Only Human Translators
Aug 16, 2021 |
My recent consideration of my translation process and the interesting online discussions that followed got me thinking. Why is it that some translators manage a more or less finished first draft, while others, like me, need a rough version which we then refine again... 
Jul 4, 2021 |
I couldn’t have been more pleased with the reaction to my last post a few weeks ago. Lots of people have told me, here on my blog and on social media, that they were delighted someone had started talking about the translation process. Some were even kind enough... 
Jun 2, 2021 |
With everything that’s written and said about translation, it’s rather strange that there is so little discussion of the actual process of translation itself. Maybe translators fear that if they reveal their secrets anyone will be able to copy them.... 
Mar 28, 2021 |
A few weeks ago, a translator raised a question in the Standing Up Facebook group. Quoting precedents from the content writing industry, he asked whether translators could or should have different quality standards for different clients with different budgets. In... 
Mar 1, 2021 |
At some point during 2021, it will be my 20th anniversary as a translator. I only wish I could be more specific, but I can’t honestly remember when I did my first translation or who the client was. All I can say with any degree of certainty was that it is... 
Feb 4, 2021 |
Every translation requires it: the essential balance between the two basic impulses governing our profession, and probably many other lines of work. On one hand there is the urge to do the best possible job – the perfectionist desire to check everything and make... 
Nov 24, 2020 |
I’m sure I’m not alone among translators in hating invoicing. And what I hate even more than invoicing is that day after I send all my bills out, because it’s then that the queries start. “The total’s not right in this one.”... 
Oct 26, 2020 |
A few weeks ago, there was a post in a translators’ Facebook group that appalled me. A woman translator described how she was telephoned by a supposed colleague with what was apparently a job offer only for the conversation to deteriorate into him making... 
Sep 28, 2020 |
Many types of translation can be automated nowadays, with varying degrees of success. But there are still areas where the machines will always have their work cut out to compete with human beings. I was reminded of this in a job I was doing last week that also made me... 
Aug 28, 2020 |
One of the few positive things that’s happened to me in this truly appalling year of 2020 is that I’ve become a published author for the first time. So apologies to those of you who don’t like to hear the sound of someone blowing their own trumpet,... 
