Thoughts On Translation

Corinne McKay's blog Thoughts on Translation is one of the web's liveliest gathering places for freelance translators...now available in book format Wondering whether to charge by the word or by the hour? How to receive payments from clients in foreign countries? How to write a translation-targeted resume? It's all in here, in chunks that take just a few minutes to read. Corinne McKay is also the author of "How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator," the original career how-to guide for freelance translators, with over 5,000 copies in print. Her practical, down-to-earth tips are based on her own experience launching and running a successful freelance translation business after a first career as a high school teacher.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Seven-year-old Chula lives a carefree life in her gated community in Bogotá, but the threat of kidnappings, car bombs, and assassinations hover just outside her walls, where the godlike drug lord Pablo Escobar reigns, capturing the attention of the nation. “Simultaneously propulsive and poetic, reminiscent of Isabel Allende...Listen to this new author’s voice—she has something powerful to say.” —Entertainment Weekly When her mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city’s guerrilla-occupied neighborhood, Chula makes it her mission to understand Petrona’s mysterious ways. Petrona is a young woman crumbling under the burden of providing for her family as the rip tide of first love pulls her in the opposite direction. As both girls’ families scramble to maintain stability amidst the rapidly escalating conflict, Petrona and Chula find themselves entangled in a web of secrecy. Inspired by the author's own life, Fruit of the Drunken Tree is a powerful testament to the impossible choices women are often forced to make in the face of violence and the unexpected connections that can blossom out of desperation.

"Why Translation Matters argues for the cultural importance of translation and for a more encompassing and nuanced appreciation of the translator's role. As the acclaimed translator Edith Grossman writes in her introduction, "My intention is to stimulate a new consideration of an area of literature that is too often ignored, misunderstood, or misrepresented." For Grossman, translation has a transcendent importance: "Translation not only plays its important traditional role as the means that allows us access to literature originally written in one of the countless languages we cannot read, but it also represents a concrete literary presence with the crucial capacity to ease and make more meaningful our relationships to those with whom we may not have had a connection before. Translation always helps us to know, to see from a different angle, to attribute new value to what once may have been unfamiliar. As nations and as individuals, we have a critical need for that kind of understanding and insight. The alternative is unthinkable"."--Jacket.

Translation of cognitive representations into written language is one of the most important processes in writing. This volume provides a long-awaited updated overview of the field. The contributors discuss each of the commonly used research methods for studying translation; theorize about the nature of the cognitive and language representations and cognitive/linguistic transformation mechanisms involved in translation during writing; and make the case that translation is a higher-order executive function that is fundamental to the writing process. The book also reviews the application of research to practice -- that is, the translation of the research findings in education and the work-world for individuals who interact with others using written language to communicate ideas. This volume provides a rich resource for student, theorists, and empirical researchers in cognitive psychology, linguistics, and education; and teachers and clinicians who can use the research in their work.

Thinking Chinese Translation is a practical and comprehensive course for advanced undergraduates and postgraduate students of Chinese. Thinking Chinese Translation explores the ways in which memory, general knowledge, and creativity (summed up as ‘schema’) contribute to the linguistic ability necessary to create a good translation. The course develops the reader’s ability to think deeply about the texts and to produce natural and accurate translations from Chinese into English. A wealth of relevant illustrative material is presented, taking the reader through a number of different genres and text types of increasing complexity including: technical, scientific and legal texts journalistic and informative texts literary and dramatic texts. Each chapter provides a discussion of the issues of a particular text type based on up-to-date scholarship, followed by practical translation exercises. The chapters can be read independently as research material, or in combination with the exercises. The issues discussed range from the fine detail of the text, such as punctuation, to the broader context of editing, packaging and publishing translations. Major aspects of teaching and learning translation, such as collaboration, are also covered. Thinking Chinese Translation is essential reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of Chinese and translation studies. The book will also appeal to a wide range of language students and tutors through the general discussion of the principles and purpose of translation.

Peter Newmark's third book is an attempt to deepen and extend his views on translation. He goes easy on theories and models and diagrams and offers a few correlative statements to assist translators in finding a variety of options and in making their decisions.

Translation agencies are the backbone of many freelance translators' businesses. A good agency can offer you a steady flow of projects, allowing you to translate while the agency handles the non-translation work. But especially in the rapidly-changing landscape of the translation industry, you need to know how to find and market to translation agencies and how to work effectively with them. Finding and Marketing to Translation Agencies walks you through the process of identifying agencies that are worth applying to, making contact, following up, tracking your marketing efforts, and negotiating rates and payment terms. The book includes a bonus chapter, answering real-life questions submitted by readers of the author's blog.

Argues for the central role of thoughts in the design of language.