|
|
Competences for Translation
|
|
|
|
|
|
reading competence
|
|
You should be able to read and understand textual content if you want to
create instructions yourself. This would be trivial but turns out to be
very important for text in a foreign language. What are the various
meanings of a fundamental declarative word? Is it used with its basic
meaning, or does the author employ a pictorial language and utilizes
metaphors? Is it important to work out details in the differences of
words with similar meanings? Translation can not always be literally,
in particular when dealing with idioms or collocations.
|
|
|
textual competence
|
|
Text normally comprises several paragraphs. In particular with
foreign-language text it is important to maintain consistency in the
whole text by alignment of the style of speech and diction in each
paragraph. In this respect, a continuous nomenclature is mandatory.
Besides text must be fluently readable in the target language, so the
reader will not lose the thread.
|
|
|
language competence
|
|
Language is no static condition kept free of changing. Language is
evolving and adapts itself to its users’ needs. Even if a technical
document has to impart factual information at first, linguistic aspects
should be taken into account as it is common with novels or non-fictional
literature. This inures to the benefit of the document’s readability, and
it aids to avoid misunderstanding. Another feature is the correct handling
of peculiarities in the written target language, such as special
characters, number and date formatting and other anomalies that should be
regarded carefully.
|
|
|
subject competence
|
|
In a translated text it is very easy to discover if the translator is well
versed in the matter that it is about. If not, then the reader loses faith
in the document. Hence it is beneficial if a translator has professional
experience in the industry he or she is translating a text for. A risk
might be that the he or she spins a tale of his or her experiences instead
of translating correctly. But a good translator always will be interested
in sticking as close to the original text as possible.
|
|
|
back to competences main page.
|
|
|
|
|
Good engineering deserves best documentation
|
|
engage Heuss !
|
|
|
