The Prosperous Tranlsator

If there is one memorable fact or lesson that I come away with after reading a book, then it was well worth reading. In the case of The Prosperous Translator by Chris Durban, that one fact would be the recommendation to read On Writing Well by William Zissner. I immediately started to read it and know that I will be referring to it often for years to come.

Before I say anything more about this book, I would like to congratulate Ms. Durban on her writing style. She explains her ideas succinctly with clear language interspersed with wit and humor. I can bet that her translations read very well.

This book is a compilation of e-mails to Chris Durban and Eugene Seidel a.k.a. Fire and and Worker Bee, two freelance translators with decades of experience. Instead of saying "There is one way and only one way to translate and run a translation business.", they answer advice seekers in an open-ended way that leaves room for interpretation and adaptation. This makes the book more congenial and creditable than some other alienating, totalitarian "advice" I have read elsewhere such as on the Internet.

This is not to say that FA&WB are not firm about certain points. They are sticklers for quality, punctuality, networking and translating into your own language. They advise readers to specialize and actively seek direct clients. They also point out that machine translation is not going to put human translators out of business unless you are considering clients who want Google Translate to do the job for them for free.

Of course The Prosperous Translator has many more nuggets of advice to offer translators, but I would rather leave it up to you to read it yourself. At only $25.00, it is a real bargain considering the countless hours it will save you, not counting the money it will help you earn in better understanding and streamlining your freelance translation outfit. The book is available here.

Just what the doctor ordered

I am always stricken by how versatile legal proceedings can be. Contracts can be about a plethora of subject matters: construction, telecommunications, engineering or animal husbandry to name a few. Certificates, though more limited in scope, deal with major life events: birth, marriage and death. Home studies and social worker reports, though not always strictly legal in nature, often describe children's physical and mental health issues.

It is no wonder then that my medical terminology database and my knowledge of all things medical are growing by the month even though I am anything but a medical translator. I couldn't be happier though, because there is scarcely a subject matter under the sun that I am not interested in.

Additionally, as long as I am not translating a manual on open heart surgery or something else along those lines, I am consoled by the fact that a) there are many, many medical resources on the Internet whether they be bilingual and monolingual glossaries and dictionaries or comprehensive explanations for the layperson (yours truly) b) most terms have a one-to-one correspondence. Not only that, most terms are cognates of Latin or Greek origin in both Spanish and English so there isn't much guesswork. Cardiología couldn't be anything else but cardiology and hospital, well the obvious.

On that note, one difference I do see is more lay terms accepted in English than in Spanish. In English, as an adjective you see lung and heart as well as pulmonary and cardiac, whereas in Spanish, you will most likely see pulmonar and cardíaco exclusively.

As always, anticipate your upcoming translations. If you go to the doctor, pay attention to any and all documentation related to your visit. Be sure to save all tests and scan them if they are not already in digital format. That way, when you are hit with that 10,000 word social services report, you have something on file and ready to go.

Here is a good site for blood tests in English.