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Disheartening - difficulty in translating
Thread poster: Ardonia
Kirsten Bodart
Kirsten Bodart  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:28
Dutch to English
+ ...
Or May 23, 2016

Tom in London wrote:

Ardonia wrote:

....constantly doubting my linguistic ability and double-checking every sentence I was translating, afraid of making the tiniest mistake.....I became increasingly overwhelmed by the technical terms, sentence structure and specific abbreviations/terminology...


Two possible explanations:

1. You are translating out of your mother tongue into a language that is not your mother tongue.

2. You are translating in a field in which you have insufficient or no expertise.

Either or both may apply.

[Edited at 2016-05-22 21:38 GMT]


3. Your command of the source language is insufficient.

4. You're not self-confident enough.

We've known someone whose English was fine, but he still checked his emails 20 times before he sent them (we're talking two sentences here).

Just assess what happened and why you couldn't do the translation, even so badly that you gave up. I have to agree with Tomás that we all start out, potentially without much knowledge. However, that doesn't mean we should stay in our comfort zone. Only tread out of it very carefully and take care that we don't bite off more than we can chew.
After all only 'side-entrants' or Quereinsteiger, as the Germans term them, who come from other careers will be really qualified in their field of expertise (if they derive it from their previous profession). Being a one-trick pony is never a good idea either.

That said, if you read over a text and you just can't understand it, you shouldn't attempt to translate it either. We've been there and done that. Not fun. Although I think most of those things ended up as reasonable products, though they weren't very lucrative, as they lasted eternities, literally. But we learned a lot. In itself, you don't need to know how to translate every single term in a doc, you need to understand what the author means, so you won't pick the wrong term when you look any of them up.
If I were you, I'd take easy-to-handle text lengths to start with. You'll always have more control over shorter texts, as they'll inevitable have fewer terms you don't know due to their very length (there are only so manyso they're good to start out with as you can check them 20 times over. Cut-off is around 1,000 words I'd say.

What language pair(s) are you in anyway?


 
Daria Hussels
Daria Hussels  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:28
English to German
Reasons & Where to go frome here May 23, 2016

Kirsten Bodart wrote:

Tom in London wrote:

Ardonia wrote:

....constantly doubting my linguistic ability and double-checking every sentence I was translating, afraid of making the tiniest mistake.....I became increasingly overwhelmed by the technical terms, sentence structure and specific abbreviations/terminology...


Two possible explanations:

1. You are translating out of your mother tongue into a language that is not your mother tongue.

2. You are translating in a field in which you have insufficient or no expertise.

Either or both may apply.

[Edited at 2016-05-22 21:38 GMT]


3. Your command of the source language is insufficient.

4. You're not self-confident enough.

We've known someone whose English was fine, but he still checked his emails 20 times before he sent them (we're talking two sentences here).


I think the suggestions 1 and 3 are maybe a little harsh, especially since she has a post-graduate degree in translation (even though of course I don't know anything about the quality of teaching at her university (universities), whether she has tried living abroad before (it really helped me!) etc.)

From my own experience, I would suggest it is a combination of 2 and 4, and especially 2 can make all the difference! Financial (and legal, and various other) types of translation are extremely challenging and there is no shame in admitting that you don't do them (yet). Of course it depends on your language combination whether you can still have a profitable business.

Also, I think there is nothing wrong with being a "one trick pony" for a while as long as you make sure it doesn't stay that way

Somebody suggested here that you should only work on small documents for the time being, and I agree that this would be a wise move, but you would really need to sort out a second income, preferrably a job in which you are fairly flexible.

[Edited at 2016-05-23 12:32 GMT]


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:28
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Who? May 23, 2016

Daria Hussels wrote:

.... since she has a post-graduate degree in translation (even though of course I don't know anything about the quality of teaching at her university (universities), whether she has tried living abroad before....

...... there is no shame in admitting that you don't do them (yet). Of course it depends on your language combination whether you can still have a profitable business.



