M2 January exam translation. Suggested translation

 

Suggested translation

Exam M2 translation January 2023

 My mother had begun as a typist  in a local healthcare insurance office and had moved up the ranks. She was a personal assistant and head of staff, in a hospital run by the National Health Service.

 “But we might be leaving Chateauroux.”

“Where would you go?”

“We might go to live in the Champagne region.”

 The move to the East had three reasons behind it. Firstly, she had applied for a job at the health insurance service in Reims. One of her friends had lent her a flat in Toul. And lastly, the new law on kinship had been passed, and it allowed fathers, with their spouse’s agreement, to recognize a child born out of wedlock, later in their lives.

 “Your mother tells me you are doing well at school.”

“Yes, I am, but I don’t like maths. I prefer foreign languages and French.”

“ Maths is a logical way of expressing things, really, you should be interested in that. What languages do they teach you at school?” 

“Only English for now. In year 9, I will start on German and Latin. What about you? What exactly do you do at the European Council? Do you translate what people say?”

“That’s what the interpreters do: they translate as people are speaking; usually they are in a  booth. I’m in charge of the translation department. Do you know what Indo-European languages are ?”

He explained this. 

I felt overwhelmed by the flow of information. I began to doubt that I was gifted in languages, and began to look at myself and my ambitions with irony.

“Are your children bilingual?”

Le voyage dans l’Est, Christine Angot, 2021

Send me an email john. mullen at univ hyphen rouen dot fr if you have questions.