Translation and Ethics

One of the best things about TEBP is the opportunity it has given me to meet wonderful new people all over the world. I have tremendously enjoyed working on this post with Yigit and hope you'll enjoy reading it too!

1) Turkey has a very rich political history. The predecessor of the current Turkish State, the Ottoman Empire, lasted from 1299 to 1922 when Turkey became an imperial monarchy and that monarchy was replaced in 1923 by the Republic of Turkey. Even though you are too young to have actually witnessed the change from one form of government to the other, you grew up in a country with a vast cultural heritage that goes back thousands of years, but that is very young as a de iure state. How would you describe the political scene in which you grew up?

I always remember the September morning in 1980 in which I woke up early with loud announcements made by the military forces in the street that a coup had been made. I did not immediately realize the situation. I was 10 years old. My mother and father explained to me that the military had taken power and a new political era had started in the country. In fact, this was the third military coup in Turkey. Every ten years, in 1960, 1970 and finally in 1980 we have seen coup’de etats. Certainly, you cannot blame people for expecting another one in 1990. But this did not happen. The military did not or could not intervene democracy again and we have been living an uninterrupted civil life for 29 years.

1980 was an important cornerstone for the country not only in the political but also in the economical sense. Liberalism and free foreign trade had started. Until then, the export and import of goods had been strictly limited, Turkish people were not able to reach foreign markets. But the first civil government after the 1980 coup led by Turgut Ozal changed the situation radically. Now there were plenty of European and American goods in the market and with foreign trade accelerated, many rich people arose in the cities. In the mean time, the political activists of the past were suffering in the prisons of the military, under very unfavourable conditions. The leftist groups in the country suffered a sharp blow but the ordinary citizens were content because the terror in the streets had ended. It was true that the streets were not safe before the intervention. I remember that my mother cautioned me at the time: in case I was questioned by people as to whether I had left or right wing views, I would say that I was only a child and did not know anything about these matters.

In the Turkey of the 80’s, ideals imposed on the younger generation were quite different from those of the 70’s. The revolutionary views and political action were out of fashion. We were supposed to study, get a good job and earn as much as we could. In this atmosphere I chose to study business administration, but it did not take long for me to understand that I was acting very wrongly. I never liked business school and my faith led me to very different paths.

2) In your bio you mentioned how much you loved Ankara, the capital of Turkey, when you were a child but you don’t seem to like it so much today. Why is that?

You know, early childhood is mostly remembered as the happiest period of our lives. In fact, this is a deceptive situation because childhood memories resident in our minds have previously been bent, filtered and distorted in the prism of a child’s brain. This must be the main reason why I used to love Ankara. In fact it was always a dry, tasteless city but I did not know that at the time. Ankara did not get any better. In many years, it completely lost its identity in the coarse hands of a hateful mayor.

3) You mentioned your parents were both intellectuals. Your mother was a radio producer and your father was an actor. You tried acting for a while, but then decided to go with radio production. What made you decide to do that and how did you get started in radio production?

From an existentialist point of view, our lives are determined by our choices. Yet, though I am not a religious person, I cannot help believing that our lives are predestined. Sometimes you cannot open a door, no matter how hard you push. Anyway, I think the wisest thing to say is that acting did not suit me. I did not have the talent. If I did, what would stand in my way? But radio, even though it was my mother’s profession, I never had in mind. I had worked with video for years and it was very distant to my mind to imagine a production without moving pictures. But as I said, I seems to me that I was destined to work in the radio. After a long procedure following my application to TRT, they appointed me to an open position in Trabzon Radio. For economical, psychological and professional reasons, I did not reject it. Trabzon was a small city and I would be away from my family. There was hardship waiting for me and hardship I received, for some time. But today, after 10 years in the radio, I am happy to be in the world of sounds and have no inner wish to make a shift towards television.

4) You’re somewhat of a self-taught English speaker and translator. Tell us a little about how you got started and your dream of reading certain books in English.

