TRAINING IN TUNISIA TODAY : MARKET CHALLENGES AND AVAILABLE OPPORTUNITIES

The heavy Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Tunisia which is in progress now will have its impact on the translation industry in the forthcoming years. But while most Tunisian translation teachers and professional translators agree on the urgent need to bridge the gap between the translation classroom and the real world of the translation market (the Academic and Professional Gap (APG)), academic traditions are inhibiting a clear critical focus on this APG. Teachers are still educating students in general skills and academic institutions do not try to frame appropriate strategies to train them to work in specific jobs. Therefore, such traditions are less likely to allow students to be able to succeed when they join this market, and to expect sound career development as they upgrade their skills. Translatorship is after all granted by the market and not by any academic institution. In the face of these challenges, this paper will draw attention to some of the available opportunities which are deemed of paramount importance in any attempt to achieve more professionally-oriented translation training. These opportunities will lead to some concrete and practical suggestions on how to aptly use corpora in the translation classroom, on the one hand, and how to profit from the translation experience inside the United Nations system, on the other. SZKOLENIE TŁUMACZY W TUNEZJI: WYZWANIA I MO śLIWO ŚCI OBECNE NA RYNKU USŁUG TŁUMACZENIOWYCH Abstrakt: DuŜa liczba inwestycji zagranicznych w Tunezji w znaczący sposób wpłynie w najbliŜszych latach na rynek usług tłumaczeniowych w tym kraju. JednakŜe, mimo Ŝe większość nauczycieli przekładu oraz zawodowych tłumaczy widzi palącą potrzebę dostosowania zajęć z tłumaczenia do potrzeb rynku, tradycyjne metody akademickie w zakresie nauczania przekładu w wyraźny sposób hamują proces reform w tym zakresie. Brak specjalizacji daje adeptom przekładu niewielkie szanse na odniesienie sukcesu w pracy zawodowej. Niniejszy artykuł stawia sobie za cel zwrócenie uwagi na moŜliwości zmiany metod szkolenia tłumaczy by adepci przekładu mieli moŜliwość zdobycia kompetencji, które pozwolą im na profesjonalne wykonywanie zawodu. Sugestie autora dotyczą między innymi wykorzystania korpusów w nauczaniu przekładu oraz korzystania z doświadczeń tłumaczeniowych zdobytych w ramach ONZ.


Introduction
With the heavy Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in Tunisia which are in progress now, it is expected that even the low end of the language services industry will start to wake up to the multiplicity of forms of contact between people from different linguistic backgrounds.Translation and interpretation services will be in very strong demand, which will have a direct impact on the nature of the translation profession and the characteristics of the would-be translators.Prospective translators will face enormous challenges due to this forthcoming change.In fact, the translation profession is always in perpetual change and is adapting itself to the requirements of the market.Shifting from an ink-based craft to a technology-based industry, translation has become a fullyfledged market in dynamic interaction with other sectors in the world of business.
These new investments, however, will not only lead to an enormous growth of demand for translators and interpreters but also to more strict norms in recruiting language services providers, including translators of course.Only qualified translators and interpreters with skills in information and communication technologies ICTs will be able to compete internationally and secure a job, especially with the globalization of these services.Therefore, it is of paramount importance at this critical stage of the translation market to assess the translation classroom in order to bring the necessary changes, especially since the gap between the translation classroom and the real world of the translation market (the Academic and Professional Gap (APG)) is increasingly widening and the situation will get worse unless action is taken now.
But while most Tunisian translation teachers and professional translators agree on the urgent need to bridge the APG, academic traditions are inhibiting a clear critical focus on this gap .Teachers are still educating students in general skills and academic institutions are not trying to frame appropriate strategies to train them to work in specific jobs.Therefore, such traditions are less likely to enable students to succeed in joining the market, and upgrade their skills in order to make progress in their career.Translatorship as a certificate is after all granted by the market and not by any academic institution.
In order to ensure that their graduates are competitive in the local and international professional marketplace, Tunisian universities and translation teachers have to play an active role not only in introducing emerging technologies, but also in ensuring that appropriate training is integrated in the translation curriculum.It is generally agreed that a translation student now needs more training and less education.It is a process that is often long and complex and requires the full involvement of teachers, academic institutions and students themselves.
In fact, the above represent the basic critical challenges that the translation industry faces and will have to face in the near future.At the other end of the picture, there exist some available opportunities which are deemed to be vitally important in any attempt to face some of the challenges that still haunt the translation classroom.This study is therefore fully justified in that it seeks to provide solid predictions on the challenges that the business world will pose for the would-be translators by building on some of the statistics available on the size of the investments which are now being implemented in Tunisia.The second aim of this study is to briefly outline the experience of Arabic translation at the United Nations as an opportunity available for academic institutions.The analysis of these opportunities will lead to some concrete and practical suggestions on how to aptly profit from the translation experience inside the United Nations system, on the one hand, and how to use corpora in the translation classroom, on the other.

