| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Distinction between feminine and masculine gender forms in translators' profile Thread poster: Serena Hiller
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Cetacea 
Switzerland
Local time: 15:52
English to German
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| Thank you, Margreet! | Feb 2, 2008 |
I couldn't agree with you more, and with Nicole, for that matter. Not to mention that Narcis has a good point as well. Even in my native language, which is German, I refer to myself as an "Übersetzer" rather than "Übersetzerin", simply because in my opinion, that's what I am, professionally speaking. Sex doesn't matter. As far of the quality of my work goes, that is...
| | | | Maria Karra
United States
Local time: 09:52
Member (2000)
Greek to English
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| I'm in favor of the change | Feb 2, 2008 |
In fact it has always bothered me too.
Marc P wrote:
You can argue - and I would be fairly sympathetic to the view - that "Übersetzer" is an acceptable generic term for translators of both sexes, but it isn't an acceptable term for a single female translator, as in this case.
It's just plain wrong, whatever your gender-political leanings, and the page hasn't been localized properly. I'm not saying that it's a major error, nor that it's necessarily a major issue, but it's clearly an error, and I think Serena is right to take it seriously.
I couldn't have said it better, Marc.
Margreet wrote:
The profession is that of a translator, that's all.
Whether I'm a man or woman does not matter to the work I do.
Nobody said that gender matters to the work we do. And sure, the profession is that of a translator, but here we're not talking about the profession but about people. It's one thing to say e.g. "le métier du traducteur" and another to say that "Marie est traducteur".
Maria
| | | | | Women-specific translation/interpretation | Feb 2, 2008 |
I would like to introduce myself as a translator, not as a 'female translator' because my profession has nothing to do with my gender identity. However, clients sometimes need female translator/interpreter to meet their specific requirements.
In Bengali, there is an option to make a feminine form of adjectives/nouns. But nowadays people prefer to use general terms, not the feminine ones. For example, the feminine form of 'anubadak' (translator) is 'anubadika' (female translator), bu... See more I would like to introduce myself as a translator, not as a 'female translator' because my profession has nothing to do with my gender identity. However, clients sometimes need female translator/interpreter to meet their specific requirements.
In Bengali, there is an option to make a feminine form of adjectives/nouns. But nowadays people prefer to use general terms, not the feminine ones. For example, the feminine form of 'anubadak' (translator) is 'anubadika' (female translator), but people simply use the first form.
But there are practical reasons for which some clients require the service of women translators/interpreters. In case of interpretation, clients prefer female interpreters if the client is a woman because women feel more comfortable when another woman interprets their conversation. If the client is hijab-observing woman, then it might be a mandatory condition.
Recently I have been contacted by a female researcher who took interview of prostitutes in a brother, where her condition was that the interpreter must be a woman. Translation can also be women-specific. When the topic of the translation is on women, for example, breast cancer awareness, women may understand the issue better than men.
For this reason, proz.com may consider giving a search option for those clients who need women translators/interpreters, although generally there is no need to distinguish between male and female translator.
Best Regards
Iffat
Dhaka, Bangladesh ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Sex, not gender | Feb 2, 2008 |
I'm hocked and shorrified ... What, *translators* not knowing the difference between "gender" and "sex"? People have sex, nouns and pronouns have gender. Gender is a grammatical term. Sex is a biological one.
Are we afraid of the word "sex" nowadays, that we have to pussyfoot around it? Surely not ...
Annoyed,
Jenny.
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Margreet Logmans (X)
Netherlands
Local time: 15:52
English to Dutch
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Maria Karra wrote:
And sure, the profession is that of a translator, but here we're not talking about the profession but about people. It's one thing to say e.g. "le métier du traducteur" and another to say that "Marie est traducteur".
Maria
I'm talking about the service I provide. I am a service provider, I provide a translator's service.
I work as a translator, I am much more than that.
@ Jenny: 'hocked and shorrified' - wonderful
| | | | | Depends on the language | Feb 2, 2008 |
I would have trouble accepting to be called "Viktoria Gimbe, traducteur". In French, it is normal practice to use gender-specific names for professions, and I would be uncomfortable to be labeled with the masculine equivalent. This is not a question of identity and I am far from being a feminist. I, too, think that by labeling everything feminine and masculine would only enlarge the gender gap that this is in fact meant to fight instead. If a woman wants to be respected and be equal to men, I th... See more I would have trouble accepting to be called "Viktoria Gimbe, traducteur". In French, it is normal practice to use gender-specific names for professions, and I would be uncomfortable to be labeled with the masculine equivalent. This is not a question of identity and I am far from being a feminist. I, too, think that by labeling everything feminine and masculine would only enlarge the gender gap that this is in fact meant to fight instead. If a woman wants to be respected and be equal to men, I think it is best that she blends in and doesn't insist on the fact that she is a woman. I do think that we sometimes abuse the gender issue - I am always horrified when a woman says she is an "écrivaine" - I feel this is like trying to put forward that she is a woman first and foremost, and only then a writer (there never really was a feminine equivalent for this, and I don't see why we would start using one now - the one and only word for a writer has always been "écrivain"). But French is a language that puts a lot of emphasis on gender, and I don't think anybody has the right to change this simply because of their own political convictions. I imagine there are lots of other languages that work in a similar way.
