Engineers Canada’s top priority is to advance Canadian engineering through national collaboration. In addition to our volunteers and stakeholders, this mission is carried out by more than 50 Engineers Canada staff members in Ottawa, ON – all of whom work on various programs, resources, and tools that support the engineering profession in Canada.
This summer, we’re taking you behind the scenes at Engineers Canada to share some of the important work of staff and their impact on the engineering profession at a national level. First up is Engineers Canada’s in-house translator, Lili El-Tawil. As a national organization, Engineers Canada publishes materials in both official languages, English and French. These materials include Engineers Canada’s newsletter, Engineering Matters, content and documents on our websites, and more. In this interview, El-Tawil shares insights into the translation industry, the translation process, transitions in translation, and her favourite Engineers Canada projects thus far.
Q: When did your interest in translation first begin and how did you get into the industry?
A: Translation seemed like an obvious choice as I am fluent in several languages, and my dad worked as a translator for a little while. However, I only began considering it in my early 20s, when I was asked to do translations and started doing them on a regular basis. After completing my degree in literature, I decided to try out for the École de Traduction et d’Interprétation (ETI) in Geneva, Switzerland – a very competitive school with a 25-30 per cent admission rate. I successfully made it to the Masters level, which I completed in 1998. Still, I went on to explore other professions such as teaching, and only did translations part-time and as a freelancer. My journey of being a full-time translator began in 2017. I enjoyed it and decided to continue!
Q: What does a typical workday in translation at Engineers Canada look like for you?
A: Every day is different. Typically, I receive translation requests from my co-workers at Engineers Canada, including newsletters, briefing notes, meeting minutes, National Position Statements, press releases, correspondences, and more. I process them through a software that pre-translates the text using the existing translation memories (a memory database based on our previous translations). The document is then sent to one of the external translators I work with. Sometimes, I translate documents myself. I keep a log of translation requests and deadlines, and as I service the entire organisation, I often have a lot on the go.
In addition to processing translations, I also revise incoming translations, process the external translators’ invoices, and update the translation memory and our terminology. At times, I review video transcriptions and/or listen to interpretation, which adds variety to written translation work. This work keeps me very busy, especially during meeting preparation!
Q: What’s the most unique part of your role at Engineers Canada?
A: I am the only in-house translator, that makes it quite unique! I am also the main linguistic reference, so if there are any language issues related to terms in French and English I am the point person.
Q: What has been the most interesting project you’ve worked on at Engineers Canada and why?
A: I have worked on a few interesting projects. My personal favourites have been translating resources for the 30 by 30 Conference, led by our Belonging and Engagement team, as well as content for Engineers Canada’s Awards program. This includes award recipient biographies and subtitles for the award ceremony videos. These projects have been a highlight because I’m able to read the stories of engineers and engineering students, as well as diverse members of the engineering community (women, LGBTQ2S+, Indigenous people, people of colour, immigrants, etc.). It is always interesting to learn about their experiences in the profession as well as their achievements and challenges.
Q: What’s the most challenging project you’ve worked on so far?
A: Challenges mainly arise for me when there are tight deadlines/turnaround times and long or difficult text. There’s a lot on the go at Engineers Canada and sometimes even the requester cannot control the specified deadlines.
Translating also becomes challenging when the text in an English document is wordy, over styled, or hard to unpack even in English.
Q: How has the translation industry evolved since you first started working in it?
A: There have been a few changes in modern-day translations such as inclusive writing. This seeks to include all listeners or readers, regardless of their gender, sexuality, etc. Gender pronouns and the use of they/them have been one of the biggest transitions. In inclusive writing, it is important to include both the masculine and feminine variations of certain words. For example, the translation for ‘engineers’ is ‘ingénieur.e.s’ which represents both men and women. The conventions for this type of writing may vary, sometimes there is slash or dash used.
Additionally, there are new expressions and buzzwords in English, which have not yet made their way into the French translation conventions. Examples are words like “woke” or “FOMO” (fear of missing out).
Though there have been some changes over the years, translation is still a work in progress.
Q: Are there any common misconceptions about translation?
A: A common misconception about translation is that it can be mechanical, and that machine translators like Google can do the job. Translators are not machines and cannot be replaced by machines.
It is true that machine translators have transformed the translation world, and translators have become more like “revisors.” Some of my fellow translators have compared it to automatic cash checkouts as taking over cashier jobs, turning cashiers into overseers. However, unlike automatic cash checkouts, no translation machine will be able to fully grasp the context and “think” like a human – at least not in the near future. The human brain and touch are still crucial in translation.
Another common misconception is that if you know the language, it is easy to “just translate”. Translation is a very specific skill. Although not every translator goes through formal training, it is certainly a skill to be acquired and honed over time, and a constant learning process!
Q: If you could switch your job with anyone else at Engineers Canada for a day, whose job would you choose and why?
A: I would enjoy the Communications Specialist role, writing content, monitoring press and media, and liaising with different teams to help them create content. I would also enjoy being part of the Belonging and Engagement team, improving equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in engineering, networking with the EDI community, organizing conferences, and most importantly, sharing the stories and perspectives of underrepresented groups in engineering.
