Could You Check This, Please Experiences in a Bilingual Environment.docVIP

Acta Polytechnica Hungarica Vol. 7, No. 2, 2010 Could You Check This, Please? Experiences in a Bilingual Environment Lívia Szedmina Subotica Tech, College of Applied Sciences Subotica, Serbia slivia@vts.su.ac.rs Abstract: This paper describes some experiences of a proof reader and translator working in a very specific bilingual linguistic environment. Bilingualism has a peculiar effect on the use of technical English, as seen with language users at Subotica Tech. Vajdaság is a unique location in terms of language composition. While for many, Hungarian is the first language, there is some language transfer from Serbian, especially concerning the use of English technical terminology in native language texts. A number of examples are offered to show different patterns that may be explained by the overwhelming influence of the first language. Keywords: technical English; bilingualism; Vajdaság; proofreading; correction 1 Introduction This article is an overview of the experiences of a professional proof reader regarding the use of technical English by native speakers of Hungarian and native speakers of Serbian from the territory of Vajdaság. All linguistic examples were taken from papers written at Subotica Tech, where the author is currently employed. The author has been working as a translator and proof reader for technical English, and more specifically, for the fields of electrical and mechanical engineering, as well as for informatics. The English language encountered by the author bears some specific markers stemming from the influences of the first language, or conversely, they may appear due to the fact that the users are bilingual. The samples presented in this paper are taken from young professionals with university degrees in engineering (electrical and mechanical engineering, or computer sciences) except in one instance, where it is