Spanish History Translation - Rosa Baranda

could you tell us a little bit about um who you are where you're from and what you do for w okay so my name is Randa uh I'm his Spanish I'm from the north part of Spain and I'm the Spanish editor of the encyclopedia nice and when you say that you're the Spanish editor what does that mean what do you do okay so mainly I do translations from English into Spanish but then I also review the translations that the volunteer translators do and then just publish them on a schedule every week right okay and you say on a schedule what kind of schedule is that what what are you looking at uh so at the moment we're publishing at least one article per day okay uh I do try if there's like lots of translations at the same time to publish more than one CU on the one hand obviously the readers are always happy to have more and then the translat s are also happy to like see that the work is reviewed it's not just waiting there for weeks and weeks before it gets published yeah that makes sense yeah oh yeah so you make sure that there's essentially a steady stream of translations coming out yeah yeah I think it makes both ends of the work copy you know yeah like from my experience as just a translator it's always nice to know that you know there's somebody there that's actually taking care of it not just sending to the E and who knows what's happening so for sure for sure so did you you started out as a translator for us yeah I started in 2020 I'm not sure exactly when I think was around like May June okay because I was looking for some other kind of volunteer work I had been working for the different uh websites but I wasn't too happy with the process precisely because they didn't really take care of the translators okay so I I looked into something else and then I found the encyclopedia and I like I really like history I'm not a historian but I find it very interesting and I thought what this is perfect opportunity and I think it's just build up from there nice nice okay and um how did you come to say oh I want to translate um I don't know like I've always liked translations ever since I was little because like I'm from the Bas country in Spain so obviously we study Basque since we're like six years old I think oh wow okay and you speak Bas as well a little I understand better than I speak it but yeah and we study English as well since like a young age so like there's always been this like a few languages around and I find them like so fascinating like how you say things in one way or another and how you know because use words to think so like the way you divide reality like you organize things in your head in one language or another I find it so interesting so that was always you know a passion of mine and then yeah I went to University they they didn't want me in the translation study so so I ended up doing English but yeah I loved it and then yeah and then afterwards later on I did a masters in Translation because I thought it was important to like get a better idea of how to do proper translations and what the tools are and what the techniques are and things like that so I see okay yeah and so if uh somebody wants to volunteer for us to translate into Spanish or any other language I presume um do they need to be translators professionals or could anybody do it how do you feel about um I mean I'm happy to welcome anyone as long as they realize that you know knowing two languages is not the same as being a translator like I know a lot of people that have noted translation at all are not professionals but are good translators M the other way around as well somehow so yeah I think everybody's welcome as long as they pay attention to what they're writing and making sure that what the original says and what the translation says you know if not exactly equivalent at least have the same meaning yes yes of course when you translate you find that sometimes you need to adapt the text a little bit to make it more understandable for for span Spanish readers yeah yeah I think especially in the case with English and Spanish I think it's funny because they are very similar languages when it comes to grammar okay but there are important differences and when you're translating especially if you're going a bit like automatic it can sound very much like a translated text okay because like there's things that technically are right in Spanish but they don't sound natural at allh uh so I think those things you need to pay attention to uh so like sometimes we need to change things yeah and then names of like battles and places and people and things like that I yeah it's important because some of them as well like very different it's like few years ago I was translating a text about the I forgot the name in English the malvinas islands oh yes in like of the coast of Argentina and that's like f Islands right F yeah two completely separate sets of H names for everything oh wow okay yeah that Mak sense things like that you know sometimes they sneak up on you in history this is this and it's like oh no we don't go it like that apparently that makes sense of course yeah are you looking for more translators at the moment if people want to translate is is that a good time to come in and start translating for wh or I think it is we have a few translators at the moment but not a lot of people is Super Active all the time okay so we do get quite a few translations regularly but I think it'd be nice to have more people because you know more translations more work more published for everything for everyone so yeah definitely oh great yeah and you said that you've always been also interested in history um what what is it about history that you find so fascinating I just find it interesting to know where we come from in general and like a lot of things that I've been learning like the last few years with translating for the encyclopedia is to realize that you know we have evolved and we've got a lot more technology and obviously societies have evolved but the basis of it all we still the same that's true it's it's not there's changes but like the essence I think we still the same people now than we were like 5,000 years ago and and I find that mindboggling yeah I agree it's like the people in ancient Sumer they they they had the same problems as us and they were just as clever they just had less technology right yeah exactly yeah it's easy to forget that I find yeah and uh why do you think history is important for our world today because all around the world you know history and Humanities social studies budgets are getting cut in schools and why do you think it matters well precisely because it helps you understands the world of and how things work how governments work I mean I don't know much about politics but if you know how people have been I don't know like manipulated in the past how you know one Governor or one presents things one way when maybe they're not that way and it just helps you make sense of of what you see around you nowadays I mean it's always difficult and with the internet and all the fake news and everything that goes on nowadays I think it's very difficult to understand things well yeah and and another thing as well is that throughout history like what I see coming from like a you know working background is that the people on top we're always trying to manipulate the rest of us again or no the problems are them immigrants or the problems are this or the things like no it's the rich people he always the rich people and I think history helps you see that like through history there's always this tendency to like divide the population so we don't raise up it's true yeah of course that's a I mean you can see it everywhere the world right okay that makes sense and um do you feel like history might be studied from your experience of course uh uh studied and or viewed maybe differently in the Spanish speaking world to the English speaking world are there any differences in how maybe it's interpreted or how it's valued I think in Spain nowadays like I canot really speak for Latin America well in Spain nowadays like you know the Civil War which almost 100 years ago but then the dictatorship was on for 40 years and obviously I was born after that but I think like there's a still in society like obviously my parent generation they grew up in the dictatorship so it's not it's not something you're going to forget from one day to the next e see and and I think the Spanish Society even if we don't want to acknowledge it we're still very divided okay between like you know the left and right generally speaking right yeah so I think that yeah that affects how you study history and how you understand it and obviously Eng speaking World they it's going to have a different view on things to finish would you have a message for our readers maybe our um you know audience our viewers uh about history about world history and sexia life anything ready I think yeah just just read more of our articles and and tell your friends about it because I think it's very important especially like you say nowadays to even if it doesn't seem absolutely relevant for like your day-to-day life I think it's easier to give you a background to understand what's happening so keep on bading thank you perfect