NOTE FOR TRANSLATION: BECOMING A TRANSLATOR Second Edition

CHAPTER 1: External Knowledge (The user’s view)

What is translation: translation is the process of converting written or spoken content from one language (the
source language) into another language (the target language), while [perceiving the meaning, style, and intent of
the original text.

Translation can be perceived from two point of views:

1. From translator’s point of view or internal knowledge: a translator thinks and talks about translation
form inside the process, knowing how it’s done, possessing a practical real-world sense of the problems
involved.
2. From the user’s point of view or external knowledge: A client thinks and talks bout translation form
outside the process not knowing how it’s done but knowing outside the translation.

Study tip: Translation user’s desire to have a text translated reliability, rapidly, and cheaply—in turn.

Reliability: reliability in translation is important for users. They rely on translations to make informed decisions and
take appropriate actions based in the information provided. A reliable translation ensures that users can trust the
accuracy and effectiveness of the translated content.

There are about two aspects of translation reliability:

I) Textual reliability: this reliability means that the translated text should be only the conversion of the original
text without change and it consists in trust a user can place in it. Exact translation of a text proves the text’s
reliability.

Types of text reliability:

1. Literalism: The translation follows the original word for word or as close to that ideal as possible.
2. Foreignism: the translation reads fairly fluently, but has slightly alien feel.
3. Fluency: the translation is so accessible and readable for TL readers as to seem like an original in TL.
4. Summary: The translation covers the main points or gist of the original.
5. Commentary: commentary involves revealing and explaining the hidden complexities present in the
original text.
6. Summary-commentary: the translation summarizes some passages briefly while commenting closely on
others.
7. Adaptation: Adaptation involves changing the original text to create the desired effect on a different
audience. For example, when a text meant for adults is modified to be suitable for children.
8. Encryption: encryption involves altering the original text in a way that hides its meaning or message from
one group while still allowing another group, with the appropriate key, to understand it.

II) The translator’s reliability: the reliability of translator is not just about the accuracy of the translated text. The
translator themselves must also be reliable. This means they need to be professional in their approach and
meet certain expectations and his/her reliability is about more than just being correct.

The aspect of translator reliability:

1. Reliability with regard to text:
• Attention to detail
• Sensitivity to the user’s needs
• Research
• Checking

By: Haibatullah Himat

 NOTE FOR TRANSLATION: BECOMING A TRANSLATOR Second Edition

2. Reliability with regard to client

• Versatility
• Promises
• Friendliness
• Confidentiality

3. Reliability with regard to knowledge

• Hardware and software

Timeliness.
Timeliness is an important aspect for translation users. It means that the translation should be delivered in a
timely manner, not after it has lost its usefulness or value.

Cost: Cost must not be ignored in translation because controls all translation. A translation that the client considers
too expensive will not be done, and a translation that the translator consider too cheap may not get done either.

Trade-offs: Trade-offs need to be considered in translation. The closer one tries to get to perfect reliability, the
more it will cost and the longer it will take. similarly, the shorter the time frame for the translation, the more it will
cost and the harder it will be to ensure reliability.

CHAPTER 2: Internal Knowledge (the translator’s view)

Who are translators? Translators are people who convert words and phrases from one language to another.

The translators have three internal requirements

1. Professional pride
2. Income
3. Enjoyment
I) Professional pride: professional translators value their pride, integrity, and self-esteem. They want to feel
that their work is important, done well, and appreciated by people they work for.

The areas in and through which translators typically take professional pride are reliability, involvement in the
profession and ethics.

1. Reliability: Professional pride in reliability motivates translators to spend hours searching for the right
terminology. Even though they may not receive extra pay for this time-consuming task, they find it crucial
to get it right.
2. Involvement in the profession: involvement in the translation profession, such as joining associations,
attending conferences, and networking with other translators, is important for translators. It enhances their
skills, boots their self-esteem, provide emotional support, and empowers them to stand up for their
professional rights.
3. Ethics: The professional ethics of translation have traditionally been focused on not distorting the meaning
of the source text. However, this narrow view is limited because there are cases where intentional
distortion is necessary, such as adapting texts for different media or target audiences.

