The first rule of any translator is to translate from a foreign language into a native language. First you need to master your own language at the proper level. Only knowing your own language, you will be able to realize the potential of a foreign language in full.
You will need
- German dictionary
- notebook,
- a pen,
- German text
- German grammar books
Instruction manual
1
Read the text. Label it, and perhaps immediately write out new words for you on a separate sheet. Take the dictionary and translate everything that was written out / underlined. Read the text again, already applying to it the words that you found in the dictionary. To understand any text you need to be able to formulate its theme and main idea. Start with a topic, even if you have an approximate understanding of the content of the text., Theme is the subject of this narrative (phenomenon, event, which are discussed in the text). An example of a text topic is “The Olympics will be held in Sochi in 2014”, “A volunteer movement to combat the problems of homelessness” was created, etc. And the idea is the main author’s thought on this topic.
2
Break text into paragraphs. It will be easier to make a detailed translation. Read each paragraph, write down the translated sentences. Do a literal translation first. It should rather resemble a scheme where all the elements are taken into account - not a single word is missing. Work with a dictionary, do not be lazy to look at different meanings of words, look for shades of meaning. To do this, constantly keep the context in which the narrative develops.
3
Edit the resulting text, giving it a more literary style. Connect sentences with each other, guided by an understanding of the main idea of the text (it should be revealed to you in the second step). You can use stable expressions of the Russian language to make the meaning of the text more understandable, closer to Russian reality. But such corrections must be made carefully, without changing the main message.
4
Subtract the resulting translation, see if the compositional structure and style of the original text have been preserved. Follow the logic of the original. Make sure that the theme and idea stated in the original text are implemented in your translation. Let the translation "lie down" for several days. Then go back to him and make more edits.
note
Do not allow speech stamps, stylistic inaccuracies, or violations of the logical structure of the text in your translation. Fight for every word. Check its meaning with the dictionary, look for the most accurate translation.
Useful advice
Use abstract translation techniques if the genre of the original text allows this. If you translate a friendly letter, you can transmit the content not precisely, but selectively, but if you are working with instructions, scientific articles, it is important to observe the accuracy of each word.
