Becoming a Translator: An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Translation

by Douglas Robinson

Fusing theory with advice and information about the practicalities of translating, Becoming a Translator is the essential resource for novice and practicing translators. The book explains how the market works, helps translators learn how to translate faster and more accurately, as well as providing invaluable advice and tips about how to deal with potential problems, such as stress.

The third edition has been revised and updated throughout, offering:
* extensive up-to-date information about new translation technologies
* discussions of the emerging "sociological" and "activist" turns in translation studies
* new exercises and examples
updated further reading sections
* a website containing a teacher’s guide, the chapter ‘The Translator as Learner’ and additional resources for translators

Offering suggestions for discussion, activities, and hints for the teaching of translation, the third edition of Becoming a Translator remains invaluable for students and teachers of Translation Studies, as well as those working in the field of translation.

Genres: Nonfiction, Linguistics, Language, Reference

248 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 1997

Reviews

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alright, here we go. This is a long one, but every time I sat down to write some thoughts about this book, I just kept stumbling across more things that needed to be discussed. To be clear, the more I wrote about this book, the more I didn't like it. I'm not saying absolutely not to read it, because I think it does provide a VERY general idea of thoughts on the profession for some complete newbie translators (specifically in the more focused fields such as law, medical, auto, etc.) but I did have serious concerns with some of the advice given that I want to touch on.

For clarity, I am a literary translator who has been studying my language for over 6 years and has been working professionally in the field for two. I have a degree in english and creative writing but not in translation, so I've been focusing this year on reading textbooks used in translation master's degree courses. This book was one of the first I picked up.

One of my biggest issues about this book, I think, stems from its misleading title. Let's dwell on it for a moment. "Becoming a Translator: An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Translation". When I read this title, there are several conclusions I come to.

1. The title clearly sends the signal that this book is a textbook.

When I think of proper textbooks, I think of books that are well-researched, conveniently formatted, and heavily edited for clarity. This book is definitely heavily researched and is relatively well formatted, but I'm shocked an editor didn't chop out large hunks of the paragraphs contained here. While textbooks typically take on a very general, non-personalized voice, in this book the author's tone is inescapable. The more researched sections are frequently broken up by fanciful rambling and endless, obnoxious lists. So. Many. Lists. It becomes clear very quickly that this is not a beginner's textbook on translation built on the opinions of many translators from different corners of the profession, but a single man's point of view on translator life. Backed up by research, of course, but there are several sections where his own research seems to go over his head. I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with the above if the book had been titled: "A Translator’s Life: One Man’s Musings on the Life and Practices of Translators", but it isn't and so I do.

2. The title implies that this book will provide you information on pathways to become a translator.

To be honest with you, I can't remember a singular time this book talks specifically about pathways to get into the business of translation. There are sections that discuss the way translation is viewed from an employer's point of view and how the business is viewed by translators, but they descend into woe-is-me complaints on machine translation and bad bosses. Advice for new translators: find employers that give you steady work, decent pay (do your research on this) and not one-off jobs. I'm aware this is not the easiest achievement, but if you manage it most of the problems extolled by this book disappear or fade to an acceptable level.

The best way to achieve this goal is to make a twitter and get involved in the community of your language pair and specialization. Pay attention to what other translators are saying and you'll have more information than you could ever get out a textbook. Twitter has taught me which companies to aim for and which to avoid, has provided me with in depth explanations of common translation
mistakes for my language pair and advice on how to avoid them, has placed me in contact with potential employers, and has offered me a greater understanding of the politics involved with my particular specialization.

One of the frustrating things about this book is that the author acknowledges this. He includes sections called "Tweetstorms" that outline conversations between translators on twitter. The problem with how he does this is that he only offers the same three or four translator's viewpoints throughout the book, taking the most valuable part of a twitter thread (the ability for multiple translators to converge and converse on a piece of knowledge another translator has shared) and distilling it to its most basic and least informative form.

3. The title implies that this book will introduce you to translation theories and the actual practices of translation.

Within this book theories are in short supply. In fact, the entire book only truly focuses on a single theory. And it's actually a good one! The author draws on a variety of research to develop and present a theory of how translators come to conclusions about how a text should be translated. More specifically, the theory focuses on how translators develop experience and expertise as they advance in their craft and how this is a process that is continually in motion. This is the one part of the book that I truly really enjoyed. I like the concept presented here, and I think it's a useful way of looking at how a translator interfaces with their craft.

The problem is this theory massively overstays its welcome. From Chapter 4 onwards, the three steps within the theory (intuitive leaps, pattern-building, and rules and theories) are used to structure the sections within each chapter. The problem? The concept just doesn't fit with the content of most of the chapters. This results in chapters feeling unfocused, confused, and sections feeling repetitive and even completely irrelevant to the topic the chapter is trying to discuss. This attempt at making broad connections ends up extending the theory way beyond its reach, ultimately breaking it down to a useless exercise that cheapens the original strength of its conclusions.

