Poll: How many language pairs do you work in? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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I upset some people last time this question was asked by suggesting that Swedish, Norwegian and Danish into English was one pair, so I've upped it to one and a half. And that's quite enough for me. I don't know how all these "to/from eight languages" people do it. Badly, one assumes. But even so, it'd give me a headache trying to switch between so many. | | | | Julian Holmes Japan Local time: 03:29 Member (2011) Japanese to English
My language pair J>E is enough to handle. On the Japanese language, Wikipedia says: "Japanese is an agglutinative, mora-timed language with simple phonotactics, a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent." If you think that's a delicious mouthful, then you should try Japanese. Most of the 'seasoned' translators over ... See more My language pair J>E is enough to handle. On the Japanese language, Wikipedia says: "Japanese is an agglutinative, mora-timed language with simple phonotactics, a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent." If you think that's a delicious mouthful, then you should try Japanese. Most of the 'seasoned' translators over here seem to concur on one thing - the more Japanese you learn, the less you seem to know. Very Zen and very inscrutable my L2 is.
[Edited at 2015-06-23 08:15 GMT] ▲ Collapse | |
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Marjolein Snippe Netherlands Local time: 20:29 Member (2012) English to Dutch + ...
The vast majority of my work is in EN-NL, but I do enjoy the PT-NL jobs coming my way now and then.
[Edited at 2015-06-22 08:42 GMT] | | | Billh Local time: 19:29 Spanish to English + ...
As Bernard Shaw said, those who speak many languages seldom have anything to say in any of them. From a purely business point of view it seems to me that provided there is work it is much more efficient to build up expertise in one language than have a dispersed and lesser knowledge of many. I am always highly suspicious of people who boast a string of languages. Having been a partner in a multi-language legal translation firm with over 50 lawyers I have only ever known... See more As Bernard Shaw said, those who speak many languages seldom have anything to say in any of them. From a purely business point of view it seems to me that provided there is work it is much more efficient to build up expertise in one language than have a dispersed and lesser knowledge of many. I am always highly suspicious of people who boast a string of languages. Having been a partner in a multi-language legal translation firm with over 50 lawyers I have only ever known 1 who could reliably translate one language pair in both directions. ▲ Collapse | | | I wavered between one and three | Jun 22, 2015 |
Most of the time one - Danish to English. Precisely because Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are closely related, I CAN work in all three to some extent. My knowledge of Swedish and Norwegian is not nearly as extensive as Danish, so I only do a small number of non-specialist jobs from those languages. I have translated a very little French to English for a friend, and in theory I can translate from German to English, but it is so long since I actually did so that it is not... See more Most of the time one - Danish to English. Precisely because Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are closely related, I CAN work in all three to some extent. My knowledge of Swedish and Norwegian is not nearly as extensive as Danish, so I only do a small number of non-specialist jobs from those languages. I have translated a very little French to English for a friend, and in theory I can translate from German to English, but it is so long since I actually did so that it is not one of my active languages any more. I have to work hard enough keeping my two main languages up to standard, so that is enough for me! ▲ Collapse | | |
From French into (British) English and in a number of fields which function independently but where the mix of field knowledge and academic qualification can and does overlap, suddenly making me a specialist. I suppose that's the case for many translators. | |
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Natalie Soper United Kingdom Local time: 19:29 French to English + ...
French and Spanish into English. Really original! | | |
I primarily work in Spanish > English and my wife, Gaby, does English > Spanish. I have been actively learning the Dragon Tongue from the Elder Scrolls series | | | 2 - the ones i'm certified in | Jun 22, 2015 |
German and French into English. My original mother tongue was German as I was German-born, but grew up/was educated in Canada, hence English "native". Being Canadian, the French was a logical "other" second language. Only into English because well, that's the native language of main environment, education etc. | | | Balasubramaniam L. India Local time: 23:59 Member (2006) English to Hindi + ... SITE LOCALIZER
English to Hindi (the bulk of it) and Hindi to English (occasionally). These two account for 99% of my work. On very rare occasions (once or twice in several years), I also translate from Malayalam and Gujarati into Hindi and English. These occasions are so rare that I have not counted them here. | |
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Sheila Wilson Spain Local time: 19:29 Member (2007) English + ... One and a half | Jun 23, 2015 |
I'm never very happy referring to EN>EN as a pair, although in my own case it's often American to British English or non-native to more natural English. So maybe it's close to two. | | | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Poll: How many language pairs do you work in? Trados Studio 2022 Freelance | The leading translation software used by over 270,000 translators.
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