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European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 16, Number 4 (2010)

The Impact of Translation on Language Acquisition and

Knowledge Transfer in the Arab World

Ahmed Gumaa Siddiek

Dawadami Community College, P.O. Box 18
Shagra University. KSA 11911
E-mail: aahmedgumaa@yahoo.com
Tel: 00966559455198

Abstract
This paper addresses the issue of foreign language education with special focus on the
teaching of translation and its impact on language proficiency and knowledge transfer in
the Arab World. Languages are the vehicles of thought and feelings among the human
communities. The question is: where do we need to focus our teaching efforts of foreign
languages? Is it useful to enable people to speak the language as native-like or is it more
useful to people to be professional in translation so as to read and acquire knowledge in
their own mother tongue? Translation played the major role in bridging the physical gap
between all nations. It is also evident that speaking the foreign language does not help too
much in the transfer of knowledge to human communities as translation does. Translation is
considered by Lado (1975:25) as the fifth language skill. We believe that it is the most
important language skill, as translation renders information to millions of people in their
own languages. Learning a language alone does not qualify people that much to achieve
development, but transferring knowledge via translation does; because translation enriches
both the source and the target languages with new ideas and new linguistic features.

Keywords: Language education, Language acquisition, Language proficiency,

Knowledge Transfer, Translation

Introduction
According to Allen (2004), translation is a notoriously thankless profession: there is absolutely no
money in it; it involves a severe submersion of the self into another; the hours are long and you get
about as much recognition for your efforts as the telephone repairman. Wortsman (2010) holds the
same idea that he had all but given up translation, having been burnt in the past by a publisher who
essentially cheated him. And his story goes as follows: [Translation] is such a thankless task. There
was one review in particular of a past - and I might add, critically acclaimed - translation of mine,
Posthumous Papers of a Living Author, by Robert Musil (originally published by Eridanos Books in
1987 and reissued by Penguin 20th-Century Classics), in which the reviewer noted everything from the
rich complex style of Musil to the quality of the paper, the cover and even the cloth bookmark, but did
not say a single word about the translation."
But the taxi driver in New York has the most frustrating opinion about translation, if you would
just be patient to read the following lines. In New York everything is smart and the taxi driver is well
equipped with encyclopedic knowledge of people, places and languages. I told my friend Atiff Al-
Bagher- a translator in the UN Headquarter in New York - who was to receive me at his home in
Brooklyn- that I had a wonderful time with taxi drivers, who speak many languages and seem to be
knowledgeable about all the whereabouts of New York City. Then Mr. Al-Bagher told me the story of

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one of his friends who happened to take a cab in this city and had some chat with the driver. The cab
driver asked the man about his job. The man told him that he was a translator in the UN Headquarter in
New York. Then the driver commented in a cold manner,"What an easy way for making money!"
So the question is: is translation really an easy job? And moneywise, is it that rewarding?
Unfortunately many people, even highly educated people hold the same belief of the taxi driver. This
paper will discuss these issues from the writer's own point of view as freelance translator and teacher.
Translation is a thankless job although it is one of the very high-stake and risky jobs in the
world. It is similar to surgery or flying planes where the right decision, and only the right decision, is to
take at very critical time to save human lives. The translator, and especially the interpreter, has to
convey the right meaning, otherwise people will be lost in translation as we use to say, and then great
misunderstanding would erupt between individuals and may go to communities. The surgeon has to
come instantaneously to the very right conclusion about the disease in the specific area in the human
anatomy and then he has to eradicate the disease immediately and for ever. The pilot has to decide if
that flying machine is safe to take off, to navigate in the air and land safely. Any interruption in space
will end in catastrophic and disastrous results, simply loss of hundreds of human souls. All three jobs
demand high skills and full attentiveness, but people usually recognize and evaluate the job of the
medical surgeon and the pilot while they deny and do not feel the physical, mental and psychological
stress of translators and interpreters while doing their jobs.
Those stories are significant that translation is considered a mean job because as translation
involves a submersion of the self into another. But the fact is that translators were and still are the
conveyers of knowledge from one language to another and from generation to generation. They were –
among others-the builders of civilizations as they were concerned with the conveying of thought and
wisdom through history and they will remain so.

