BrazilianInterpreter

Acho que nos Jogos Olímpicos vai tudo correr bem porque o governo estadual e o federal colocarão todos os esforços e recursos necessários para que dê certo. O problema maior virá depois dos Jogos porque a partir daí é que a população vai sentir o abandono das autoridades. Muitas notícias são exageradas, como declarações de pessoas dizendo que os turistas estarão em perigo. Imagino que não estarão em perigo pelos motivos citados acima, as autoridades estarão fazendo o melhor trabalho possível durante os jogos. Mas a cidade e o estado estão de fato passando por sérios problemas de crise financeira.

[translating the question for non Portuguese speakers] How do you think the Olympic games will turn out? The news about what is going on there has a lot of media attention, how much of it is an exaggeration and how much of it is the truth?

I think that during the Olympic Games everything will turn out okay because the state and federal governments will use all required resources and make all required efforts for it to work out fine. The biggest problem will be after the Games because after that, the population will feel the abandonment of the authorities. A lot of what is in the news is an exaggeration, such as statements by people saying that the tourists will be in danger. I think that for the reasons mentioned above, the authorities will be doing the best they can during the Games. But the city and the state are indeed going through a serious crisis with serious financial problems.

I think it is going to be very negative because the only attention and improvements that have been made so far in the city have been for the events (World Cup and Olympics). These improvements have been superficial, they will not solve the transportation problems that the city has for example, they are only changing it so that is doable during the Games. The Guanabara Bay pollution problem wasn't fixed. There was a BTR line that was supposed to serve the population in Ilha do Governador, the neighborhood beyond the international airport, but they finished the line at the airport, so the people who live in that neighborhood won't really have access to that. A lot of things lie that are going on, State Universities and Hospitals are abandoned. The government doesn't pay civil servants. They have been doing enough to have a successful event, but after that I am pretty sure the situation will worsen.

I have actually been to town hall meetings at the US Consulate and the crime statistics did not increase significantly during the World Cup, they seemed pretty confident that the same numbers will be expected during the Olympic Games. However, in my opinion, the situation is quite different now. We didn't have such a political crisis with a president about to be impeached, and the financial crisis hadn't hit the country yet because those were election times and they were holding it back as well as possible. But now, I would say, people are in much more disbelief than back then. I think that there may be more crime than in the World Cup, also the terrorist threat is worse during Olympic Games than the World Cup.

That would depend on the field. If you are translating marketing material you have to change it in order to reach the target audience. When you translate rhymed poetry, you need to keep the general feel of the poetry, but keep the metrics and rhymes. However, in fields such as legal, you have to be very careful. You need to try to stick to the original as much as possible. But there are instances where you will say things differently for the sake of good communication. For example, once I was interpreting in Court and the lawyer asked the Brazilian witness whether he had done something,he responded "absolutamente", which if you translate literally means "absolutely". But in Portuguese it has the connotation of "absolutely not". I knew he had meant to say a negative answer, but in order to be safe, I asked him whether he meant no and he confirmed that. Had I translated it literally, I would have made a man confess something he hadn't done.

I prefer interpreting because it brings you immediate satisfaction because you see the results immediately, with translations most of the time you don't get to see the final product.