Some tips from a professional translator

I’ve been working as a Japanese translator in a worldwide known Japanese company for awhile and I want to make some rules clear for myself and people who would like to see some tips.

• While translating in live meetings, don’t start translating before building the sentence up in your head. (Not for the simultaneous translations)

• If you’re not sure about the meaning, don’t try to guess it. Confirming the meaning isn’t a bad thing because everyone want meanings to be translated correctly to other side.

• Sometimes you might have to lead the meeting when translating for people who don’t have any translation service experience.

• It’s okay that we don’t know every fucking word. We don’t even know every word in our mother language let alone a foreign language.

• There is no ending in improving. You’re gonna learn lots of new words continuously both in your mother and target language(s).

• You must keep reading in your mother and target languages all the time. Reading is the most important key to acquire new words, phrases and contexts.

• Doing meditations, body exercises and taking care of your sleep are extremely important to protect your mental health.