Betty Cohen, president of the International Federation of Translators (FIT), is calling for more recognition of and protection for translators and interpreters worldwide.

In an interview with China.org.cn during her October 28–November 5 visit to China, Cohen said that translators and interpreters are now facing both opportunities and challenges: globalization is creating more business for them but also demanding more in terms of both quality and quantity.

Cohen said the translation and interpretation profession needs international standardization. FIT is developing guidelines on a number of key issues, including training, quality standards, and translation tools and technologies. The guidelines are expected to be approved by the statutory congress of FIT to be held in Finland next August.

Cohen emphasized the importance of professional standards and systematic training. “Too many people think that being bilingual is enough to be a translator, which is not true." She pointed out that errors in translation for something as simple as the instruction manual for a small electrical device could result in the electrocution of the user.

Cohen also noted that the rights and interests of translators and interpreters are not well protected under all circumstances.

Skilled translators are essential in many tense and dangerous situations, and FIT is fighting for protection of those who work in such areas as Iraq.

Copyright is also a thorny issue. Only a few countries, such as Norway, Finland and Sweden, have strong copyright protection for translators. FIT is working with international copyright organizations and trying to influence legislation in this regard.

On the other hand, machine translation poses little threat to flesh-and-blood translators, said Cohen. While it is useful, applications are limited and a qualified human translator must still control the output.

“As long as there is ambiguity, a machine is no good. And if a machine can understand ambiguity, it will rule the world,” she said.

Having an organization such as FIT to lobby for them is necessary to translators and interpreters, who by the nature of their job tend to be invisible, or at least unobtrusive. It is easy for people to overlook the important role they play in a globalized world.

"We are like electricity in the wire, water in the tap," said Cohen. "But imagine one day in the world without translation -- all translators and interpreters stop working for one day -- there will be no UN, no WTO, no CNN, and no international organizations. We are indispensable to the world today."

Cohen and the FIT executive board are in Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the FIT Fourth Asian Translators' Forum, which began on October 29, and the Fifth National Congress of the Translators Association of China (TAC), opening on Thursday.

Noting that TAC was instrumental in creating an Asian regional center for FIT, Cohen said that she is impressed by the organization's work in recent years.

The growth potential for translation and interpretation services in China are enormous and an inevitable result of the nation's economic boom and the going-global campaigns of Chinese companies, said Cohen.

Founded in 1953 with its registered office in Paris and administration in Montreal, Canada, FIT is an international federation of associations and organizations with 150 members in more than 60 countries.

(China.org.cn by Jiang Wandi and Chen Chao, November 4, 2004)