The tight link between the business sector and the translation industry
Before I go into more detail about the challenges that the market is going to pose for the profession, I think it is useful to focus on the tight link between the translation industry and other business sectors.In fact, the translation-business relation is two-fold.First, the development of new businesses influences an ever-changing reality of the translation profession, which requires almost constant updating.Not only does translation flourish as an industry in periods of economic boom, but also needs to meet the requirements imposed by the business market, mainly in terms of terminology and use of ICTs.Second, because translation has become a fully-fledged market, it has developed its own rules and requirements which are, in most cases, consistent with the general rules and requirements of the wider business market.As globalization takes hold, the size and cost of language handling have made translation more visible as a market which could bring good financial revenue and create a huge market opportunity for providers of products and services in this area.The size and scope of growth for this market are very large in many developed countries and soon it will be the same in Tunisia.
The services of interpreters and translators are required in a number of subject areas.Noteworthy among these is the business sector.When researching for this paper, I came across "What does it take to work in the translation profession in Canada in the 21st century?Exploring a database of job advertisements" in Meta journal, Vol.49(1) 2004.Lynne Bowker analyzed 301 job advertisements for a variety of translationrelated positions across Canada.In this study, she found that 105 positions, that is about 35 per cent, are required in the business sector, including administration and marketing.The finance area, subsuming insurance, banking and economics, is ranked second with 88 positions required, that is about 29 per cent.

Translation needs big business to be a big business: Towards a brighter future with the new DFIs in Tunisia
In spite of the latest global economic downturn, it is expected that Tunisia's economy will see a boom over the forthcoming years thanks to the sharp increase in the size of projects which are currently being implemented .

General Statistics
According Also, reports of the Ministry indicated that in 2007 European investors were the major providers of foreign direct investments in Tunisia, with some 1.4 billion Tunisian dinars (about one billion US dollar) from the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy.Gulf investors, however, will be the first investors in Tunisia as from 2008.Apart from the huge amounts of investments, such a scene will provide favorable prospects for the translation industry as more native speakers of English, French, German, Italian and Arabic will visit Tunisia not only as tourists but also as businessmen, diplomats and high-ranking representatives who will definitely need translators and interpreters.