II) Income: Professional translators translate for pride, enjoyment and for earning money. For making more
money, there are at least ways to do this, two of them are short-term strategies and one long-term strategy:
1. Speed
2. Project management
3. Raising the status of the profession.

By: Haibatullah Himat

 NOTE FOR TRANSLATION: BECOMING A TRANSLATOR Second Edition

1. Speed: the relationship between translation speed and income differs for freelancers and in-house
translators. The faster a freelancer translates, the more money s/he makes.

A translator’s translation speed is controlled by a number of factors:

• Typing speed
• The level of text difficulty
• Familiarity with this sort of text
• Translation memory software
• Personal preferences or style
• Job stress
2. Project management: Creating your own agency is an effective way to increase your income. A successful
agency-owner may earn three or four times what a freelancer earns.
3. Raising the state of the profession: this is long-range goal. Translators raise the state of their profession
because the translator associations and unions, translator training programs, and translation scholars
desired to raise the general awareness of translation and its importance to society, in fact, is to raise
translator income.

III) Enjoyment: translators experience high levels burnout due to various factors like low pay, lack of recognition,
long working hours, and etc. However, many translators continue to enjoy their work even after several years.
This indicates that the enjoyment is a powerful motivator. Enjoyment refers to finding pleasure, fulfilment, and
satisfaction in the work of translating texts form one language to another.

CHAPTER 3: The Translator as A Learner

The translator’s intelligence: Translation is always intelligent behavior and a highly complicated process requiring
rapid multilayered analyses of semantic fields, syntactics structures, culture deference and psychology of reader
response from the translator.

Translator memory: Translation is an intelligent activity so translators must be good at storing experiences in
memory, and at retrieving those experiences whenever needed to solve complex translation problem; but they do
not do this by memorizing things.

Translators learn different materials in different conditions and from different things, sohey need different
memories.

The followings are the kinds of memories:

1. Representational M: RM records specific events. Translators need RM when they need to remember or
define a specific word.
2. Procedure memory: PR helps you perform skills or activities that are quickly sublimated as unconscious
habits. PM helps a translator use the word effectively in a translation.
3. Intellectual M: IM records the facts.
4. Emotional M: EM records how we feel about the facts and adds force to all learning.

Context: the sitting in which a thing is found or occurs is extremely important because our environment affects our
memory, mood, and behavior. For interpreters, they can in any environment and create a productive mental state.
However, translators tend to be more dependent on their familiar workstations to recreate the right mindset for
translating. They can remember things best.

By: Haibatullah Himat

 NOTE FOR TRANSLATION: BECOMING A TRANSLATOR Second Edition

Relevance: the more relevant something is to you, the easier it is to remember. When something is personally
important or related to real-life experiences, it sticks in our memory. That’s why learning translation or
interpretation is easier when actually doing it in real-world situation, rather than just in a classroom.

Multiple encoding: using multiple senses to learn and remember something makes it easier to recall. This is called
multiple encoding, where each piece of information is encoded through different sensory channels like sight, sound,
touch, movement, test, and smell.

The translator’s learning styles:

1. Muscle Intelligence: is the ability to hear, perform, and compose music with complex skill and attention
to detail.
2. Spatial intelligence: is the ability to discern, differentiate, manipulate, and produce spatial shaped and
relations.
3. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence: is the ability to understand, produce, and caricature bodily states and
actions.
4. Personal intelligence: is the ability to track, sort out, articulate one’s own and others’ emotional states.
5. Logical/mathematical intelligence: is the ability to perceive, sort out, and manipulate order and relation
in the world of object and the abstract symbols used to represent them.
6. Linguistic intelligence: is the ability to hear, sort out, produce, and manipulate the complexities of a single
language.

Example:

• Technical translators need high spatial and logical/mathematical intelligence as well.

• Interpreters and film dubbers need high bodily-kinesthetic and personal intelligence.
• Translators of song lyrics need high musical intelligence.

Context: it makes a great deal of difference to learners where they learn—what sort of physical and social
environment they inhabit while learning.

Some different variables, as presented in Jensen are discussed below:

Field-dependent learners: FDL learn best in “natural” context, the context in which they would learn something
without really trying, because learning and experiencing are so closely tied together.