1.0. The Significance & Objectives of the Research

This article mainly targets the foreign language teachers and the syllabus designers, as culture
manufacturers as well as decision makers. The objective of the paper is to shed light on foreign
language teaching with special focusing on the teaching of translation. Translation is a communal
practice from which the whole people can benefit via the translating of materials from the source
languages into the target languages. This article emphasizes the importance of training translators as
they are the most effective professionals who educate learners and language consumers in the entire
fields of human knowledge.

2.0. Elements of Language

Lado: (1975:25), divided language variables into two categories. He saw that Language is built of
sounds, intonations, stresses morphemes, words and arrangement of words having meaning that are
linguistic and cultural, but the degree of mastery of these elements does not advance evenly but goes
faster in some and slower in others; and that we have four more variable; namely the degree of
achievement in speaking, understanding, reading and writing. A fifth skill is the ability to translate,
which should be [seen] as an end in itself and not as a way to test mastery of the language.
Communication is a human feature whether it is fully attained through human languages or
through body and sign languages. The later were primitive means of communication, although the sign
languages have recently been developed to serve a considerable population of human beings with
special hearing capabilities. Languages were/are means and vehicles of communication through which
thoughts, were/are exchanged and through which feelings and attitudes were/are expressed. They
were/are also means through which trade commodities: goods, services, human interests were/are
handled between individual and communities.

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The needs of modern communities have changed from simple individualistic limited needs into
this recent big global complex economy. The growth of needs is a result of the fast growth of
population, as the rates of deaths are coming down and the rates of births going up. Efficient means of
transportation: wireless, electronic internet and modern means of communication have facilitated the
movement of people, ideas, commodities and services from one part of the earth to the other within
very short time. Subsequently, these modern societies willingly or unwillingly have to get into physical
contact to share and defend common interests on this planet. This contact accelerated the development
of language implementation for practical use, from serving small limited needs to a wide range of
human complex wants and aspirations. From here people began to cater for foreign language
acquisition as a practical need to defend their own interests and to exchange feelings, ideas, service and
commodities.
Languages had always been means of communication and unity among one people of
homogeneous nature, despite the differences of colour, race, religion or the place of birth. But
languages as well were sometimes behind the causes of long disputes and discords among people as
some historical events could show. Disputes erupt when different interests come into some sort of
disagreement, and when a certain people want to empower their culture or economic power on others,
as it was the case during the colonial era, when colonizers imposed their languages and cultures on the
suppressed nations. But most of those suppressed people did not accept the situation and therefore they
fought to defend their indigenous languages to survive.
Language is the permanent address of man. It betrays his identity and serves as a reservoir of
human oral and written heritage, for this reason – and for this reason only - language education is given
and should be given much care today and in future.
Language education is a big business today. The teaching of English makes a major support to
the British and American budgets by providing the national income with millions of pounds and dollars
from young men and women, heading west to improve their language skills and gain degrees from
Europe or America. Definitely, they will have to pay billions of dollars, Euros or sterling pounds in
addition to some Russian rubles for their education.

3.0. Language Barriers and Solution Tricks

According to Crystal:(1996), people come to speak different languages because- historically-natural
barriers such as large rivers, seas, deserts, and mountain ranges have prevented migration and reduced
the flow between certain regions. But people now can easily cross from one side of the world to the
other within less than a day by a jet airbus 380 that can fly from Singapore to London crossing 10,847
km, in a 14 hour- non-stop-flight. So, the geographical factor is longer that barrier. The radio, Satellite
stations, mobile phone, cable and wireless internet access are available, covering every remote
distance. These factors have practically diminished the physical challenges of distance between people.
Communities that live in one geographical area often share the same ideas and feelings. These
people may be of a homogeneous ethnic entity, so they find no difficulty to speak one indigenous
language. But they may be heterogeneous, living in distant geographical units, but they share the same
feelings towards one specific language as being sacrosanct such as the belief of Muslims in Arabic,
Jews with the Hebrew and the Buddhists with the Sanskrit. So, socio-economic and religious
backgrounds factors are effective in determining the language use within one specific community or
another.

