Five Translation Hacks that You Will Love
Imagine you are in a room with ten people all speaking different languages.
How long will it take you to understand each other?
Even if you have the best interpreters around, you’ll likely end up spending hours, if not days, trying to get the message across.
Frustrating, isn’t it?
We know. But hey: At least you can look at people, read their body language, and clarify things whenever something becomes too baffling.
And now imagine that there is no one around but you. You are sitting face-to-face with sentences, trying to figure out their meaning and paraphrase them correctly without compromising the message’s meaning.
This might sound easy, especially in the era of Google Translate, but reality tells a different story. Translation mistakes are omnipresent, distorting meanings and confusing readers.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. We compiled a list of translation lifehacks that will improve the quality of your translations in a flash.
Forget about perfectionism
Languages encapsulate worldviews, and that is what makes them so tricky to work with. There is no translator out there who can to fully translate thoughts — and that’s ok. Your goal is to ensure that the accuracy of words and their connotations stands at 97%-98%. To accomplish it, make sure to use all the literary devices and tricks possible to make the text either more emotional (think inversions) or reduce it by making shorter, less evocative sentences. This is especially important if you’re working with languages from the opposite sides of the descriptiveness spectrum. For example, English and French.
Create a good table
To translate effectively, you must create a proper table that’ll help you compare two or more texts simultaneously. Word or Google Docs, although commonly used, are not always the optimal choice. A canvas-based tool like xTiles might sound like an unorthodox alternative, but, trust us, it works. All thanks to the built-in customizable cards effectively that replace the inconvenient Word tables. Expandable and moveable, you can use them to translate texts in real-time and share them with editors or proofreaders.
Don’t compare texts all the time
Because you might get mentally stuck in two worldviews at the same. That’s not what you should be aiming for: You need to do your best to escape at least one of them for some time. We suggest that you, first, read a paragraph and process its meaning. Then, think about how you can express the same meaning in a different language and jot down the text fast. As a rule, the first things that come to your mind are the best ones.
Once you’re done, re-check the original paragraph. Have you preserved the meaning? If not, correct the misinterpretations and move on to the next one.
Edit and re-edit
“Write drunk, edit sober”. Although Hemingway has never authored this popular yet cheeky line, it doesn’t mean that it’s void of meaning. Naturally, alcohol shouldn’t be the driving force of your professional career. But it’s in your best interest to translate texts in a relaxed atmosphere from time to time. Even if your first draft contains imperfections all over, it’s ok as long as you “sober up” afterward and edit the piece thoroughly.
We especially recommend that you ruthlessly eliminate all superfluous repetitions ubiquitous in highly descriptive languages like Italian and Russian. Otherwise, you will end up with a weird, and quite frankly, annoying text that you will yearn to forget.
Put the text aside
Unless you’re in a rush, we advise that you sleep on it. After several hours of work, the human brain is unable to spot mistakes and discrepancies. Grammarly and other similar services can only go so far as to show whether you have made a basic mistake. But they can’t spot a messy train of thought or superfluity. If the text is of paramount importance, don’t hesitate to print it out: It is much easier to locate oddities on real paper.
We hope that these tips will help you avoid getting lost in translation.
Enjoyed the article? Make sure to check out our other pieces, too. The Art of Being Concise and Doing Better Research: Top Five Tips.
