Foundations of Translation - Lesson 4

(These are the notes for a course on Foundations of Translation I am teaching at the University College of the University of Denver. I'll be publishing the notes for the various lessons during the next few weeks. A short description of the course can be found here).

Translation in Practice

Translation Process

A - SL writing

B - Translation

1. Read SL Text
   
   • Read to understand
     
   • Identify unknown words/terms
     
2. Research terminology
   
   • Online
     
   • Reference works
     
   • Decide on competing usage (Google as large collection of corpora)
     
3. Write translation
   
   Question yourself
   
   • Am I sure this is the best translation?
     
   • Does this sound right and familiar only because I always translated it like that?
     
   Different techniques
   
   • Use CAT tools
     
   • Write directly in word processor
     
   • Overwrite original
     
   • Write first draft with optional wording, to be self-edited later
     
     Example:
     
     • Write first/rough draft using optional/preliminary/candidate terms/words...
       
4. Self-edit translation
   
   Read your translation
   
   • Does it read like a similar document written by a native speaker of the TL would read?
     If it does not make sense, there is a problem (and "but the original did not make sense, either" or "but I used the same words as the original" are not good excuses)
     
   • If possible, set it aside after the first draft, to look at it with fresh eyes
     
   • Send translation to editor
     

C - Quality Control steps

• Editing
  
  Review translation against SL text
  
  • Errors of meaning
    
  • Errors of form
    
  • Errors of compliance
    
  • Preferential changes
    
  Different methods
  
  • Track changes
    
  • Change translation directly
    
• Proofing
  
  • Review only the TL text (checking the SL
    only if necessary)
    
• Other quality control steps (These take place all during the process, from terminology work onwards)
  
  • Verification that translation is complete (all files translated)
    
  • Other QC steps
    

D - QA

Techniques used in order to assess the effectiveness of QC work

• Translation quality measurement
  
  • Translation Quality Blog
    
  • TranslationQuality.com
    

Technology, tools, reference materials and publications

Hardware

Computer: PC or Mac?

• PC environment much more widespread
  
  • Greater availability of CAT tools
    
  • Easier to meet customers' requirements
    
  • Cheaper computers
    
• Mac preferable when working with graphic designers
  

Desktop or laptop?

• Laptop permits to work anywhere
  
• Desktops
  
  • More powerful
    
  • Cheaper
    
  • More robust
    

Peripherals

• Scanner (Necessary if much work is received as hardcopy)
  
• Printer (Desktop lasers are the most economical choice)
  
• External hard disk (For removable back-ups)
  
• UPS (Uninterruptible power supply)
  

Fast Internet connection

• Essential when working with large files
  
• Useful when surfing the web for research purposes
  

Software

• Normal software tools (Office software)
  
  • MS Office
    
    • Specialized search techniques using wildcards (Regular Expressions)
      
    • Using Excel to create "ad hoc" translation tools for the translation of software strings (especially when there are size limitations and such)
      
    • Using Excel to create translation memories from text glossaries
      
  • Open Office
  • Star Office
    
• CAT (Computer-Aided Translation) tools
  
  • SDL
    
    Trados
    
    • Currently the market leader
      
    • Buggy
      
    • No free "lite" version
      
    SDLX
    
    • "Lite" version available (Works only with projects created by customer)
      
  • Déjà Vu
    
  • Omega T
    
    • Freeware
      
  • Wordfast
    
    • Mostly compatible with Trados
      
    • Cheaper than most other CAT tools
      
    • Works with the Mac
      
  • Transit
    
  • Other translation memory tools
    
• Terminology management tools
  
  • Terminology management tools, such as MultiTerm (SDL)
    
  • Terminology extraction tools
    
    • Various different tools to aid in term extraction and terminology management, including expensive Trados and SDL programs
      
  • Concordancers
    
    • TextSTAT
      
    • aConCorde (Arabic and English concordance software)
      
• Additional software tools
  
  • Localization tools
    
    • Catalyst
      
    • Multilizer
      
    • Other localization tools
      
  • Specialized search tools
    
    • Search and Replace
      
    • Grep
      
    • XBench
      
  • Adobe Acrobat
    
    • Professional (Permits editing, annotating, etc.)
      
    • Reader (Freeware)
      
  • Text editors
    
    • Windows' Note Pad is free
      
    • TextPad
      
    • Ultra Edit
      
  • DTP programs
    
    • Framemaker (Text-intensive documents)
      
    • Quark
      
    • InDesign
      
  • HTML editors
    
    • Front Page
      
    • DreamWeaver
      
    • Etc.
  • Graphic editing tools
    • Photoshop
      
    • Photoshop Elements (Cheaper alternative, permits editing text in Photoshop files)
      
    • Illustrator
      
  • OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tools, such as Omnipage (Useful when one receives documents to translate in hardcopy or pdf, and needs to transform them into editable files)
    
  • Word counting software
    
  • Translation project management tools (e.g., Translation Office 3000
    
  • Clipboard utilities (e.g., ClipMate)
    
  • Screen capture tools (e.g., Gadwin PrintScreen
    
• Google and other online search aids
  
• MT (Machine Translation)
  
  • Babelfish
    
  • Systran
    

Reference materials

• Jost Zetzche's Translator's Tool Box
  
• Dictionaries
  
  • Printed dictionaries
    
  • Dictionaries on CD-ROM
    
    • Differences v. paper dictionaries
      
    • More powerful searches
      
    • WordWeb Pro
      
  • Online dictionaries
    
    • Visual Thesaurus
      
    • Diccionario de la Real Academia
      
• Glossaries
  
  • Do-it-yourself (See above, "Software for terminology management")
    
  • Online glossaries (WARNING: separate the wheat from the chaff!)
    
  • WikiWords
    
• Other reference materials
  
  • Microsoft Terminology Translations
    
  • Wikipedia
    

Assignments for next class

Assignment: read chapters 6 and 7 in "Becoming a Translator", and Chapter 4 of "How To Succeed As A Freelance Translator"

Notes from the previous lessons in this course:

Foundations of Translation - Course Description
Foundations of Translation - Lesson 1: Difference between translation and interpreting
Foundations of Translation - Lesson 2: Jobs for translators
Foundations of Translation - Lesson 3: Characteristics of a good translator