The Mediterranean Gateway project: The dawn of a thriving translation Industry in Tunisia
Also, according to the Ministry of Development and International Cooperation, Dubai Holding, which is a holding company that belongs to the Government of Dubai, is investing about 35 billion Tunisian dinars (about 25 US dollar) in the building of a mega-project called the Mediterranean Gateway, over a 830 hectare area south of the Tunis lake.It is estimated that that project alone, will generate 0.5% of additional economic growth until 2014.It is also anticipated to generate a plethora of employment opportunities, including direct and indirect jobs during the construction phase and over 350,000 when completed.It is estimated that Language-related job vacancies will abound over the forthcoming years.The project is also expected to attract 100,000 visitors, both locals and foreigners, every day, leading to further job opportunities for interpreters and language services providers and growth in the translation market.
Farhan Faraidooni, Executive Chairman of Sama Dubai, a member of Dubai Holding, said: "Sama Dubai will endeavour to utilize locally available competencies and resources to the maximum extent possible.We are currently seeking talented individuals who will not only contribute to the overall progress of the development, but individually benefit in terms of furthering their own career paths." Therefore, priority, according to him, will be given to local talented professionals.It is quite logical that translators and interpreters will be on top of the list of the individuals they are seeking since they are key agents in achieving such a progress.But the question, and in effect the challenge, is whether there are enough talented professional language service providers in Tunisia.
This mega-project aims to develop new areas of specialty in the job market and create opportunities for professional training and knowledge transfer by attracting new service sectors to Tunisia.It is true that this will facilitate the arrival of new kinds of companies, services and products to Tunisia, which will create further translation jobs and offer new horizons for the growth of the translation industry, but the question again is whether available, and especially would-be, translators can meet the requirement of specialization in certain very technical and modern fields, such as the IT field.A whole technological city dubbed the 'Digital City' will be constructed to support new media, creative and information-based businesses.Likewise, a 'Technology Quarter' is going to be built to serve as a business park with built-in incentives to attract global leaders in the technology arena.
The Mediterranean Gateway project is not the only mega-project being implemented .Other mega-projects include the 5.8 billion Tunisian dinars (about 4.1 US dollar) Abou Khater "Sports City" project in the northern Tunis lake area and the 11.7 billion Tunisian dinars (about 8.33 US dollar) Al Maabar's "Bled El Ward" tourist and residential complex in Ariana.Therefore, it is expected that all of these mega-projects, mainly the Mediterranean Gateway, will represent the dawn of a thriving translation market in Tunisia.

Implications of these data on the translation industry: towards a transition period
As we have seen above, translation is expected to become an economic activity with growing importance as a factor contributing to increased revenue and employment in Tunisia.But unfortunately both the profession and the classroom of translation are still not given their worthy status.In fact they have a long but not respected history in Tunisia.Therefore, it is highly recommended at this particular stage that all concerned parties should work to refute this historical view of denigration to translation as a profession and a subject of study and to translators as a staff.
If we take the above data into account and try to draw a picture of how the translation industry would look like in the near future, we can identify a number of factors and signs which indicate that this industry is now going through a transition period: Non-traditional languages in the world of business such as English, German, Spanish and Italian coming into more contact with the two traditional languages, i.e.Arabic and French, which will lead to the diversification of the global linguistic scene in the business sector.Introduction of new and more complex products, basically IT products, leading to increased quantities of documentation More open trade with European countries, internationalization of some local businesses, globalization of services and the accompanying requirement will require large amounts of documents to be translated in multiple languages.Increased travel to Tunisia, not only in the form of tourism, but also in the form of business trips, diplomatic visits and conferences, which will bear fruit for the interpretation market.Creation of new types of products and the expansion of new technologies, applications and processes, which will particularly affect terminological practices, databases construction and dictionary compilation.Need to constantly update web and electronic documents which will require intense recourse for language service providers, mainly translators.With the increasing implementation of some programs such as clinical trial programs in Tunisia, there will be a need to translate and adapt instruments for use in either Standard Arabic or Tunisian Arabic through what is called the linguistic validation exercise.
Though these are good signs and factors for the future of the translation industry, they represent, at the same time, serious challenges not only to the would-be translators but also to translation teachers and academic institutions.

The Academic and Professional Gap (APG)
Translation training programmes exist in Tunisia not in the form of independent institutions, but in the form of university colleges and institutes (eg. the Higher Institute of Languages of Tunis) or as courses incorporated within English departments of universities (as in the case of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Manouba and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Sousse; English Departments).Soon an independent postgraduate translation training school will be established by the National Translation Centre, which will offer diplomas in applied translation and specialized courses in various fields of translation.Though the translation programme at the Higher Institute of Languages of Tunis (DNT) appears to be the most advanced in terms of the specialized courses provided, all of the translation courses offered in Tunisian universities lack a clear focus on the future needs of the translation market and no professional approach is being applied.
Much emphasis is put on literary translation which is the least type of translation required by the market.The majority of students still have major and inherent problems in the translating process.They cannot grasp the fact that translating involves more than just replacing a word or a phrase with its equivalent in another language.They are still unable to deal with sentences, ideas and perhaps the author's intentions so as to reflect the same coherence found in the source text to come up with a target text that reads as if it originated in the target language.Though teachers always advice students not to make words their ultimate worry, they face major problems in applying this in reality.Market demands and requirements must necessarily find their way into the translation classroom, otherwise the serious APG will continue to generate "disabled" translators.

