Creative Aspects of a Translator’s job

Travelling day and night, jumping from one time zone to another and still working with utmost perfection is quite an impossible job to do. But some great professionals out there, who have dedicated their heart and soul to their respective jobs, don’t mind taking up the challenge. While at times there occurs some bumps and breaks in the work delivered, but otherwise the overall outputs delivered are par the excellence. Similar is the job profile of translators, every now and then these people need to jump from one language to another to deliver the message effectively and efficiently within the stipulated time frame. Due to some situations gone wrong and errors committed unknowingly by some of the professionals as it would have happened in any profession, biased notions such as translator as traitor have started prevailing. Working hard in the shadows of prejudice and still delivering brilliant outputs is a tough task but their bag pack filled with a combination of skills and a hint of their personal creativity help the translation professionals in better dealing and beating out the challenges of their profession.

Here is an admirable set of skills that expert language translation professionals possess with their binge of creativity manifested in it:

1.      Ability to connect the dots

A translator has to go on connecting many dots before finally achieving the amazing end results. The dots that language translators need to connect harmoniously together include factors like feel of language, translation and writing skills, in-depth contextual knowledge, ability to read between the lines and other technical aspects of the work such as CAT tools, glossaries, resources and others.

2.      Creatively perceptive

Language translation professionals are a great artist that not just transfers the text from one language to another but also elaborates, adapts and metamorphoses information in source language in adequate formats of the target language. Like any other artists, translators too need to have a creative perspective of their own otherwise they would be lost in the translations. They need to soak up the language available around them and then modify the solutions accordingly.

3.      Language as a creative tool

Language is indisputably a tool to highlight a linguistic expert’s creative approaches in translation. Just like an artist uses colours, make their varied combinations to serve the purpose of an art project, translators similarly use language as a personalized tool to fulfill their respective work demands.  Considering the fact that translators are champions in dealing with at least two of different languages, their creativity gets stimulated even more. They are enriched by languages and know exactly how to fill the void between the two.  

Translators’ creativity is evident on many levels but is in urgent need of true as well as honest attention and appreciation, first and foremost by translators themselves, and then by the rest of the world.  They are not copycats but creators of an art form and this is the message about the profession that they need to firmly and confidently disperse out to the world.

Decoding the Job Role of a Language Translator

Commonly seen, when asked about the role of a language translator, people possibly answer it as a work profile wherein the job of the professional is to simply convert the text from the source language into the target language. However, the job includes many activities beyond this scope. As written in his book Translation as a Profession, author Roger Chriss defines the job of language translator as language professionals who are also applied linguists, competent writers, diplomats and educated amateurs. 

Like linguists, the translators need to be well equipped with knowledge regarding both the source and target language to adequately handle the nuances, terminologies, colloquialism and any other developments in the languages. Similar to the writers, they are required to be well-accustomed with the long working hours that mainly include developing and researching subjects that interest the masses and language trends that comforts the majority’s lifestyle and educational levels. Coming to the similarity of job attribute shared by both the translating professionals and diplomats is that while working they both need to be extremely careful regarding the cultural and social differences that exist in the society. Finally, as educated amateurs, they are required to know every minute knicks and knacks of the subjects they deal with. Another important aspect of a good translating agent’s job is to be a good communicator who adequately communicates with the client to know their views and ideologies in framing the desired translation works.

Overall, multitasking is the key of acing the translation job and here is a list of some additional works that come into account of a good translating professional’s work attributes:

·         Maintain the intended meaning of the message as conveyed in the source language

·         Follow the word choice and style sheet of target language as provided by the client or as followed by the majority of the target audience.

·         Try to maintain as much balance as possible between the formatting of source documents and the translated one.

·         Carefully assess the regional preferences of target language as it majorly affects the phrasing and grammar.

·         Ensure overall clarity and accuracy of the translated works.

As much as an art Translation is also a science. The functioning in the industry keeps on changing from time to time as per the trends prevailing in the literature markets. Machines haven’t yet reached that level of expertise to process the localized aspects and grammar nuances of languages that keep on changing from region to region irrespective of the languages. Even after so many years of translation industry into being, human translation is still its necessity. But similar to the machines, humans too can do an error that is why any reputed translation agency in Delhi or around the world has a thorough quality assurance process in place.

How to Avoid Common Errors in Translation?

It’s the innate human tendency to make mistakes. Barely, it matters, how many times you try to avoid them, and some mistakes are meant to happen all over again. In the language translation process, even the slightest mistake done by the translator can cost heavy on the author’s pocket. Below is the handy-dandy list of helpful tips to avoid making errors throughout the translation process.

Use Computer Assisted Tools whenever required

In language translation agencies in Delhi, there are tons of work projects that translators need to complete on time. A large number of projects lined up make the translators lose concentration due to tiredness and exertion. Amidst several yawns and open-eyed naps, mistakes in translation are way too common. Well, it’s time language translators in Delhi need to accept this natural reality and try different methods to correct the situation. There a number of quality CAT tools that spot the common mistakes so that the human language translators can actually focus on more important and complex translation tasks. Terminology, the accuracy of the spelling, sentence structure, glossaries, and language consistency can be easily checked by the smart CAT tools. Another perk of using CAT tools is that language translators in Delhi can improve their efficiency and productivity in translation.

Check with client glossaries

The editable files and client glossaries that are given by the clients are converted into a translatable format which makes CAT tools to analyze the content and highlight the glossary matches or any text similar to any of the previously translated text. The translator can then review the glossary matches to check for the right ones. According to language translators in Delhi who use CAT tools in translation, some glossary matches found may refer to completely different meanings. Therefore, it’s the translator’s job to check what works in which context in order to comply with the glossaries provided by the clients.

Quality Assurance Tools for Better Quality Check

After translating the client’s documents, the translated version is subject to final editing and proofreading, which is the quality assurance stage. Expert language translators in Delhi use QA tools for checking the overall quality of the translated version. Such tools not only help detect the errors in the document but also allow the translators and project managers to spot the terms or untranslated terms. QA tools instantly look up to 1000 word page in only a matter of seconds and detect from smallest to big errors quickly, and produce a final QA report suggesting the errors and improvements to get corrected and done respectively. Almost every language translation company uses the QA tools for assuring only the quality translation of the document.