Who is "she" and who is "you"? I'm confused.


 
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Mervyn Henderson (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 20:28
Spanish to English
+ ...
Who ... May 23, 2016

Who is "she" and who is "you"? I'm confused. [/quote]

... ARE you, shurely?


Mervyn


 
Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz
Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 20:28
English to Polish
+ ...
... May 23, 2016

Ardonia, your proficiency needs to be at least near-native in both of the languages. You need to be either native in the source language or understand it just as well as a native speaker would, and either native in the target or practically just as good as one. This is not something modern translation academia likes to think about much, or talk about. Make sure your grammar and syntax (which are so often and so shamefully neglected in language teaching these days) in both of the languages... See more
Ardonia, your proficiency needs to be at least near-native in both of the languages. You need to be either native in the source language or understand it just as well as a native speaker would, and either native in the target or practically just as good as one. This is not something modern translation academia likes to think about much, or talk about. Make sure your grammar and syntax (which are so often and so shamefully neglected in language teaching these days) in both of the languages are as close to perfect as they can be, read a lot, write as much as you can, and develop an interest, or, better still, get some formal education in whatever field you want to translate — because language or translation studies alone will not do it, unless you choose literature (in which case you need to be extra good and very creative and really have a way with words).

Translation is not as easy as the 'industry' is trying to make it look in a bid to make translators work for less by downplaying their qualifications.

Tom in London wrote:

Two possible explanations:

1. You are translating out of your mother tongue into a language that is not your mother tongue.

2. You are translating in a field in which you have insufficient or no expertise.


Oh yeah, and totally nothing to do with one's command of the source language, because the source language doesn't matter.



[Edited at 2016-05-23 15:52 GMT]
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Kirsten Bodart
Kirsten Bodart  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:28
Dutch to English
+ ...
I didn't mean to be harsh May 23, 2016

Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz wrote:

Tom in London wrote:

Two possible explanations:

1. You are translating out of your mother tongue into a language that is not your mother tongue.

2. You are translating in a field in which you have insufficient or no expertise.


Oh yeah, and totally nothing to do with one's command of the source language, because the source language doesn't matter.



[Edited at 2016-05-23 15:52 GMT]


While reason No. 3 may have sounded harsh, I was actually making Lukasz's point. Translation is give and take in terms of your two languages. A translator who can't understand what the source says is as bad as one who can't write the target language. I see both versions and I think the 'native' doctrine is being overplayed big time.

Though Ardonia's problem is probably, indeed, a combination of 2 and 4.


 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 20:28
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
OK, you hit the bottom, so now you must be on the way up! May 23, 2016

Dear Donna

You probably don't need any more advice, so just skip this if you've had enough

Ardonia wrote:
...

I've only dabbled in smaller translation jobs throughout my courses and found that I was constantly doubting my linguistic ability and double-checking every sentence I was translating, afraid of making the tiniest mistake.


As a rule, things can be said in different ways, and there is not always an ultimate 'best' way of doing things.
Often, if you are reasonably proficient, you can trust your first instinct, and it will not actually be wrong. (But check anyway, ONCE or TWICE, sleep on it and think again, then decide that now you are going to leave it alone!)

Your reaction is healthy, but at some point you have decide things are good enough, and move on. As long as the client does not complain, you are OK. The trouble is, you can't always tell when you actually did really well, and when you just scraped by. Though you sound as if you will get more compliments than complaints in the long run, as long as you don't overdo the self-criticism!
It doesn't just make your day, it makes your whole week the first time a client actually pays you a compliment... Besides, complaints are not always justified - the client doesn't always know as much about the subject or the language as you do! Be prepared to explain why you wrote it the way you did. Good clients really appreciate it if you do it diplomatically, and will actually have more confidence in you.


I was also recently offered a financial translation job from a colleague and, at first glance, thought I could handle it (due to financial translation texts on the course). However, I became increasingly overwhelmed by the technical terms, sentence structure and specific abbreviations/terminology of the text, to the point where I rather embarassingly had to return the job as I had no idea what the text was trying to say.
....


