How do you train yourself? Thread poster: Jaroslav Tavgen
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Hi everybody!
I would like to test and train my English skills by translating texts from my mother tongue to English (for personal use only).
But there is an issue: translation is a subjective thing. If you want to improve in math you solve math problems where you know there are right and wrong answers. Not the case with translating: If I translated some text differently than the other translator it doesn't mean he was right and I was wrong - maybe we just chose differe... See more Hi everybody!
I would like to test and train my English skills by translating texts from my mother tongue to English (for personal use only).
But there is an issue: translation is a subjective thing. If you want to improve in math you solve math problems where you know there are right and wrong answers. Not the case with translating: If I translated some text differently than the other translator it doesn't mean he was right and I was wrong - maybe we just chose different ways.
That's why I found translating articles (or books, or posts in social media) which were previously translated from English useless: the original source generally uses completely different wording and structure than translated text, and I can't blame myself for not finding it out.
How do you overcome this problem? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Read and listen to texts written by native speakers of English. | Jun 8, 2023 |
I think that the best way to improve your English is to read and listen to books, articles, web sites, podcasts, radio, TV, and movies in English. You can find transcripts of the dialog of movies and podcasts and memorize sections of them. Watch movies with the subtitles turned on. Repeat what you hear. Keep a journal of your life and your reactions to the world around you in English. Write stories about events in your life in English. Join a Facebook group and make comments in English.
... See more I think that the best way to improve your English is to read and listen to books, articles, web sites, podcasts, radio, TV, and movies in English. You can find transcripts of the dialog of movies and podcasts and memorize sections of them. Watch movies with the subtitles turned on. Repeat what you hear. Keep a journal of your life and your reactions to the world around you in English. Write stories about events in your life in English. Join a Facebook group and make comments in English.
If your goal is to translate technical texts into English, read articles about the topic of your choice that have been published in English. As you're writing, if you question whether the particular string of words you're about to write has ever been written before, Google it. Either you'll find out that 85,000 other people have also used those very same words, or you'll find that no one has, but you might also be presented with other ways of saying what you're trying to say. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kay Denney 
France
Local time: 15:20
French to English
You can also try looking at multi-lingual websites. Try translating a page, then look at the English equivalent of that page.
I would suggest the websites of entities like the UN, WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO etc, which normally are well-translated. And also websites of any entity that uses English by default, so you can be sure the English sounds natural.
If the text was originally written in English, there's a higher chance of it being good, natural English than if it has been translated.... See more You can also try looking at multi-lingual websites. Try translating a page, then look at the English equivalent of that page.
I would suggest the websites of entities like the UN, WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO etc, which normally are well-translated. And also websites of any entity that uses English by default, so you can be sure the English sounds natural.
If the text was originally written in English, there's a higher chance of it being good, natural English than if it has been translated.
Of course there are many different ways of translating almost everything, and if you're teaching yourself, you have no way of knowing whether what you put is as good, worse or better than another translation. The key is to expose yourself to as much native output as possible so that you then feel comfortable using the same expressions.
[Edited at 2023-06-08 14:12 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Training by doing it | Jun 8, 2023 |
"No right or wrong way" is a good point in our time where some people believe human translation is almost done with because AI is almost good enough to end our profession. Translation is a non-linear process that can't be taught in any one way. You're either ready for it now, or you never will be. I do enjoy reading books along with their translations when I can find them online. Can't say it's a training process (for me, it's rather a pleasure); it takes a lot of savvy to be able to tell if a t... See more "No right or wrong way" is a good point in our time where some people believe human translation is almost done with because AI is almost good enough to end our profession. Translation is a non-linear process that can't be taught in any one way. You're either ready for it now, or you never will be. I do enjoy reading books along with their translations when I can find them online. Can't say it's a training process (for me, it's rather a pleasure); it takes a lot of savvy to be able to tell if a translation is good; however, if you have that savvy, you'll spot a good translation in a minute's time. I recently read "The White Guard" while browsing through the translation of it. It was a really good one: it explained just what needed to be explained, skipped just what needed to be skipped, and was exceptionally well written. The only problem was that it completely failed to communicate the vibe of the book, which made me believe that it was simply beyond translation. So, what training can I suggest except for the good old "Just do it"? One tip is: don't trust your intuition when translating into a non-native language; keep verifying your translation decisions
using language corpora and quoted Google search queries (sometimes, you'll get unexpected, genius-level results especially when using asterisks and other advanced search features). PS: I'm not placing translation over mathematics. High-level mathematics is painstakingly hard. "He wanted to become a mathematician, but he lacked imagination, so he became a poet." I envy people who can really do mathematics
[Edited at 2023-06-08 15:27 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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