Suryawinata, Z., & Hariyanto, S. (2003).

Translation Bahasan Teori & Penuntun Praktis

Menerjemah. Kanisius.

Syarat Penerjemah yang Baik

by Pro Translation | May 31, 2017 | Teori TRANSLATION | 0 comments

Untuk bisa menjadi penerjemah

yang baik memang gampang-gampang susah, cuma pastinya ada beberapa panduan bagi
agan-agan semua jika ingin menjadi seorang penerjemah yang baik. Berikut beberapa
criteria penerjemah yang baik menurut Bathgate:

1. Penerjemah harus menguasai bahasa sumber dan bahasa sasaran

2. Penerjemah harus memahami dengan baik isi/bahan yang akan diterjemahkan.
Dengan kata lain, kemampuan penerjemah sesuai dengan proyek yang akan
dikerjakan
3. Penerjemah haruslah mampu menulis secara baik dan jelas dengan berbagai gaya
tulis
4. Penerjemah harus biasa bekerja dengan teliti dan cermat
5. Penerjemah mempunyai pengalaman dalam menafsirkan sesuatu Penerjemah harus
biasa berkonsultasi dengan orang yang ahli bilamana ragu-ragu mengenai arti teks
atau mengenai peristilahan
6. Penerjemah harus berwatak rendah hati dan berintegrasi diri. Artinya, penerjemah
harus dapat mengukur kemampuannya sendiri dan senag meminta pertimbangan dari
orang lain. Kerendahan hati ini diperlukan guna menyingkirkan sikap isolasi diri dan
membangkitkan kesadaran dan kemauan untuk bekerja sama dengan orang lain.
Integritas diri diperlukan untuk berlaku setia kepada aslinya dan menyajikan
kebenaran, seluruh kebenaran, dan tak lain daripada kebenaran. Tak ada ide penting
boleh muncul dalam terjemahan kalau ini tidak terdapat dalam karangan asli. Tak ada
hal kecil yang penting dalam karangan asli boleh dihilangkan dari terjemahan.

http://www.terjemahinggrisindonesia.com/syarat-penerjemah-yang-baik.html
How to Be a Good Translator
Translation is a highly skilled, rewarding and satisfying job. But how do you become a good
translator?

Experienced translator Lanna Castellano has described the translators career path as follows:

Our profession is based on knowledge and experience. It has the longest apprenticeship of
any profession. Not until thirty do you start to be useful as a translator, not until fifty do you
start to be in your prime.

The first stage of the career pyramid the apprenticeship stage is the time we devote to
investing in ourselves by acquiring knowledge and experience of life.

Let me propose a life path: grandparents of different nationalities, a good school education in
which you learn to read, write, spell, construe and love your own language. Then roam the
world, make friends, see life.

Go back to education, but to take a technical or commercial degree, not a language degree.
Spend the rest of your twenties and your early thirties in the countries whose languages you
speak, working in industry or commerce but not directly in languages.

Never marry into your own nationality. Have your children. Then back to a postgraduate
translation course. A staff job as a translator, and then go freelance.

By which time you are forty and ready to begin.

(Lanna Castellano, 1988)

Thats a hard path to follow. Ive been trying for years to convince my grandparents to re-
incarnate and give me an exotically foreign lineage Russian-Portuguese on my mothers
side, perhaps, and French-Chinese on my fathers but they remain stubbornly Irish-Scottish.
And not even Gaelic-speaking!

Tips for translators

But you can be a good translator even if you dont meet all of Lannas stringent criteria. Here
are some tips that might help:

Love language, especially your own. And keep studying it.

Learn to write well.
Learn about and study your passive language and the culture it comes from.
Only translate into your own language.
Select a specialist area of expertise, and study and be prepared to learn more about your
specialist subject. Constantly.
Read: books, newspapers, blogs, magazines, adverts, style guides, cereal packets
 Listen: to TV, the radio, friends and family, strangers in the street, on the bus, in bars, in
shops
Attend workshops, seminars and conferences in your subject area listen to the experts,
absorb their language. Even their jargon but try not to use it.
Keep up with current affairs.
Keep your IT skills up-to-date.
Practise and hone your skills keep up with your training.
Listen to the words that you write (some writers and translators read their texts out loud to
themselves). Languages each have their own rhythm. If your writing doesnt sound right,
try changing the word order, not just the words.
Use your spell-checker. Use it judiciously, but use it. Always.
Print out your translated text and read it on paper before delivering it to your client. Always.
Especially if you use computer-assisted translation (CAT) software. Print it out.
Ask yourself if your translation makes sense. If it makes you stop, even for a second, and
think what does that really mean?, then theres something wrong.
Write clearly and concisely, using the appropriate sentence- and paragraph-length for your
target language. Use simple vocabulary. You can convey even complex ideas using clear,
straightforward language.
Inform your client of any mistakes, typos or ambiguous wording you find in the source text.
Find ways to add value for your clients.
Always keep your reader in mind.

