Ningbo is truly a place of outstanding people! There were sedan chairs and official hats and uniforms in the hall. The director of the hospital (hereinafter referred to as M) introduced G in English. Although he did not speak English fluently, his introduction was definitely better than mine! If I were asked to introduce traditional culture, I know very little about traditional culture, and it would be impossible for me to introduce it in detail. To introduce traditional Chinese culture to foreigners, you must first know and understand it yourself. No matter how good your English is, it won’t matter if you don’t have enough knowledge!

In the words of a friend, I held the Big Boss’ thigh and had a meal at Hu Chihai and tasted Ningbo seafood and delicacies. But there are also many feelings. When F came to toast her subordinates, she said, "Go high, but take every step steadily." This impressed me deeply. If someone else had said this, I might have thought it was chicken soup for the soul. F attended the training in the morning, went to see the patients immediately after lunch, visited the patients again after the training in the afternoon, and then came to dinner. F is already a deputy dean level figure, but he is still so diligent and wastes no time at all. I really have to admit that those who are a thousand times better than me work a thousand times harder than me. From the people I have met so far, my impression is that for people of the same level, women are easier for me to admire! Director M sang a Japanese song at the dinner party. He revealed that he studied Japanese for 3 years in high school and 6 years in college. Later he crossed over into medicine and is now an expert in the rehabilitation department of the hospital. It is said that the distance between us is like a mountain, but there are still so many people who have crossed such a big boundary. Professional restrictions are really just an excuse! After the dinner, we went to KTV. Although I personally hate dinner parties and KTV, I have to admit that in China, these two are really good places to promote cooperation.

Each of these two trips to Ningbo "cleansed my three views" (opened my horizons, increased my knowledge, and touched my pain points). Only after slowly getting into contact with society, did I realize that books are only used when they are used, and there are too many things to learn. Facing your own "knowing that you don't know", you can only hope that you will be less confused and take more actions.

Growing is painful!