I started very young with simplified books. Then came the comics. I do not know why I began to translate my first Asterix in English. What I know is that I always liked the languages and at some point I wanted to have a good command of English. So I began to read and translate. At the beginning, translation was a tool to learn the language. And learning English was half play and half self-competition. I was young and I wished to learn a bit of everything. When one is young, the heavy pressure of time is not felt and life seems limitless. I had to be over 30 to understand that I could not learn about everything, and moreover, I did not need to.

Anyway, with my unfocused hunger I bought books in English, tried to read them and failed. In years, I retried several times and failed again and again. But there was no desperation on my side. I liked to be a learner and had a goal: I would read them some day.

Of course, besides the love of knowledge, I also hoped that learning English would help my professional career in the future. But it was not clear in my mind what career I wished to follow. And of course, I did not know that my future position in the radio would be very local and I would always feel sad that my English knowledge was being wasted.

In this sadness, I felt that I had improved my English to a certain point. My management did not care about this, so what else could I do? I decided to start another self-competition and so began my translation career. Staggering and tumbling, I translated my first book which was an academic compilation of articles. Then came another compilation: Jack London’s compiled writings not previously published in Turkish. After that, I completed a new translation of his “Martin Eden” which is due to be published in 2010. Right now, I am working on Pieter Spierenburg’s “A History of Murder”. I am sure others will follow.

5) How do you juggle translation and radio production?

Translation is both my hobby and my second profession now. It is also my passion. Most of the moments allowed from my work and my family, I commit to translation. This means I spend my night hours translating. I sleep a few hours less for the sake of translating a few pages more.

6) You mentioned in your bio that even though your hometown is small, your personal universe is very big. After reading about you, I got the impression this has a lot to do with your passion for learning. However, I could be wrong. Can you tell us a little bit about your world.

That seems to be quite correct. I live in a small city with limited cultural sources. Without books, writing and translation, the world would be dull. I can’t understand people who keep their profession as the centre of their world. Everyone needs -at least- a second thing to do. For me, that is translation now. Surely there are lots of things I would love to do –travelling, photography, biking, concerts etc. Yet, there is one obstacle: My little children. And do you know, they are the most beautiful obstacles! They make my life meaningful and complete my world. So the basic elements of my personal universe are as follows: The radio, translation, and most of all, my family.

If you would like to contact Yigit, please write to info@tebp.org so we can forward him your request.

If you would like to sign our petition, just follow the link at the end of this post.

Petition Statement:

For the past few months, professional translators and interpreters all over the world have been expressing their concerns over the ethical problems posed by crowdsourcing and how this practice negatively impacts an already suffering industry, but our concerns have not been heard and more unethical practices have arisen as a result of crowdsourcing. The reasons why we are against crowdsourcing are the following:

1. Professional translation requires years of training, extensive general culture, and excellent command of both the target and source languages. The job of translators and interpreters is not simply to translate words, but rather to convey meaning and concepts as well as to provide cultural localization. This is why being “bilingual” or “knowing another language” is not enough to be a translator. We train, we study, and then we train some more... and for all that hard work we, as any other professional, feel we deserve fair rates and recognition. Crowdsourcing bases itself on non-professional translation provided either by people who are not qualified to translate in the first place (which shows utmost disregard for language and language professionals) or by people who, as a result of other unethical practices, are desperate to find ways of promoting their services and hope this form of exploitation will later translate into paid work.

2. We are users of the sites that resort to crowdsourcing and we feel insulted that the sites we are supporting show such disrespect for our line of work. We don’t see sites like Twitter and Facebook asking doctors who use their sites to provide free online medical services. We don’t see Twitter and Facebook asking lawyers who use their site to provide free online legal services. So we wonder, why do we see Twitter and Facebook asking professional translators who use their sites to provide free online services?

3. For years, universities and professional associations have been providing certification to translators as a way of raising industry standards and homogenizing linguist quality. We ask, what ethical and professional criteria (if any) do sites like Twitter and Facebook use to provide “awards” and “recognitions” to their “best” translators? Where exactly did these sites get the authority to do so?

