I ask questions

Before you read this, keep in mind, that I speak the German language better, because I grew up with it.

I try to give you as reader articles which are as good as possible (of course considering cost and value). Lately I have started to translate my English articles into German (reason here). While doing this, I recognized, that I could have written some articles better.

So, if you think you have nothing to add anymore (well, there is always a better version possible) to an article or you do not want to continue or other reasons, then translate it into another language.

This is my first article which I wrote multilangual on the same day:
1. first in English and
2. then translated into German
3. while doing step 2, I had some new ideas on the result of step 1

I think this will help you to think again more on some words. Because while translating, you are forced to think more on the meaning of one word.
Sometimes I see, that I use English words by instinct – perhaps because I read them a lot and I am used to them (you see the vicious circle?). But when I try to translate them, I sometimes stop, because I do not immediately find the pendant in German. I know what it means, but the German translation hangs on my lips. Somehow it does not find the way out
Then I use a tool – e.g. I use an online translation service (LEO). I am offered several translations. And since German is a language where you can express with different meanings, this gets interesting. With this I get other associations activated in my brain.

You could say, it costs time – this is true. But try it and tell me, if you and your article profit from it or not.

Erkan YILMAZ

This entry was posted on Friday, March 30th, 2007 at 12:02 and is filed under heuristics, language. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.