Tips and Tricks from Cambodia

July 7, 2012


This is simply to share what I have experienced regarding translation work. This note is upon my translation experience, if you find this post to be in contrary to what you have experienced or learned at translation school, please excuse me and I welcome all constructive feedback.

In general,
I use many web-based resources like:
http://thefreedictionary.com

From this dictionary, you may search for any words with clear explanations and you may search for antonym or even more specifically, for example in legal field, you may search in http://thefreedictionary.com/laws
You will need to spend a couple of minutes to hang out in there.

Moreover, I also use :  http://dictionary.reference.com
For English to Khmer, I normally use: http://dict.ant.com.kh  and http://english-khmer.com
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If you cannot find the word you’re wishing for, you may go to google and type :
eg, "define:  coenzyme” – from the first link, you may find the definition of the word. If not, you will have to read for general understanding of the word itself. Wikipedia.org might help. That's not it! You may also try to google for its image if you cannot find it anywhere on the web.
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If you are trying to translate a phrase, and you are not sure if your phrase is the right phrase which is being used officially, you may confirm with google by typing your phrase both in Khmer and in English. Try to confirm with several link before you decide to use it. 

See the picture below for further understanding.


Translating Technical Document:
Let's say you are translating Legal Document.
The resource you might need here is Law in both English and Khmer. For example, “Traffice Law [En] and Traffic Law [KH]“,
Look for Article 1 in the English version and compare with the Article 1 in the Khmer version; then, you may find the word you want to use.
It’s pretty easy to do so, since those files are in PDF files, you only need to type the word in the Search box at the up right inside the Adobe Reader.

Last but not least, you may use Khmer Dictionary by Samdech. Juon Nart.
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Recommendation:

Translation work is not hard as long as you don't give up at the first place. You may be unfamiliar with the type of a document when you first start translating, don't give up just yet. That's how everyone started. When you get used to a type of document, you will be able to go faster. It only means that you don't understand the context much at first. What you should feel is to enjoy learning new vocabulary and content. :D Moreover, if you need any help, do not hesitate to drop your comments below.

I also have some economic dictionary, legal terminology, IT related words in PDF files. You may drop your e-mail here. I'll send right up to your e-mail.