I would have trouble with "translatoress" - but why would that word even exist when English doesn't distinguish between the two genders when it comes to professions? On the other hand, many languages have always worked that way, and I don't see why we would pervert a language to reflect some people's rejection of the difference between the two.
To sum it up, this is not a political issue to me, but rather a linguistic one. There are standards for this issue in each language - let's just respect those standards. I prefer being a "traductrice" rather than a "traducteur". ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Depends on culture/ language/ personal choice | Feb 2, 2008 |
I kind of like my gender, race and other details not being identified in my profile! It keeps the focus on me as a translator and nothing else - I think that's more than adequate for the web, and perhaps one of the web's advantages. So I'd prefer things to stay as they are for me.
However, this might just be because of the gender neutral term "translator" in English... were it actually grammatically incorrect to call you the equivalent of "translator" (if it has male overtones/ me... See more I kind of like my gender, race and other details not being identified in my profile! It keeps the focus on me as a translator and nothing else - I think that's more than adequate for the web, and perhaps one of the web's advantages. So I'd prefer things to stay as they are for me.
However, this might just be because of the gender neutral term "translator" in English... were it actually grammatically incorrect to call you the equivalent of "translator" (if it has male overtones/ meaning in some languages), then I would probably lobby to be recorded as "traductora" or "traductrice" etc. Maybe. ▲ Collapse
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islander1974 wrote:
I kind of like my gender, race and other details not being identified in my profile!...
... then I would probably lobby to be recorded as "traductora" or "traductrice" etc. Maybe.
Well, you just removed any lingering doubts we might have had!
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Serena Hiller
Germany
Local time: 15:52
English to German
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TOPIC STARTER | Very interesting feedback and comments so far ... ;-) | Feb 2, 2008 |
Dear Colleagues,
After having read these responses received so far, I think this issue will keep us busy for a while. Many thanks for your feedback and time taken for these detailed replies.
@Viktoria, Samuel, Marc and Maria: I couldn't have said that better, it reflects and summarizes exactly my intention and point of view
Best regards
Serena
| | | | | Agree with Viktoria... | Feb 2, 2008 |
I am an "Übersetzerin" in German, not an "Übersetzer" - and certainly the issue is an entirely linguistic one. For a linguistic web site to ignore such a distinction seems far from professional.
Astrid
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JaneTranslates wrote:
I kind of like my gender, race and other details not being identified in my profile!...
While we're sharing personal info, I also have two cats and two dogs! LOL!!
| | | | | "Translator" is only in the page title and you can change it | Feb 3, 2008 |
Serena,
The only place where the profile page has the word "translator" is the page title (blue bar on top). The system inserts the name dynamically, followed by the string "%1 translator.", where %1 is the language pair.
It would require some programming changes having two versions of this string (female and male) stored in the system and then displaying one of them based on a variable that is set by the profile owner.
While I think this issue is valid in several langu... See more Serena,
The only place where the profile page has the word "translator" is the page title (blue bar on top). The system inserts the name dynamically, followed by the string "%1 translator.", where %1 is the language pair.
It would require some programming changes having two versions of this string (female and male) stored in the system and then displaying one of them based on a variable that is set by the profile owner.
While I think this issue is valid in several languages, I don' t think the ProZ-developers should spend time on implementing a system of automatically doing this adjustment, when there are much more important improvements they could work on, and when the title can be customized anyway.
Narcis already explained how to do it:
Narcis Lozano Drago wrote:
The title displayed in your profile is generated automatically, based on search engine optimization principles, but you can change it anytime. Just go to My Settings->Search Engine Settings->Title displayed in your profile.
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| I quite like people not knowing too | Feb 3, 2008 |
My name is typically Dutch and non-Dutch speakers just do not know whether I am a man or a woman. I quite like that.
| | | | | In a nutshell | Feb 3, 2008 |
Astrid Elke Johnson wrote:
I am an "Übersetzerin" in German, not an "Übersetzer" - and certainly the issue is an entirely linguistic one. For a linguistic web site to ignore such a distinction seems far from professional.
Astrid
Agree with Astrid, Mara and all the others who see this as a purely linguistic issue.
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