Nowadays, numerous content writing portals and freelancers are availing the opportunity of providing literary services to clients all over the world. One of the most commonly used services is that of translation. Translating a document can be a very tricky job. Apart from basic understanding of language and vocabulary, a translator can face numerous problems depending upon the languages & their varied style of expression. To start your career as a translator, you should consider taking a good translation course in India. To avoid the common pitfalls, as a translator, the following are the 7 effective strategies and tips to keep in mind which will help you in your goal to become a fabulous translator:
1. Keep the sentences brief and to the point. If you are looking to transfer the message in most effective manner, you can follow the '20 word rule'. In this, your strategy is to complete a sentence in no more than 20 words, keeping the content easy to communicate and understandable for the readers, avoiding unnecessary grammatical and sentence structuring mistakes.
2. Implement the standard English order of words. The simplest, yet effective, technique to writing meaningful English sentences is by following the 'standard word order' i.e., the subject, a verb, and the object. You may use the modifiers to enhance the meaning of the sentence, before each of them. If you ace issues with sentence structuring, you should definitely think of taking up a classroom or a Distance learning translation course in India.
3. Don't let synonyms get in the way of clarity. Synonyms, often, have a negative impact on the clarity of the content. Especially, when you are translating or operating in a non-native language. For example, you may use any single word for 'blog', 'post' or 'entry' rather than using them all in a content. You should always look to maintain consistency in the content by re-using existing terminology or terms.
4. Try avoiding humor in your second language.Translation of humor or metaphorical jokes is not an easy task. More often than not, some humorous comments cannot be translated into another language as they lose their intrinsic value or meaning in another language. For example, 'knocking it out of the park' is a common term in American or English sports, but it cannot be translated word for word in a second language while maintaining the same meaning.
5. Be careful with the International dates. As a translator, it is important for the message to be accurately conveyed to your target readers. Date or time may be interpreted differently in different parts of the word. For example, if you write 02/06/2016, it will be interpreted in Switzerland as 2nd of June. However, if the reader is based in the US, he/she would interpret it as 6th of February. A good translation course in India should be able to throw light on many such useful tricks of translation.
6. Try using active voice rather than the passive voice. Using the active voice will help you maintain the standard word order, mentioned above. Moreover, it is easy to translate and easier to understand. For example, write 'Alan changed the flat tire' rather than 'the tire was changed by Alan'.
7. Avoid excessive use of the phrasal verbs. Excessive use of the phrasal verbs can complicate the translation. Moreover, phrasal verbs are less commonly understood in the second language of the reader. For example, use 'met' instead of 'ran into'. The cross-cultural communication or translation of a language will require some basic level of understanding. As a translator, you are required to understand your readers and the content at hand. A better understanding of your target readers will help you perform a better job and communicate in a clear and understandable manner. If you are looking to make a career in this field, a short translation course in India can be a good way to start.
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