Poll: Do you find yourself mentally translating everything you read/hear in your source language? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you find yourself mentally translating everything you read/hear in your source language?".
View the poll results »
| | | | David Wright 
Austria
Local time: 17:34
German to English
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| I think I'd go mad | Jan 31, 2015 |
I live in the community of my source language - I hear it all the time and I do everything apart from translate and make a few phone calls in that language!
| | | | | Only when I'm reading | Jan 31, 2015 |
When I'm reading a book in one of my source languages, I feel a strong urge to hit the keyboard.
Recently I came across some family letters written in one of my source languages (Portuguese) in the 1950s. I was so moved to translate them that I found myself turning out nice idiomatic translation at nearly 1,000 words an hour, after which I sent the the correspondence to people on the American side of the family.
| | | | ndrslm
Türkiye
Local time: 18:34
Turkish to Arabic
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| While working | Jan 31, 2015 |
Imagine a 12-year-old kids face when asking for a permission to go out and play with his friends and getting an answer in a foreign language.
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Fortunately no. I live in the country of my source language.
Besides, the level of fluency it requires to be able to do this jobs means for me that you must think in that language, not translate it.
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I used to, some 30 years ago when I moved to Belgium. For some time I had the urge to translate everything back to Portuguese, but I don’t do it anymore (like David I would go mad!), I just process everything in my head directly. I think either in French or in Portuguese and my internal voice switches very quickly from one to the other. I must say though that, just like Muriel, if I’m reading a book, especially if the text is convoluted, I tend to translate it in my head…
| | | | Anne Bohy
France
Local time: 17:34
English to French
| Back-translating sometimes... | Jan 31, 2015 |
I'm always on the lookout for words or expressions in my target language which would match well some words or expressions in my source language which are difficult to translate...
| | | | Giles Watson
Italy
Local time: 17:34
Italian to English
In memoriam
bohy wrote:
I'm always on the lookout for words or expressions in my target language which would match well some words or expressions in my source language which are difficult to translate...
Or indeed source-language terms that you realise have good equivalents in the target language.
I used to keep a notebook in my pocket for the purpose but nowadays I just jot them down on my smartphone in a googledoc and add them to MultiTerm when I get home.
[Edited at 2015-01-31 16:26 GMT]
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| Back translating | Jan 31, 2015 |
bohy wrote:
I'm always on the lookout for words or expressions in my target language which would match well some words or expressions in my source language which are difficult to translate...
I know what you mean, bohy.
And when I read a book translated from my source language (English) I often see the back translation in my head.
| | | | Julian Holmes
Japan
Local time: 00:34
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
| I am a walking radar | Jan 31, 2015 |
If I hear totally new or unheard things or things 'out of the norm' around me on the TV, radio or whatnot, I will home onto the them and try to figure out 'what the hell is going on' like David says. (I'll also do my best to keep my sanity.)
I'll do the same in English to Japanese, as well. Both of the languages (or more) we chose to handle are in a state of constant flux.
But, hey, we're linguists. This is all part of our skill set. Do we not have ears and aren't we al... See more If I hear totally new or unheard things or things 'out of the norm' around me on the TV, radio or whatnot, I will home onto the them and try to figure out 'what the hell is going on' like David says. (I'll also do my best to keep my sanity.)
I'll do the same in English to Japanese, as well. Both of the languages (or more) we chose to handle are in a state of constant flux.
But, hey, we're linguists. This is all part of our skill set. Do we not have ears and aren't we all in tune with what is around us all the time? Constant buzzing in the ears is part of the territory.  ▲ Collapse
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