Translation students and Technology
Translation students use little or no technology in their training.Bowker (2004) found that 60.5% of the job advertisements require some computer literacy.Employers who advertise for translation-related positions in Canada seem to be relatively in tune with the skill set required to work as a translator in the 21st century.Computer skills -both general and specialized -are now considered to be an integral part of the profile of the 21st century translator.Tunisian universities, however, are still undermining the importance of computers and the internet in the translation classroom.Access to the Internet and other technological tools is available in many other fields in Tunisia but not in classroom.
In fact, technology should not be taken as an obstacle or a challenge but rather as an opportunity available for translators and especially for translation students.Today, nearly all translation work is done on a computer, and most assignments are received and submitted electronically.This enables translators to work from almost anywhere, and a big proportion of the translation assignments are carried out at home.The Internet provides advanced research capabilities, valuable language resources and access to reliable corpora, specialized dictionaries and glossaries.In some cases, memory tools, which provide comparisons of past translations with current work, help save time and reduce repetition.Therefore if we really want to meet the market needs, ICTs must occupy the right place in translator training (Archer, 2002).

Other challenges
In addition to the APG and the technological illiteracy of translation students, there do exist some other challenges.The future translation market in Tunisia will keep pace with translation markets in the West, especially with regard to the requirements it will impose on future translators.Higher qualifications and much more experience will be required.In her survey, Bowker (2004) found that 60.5 per cent of the job advertisements required translators with at least a 4-year degree.The main challenge here in Tunisia is that almost all translation programmes lead to a 3-year diploma.However, it is unfortunate indeed that the only 4-year translation diploma at the Higher Institute of Languages of Tunis is closing this year.
The sharp demand for specialized translators will be another Burdon to be added to the list.In fact the texts included in translation courses are not most of the time sample texts from the translation market, but instead they are either literary or of a general nature.This problem is aggravated by the fact that the uses of technical terms are barely unified across the Arab World.Which terms students should acquire and use will pose a big problem.Therefore, to resort to the experience of Arabic translation at UN Divisions is fully justified as technical terms are strictly unified and standardized there.
The teleworking mode is also another challenge.When joining the translation market, graduate students will face a harsh international competition from non-local translators since the translation market is now open and accessible to each translator from any corner in the world thanks to the web and, more particularly, to the teleworking mode.Therefore, students' skills and competences have to be up to the international standards.In fact, the world of business has gone beyond geopolitical boundaries and so has the translation industry.Any future translator would be required to compete for his market share internationally.This is not an option, but a means for survival.
In fact teleworking can be a challenge and an advantage at the same time for the would-be translators, so it is high time now we seriously worked to make it an advantage and allow them to access remote translation markets.They need tools and strategies now and they will upgrade their own competences to keep pace with the changing rules of the game.When they discover that it is a necessity and a matter of survival, they will be able to invent.Necessity is the mother of invention.But inventing involves building on previous experiences and profiting from available opportunities.

Available opportunities
In the face of these very serious challenges that lie ahead, both academic institutions and translation teachers are called upon to seriously think of ways of mitigating their impacts on students.Among the very efficient ways is the one proposed below.

The way to The school of the United Nations: a good example to follow
Let us have an idea about the mission of the United Nations to understand the role translators play over there.The United Nations aims to maintain international peace and security; to develop friendly relations among nations; to achieve international cooperation in solving economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian problems and in promoting respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; and to be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in attaining these common ends.Because translation plays a pivotal role in achieving these very noble goals, much emphasis has been put on the work of translators inside the United Nations' system.Translators are ranked as professional and specialized staff, and not mere secretarial or ordinary workers.
Therefore, it is very wise to share the translation experience of this universal international organization and try to learn from the high degree of professionalism of its translators and interpreters.In fact, it stands for a very representative sample of a true marketplace.So what are the characteristics of the translation work there?

