Jean Herbert was a
French Orientalist and one of the first generation of interpreters for the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
organization. He was a former chief interpreter of the United Nations interpretation service in New York City.
Biography
Herbert was one of the pioneer, veteran and model consecutive interpreters from the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
and the
International Labor Office.
His father was an English-speaking Frenchman. He was married to an English woman, with whom he had two daughters, Janine Yates and Yvette Renoux.
Herbert had worked between World War I and World War II for different international organizations.
Towards 1930, he became interested in Buddhism and the Far East prompting him to travel to India, China and other Buddhist countries, leading to the authorship of many books related to the Far East such as his ''Introduction to Asia''.
During World War II – in 1939 - Herbert saved 2,000
Alsatians from being shot by the Germans and spent the rest of the war in the French Midi, devoting himself to the study of sacred Hindu texts until he received a telegram from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France requesting him to go to San Francisco, California for the founding of the United Nations.
From San Francisco, Herbert went to the preparatory committee of the U.N. and
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
in London. From London, he went to New York to function as chief interpreter. After spending two years in New York, he then moved to Geneva, taking part in the interpreter admission board of the
Sorbonne and the
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...
schools.
He published his ''Manuel de l’interprete'' (The Interpreter’s Handbook) in 1952. He also founded and directed two collections of
multilingual
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...
and technical dictionaries published by
Elsevier
Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell (journal), Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, ...
and sponsored by the Universities of Paris, Heidelberg, Mainz, Trieste and
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...
. Herbert also became a vice-president – and then president – of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (
AIIC) for three years.
After retiring from the United Nations in 1954, Herbert continued freelancing and traveled to the Far East,
Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
and the Middle East. He held the chair of Eastern Mythologies at the
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...
, where he taught from 1954 to 1964.
He wrote Shinto the Fountainhead of Japan with details from visits from 1935 to 1964 and it was published in France in 1964 and in English in 1967
Jean Herbert died in 1980 at the age of 83.
See also
*
United Nations Interpretation Service
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herbert, Jean
United Nations interpreters
People from Paris
1897 births
1980 deaths
20th-century French translators
Winners of the Prix Broquette-Gonin (literature)
French officials of the United Nations