A few things I’ve learned in my first week editing translations:

Many verbs we don’t normally think of as transitive can be made to function in that way. Take, for example, the word ‘innovate’ in the following sentence: “…it is imperative to innovate the staff of personnel together with innovating the mechanism and establishing a proper, dynamic one.” Unfortunately, I have no access to the translators who work on these articles, so I can’t simply ask what was meant in this case.

The sentence above also demonstrates my second lesson - everything is a mechanism. I mentioned this to Rachel, a SALTer who has been doing some editing at the National Committee for the Advancement of Women here in Ha Noi, and she laughed in recognition. One can speak of the “subsidized mechanism of cinematic distribution” or the “management mechanism of enterprises” (enterprise being another favourite word), or the “co-operation mechanism between [a] joint-stock company’s Board of Management and the Director.” I could go on and on.

Finally, collective pronouns are employed more frequently here than in the individualistic culture(s) of North America. My favourite sentence to date came in a report that mentioned a number of actors, actresses and directors: “All of these were awarded with the highest prizes at the 8th Film Festival held in Da Nang, which did bring us the greatest happiness.”

While editing has not, so far, brought me the greatest happiness, work has kept me busy, and I have no shortage of articles to puzzle over.

Honestly, though, translating into a non-native language is something I hope I’m never asked to do, and I admire those who make an effort at what is undoubtedly tough and unrewarding work. Unrewarding especially when snot-nosed young Canadian punks poke fun at your sentences on their blogs.

I’m sorry.