Mindset of a Good Translator
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...
read moreStandardise My Name, Please!
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,...
read moreTranslation Scare!! – Part 2
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…
read moreImportance of Localisation
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. ================================================ 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...
read moreWhy Can’t the World Only Have 1 Language?!
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...
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