For Practice!

Hello readers, looking for new websites to learn about translation I found a great place where you can have your first experiences translating . As I have mentioned before, it is not enough for a translator to have some tricks up its sleeve  or to wait for opportunities to use them, you should better look for those opportunities and use them as often as possible. This website called Antimoon gives you the chance to collaborate and edit in their website translating some articles, besides contributing with your language knowledge, you are getting experience. I encourage you to read all about this website end its projects. As they say "The goal of the Antimoon Translation Project is to bring the Antimoon Method to people all over the world — especially beginners who have difficulty understanding written English. If you can understand English well, you can contribute to the project by translating something".  So do not think it twice and ¡go for it!

Image taken from Antimoon.com 

Vision / Mission as a Translator

As a translator I have known the importance of caring about communication and give a good performance, which are key elements of my profession. Therefore, my mission is to accomplish the best of my translations, offering a high quality and accurate translation service to all my clients.

In order to achieve this I will always keep track of the news, changes, and current studies that are made on English and Spanish translation. I am committed a 100% to respect the language, the culture and all the details involved in this profession, and at the same time to meet my client´s needs in the best way possible. 
I will do my best to keep you satisfied with my work and promise I will do business farily, professionally and honestly at all times.

Karla Angulo C./ Angulo Traducciones.

Reach me at: karla.anguloce@gmail.com or my Linkedin here: Karla Angulo | LinkedIn

San José, Costa Rica 
 

Image taken from flickr.com

Advice to Translators!

My learning process has been incredibly satisfactory. In a short period of time I have learned so much that I cannot imagine how much I have left to read and inform myself in the long term. It must be a lot!

In this entry it is my pleasure to give some advice to all of you looking forward to enter this profession; you should definitely work on the next elements to excel:
First of all I will advise people to look for a specific area or field of study when trying to become translators. Because making a choice on a certain area will help you to have a better performance, and as you feel more comfortable working you tend to give your best every day.

Second, it is crucial to be aware of the linguistic norms of all the source and target languages you work with.

Third, try to be careful with linguistic interference when translating idiomatic expressions; they are tricky and also remind us how challenging can be to render any text without affecting the cultural features in the wrong way.
Fourth, you should always pay attention to every word that might need any type of reformulation, like explicitation (extra information) or any change to render words or phrases as accurate as possible. Those are the moments when your ability using translation strategies will show the best of your strengths.

And finally, your spelling must be perfect always; any error will damage your entire profession.

I really hope these pieces of advice motivate you to work hard and make an effort to be great translators. My extra advice will be to fall in love with translation and all its linguistic adventures; you will not regret any second.                                                                       

Image taken from Pinterest.com

Translation of a Comic

Not long ago I had to translate a comic, and it was a really good experience although not so easy. I was able to translate this type of text with the help of all the tools I have mentioned before that are important; also, was careful with the huge amount of idiomatic phrases and the intended text function that are typical in this kind of literature. An advantage I had for translating this comic was that I felt really comfortable and familiar with the source culture since it was related with the Hispanic and Latin America world. Here is a segment of the translated text to exemplify my work.

TT

Pero siento que México y ser mexicano es parte de mi identidad. Yo hablo español, he visitado y vivido en más ciudades de México que de los Estados Unidos de América.

Durante mi niñez me sentía más cercano y acostumbrado a mi familia materna, por lo que empecé a decir “soy hispano” o “soy latino”, y a utilizarlos de forma intercambiable.(Source Text here!)

Work cited

Blass, Terry. “You say latino: a mini comic”. Vox.com. Web. 21 ago. 2015.

What is Translation Competence?

Image taken from www.edweek.org

                                                                                                              

As far as translation is concerned, professionals in the field should produce quality work. I would like to share with the readers some relevant elements I have noticed are necessary to accomplish this. First, the science of an excellent translation practice is not about how well you handle two languages but about how far you go when doing your work. As a translator we also need important skills such as creativity, because when you need to translate an idiomatic phrase or uncommon word, for instance, you have many options and strategies to use, but the more original and at the same time accurate your response is the more points you add to your competence.

Also, you cannot build your competence by using only dictionaries to check spelling or meaning. Since words change and the evolution of language never stops it is very important to be updated. There are sources you can rely on to study this evolution, such as linguistic organizations and certain translation journals that you should constantly read, so you do not lose track of the overall changes and languages regulations that exist.

The way you work and proceed says a lot about your professionalism; to excel you need to pay close attention to details and your client´s specifications. All this aspects will give you the chance to master the source text and produce a good target text. Regardless of my experience in translation I can assure you that they will make the difference in your performance and will also demonstrate your potential to future customers.

Online Translation Tool

For translators, it is very important to use certified tools to look for the meaning of a single word or a phrase. To accomplish this there are many tools online, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias and glossaries. I would like to recommend Linguee.es to you for many reasons. Linguee is a translation dictionary that offers contextualized translations with clear structures which is something that gives authenticity to the source. Also, a strong advantage is that the sources from which texts are taken, are reliable sources. I hope these are enough reasons to encourage you to use this tool.

Take a look at This Dictionary!

Translation Journal

Tomado de: www.lalinternadeltraductor.org

In this entry I will share with the readers the name of one translation journal. This journal is entitled La linterna del traductor, and it can be consulted through this link. It provides information about scientific, literary, juridical, audiovisual, technological translation; and information of members of the journal like publishers and proofreader’s.

In addition, it includes articles about spelling, new words and, terminology inconsistencies their cooperators have studied, academic works as tools, which have been useful and good sources to improve their jobs and, book and author´s reviews. Also, they are currently updating their database (on a six-monthly basis) so, one can find different sceneries and business conditions for translation over the years.

Personally, the book reviews they publish are worth reading, since they are about previous translations their professionals have made, which is a really good approach to this field of study. 

To conclude, what I like the most about this journal are the relevant experiences their translators have had, the advice that the writters give about the translation industry; also, share many advantages and challenges they have faced during their professional life. I definitely think everyone interested in translation or, looking forward to become a professional in this field, should have this journal to generate critical thinking and to learn new ways to deal with translation nowadays.