4.0. Overcoming the Language Barrier

Man did not give up trying to overcome the language barrier. The main reason behind language
planning is the triumph over the language barriers that stand between people who live in one place,
speaking different codes; however, they find difficulty in contact. Man failed to totally overcome this
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problem, but succeeded- to some extent- by using some tricks to establish positive communication
between individuals and groups. Let us now examine some of these tricks as practical human attempts
to overcome the language barriers.

4.1. One Universal Language

This trick was used to overcome the language barrier by recommending the use of one universal
language such as English or Spanish, to be adopted - unanimously - by the international community as
one single language of communication. However, this project was aborted because people feared the
loss of their identity through the claim of superiority of one language over others. Language was/is
always connected and closely tied with personal, political and social entity of the people throughout
history.

4.2. A Man-Made-Language
Another daring attempt was the invention of the Esperanto as a neutral man-made language invented in
1887 as an easy and practical means of communication. This language borrowed the main features of
European languages, but with easy grammar and pronunciation. The inventor of the language Ludwick
L. Zamenhof (1858-1917), who hoped - as the word Esperanto originally derived from Latin meant
HOPE - to see the language as unanimously accepted as neutral means of communication between
human beings. The Esperanto is now the working language of several non-profit international
organizations such as the Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda, but most others are specifically Esperanto
organizations. The largest of these, the World Esperanto Association, has an official consultative
relationship with the United Nations and UNESCO. The U.S. Army has published military
phrasebooks in Esperanto, to be used in war games by the enemy (i.e. non-U.S.) forces. But this project
also failed for political, social and economic reasons, although it was recognized by million of
advocates of speakers in the international community. (for more details please Google Esperanto in the
Web)

4.3. Monolingualsim vs. Multilingualism

Is man by nature a monolingual or multilingual creature? Crystal:(1996) answered this question by
stating that people, brought up within a western society often think that monolingualism that firms a
routine part of their existence is the normal way of life. But these people are wrong as he said because
multilingualism is the natural way of life for hundreds of millions all over the world. This fact will
determine that multilingualism is the main feature of human community, and should be the focus of
language educators to recognize this fact to develop modern language education.
This realization of language diversity should create positive understanding among human
beings. Multilingual situation can develop for many reasons, although it is often the situation of the
people's own choosing; but may also be forced upon them by other circumstances. According to
Crystal:(1996), politics annexations and other political or military acts can have immediate linguistic
effects. People may become refugees and have to learn their new homes language. Other factors may
come from religion where some people wish to live in country because of its religious significance.
There are other factors such as culture, when people want to learn about others. There are also
economic factors where people leave their homes looking for better jobs and pay. They will have to
adopt the language of the new homes and their ways of life. Natural causes such as drought, volcanic
eruptions, fires famine cause major movements of people from one place to another. New language
contact situations will emerge as people are resettled in their new places.
The realization of multilingualism situations aroused many questions about language issue all
over the world. It made individual person and government authorities aware of the fact of diversity to
begin language planning. Diversity is not always a source of social clashes between people who live in
one geographical unit. Nor, should it be a cause behind the clashes between civilizations as some
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people may think. Diversity can be a factor of unity and strength if the subject is wisely tackled
through language balancing. Good examples can be seen in the case of Paraguay where Gujarati and
Spanish, both have social and political status in the country, or as it is the case in Switzerland where
French, German, Italian, and Rumantsch, has been touted as a successful multilingual society or even
as a miracle of unity in diversity. Cheshire (1990:19). Also South Africa in its new indigenous ruling
political system is another good example, where local languages were recognized and protected by law.
The language balancing is not an impossible goal, but can be achieved through wise planning
and management. Multilingualism or bilingualism situations are changing to increase in some places as
it is the case in Sweden after the World War Two, while it is the opposite situation in the USA whereas
new third generation of immigrants is becoming increasingly monolingual. Crystal:(1996)
The language issue was and still is one of the main factors of national solidarity and unity
everywhere in the world. It is as well, a factor of long discord and conflict between races since the
dawn of history. This development led to language engineering ass language planning proves to be a
thorn in the flesh of all who governs whether at national or local level. Crystal:(1996). So the modern
state has to interfere in planning for language as it makes plans for its strategic nationwide projects.
Language planning or language engineering as it is sometimes called, is a term introduced in the
literature of languages in the 1960s. The significance of the term is similar in Guatemala as its in
Ethiopia or South Africa, where the government intervenes to plan for the society its means of
communication. It involves the creation and implementation of an official policy of how the languages
and linguistic varieties of a country are to be used as Crystal:(1996) put it. This official policy is
sometimes the responsibility of ministries, departments or academies affiliated to the government
institutes or by individual persons. The planning is sometimes fully supported by communities, but
might be faced with opposition due to religious, social, economic or political factors or due to hidden
individual or governmental agendas