Field-independent learners: They learn best in artificial or “irrelevant” context. They prefer to learn about things,
usually from distance. They love to learn in classroom, from textbooks and other textual materials. :

Flexible environment: They like variety in their learning environments, and move comfortably form one to
another. FE translators prefer to work in different context every day.

Structured-environment learners: they don’t like variety in their learning environments, and typically work at a
single work station.

Independence learners: IL learn best alone. Most of can work temporarily with another person, or in large groups,
but they do not feel comfortable doing so, and will be much less effective in group.

Dependent learners: learn best in pairs, team, other groups. Most can work alone for short periods, but they do
not feel comfortable doing so, and will be less effective than in groups.

Interdependent learners: work well both in groups and alone; in either case, however, they perceive their own
personal success and competence in terms of larger group goals.

By: Haibatullah Himat

 NOTE FOR TRANSLATION: BECOMING A TRANSLATOR Second Edition

Relationship-driven learners: are strong in personal intelligence; they learn best when they like and trust the
presenter. “WHO delivers the information is more important than WHAT the information is”.

Content-driven learners: are stronger in linguistic and logical/mathematic than in personal intelligence; they
focus most fruitfully on the information content of a written or spoken text.

Input: the sensory form of information when it enters the brain is also important. There are three different
sensory forms in which we typically receive information, the visual, the auditory, and the kinesthetic.

I) Visual learners: learn through visualizing, either seeking out external images or creating mental images of the
thing they’re learning. They score high in spatial intelligence. They have two types:
1. Visual-external learners: learn things best by seeing them, or seeing picture of them; they like drawings
on the blackboard or overhead projector, slides and videos…
2. Visual-internal learners: learn best by creating visual images of things in their heads. As a result, they are
often thought of as daydreams or, when they are able to verbalize their images for others.

II) Auditory learners: learn best by listening and responding orally, either to other people or to the voice in their
own heads. They two types:
1. Auditory-external learners: prefer to hear someone describe a thing before they can remember it.
2. Auditory-internal learners: learn best by talking to themselves. They sometimes have a hard time making
up their mind because they have a constant debate going on in their heads, but they are also much more
self-aware than other types of learners.

III) Kinesthetic learners: learn best by doing. As the name suggests, they score high in bodily-kinesthetic
intelligence. They have two types:
1. Kinesthetic-tactile learners: need to hold things in their hands; they typically learn with their bodies, with
touch and motion.
2. Kinesthetic-internal learners: use their feelings or “experiences” as a filter for what they learn. Things or
ideas that “feel good” or give the learner “good vibes” are easy to learn.

Processing: different learners also process information in strikingly different ways. Processing models are divided
into four main types:

1. Contextual-global
2. Sequential-detailed/linear
3. Conceptual, and concrete
4. Concrete (objects and feelings)
1. Contextual-global learners are sometimes described as “parachutists”: they see the big picture, as if they
were floating high above it, and often care less about the minute details. They want to grasp the main
points quickly and build a general sense of the whole.
2. Sequential-detailed or linear learners prefer to control the learning process as much as possible by doing
only one thing at a time: focusing on a single task until it is finished, and proceeding through that task one
step at a time. These leaner s always want to know how to proceed in advance: they want a map, a formula,
a menu, a checklist.
3. Conceptual (abstract) learners process information most effectively at high levels of generality and at a
great distance from the distractions of practical experience. They prefer talking and thinking to doing, and
love to build elaborate and elegant systems that bear little resemblance to the complexities of real life.
4. Concrete (objects and feeling) learners prefer to process information by handling it in as tangible a way
as possible. They are suspicious of theories, abstract models, and conceptualization.

By: Haibatullah Himat

 NOTE FOR TRANSLATION: BECOMING A TRANSLATOR Second Edition

Response: in any interaction, your response to the information you’ve taken in and processed will be the action
you take. The following the types of response filter:

Externally/internally referenced
1. External referenced learners respond to informational input largely on the basis of other people’s
expectations and attitudes.
2. Internally reference learners develop a more personal code of ethics or sense of personal integrity, and
respond to input based in their internal criteria.

