The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
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thelinguist.uberflip.com OCTOBER/NOVEMBER The Linguist 21 FEATURES to initiate a number of training courses, from the excellent Master in Literary Translation at Université Paris 7 Denis-Diderot, which has been around for nearly 25 years, to continuous education provided for instance by the ETL," explains Laurence Kiefé, ATLF Chair and a trainer at the ETL. "The regular discussions between translators and publishers, which are essential for both parties so they understand each other's demands and duties better, are mostly about work conditions and not about the quality of the work delivered." Publisher Dominique Bourgois agrees. "Three quarters of the books we publish are translations. Working with translators has proved difficult, not only as far as translation itself is concerned but also in terms of contracts and revisions. Translators have many demands but they should bear in mind that translation has a cost and, therefore, involves a risk." She adds: "The fact that the school has been set up is a good thing." IMPROVING CONDITIONS Maurus says the CNL's involvement will ensure that the ETL leads to translators having more rights, and that this will, in turn, lead to an improvement in their work. "The CNL has ruled that publishers applying for a subsidy must show that they have paid translators the minimum rate [c.€21 per 15,000 characters]. If they don't, the committees will veto the subsidy," he says. "The school steers a path between backward publishers – there are some left – and proletarianised translators forced to translate by the yard. Everyone wins. I hope people will enjoy reading translations more as a result." CNL subsidies, which have been allocated to translators working on particularly difficult translations since the 1980s, were relaunched in 2015 with new conditions. "Translators need to provide evidence of a contract and the grant is allocated once they have shown that they have delivered their translation," says the CNL's Philippe Babo. Subsidies worth €2,000 a month are also available for foreign translators who want to spend time in France. A NEW APPROACH Fifteen translators working from different languages attend the ETL. An estimated 1,500 literary translators are registered in France, so that may seem like a drop in the ocean, but the school takes a third of applicants and, in 2016, will double its student intake to accommodate the large number of applications it has received. The course is free: funded through a tax levied since July 2012 on authors, who pay 0.35% of copyright income through the CNL towards the training of writers and translators. Its unusual timetable – trainees attend every second Saturday for two years – makes it easier to juggle work and home-life commitments. "I had a baby, I was working and I travelled from Nantes, so every second Saturday was ideal," explains former student Sika Fakambi. Most trainees are women, with an average age of 35. They translate from rare languages, such as Ukrainian and Japanese, but also from English and Portuguese. The majority translate into French, but some have translated into Arabic or Albanian. The school is open to foreign nationals, and students from Switzerland and Austria have attended, with tuition provided by more than 70 professionals, including 24 regular trainers. Morning sessions are dedicated to translation workshops while experts in publishing (a corrector, a book designer and a sales manager, among others) hold afternoon sessions. Every trainer has 20-30 years' experience. Marie Causse applied because she was "keen to discuss translation rather than language issues" with HUMAN TOUCH Laurence Kiefé, Chair of the Association des Traducteurs Littéraires de France (above); Sika Fakambi, a former trainee at the ETL, who has gone on to win prizes for her translation work (below left); and Director of the Ecole de Traduction Littéraire (ETL) Olivier Mannoni (below right)