Translating text for projects
Hello all! Just sharing some tips I have come across on translation. If you have any other suggestions on translating things, feel free to chime in!
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About Sophie Ledger
Hello!
I'm currently working at ZSL on a few projects (post Living Planet Report production) with the Living Planet Index team and the WWF Netherlands offices. Prior to this I was working within elephant conservation and managing Illegal Wildlife Trade projects within Angola.
My conservation career has been quite diverse as I have very broad interests and I learned in this field you really have to make the most of any opportunity! I started as a field ecologist working on wildlife disease management on the Badger vaccination programme. After that I worked on assessing extinction risks of invertebrate groups for IUCN Red List projects. Love inverts! Especially butterflies! That lead me into working with historical specimens, the fun of taxonomy, digitisation and curatorial research projects. I've also worked with plants just to round it off - assessing extinction risks of Papua New Guinea Tree Ferns. I guess I have a "no taxa is discriminated against" kinda attitude! :)
Looking forward to meeting some of you, learning about your interests and joining this lovely community!
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Great tips! Thanks Sophie! In my last position, I was exposed to DeepL translator, which is much more comprehensive than Google Translate for those on a budget. I used this and would then try to find someone who spoke the native language to proofread (if it was just a brief document). As you say, for high-level and large technical documents we need other strategies!
I'm interested to see any feedback on Stella's question re. people in other professions offering skills to conservation initiatives to build their portfolios (and maybe just to do something nice :) etc. I wonder if there is some kind of platform for this... I'm not aware of one. Good to know!
Hey Beckie, Oh thank you, I have never heard of DeepL but it looks awesome! Thank you for sharing that - I will no doubt be using this for text now! I shall see if I can edit the post and add it in as a suggestion :).
Definitely would be so helpful to find a platform for the expertise sharing - I feel like there must be something... perhaps it is broken down into skills, like a legal support hub or tech for good type things... I will put this post into the wider Wildhub and see if anyone has any tips. :)
Thanks for sharing this Sophie, really useful. Would make a great post generally on WildHub (so outside of this room) if you were willing? Absolutely no worries if not.
B
Hi Beth! Sorry - didn't see this -Oh yes, will post outside the room. I will see if I can work out how to do that haha! :)
Hi Sophie! Thats super helpful thank you. I struggle with finding totally bilingual translators for translating documents, and often can't pay for it so I rely on volunteers. I was wondering if there is a conservation network like Upwork (which I didn't know about, its awesome!) but for people wanting to volunteer their skills in conservation? Ie. I really need a graphic designer for a few documents, but limited funds. It would be a great way for someone to gain experience and have an impact in conservation, potentially turn into a long-term collaboration? I also feel there are so many experts out there in these fields just wanting to help out but it seems difficult to find them. Just wondering if anyone knows of a network like this? Thanks!
Hi Stella, So sorry for the delay - I didn’t get a notification for comments. Glad it was handy! And yes, it is really difficult finding the perfect translation service especially when budget and time constraints apply. Gosh, relying on volunteers for translations is really tricky – do you have contacts with local universities? Students might be keen for some experience supporting a conservation charity. Oh also! You could apply for small conservation outreach grants (I think BES does one) and that way you have more options.
On a private sector or expert volunteering for conservation hub – it really sounds like there should be one as that would be an amazing idea! I know that large corporations often donate their time or expertise as part of their ‘corporate responsibility’ schemes but that is often a long-term, organisation-to-organisation level agreement or through applying directly to their grant scheme. Hmm…
You could post on the Wildhub and ask :) – maybe someone in the mix might know? Good luck :)