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Chapter1
thelifeofpeopleinothers,nomatterhowgeographicallyremotetheplaces
are.Itmightbetrivialtosaythatwhilelanguagesmakeuscitizensofour
owncountries,translatorsmakeuscitizensoftheworld,trivialbuttrue.
Sincetranslatorsareindeedsocialagents(i.e.gatekeepersseeChau
1999:233)responsibleforwhatissavedandconsequentlyaccessibleto
others,aswellasforwhatremainsforeverlostintranslationandthere-
foreinaccessibletoothers,aviablequestiontoaskiswhatconstitutes
theirexpertise.Whatistheroutethatonehastocoverfrombeingableto
usetwolanguagestobeingabletotranslatebetweenthemwithfluency
andconfidence?Canallthepeoplewhoarebilingual(inthesensethat
theycanusetwolanguagesineverydaylife)becomesuccessfultransla-
tors?Whatskillsareneededtotranslatewithconfidenceandproduce
competentfullyfunctionaltranslations?Unfortunately,thereareno
readymadescientificallyapprovedanswerstothesequestionsandal-
thoughtranslationhasalwaysbeenpartandparcelofhumanlife,and
continuestobeinacutelygrowingdemand,translatorsthemselveshave
alwaysremainedintheshadowoftheirwork.Weknowthegreatclassic
booksandfilmsbutwedonotregisterwhotranslatedthem.Wesimply
deposittrustintranslatorsaswedoinanyotherspecialistsandprofes-
sionalstowhomwehavetoresort,thattheydidtheirjobwell.Mostprac-
ticingtranslatorsareawareofthattrustandindeedproduceexcellent
translations,buttherearealsothosewhounlawfullycallthemselvespro-
fessionaltranslatorssinceitislegallyunregulatedinsomecountriesin-
cludingPolandandtheUSwherenoofficialaccreditationisneededto
providetranslationservices.Asaresultmanytranslationswhichappearin
printareproducedbynaturaltranslatorswhomightnotbethemselves
awarethattheyabusethesocialtrustofaclientwhoseekstranslationser-
vicesandisusuallynotinapositiontoassessthequalityofthetransla-
tionwhichheorshereceives.Itisnotuncommontocomeacrossstrange
orfunnytranslations,likeforexampleonamenuinaPolishrestaurant
whereaccordingtoaneatlypresentedtranslationonecanorder,‘troutsuf-
focatedinherbs’andtogowithit,perhapsaglassof‘sparkingwine’
(Whyatt2003).Althoughtheissueoftranslationqualityiscomplexand
multilayered(House1977,2009)thereisacloseconnectionbetweenthe
stageatwhichagiventranslatorisonthedevelopmentalcontinuumof
his/herskillsandthequalityofworkhe/sheisabletoproduce(Shreve
1997,Cronin2005).Sincetheword‘translator’isextremelystretchable
asitwaspointedoutinthesectionabove,andsinceweareallinterested