Matching/mismatching
1. Matchers respond most strongly to similarities, consistencies, groupings, belongingness. They are likely to
agree with a group or an established opinion, because discordance feels wrong to them.
2. Mismatchers respond most strongly to dissimilarities, inconsistencies, deviations, individuality. They are
likely to disagree eighth a group or an established opinion, because there is something profoundly
suspicious about so many people toeing the same line.

Impulsive-experimental/ analytical-reflective
1. Impulsive-experimental learners respond to new information through trial and error: rather than reading
the instructions or asking for advice, they jump right in and try to make something happen.
2. Analytical-reflective learners prefer to respond more slowly and cautiously: their motto is “look before
you leap.” They take in information and reflect on it, test it against everything else they know and believe.

CHAPTER 4: The Process of Translation

In this chapter, the focus is on applying general knowledge of memory and learning to a model for the translation
process. The model suggests that translators alternate between two mental states:

1. A subconscious “flow” state: where translation seems effortless.

2. Conscious analytical state: where the translator actively engages with references like dictionaries, and
grammar books to ensure accuracy.

The subliminal flow state allows translators to work quickly and earn a living, particularly when the source text
presents no problems or familiar issues that can be solved without conscious analysis.

The conscious analytical state is slower but crucial for maintaining a reputation for reliability and expertise.
Without this analytical ability, translators would struggle with difficult tasks and make mistake even in easier
ones.

Study tip: These two states are different in how they are stored and retrieved: transformed into habit in the
subliminal state and brought back into conscious analysis in the analytical.

Charles Sanders Peirce, an American philosopher and founder of semiotics, proposed a three-step process that
connect instinct, experience, and habit.
1. instinct represents a general readiness
2. experience encompasses real-world activities that shape the individual
3. habit combines both instinct and experience to form a promptitude of action.
In the context of translation, this three-step process can be applied.
1. the translator begins with an instinctive sense of the meaning and structure of words and phrases in the
source language. (instinct)

By: Haibatullah Himat

 NOTE FOR TRANSLATION: BECOMING A TRANSLATOR Second Edition

2. through the experience of translating and comparing similarities and differences between languages, the
translator gradually develops effective solutions to problem. (experience)
3. over time, these solutions become habitualized patterns of behavior, allowing the translator to work
more effectively. (habit)

the translator’s experience is more complex than just the act of translating. To understand this experience better,
we can use a model proposed by Peirce, which include
1. abduction (guesswork)
2. induction (pattern-building)
3. deduction (rules, laws, theories)

1. abduction is the act of making intuitive leaps from unexplained data to forming hypotheses. It involves
guessing or intuitively hypothesizing without much information.
2. Induction starts from specific details and moving towards general conclusions.
3. Deduction starts from general principles and deduces specific details.

The translator’s experience begins with abduction in two ways: first, by attempting to understand the foreign
language, and second, by trying to find equivalents for expressions that seem untranslatable in the source text. As
the translator proceeds, they test their abductive solutions through induction in various contexts, dealing with
specific details and identifying patterns. Deduction comes into play when the translator has discovered enough
patterns to make generalization, leading to the formulation of translation methods, principles, and rules.

Karl Weick’s Model

1. Enactment
2. Selection
3. Retention

1. Enactment is when you take action and try to make sense of ambiguous event, Peirce calls it “abduction.”
2. Selection happens as a response to the actions taken, where you interpret and choose the best course of
action.
There are two approaches to selection: Rules and Cycles.
A. Rules are often taken to be the key to principled action and are only useful in reasonable simple
situation. Peirce would call it “deduction”
B. Cycle, involving feedback and collaborative decision-making. The translator’s important cycle is the
act-response-adjustment.
3. Retention refers to the encoding of successful action into memory. It corresponds to Pierce’s notion of
“habit.”

In Wieck’s terms, the translation process ca be summarized as follows:

1. translate: act; jump into the text feet first; translate knowledgeable.
2. Edit: reflect on your translation, compare it with your knowledge, and edit both intuitively and logically.
3. Sublimate: internalize what you’ve learned through this give-and-take process for later use; make it
second nature.

By: Haibatullah Himat