Assistance in translation: why it can be difficult to find a good translator and what to do?
The task of a linguist is often no less difficult than those, work of the author of the primary source himself/herself. If the author needs to create any ideas, content in his mother tongue so that his/her reader correctly understands the meaning and easily perceives the offered information, the translator has a much more complicated task - he/she shall not only correctly understand the text of the source, to get the content and meaning of the original text across to readers, taking into account the features of the target language, but also convey the creator’s thoughts and ideas in a pleasant “easily digestible form”.
If the author of the source text shall understand the stated topic and have a sufficient knowledge of his/her mother tongue, the linguist, “having had a hand” in preparing a really high-quality translation, should not only have a sufficiently high level of knowledge of both languages used, but also a good command of the author’s subject matter, an ability to preserve the nature and stylistics of the material, written by the author, in translation.
How to find a worthy, competent specialist, who is able to work with the subject matter of your texts at a high level, among the mass of imaginary and real professional translators?
What to do
First of all, we should understand what affects the quality of the end product - received translation. In such a case there can be a dependence on the following factors:
- To what extent the original text was competently prepared by the author himself/herself;
- What level of competence the linguist has;
- The specialist’s ability to work with sources, correctly use terminology, professional speech patterns, synonyms etc.;
- To what extent the received translation corresponds to the source material, provided to the translator.
Do not consider business related to provision of translation services as negligible, even if you think that the content to be translated is not difficult and does not require special skills, knowledge or level of competence. When selecting a translator, be persistent in your intentions and demanding in your choice of a linguist. Provide the translator with a small task, constituting a couple of pages to be translated which translation you have at your disposal beforehand in order to check the professional’s level of competence and an availability or lack of factual and stylistic errors in the translated text. Thus, you will be able to conclude how pedantic and responsible the chosen translator(s) is (are) and how deeply he/she (they) is (are) dedicated to your topic, what a master he/she (they) is (are) and whether he/she (they) can convey the content and lightness of the source material correctly and in a way that is understandable.