Providing linguistic services is a profession closely linked to technology. Although it could be said at first sight that “a translation is done by a translator”, experience has shown that this is not true for several reasons. First of all, it is widely known that most translation processes involve many professionals who form a chain of tasks that help the final translation take form from when the order is received to when it is delivered. Likewise, and although many non-experts may find it hard to believe, it must be taken into account that we are not machines that store all the interlinguistic “correspondences” between two or more languages inside of them, that it is not always reliable to translate at light speed to meet more stringent deadlines and that the quality of a job is not just defined by merely finishing the translation, but rather that it must be worked on and verified. For all these reasons, over the last few years, professionals in providing linguistic services have been identifying needs, creating solutions and sharing them in the community in order to disseminate all kinds of knowledge among translators and give them the tools to do higher-quality translations in a much more comfortable manner. These are very useful both for professionals with more experience and also for those who are beginners, since it lets them manage translations more efficiently, have access to a higher number of sources for multilingual consultation and be in contact with colleagues from that sector in any part of the world.
To do so, in this article we are going to summarize the most well-known and useful tools to this end, we will show some that are maybe not as well-known and, of course, we would love to know what other resources our readers know.
TERMINOLOGICAL RESOURCES
Probably one of the most widely used terminological resources until now is Linguee, a mixture between a dictionary and a search engine. Its most distinctive characteristic is that you can search for words, syntagmas, expressions and entire sentences in a body of source texts and their translations into a large number of languages, mostly European ones. The help offered by this resource is being able to see how a linguistic unit works in context, see how it behaves and access several translations of it, from which we can choose which one fits our communicative circumstance the best. In this same vein, we recommend Reverso Context, which also acts as a multilingual dictionary and provides the user with a large body of original texts and their translations in order to be able to see the context. Likewise, it is dedicated to language learning and its mobile app allows those who are learning a language to practice vocabulary. Another commonly used terminological resource is IATE (Interactive Terminology for Europe), a database launched in 1999 which brings together the interinstitutional terminology of the European Union for different industries. Furthermore, the entries are managed by EU terminology experts and translators, which is why it is a reference tool which should always be kept in mind. We must also remember Magic Search, a search engine that, when we introduce a term and the language pair we are interested in, will instantly show multiple pages of terminology in which matching results have been detected, which makes it a useful tool to take a quick look at all the options available and make a careful decision. Finally, we cannot overlook recommending the common bilingual and monolingual dictionaries and, without a doubt, the publications specialized in interlinguistic terminology for a given sector of the specific industry.
CAT TOOLS
As many will already know, these are Computer-Aided Translation tools. Unlike automatic translation, these tools will not do part of the translation process for us, but rather they are designed to make the different tasks making up the translation process easier. This way, the professional can manage their own projects in a quicker manner and with a higher-quality guarantee. These tools include many functions, such as translation memories that save a registry of prior translations in case matches come up in the future, as well as term bases in the form of interlinguistic glossaries that can be “fed” over time and, for example, have the capacity to accept different text formats. In reality, the offering of CAT tools is extraordinarily large, just like the number of features that they make available to their users. Choosing one or another will mostly depend on the needs of each professional or company, however, what is sure is that it is worth it to have a tool of this type to translate with greater expertise. Some are online servers and others are computer programs that need to be installed. Some of the most well-known ones are SDL Trados Studio, MemoQ, Memsource, but there are also others such as Wordfast Pro, Fluency Now or XTM International. Incorporating these resources into our professional activity is worthwhile. In fact, today there are a large number of courses targeted for those who want to deepen their knowledge of how to use these tools in order to take advantage of their potential.
TRANSLATOR FORUMS
Sharing knowledge is probably, together with accumulating experience, the best way of learning in the world of translation. As linguistic professionals, we should be up to date with the latest news in our industry and, of course, be in contact with the colleagues who work on translation in one same sector. Translator forums have contributed to this enormously, which work as a meeting place for professionals so they can pose their questions, provide solutions and, in general, make the community grow.
ProZ is probably one of the most well-known resources, with almost 4 million visits monthly. It lets us publish job offers, find work and consult with other professionals, as well as search for terminology between different language pairs and it also publishes market studies for information about the community. On a smaller scale, we have Translators Café, which also lets us publish and find work, as well as start conversations about questions in which we can share our experience. Sometimes, this platform is criticized for the somewhat antiquated aesthetic of its interface, but this does not make it a less intuitive tool. Moreover, we also have Translation Directory, which includes a database of glossaries, dictionaries and other useful resources. Although it is true that it has a forum for discussion, the influx of answers is somewhat less than in the previous sites and in addition, here we cannot publish job offers. However, it is yet another resource to be taken into account.
Definitively, as translators, we need to be aware that we do not have to face on our own the tasks included in providing linguistic services. We should get to know all the resources available, take a chance on new technologies and be in constant contact with the rest of the professionals. This way we can keep developing all throughout our career, obtain better results and we will feel like we are in greater harmony with others in our profession.
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