Recently, I am posed this question from a friend who asked me “What is the mindset that a good translator should have?”

I see translator as a language professional who is highly skilled in the level of his language understanding and usage. They take great pride in their finished copy and ensure that good quality work is generated.

So, the first answer that pops into my mind is “being service-orientated”. We are in a world of either we are being served or serving others. Sometimes we need to serve others, like for example we serve our clients in our jobs, or helping others etc. Other times we receive service from others in our workplace, convenience stores, café, community clubs etc etc. I certainly feel great if I am being serviced by a good and friendly person.

Likewise, if a translator has such mindset, he or she will take on a serious view on their work…ensuring accurate, good quality translated copy and submit their copy within the stipulated timeline. I have had the privilege of working with such translators and we are grateful to them for their hard work in generating an excellent piece of work within a short period of time. And sometimes, they submit the work earlier than expected.

The second mindset that I mentioned is “consistent improvement”. As such, I would mean that he or she would be always seeking better and faster ways of doing things. Some of our translators would propose better methods to improve our routine of doing things. Some would give feedback to improve their client’s original copy and make it better. Others will take up further courses to improve on their semantics. Well, they must have a passion for learning and re-learning to reach greater heights.

Lastly, I told my friend the third mindset….a mind that is open to ideas and creative. If the mind is like a sponge and absorb experiences learnt from books, movies, daily routines, interaction with our surrounding, conversation with friends etc.  This will definitely enable the translator to have a better understanding of the copy and its background information.

I guess these 3 simple mindsets would not only be helping just translators, but also anyone else who would read this article. Hope these small pointers can help you in whatever you do, especially for the coming new year!

I have watched many movies, and I tend to appreciate those with the availability of subtitles. However it seems there is always a chance that the names used, is sometimes different, though in English, the name is the same. What do I mean?

For example, Johnson in chinese can be written as “zhuang sheng” or “qiang sheng”. So sometimes, without listening to the voices, it is difficult to correlate the names to the English one.

I thought that for names to be translated to Chinese, it should be like those of country names. No matter where you are, be it in Taiwan, China, Singapore or Malaysia, the names remain the same, only whether it is written in the Traditional or Simplified form. You don’t have a case whereby for example in the name Korea, Singapore calls it “han guo” and another country calls it, maybe, “ke re”. It confuses everyone!

So I thought someone should come up with a list of names whereby the translation is standard for everywhere. Although I understand that sometimes the differences in the naming convention also shows the cultural aspect of different places, it does however, make our job easier as a translator, so that we don’t have to crack our brains to come up with some sound-alike chinese terms. What do you think?

Is there any better way than to “Fall into the water carefully?!” The person who can do that would surely have to take some ballet lessons to have swan like grace to fall carefully! sheesh…

You might ask, why is it that we require localisation into the translated script. Can we do without it? For example, would it be alright if a Portugese in Portugal were to translate a script that were to be used in Brazil? The answer is “NO!”

From Wikipedia, we find the difference between just purely translation and translation with localisation included.

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Translation versus localisation

Localization is often treated as a mere “high-tech translation”, but this view does not capture its importance, its complexity or what it encompasses. Though sometimes is somehow difficult to draw the limits between translation and localization, in general localisation addresses significant, non-textual components of products or services. In addition to strict translation (and, therefore, grammar and spelling issues that vary from place to place or form country to country where the same language is spoken), the localisation process might include, among other things, adaptation of graphics, adoption of local currencies, use of proper forms for dates, addresses, and phone numbers, and many other details, including rethinking the physical structure of a product. All these changes plan to avoid local sensitivities and to gain the market by merging into its needs and desires. For example, localisation is due to offer country-specific websites of the same company or different editions of a book depending on the place it is published.

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Sounds a bit too complicated to understand? Simply said, we add the “salt and pepper” of the culture into the translated work so that people in those places where we use the translation for, can understand what the terms mean, and also get the gist of the message.

So it is always very important to get a native translator to do the job for you. Rest assured that we, at WhizWordz, always ensures that.

Wouldn’t it be easier for all of us if we only speak 1 language?  Just take a look at India and China. Although simply say they are all indians and chinese, however they can’t even understand each other’s dialects sometimes! In India alone, there are already 21 recognised languages!

But as we progressed along with technology, we can slowly understand each other, by using translation tools, attending languages courses.

I had a discussion with my colleague about this. He mentioned that if the world had only 1 language, then there’ll be no unique element to all the races. Languages add more colours to the world, and because of language, people in different places are proud of their cultures.

Then again, take the language Portugese for example. You have Brazilians speaking Portugese, and this is also the language in Portugal! But they have their own cultures as well. Nothing is lost still.

So back to the question of whether the world should only have 1 language. Let’s say if we really do that, which language do we choose?? Should it be English, the commonly used language? Or Chinese, which is commonly spoken in world’s largest populated country, China??

This is what will happen when you do not pass it to the professionals to do it. Anyway, maybe that’s what some people want, for all the attention that they are getting in the end.

Try the first dish, I dare you to! It should have just been “Fried beef noodles”!!

Dear translators,

Always remember to proofread what you have translated for the sake of professionalism. Here are some of the things you need to check before you submit the script:

1. If you use machine to translate, they are usually not very accurate in terms of bringing the meaning of the messages across. Do check what the outcome of the translation is and edit according to the source language once again.

2. As we become more confident in our translation, we tend to become faster in typing and more eloquent in describing that sentence we are translating. But, always remember to double check that statement you have translated, especially if you are translating into chinese. It is because for the same spelling, you may have more characters than what you can ask for! And usually if you forget to check, the wrong word pops up & it’ll really cause you lots of pain later on when the client checks on it.

3. Checking back on the translation also makes us understand a little more of the original statement. From there, you may learn that there might actually be a better way of translating that sentence.

4. Check for errors in the numbers, although we seldom translate those. However a missing zero behind can mean alot in terms of volume!

5. There are some words which may look similar: “exclude”-”include”,”migrate”-”mitigate”, etc. Be very careful when reading these. A difference in the spelling means a whole lot difference in the meaning of the words. Some clients don’t check or can’t check your translation. Thus help them by re-checking your translation to make sure you don’t misinterpret the spelling.

It’s always best to counter-check your translation once more. This helps both you and your clients, providing more confidence in what you both do.