4.4. Translation
One final good trick to overcome this barrier is through translation, where someone is required to play
the role of middleperson, to decipher meanings from the speaker to the audience and vise-versa.
However, translation was sometimes impractical due to availability of access to a translator or
interpreter at the moment of the interaction, in addition to other problems that emerge from bad
translation, which may sometimes lead to misunderstanding between individuals or communities.

4.5.1. Bad Translations

Bad translation is due to: intentional and intentional factors.
a) Intentional factors: it is where the translator tries to serve his/her own personal or/and national
religious, political, racial and economic agendas by intentionally mistranslating or
misinterpreting the text or the message from the source language to the target language.
b) Unintentional factors are due to:
• lack, insufficiency or inappropriateness of the translator's tools. This happens when the
translator is poorly equipped with language command of the source or/and the target
languages or when he is unable to use technical aids such as dictionaries, glossaries and
translating machines.
• complications that emerge from lack of the knowledge of the cultural and social
background of the text or the message.
• the misunderstanding of the context in the source language.
• the nature of the text (e.g. scientific, religious or legal),
• the degree of difficulty of the text and its translatability into the target language.
• the inability of the translator to get the denotative meaning, which is the meaning beyond
the lines of the text or the context.

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5.0. Language and Translation Education in the Arab World

Language education witnessed some growth and improvement in most Arab world institutions. This
can be noticed in the growth of schools that offer foreign language education in Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia,
Morocco, and other Arabs countries. The number of language graduates has multiplied many times and
the market need for this profession has increased due to the growth of global interaction with the
international business community. There is a growing interest at government and private levels in
language education as this will help develop and improve the communication between the local and the
international community in business, diplomacy, education and tourism. There is also a growing
interest among the academic personnel where seminars, conferences and debates on language issues
are frequently handled. International contests such as the King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia Translation
and Sheikh Zaid Al Maktoum prizes began to attract outstanding figures in the field of translation, in
addition to many other individuals who began to give attention to language education in general and
translation skills in particular. But despite of all these effort from government and the private sector
with this language issue, there is still inconvenience due to the poor outcome of graduates of these
language schools.
Most stake-holders: employers, government and private sectors are unhappy with the
performance of these language graduates. Most of the complaints come from employers in the private
sector, where market competition allows no place for poor performance in carrying out the business
with low communication skills. It is a pity as Siddiek:(2010) noticed, the poor performance of custom
and passport officers in some airports or seaports in the Arab world. These officers demonstrate very
poor language performance when they are engaged with foreigners in daily routines at such very
sensitive places.
Through my own long teaching experience, I feel the poor performance of my students and the
continuous deterioration of their performance from one year to another. This problem of language
deterioration is a common feature in almost all Arab educational system, where we witness a fearful
drop in students' achievements. But the foreign language education is easy to handle in a well – to do -
country like Saudi Arabia, where the government is very generous with its young men and women as
well as the academic staff; as it frequently encourages them to have language courses abroad to
improve their communication skills. Language education in Saudi Arabia in particular is given much
care, as this country receives millions of Muslims during the Hajj season every year, from the four
corners of the globe, in addition to a considerable number of additional millions of other foreigners
from all over the world, who are permanent residents in the country as foreign expatriates.

