A number of research directions have been a staple since NMT began to appear on arXiv. Research on improving NMT output and the processes used by NMT systems, for example, are almost always present. Some research directions only recently gained steam, such as low-resource languages or languages where little training data is available “in the wild.”
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Life science is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the world, therefore, translations are ideally executed by linguists who are subject matter experts and translation companies that follow proven processes to reduce and eliminate errors. memoQ’s innovative translation software can efficiently combine the capabilities of medical translators with a wide variety of functionalities to ensure impeccable life science translations backed up by the latest translation tools.
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A professional translator will also check the source document carefully for potential errors, omissions or unclear wording. Translation is all about carrying over meaning from one language to another – so if the meaning is unclear in the original, the translation can hit a roadblock until the issue is resolved. Similarly, it’s not unheard of for a source document to contain mistakes of one sort or another, be they anything from typographical errors to incorrect statements of fact – after all, everyone makes mistakes from time to time. Once again, a good translator will spot these and flag them up for the project manager to relay to the client. As a result, one nice side-effect of this process is that having a document translated into a new language will often also improve the quality of the source-language text! After all, it never hurts to have an extra pair of eyes looking at a piece of work.
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Life science translation may cover technical documentations, packaging, patient information, and any related marketing content. Healthcare, medical device and pharmaceutical companies require the highest level of translation and localization quality, as even the slightest error can have serious consequences.
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5. Organisational skills: Translation is a very deadline-driven profession. You need to be able to meet deadlines and organise your time effectively. Initiative is important, too.
6. Writing skills: This is extremely important. Translators are professional writers. For this, you need to know your own language perfectly: grammar, vocabulary, style. Reading voraciously helps, and so will writing practice such as blogging, student journalism, creative writing. Even the little things like spelling are important. Spelling is really important for translators; bad spelling can give a really bad impression to clients. For those of you who think you know it all, try the ultimate fiendish Oxford dictionaries spelling test.
7. General knowledge: General knowledge is very important for translators. It can help you pick up mistakes in texts. This translator watches the news every morning because current affairs may come up in her work.
8. Analytical skills: Translators are the best readers that a text will ever have. They need advanced analytical skills to understand how the source text works, so that they can reproduce this in their translation.
9. Research skills: Translators may get very different texts to translate from one day to the next and may have to pick up specialised vocabulary quickly. You learn where to find out about cereal and cylinderheads, fish and foot and mouth disease. You may find yourself ‘phoning a friend’ too! Exemples of specialised glossaries like this one may be found online.
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In the huge talent pool of the internet, there’s plenty of competition for even the smallest job, and if you can’t show yourself in the best possible light clients will pass you over and find someone else. This is where a top quality portfolio comes in, allowing busy potential employers to see at a glance if you’ve got the skills they’re looking for. It’s no good offering free sample translations alone. If they’ve already spotted that your competitor Fantastic Fred has a couple of shining marketing translations in his online portfolio they won’t even bother getting in contact with you, and you will have lost a client without even knowing they exist.
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If you don’t speak Arabic, it can be a challenge to determine the proficiency of an Arabic translator. Rather than searching for flaws in their Arabic or English, keep a mental checklist of the above qualities. If a translator values attention to detail, is knowledgeable about the culture of the region, and is willing to make themselves available at odd hours for an affordable fee, they are indeed a superb Arabic translator.
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“I speak two languages, one is my mother tongue and the other worked on it through movies, songs, and some grammar books. I want to work as a translator, what can I do”, he asked.
That is a typical question of an amateur translator. Why? Because a translator is way far beyond just speaking two languages. Translation is not speaking two languages; it’s about mastering two languages. And here five skills a professional translator needs to master.
Just passed by a story published that goes like:
My first year in Campeche, Mexico, I was always complaining about the heat. The correct way to say this in Spanish is “Odio el calor.” I, however, kept making the verb reflexive: “Me odio.” This means “I hate myself.” Everyone must have thought I had a real self-esteem problem!