As youve probably noticed, most of these tips also apply to writers, not just translators. After
all, translation is a form of writing, and good translators should be good writers too. The
important thing is to practise and hone your skills. And always use your brain. Thats what
makes a good translator a really good translator

http://www.dnalanguage.com/en/resources/articles-and-tips/93-how-to-be-a-good-translator
 To Be a Good Translator
by Leila Razmjou

Razmjou, L. (2003). To be a good translator. Retrieved October.

Paper presented at the Second International Conference on "Critical Discourse

Analysis: the Message of the Medium" in Yemen, Hodeidah University, October, 2003

n addition to being a member of our country, we are members of the world

community, and this gives us a global identity. Therefore, it is quite natural for us to
think about world affairs and cooperate in solving the world's problems. To do so, the first
and most important tool is "language," which is socially determined. Our beliefs and
ideologies are always reflected in our way of talking, although the connections are hidden
and only "critical language study" reveals these hidden
connections in discourse.

A nation's Furthermore, we know that a nation's culture flourishes by

interacting with other cultures. Cultural variety opens our eyes to
culture human rights, but cultural variety can only be recognized through
discussions, which leads us back to the major tool for discussion:
flourishes by
"language."
interacting with
The role of language in the developing world is materialized
other cultures. through "translating," and since critical language study is
concerned with the processes of producing and interpreting
texts and with the way these cognitive processes are socially
shaped, it can be considered as an alternative approach to
translation studies.

The world is becoming smaller and smaller as the systems of communication and information
are developing and becoming more and more sophisticated. In the process of such a rapid
exchange of information and for the purpose of improving cultural contacts, one thing is
inevitable, and that is "translating." This is why there is a need for competent translators and
interpreters.

As mentioned earlier, the whole world is undergoing complex changes in different areas such
as technology and education. These changes necessarily have an important bearing on
systems of higher education, including translator training programs.
According to Shahvali (1997), theoretical knowledge and practical skills alone are not
adequate to prepare students to face the developments in the field. There is a need for ability
to adapt; therefore, it is necessary to focus on students' self-updating and to develop their
relevant mental, communicative, and planning skills.

Training translators is an important task which should be given a high priority. The service
that translators render to enhance cultures and nurture languages has been significant
throughout history. Translators are the agents for transferring messages from one language to
another, while preserving the underlying cultural and discoursal ideas and values
(Azabdaftary, 1996).

The translator's task is to create conditions under which the source language author and the
target language reader can interact with one another (Lotfipour, 1997). The translator uses the
core meaning present in the source text to create a new whole, namely, the target text
(Farahzad, 1998).

Bearing these facts in mind, the question is: what skills are needed to promote translating
ability? And how can one become a good translator?

The first step is extensive reading of different translations of different kinds of texts, since
translating requires active knowledge, while analyzing and evaluating different translations
requires passive knowledge. Therefore, receptive skills should be developed before the
productive ones; i.e. by reinforcing their passive knowledge, students will eventually improve
their active knowledge. Receptive skills improve the students' language intuition and make
them ready for actual translating.

A good translator is someone who has a comprehensive knowledge of both source and target
languages. Students should read different genres in both source and target languages
including modern literature, contemporary prose, newspapers, magazines, advertisements,
announcements, instructions, etc. Being familiar with all these genres is important, since they
implicitly transfer culture-specific aspects of a language. Specialized readings are also
suggested: reading recently published articles and journals on theoretical and practical
aspects of translation. The articles will not only improve the students' reading skill in general,
but also give them insights which will subconsciously be applied when actually translating.

"Writing" skills, i.e. the ability to write smoothly and correctly in both source and target
languages, are also important. Writing is in fact the main job of a translator. Students should
become familiar with different styles of writing and techniques and principles of editing and
punctuation in both source and target languages. Editing and punctuation improve the quality
and readability of the translation (Razmjou, 2002).

Moreover, translation trainees should have a good ear for both source and target languages;
i.e. they should be alert to pick up various expressions, idioms, and specific vocabulary and
their uses, and store them in their minds to be used later. This is in fact what we call
improving one's "intuition." Intuition is not something to be developed in a vacuum; rather, it
needs practice and a solid background. It needs both the support of theory and the experience
of practice. Language intuition is a must for a competent translator.

One of the most important points to consider in the act of translating is understanding the
value of the source text within the framework of the source-language discourse. To develop
this understanding, the translator must be aware of the cultural differences and the various
discoursal strategies in the source and target languages. Therefore, the hidden structure of the
source text should be discovered through the use of various discoursal strategies by the
translator.

