Poll: A world without translators/interpreters would be: Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "A world without translators/interpreters would be:".
View the poll results »
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| www.proz.com/polls/3024 comments | Feb 16, 2010 |
Difficult, would be my guess.
And utopic.
It's just not possible - unless we'd all speak the same language without accent and dialects.
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Parrot 
Spain
Local time: 17:38
Spanish to English
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| www.proz.com/polls/3024 comments | Feb 16, 2010 |
Other: When was that, I wonder? Formal activity's been documented since Egyptian times, and it's to be supposed the informal setting existed.
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Suzan Hamer
Netherlands
Local time: 17:38
English
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| www.proz.com/polls/3024 comments | Feb 16, 2010 |
Babel-onia? Confused?
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Anke Formann
Germany
Local time: 17:38
English to German
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| www.proz.com/polls/3024 comments | Feb 16, 2010 |
Sad. All the things we would lose and never know if we were not able to communicate with people from other cultures and countries.
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| www.proz.com/polls/3024 comments | Feb 16, 2010 |
...manically trying to learn lots of foreign languages, perhaps?! If no-one translated or interpreted, it would be imperative for people to speak other languages themselves.
But I voted "divided", as I imagine there would be little contact or communication between peoples if there were little possibility of understanding one another.
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| www.proz.com/polls/3024 comments | Feb 16, 2010 |
Dull.... as the diversity that creates the need of translators would not exist.
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| www.proz.com/polls/3024 comments | Feb 16, 2010 |
If we're talking about written translation, and we assume that monks were writing books but not translating them, then possibly two centuries behind where we are today. Communication would be like it was in the 1700s, in the early days of printed books and on the threshold of the industrial revolution. People might find out about life in other countries, but innovations would travel much more slowly. Progress would be happening, but at a much, much slower pace.
I once translate... See more If we're talking about written translation, and we assume that monks were writing books but not translating them, then possibly two centuries behind where we are today. Communication would be like it was in the 1700s, in the early days of printed books and on the threshold of the industrial revolution. People might find out about life in other countries, but innovations would travel much more slowly. Progress would be happening, but at a much, much slower pace.
I once translated a series of documents written in Brazil in the mid-1700s. Ordinary people did not try to read other languages, but ideas traveled. The colonists copied pictures of machines and buildings from European sources. ▲ Collapse
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| www.proz.com/polls/3024 comments | Feb 16, 2010 |
It would be more diverse... every culture would be purer maybe without so much globalization.
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Rebecca Garber
Local time: 11:38
Member (2005)
German to English
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| www.proz.com/polls/3024 comments | Feb 16, 2010 |
Ahistorical
There is evidence of translators and interpreters being involved in every civilization for which we have written records. While it is true that most people did/do not need the services of translators/interpreters, those who lived/live on linguistic borders (including ordinary people) and those involved in governance have always made use of our services.
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| www.proz.com/polls/3024 comments | Feb 16, 2010 |
Yes, the lack of globalization crossed my mind, too. That would definitely have advantages, but we would also be less able to appreciate the diversity if we couldn't communicate.
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Parrot
Spain
Local time: 17:38
Spanish to English
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| www.proz.com/polls/3024 comments | Feb 16, 2010 |
Many scientists from the Enlightenment fit the profile. Some (Humboldt comes to mind) struggled with their source languages (his was Spanish) and published with their translators beside them (his were French). They got so close the translator eventually became his biographer.
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| www.proz.com/polls/3024 comments | Feb 16, 2010 |
It would be great if everybody used only one language or if we had some kind of Star Trek-like translating device.
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| www.proz.com/polls/3024 comments | Feb 16, 2010 |
Hi friends,
Just a thought that it would be a wonderful world however it is next to impossible to have a world without interpreters and translators.
Because for this to happen, it will be necessary to have less number of used languages all over the world. May be, boundaries will not bear so many restrictions of visas, passports and other formalities. It would be the height of globalization, I feel. Anyone will become free to work and live anywhere in th... See more Hi friends,
Just a thought that it would be a wonderful world however it is next to impossible to have a world without interpreters and translators.
Because for this to happen, it will be necessary to have less number of used languages all over the world. May be, boundaries will not bear so many restrictions of visas, passports and other formalities. It would be the height of globalization, I feel. Anyone will become free to work and live anywhere in this world.
O imagination.....
But, reality is that number of languages will stay or say, increase. It cannot be restricted to a small number of one or two only. Hence, we will have our jobs for sure. Machine can never take our place, try as much as you can. But, you cannot insert emotions and feeling of source and target language into a machine translation.
If such a world would have been there, I am sure, variety of opportunities would have been opened in front of us. ▲ Collapse
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Sara Senft
United States
Local time: 11:38
Spanish to English
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| www.proz.com/polls/3024 comments | Feb 16, 2010 |
What about the potential dangers of not having interpreters or translators? Some times, our services save lives.
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