From Develop With Franck
I am a French native speaker and since I had passion for English,
I decided to sacrifice everything to move to an English country to learn the
language and even live there. After acquiring my proficiency in English language,
I was pushed to interpret for events and conferences and letter on translate administrative
documents. Gradually the passion grew in m, I got certified for that skills I had
acquired. 3 years down the line here what I have learnt in this field, which is
from experience a must known before your become a good translator.
1) Translate The Spirit of the
Text
The
holy grail in translation is not to translate words but instead ideas, in
Translation Theory terms, we translate the spirit of the text and not it’s
form. Once you have grasped this very basic and yet essential concept you will
notice that translation becomes a whole lot more manageable. This concept also
works for interpretation where it can really help to capture the ideas being
communicated, and packaging it up in your own words in the target language
rather than trying to interpret word for word because you will definitely meet
a word or two you are not familiar with. This concept will go a long way in
helping you navigate your way through the translation waters once you have a
grasp on it.
2)
Be Concise
The
number two tip we have for you is to be concise. There is no need rumbling on
with superfluous words in order to show that you have an A-grade level of
mastery in vocabulary. Try to keep it as simple as possible while making sure
you respect the ideas and meaning the Writer was trying to convey, remember
this wise saying, simple always gets the job done!
3) Mastery of First Language
If
you want to become a Translator, you need to have a perfect command of your
first language, which is usually your mother tongue, mine being French, and
have an excellent knowledge and strong command of at least one other language.
To be among the crème de la crème of the profession, we would even recommend
you start learning a third language if you haven’t done so already. This will
broaden your mind and sharpen your thinking skills and it provides you with
more options and opportunities when it comes to employment.
4) Flawless Grammar
Your
grammar needs to be flawless in your language A and excellent in your language
B. If it can be equally good in your language C, all the better but practically
speaking, most Translators are slightly weaker in their language C since this
is usually the last language they learned at a more advanced age. In order to
master your grammar, you need to be an avid reader. Read whatever you can get
your hands on since a Translator needs to be knowledgeable in various fields.
Reading is no longer restricted to books, we live in the twenty first century
and chances are, you are a millennial and are already conversant with
computers. Get connected, read wide but be sure to make a difference between
the verbal chaff and the wheat, there is a lot miseducation out there on the
internet.
5) Specialization is Key
The
next tip we have for you is to try and specialize. This may seem like the total
antithesis of the previous paragraph but the fact is, and you will soon notice,
that there are several other Translators who work with the same language pair
as you do. In such cases, what makes the difference is the specialization. At
this point you might be thinking, hold on, that disqualifies me for certain
jobs but trust us, you are most likely to get more jobs in your field when you
specialize than if you do it all because LSCs are currently hiring experts in
specific fields. You might want to become a legal translation expert or maybe a
medical one, this gives confidence to employers that you are best suited for a
specific job and not just a Jack of all trades and master of none.
6) Ability to do Research
If
you want to become a Translator you should be able to carry out research work.
Remember scouring the internet at school during your final year project work
and thinking “Yay” it’s all over when you were done? Well, guess again, there’s
more of that ahead. You literally have to spend hours searching for
translations for terms you may not be familiar with like acronyms, etc. You
will need to build multilingual glossaries and translation memories (TMs) from
scratch, that’s if you are not lucky enough to be hired by an already
established company with its own TMs and glossaries. This might seem like a
daunting task but some people already have an affinity towards research, this
is part of what we call the flair for translation and this might be a make or
break factor in the decision to become a Translator. We at F. Choice Consulting
absolutely love to do our research work
and so should you.
7) Ability to Work Under Pressure
A
Translator should be able to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines. As a
matter of fact, this is the Translator’s modus operandi, we almost always work
under the pressure of time constraints, clients almost always give tight
deadlines and your whole craft depends on being able to hand in high quality
results within the short timeframes. Translators have many ways of soaking up
this pressure, some share the work amongst colleagues making sure they use the
same TMs to maintain a certain level of consistency across sections. This
method helps speed up the work a great deal but keep in mind that each person
will have to get a slice of the pie when it is baked.
8) Don’t Rely Blindly on Machine Translation
One
of the most tempting things to do when you are a young, naïve and up and coming
Translator is to plug the whole source text ( ST) into Google Translate and
send the output to the client without checking it, thinking machines are better
translators. This is the biggest mistake you could ever make in your short-lived
career. Never give a Google Translate target text (TT) to a client without
having it proofread, or proofreading it yourself first, if the target language
(TL) is your language A! One thing you quickly have to understand is that no
matter how far we’ve come in terms of progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI),
we have still not reached the point where machines can better translate a text
than humans and without human input. To put it simply, words might have nuanced
meanings depending on the context in which they are used and though machines
have come a long way, they have not yet mastered the tiny differences in
meanings that only a human can detect. This is why Translators can assist
themselves with Machine Translation (MT) or Computer Assisted Technology (CAT)
tools but can never be replaced by them… at least, not yet.
9) Use CAT tools
We
highly recommend you use CAT ( Computer Assist Translation) tools rather than using the Stone Age way of
translating off the top of you head. True, it meant that Translators were very
knowledgeable back in the days and it is in no way a validation of mediocrity
in the industry, but CAT tools help you do the work faster, more consistently
and also efficiently. Investing in CAT tools might seem steep upfront but trust
us, they are well worth the investment and besides, there are some free open
source CAT tools like Omega T which will get a decent job done. We highly
recommend investing in SDL Trados Studio, SDL is one of the market leaders with
respect to CAT tools, you can check out how they placed on the 2019 MarketFlex Report. The
second is deepl.com/translator. This
is our preferred CAT tool at F. Choice Consulting.
10) Make Hay while the Sun Shines
The
final tip we have for you is an old adage but certainly not overrated; make hay
while the sun shines. Unless you work for an established LSC or you are a
salaried worker in the translation department of a company, in which case job
security may not be guaranteed either and so the adage still applies to you,
translation is the kind of tricky profession where when you start, you probably
don’t have the connections to keep the contracts coming in regularly. There can
be long periods of drought before your next lucrative contract and so you must
learn to manage your money well. If you don’t, there could be periods where you
might begin to question if you are in the right profession but God takes care
of all His children and after the storm, the sun shall surely come out again.
Remember, a word to the wise is enough.
So
there you have it, F. Choice Consulting 10 tips for burgeoning Translators. At
this point you’ve probably got a solid idea of what it takes to become a
Professional Translator and might be trying to decide if the profession is for
you. Well, know this, translation can be one of the most gratifying professions
if you have the flair coupled with the skills, the knowledge and the
experience. The third factor that you don’t often learn at school, the
knowledge, is very critical in determining if you survive the first few years
in the profession. Well, you have just received the knowledge in a nutshell,
the experience is on you to go out and carve for yourself, no one can teach you
that. So in conclusion, you now possess all the prerequisite information to
possibly become a seasoned Translator, use it wisely and may the force be with
you.
Franck Ahui: Trainer | Health & Wellness Consultant | Business Developer | Digital Marketer | Blogger | Co-Founder at F.Choice Consulting and DevelopWithFranck
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