I remember those times 13 years back when translating 5000 words per DAY would be a major feat…. and I would feel completely exhausted, needing at least 2 days to recover from such a marathon.
Today, thanks to modern machine translation and voice dictation technologies, it is very well possible to translate 5000 words in just 3 hours…. and not to mentally collapse afterwards.
This is how it’s done in short: use machine translation and voice recognition.
1. The text needs to be relatively easy to translate. It should have long fluent sentences with not too many specialized terms that would require any substantial research. A typical example would be a coffee-machine manual.
2. You need to have some experience as a translator so that you can quickly translate yourself those parts that do not come correct from the machine-translation engine. Also, you will need to understand the source language very well to quickly identify possible mistakes in the machine translation.
3. You need to be familiar with CAT tools. Ideally with SDL Trados or memoQ that have the actual potential to enhance translation productivity.
Or, sure, you can translate with one Word-document on the left, the other on the right. But this is very exhausting, as you have to steadily look with your eyes for the source text in your document. On the other hand, CAT tools have the advantage to neatly arrange individual sentences next to each other and to highlight the sentence (segment) currently being translated.
4. You will need some special technologies to achieve this goal. Especially the machine translation feature. Google Translate and DeepL provide very good results. You will to plug-in this into your CAT project, e.g. in SDL Studio 2011, this would be in Project Settings / Translation Memories and Automated Translation:
Alternatively, you can start Bohemicus and leave it running in the background. It will automatically deliver machine translation when you press the Ctrl+Space keyboard shortcut.
1. Prepare the project in SDL Studio (Trados) or memoQ. You can see this video to see how a project is prepared e.g. in memoQ (this video is on translating a webpage, but the preparation part is useful in this case too):
2. Connect the Google Translate / DeepL engine, see above. Or run Bohemicus.
3. Run your voice recognition software. You will need it when you translate segments (sentences) that come out as total nonsense from the machine translation engine. That’s because it’s usually faster to just dictate a sentence than to type it manually. At least for me – I can type at some 200 chars/min… so it’s still faster to just dictate the text, instead of typing it. Also much more comfortable. You can also use e.g. the Bohemicus voice recognition software that works with 100+ languages (https://bohemicus-software.cz).
You will be basically reviewing the machine translated text, not actually translating. You can alternatively also use Bohemicus to machine translate and dictate your text (along with many other features that will make your translation process much easier). Bohemicus will enable you to use machine translation and voice dictation in just any CAT tool or any other Windows-based application.
Translating 5000 words in just 3 hours can be done. I know it. Because I have done it.
A final tip: Doing 5000 words in 3 hours can be exhausting, because you still need to process all those words with your brain. I suggest you eat well before you start working, to give your brain enough energy.
Please watch the video below to see this in action:
Create and use your own DeepL glossaries... You can create a glossary for DeepL manually... Read More
You can rephrase any text in many languages using ChatGPT You can rephrase any text in many... Read More
Use artificial intelligence to automatically create your glossaries You can now use... Read More
Dear Translator, in the video below, I am going to show you how you can easily use machine... Read More
Me pretending some work… I have been a professional technical translator since 2007, ... Read More
Learn how to use Bohemicus with Crowdin I am going to show you how you can very effectively use... Read More
What's new: improved machine-translation-marks remover, now removes also the AMT marks... Read More
If you are a translator, I am sure, you want to make more money. Just like everyone. But well,... Read More
You can use Bohemicus to keep track of your business records, and to issue invoices. Before you... Read More
This feature can be very helpful when you need to preview the content of a Trados package. For... Read More
You can very easily remove those light-blue AT or NMT marks in machine-translated... Read More
This has happened a couple of times to me: I just forgot to do a job! This usually happens to me... Read More
This post can especially be useful to users of older SDL Studio versions. If you are using newer... Read More
What's new Support for online CAT tools (SmartCat, Crowdin, XTM, Coach...) has been... Read More
The PDF format is truly ingenious - documents in the PDF format will appear exactly as... Read More
