Understanding Skin Cancer for a Professional Arabic Translator/Interpreter - Essay Example

INTRODUCTION i) Overview With my past degree in English Language and Literature, my ongoing study in Arabic/English translation, and varied interests such as global warming, neurological syndromes such as synaesthesia or dyslexia, and networking system, choosing skin cancer as the theme for my project was not an easy task. Initially, I had already chosen to work on posttraumatic disorder, and I researched a lot using reliable websites and even started writing explanatory texts, but discontinued because of a lack of adequate technical terms in this subject for completing the project. Therefore, finally I chose skin cancer as my subject as I realized that finding the required number of terms would not be an issue due to the complex nature of Dermatology. My interest in skin cancer was because of the fact that one of my best friends in United Arab Emirates, where I live, had lost her mother as a result of skin cancer. This was a great shock to me. I realized that skin cancer not only affects light-haired and fair–skinned people, but also those of Asian origin. ii) Background Information In the former Government policy document in the UK, The Health of the Nation, skin cancer has been featured as one of the preventable cancers. Therefore, prevention should always be at the forefront of the fight to reduce skin cancer. In recent years, rapid increase of skin cancer has been linked with changes in social and individual behavior, for e.g., the fashion of sunbathing. Hence, educating people about the importance of protecting their skin from the overexposure to the strong sunlight has become a priority. The incidence of melanoma (the most dangerous type skin cancer) has increased more rapidly than that of any other malignancy in the United States over the past 4 decades. Once metastatis has occurred, no current treatments substantially enhance patient survival. iii) Text Objective This project is aimed to help a professional Arabic translator/interpreter who has no technical knowledge of the subject matter to attain a general knowledge and reasonable understanding of the definition of the skin and its layers, the definition of skin cancer and its types, symptoms, diagnosis, risk factors, and finally its treatment. It would also help them to understand some of the most frequently used key and general terms and their equivalence in Arabic to provide useful and reliable sources in order to give her/him the knowledge and the confidence to translate texts, or interpret in conference on the skin cancer and/or its treatment. iv) Criteria for Term Selection In order to familiarize myself with the subject, I had to do a lot of research and consult some experts in Manchester for e.g., Christies Hospital in South Manchester (an Oncology Hospital), as well as some cancer organizations, such as the Cancer Research Organization in the UK, though I had some background information about skin cancer. First, I referred booklets received from different medical organizations. The information about skin cancer was obtained by e-mail. I have referred some specialized web-sites on skin cancer, including those of Government organizations, textbooks, medical journals which later enabled me to understand more detailed information about skin cancer. Later on, I started with the glossary, where I have chosen the terms and have found their equivalents in Arabic using the two most important English/Arabic dictionaries Hitt’s New Medical Dictionary and Marashi’s Grand Medical Dictionary. I was never satisfied only with one of them. I made sure to look up each term in both the dictionaries. I have also used an on-line dictionary. These provided me with translation of the majority of single terms, such as melanoma, asymmetrymelanin, dermatoscope, sarcoma, freckle, etc. However, I had to depend on other Arabic textbooks and the help of some experts to translate compound terms such as, topical chemotherapy, , superficial spreading carcinoma, staging process, primary cutaneous lymphoma, compound tissue, waxy lump punch biopsy, shave biopsy, eletrocautery, laser therapy, melanocyte cells, lymph vessels, rodent ulcers, secondary cancers etc., When collecting the terms I tried to incorporate as many abbreviations and expansions for the terms such as Acral Lentiginous Melanoma, (ALM), Superficial Spreading Melanoma (SSM). Nodular Melanoma (NM), and Lentigo Malignant Melanoma (LMM). I included synonyms in the explanatory texts as I thought it would be useful for the translator/interpreter to be aware of the different forms of the terms, such as, Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC), Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC), Merkel Cell Carcinoma or Neuroendocrine cancer, radiation therapy or Brachytherapy. Both forms of the terms were used interchangeably in the majority of the resources which has been examined. On other occasions, I have included some of the Synonyms, Antonym in the term base, but not in the explanatory text as they as they are not commonly used. The Webster’s Online Dictionary was very useful in this regard. Moreover, I have used general terms, such as skin, mole, epidermis and sebum for the sake of completion of the glossary as they are considered to be the most important key terms in the subject, while others because they were easy for the translator to understand in English but difficult to translate into Arabic such as overexposure, first-degree relative etc. v) Term Formation Although a large number of terms were compound terms consisting of two words or more, some of them consist of entirely of medical jargons such as, epidermodysplasia verruciformis while others were made of both the medical and common language such as cutaneous melanoma and cutaneous malignancy. The compound terms in the glossary can be generally described as analytical such as, staging process, compounding such as, cumulative sun exposure (adjective+noun+noun), 5-Fluorouracil (numerals + noun). Some terms have been used in British Spelling rather than in American spelling such as tumor and not tumor, and color and not color. I have clarified the two forms of spellings in the term base, but have used the British ones. There are some different aspects of compression processes: Blending such as Radiotherapy, Acronyms, such as Laser. There are also some terms which are present in the general language which have