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Chapter1
1.4.Translationasahumanskillcommonmisconceptions
Theplausiblepossibilitythatwearealltranslatorsmighthavecontributed
tosomemisconceptionsaboutthehumanabilitytotranslatebetweentwo
languages.AsputbyHolmes(1988:103),“thetranslatorisinthissim-
plisticcommon-senseview,akindofcross-linguistictranscriberorcopy-
ist,aslightlyglorifiedtypist”.Thiskindofcommonlysharedexpectation
abouttheeaseoftranslationcomesfrommonolingualclientsseeking
translationservicesandfrombilingualsthemselvesuntiltheysitdown
withatextandtrytoperformtheactivity(Whyatt2010).
Foralaypersontheskilloftranslatinggoestogetherwithbeingbilin-
gual,forprofessionalsaswellasforresearchersinterestedintherelation-
shipbetweenbilingualismandtranslationskill,translatingandespecially
simultaneousinterpretingisperceivedas“perhapsanuncharacteristically
extremeversionofbilingualism”(Paradis2005:411).Thesecommon
misconceptionsaboutthehumanskilltotranslatetexts/utterancesex-
pressedinonelanguageintoanotherlanguagemostprobablyresultfrom
asimplifiedviewofthetranslationprocess,whichis,perceivedbythose
withoutanyexperienceinthetaskasaprocessoflineartranscodingofa
stringofwordsinasourcelanguage(SL)textintoastringoftranslation
equivalentsofthesewordsinthetargetlanguage(TL)text.Needlessto
sayifthiswasthecasecomputerswouldbeeasilyabletoreplacethehu-
mantranslatorandtherewouldbenoneedtowritethiswork.Yet,the
commonbeliefthatwhentranslatingapersonwhoknowstwolanguages
hastosimplypressalanguageswitchbutton,oraleversomewhereinthe
mindandwhilescanningtheSLtextcaninstantaneouslyproduceits
translation,hasledtounrealisticdemandsfrequentlydirectedtoforeign
languagestudentsortoprofessionaltranslators.AsobservedbyNida
(2002)itisnotuncommonforpeopletocommissiontranslationwork
fromstudentsinforeignlanguagedepartmentsanditisnotuncommonfor
freelancetranslatorstoturndownatranslationjobwhichrequires100
pagesofafinancialreporttobetranslatedandreadyonthechairman’s
deskbefore10a.m.thefollowingmorning.Thetangibleresultsofthese
commonexpectationsthattranslationasahumanskillisautomatically
grantedtoallusersofasecondlanguage(henceL2users)areusually
thosetranslationswhichaspointedoutbyKorzeniowskaandKuhiwczak
(1994)shouldneverseethelightofday.Yet,itispossiblethatalotof
misunderstandingandmanymisconceptionsare,infact,aresultoftermi-