How I Got Involved in “@MarcoPolo_Pinocchio a Gedda” Project
The Project Website (in B&W)
In October this year, I was privileged to be invited by Maristella Tagliaferro to participate in the @MarcoPolo_Pinocchio a Gedda Project. I'm elated to be able to use my knowledge of Italian to translate one of my favorite childhood stories: Pinocchio! The whole experience has been gratifying and I love interacting with the group members, and getting to know more new Italian friends. I dedicate this post to you—my dearest Maristella. More about the project below.
About the Project:
Tradurre a distanza un breve brano de “Le avventure di Pinocchio” per accompagnare i bambini della Scuola Italiana di Gedda alla scoperta del libro italiano più tradotto nel mondo.
La sfida viene lanciata dal progetto @MarcoPolo di Maristella Tagliaferro e dal gruppo Facebook Adotta il Tradotto fondato da Clelia Francalanza in collaborazione con il Consolato Generale d'Italia in Gedda, in occasione della XIV Settimana della Lingua Italiana nel Mondo, che nella seconda città dell'Arabia Saudita si svolge dal 26 ottobre 4 novembre 2014: la giornata inaugurale è stata interamente dedicata a Pinocchio.
In English: Distance translation of a short piece of “The Adventures of Pinocchio” to take the children of the Italian School of Jeddah to the discovery of the world’s most translated Italian book.
The challenge is launched by the @MarcoPolo project by Maristella Tagliaferro and the Facebook Group Adotta il Tradotto founded by Clelia Francalanza in collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy in Jeddah. This is in conjunction with the 14th week of the Italian Language in the World. The event takes place in the second city of Saudi Arabia from 26th October to *4th November 2014. The launch day was entirely dedicated to Pinocchio.
The above excerpt in Italian is taken from this post on Maristella’s blog.
*The 4th November 2014 project end date was later extended to 16th November 2014.
The Project Outcome: The hard work of these two wonderful ladies, Maristella and Clelia, has produced an awesome result. Please visit the website dedicated to this project. Here you will find my Malay and Chinese Mandarin translations.
My collaboration: The Chinese translation is done in collaboration with my dear mom. I prepared the first draft and emailed it to her for review. We live in different states in Malaysia—my mom lives in Kuala Lumpur and me in Penang. Just to provide some perspective, Penang is approximately five hours’ drive from Kuala Lumpur (driving at a safe speed). We also spent about 30 minutes on the telephone going through my translation, discussing and fine-tuning certain sections of the translated text. As she does not speak Italian, I had to explain certain parts to her so that we could use the correct expressions. With that comes the final output. The distance and being apart did not hinder us from combining our strength to get this done. Working remotely works!
My compilation: What was initially for my own use and reference when I compiled all the submitted Italian dialects into one document—as part of my Italian learning—has now become a part of the project curation. My document is titled Traduzione con italiano a fronte di Alice Teh on the website, which is downloadable PDF. This inclusion is a pleasant surprise to me!
My audiolettura: Here's your chance to listen to my voice reading aloud Pinocchio in Malay! The video is produced by Clelia Francalanza with photos of Malaysia taken by me during my Cuti-cuti Malaysia vacations. I really love the Pinocchio soundtrack. I hope you do too. Enjoy!
For the complete playlist of all readings, please click here.
