MVOZ has more than 25 years of experience in Professional Spanish Voice Over, English to Spanish translation / Interpretation and we also develop content creation in Spanish language for companies who needs to expand their business towards the Spanish-speaking market. We are a professional native Spanish-speaking team that works with responsibility and passion in each project.
sábado, abril 18, 2020
lunes, abril 06, 2020
A great translation
What Makes a Good Translator?
1. Master your native language first
Being proficient in a second language is in no way enough to produce quality translations. Your mastery of a language other than your mother tongue becomes irrelevant if you’re making basic grammar and spelling mistakes, or if you’re only able to literally translate idioms and cultural references. Getting translation and linguistic education is a huge advantage.
For example, sentence structure in Arabic almost always starts with the verb. Arabic translators of English text often end up mirroring the sentence structure of the source text, putting the verb in the middle of the sentence. The final product is an awkward Arabic sentence that immediately gives the work away as a sub-par translation.
2. Incorporate ‘guerrilla’ research methods
No matter how experienced you are, from time to time you will be faced with new, challenging, or unfamiliar terms and expressions. A good translator goes the extra mile to find the answer. I’ve been translating tech and media for nearly a decade now, and I’ve grown to use a combination of academic and guerrilla methods to find answers for difficult terms:
- The Dictionary: Duh! Find good dictionaries for the languages you translate and use them often. Online/software dictionaries are more convenient and efficient, but the quality is more likely to vary depending on language. For Arabic, I sometimes use the online Sakhr dictionary, but it has many gaps, and the definitions are often lacking.
- Ask a friend: Seek other experienced translators and see how they would translate the term at hand. I frequently check Proz.com term search, and I even ask translation related questions on Twitter. The answer is out there; the trick is knowing how and where to find it.
- Check Wikipedia: Articles about a subject link to the articles about the same subject in other languages. That gives you a strong indicator about the accepted and widely used translation, or equivalent phrasing for your target language. This of course depends on the number of quality of articles on Wikipedia in the languages you work in, so your mileage may vary. This expands to any literature in the field you’re translating, and directly relates to item #4 below: “Read with purpose.”
- Google it: This is especially helpful if you’re trying to decide between to potential translations to a term, or if you’re just not sure if your best guess is the right answer. Google the translated terms, and you’ll get an indicator of the quality of your guess both in the number of search results found, and the example uses in the top results.
3. Know your strengths
Choose your battles. Translate in fields where you can produce your best work. I focus on media, tech (esp. digital security), and software localization. I usually avoid legal and medical translation, because the effort to produce a quality translation is too great since I have neither the experience nor the education to work in these fields.
4. Read with purpose
A good translator is a good reader and a good writer. And you can’t be a good writer without being a voracious reader first. Read with purpose; I read tech news everyday in English and Arabic, keeping an eye on the terminology used. I also read every Arabic book I can get my hands on (harder than you think in the US), and seek out more of the works of writers and translators whose style I like. Palestinian-Syrian translator, Saleh Alamani, has penned wonders translating South American Magical Realism to Arabic.
5. Proofread; then do it again
Your first draft will always have errors in it. Typos, grammar mistakes, or punctuation errors are unavoidable… the first time. If you’re in a position where you can have an editor or proofreader, take full advantage of their services. A fresh pair of eyes will catch any errors a lot faster.
6. Make it beautiful; translation is an art
Do you ever lose yourself in a good book? Translated text should produce the same effect in the reader. A literal or error ridden text detracts from the experience. It’s important to find your voice as a translator. Find your style, and hone it.
I write in simplified Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) [al-fuṣḥá], and often use words and expression that Arabic speakers use colloquially, without realizing they come directly from MSA.
7. Typography matters; embrace it
Learn the conventions for your respective languages to produce the most visually appealing and easy to read documents. This is related to point #6 above, but important enough to merit its own entry in the list.
Arabic usually needs to be 2 points bigger than corresponding English text to be legible. A ‘cool’ looking font might not be particularly easy to read, especially in longer texts.
Now that you know what makes a good translator, you might wonder “what makes a great one?” The answer is simple, but not easy:
Practice. Lots and lots of it.
Medium.com
Written by
domingo, abril 05, 2020
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)