Literary texts

Spelling mistakes

• I made a few spellingmistakes in both texts. For instance come instead of home, in tact instead of intact, of instead of off, street instead of streets.  

Some of these mistakes are the result of careless writing. I must check my work better before I publish a new blog. Next time I want to translate the texts, check it and then later read it again. By checking it twice I hope to prevent making these stupid errors.

Prepositions

• In some cases i used the wrong preposition. E.g.: juggle with vases instead of juggle with the vases. On warpath instead of on the warpath.

I hope to not make these kind of mistakes too often, or better, not making them at all anymore. I would like to check the grammar rules again and learn the proper way of using prepositions.

Idiom

• In Dutch we use the idiom: de vaas zegt….. In English it is not right to use the word say when you speak about objects. An object can not talk. In this case you would say: Bam was the sound of the vase.
• Another example of wrong use of idiom is: out of my corners the right way of using ‘ooghoeken’ is out of the corner of my eyes.

I have tried to look up idioms and used some in my translation. However when I checked the translation with a native speaker, she came up with a lot of small errors. Next time I want to look up more idioms and ask other classmates or my friend before publishing my work. In this way I hope to prevent making too many idiom mistakes.

Tenses

• I used the wrong tense a couple of times at the Passievrucht. For instance: She was not finishing instead of she hasn’t finished. Or Who push instead of who are pushing. 

I really need to look over the tenses again. This analysis made me aware that I make a lot of tense errors. Seeing this now I know i have some work to do!

American English vs. British English

• A couple of times I used American words, some examples: Elevator, Blinkers.

I am not completely sure how to prevent these mistakes. When in doubt: DOUBLE CHECK!

 

 

 

 

 

Newspaper articles

• What were the translations dilemmas raised by that specific text genre?

One of the issues I dealt with was trying to avoid using the same word over and over again. for example the Dutch word uitstellen, I have tried to avoid repetition and use other words with the same meaning.

• What aspects did you find easy / difficult?

With this specific genre i found it quite hard to use the right sort of speech, formal/informal. you need to keep in mind the target reader, however formal speech is always used in newspaper articles. the article from Geenstijl for example, the target reader is not the same as The Times. Geenstijl uses words from a higher level however they do not always us formal language. therefore it was easier to translate the article from the NRC.

If I compare literary texts with this genre I would say it was harder to translate literary texts. Difficult language is used at newsarticles however it is based on facts, in my opinion this is less complicated then translating texts where the writer has a certain idea or meaning with the story. I find it quite hard to translate the text without changing anything of this idea or meaning.

• How did you go about your translations?

I think I can do better. However the texts were difficult to translate.

• What would you do differently next time?

I would look up other articles on the internet to compare and learn from these articles. For example an article from the The Times, what style of writing do they use? How do they adress the reader.

Another thing I would do differently next time is: ask for help!

 

The Times: ‘Brexit deffered untill 2019’

Brexit? Ah right, that proletarian rancourreferendum where all low-skilled provincials and elderly screwed up all planes from the pretty people who have studied to make good planes. The resignation will be advanced for another year, because what if it isn’t funny anymore? Everyone is suspicious ofcourse, did May really stepped of her remain-faith?
According to The Times the reason of postponement is as following: ‘The ministry specialised with the Brexit matter was established after the referendum. David Davis, the responsible minister, has only gathered half of the needed staff. The ministry of international trade has trouble finding suitable workers aswell. London has moved up negotiations to Brussel, as a result there are only a few skilled negotiators.’ Well, you could have expected that ofcourse if you leave resignation to an official diplomatic instrument where all in all everyone opposed Brexit was. Children won’t clean up their room if they don’t get offered a reward. Anyhow, pretend a couple of months are necessary, May could even shove Brexit to the next parliamentelection in 2020. And that, would change again everything. At the other hand, given that the EU is no self-mutilating organism, the EU will be powerless then it is now.

Source: GeenStijl, 14-08-2016