taken on a general meaning, such as lesion (damage to the skin or part of the skin caused by injury or illness) (Oxford, 2003) which defines a spot or a lump in the field of Dermatology (i.e., a skin cancer is sometimes referred to as skin lesion). vi) Reliability of Sources Finding a reliable source was not a problem for me. As explained before, I started my research work seeking information and advice from all the cancer organizations using internet facilities. I also asked them for additional information about sources including booklets, reliable websites, contact information of specialists who could be of help to me with my project and answer any questions that might arise. Therefore, I was suggested with a number of web-sites on the internet for official information services and charity organizations which are accredited by the National Health Service (NHS). Other web-sites which are updated regularly and that been recommended to me are Cancer Research UKhttp://www.cancerhelp.org.uk and Cancer Backup http://www.cancerbackup.org.uk. I also found that these web-sites are recognized by the NHS. As I grew in confidence and started understanding the subject, I looked into specialized web-sites meant for professionals or for both professionals and the public such as emedicine http://www.emedicine.co, pubmed http://www.pubmed.gov., which was to be of great help to me in finding relevant journals and books. Online libraries and glossaries were very helpful especially when completing my term base. As a final procedure, I consulted Dr. J. T. Alle, Professor in the University of Salford who has checked the reliability of websites and the information that I had written in my explanatory texts. I relied on various informative books while writing explanatory text and finding definitions and examples for the 120 terms for the term base. Some of them included short, but interesting glossaries which were very useful. The Cancer Dictionary (1992), which I found in Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation, was great source pf information. While I was in vacation in Abu Dhabi, I consulted the dermatologists to ensure whether the terms which I used were right. vii) Problems Encountered As I mentioned earlier, finding the number of adequate terms was not a problem at all. However, I encountered a number of problems and challenges which was time consuming and required a lot of effort and patience to complete this project. The first difficulty I faced was finding text books on skin cancer, although there were numerous books on other types of cancers, for e.g., breast cancer. I was surprised to see only four books on skin cancer when I searched the library catalogue. I checked the library shelves myself and asked the library staff for help as well. They were as surprised as me to find very few books on skin cancer. Just reading did not help me much in the beginning as I found it difficult to grasp the subject matter. This could be because of the highly complex and difficult technical terms of Dermatology. It therefore took me six hours to read one page and a quarter of one of the simplest books. This prompted me to search the internet for cancer organizations and ask for booklets and advice concerning reliable resources for my subject. Only few responded to my e-mails. At this stage, I relied on booklets and online websites meant for general public, until I was confident enough to move on to more specialized contexts. Medical Journals, online libraries, websites for professionals were useful later in order to collect the terms and look deeper in my subject. The large number of synonyms and abbreviations confused me at the later stage. These sources did not help me clarify the terms and they remained ambiguous till I went to Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation. It was here that I found helpful books on skin cancer with very useful glossaries. A large number of books on Dermatology had a section on skin cancer. Specialized dictionaries on cancer and Dermatology helped a lot to sort out this problem too. Finding English/Arabic dictionaries was not a problem for me; however, my biggest problem was to find books in Arabic. As expected, there were no books on Arabic in Manchester. I therefore tried to find other sources in Arabic. Not much information was available online on skin cancer in Arabic, except for a couple of articles about the ways to protect skin against skin cancer. Therefore, I hoped to find some good books in Abu Dhabi,. as books on skin cancer were not common and easily available. However, I found some books on related subjects such as cancer, radiation, dermatology, which were very helpful, especially for overcoming the problem of finding equivalents for the compound terms in my glossary. But, the books were still not enough to help me find adequate number of terms for which I could not find a translation. The only choice I was left with was to find an expert who might be of some help to me. Knowing none, I had to search for catalogues with the names of the doctors in the UAE. The Cultural Foundation helped me get some names and contact information of specialists in skin cancer. The actual difficulty arose here as it was difficult for me to get substantial help. The specialists were too busy to answer my e-mails. Calling them and meeting them personally did not help me either, as they studied the terms in English and it was hard for them to find the equivalents in Arabic. Talking to the specialist, I learnt that lack of books, online resources, and specialists of skin cancer was because the incidence of skin cancer in the Arabic countries was low due to the color of the skin and was not much influenced by sunbathing, and tanning as in people of European countries. This information motivated me to pursue the terminological study as I thought that it could benefit and be time-saving to translators/interpreters working in this field. Finally, I got the terms and their equivalents checked by two specialists. But, referring a number of books and consulting experts, I realized that and agreement could not be reached on fixed translation for terms in this field. Despite all these problems and challenges, I completed the project which enhanced my researching skills and ability to gather the required information using number of sources. I grew in confidence and I believed in myself of being able to handle research on any subject in future. Read More