Improving your translation skills to get to the ATA exam level
I recently gave a presentation on this topic at the New England Translators Association conference. It was an honor to spend time speaking to amazing colleagues. The discussions around the tables were great!
NETA requested this topic. This is my personal opinion, based on working with students for quite a few years.
First of all, I want to clarify that regardless of whether there is a certification in your language pair or not, the ATA standards for passing the exam are a worthy goal. Certification shows your skills. You don’t prepare to pass an exam; you prepare to have the skills…
What is translation?
Translation is the process of transferring text from one language into another. It is a complex skill requiring several abilities.
A successful translation is one that conveys the explicit and implicit meaning of the source language into the target language as fully and accurately as possible. From the standpoint of the user, the translation must also meet the prescribed specifications and deadlines.
Competence in two languages is necessary but not sufficient for any translation task. Though the translator must be able to (1) read and comprehend the source language and (2) write comprehensibly in the target language, the translator must also be able to (3) choose the equivalent expression in the target language that both fully conveys and best matches the meaning intended in the source language (referred to as congruity judgment).
https://www.govtilr.org/Skills/AdoptedILRTranslationGuidelines.htm
ATA exam expectations
Translate two passages of 250 words in three hours.
Types of errors
You can find a post about this here.
Mechanical
You would be able to catch most of this with a spell check. That might be why you can only use software that does not provide spell check for the ATA exam.
- Grammar
- Syntax
- Word form
- Spelling
- Capitalization
- Punctuation
Meaning transfer
These mistakes change the message. Your translation does not mean the same thing as the source text.
- Addition
- Omission
- Terminology
- False friends
- Verb form
- Ambiguity
- Faithfulness
- Too literal
- Misunderstanding
- Indecision
- Unfinished
Writing quality
- Usage
- Text type
- Register
- Style
- Illegibility
My explanation of these mistakes is here: https://www.gauchatranslations.com/ata-translation-errors-explained/
Error points (my understanding)
Perceptual scales are exponential. Light, sound and earthquakes follow this pattern. For sound, for example, 20 dB is twice as loud as 10 dBs, and 30 dBs is twice as loud as 20 db.
This is why a scale of how much impact an error has on a translation should also be exponential. The ATA has a flowchart for error point decisions that follows a 0, 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 point scale depending on the effect of the error. For mechanical errors, it works as follows:
My explanation of this grading scale is here: https://www.gauchatranslations.com/error-points-in-ata-certification-exams/
For mechanical errors, it goes to 0 (the grader can’t see it as a mistake) to 4 (this mistake disrupts my reading)
For message transfer errors, it goes from 0 (what mistake?) to 16 (this document is now useless)
Common problems
- Test panic
- Timing
- Translation accuracy
- Writing skills
Computer challenges:
No spell check, etc. This can be construed as being a typing test and a translation test at the same time.
Now… These standards are worth following. Other translation programs that I have worked with use the same standards, so learning to translate following these standards is totally worth it.
How do we reach these standards?
How do you learn how to swim?
- Constant practice
- Coach watching
- Small groups (a coach doesn’t work with 50 swimming students)
- It can take more than one session to learn all the skills in the level.
Translation is a skill. It follows the same principles.
What kind of input is useful?
Music teachers give their students one or two things to improve at a time. They are strategic in their input. And personal. And encouraging. They don’t scare you spitless the day before the conference, they tell you that you are ready and you can go and delight your audience.
Work with a colleague from a different region of your language and check each other’s work. Include your colleague’s fee in the price you charge your clients.
Terminology strategies
- What does this mean in the source text? Use a monolingual dictionary.
- Think of how you would say that in the target language before opening a dictionary.
- Check the topic online… on reputable pages, of course. AI summaries are not a good check. That will give you a pretty good idea what terms you can use, and how they are used in a sentence.
- When you settle on a word, check it in a target language dictionary.
- Make sure your dictionaries have examples of the word in a sentence for every definition. Words fit in a specific set of words (collocation), and they can mean something totally different in a different set of words.
Bilingual dictionaries are glorified glossaries. They are not great at having definitions, usage examples, etc., and you need that to choose and use the right term.
We no longer have issues with handwriting, which I had when I started doing this almost 50 years ago, but we do find typos in the documents we translate. If a word makes no sense, it is probably a typo. Don’t assume your client gives you perfect documents.
As Kevin Hendzel often said…
Translation is not about the words. It is about what the words are about. Kevin Hendzel, 2012.
You will find more resources here:
https://www.gauchatranslations.com/resources/translation-certification-study-resources/
