Comments on: Qualifications for A Translator

By: Sean

Sean — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:57:12 +0000

Translating a serious Chinese text is like pulling teeth for me. I remember when I was seriously trying to learn Chinese, I could spend hours trying to read a simple children’s book. I wouldn’t even want to imagine how someone could translate hundreds of pages of technical documents into Chinese.

I think the Chinese language is not incredibly difficult to learn how to speak poorly before you can start communicating. Learning thousands of characters takes hours and hours of work.

By: chriswaugh_bj

chriswaugh_bj — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:17:01 +0000

@Jianjun: Thanks.

@Nadine: I suspect that most of the trouble I have with translation is the lack of that training you speak of. In my degree, my lecturers occasionally offered a few words of advice, and that was it.

By: Jianjun

Jianjun — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:35:59 +0000

@Chris, actually I love what you’ve translated and put on your blog. I’m trying to do some Chinese -> English translations now, but for fun other than work.

@Nadine I especially highlight these words from you:

It was acquiring a foolproof methodology, forcing us to ask ourselves the right questions and stopping us from jumping into translation without thinking (researching, etc.) first. That training was ruthless in many ways, but necessary.

By: Nadine

Nadine — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:32:17 +0000

The single most important thing I came away with from my translators & interpreters’ school (E.S.I.T. in Paris) was not the diploma, but getting proper training.

It was acquiring a foolproof methodology, forcing us to ask ourselves the right questions and stopping us from jumping into translation without thinking (researching, etc.) first. That training was ruthless in many ways, but necessary.

Armed with that kind of training, you can more boldly venture into new areas, because you know exactly where you stand, where you want to go, and what you need to do about it. In other words, your professional ethics guides you.

By: chriswaugh_bj

chriswaugh_bj — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:30:00 +0000

Ai! Translation was always my weak point in every language I studied, and it’s one thing I’m working on a lot with my Chinese study- perhaps at least in part because I know it’s such a weak point for me. I don’t understand how you guys make a living out of this, it breaks my brain and fries my circuits just translating a simple newspaper article. Yeah, I see how it’s a life-long process, and I love the challenge of that, but, ai, it’s hard.