Tips to the Translator

Tips To the Translator

1 – Do not translate word for word, Translate utterance for utterance.

An utterance is a smallest unit of speech.

It is a continuous piece of speech beginning and ending with a clear pause.

2 – The boundary of an utterance is where you can take a natural breath.

3 – Strive to maintain conscious respect for the style of the author.

4 – Avoid unconsciously working under pressures of your own stylistic preferences.

5 – From the careful analysis of the syntactic relationships try to establish the meaning relationships.

6 – Remember that the relationship between the meaning intended and the language used is inseparable.

7 – Do not hasten to establish a contextual meaning from certain words, which you have picked out, and related in a way that fits your preconceptions.

Try to understand what the writer wants you to understand, not what you are ready to understand.

8 – Some people will say something which is different from what they intended to say or what they have in mind.

Saying exactly what you want to say is not impossible. It is a skill that can be acquired through disciplined practice.

9 – Never try to translate when you do not understand.

8- (5) Google Tools For Translators

5 Google Tools For Translators

How can Google help freelancers organize their workplace? In this post I am listing 5 Google tools that may be useful for any freelancer:
1. Google Docs is a great tool that can easily replace your Microsoft Office software. Once subscribed, you can start creating an unlimited number of Documents, Presentations, Spreadsheets, and Forms from your Google Docs account. You can also upload any kind of text files you can work on then. There is no need to send files via e-mail anymore because you can easily share them with your outsourcer via an easy-to-navigate Google Docs toolbar. Not to mention that you can work on your documents from any computer with a stable Internet connection because files are stored on secure Google servers and not on your computer.
2. Google translator toolkit is a free-to-use translation editor that may be very helpful for freelance translators. It has all the functionalities of a commercial CAT tool with all of the translation memories and glossaries features. Once the text is uploaded, you can choose whether you want to pre-fill the translation box with a translated text or with an original text. Computer translation and online dictionary are available in the toolkit too.
3. Google sites tool enables you to create an unlimited number of professionally looking websites with as many inner pages as you want. You can place your resume there or anything else you want and attach any kind of files that can be downloaded by all visitors. Visitors can also comment your articles and subscribe to site or page changes to keep up-to-date with your website. Easy-to-use WYSIWYG editor makes page creation and editing very simple and it does not require any coding skills.
4. Gmail is a known e-mail server by Google. I have tried dozens of free e-mail service providers but Gmail is something I have been looking for for years. I have easily linked all my e-mail accounts from other providers to my Gmail account to gather all my mail in one place. I have also installed GTalk to know immediately when a new mail is received. Chat online, search your mail, create tasks and events, filter messages and this is not even a half of what you can do at your Gmail account. However, it may be very slow if you use a dial-up connection.
5. Google Calendar is an online calendar where you can create events, add tasks and quick notes, print it all, send and accept invitations, and much more. You can also set up the calendar look, work offline and online, and try any of the labs features such as Google Docs attaching, world clocks, etc.

 

7- Google Cheat Sheet

7- Google Cheat Sheet

When we are talking about professionalism and providing customers with a professional translation then we have to talk about searching tools and how to reach what you are searching for easily, of course all of us use the best search engine “Google”, so every search engine has its guide and Google cheat sheet is the guide of how to use Google:

Google Help : Cheat Sheet

OPERATOR EXAMPLE	FINDS PAGES CONTAINING...
vacation hawaii	The words vacation and Hawaii.
Maui OR Hawaii	Either the word Maui or the word Hawaii
"To each his own"	The exact phrase to each his own
virus –computer	the word virus but NOT the word computer
+sock	Only the word sock, and not the plural or any tenses or synonyms
~auto loan	loan info for both the word auto and its synonyms: truck, car, etc.
define:computer	Definitions of the word computer from around the Web.
red * blue	The words red and blue separated by one or more words.
I'm Feeling Lucky	Takes you directly to first web page returned for your query.

CALCULATOR OPERATORS	MEANING	TYPE INTO SEARCH BOX
+	addition	45 + 39
-	subtraction	45 – 39
*	multiplication	45 * 39
/	division	45 / 39
% of	percentage of	45% of 39
^	raise to a power	2^5 (2 to the 5th power)

ADVANCED OPERATORS	MEANING	WHAT TO TYPE INTO SEARCH BOX (& DESCRIPTION OF RESULTS)
site:	Search only one website	Admission site:www.stanford.edu (Search Stanford Univ. site for admissions info.)
[#]…[#]	Search within a range of numbers	DVD player $100...150 (Search for DVD players between $100 and $150)
link:	linked pages	link:www.stanford.edu (Find pages that link to the Stanford University website.)
info:	Info about a page	info:www.stanford.edu (Find information about the Stanford University website.)
related:	Related pages	Related:www.stanford.edu (Find websites related to the Stanford University website.)

GOOGLE SERVICES	URL	DESCRIPTION
Google Images	images.google.com	Find images related to your search term.
Google News	news.google.com	Read the most up-to-date news stories about your search term.
Froogle	www.froogle.com	Find sites selling the exact product you're looking for.
Google Groups	groups.google.com	Usenet discussion group archive dating back to 1981.
Google Catalogs	catalogs.google.com	Search hundreds of online catalogs.
Google Labs	labs.google.com	Test-drive potential future Google products and services.
Blogger	www.blogger.com	Start your own online journal (or 'blog') with this free self-publishing service.

Actually, what you will use and will help you a lot in translation from these tools are:

1-           "To each his own", this tool will help you find the exact phrase without separating its words so when you type in the search text box = "To each his own" the results will contain only the complete phrase.

2-            Red * Blue, when you type this phrase in the search box you will find every single phrase contain red * blue for example red and blue, red over blue,….The * here refer to a word you don’t remember as some times you need a word that collocate with another word and you just forget what was that word that collocate, for example: sea bed and ocean’s ….. 

So when we search for what collocate with ocean to give the meaning of the bottom of the ocean we search for = ocean’s * , we will find a lot of collocates we choose the best…. We will explain collocations later…