Responsibilities and Training of Public Service Staff

Abstract

The story is told of a public service middle manager who was organising the recruitment of translators for a number of language combinations. When asked how he was going to select them, he replied that he had a very easy method. He would give each applicant for the job a text in English to translate. The applicants who achieved the same number of words as the source text in their translation into their target language would get the job. Now, the story may be apocryphal, but it reflects all too well, particularly in the English-speaking world, a general lack of understanding about languages and the work of translators and their colleagues, including those working in the public services.