Tips for a first-time translator
June 24, 2010 12:20 PM Subscribe
Tips on translating a bunch of documents quickly and efficiently?
I've just been asked to translate approximately 40 documents from Spanish (my native language) to English. For school, I've done a few translations here and there, but never in this scale. I know it's probably not a lot, but I'm not a pro at this and I have about a week to do it, plus, I'll be with my family at the beach so I want to be able to spread my work out to about 5 documents a day and work as quickly and efficiently as possible. (The documents are high-school course documents and activities, so the "level of difficulty" doesn't bother me, just the time.)
Any tips from experienced translators on what to do and what not to do when doing this?
I've just been asked to translate approximately 40 documents from Spanish (my native language) to English. For school, I've done a few translations here and there, but never in this scale. I know it's probably not a lot, but I'm not a pro at this and I have about a week to do it, plus, I'll be with my family at the beach so I want to be able to spread my work out to about 5 documents a day and work as quickly and efficiently as possible. (The documents are high-school course documents and activities, so the "level of difficulty" doesn't bother me, just the time.)
Any tips from experienced translators on what to do and what not to do when doing this?
If there are a lot of repetitions, it might be worth downloading WordFast (the trial version is free). I do a lot of translations (English to French) and it has been a very useful tool once I learned how to use it.
posted by OLechat at 12:23 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by OLechat at 12:23 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
How many words are in these documents? What's the subject matter? With that language pair, and you being new to translating, I'd guesstimate about 2000 words a day, maybe less, for general subject matter, as far as volume. I'm an experienced French to English (English being my native language; normally you're only supposed to translate towards your native language, but yeah, I know there are exceptions occasionally) and can average about 3000 words/day for stuff I'm familiar with. Any more than that and your brain starts wigging out, which means errors you wouldn't usually make are introduced, and so you end up spending more time in the proofreading stage, which, you guessed it, brings any seemingly-higher translation volume back down. (The worst translation I've ever seen was done by a man with an impressive CV, great experience, who claimed, proudly, that he'd finished the 6,000-word document I'd assigned him in a single day. I had to redo it from scratch.)
Ditto on the repetitions, though you may not necessarily need translation software. I work in a company where I'm often not on my own PC for last-minute translation needs, and have become proficient in strategically thought-out search/replace. It can work if you're very careful (be sure to select the option for entire words, for instance, else you find yourself having to deal with half-translated compound words).
posted by fraula at 2:59 PM on June 24, 2010
Ditto on the repetitions, though you may not necessarily need translation software. I work in a company where I'm often not on my own PC for last-minute translation needs, and have become proficient in strategically thought-out search/replace. It can work if you're very careful (be sure to select the option for entire words, for instance, else you find yourself having to deal with half-translated compound words).
posted by fraula at 2:59 PM on June 24, 2010
It's midnight here and I forgot two important points: first, if you do go with just search/replace, favor long strings rather than single words. This helps cut down on the frequency of "uhhh, what was that word originally?" For the same reason, keep the originals in their original language and rename the translated files so they're separate. Second, absolutely create a glossary, whether in a simple text file or using translation software. You'll thank yourself for it.
posted by fraula at 3:06 PM on June 24, 2010
posted by fraula at 3:06 PM on June 24, 2010
Any chance you could outsource this? Break it up into small batches and farm it out to an online translation service, or Spanish students. Collect the results and spend your time verifying and clarifying.
posted by wrnealis at 4:25 PM on June 24, 2010
posted by wrnealis at 4:25 PM on June 24, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks for your answer, fraula. I'm sure it's going to help me. Mind if I memail you if I get stuck with something?
OLechat, I'd never heard of Wordfast but I'll be sure to check it out.
Oh and I don't really have the time and money resources to outsource this, it's almost a favor since they're paying me just like $300 dollars to do it and like I said, I have like a week.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 8:20 PM on June 24, 2010
OLechat, I'd never heard of Wordfast but I'll be sure to check it out.
Oh and I don't really have the time and money resources to outsource this, it's almost a favor since they're paying me just like $300 dollars to do it and like I said, I have like a week.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 8:20 PM on June 24, 2010
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posted by CrazyLemonade at 12:21 PM on June 24, 2010