Translation and interpretation are not hobbies or pastimes, they are professions. As users and supporters of the sites that are resorting to crowdsourcing we ask that these practices stop, that they leave translation to the pros, that they pay translators fair rates for their work, and that they show respect not only for language and culture, but also for their users. This petition was created by the group Translators for Ethical Business Practices, but we feel we speak on behalf of all translators and interpreters and invite all our colleagues (including non-members) to sign this petition and make their voices heard.

Professional Translators Against Crowdourcing and Other Unethical Business Practices Petition

I have nothing against Proz.com. Quite the contrary, I’m overall happy with most site features and recommend the site to anyone looking to make great new clients and meeting interesting translation professionals. I’ve had the chance to meet many site staff members in person, and know they work really hard to try to provide a great service to site users.

However, what I do have a serious problem with is censorship. Although I’ve been told the site had resorted to censorship many times in the past, as far as I know, the main problem began when the site’s new service (turn-key translations) raised serious ethical questions, which have yet to be answered. As far as I can tell, after the turn-key translations thread was censored and some very valuable members were either kicked out of or left the site, Proz moderators have been systematically resorting to censorship any time they are unable to effectively handle a discussion.

I have no problem with site moderators either, I’m sure despite the questionable way in which they go about censoring people, they mean no harm. I’m guessing they are either simply following orders, or just are really unaware of the bad customer service and negative impact censorship is having on the site’s overall image.

A new thread, questioning whether such a harsh level of moderation/intervention was necessary, was opened, censored, closed and removed from the site yesterday. I guess the philosophy behind it is what the eyes don’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve. As a paying member, I would have loved to be able to participate and have a chance to voice my opinion on an issue that is seriously making me wonder whether or not I’ll be renewing my membership, but the Thought Police beat me to it. Now instead of engaging in a productive conversation on the site with fellow site members, I am left with no choice but to discuss it elsewhere on my blog or Facebook group.

As a Law student, I obviously have a problem with censorship: it violates basic human rights and breaks international law. Every time a Proz moderator resorts to censorship they let you know the reason they are doing it is because something in the thread broke a site rule. Yes, the site does reserve the right to impose its own rules in its user agreement. Yes, our user agreement is a legally binding contract that creates rights and obligations for both parties. Yes, the principle of autonomy of the individual will is a guiding principle in most contracts, but no, the principle does not constitute a green light for violating the right to freedom of speech.

What does all this mean? It means Proz has the right to pretty much stick anything they want in the site rules, as long as it does not conflict with superior interests. The site rules are part of a contract, and that contract is subject to a principle by which that contract becomes “law of the parties” (i.e. only applicable to the parties in the contract) but that principle has a limit: the law (i.e. general laws that apply to everyone). They can write whatever they want in their rules, and enforce these rules however they deem fit, provided neither the rules nor the measures they take to enforce them violate the laws by which the agreement is bound. As I have mentioned before in certain censored threads, our user agreements are subject to “all applicable local, state, national and international laws and regulations.” This of course includes article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that ensures that “everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference” and by “without interference” they mean censorship, moderation, intervention, etc. So, are the actions of the Thought Police simply bad customer service? No, they are not just bad for business, they are also violations of members’ rights to express themselves on the site –and this is very serious.

After turn-key translations I was sure that given the negative image said censorship was creating for Proz, the number of people that were thinking of canceling their memberships, the way site moderators were mocked online, etc. site authorities would smarten up and find more productive ways of handling customer dissatisfaction (after all, let’s be honest, censored threads all happen to be the ones in which users complain about something). I was wrong. Like dictators on power trips, site moderators and authorities have been abusing the rights they reserved in our user agreements and have turned the site into Big Brother’s wet dream.

What does that say about Proz? To me, it reads insecurity. In the words of Potter Steward, “Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.” A lesson I honestly hope Proz learns in time is that “censorship always defeats its own purpose.” Much smarter people than Proz staff and moderators learned a long time ago that censorship will turn on you: they wrote constitutions around that lesson and drew out international laws protecting freedom of speech. Let’s hope H et al. learn their lesson while there are still members left on the site.