Question The paths of translators.

Just curious what kind of translator are you?

1. Translate the whole thing sentence by sentence manually.
2. Mtl it and translate sentence by sentence manually for the parts that are hard to understand.
3. Mtl it and guess the meaning without consulting the raws.
4. Mtl and edit it enough for it to be listed on nu.
5. Mtl it and be done.
6. Other (pls specify)

I'm #2 btw

 

Mostly sentence by sentence translation with a MTL open in an extra tab for comparison. But if I reach a passage that most readers will skim over I don't put in as much effort. Hehe

 

#2

 

I'm new, but it will be #2.

There should be a second part though, I'm really curious how many people are native/fluent English speakers. And then what level of editing/proof-reading do you do? I know a lot of people don't edit much.

 

I mostly stick to number 1, though I do put sentences through a mtl if I don't understand the phrasing. Sometimes I do multiple sentences together if I'd need to shift the info around.

 

I throw everything at grammarly.

 

Used to do #1 but that was too laborious and time-consuming, so now it's #2. Although the sentences often end up with being very different, mtl does things pretty well, it does the plan and structure at a glance, very lightening the work. Then do the editing, and last proofread multiple times at intervals

 

I guess I am something of a rarity here? I stick with #1 now. I spent average 3 hours translating a 2000 words chapter.(The original raw text is 3000 Chinese character).
It is a very tiring process. I guess I might switch to #2 after I start my second novel?

 

#1 for me. I MTL if I'm absolutely lost about what a sentence means

 

number 1!! When I get stuck, I use mlt. I also study the language when I'm not translating.

I am an 1st rate editor!!

 

#1 for me. You can't go any other way if you are working for one of the legit publishers.

 

#1 of course. It's the only proper way to translate a literary work, imo. A word in Chinese could be translated multiple ways depending on context. MTL simply doesn't cut it.

lol

I'm a native English speaker, BA in English writing. Aside from using spellcheck, I also read through the chapter once and fix/improve whatever issues I see during that run-through.

 

#1 with MTL as a reference on the side.

 

I used to do #1 before but I switched to #2 then look at raws while translating because doing #1 is not much accurate if you're using Pure MTL with basic knowledge on the language, I mean MTLing it word by word (based on my experience). But now I quit to study the language while studying in school

 

Started with #1 then changed to #2 because #1 is too slow

 

No one does #5?

 

5 can’t get listed on NU so isn’t likely to be here on the forums I assume? Or isn’t likely to admit to it…I do see people periodically asking here why they can’t get listed when they won’t admit to the fact it’s unedited MTL

 

Lol, only me who lost the ability to read some Chinese words, so I stick it into one of those sites where it reads the words for you and translates from there. Of course, I can read some, but after leaving China for around a long time, my skills have notably decreased.

 

I'm a (relatively)new translator(done 18 chapters), I do #1 takes me about 6h for a 2500 word chapter. I use Jisho to look up kanji, and sometimes use MTL for when there are some phrases that I don't know what to make of, like colloquial sayings or stuff like that.

Also if there is a part I'm not 100% sure on I move on and then go back to fix later it when I have the context around it, instead of trying to guess what it means for like 30 min, after I started doing that I cut down a lot of useless time I spent pondering on some trivial stuff that I would have figured out in 2 min if I had just continued translating...