5.1. Translation and Language Education

Despite of all the efforts in the field of teaching languages, there is a deficiency in the teaching of
translation as well as scarcity in the translation of materials from other cultures. It is a pity to realize
that the Arab world has translated less than ten thousand books during the last 50 years while one
country as Greece has translated ten times the amount of books translated in the Arab world during the
same period. Zawi (2009). What is the reason behind this poverty in translation efforts?
Lack of enthusiasm into translation of foreign materials in the Arab world is not only due to the
poor teaching and learning of foreign languages, but it is the product of ill-feeling which inhibits the
Arab personality-the false feeling of self-contained in creative thinking. According to Zawi (2009),
"we Arabs believe that we are the nation of poets, so we feel there is no need to translate poetry. We
also think that we are the nation who speaks the language of paradise – as some Muslim Arabs believe
that Arabic is the language of the people of Paradise – hence, we do not need to speak other people's
languages. We believe that we are the people who invented and exported the medical knowledge and
wisdom to the outside world, so we do not need to import today what we had given yesterday."
The teaching of translation courses in universities is not that satisfactory, as there is no well
designed syllabus to facilitate teaching this subject. The materials used are not that authenticated and a
bit far away from the practical needs of the learner and the market's need. The teaching of even simple
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introductory courses in translation is lacking in almost all secondary school education syllabus in the
Arab world. This is evident in my own country Sudan, where the English language syllabus does not
embed any translation tasks for the young learners in their textbooks or in their students' workbooks.
We need to introduce and give boys and girls small doses of translation tasks to make them familiar
with the differences in language structures and grammar, as well they will be able to acquire new
techniques in writing and expressing themselves. In addition, they can develop building vocabulary
where translation is the most effective method to help learners in this area of foreign language
acquisition.

5.2. Translations vs. Language Proficiency

We are all familiar with the four language skills that are listening speaking, reading and writing, but
Lado ( 1975) sees that translation can be counted as the fifth language skill. We as language teachers
cater very much for teaching the language skills as they appear in that order: listening, speaking, then
reading and writing. We have to listen to the language so as to speak, and then we read so as to write.
As a matter of fact these techniques are good to produce good language proficiency standard. Then
with time we will improve our abilities to fully understand the small details of the language. Some of
us would be in position to look like native speakers, but most of the learners will become foreign
language consumers rather than producers. They would use the language in academic achievements to
get their degrees, to have good paid jobs and make future career. They would buy the foreign books
and read them. They would watch the foreign films in their original language and they would
understand and enjoy them. They could be able to use the language in their travelling through the
world and enjoy their time using the foreign languages efficiently in real life situations. This is all well,
but here the language is used for only limited personal purposes. We as foreign language teachers will
be thanked for our efforts to enable learners use the language professionally to get knowledge directly
from its foreign sources with its all essence. These fluent language learners would enjoy their mastery
of the language, but what about the other people who do not know these foreign languages and who
have strong desire to learn and get knowledge from its original sources? From here we will begin to
see the importance of teaching translation at schools and degree levels.

5.3. Some Asian Models: Japan & Korea

Mastering a language does not provide good grounds for social and economic development in the
society. If this is true the African Francophone and Anglophone states would have made the same
progress as their old colonizers. But the Senegalese and the Moroccan although fluent French speakers,
they have not made much progress similar to their old colonizers in Paris. The case is also applicable to
the English nations in Africa such as the Ghanaian and Nigerian people who are fluent in English but
they have not made similar progress as their old colonizers in London. The case is as applicable to the
Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch colonies who speak the language but they have little share in the
development of modern human knowledge. But some nations did not take to learning the language
alone focused on the teaching and using those languages in translating and transferring knowledge
from those colonizing dominant cultures into their languages. The Chinese, the Koreans, the Japanese
and recently the Vietnamese are good examples of such people, where translation has produced
practical benefits to their societies in the transfer of technology and modern knowledge in almost every
field of life. These people gave practical evidences that man can learn very well through his own
mother tongue rather than he learns through foreign language, when used as means of instruction.
These Asian people are not that fluent in using English or French as it is the case in Africa, but they are
(fluent) in producing this highly advanced technology which we can see and use everywhere in the
world.
Now we can have this account of the position of translation in the Korean and Japanese
community as examples. The Korean nation is making a tremendous share in the modern history. The