Before I explain the basic idea behind all CAT tools, let me consider the naive approach to... Read More
This post is only for those interested in hard-core deep-level computer programming. It was... Read More
Translating a webpage is a very easy task... if you know how to do it. Definition of a... Read More
Yes, this is indeed possible. I remember those times 13 years back when translating 5000... Read More
This is a short video on how you can configure the Across CAT tool (made by Across GmbH, Germany) ... Read More
These are a few tips I would give to every aspiring translator trying to start his/her career... Read More
(from the translator's perspective) This article is based on my 13 years of experience... Read More
The raison d'etre The Ctrl+Alt+Space shortcut was originally conceived to deal with the... Read More
The new version of Bohemicus is out! What's new: 1) added support for Memsource 2)... Read More
These are the 10 features of Bohemicus I use every day. You can watch this video to see... Read More
Unit conversion is something you will definitely encounter when working as a... Read More
What are they? As soon as you try to machine translate just about anything in any major... Read More
Definition of a clipboard manager For those who don't know what a clipboard manager is.... Read More
So, this is the core idea of Bohemicus: Let's create an interface between you and your CAT... Read More
This is the story of how I became a professional translator. The beginnings I certainly... Read More
So, I suppose, the original idea of a CAT tool was something like this: Let's create a... Read More
And why do some people seem to utterly hate it ...without even trying it out? Am I getting... Read More
I have never really understood this concept. So, an agency requires you to do a translation... Read More
Why is file extension rename useful? You can very easily rename a file extension. This... Read More
You can very easily and conveniently send large files up to 100 MB through the Bohemicus... Read More
What are hotkeys? Hotkeys are the heart of Bohemicus. They are simply combinations of... Read More
If you want to use the speech-to-text feature, you can connect your Android phone/tablet also... Read More
What is it good for? You can very quickly and easily open your pre-defined folders just by... Read More
Setting it up Machine translation is very easy in Bohemicus. First, you need to set it up -... Read More
You can very easily and conveniently launch the Windows Snipping Tool to make screenshots by... Read More
What are hints in hintboxes Every time you press the Ctrl key, a couple of semi-transparent... Read More
Activating Bohemicus is easy. You will need your activation code that you received upon your... Read More
Prerequisities 1. In order to receive a Google API translation key, you will need a Google... Read More
You should set up Bohemicus before you run it for the first time. Set up the machine... Read More
If you want to work with online CAT tools, such as SmartCat, XTM, Crowdin, Coach, etc..., just... Read More
Converting metric/imperial units is very easy with Bohemicus. You can set up 3 hotkeys to... Read More
Now, let's see how to connect your Android phone to your Windows and then to Bohemicus. If... Read More
Why you should use Bluetooth Bluetooth is the preferred way of connecting Bohemicus both in... Read More
In Bohemicus, you can very easily transfer files and folders between 2 or more local computers... Read More
Why do translators and writers take notes Note taking is an important task for all... Read More
How to work with translation memories in Bohemicus Use your own translation memories...... Read More
What is it good for? You can use this function to e. g. distinguish various folders from... Read More
What are they good for? Non-breakable spaces are an important text element in case you want... Read More
We have all been there: you need to google someting, so normally you would just select your... Read More
Quotation marks can be a hassle Different languages use different quotation marks. The... Read More
Make more money as a translator If you are a translator, I am sure, you want to make more... Read More
Bohemicus offers a bunch of text editing features that can be really handy. It is... Read More
Speech recognition, or speech-to-text functionality, or just voice dictation, is... Read More
You can use Bohemicus to interactively search in online dictionaries. How it... Read More
While working with Bohemicus, you can plug-in 2 local offline dictionaries. This can be very... Read More
Voice dictation (speech-to-text functionality) is an extremely important feature of Bohemicus. Why... Read More
ChatGPT 3.5/4 is now supported in Bohemicus to translate using your own glossaries!... Read More
Machine translation can greatly increase your translation speed, there's no doubt about it.... Read More
User using the Windows clipboard What is a clipboard manager? As you probably know there is this... Read More
Here is a video presentation of the Bohemicus Imperial/metric unit conversin... Read More
