Although translators clearly do a lot of translating, we also do a lot of other things that aren’t necessarily as glamorous or as exciting as conveying someone else’s words into another language for a new audience to understand and enjoy.
We have come up with a list of 10 things that translators do (besides translate), here it is!
Translators of all languages can carry out any or all of the following tasks, which include:
10. Researching products and services featured in the documents to be translated to gain a better understanding of what they are and how they work in order to accurately describe these features in the translation.
9. Discussing translation requirements with clients and project managers and providing quotes for the work, as necessary.
8. Communicating and coordinating with clients and project managers in order to notify them of progress and deliver translations on time.
7. Compiling, managing and updating terminology lists and databases to keep specialized and field-specific terms consistent.
6. Acting as a second pair of eyes when reviewing and/or making changes that improve upon another translator’s translation.
5. Learning from the feedback of other translators and continuously improving their skills and understanding of their source and target languages.
4. Devising other original ways of sharing the content and meaning of the original documents without translating the entire document, such as summarizing.
3. Adapting a novel, short story, play, song or other piece of art to suit the target audience’s cultural environment.
2. Cultivating an appreciation for the books, newspapers, magazines, and other literary media in their target and source languages.
1. Continuing to learn and improve upon their work… as they say, you are only as good as your last translation!
Have one to add? Leave us a note in the comments. We love hearing from you!
You’ve provided a good list, here are a few more examples of what professional translators do:- Improve the client’s source text for accuracy (spelling, punctuation, grammar), consistency (terminology, factual coherence) and clarity & style.- Save the client time & money by helping said client implement more effective and efficient translation project management procedures.- Protect and promote the client’s reputation and image in other languages and other cultures (watch those translation bloopers – they can cost a fortune and damage reputations).And much more!
Those are great ideas, Patricia! I think number 3: "Protect and promote the client’s reputation and image in other languages and other cultures" is especially important, and something that some translation customers don’t necessarily take into account when they go to use machine translation software or even hire an inexperienced translator.Thanks for reading our blog!- Ruby