Having contemplated this situation, we will find that this person wasn’t really aware of the cultural context. It’s not necessary for something in your culture to mean the same in other cultures. That’s why you have to read more in this language history, culture, and contexts.
Observation is one of the most aiding skills as it, by time, facilitates the translator’s work and gives his work quality. Observing the speakers of the languages your translating from and to gives you mastery over your translation and phrasing. Observation helps granting nativity.
Having many levels in speech and communication depending on the addressee and the addresser makes it necessary to vary your style of writing. You can’t buy your groceries speaking Shakespearean language. Pragmatically, everyone will laugh at you thinking that you are saying a joke.
That would even, wrongly, signify the background of the speaker. Is he coming from the medieval ages through time machine? What if he is illiterate? What if he has come from a Proletarian descendants? Would he say the same idioms and proverbs as a sophisticated educated professor?
Each and every character will communicate the way that tells about him. That is, they will definitely use different structures, different vocabulary, and different use of words. Consequently, you will have to tailor your translation with the same meaning that transfers the message of the speech with its reflection to the character.
Lately, Oxford Dictionary has changed the word “light” to “lite”, and added the word “roasting” to mean “Online bullying”. It also has labeled the word “fool” as an archaic words.
Language is a living organism, as it always evolves, develops, dies, and gets reborn. And so, the translators must evolve with it; otherwise, they simply will retreat unconsciously because he couldn’t cope with the trends, and the changes in the language.
The world is going digital, you will also need to learn the new technology of translation, such as: CAT tools, machine translation and other helping aids. You need to cope with the fast evolving market. And don’t worry, we will address that in the coming post, stat tuned!
If Procrastination was the flaw of Hamlet in the old age, then it has never died if it’s the translator’s. Burning time within your work-time will burn you out. One of the most needed skills that translator should master is time management; and Organization is its key.
While you have many tasks to do, prioritize them over one another: the most urgent to the least important. Start with what motivates you to keep achieving. Eliminate distractions, like social media notifications that keep getting you out of the mood of creating. Don’t forget to give yourself a five-minute break every hour. That would help you to keep your mind focused and refreshed.
Know one thing about everything, and know everything about one thing. That where POWER relies.
Having a field that you expert in is what makes you reliable as a “subject matter expert”, where you points of strength appear.
How many skills of these do you master? Share them with us in the comments. And if you have any special skills, don’t forget that “sharing is caring”.
This article was first published in 1997 on the NCTA (Northern California Translators Association) website in the earliest days of the web. It’s a window into the translation industry as it existed more than 20 years ago, but the advice is more important than ever in today’s supercharged technology and business environment.
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Written by : Eman Ebehiry
After knowing more about the Translation memory, our assiduous translator starts lamenting his luck for not knowing it earlier. He looks at his work with pity for the loss of those past years of hard work, and his coming years of re-making what he already did.
But for one more time, technology saves the translator’s world, and offers him the solution: “The Alignment”. What is translation alignment? How does it work? When would I use it? And why? What types of translation alignment are available? Are all question will be answered in the article.
First, translation alignment is the matching that we do between the source and its translation in the target in order to make a translation memory out of it. Simply it works through pairing the segments in its language pair; thus, it will be stored as units just like any translation memory. There are actually many ways of doing this. Furthermore, there are many tools that can get the job done, such as
A translator aligns his previously-translated material to build a database, instead of building one from scratch. It saves his time, and his previous work experience that might be repeated. But only the initial step of alignment that might take some time; as it may happen that the tool align some segments you have merged, or even split. So it’s closer to be giving probabilities. Hence, the human factor will be needed in reviewing and editing.
Now, what about trying to make your own alignment translation memory, and tell us about your experience?
You can learn to align your previous work from here via Trados.
Or if you have tried it already, share some of the benefits with us.