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Korean technology is everywhere at our reach from the simple toy for our children to the most
sophisticated microchips in our highly effective and fast computers. The Korean as we should tell have
not been long exposed to long western colonizing powers as it was the case in Africa and somewhere
else. This made them conservative with their own Korean language whereas the African adopted the
English, French and Portuguese as lingua franca and gave them official status in government and
education. But how did this people (Korean and Japanese) come to contribute this hell of knowledge in
these modern times?
According to Eun-gyong (2010), historically, the English language education was first
introduced to Korea in 1883, when the Joseon government opened an English language school in order
to train interpreters. Since then, English has enjoyed the status as the most popular foreign language
during the greater part of its existence in what is today South Korea. And according to a report by the
Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI), Koreans spend about 15 trillion won ($15.8 billion) on
English learning per year (ibid). Koreans also topped the applicant list of the Test of English as a
Foreign Language (TOEFL) between 2004 and 2005 as about 102,340 out of the 554,942 applicants
were Koreans. They also paid 700 billion wons toward English examination fees. Enthusiasm for
English study has also seen a large number of children, teenagers and even adults going to English-
speaking countries like the United States, Australia and Britain to study. Last year some 250,000 under
29 years old went abroad for studying.
Choi (2010) says that, although it is generally thought that the status of interpreters in Korea
was relatively low, a recently-televised Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) documentary, “History
Special,” aimed at dispelling historical myths and misconceptions, shows that the opposite was true.
The July 8, 2000 program focused on interpreters during the Chosun Dynasty (1392-1910), pointing
out that the profession did not have a lowly status and that in fact members belonged to the middle
class and were often extremely wealthy.
So we can easily see in this statement the bright picture of those translators and interpreters.
They were highly steamed in their society as well as they were well off as they were belonging to the
middle class in society. Interpreters, according to Choi (2010), were not doing translation only, but
were often responsible for managing and directing the numerous diplomatic missions to China and
Japan. The positions were so coveted that fathers trained their sons and even grandsons to become
interpreters, by hiring foreign live-in tutors. But the ultimate goal was to send their sons to a foreign
language institution that specialized in training interpreters in one or more of the three major.
No doubt this good piece of information would make the entire community of translators feel
happiness and some satisfaction to see those people, not only doing the translation job but they were as
well high diplomatic representatives of their countries abroad. The translation and interpretation
professional like any other job can attract only good and fluent professional men and women. This
suiation was positive for translators in Korea; they were not paid a salary, per se, but were granted
royal authorization to conduct trade on their trips abroad.
The situation was different in Japan as Japanese intellectuals were especially interested in
foreign culture. Japan began to lay a foundation over a century ago, which ultimately resulted in its
becoming the world’s second-most important economic power. Choi: (2010) adds that, in contrast,
China and Korea, each for different reasons, were unwilling to accept Western culture, and that
decision delayed their development in this era of globalization. The reason for Korea’s lag behind
Japan in the quest for modernization was its inability to directly access Western science and
technology. There were no interpreters absolutely anyone who could understand Western languages.
This is to say, from the very beginning, Korea was disadvantaged compared to Japan and China.
Translation has played an extremely important role in Japan from the early modern period to
the present day. In a sense, translation represents the border at which different cultures meet, given that
translation is the place where an idea present in one culture makes its way into another culture at the
semantic level. Translation has also played an enormous role in the development of culture, especially

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literary culture; however, the cultural processes at work in translation still require additional study.
(See http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/research/team/honyaku_e.html)
These points have shed light on the role of translators and interpreters in the Asian community
by studying the Korean and the Japanese models. It is worth mentioning that education in all forms,
from the primary level up to university is carried out through the native languages of these people.
Although they have this tremendous eagerness to study foreign languages but translation still is the
most practical means for transferring and importing knowledge to the majority of knowledge
consumers in their own local languages.

