To succeed and prosper as a translator, it’s no longer enough to just be a translator: you need to be a specialist translator. These days it is more important than ever to develop an in-depth understanding of one or more specialist fields – ideally something that will hold your interest enough to make you want to explore it ever more deeply.
The unusual nature of translators’ CPD
To become well versed in a special area of work, translators are first and foremost required to read widely around their chosen subject, especially in their target language (i.e. the language they translate into). For me this means: since I’m a German native speaker and am qualified to translate into German only, I read a lot in German with a view to improving my translation skills.
As I regularly deal with computing patents in my job, some of the “informal CPD” that I engage in is reading computer programming books in German. I read them predominantly in German because I’m required to learn how IT contexts are phrased correctly and idiomatically in German. Reading technical books enables me to take mental notes of typical words or text conventions.
 |
| To succeed and prosper as a translator these days, it’s no longer enough to just be a translator: you need to be a specialist translator (photo by Elisabeth Hippe-Heisler: Raspberry Pi) |
Should translators’ CPD be focused on studying translations?
But wouldn’t it be better if I read not just German IT texts, but instead compared them meticulously side by side with similar texts in English (if available)? This is a valid question I was once asked, and I agree this would indeed be a good approach. However, I also feel that not all translators’ CPD needs to be translation-related to be useful.
In an actual translation project (and in the areas I work in), my “translator brain” will in many situations be able to match terms and phrases picked up in my monolingual reading with the corresponding terms and phrases in the text I’m translating. For instance, when I’m faced with translating pseudocode in a patent, I will then know that certain words in the code should ideally be in English in the German translation, while any embedded explanatory programmer’s notes (which, for instance, are preceded by a hash sign) will be readily translatable into German.
 | |
| I am first and foremost a language specialist, and the type of activity which I perform as a translator is a language activity, not a hands-on activity (photo by Elisabeth Hippe-Heisler: extract from book "Einstieg in Python" by Thomas Theis) | |
Acquiring a subject specialism in translation
I love complementing my CPD reading activities with some hands-on experience by occasionally typing up the code explained in my books in a development environment. I derive pleasure from seeing with my own eyes that the theory works in practice! Sometimes, though, the programmes that I type up won’t run and I can’t figure out why, but here’s the thing (and this will probably surprise anyone reading this who is not a translator):
Absorbing and memorising the language that’s used to describe the context in question is more relevant to me and my translation work than actually succeeding in running the programme. For in the end the type of activity which I perform to provide my services is a language activity, not a hands-on activity. I am first and foremost a language specialist. I’m a language specialist who has acquired a subject semi-specialism.
To succeed and prosper as a translator these days, it is no longer enough to just be a translator. In this post I set out one of my approaches to specialising as a translator, which has been highly effective and successful.
