Translators nowadays have a plethora of tools at their disposal in order to facilitate the process of their work. In the era of the Internet, no longer do they need to rely solely on paper dictionaries, which are expensive, take up space, and are not the most comfortable to use. Many dictionaries have their fully fledged online versions, such as the Cambridge Dictionary or the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, not to mention dictionaries of languages other than English, whose paper versions are often hard to come by, or they simply do not exist. Online dictionaries make looking up words faster and they often provide more information than paper dictionaries, since they are not limited by space.
Of course, a translator’s research requires much more than just looking up words. This is where websites with example sentences are useful. They often provide many instances of relevant words or phrases in context, which can be helpful when dealing with minute nuances of language. In this case, quantity can be more important than quality. One tool which can be surprisingly helpful when dealing with translations is Wikipedia. Since it provides articles in multiple languages, looking up certain concepts, especially technical ones, and comparing the title with the equivalent article in the target language is sometimes the best option. The caveat here is that, of course, not every article is available in every language. You just need to cross your fingers and hope for the best.
As much as many people would scoff at the idea of using automatic translation software in professional translations, it can be quite helpful in many instances. In my experience, tools such as Google Translate are surprisingly competent, especially at translating technical texts related to computer science. Of course, that does not mean that they will replace human translators anytime soon (hopefully!), or that a translator should just copy the source material wholesale into an automatic translation tool, paste whatever comes out the other side into a document and ship it to the customer, but this approach can be used as a general guide, and in many cases proofreading the output and making necessary changes is sufficient.
When translating texts related to very specific or niche topics, there are cases in which no dictionaries or tools are comprehensive enough to do the job. In such cases, the translator needs to turn to specific websites related to the relevant topic, or alternatively, turn to other people. That is why when working as a translator, it can prove quite advantageous to make contact with native speakers of languages one translates, possibly fellow translators as well. They might not know all the answers to your doubts and questions, but they might know someone else who does. Establishing this sort of network of human resources is extremely helpful in a translator’s job and it creates a friendly environment of mutual cooperation.
(F.B)
