(photo credit: squidsquid.com)
A couple of weeks ago I began to translate a few of the blog posts into Spanish. I lived in Mexico for about five years during which time I reached fluency. However, I have never really had to translate before, beyond a few simple things here and there.
I discovered that translation is its own skill, independent of language fluency.
- It requires the ability to map concepts and ideas from one language to another, but often a literal translation is inadequate or clumsy.
- A good translation captures the mood and tone of the writing, along with the meaning.
- Translating also requires flexibility, and acceptance that the translation may subtly shift away from the original text.
- Often there may be more than one way to translate something, so a subjective decision must be made.
The funny thing is, I realize that this is not new or surprising information to anyone who has tackled translation before.
I discovered that translating is a great way to exercise my Spanish muscle. I found myself looking up words and checking their definitions for subtleties that normally don’t concern me. I also found myself plying the grammar and considering formal versus colloquial Spanish, and the various possible ways to map one language to another.
Translation, as it turns out, is a great way to push my language skills just a bit further.
So my hat goes off to those of you who are fluent in more than one language and also possess translation skills. If you are such a person, and would like to translate one or more of your favorite blog posts into your language(s), you can submit them to me via email at info@languageboat.com and I will post them to the blog.
A big thanks for the Chinese translations I have received. It’s fun to open my mailbox and find such a gift! I am looking forward to the day when I can do those translations by myself, but in the meantime your help is thoroughly appreciated and needed! Thank you!