| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: How often do you read material not related to your profession? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| | | A bit of everything | Sep 9, 2008 |
I read the newspaper daily and some magazines every week; Reader's Digest every month, and all sorts of books, that depending on their length, can take me up to some weeks or months.
| | | | | Daily or - er - other! | Sep 9, 2008 |
I voted ´daily´ without thinking too much about it...
I always skim the newspaper and usually take in some serious editorial, then move on to short articles or a chapter of something later in the day, to make sure I keep in touch with my target language too.
Not to mention cookbooks, offers from the shops and all the little things that don´t count until you start using reading glasses... My excuse is ... See more I voted ´daily´ without thinking too much about it...
I always skim the newspaper and usually take in some serious editorial, then move on to short articles or a chapter of something later in the day, to make sure I keep in touch with my target language too.
Not to mention cookbooks, offers from the shops and all the little things that don´t count until you start using reading glasses... My excuse is that I do a fair amount of marketing work, and need to know what is on the market and what the target groups are thinking and saying about it.
Then I thought: Wait a minute - why do I really read all this stuff?
Apart from holidays, I read very little fiction, but I am always consciously or unconsciously on the lookout for turns of phrase, terminology and background.
Although not connected to the job in hand, almost everything is indirectly connected to work or likely to come up in a translation sooner or later!
I'm a compulsive reader, and and sometimes the line gets a little blurred between CPD-reading (textbooks on linguistics, comparative usage, Law etc.) and things I read for fun or just because they are there!
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| | | | Diana Arbiser 
United States
Local time: 06:18
English to Spanish
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| What is material "not related" to my profession? | Sep 9, 2008 |
I read a lot of different things. I work with words. Everything is related to my profession. I voted "Other".
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Fabio Descalzi
Uruguay
Local time: 09:18
Member (2004)
German to Spanish
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| All the time reading... and writing | Sep 9, 2008 |
Time is not enough to read "books" (i.e., literature). But reading... alas! I'm reading all the time.
Be it for a translation or as a short break.
And, ever since I discovered Wikipedia, I have a new vice: edit/create articles.
No exaggeration to say that reading material and writing about it go hand in hand.
| | | | Elías Sauza
Mexico
Local time: 06:18
Member (2002)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Diana Arbiser wrote: I read a lot of different things. I work with words. Everything is related to my profession. I voted "Other".
These words describe exactly my thoughts about it. Everything I read is aimed at learning something new that will probably be useful to my translation work.
Elías
[Edited at 2008-09-09 13:58]
| | | | Αlban SHPΑTΑ
United States
Member (2008)
English to Albanian
+ ...
| Everything written is job related to me | Sep 9, 2008 |
That's the beauty of translation.
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http://itranslate.info
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I see that I am not alone in reading compulsively - be it the cornflake packet or a car manual - (I go mad if I have to wait around, say at the doctor's surgery, without reading material), and also in considering that everything we read is relevant. May not be your specialist field today, but who knows in which direction you may find yourself moving, or what someone will include in a text purporting to be in your field.
A magpie.
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| compulsive reader | Sep 9, 2008 |
I've been a compulsive reader since childhood, we even read the labels on the sauce bottles. The label on the HP sauce bottle was also written on French, maybe that's when I first started looking at translations....
I always take a book of some kind if I have to go on the bus or sit in a waiting room, anything of my own choice is usually better than what I find in doctor's surgeries, etc.
But I nearly always read in English, my target language. If I read in one of my s... See more I've been a compulsive reader since childhood, we even read the labels on the sauce bottles. The label on the HP sauce bottle was also written on French, maybe that's when I first started looking at translations....
I always take a book of some kind if I have to go on the bus or sit in a waiting room, anything of my own choice is usually better than what I find in doctor's surgeries, etc.
But I nearly always read in English, my target language. If I read in one of my source languages I find myself thinking how I would translate it... and the whole idea of reading in those circumstances is TO GET AWAY from work! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Another compulsive reader | Sep 9, 2008 |
I also read 'everything' I can get my hands onto. When I know I have to wait somewhere, I take a book or my laptop to read a manual (there's always a manual to read). Additionally, I try to read a little bit of poetry every day, even if it's just a few lines.
| | | | Mr Cortez (X)
Brazil
Local time: 09:18
English to Portuguese
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I'm a compulsive reader, too!
| | | | | What is "material"? | Sep 9, 2008 |
Fiction? Non-fiction? Newspapers? Magazines? The gas bill?
"Daily", anyway.
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Juliana Brown
Israel
Local time: 08:18
Member (2007)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Obsessively. Unless I am sitting and working, I am always reading something. It's like a sickness. I always have a book, article, manual or something printed within arms reach, while cooking, cleaning, even on the few occasions our tv is on I generally have a book on the go at the same time.
| | | | | Everything is grist for the mill | Sep 9, 2008 |
In fields like law, medicine, public health, agriculture, economics, etc., it is impossible to predict what might come up.in a translation. I've even seen baseball terminology in a public health document.
Also, as others have pointed out, reading improves one's style. Seeing how other authors put words together (translators are authors in the sense that they create a text in a different language) helps to build one's own skills.
I taught translation for 7 years in the G... See more In fields like law, medicine, public health, agriculture, economics, etc., it is impossible to predict what might come up.in a translation. I've even seen baseball terminology in a public health document.
Also, as others have pointed out, reading improves one's style. Seeing how other authors put words together (translators are authors in the sense that they create a text in a different language) helps to build one's own skills.
I taught translation for 7 years in the Georgetown University Department of Interpretation and Translation, and it was department policy to encourage students to read daily in all fields, especially any material related to current events. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Also a compulsive reader | Sep 9, 2008 |
I read a lot, mainly by internet, newspapers, articles, proz forums, etc.
I buy the local newspaper only on Sundays and besides news, I like to read ads, just in case there is one asking for a translator (this seldom happens, but I insist every week).
I also like to read novels, but I haven't read many lately.
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