Week one assignment
واجب األسبوع األول
Please read the text below to identify the challenges associated with the written transla-
tion and try to link them to the Saudi Translation context.
According to this article, translators face certain challenges related to technologies in written
translation. These areas were summarized accordingly. The first point is concerned with the
use of innovative translation technology tools such as; CAT tools which integrates NMT,
TMTM, SRT and many more, which immensely effects the translators pay scale and job satis-
faction. In other words, clients might undermine the energy and effort spent by the translator
as they are unaware of the cultural differences and language structure. Secondly, using ‘’ ma-
chine-generated translations as opposed to translating from scratch can hinder the translator’s
creativity and imagination to translate. Furthermore, when used in an excessive manner, it
could lead to ‘’ low profit and lack of efficiency’’. Another area to consider is the dependency
on such
machines for the sake of accepting additional tasks and gaining money, will result on
jeopardizing quality of work and breaking the translators code of ethics. Finally, translators
need to sharpen their research skills in both the SL (source language) and TL ( Target lan-
guage) to be able to comprehend different cultural nuances and convey the appropriate mean-
ing without exaggeration or language vagueness as well as staying informed. Finally, the use
of ‘’Specialized Tools’’ to help bridge the gap between the ‘’SL’’ and the ‘’TL’’ and conquer
language complexity. In additional to these skills, translators should practice the skill of ‘’
translation Briefs and Decisions-Making’’ to ensure a successful delivery of the allocated
projects. To
conclude, this article has highlighted certain challenges related to technologies in written
translation faced by translators, and how to overcome them in a balanced manner to produce a
linguistically, first -class piece of work. All these areas fall in to the Saudi Translation Con-
text. However, we should consider other areas. According to Zafra and Komilovich (2024),
Arabic is a very rich language by its own , it is the language of the Quarn, a very eloquent lan-
guage that needs studying by itself. Arabic does not share the same family tree as English
thus, the Saudi translator needs to be skilled and fully equipped. These areas include; gram-
matical structure; the English sentence is structured as Subject-Verb- Object as opposed to
the Arabic one which starts with Verb-Subject-Object. Secondly, the different Arabic lan-
guage dialects could confuse the translator (Didactical Variations). Thus, translators should
target their audience accordingly (Daragmeh*&Aya Srouji, 2022). Another important element
is punctuation and orthography as translators need to modify them to suit the context. Termi-
nology between languages since translators need to work hard to convey the meaning in the
correct manner (Code of Ethics). Arabic is a rich language as it implements (Poetic and
Rhetorical Devices) in which the translator needs to use the exact words in Arabic and the
( formal tone) as opposed to English (conversation language) which sheds light on delivering
the message rather than beating around the bush. Arabic is a language that has a different writ-
1
Week one assignment
ing system, since it starts from right to left compared to English which starts from left to right
cause confusion for both audience and language learners ( Script and Directionality). Arabic
words have semantic range as a word posses a possible range of meanings compared to Eng-
lish which simply results in translation confusion or vagueness. The last area to conclude with
is ‘’Cultural Nuances’’ which is ‘’ the subtle differences in language, human behavior, tradi-
tions, values and moral that distinguish a culture from another’’ ( Burger, 2023) . Accord-
ingly, translators need to be ‘’socially conscious’’
