Poll: Have you ever been overly confident of your translation abilities? Persoa que publicou o fío: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Have you ever been overly confident of your translation abilities?".
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Overconfidence is a killer! I have been translating full-time for over 40 years and yet, before delivering a text, I always feel a slight apprehension: Have I done it right? Could I have done it better? I see this as a good thing as it keeps me on my toes. The more translating I do, the more I realize just how much there is to learn...
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Ana Vozone 
Local time: 19:29
Membro (2010)
English to Portuguese
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| How about just "confident" | Jun 17 |
I feel confident every time I accept a translation. Otherwise, I would politely decline...
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IrinaN
United States
Local time: 13:29
English to Russian
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"A poor coal-digger (ever hear of a rich one?) ..." - O'Henry
"An overconfident translator (ever hear of an underconfident one?) ... - me.
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Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 20:29
Membro (2020)
French to Dutch
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...that I know of, but I might have been since I have always accepted what was presented to me. That attitude has made me what I am today: an often solicited translator that feels confident in a wide array of specialization areas. So if it should qualify as "overly confident", then I would say that being overly confident is highly recommended. Translation is like solving jigsaw puzzles : it can be harder depending on the picture, but eventually you always get there if you want to.
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The only way I could tell confidence from overconfidence in this case is by studying complaints coming from customers. Defending translations against customers is part of my job, so I know what it feels like. My own translations are easy to defend because I always remember why I used one word or expression rather than another. Customers sometimes complain about the complicated logic behind my translations because any departure from the word-for-word principle (which, as a translation skill level... See more The only way I could tell confidence from overconfidence in this case is by studying complaints coming from customers. Defending translations against customers is part of my job, so I know what it feels like. My own translations are easy to defend because I always remember why I used one word or expression rather than another. Customers sometimes complain about the complicated logic behind my translations because any departure from the word-for-word principle (which, as a translation skill level, is best described by the phrase "I read and translate with a dictionary") constitutes a cardinal sin to them. A translation should read as if were originally written in the target language. This is one of the first things translation students learn in class—and one of the first things they forget when joining the workforce. Old-schoolers will probably say things were different in the olden days of yore. This can perhaps be explained by the competition situation, then vs now.
I like to read books along with their translations whenever I can find both online. One of my recent reads was "An Introduction to Metallurgy" by J. Newton along with a beautiful Russian version written in keeping with the best traditions of the Soviet school of technical translation. Another book I read (but forgot the name of) was probably translated into Russian through a translation from French into English and published on a .kz website. Two or three pages into the read, I closed the .kz site because its content was putting too much stress on me as a translation pro well familiar with the subject-matter. Then vs now ▲ Collapse
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Liena Vijupe
Latvia
Local time: 21:29
Membro (2014)
French to Latvian
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Occasionally I have to admit that somebody else's idea is better and wonder why didn't it occur to me, but otherwise I usually think of myself as simply confident. I don't translate just to practice my language skills and don't work in fields I know nothing about because I really hate to feel like I'm looking for a black cat in a dark room when translating and to be unable to defend my choices with full confidence.
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Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 20:29
Membro (2009)
English to German
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Whenever there might be a notion of too much confidence seems to be apprearing on the horizon, I simply remember all the words I still don't know, and it disappears immediately. After all, it's highly unlikely that there is a person who knows every single word in her/his own language, let alone in a foreign language.
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Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:29
Serbian to English
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| The nature of this particular beast | Jun 20 |
is a complete lack of self-awareness. So this question leads to a kind of paradox.
Those who would truly qualify for a "yes" answer would never answer "yes".
See Dunning-Kruger effect ...
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 20:29
French to English
Daryo wrote:
is a complete lack of self-awareness. So this question leads to a kind of paradox.
Those who would truly qualify for a "yes" answer would never answer "yes".
See Dunning-Kruger effect ...
Yes!
I was definitely *wildly* over-confident in the beginning, starting out with zero qualifications!
But I'm an obstinate gal and kept at it, learned from my mistakes
and later qualified for a Master from ESIT after just one year of very part-time study on the strength of my professional experience (I was the only one to do so that year too).
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