Thread: How to be a good translator?

Follow the tips

1. Be the Best
Do not be a machine converting one language into the target language, and this is not the goal of your work and duty.

2. Maintain good psychological quality
Regardless if you are working as a translator or an interpreter, you have to exclude our own emotions and moods from your work.

3. Maintain outstanding Work Ethics
Keep in touch with your clients during the process. Let your clients know how you progress with the translation. Never keep a copy of your clients

To be a good translator I do work at one semi government authority where I translate legal documents from English to one local language. To have better output I used to go to local people to talk and debate and I have hired a room in locality of the local people.

Firstly you should have a good knowledge of a language and wide experience in translating all kinds of documents;then you should do your work honestly and rather good.

Yes you are absolutely right mary. Being a translator is a very responsible work. Nothing should go wrong with it. If you are the master of languages then only you should be a translator.

The bottom line to have 100% real life knowledge on both languages...The rest is east..In most cases book translation doe snot make sense to most readers...

Originally Posted by wchua24

The bottom line to have 100% real life knowledge on both languages...The rest is east..In most cases book translation doe snot make sense to most readers...

Absolutely. Verbatim translation may not make any sense at all; you must have very clear understanding of both the languages you are working on.

Translation is a lot trickier than it would seem, and simply speaking the two languages involved may not be enough. First, you need to have a deep understanding of the field you are translating in. Most translators specialize in a specific field, like medicine or business or whatever, and usually have degrees and experience in those fields as well as their language skills.
Besides, localization is a part of the translation. You need to know who you are translating for and understand that many times in order to say the same thing in another language you may have to stray from the original text and look for equivalent expressions outside the original words. This takes a great knowledge of the target culture, and is the reason why most translators work with their native language as target language.

well I think it is also important if you have sufficient knowledge on different languages so you don't have to heavily rely on machines or tools.