5.4. Translations in Europe

According to Choi (2010) the status of any profession is determined by its place in a given society and
the extent to which the members of that profession can easily be replaced. For example, a society needs
janitors, and nobody will deny that they are indispensable. This can be applicable to the European
communities that have made translation crucial in the building of Europe. Translators are the key that
unlocks this tower of Babel. They contribute with modesty, courage and perseverance to the European
ideal. They prove their talent and their creativity in expressing Community concepts in all European
languages and disseminating the European message as widely as possible."
The first sentence: translators are the key that unlocks this tower of Babel, is clearly describing
the position of those people in the development, prosperity and democracy in their societies, where
they contribute with modesty, courage and perseverance to the European ideal. A huge proportion of
the budget of the European Union is spent on multilingualism, whereas the costs of translation and
interpretation in the EU institutions account for not less than 1% of the total annual budget of the
European Union (corresponding to approximately €2 per head of population). At the Commission, the
annual costs for translation are estimated at €300 million – which is equivalent to about €0.60 per head
of population per year and a modest price to pay for guaranteeing democracy and equal rights among
citizens. See more details at (ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/publications/.../translation_history_en.pdf)
As a translator you must have felt the happiness and satisfaction by reading this piece of
information; that moneywise translation profession is highly rewarding in Europe. The figures are of
great significance that translators are well rewarded and they are paid 1% of the EEC budget for
carrying out this job. But the most significant is that, that approximately every citizen in the European
Union pays at least more than half a euro to facilitate communication among the nations of the union
and at the same time maintain and defend his/her own language and culture.
Over the last fifty years, the number of official languages has increased gradually from four to
twenty-three. When a new Member State joins the European Union, the Treaties are translated into the
language of the country in question and this new language version is deemed “authentic” (that is to say,
it has legal force) in the same way as the four original versions. Thus, the founding Treaties of the
European Union now exist in 23 languages. (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/indexen.htm)
To conclude this we can see that the role of these people is undeniable through history. The
recent story of this influential intellectual force is a good evidence for the importance of this profession
in human development and in keeping the machine of culture and civilization go on, to achieve
happiness to mankind on earth. We can see that the history of translation at the European Commission
is first and foremost the story of men and women whose work helped to create the European Union.
Union between the peoples of Europe would have been unthinkable without translation to build
bridges. How, without translation, would nation states have reached agreement and how would
European citizens have played their part in realizing such an ambitious project? visit (
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/indexen.htm)

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5.5. Historical Perspective of Translation in the Arab World

