Change has been a constant subject in the society since time immemorial. However, what has stood to be a controversial issue within change is the fact that the society ought to encourage positive change rather than negative change. There have been critics that education is the best mechanism of attaining positive change to the world.
Other critics have disagreed asserting that education can also be employed in brining negative change. Translation too has been under major criticism as others argue that translation offers positive change while others argue that translation offers negative change. Translation refers to the creation of an equivalent form of texts or words from one language to another (Kelly, Nataly, and Jost Zetzsche 22).
Apparently, translation affects our daily lives in different ways. However, people have failed to recognize the importance of translation in shaping our lives by giving direction that fosters positive change in the society.
On the other hand, even though translation can be classified as something virtuous, useful and bright, still it remains debatable whether its drawbacks are harmful to the growth of communication and literature (Kelly, Nataly, and Jost Zetzsche 23). In this light, the essay explores how translation changes the society.
Numerous instances have seen translation being blamed on claims that it is a tool for concealment and misdirection. Research conducted by Trotter, and Andrea DeCapua (449) has identified that inappropriate translation is the center of misinformation and misdirection. The negative consequences of misinformation and misdirection are that it impacts people’s lives adversely.
For instance, the radical fundamentalism is blamed on a wrong interpretation of some religious teaching and writings. Consequently, many people have ended up bearing the brunt of such vices due to misinformation and misdirection (Trotter, and Andrea DeCapua 449).
On the contrary, Kelly, Nataly, and Jost Zetzsche (24) translation, if done properly, enriches human life by facilitating communication and sharing of information across the globe thus providing a positive direction to the society.
Sharing knowledge across various aspects of human life significantly depends on the conversion of language from the subsequent original language to purportedly understandable language by the reader or the user of the second language (Kelly, Nataly, and Jost Zetzsche, 24).
A lot of information relating to religion and postmodern era history were initially in old languages such as the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, but after translation, a lot of information and knowledge have been derived from these readings and transcripts. Similarly, most of the modern work comes in different languages depending on the authors or the artist.
For example, translation has been instrumental in influencing people’s faith, moral and ethics that’s providing positive change to the society. Evidently, most of the religious books were previously written with languages mostly used in the Middle East. But with the translation, these books are accessible in almost every dialect.
In a way, this has helped in fostering people understanding on faith and other teachings that define people’s morals. In this light, right morals foster good relationship with others as well as promoting good ethics. It is upon these tenets that the people can interact and coexist peacefully.
Therefore, translation is an indispensable aspect not only in easing communication but also in promoting good ethics, admirable morals and stronger faith for the believers. Trotter, and Andrea DeCapua (452) also claims that translation is instrumental when spreading and sharing knowledge, a factor that is indispensable to the holistic growth of human beings.
Through translation, people from different parts of the world have been brought closer to each other. Movies, books and other works that are translated not only help in spreading knowledge but also bringing people closer to each other.
The literary work from Asia, Africa and Latin America where English is not the typical language of publishing or communication, is accessible all over the globe thanks to translation (Trotter, and Andrea DeCapua 451).
Apparently, translation can be considered as a root for globalization and increased cooperation among people from various parts of the world. In this light, interpretation is pivotal in promoting integration and even globalization and thus leading the world in the right direction. Translation has also changed several sectors positively.
Some of the sectors in the society that have received the impact of translation are healthcare and security. For a long period, translation has been seen instrumental in saving lives by preventing the spread of contagious infections.
Evidently, from time to time, the outbreak of epidemic events are reported over the news channels. By doing these people are alerted, and the relevant authorities are also notified making them responds accordingly in a timely manner (Kelly, Nataly, and Jost Zetzsche, 34).
For example, Kelly, Nataly, and Jost Zetzsche (39) supported the role of translation in changing the society positively by giving the example of last year’s outbreak of Zika virus in Brazil, Portuguese-speaking country, helped in spreading awareness of this disease consequently enabling a timely response by the relevant authorities and even local people.
Translation also comes in handy for physicians through an interpreter when dealing with a patient from the different cultural background. Therefore, it can be deduced that translation facilitates a supportive and personalized health care in our society. Evidently, translation facilitates communication which in turn aid in life-saving. Additionally, translation is a crucial tool in fostering the security and preventing terror thus saving lives and disastrous events (Kelly et al. 39).
Intelligence gathering is the center for security improvement and prevention of terrorist activities. But the information gathered remains relevant unless translated into something understandable by various institutions dealing with the security (Kelly, Nataly, and Jost Zetzsche 44).
The translation of intercepted information is vital in thwarting potential conflicts or threats to the people security. Kelly, Nataly, and Jost Zetzsche (40) also asserts that perhaps the 9/11 attack could have been halted, had the security agency considered translating ‘Tomorrow is zero hour,’ a message intercepted before the day of the attack from Arabic (Kelly, Nataly, and Jost Zetzsche 40).
However, since the message was not translated, the disastrous event came to pass. In this light, translation is pivotal in promoting security and preventing some vices such as terrorism. In conclusion, despite the drawbacks associated with translation, it is still a good tool that can be used in shaping our lives and the society generally.
Translation fosters the sharing of knowledge, bringing people closer to each other, promoting security and saving a life. Regardless of the fact that translation impedes people’s willingness to learn different languages, altering the message and being a tool of misinformation, still translation offers many benefits to the people thus it can be asserted that translation shapes our lives positively than how it shapes our lives negatively.
Works Cited
Kelly, Nataly, and Jost O. Zetzsche. Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World. New York: Perigee, 2012. Print.
Trotter, Evelyn, and Andrea DeCapua. “The role of the literary translator in the new Europe and the literary translator as role model.” Linguistics & the Human Sciences 1.3 (2005).
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