So if there aren’t many theories, what about the practices of translation? Well, there isn’t an incredible amount on this front either. The writer shows clear disdain at times for the linguistic theories that are so much a part of a skilled translator's toolbox (i.e. their practice of translation) and so he spends the book telling us about what translators do and how they are (from his singular point of view) and not how to learn how to do those things and be those things. And when we finally do get into how to do those things, sometimes his opinions are frankly horrifically off. Not always, I want to make clear. But the few that are problematic are truly bad.

In summary, this book doesn’t teach you about a variety of translation theories and teaches only very generally about translator practices while at times giving horrible advice. The whole book frolics in a non-specific general description of translators as a whole and avoids specifying exact paths of study to improve your skills or gain a career. So, with the above discussed, there are some very obvious problems with this book. But those problems aren't my biggest complaints. Those are reserved for the two sections below.

A) The author's disdain for using linguistic theories as translation tools

Throughout this text the author's general disdain towards linguistic theories of translation leaks into his tone and his writing. There are multiple times when he touches upon linguistic theory that he suggests that using those theories while translating is not useful to working translators. He describes linguistic theory as being too specific and as a primarily intellectual process that, if used to translate, would result in an overly literal, difficult to read and ultimately inaccurate product. He even goes so far to express that professional translators have no real need to know linguistic theories at all. To me it came off as strangely elitist, like he thinks translators as a whole understand more about language than linguists do and that they should stay in their own too heavily science-focused lane.

To clarify on this point to future translators: this is an incredibly dumb take. Yes, linguistic theories by nature have to simplify complex problems, because otherwise a theory couldn’t be created at all. And yes, those linguistic theories of translation should not be taken as gospel and texts should not be translated entirely literally. But I’m not convinced linguists are arguing that this is how their theories should be used. These theories are conceptual tools for the translator’s toolbox, ways of understanding possible pathways to solve complex problems they encounter within a text. They provide context and possible solutions, not a definitive guide for how to handle every aspect of language. They are valuable resources, and don’t let the weird elitist tone here stop you from taking the time to research them, because I would be genuinely shocked if you never found any of the discussions present in linguistic fields useful in your studies. For a good translation theory book that dabbles heavily in these linguistic toolbox theories, check out In Other Words by Mona Baker.

B) The author's love of the idea of "faking it until you make it"

This idea pops up several times throughout the text, and I hated it every time. It comes up particularly often in the discussion of faking expertise. The author has this weird concept that translators who translate medical documents are 'pretending to be doctors' or that translators translating auto-mechanical manuals are 'pretending to be mechanics'. I don't want to get too provocative, but if we take this to its logical conclusion, are white translators of African slave narratives pretending to black and African? I'm gonna say no. There is, of course, the argument that those texts shouldn't be translated by white translators because of centuries of colonial influences and unconscious racist biases. This is a valid argument, and not something I'm going to dive into further here.

My point is that these translators aren't 'pretending' to be anything. If someone is translating a medical text (ignoring companies that hire cheap and therefore likely incompetent translators) than they are translating that text because they possess an expertise in medical translation. They have a built in knowledge of the vocabulary present in such texts and likely a general understanding of the topics discussed within these medical texts. When they translate from one language to another they are not 'pretending' to be doctors. They are 'being' expert translators who can convey content and tone accurately from one language to another in their field of expertise.

But this example isn't even the instance of 'pretending' that truly upset me. The award for worst advice in this book goes to the section that suggests that novice translators 'pretend' to be experts. There is a big difference between modeling behavior (i.e. studying how skilled translators conduct themselves and measuring your work against theirs in order to learn and grow in your profession) and pretending to have a level of expertise you haven’t achieved. The author actually suggests that novice translators take jobs they know they aren't qualified for by lying or over-exaggerating their abilities. Then he suggests that they frantically search google for information on the thing they claimed they were qualified in and if they run into issues on the job to beg solutions from other translators in their network.

What. The. Hell. Novice translators, hear me: if you want to take a job that you know you don't have the expertise for, it's time to start studying. If you don't have the expertise, THE JOB IS NOT FOR YOU. Lying and accepting jobs you aren't qualified for will result in you getting a bad reputation among companies and other translators, stress you the hell out, and put you in situations where your employer is going to refuse to pay you for your time.

In conclusion, this book is kind of a mess. However, Chapter 4 has a cool theory in it, so maybe read that.

[Aleksander · Rating 2 out of 5]

(I read this book a couple of years ago, and have forgotten most of it. Maybe I'm being too unfair. I just didn't like it.)

This book didn't give me anything. It claims to be "An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Translation", but it gave me neither useful theoretical nor practical advice.

With "theoretical advice", I mean a framework for thinking about what translation is, maybe with some historical grounding, and backed up by research. There is just nothing like this in the book. The author writes some thoughts on how difficult it can be to translate something from one language to another, but it basically just boils down to "how literally you translate depends on the situation". There is no discussion of what situation warrants what level of literality, or what this even means. He has a bunch of categories ("kinesthetic learners", "auditory learners" etc.), but as far as the reader knows he just made them up. He doesn't explain why they're useful (which he should, because they usually seem rather pointless), nor why he thinks they're real. There is nothing about the history of translation. No studies, no research, no surveys, zero. Just a sketching of the author's personal dichotomies, in a boring and dry language.