Been there, done that too! It hurts. But it hurts even more when you you have delivered a job that is absolutely the best you can do, and the client furiously tears it apart. I was lucky enough to start in-house, with sympathetic colleagues to proofread my work before it reached the client. Could you find a mentor or someone who could give you some moral support? Apart from anything else, it would build up your self confidence and show you when you are on the right track as well as where there is room for improvement.

Work at the language structure - I have sometimes taken a long legal sentence apart, clause by clause, and translated one at a time.
You don't say which languages you work with, but even when they are closely related, it may be necessary to change the structure, break up a long sentence, or link two shorter ones together to improve the flow.

It is well worth getting to grips with the grammar and sentence structure... which were taught far more in schools when I was young! Danish has a delightful term - a 'sentence knot' (sætningsknude) for some of the more convoluted structures in French and legal Danish. It is occasionally worth copying the sentence to a separate document and 'untying' the knot, with each clause or section on a separate line. Then translate them one by one, and put them together again.

Don't be bound by the structure of the source if it sounds wrong in the target language.
All this is very elementary, I am sure, if you have a postgraduate diploma, and yet... I learnt other things on mine, and this sort of exercise came either before or after it. In any case it takes practice.

Whatever you do, don't get discouraged. Cut the problems down to size, and solve them one at a time.

There are plenty of wannabes who jump in thinking translation is easy, but there are not too many who appreciate how exacting it is. That in itself is a big step towards being good at it!

Fill out your profile, keep trying, and accept that you ARE on the right track.
Good luck!


 
Dominika Woszczyk
Dominika Woszczyk
Local time: 12:28
English to Spanish
Keep going and keep studying May 23, 2016

I read through some of the other responses and I know this may be similar, but I just want to emphasize how important it is to keep going.

The very best advice for translators is really to keep learning. You have your degree now and that's great, but specializations are important as well. Do a lot of reading in an area you like/know some about/are interested in and teach yourself about that in your language combination. Read real documents (news sources, academic journals, books, e
... See more
I read through some of the other responses and I know this may be similar, but I just want to emphasize how important it is to keep going.

The very best advice for translators is really to keep learning. You have your degree now and that's great, but specializations are important as well. Do a lot of reading in an area you like/know some about/are interested in and teach yourself about that in your language combination. Read real documents (news sources, academic journals, books, etc) and just keep going.

Good luck with your budding career!
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Daria Hussels
Daria Hussels  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:28
English to German
RE: Who is she/you? May 23, 2016

Tom in London wrote:

Daria Hussels wrote:

.... since she has a post-graduate degree in translation (even though of course I don't know anything about the quality of teaching at her university (universities), whether she has tried living abroad before....

...... there is no shame in admitting that you don't do them (yet). Of course it depends on your language combination whether you can still have a profitable business.



Who is "she" and who is "you"? I'm confused.


Both Ardonia, sorry for being inconsistent

[Edited at 2016-05-23 21:08 GMT]


 
Phil Hand
Phil Hand  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 03:28
Chinese to English
Broad church May 25, 2016

I don't know if the O/P is still reading, but I thought this was worth saying:

Yes, many of us have been where you are. Personally I taught English as a sideline for a long time before I went full time translating. It is always hard starting out.

And I hope you're not disheartened further by all the contradictory voices in this thread. I think you should read this thread as saying: there is space in the industry for everyone, with all kinds of different backgrounds, and
... See more
I don't know if the O/P is still reading, but I thought this was worth saying:

Yes, many of us have been where you are. Personally I taught English as a sideline for a long time before I went full time translating. It is always hard starting out.

And I hope you're not disheartened further by all the contradictory voices in this thread. I think you should read this thread as saying: there is space in the industry for everyone, with all kinds of different backgrounds, and all kinds of skills and interests and niches. If you want it, I'm sure there is a place for you.
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Disheartening - difficulty in translating







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