Milano | CNYCA: Feet in Two Worlds: The Translation Dilemma

The Translation Dilemma

As soon as the “Feet in Two Worlds” project began we realized that we had to come up with creative ways to deal with people in the program who spoke little or no English. The challenge was to present people speaking their native language on the radio as seamlessly and naturally as they would be heard on the streets of New York. At the same time we needed to faithfully convey to an English-speaking audience the ideas and emotions expressed by non-English speakers in the program.

It was clear that the typical public radio approach would not be adequate. Using voice-over translations seemed too clunky and obvious. We settled on an approach where the words of non-English speakers were paraphrased by the reporter. Literal translation was reserved for key phrases.

WNYC’s Cindy Rodriguez used this technique effectively in both of her pieces about Ecuadorian immigrants living in Queens. In her story about a couple that paid smugglers to bring their children from Ecuador to New York, Cindy states:

Esther and Jose came to New York from Ecuador to get jobs to support their family back home. Jose, who like his wife asked that his real name not be used, was the first to arrive in 1995. He works construction. Esther followed six years later. She has a job in a sewing factory.

Jose says many Ecuadorians,“ tienen la idea de reunir,” or, “have plans to reunite,” because to be far away from their families doesn’t feel right.

After this introduction the listener then hears Jose speaking in Spanish about why he and his wife risked hiring smugglers to bring their children to the US. Most non-Spanish speakers can understand him when he uses the phrase, “tienen la idea de reunir.”

To emphasize the multi-lingual world that many immigrants live in we used actualities where people translate their own non-English words for the listener. For example, in Arun Venugopal’s piece on gay South Asians he includes an interview with Ms. Zina Divani, a drag queen who grew up in Pakistan.

ZINA DIVANI: When I was baby, when I used to dance, I used to get hit by my parents, my brother, my cousins. “Oh, no, you can’t dance to that music, because it’s very khusraaz,” means it’s very queer. I-, I don’t know the difference. But when I moved to New York that I learned, and I danced, and I’m the most famous drag queen in New York.

The only place where we used a typical public radio voice-over is in Macollvie Jean-François’ piece about Haitian immigrants who support family and friends in Haiti. At the end of the piece Macollvie interviews her mother in Creole about her mom’s desire to return to Haiti. Macollvie does the voice over herself giving this section an intimacy and warmth that is would have been difficult to achieve using an actor performing a voice-over.