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Dear All,

We all know about Don Bosco’s geographical interests, and even his somewhat idiosyncratic ways of ‘mapping’ the world (e.g. in his missionary dreams). And we know that he dreamed of a city that would be built between parallels 15 and 20 in Brazil, which is now reality... Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. You might like to read Fr Gildasio’s recent publication by that name (Parallels 15 and 20: Contemporary Research in Dialogue with Don Bosco), published this year by Salesian Press, Malta. But my point for this newsletter is only broadly related to the kind of research Fr Gildasio is speaking about. I want to highlight the need we have, as translators, to get things right, and to be culturally sensitive, including in translation, even if we have to make small changes to the original to do so!

Let me give you some examples.

Continents

Young people in Europe are often taught that there are five continents. And if they ever produce a map, then it is a Eurocentric map. But elsewhere in the world we are usually taught that there are seven continents. Some make it six by combining Europe and Asia and calling it Eurasia. Not all maps have to be Eurocentric either! We swing the globe around, depending which part of the world we live in and make that the centre!

So when translating some of the material that comes out of Rome (our Salesian Rome I mean), when I find reference to 5 continents (usually as a way of implying that the Salesians are at work in all continents) I remove reference to five and generalise it (all continents, or something similar), because I am aware that in some parts of the world people get a bit sensitive about this kind of thing, and we should appeal to the whole world, not just to Europe.

Countries

Then there are country names that have changed: think Burma-Myanmar, or Turkey-Türkiye, but there are others, e.g. Swaziland-Eswatini, Macedonia-North Macedonia, Czech Republic-Czechia, Cape Verde-Cabo Verde.  Some countries actually require a definite article: the Gambia, the Philippines.

Cities

City names have changed in many places, especially with growing nationalism around the world. So while the Missions Sector are working on their soon to be published Bosco Food coloured recipe book (in two languages: Italian and English), they have to make sure they get all these references right in both languages. They have not as yet republished the Salesian World Map, but again, when and if they do they will have to be very sensitive to these kinds of issues , not only names, but occasionally changing borders as well. And if you are translating, or proofreading this kind of material in your own languages, then you need to be clued up on what to call countries and cities... should the city be in its own language or the translated version? The rules will differ from language to language, but the translator needs to know the rules for their language.

Circumscriptions

And let's not forget the changing ‘map’ of the Salesian world and its circumscriptions. How many are aware of the new CNA circumscription (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco) based in Manouba? Or TZA (Tanzania), AON, and AOS (North and South West Africa).

 

best_practice_39-names.docx

 


List of Articles
No. Subject Author Date Views
50 Translators newsletter No. 50 Finale Best Practice No. 48 - Encouraging young translators file tolle 2025.01.11 39
49 Translators newsletter No. 49 “Ratio” Best Practice No. 47 - Towards Wisdom file tolle 2025.01.04 55
48 Translators newsletter No. 48 “Intertext” Best Practice No. 46 - Intertextual anlaysis file tolle 2024.12.21 72
47 Translators newsletter No. 47 “Salesian English - fronm the periphery” Best Practice No. 45 - Salesian English file tolle 2024.12.13 76
46 Translators newsletter No. 46 “Interpreting at Salesian events” Best Practice No. 44 - Simultaneous interpretation file tolle 2024.12.08 109
45 Translators newsletter No. 45 “Welcome to diglossia” Best Practice No. 43 - Diglossia 1 file tolle 2024.11.30 94
44 Translators newsletter No. 44 “Writing for an international readership” Best Practice No. 42 - Writing FOR translation file tolle 2024.11.23 137
43 Translators newsletter No. 43 “Keeping a text alive” Best Practice No. 41 - Language at Valdocco file tolle 2024.11.16 129
42 Translators newsletter No. 42 “Translating the Charism” Best Practice No. 40 - Translating the Charism file tolle 2024.11.09 135
» Translators newsletter No. 41 “Getting our geography right” Best Practice No. 39 - Names file tolle 2024.11.02 168
40 Translators newsletter No. 40 “Missions and language 2” Best Practice No. 38 - Fr Bolla file tolle 2024.10.26 155
39 Translators newsletter No. 39 “Context is king” Best Practice No. 37 - Context file tolle 2024.10.19 154
38 Translators newsletter No. 38 “Semper reformanda” Best Practice No. 36 - Curia terminology file tolle 2024.10.17 160
37 Translators newsletter No. 37 “Keeping in touch with the Church's language” Best Practice No. 35 - Peer Review file tolle 2024.10.12 152
36 Translators newsletter No. 36 “Missions and language” Best Practice No. 34 - Missions and language file tolle 2024.09.28 163
35 Translators newsletter No. 35 “Attitude, not aptitude” Best Practice No. 33 - Translator-Interpreter file tolle 2024.09.21 160
34 Translators newsletter No. 34 “Linguistic hospitality” Best Practice No. 32 - Linguistic hospitality file tolle 2024.09.13 161
33 Translators newsletter No. 33 “Translation and indexing” Best Practice No. 31 - Indexing file tolle 2024.09.07 165
32 Translators newsletter No. 32 “Translating humour” Best Practice No. 30 - Translating humour file tolle 2024.08.31 163
31 Translators newsletter No. 31 “Integrating MT and AI" Best Practice No. 29 - Using CTE file tolle 2024.08.24 152
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