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What are the major problems and challenges you encounter as a translators?

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Question added by Fida Abo Alrob , Sr. Copywriter , Imena Digital
Date Posted: 2013/09/18
Eslam El Nayeal
by Eslam El Nayeal , E-marketing and Web administrator , Asmar Jewelry

Dear Fida,

There are many problems that you may encounter as a translator and resolving them makes you gain experience. One of the problems is technical terms that you may ignore, or expressions in source language that you must search for their corresponding in the target language. Sometimes, especially in novels, you must read behind the words or read about the author so you can translate his "thoughts" rather than words only.

 

I hope my answer helped you a bit, please do not hesitate to ask me if you need further assistance.

Wish you all the best,

Eslam

The most important thing attention to cultural background. There are structures of English idioms longer conventions must be wary because they do not translate literally, but should be translated as meaning intended and no specialized dictionaries for such compositions.As for Trakin, grammatical must also pay attention to it when translating into account the preservation of time used in all sentences so as not to be a thin line translator

Fatima Kamal
by Fatima Kamal , English language teacher , The Ministry of Eduction

Dear Fida,

In general, translation need an in-depth knowledge of two languages, and need the translator, ideally, to be familiar with the subjects of the texts which are about to be translated. This is100% true for translation in such fields as technology, science, law and medicine. Concerning translating literature, poetry, songs and simliar materials, I need to be familiar not only with the two languages involved, but also with the cultures of the people who speak them. One literary problem is what to do with culture-specific references – they could be translated literally with providing footnotes or other explanations for readers not familiar with the source culture, or try to find equivalents specific to the target culture. Translating poems and songs is challenging as well not only because I need to translate the words, but also because I often need to find ones that rhyme.

Adeeb Haddad
by Adeeb Haddad , Independent Freelance Translator , Independent

When the translation is in a topic or field that i had no previous experience in. There is no translator that knows all the words in a language, and sometimes there are words that are only used in that field. As I usually delt with politics in my translation, my challenge was a short contract I signed with an Oil and Gas comapny and biochemistry has so many words that I'm sure are only used in that field! So i had to be prepared before I started, you can always find a good place to start!

Suleman Al-Tamari
by Suleman Al-Tamari , English Teacher , Government sector

Translating materials that you don't understand 

Ghenwa Khayat
by Ghenwa Khayat , Translation, Localization, Editing, Copywriting and Digital Marketing , Language expert: Translation, Localization, Editing, Copywriting and Digital Marketing

There are several issues that translators often might face when translating:

1. Information provided is not sufficient. 

2. Terminology implementation on the last stage instead of making glossaries beforehand.

3. Cutting the costs at the expense of quality. 

4. Inflexible content poorly prepared to translation.

5. Feeling that you produce something absolutely low-quality or useless.

6. Reviewers that are apparently paid for the number of corrections made.

 

 

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