so it begins...
Aug. 31st, 2004 07:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dchenesI had my first class of the semester tonight. Scientific, Technical and Medical Translation, hereafter referred to as SciTechMed to save typing. It's going to be good for me, because it's going to force me to use parallel texts. Last year parallel texts were mentioned as a good idea, but we weren't required to use them.
A parallel text is a text in the language you're translating into that serves the same function as the text you're translating. It's a way of looking up terminology and specific things like that. The text I'm supposed to have a rough draft of next week is a simplified explanation of fractals, and I don't know anything about fractals, so what I need is a text in English that has to do with explaining fractals. When I find one, I'll get a better idea of the way the language people use in that situation works. I know you can say "consider an equilateral triangle", but if I can find somebody else who used that phrase, I can justify using it myself.
The only problem with SciTechMed is that we have to hand in the original text along with the translation, so I can't write all over the original in class any more. Well, I suppose I can still write all over it, but it'll be hard to read when I'm done. If I ever get to be rich and famous, I'm going to insist on double-spaced originals.
Alors, on y va.
A parallel text is a text in the language you're translating into that serves the same function as the text you're translating. It's a way of looking up terminology and specific things like that. The text I'm supposed to have a rough draft of next week is a simplified explanation of fractals, and I don't know anything about fractals, so what I need is a text in English that has to do with explaining fractals. When I find one, I'll get a better idea of the way the language people use in that situation works. I know you can say "consider an equilateral triangle", but if I can find somebody else who used that phrase, I can justify using it myself.
The only problem with SciTechMed is that we have to hand in the original text along with the translation, so I can't write all over the original in class any more. Well, I suppose I can still write all over it, but it'll be hard to read when I'm done. If I ever get to be rich and famous, I'm going to insist on double-spaced originals.
Alors, on y va.