Characteristics of the translation work at the United Nations
The characteristics of the translation work at the UN include, basically, the following five aspects: Multilingualism Multilingualism is one of the foundations of the United Nations.Documents are produced in the six official languages, which are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.These languages play an important political and practical role in the functioning of the Organization and in achieving the aforementioned goals.The UN uses and operates in these languages in its intergovernmental meetings and documents.The UN Secretariat, however, uses two working languages, English and French.Statements made in an official language at a formal meeting are interpreted simultaneously into the other six official languages of the body concerned by UN interpreters.It is important to learn from the contact of these languages inside this organization as some of these languages will come into contact with the traditional languages used in business and administration arenas in Tunisia, namely Arabic and French.However, despite the long history of translation and multilingual practice at the UN, only very few academic institutions keep ties with this international Organization with a view to sharing its experience.
Governed by a set of Norms According to Toury (1995), translation, generally speaking, is a norm-governed behavior and activity.Over a history of about 60 years now, the translation experience at the United Nations brought about a set of strict translation norms, which led to standardized uses of technical terms and a special style of writing.At the same time, UN translations also share many things with other types of translations and can offer valuable lessons to non-UN translators, translation students and translation teachers.
Well organized Translation at the UN is well organized.The Organization has equipped whole divisions and departments with qualified translators, reviewers, revisers and division chiefs.Similarly, a very developed translation procedure is being adopted.It ranges from determining what documents to translate, the actual translation work, the reviewing and revision phases to the final publication.

Developed and up to date style of writing
The UN has developed its own style of writing that is different from any other style as it sprang from the nature of the texts translated there and from the need to be able to effectively report new and unprecedented incidents, phenomena and inventions.It established the format for each category of documents.Over its history of over 60 years, the style has been generally followed.Specialized The documents translated by UN translators are in most cases of a specialized nature.Increasing specialization and in-depth consideration of technical questions means that new technical terms are constantly being formed and inserted into special databases, glossaries and translation memories.In addition, terminology lists in all languages are kept up to date.

Major historical events
Dadawi (2005) states that UNESCO was the first international organization to introduce the Arabic language in 1968 as a working language.So it was the first UN agency to establish a whole Division for Arabic translation.In 1973, Arabic became the sixth official language of the UN following a Resolution which was adopted there.Some linguists regarded this Resolution as a victory for Arabic native speakers and particularly for Arabic translators, and historians equated the event with the Arabic revolution led by Mohamed Ali of Egypt.In 1982, Arabic marked its presence as a one of the languages used at the Security Council and the UN Economic and Social Council and their ad hoc bodies.(political, social, legal, economic, financial, administrative, scientific and technical) Familiarity with computer software used in the United Nations Facility in using United Nations terminology databases and wordprocessing programs.

UN Corpora in the translation classroom
Given its history of about 36 years now, the experience of Arabic translation at the UN has generated a wealth of translated texts into Arabic in all of the below stated subject areas.Once again, I think it is very wise to use these corpora of translated texts, i.e. parallel corpora, in the Arabic translation classroom.

Subject areas covered by UN activities
The United Nations' activities cover a wide range of subject areas.UN translators and interpreters are required to be familiar with these areas.They include, but not restricted to, the following: Scientific subject areas: Sciences and technology, industry, nuclear energy, etc. Economic subject areas: economics, finance, trade, etc. Political and legal subject areas: Politics, international Law, international trade law, human rights, etc. Humanities: culture, world literary works, history, etc. Social subject areas: labor, immigration, population, children, women, refugees, fighting drugs, fighting crimes, etc. Miscellaneous: climate, environment, telecommunications, intellectual property, etc.