A good translator should be familiar with the culture, customs, and social settings of the
source and target language speakers. She should also be familiar with different registers,
styles of speaking, and social stratification of both languages. This socio-cultural awareness,
can improve the quality of the students' translations to a great extent. According to Hatim and
Mason (1990), the social context in translating a text is probably a more important variable
than its genre. The act of translating takes place in the socio-cultural context. Consequently, it
is important to judge translating activity only within a social context.

After developing a good competence in both source and target languages, actual translating
may begin. But there is a middle stage between the competence-developing stage and actual
translating: becoming aware of various information-providing sources and learning how to
use them. These sources include: different monolingual and bilingual dictionaries,
encyclopedias, and the Internet.

Using dictionaries is a technical skill in itself. Not all students know how to use dictionaries
appropriately. Words have different meanings in different contexts, and usually monolingual
dictionaries are of utmost value in this regard. Students need a great deal of practice to find
the intended meaning of words in a particular context, using monolingual dictionaries.

Translation trainees also need to be familiar with the syntax of indirect speech and various
figures of speech in the source language such as hyperbole, irony, meiosis, and implicatures.
Awareness of these figures of speech will reinforce students' creativity and change their
passive knowledge into active skill.

While there is a strong emphasis on developing source and target language competencies, the
ways in which students can develop them should not be neglected. Group work and
cooperation with peers can always lead the translating process to better results. Students who
practice translation with their peers will be able to solve problems more easily and will also
more rapidly develop self-confidence and decision-making techniques (Razmjou, 2002).
Although there is a possibility of making mistakes during group work, the experience of
making, detecting, and correcting mistakes will make the students' minds open and alert.

Another important point is that successful translators usually choose one specific kind of
texts for translating and continue to work only in that area; for example a translator might
translate only literary works, scientific books, or journalistic texts. Even while translating
literary works, some translators might choose only to translate poetry, short stories, or novels.
Even more specific than that, some translators choose a particular author and translate only
her or his works. The reason is that the more they translate the works of a particular author,
the more they will become familiar with her or his mind, way of thinking, and style of
writing. And the more familiar is the translator with the style of a writer, the better the
translation will be.

Translation needs to be practiced in an academic environment in which trainees work on both

practical tasks under the supervision of their teachers and theoretical aspects to enhance their
knowledge. In an academic environment, recently published articles, journals and books on
translation are available to the trainees, who thus become familiar with good translators and
their work by reading them and then comparing them with the original texts. In this way,
trainees will develop their power of observation, insight, and decision-making, which in turn
will lead them to enhance their motivation and improve their translating skills.

Therefore, translation studies has now been recognized as an important discipline and has
become an independent major, separate from foreign-language studies, in universities. This
reflects the recognition of the fact that not everybody who knows a foreign language can be a
translator, as it is commonly and mistakenly believed. Translation is the key to international
understanding. So in this vast world of communication and information overload, we need
competent translators who have both the theoretical knowledge and practical skills to do their
jobs well. The importance of theoretical knowledge lies in the fact that it helps translators
acquire an understanding of how linguistic choices in texts reflect other relationships between
senders and receivers, such as power relationships, and how texts are sometimes used to
maintain or create social inequalities (Fairclough, 1989).

Finally, it is important to know that it takes much more than a dictionary to be a good
translator, and translators are not made overnight. To be a good translator requires a sizeable
investment in both source and target languages. It is one of the most challenging tasks to
switch safely and faithfully between two universes of discourse. Only a sophisticated and
systematic treatment of translation education can lead to the development of successful
translators. And the most arduous part of the journey starts when translation trainees leave
their universities.

Works cited

Azabdaftari, B. 1997. Psychological Analysis of Translation Process. Motarjem

Journal, Mashhad, Iran. 21 & 22: 7-12 (Translation).

Fariclough,N. 1989. Language and Power. London, Longman.

Farahzad, F. 1998. A Gestalt Approach to Manipulation in Translation. Perspectives:

Studies in Translatology, 6 (2): 153-233.

Hatim, B. & I. Mason. 1990. Discourse and the Translator. London: Longman.

Lotfipour, S.K. 1985. Lexical Cohesion and Translation Equivalence. Meta, XLII, 1,
185-92.

Razmjou, L. 2002. Developing Guidelines for a New Curriculum for the English
Translation BA Program in Iranian Universities. Online Translation Journal, V. 6,
No.2 http://accurapid.com/journal/20edu1.htm

Shahvali, M. 1997. Adaptation Knowledge, the Passage of Success and Creativity

(Translation).
 Copyright Translation Journal and the Author 2004
URL: http://accurapid.com/journal/28edu.htm
Last updated on: 05/19/2014 17:08:55