This situation of translation in Europe is a good indicator that translation business in Europe is highly
valued among European races. We have good evidence from history that translation in the Islamic
renaissance during the Islamic empire made great share to civilization of mankind, by translating the
great works of the Greek, the Romans, the Chinese and Indian wisdom into Arabic, and from Arabic
those arts and scientific knowledge spread to Europe, to make a revolution that took Europe from the
middle ages to the age of enlightenment. Translators were highly esteemed and honoured for their
work in the great palaces of the Umayyads and Abbasids Caliphates. The Abbasid's House of Wisdom
(Bayt Alhikma - bookstore) in Baghdad was mainly built as an academy where hundreds of scientist
and translator work together to collect and translate the human wisdom into Arabic from many
languages including Farsi, Aramaic, Hindi, Syrian, Greek Latin and Hebrew into Arabic.
For more details visit (http://www.muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=667)
It is no secret that even the most dominant languages such as the Spanish, the English and the
French frequently take from each other and from other languages, as translation is one means for the
intermarriage between human cultures. It is through the translation and not the assimilation only to
speak and write other nations' languages, people can posses the tools of educational, economic, social
and political progress.
Translation can betray the degree of the taste of the reader who is targeted by that translation.
At the same time translation can tell us about the degree of the basic concerns of intelligentsia, on
which the society bets for its progress, its change and its development. Thus, if we want to measure the
degree of the progress of any people in the world; or if we want to see the growth of one specific
language or ideology somewhere, we have to assess how those people value the role of translators
among them, Zawi (2009). It is no secret that any language that does not lend or borrow from other
languages would soon be extinct. Translation is an exercise for any language to develop and
communicate novel ideas or ways of expressing, feelings and serving satisfactorily the needs of the
people. Languages need to inject their veins with new vocabulary and other linguistic features from
other languages. Even the primitive Hutu in the desert of Kalahari or the primitive tribe in the tropicals
in Asia can contribute in the development of human commutation.
Zawi (2009) believes that, people may be economically self sufficient but they will not be self-
contained in artistic and literary products. Even great economies like America, Britain, German,
France, Russia and Japan-with their huge human mental energies-exert great efforts to import and take
loans of knowledge from others. This is simply because every nation needs to discover other human
achievements what-so-ever development that nation has achieved. This kind of exploration in other
nation's achievements would save us from this backwardedness in the Arab world. So if the Arabs want
to surely enter history, they will have to reconsider the reality for the need of translation within their
communities.

5.6. The Way Out

If we want translation to play a vital role in future developments we have to engage ourselves in
national and regional projects. So, we have to make a rigid evaluation of the whole situation in the field
of language education in our schools and professional institutes. The assessment should include the
revision of the objectives of learning of the foreign languages in our schools, and the revision of the
teaching methods. We also need to revise the programmes and check the means of the follow-up, and
finally we have to set good criteria of evaluation of these programmes. We also need to establish an
accurate database for the translated materials from other languages as well as from Arabic into other
languages. This database will enable us to reflect the real image of ourselves and make the other people
see us as we want to be seen.
We need to know exactly the number of Arab professional translators because this influential
power is the machine with which we will be able to carry out the job professionally and make the

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change. We also need a reliable database about foreign translators. We have to encourage translators
and interpreters with satisfactory incentives to make the profession attractive and inviting for the future
generation. We have also to realize the crucial and critical role of the community of translators in the
progress of educational and socio-economic development of societies. They are to be frequently
rewarded, to encourage creative individuals in this field.
It is a good beginning that some progress is taking place in Saudi Arabia and United Arab
Emirates in addition to other official private and governmental initiatives. Foreign translators should
also be encouraged for their job, as they introduce our culture to others. We have to recognize the role
of the old frontiers of translators who enriched our culture with borrowed loans from other nations. We
have to feel grateful for those nations who lent us some of their human products in the fields of arts,
science, philosophy and wisdom. (Zawi: 2009).
The education of translation should begin with the young learners from the very start of their
education at the primary level up to the tertiary level of education. The impact of language teaching
through translation is of immediate result in both language proficiency and knowledge transfer.
Through translation classes and translation programmes learners can quickly acquire the vocabulary of
the language and realize the syntactic and grammatical structures of the source language. This
knowledge will enable them to compare the linguistic features of both the target and the source
language; and through translation also a physical contact can take place between the entire human
communities to exchange feelings and ideas.

6.0. Conclusion
Foreign language education is very important in this fast global economy where business, international
relation, effective diplomacy and efficient education are all vehicles for socio-economic development.
Therefore, if we have to establish positive communication, foreign language education should be our
aim to attain these goals. But language teaching and learning alone do not benefit our people if it is not
accompanied by translation projects and serious efforts for teaching and learning translating from
other languages. Translation is the fastest and the most secure vehicle for the transfer of human
feelings, wisdom and philosophy from people to people. Translation is the conveyor belt of human
knowledge from one generation to another. Through translations the language elements move as loans
(give & take) then these loans maintain languages to grow and survive. Both the sources and the target
languages benefit from translation from and into by the exchanging of new ideas and new ways of
expressions.

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[8] Siddiek, Ahmed Gumaa. (2010). "Evaluation of the Sudan School Certificate English
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