Advantages of corpora in the translation classroom
According to Zanettin (1998:1) corpora can be a very useful resource for translation students in a classroom situation, especially in "enhancing the understanding of the source language text and the ability to produce fluent target language texts".Analyzing corpora allow learners to establish equivalences between comparable sets of texts, and to have the possibility to make comparisons between the two languages in question, mainly through the acquisition of information about the way in which discourse is laid down (Ibid).Parallel corpora, for instance, have become an essential resource for work in the workstation of the professional translator, but, very surprisingly, their use are still very limited in the translation classroom across the Arab world, including Tunisia of course.Translation students need to exploit their full potential to face the above mentioned challenges, mainly the APG.The analysis of source texts against their associated translations can help student make sound decisions on the selection of appropriate equivalent words and phrases.Parallel corpora also provide the advantage of giving good examples of writing style to follow (Zanettin, 1998).
In fact parallel corpora, thanks to their large-scale availability on the web, have brought many benefits to the translation industry and its players.Therefore, in Europe and North America emphasis has been put on the uses of corpora in translator training over the last decade or so.For instance, Pearson (2003) argues that parallel corpora can enhance the professionalism of the students and can equip them with very practical translation strategies.
As they are often working under time pressure, translators will not have the opportunity to hire a third party to ensure translation-related tasks such as reviewing, editing and proofreading.Most of the time they end up by proofreading and judging their own work and, therefore, assuming the entire responsibility themselves.Corpora can, in such a context, play the role of a third party as they allow translators, and of course translation students, to share past experiences of authors and other professional translators.Likewise, parallel corpora might perform the role of a language database against which translators could compare their work, and whose maintenance could in many ways help them enhance the quality of their translated products.Translation students also will find parallel corpora very useful in acquiring established work habits.

The EAPCOLT
For the purpose of my PhD.Research, I am currently constructing a parallel corpus I have given the name of the EAPCOLT, the English-Arabic Parallel Corpus of Legal Texts.The EAPCOLT will have the major aim of enabling a corpus-based investigation of complementary polysemy in translation.Now it counts about 4 million words and includes texts issued by a number of UN bodies such as the General Assembly, the Security Council, UNIDO, UNICEF, FAO, etc.It involves mainly resolutions and annual reports.
Apart from the good style of writing that students can follow, parallel corpora like the EAPCOLT can help them make sound decisions on the translation of, say, some nearly-synonymous words and phrases.For instance, they will find that the English words 'liability' and 'responsibility' have to be translated by the single Arabic word ' ‫و‬ ‫,'ا‬ unless 'liability' is expressing a financial concept.
Through a search into the EAPCOLT, I found that 'liability' has 27 occurrences and 'responsibility' has 308 occurrences.The first two example sentences

Calls upon ‫ب‬
Vs urges Expresses its appreciation ‫ب‬ Vs Expresses its thanks ‫ب‬

Concrete recommendations
Capitalizing on the available opportunities and taking into account the challenges lying ahead, we can suggest some concrete recommendations on how to enhance the translation classroom so as to get competitive and not "disabled" translators: For the Ministry of Higher Education: It is called upon to open the doors wide to postgraduate studies in translation For Tunisian professional translation firms and agencies: They are called upon to provide information and assistance to have a better knowledge on the nature of the market and identify future needs For The National Translation Centre It is called upon to draft A translation Industry Roadmap, a roadmap whose goal is to identify future directions for translation demand and propose actions to meet future challenges, especially those actions involving cooperation with the UN Organization.For Translation teachers: They are called upon to do their best to bridge the APG or at least mitigate its impacts on the future generations of translators For Translation students: They are called upon to invest some time and effort in collecting their own corpora and learn from this new Nile of knowledge (the internet) as well as from the UN School

Concluding remarks
The present paper, despite its focus on estimated data and the paucity of empirical studies on the current Tunisian translation market, could draw a real-like image on future challenges and existing opportunities.Indeed, we need to open the 'gates' wide to translation student, as they are now widely open to foreign businessmen, to be able to excel in the future translation market.So let us clear them the road leading to the UN school.
Arabic Translator at the UN (P3 or P4) A typical Arabic Translator of the category of Professional 3 or 4 (P3 or P4) has a very respectful profile and resume.The following are the main characteristics of translators of this category: Mastering three languages Solid writing and analytical skills High standards of accuracy Consistency and faithfulness to the spirit, style and nuances of the original text Good grasp of terminological and reference research techniques Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in linguistics, translation or related fields Normally, successful attainment of the United Nations Competitive Translation Examination At least 5-7 years of progressively responsible experience, in translation, of which three preferable should have been within the United Nations Knowledge of a broad range of subjects dealt with by the United Nations