Month: June 2012

Do you find your self translating the same thing over and over again??

If you do translation part/full time it might be worth looking for a CAT-tool! A CAT-tool is the translators third-hand, it keeps track of translations and saves text, so that you don’t have to translate the same sentences again and again. You don’t just save time, but you get more time to focus on other parts of your translation.

There are several free CAT-tools on the market, just to mention a few: Across, Wordfast, kiwi and memoq. Personally I find Across easy to use, it even comes with a visual step-by-step instructions manual. The difference of the tools often vary in, how much memory each program can store.

If you work with a translations agency you might have to invest in a licensed CAT-tool, as not all of the CAT-tools are compatible with each other. The only licensed CAT-tool I’ve been working with is Trados (2011). Which I find easy to use, if you have a problem, you just go to the “help” button and search for the answer.  Or even look online for the answer!

Hope this was helpfull. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment.

/Sembach

If it doesn’t feel right, it probably can be better….

The other day I was translating a text from English to Danish. I found my self translating a paragraph, which I afterwards wasn’t too happy about. I defiantly would sound better, if I changed the order of the text, but I wasn’t sure of how much I was allowed to change.

The reply to my questions was: Change it as much as needed for it to be right in Danish and selling, but don’t change the meaning of the sentence. It doesn’t matter if you end up with 3 sentences instead of 2.

My advice, always ask, if you are in doubt. And If you are using a CAT-Tool, make sure to see the text in its original layout and in full, this way you get a better feeling of, whether the text is coherent or not.

/Sembach