Becoming a Translator

By Douglas H. Robinson
Book Summary The CTP team created this summary to help our future certified professional translators with complimentary reading information about the uses of the book Becoming a Translator by Douglas Robinson. Here we have an easy way of reviewing the most important tips from the author of the book that will be critical for a successful career as a professional translator.

Chapter 1 External Knowledge: The Users View In this first chapter, the author mentions the importance of knowing both translator and client needs and questions. He explains the differences between the point of view of the translator and the client: Internal and external knowledge of both the translator and the client: one from the internal perspective of the translator and the other from the reader. Reliability the translation and translator should be reliable and accurate for the users. Timeliness based on a similar demand as reliability; have a sense of speed without compromising the quality of work. Cost reliable, fast, and accurate. Trade-offs a perfect translation in a short time costs more.

Chapter 2 Internal Knowledge: The Translators View Translators are usually skilled and dedicated people who have the ability to remember words easily, enjoy reading and learning foreign languages/cultures, and sometimes live abroad experiencing other cultures first-hand.
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A good translator provides fast and reliable translation, often while working for average pay. This somewhat introductory work helps him/her to build up his/her professional reputation. Here we have three internal requirements needed to become a translator: Professional pride Reliability, involvement with the profession, dedication, and working ethically while carrying out work. This helps to assure the translators reliability. Income Professional translators trade services for payment, just like in any other profession. Speed and income are more usually the concern of translation freelancers. Enjoyment Enjoying the translation job is the most important quality a translator must have.

Chapter 3 The Translator as Learner In this chapter, the author provides a good way of thinking about the balance between reliability and speed. As we do our daily chores, our body and mind are used to performing the many different actions and movements that we do each and every day. Your brain and body get familiar and accustomed to your daily routine; often times, we run on autopilot, performing tasks out of repetition. This also relates to the process of becoming a good translator. Translating will flow more naturally and you will be able to get more work done in less time as you do more translations; as you practice, your brain will get used to words, texts, and terms. All your translating experiences will be stored in your memory and you will always be able to recall and use them when needed. This will also allow you to provide a faster and more effective translation. What you remember relies mostly on the context that it is presented in, including emotional and intellectual associations. There are also different styles of learning to translate. They include: Musical intelligence gained by hearing, performing, and composing music. The ability to discern and differentiate relations in a spatial intelligence style. Body language and understanding physical action. Dancers, speakers, athletes, etc., all learn and portray information through this understanding. Emotional intelligence or motivational intelligence, and helping yourself and others to achieve goals. Logical intelligence: perceiving abstract representative symbols. Linguistic: the ability to learn a single foreign language and its complexities.
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Location and social environment can also have a big impact on the learning process. Some will learn their best in a more natural process. Experience and learning are linked together, which means some like to learn by doing an activity, others by watching someone lecture, others by simply reading a textbook. The variety in the learning environment as well as a more quiet and structured environment, will influence the learners way of learning. That means learners could adjust themselves to either a noisy or quiet environment and still be able to soak in as much information as they need. Independent learners will learn best when theyre alone while dependent ones will improve their learning process by either working in pairs or with a group of other learners. Many learners have visual learning skill, where they create or see actual images that will help them in their learning process. Others learn through listening and responding orally to peoples voices or their own voice. Some learn by figuring the process of learning out without really knowing what they are looking for. There are four different ways of processing the information thats being learned: Contextual-global focusing on the main context of the information and not only on the details. Sequential-detailed/linear - taking one step at a time and focusing on just one single task. Conceptual theoretically; talking and thinking. Concrete the best learning takes place by performing an actual activity.

Translators will also respond to different ways of processing information based on other peoples actions and expectations, by matching similarity or circumstances, by opposing their individualities, by reacting to an unsuccessful trial, or by taking a slow and conscious action.

Chapter 4 The Process of Translation In the fourth chapter of this book, the author focuses on the method translators use to translate the source text into a perfect target text. Most translation processes take place when translators are not even thinking about them. That is because some translators create a habit of translation that flows naturally when they execute their work. By practicing and translating, you are also establishing a habit of how a translation should be done. That information is

instantly stored in your memory which facilitates the accuracy of the translation in the target language and also helps you translate texts much faster. The process of translation: Translation action; intuitive translation. Editing think about what you have translated and find a balance between your intuition and certainty. Assimilation store what you have learned from the whole process in your memory and make this information useful for future works.

It is also recommended that all translators should pursue specific training and should learn through their personal experiences and challenges.

Chapter 5 Experience This chapter discusses the experiences that have happened in the past and the experiences that are still taking place in the world that contribute to peoples daily lives. This chapter ties them into the life of a translator. Today, most of the information we have access to, is a result of many other experiences. These are either an assertive or failed attempt to interact between one person or a group with society. What kind of experience is important for a professional translator? Why? Experience in different cultures, habits, different languages and their context, and the possible links between one or more foreign languages is crucial to successful translating. The similarity and background of words can help a translator understand contextual meanings so that sge/he can use them in their perfect form and term. Practicing is not the only way to achieve perfection, but it definitely helps a translator to gain experience in his career. The more words a translator is exposed to and the more texts she translates, the better she becomes in the translation field.

