To Experienced translators?

Question

I have been working as a translator for a while. I still make mistakes, or my wording is too long. How can I improve my skill better? Can even an experienced translator sometimes make mistakes?

Answer 1

Experienced translators still make plenty of mistakes - don't worry about it. I have the same problem with wordings that come out too long. It's usually because there's a different, shorter way to say something either that I don't know or that hasn't occurred to me. So often I'll find myself writing a sentence that didn't seem to be completely 'on'. I'll still send it and hope no one notices, but I'll keep the sentence in the back of my head and then, while reading or listening to the target language, I often find myself saying, 'Yes! That's it! That's what I should have said!' Then I find that I rarely forget and, if a similar phrase comes up later, I'm more prepared to translate it easily.

I also try not to be shy with speakers of both L1 and L2 and will often ask them to take a quick look and tell me what they think. If the language that you're translating into is not your own, you'll probably produce sentences that seem 'wooden' - by mixing formal and informal, for example. I never ask people to look at what I've written in detail, just to give their impressions. And ı tend not to ask them to correct my mistakes, just to say 'I don't like this sentence, I don't like that sentence'. If you don't do it too often, usually they'll be happy to help!

Hope this helps...

Answer 2

yes - but proofreading helps a lot

practice translating everything you hear or read, the more you do it the better you get