1 La traducción diplomática

2 The FBI’s Counterterrorism Program Since September 2001 Report to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (14 de abril de 2004): Personal: traductores: “[…] Since September 11, 2001, electronic surveillance collection in Arabic, Urdu, Pashto, and various other Middle Eastern languages has increased by 75 percent or more. To meet this growing need, since the beginning of FY 2001, we have recruited […] nearly 700 new translators, including both FBI employees and contract linguists. More than 95 percent of our translators are native speakers of the foreign language. Their native proficiencies equip them with both a firm grasp of colloquial and idiomatic speech, and an understanding of the religious, cultural, and historical references needed to effectively perform the wide range of services required of an FBI linguist. To further ensure the…

3 The FBI’s Counterterrorism Program Since September 2001 (Cont.) … quality of translations, on December 1, 2003, we instituted a national quality control program. All material produced by translators on board for less than three months is subject to accuracy and content reviews by senior staff […]. Our translator corps is complemented by well over 1,000 Special Agents and intelligence analysts with foreign language proficiencies at the minimum working level or higher.”

4 INCREASED LANGUAGE TRANSLATION CAPABILITIES to Support Counterterrorism MAJOR LANGUAGE 9/11/01 Present (2004) Arabic 70 207 Chinese 67 119 Farsi 24 55 French 16 34 Hebrew 4 11 Korean 18 25 Kurdish 0 5 Pashto 1 10 Russian 78 100 Turkish 2 10 Urdu 6 21 http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/fbi_ct_911com_0404.pdf

5 “Linguistic rights as human rights” Dietrich Kappeler, ex-director de la Academia Mediterránea de Estudios Diplomáticos. “Documents exchanged between countries in the past were written in the single vehicular language then in use in Europe: Latin. In the 18th century French had become the generally accepted diplomatic language, so much so that even diplomatic notes addressed to the British Foreign Office by the Legation of the USA were written in that language. The 20th century saw a gradual emergence of English as a second and later even dominant diplomatic language. At the same time, a growing number of countries insisted on the use of their own language in diplomatic correspondence and joint diplomatic documents. As a result the United Nations admitted to five languages at its inception (Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish), to which Arabic has later been added by informal agreement. In the European Union, all twelve languages of the members are currently in use and their number is bound to grow as new members will be admitted.” (“Texts in Diplomacy, Language and Diplomacy, Malta: DiploProjects, 2001)

6 Errores diplomáticos Hillary Clinton habla con el ministro del exterior ruso Sergey Lavrov: Hillary: I would like to present you with a little gift that represents what President Obama and Vice President Biden and I have been saying and that is: ‘We want to reset our relationship, and so we will do it together.’ […] We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it? Lavrov: You got it wrong; it should be “perezagruzka” [the Russian word for reset]. This says “peregruzka,” which means “overcharged.” http://translation-blog.trustedtranslations.com/diplomatic-translation-gaffe-2009-08-19.html

7 Errores diplomáticos (Cont.) El presidente Kennedy: “Ich bin ein Berliner!” La traducción no es “I am a Berliner!” sino “I am a jam doughnut! En el funeral del presidente francés Charles de Gaulle, el presidente Richard Nixon dijo: “This is a great day for France!” El por entonces vicepresidente George Bush, durante la campaña de sucesión a Reagan: “For seven and a half years, I’ve worked alongside President Reagan. We’ve had triumphs. Made some mistakes. We’ve had some sex... uh... Setbacks.” El presidente George W. Bush: “Keep good relations with the Grecians.” El presidente George W. Bush: “Border relations between Canada and Mexico have never been better.” http://textus.diplomacy.edu/Blunders/links/index.asp?FilterTopic=/39458&Keywords=

8 Errores diplomáticos (Cont.) George W. Bush: poco después de los ataques terroristas del 11 de septiembre en EE.UU, el presidente Bush usó la palabra “cruzada” para describir la lucha de los EE.UU. contra el terrorismo. Obviamente, o Bush no era consciente de la connotación de esta palabra en el mundo árabe, o él y su gabinete de gobierno querían provocar al mundo árabe. Los árabes asocian esta palabra con las invasiones europeas de sus países, invasiones que se hicieron en nombre de la cruz (símbolo del cristianismo) y que iniciaron la guerra entre el cristianismo y el islam. Desde entonces, Bush ha intentado muchas veces convencer al mundo de que no quiso usar la palabra en ese sentido. http://textus.diplomacy.edu/Blunders/links/index.asp?FilterTopic=/39458&Keywords=

9 Errores diplomáticos (Cont.) En un gesto de agradecimiento a Alemania por la ayuda recibida en el rescate de 33 mineros chilenos, el presidente de Chile, Sebastián Piñera, escribió la frase “Deutschland Über Alles” en el libro de invitados que tiene el presidente alemán Christian Wulff. En Alemania esta frase se asocia con la era nazi. http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,725382,00.html

10 Lecturas interesantes y unos vídeos de regalo El siguiente artículo resume claramente cómo es el mundo de la traducción diplomática: la jerarquía, los documentos y fórmulas lingüísticas y las responsabilidades y funciones del traductor/intérprete: http://translationjournal.net/journal/10dipl.htm http://translationjournal.net/journal/10dipl.htm Declaración Universal de los Derechos Lingüísticos. Vídeos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bic0pTTXeNw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlRWJhApoCA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXmowJAO2aw&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07BW-TSw19A&feature=related