Chapter 6 People

Words, their meanings, people, and the use of language are all interlinked. The best way of understanding the meaning of words is to actually experience real conversation with people. You started your experiences with people in life during childhood and this has continued since then through family, friends, and random people. We can almost automatically convert their words into our own thoughts and even feel what it is like to be one of them. We also have the ability to notice bodily expressions and gestures that can easily be associated with the persons words and situations. Most of the time we make conclusions about people based on the first impression; that can be vague and uncertain most of the time. Once we have more experience with specific people, it becomes easier to observe and predict their actions. Since our job as a translator is to translate texts from the source to their target language, knowing and experiencing people is very important because it helps you understand their needs and expectations of you to create a perfect translation.

Chapter 7 Working People When we focus on the translators work, the most important thing in performing her job is the way she manages the terms that are used for her translations. People are more likely to learn different terms when talking, chatting, or writing to other people. And once they are stored in our memories, we can easily recall them as we associate words with our everyday experiences. Working as a translator is just like pretending to be someone else. We are always using our imagination to feel and understand what it is like to be another person with another type of job or occupation. That is to say that when we are translating, we pretend to be the person who actually wrote the source text so that we can translate it in its best form using the terms that will fit perfectly into the target language. Being experienced in different types of jobs can help you better understand the terms and sources which are very important skills for a translators life and will help you develop your own techniques to acquire a better way of translating.

Chapter 8 Languages Language is the very core and complexity factor of all translation aspects. The importance of language is not the social context but its meanings and how it is learned and taught by people.
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Learning a foreign language requires a lot of thinking and also a lot of guessing. Translators may stumble onto words they have never seen or translated before. The process of searching for the right meaning of a word and looking for the word or phrase that best describes the context that is being used, can be helpful for a translators future work. While performing a new task and looking for the word or phrase that best describes the context that is being used, he can easily retrieve words that have been stored in his memory due to previous efforts. In some cases, translators will put more effort into finding the right words for their translation according to the clients wishes or even to satisfy their own way of thinking about how a text has to be translated into a target language.

Chapter 9 Social Networks We could not think about translators without knowing that they are also human beings and that without a social network, the process of learning a foreign language would not be possible. Here are some important facts that will help you understand the translators role: Pretending to be a translator an experienced professional translator talks like a translator and is certain about his work so you can often become a better translator by pretending to be one. Pretending to be a source-language reader and target language writer you make your guesses and do your best to present a successful translation. Pretending to belong to a language-use community reading and writing like a member of a social group would. The process of becoming a translator is a lot more complex than just learning a foreign language, its words, and their meanings. A translator should know the interaction between languages and cultures. They should also be based in social communities where two or more languages are being used as this experience gives the translator the opportunity to establish communicative connections with people in different social networks.

Chapter 10 - Cultures Cultural differences and knowledge are the most important subjects in the translators training for process and translation theory. The focus here is to understand that different languages sometimes consist of words and sentences that usually do not have a specific word or term to
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be translated into a target language. This can make the translators work both challenging and fascinating. These cultural differences travel through time and space and from one place to another, influencing the way languages are being spoken or written by the people and their communities. As translators, we are trained to be intuitive and to understand cultural differences. The more we understand and retain certain information, the more we learn about how cultures work. By the time you become a professional translator, it is likely that you already know your way around foreign languages and probably get along with foreign cultures as well. You will have the ability to mediate between cultures and to translate them in their most genuine form from the source to the target language.

Chapter 11 - When Habit Fails The ability to analyze a source text linguistically and culturally does not always come naturally to translators; it is only conquered by experience and practice. The importance of analyzing a text before handing it to a client is taught to help translators learn analytical procedures to improve the speed and time required for texts to be translated. There are six facts a translator should know: Never assume you understand the source text perfectly words may seem easier in the text than when spoken. Never assume that your understanding of the source text is detailed enough. Always analyze a text by its type, genre, etc. Always analyze the source text to make sure you know what is being said. Always analyze the grammar relation between source and target text to make sure of any adjustment that should be made. Always pay attention to the clients needs when you have been asked to translate a text and also consider the needs of those who will be reading the translated text. When a piece of translation work goes wrong, most translators will feel frustrated with their inability to solve the problem and will not be able to perform their job effectively until this problem is solved. When the problem is solved, they feel motivated and ready to do their next assignment even though they might still have concerns and remaining doubts.

Translation is applying the exact meaning of a text from one language to another without violating its context. If there are any changes made to a text by a translator, it will be from his own capacity of editing the text. A good translator always translates his texts carefully, consciously, and analytically. He has trained intuition that he can rely on because of many years of experience gained in memorizing vocabulary and cultural knowledge.