The Art of Carrying Words

Last week, I got more involved with TED Translators who allow people to volunteer to translate TEDx talks. The smaller, locally organised and community led talks that TED promote. I decided to do this as I needed more experience in translation and I can show this experience to the world after the videos are live. I also believe in the TED ethos of fostering ideas and conversation around the world, no matter what language you speak.

The main challenges I encountered when attempting transcription for the first time was the character limit of 84 characters per subtitle or 42 per line and the fact that people can speak really fast and mumble at times.

The character limit forces you to rethink how to write what someone says in a limited space while keeping the message clear and accurate. This will be a challenge when translating as usually translations are longer than the original transcription.

Muttering and talking quickly also poses some difficulty as it becomes hard to decipher what someone is saying and to fit it into that all important 84 character limit which can lead you to deleting some words that are not needing to maintain the meaning of what was said. Thankfully, though, feedback from others can be gained by leaving comments on the subtitles or gaining feedback from fellow translators elsewhere.

It has been a worthwhile experience working through these challenges as I feel more prepared to tackle a translation and I hope to share some of my work soon with you on this very website so stay tuned!