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Reading techniques
Thread poster: Vitor Visconti
Vitor Visconti
Vitor Visconti  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 04:21
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Jun 6, 2013

It is common sense that reading is a way to improve translation skills. But how to do it? I mean, which one is the best practice? Doing a mental translation into your native language or simply trying to understand the meaning of the text?

Vitor

[Edited at 2013-06-06 18:04 GMT]
 
Balasubramaniam L.
Balasubramaniam L.  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 12:51
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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SITE LOCALIZER
The results are not tangible but they are there Jun 7, 2013

It is not that if you read x number of books of y type, you will miraculously become a translator in z days.

Reading should be a life-long activity. It helps in translation, but in inscrutable ways. Keep reading books by different authors, in your main subject area (the one into which you plan to translate), but also don't restrict your reading to only your subject area. You should read a wide variety of subjects.

Don't rush through the book like we read a thriller, but... See more
It is not that if you read x number of books of y type, you will miraculously become a translator in z days.

Reading should be a life-long activity. It helps in translation, but in inscrutable ways. Keep reading books by different authors, in your main subject area (the one into which you plan to translate), but also don't restrict your reading to only your subject area. You should read a wide variety of subjects.

Don't rush through the book like we read a thriller, but do a slow reading. Try to figure out why the author has used a particular word or a certain turn of phrase and if you come across any unfamiliar word look it up in a dictionary.

Your idea of mentally translating into your target language as you read is also a good one, but try to make the reading experience a pleasant and uninterrupted one. Do some of the reading just for the pleasure you get out of reading something you like.

You can also translate portions of the text that you really liked into your target language and get it checked by a senior colleague. Concentrate on the corrections he/she makes and try not to repeat those mistakes in future.

In addition to reading you should also spent a lot of time listening to good speech in your target language, and equally important is to speak the target language yourself (and correctly at that).

Reading aloud also helps as language is best learnt when the eyes, ears and mind concentrate simultaneously on the words and their meaning. Reading aloud will help you understand the pauses and stresses on different syllables and words which also convey a lot of meaning.

None of these will turn you into a translator overnight, so you will have to patiently chug along. May be the results will become evident in improvements in your translation in a couple of years time. ▲ Collapse
 
Balasubramaniam L.
Balasubramaniam L.  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 12:51
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
And don't neglect your source language Jun 7, 2013

A good translator understands both his source and target language well. So don't neglect your source language, even if you think you know it well enough. Spent as much time in working on your source language as you spent on the target language.
 


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Reading techniques






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