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Letters to the Editor |
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I discovered your Journal some time ago, and I consider it is one of the best on-line publications for translators out there in the Net. I love reading the translators' profiles and let me tell you that the articles of software localization were of great help to me, since I am currently working on that. However, I wanted to make an observation on one of the articles featured in the October issue, which is Constructing a Model for Shift Analysis in Translation. The contents presented by Dr. Al-Zoubi and Dr. Al-Hassnawi on Shift Analysis are excellent, but I want to call your attention to the following: Several times, when referring to the translator, they only use the personal pronoun "he" and the possessive adjective "his" everytime, and I think they forgot to include a "she" and a "her" there. When attending my last subject at University, Linguistics II, where we also studied all the theory presented by Dr. Al-Zoubi and Dr. Al-Hassnawi in their article, we were introduced to gender bias. During those lessons, we learned that it is necessary to avoid using biased words, such us "Manpower", "Chairman", etc, among other things, and also that when talking about professions of posts or anything that were applied to both women and men, we should avoid using only "he" and "his" and instead replace them by he/she and his/her, or try to shift to plural, among other resources. This is not to criticize Dr. Al-Zoubi and Dr. Al-Hassnawi's article, which is excellent, not even to prompt the authors to correct their work. I just wanted to note something that I think sometimes happens to translators, and even natives. I myself used to do it before attending these classes on gender-biased language. When translating "su" to English, I always picked up "he" and forgot to include "she". María Mercedes García, Córdoba, Argentina I really don't think it is in my interest for my name to appear on a publication that seems to imply (Editor's Note: presumably in the October 2001 editorial) that it is perfectly all right if thousands of Afghan refugees die of disease and malnutrition, as long as this happens by accident. While I appreciate the sentiments expressed in your editorial, it is obvious to anyone living outside of the United States that, tragic as it is, America would never have been attacked but for the misguided and destructive foreign policies of the U.S. over the past few decades. I hope that those who control the U.S. will now be able to act in a constructive manner, so that American people will be safe from further attack. Mary Ansell, Halifax, Canada Thank you for your balanced article on Translation and International Poitics. Unlike so many of the comments made in FLEFO [Foreign Language Forum of CompuServe}, it is well founded and is dealing with facts, not fiction. Frieda Ruppaner-Lind, Bettendorf, Iowa, USA Just a short note to let you know how much I enjoyed—again—reading Danilo Nogueira's column in the October issue of the TJ. Witty, down to earth, and modest—the very attributes I strive for in my own writing but often fail to achieve. I hope to read more from Mr. Nogueira in the future. Eugene Seidel, Frankfurt, Germany |
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