What it Takes to be a Translator.
A professional translator will attest to the fact that their work is misunderstood and often underestimated.
Today’s post serves to outline the skill-set of a professional translator; the complex approach required to produce quality translations and an insight into what it is our talented translators at TranslationsInLondon do on a daily basis.
‘I Can Speak a Foreign Language – Can I be a Professional Translator?’
Many people assume that if someone is bilingual or multilingual this means they can simply apply their linguistic knowledge and translate content quite easily. This is not the case – knowledge of the source and target languages forms the base – a professional translator requires an array of different skills:
Communication Skills
Excellent communication skills are required in order to interpret a source language, and to convey its intended meaning in the target language. Being able to write in a clear, concise and fluid style are essential skills for translators, as well as being able to provide a quality translation service which offers a communicative and collaborative service to their clients.
Cultural Understanding
As each language is so inextricably linked to the culture/country in which it is used it means that the translator needs to have knowledge of that country and culture. Cultural nuance is what makes the difference between a machine-translated text and the professional work done by a skilled translator. The majority of translators only translate into their native/dominant language in order to produce accurate text that is both linguistically and culturally sound.
Industry Knowledge
Specialised knowledge relevant to the subject matter is essential – can you imagine an IT expert having to outline the details of complex physics or a law graduate attempting to explain the latest fashion trends? So, knowing the basics of a language is not enough, having in-depth knowledge of industry specific vocabulary is a must!
IT Skills (and CAT TOOLS)
Translators also need to be savvy in terms of the technology they use for translations including the use of a translations memory (TM) to ensure consistency and quality. Industry standard tools such as Trados must be mastered.
Time Management
As most projects are time dependent, translators need to have excellent time management skills to provide quality translations within a given timeframe.
Attention to Detail
Meticulous attention to detail is required at all times, and on many levels, including: grammar, syntax and linguistic structure, cultural relevancy (localisation), file format, and background knowledge of a given industry. To grow your translation career, ensuring your work is consistently correct will result in greater trust between translator and client as it shows you are reliable and can provide a quality service, making the client more likely to use your services for future projects.
Accuracy
Accuracy cannot be underestimated – a mistake in the content of marketing/business material can result in a loss of potential revenue and more seriously, a mistake on the packaging of medicine, for example, can lead to injury or worse.
Patience
Accuracy and attention to detail call for a high level of patience as you could be working on the same project for many hours to ensure your work is correct and suitable for the client.
Business Skills
Many translators work freelance or run their own business which means that good business skills are also required to maintain a professional service.
Language, Culture & Communication
Translators use their love of language, culture and communication to aid others in communicating their message – they listen carefully and engage with the content in order to represent cultural nuance, preference, personality – they choose their words carefully to respect the author’s meaning.
A comprehensive approach
A good translation service provides translation, proofreading and comprehensive multilingual project management; just like we do here at TIL!
The Average Daily Output of a Translator
Depending on the quality and complexity of the text, a professional and experienced translator can process approximately 3000 words per day (on average). On this scale quality output will be produced by happy translators.
Perhaps those who do not understand the complexities of language and translation may assume that the work can be done quickly – as long as it takes to read the text in the source language and translate the words? Translation is not the substitution of words.
If a translation job is rushed, how can a professional translator put into action all the skills mentioned above? A rushed translation will lack the required accuracy and attention it deserves. A good translation is only as good as the original text and thorough process involved.
Clients who provide extremely poor source content – at times even illegible, and ask that it be completed in a few hours cannot expect a quality result.
I previously discussed this issue with an experienced translator based in South Africa.
She told me:
“People looking for translations should understand that translating is a job, not just a hobby, and translators take pride in doing the work correctly and accurately – putting their stamp and signature on the finished work.”
Have your say – Do you think the complex work of a professional translator is often undervalued?
We go into the detail of how to choose a translation agency in this blog post.