I guess the book tries to give practical advice, but what it has just wasn't useful to me. If I can't find a good translation of a phrase, apparently I should send a fax to a translator acquaintance, or post on a BBS. My problem isn't really with how outdated this is, but that this is really 90% of what he says. "Contact acquaintances. Don't talk back to the customer. Always deliver on time." I mean, sure. (Most of) this is good advice. But it might as well have been written on a one-page check-list; I don't need a 300-page book, unless the author is going to weave it into a convincing narrative, or connect it to the theory, or write it into a hilarious story, or whatever other reasons there exist for writing 300 page books. This book just uses long paragraphs to say these things over and over, in slightly different ways.

So there is no convincing theoretical, scientifically backed framework, and no convincing personal narrative. I'm not sure what else a good book can be aiming at.

[WIlliam Gerrard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another book I've read in preparation for the Translation (BA) at Cardiff University on which I'm about to embark. This book aims not so much at the theories of Translation Studies as in other textbooks I have read but focuses more on life as a professional translator. It is preparation for the world of work and discusses many of the issues which one might encounter if one is successful in this career choice. The book has its own ideas and it does perhaps over-apply its terminologies of pattern-building and intuitive leaps. I found it a bit wishy-washy in places as I am still very new to the ideas of Translation. It is easy enough to understand as a basic concept yet the actual science of translation can be quite complicated. There are some nice, practical exercises at the end of each chapter which are good food for thought. I think that this book was a good introduction to translation and I can see it being a useful source of reference for me in years to come.

[Sarah Heady · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book made me feel ill and never ever want to become a translator. i hope that's because the writer is a douchebag and not because the field isn't right for me.

[Tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

We read this for my Intro to Translation class.

As a class text, it's fine (read: fine, not excellent) and I would recommend that teachers take it into consideration, as it is an accessible text for a wide variety of students from diverse learning backgrounds.

But I don't see myself recommending it without hesitation to people who want to become translation professionals. It might be better for those people to begin with a text that talks about practical matters such as contracts, fees, and professional organizations.

Robinson's text sticks to the theoretical and the existential rather than the practical, and it does contain some nuggets of wisdom, but you have to sift through it for a while to reach those parts.

There are some valuable theories and ideas, but they are repeated so often that one almost stops paying attention. Some chapters ironically seemed like summaries of previous ones... but these summaries are the length of an entire chapter themselves.

In short, the quality of the chapters varied wildly, and it left me feeling like the book needed more editing.

Also, this book sometimes reads more like a place for Robinson to vent and wax poetic, rather than as a formal, academic text. I'm more interested in the substance, and again, he often takes his time to get there.

The bestest chapter of all is the second to last one, as it condensed all of the ideas in both practical and inspiring ways. Were the entire book like the second to last chapter, I would recommend it without hesitation.

I unfortunately don't think this book will last the test of time, but it might be useful for teachers to recommend a chapter or two out of it while it's fresh.

I don't regret reading it, and I did learn some valuable things, but the quality of the text varied too much for my taste.

[Tiffany Howard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book's insights into the Translation profession, but I had two major issues with it. One is that the tone in which it describes working with clients is in several instances a straight up rant. Having worked with clients (albeit in a different industry) and heard many similar rants, I don't take this too seriously, but it is not very professional or appropriate for its context, and could be off-putting for people who have not experienced this in the workplace.

Secondly the author is quite overtly sceptical of feminist and postcolonial theories of translation, or as he interprets them in several instances, political correctness. He doesn't seem to realise that some of his readers could themselves be women, people of colour and/or from colonised cultures. In one exercise he invites the student to think of stereotypes associated with women - thanks, mate, I know them. Another is "Political correctness - serious social reform or liberal silliness?". Like it or not, the liberals are here to stay.

[Amir Kasra Arman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The problem with ranking educational books is that unlike novels you can't judge the writing, you can only judge it based on: how much new stuff was in it? How much of that "new stuff" you agree with or applies to you?
How much utilization could be made out of what that book has presented to you?
In short: I was on the fence between 3 stars and 4, then I stumbled upon 3 - solely based on the questions I stated above.

[Ari Pérez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some chapters are really helpful in recognizing the translator's process and state of mind. But half the book is 'wasted' on a teacher point of view and steps to teach the book's material to a student. Because I'm not going to teach translation, this was mostly useless to me, and lost appeal.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome introduction into the logistics side of translation. This book intends to prepare the translator for everything involved with the process of translation as an occupation. It does not really prepare you to translate materials but rather provides philosophies and guidelines to help make your work the best it can be.

[Grazyna Nawrocka · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent eye-opener, and comprehensive introduction to translation theories! Although it is an academic textbook, I enjoyed reading it, and would recommend it to any translator entering the profession.

[Rasha El-Ghitani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book, but I prefer to study some important points before writing my review.

[Blue · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good but not good enough.

[Sue Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting ideas but makes it more complicated than it needs to be and pads the book with student comments

[Carolina Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

._. me asusta pensar en lo que sigue en la clase.

[Mariya Kravchuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interested book