ProZ.com translation contests »
31st translation contest: "A translator's life" » English to German

Competition in this pair is now closed, and the winning entries have been announced.

Discussion and feedback about the competition in this language pair may now be provided by visiting the "Discussion & feedback" page for this pair. Entries may also be individually discussed by clicking the "Discuss" link next to any listed entry.

Source text in English

[...] Translators just didn't get recognition, they didn't expect to make much of a living, just get by. Very few people were actually trained as translators, but most had a solid college education and a solid knowledge of languages, at least their own language. I had a friend who fell exactly into that category and my circle of friends expanded to include other translators. I found them to be much more interesting as people, and discovered that we often had similar life experiences. I never had trouble making friends, but I always felt "different" and I'm sure they felt it too. When my friend retired, she recommended me as her replacement. I now entered the realm of Reinsurance, of which I knew nothing. I was also the only translator there, and didn't have much to fall back on. However, it was another notch up....

On my new job, I started looking through the files, asking questions and got the company to enroll me in Insurance courses. The College of Insurance was across the street, and I consulted fire codes, insurance policies and fire extinguisher catalogs in their library. I was learning what I had never had the luxury of being able to do before: research. The first time I had to translate a proposal for purposes of insurance of a nuclear plant, I got a call from the head man in that department, congratulating me on the job I had done. "Compares favorably with what we are used to," he said. What an upper! What happened was that I consulted a document in the files similar to the one I was tackling for guidance, but when I saw that my predecessor had used the word "nucleus" instead of "core", I realized that the files were useless to me. I went across the street to the library and looked up "nuclear plants." I immediately found all the terminology I needed.

It takes a great deal more than that to be a good translator these days, of course. [...]

The winning entries have been announced in this pair.

There were 16 entries submitted in this pair during the submission phase, 6 of which were selected by peers to advance to the finals round. The winning entries were determined based on finals round voting by peers.

Competition in this pair is now closed.


Entries (16 total; 6 finalists) Expand all entries

Filter entries
Language variants:
Entry #35078 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Germany
Winner
Voting points1st2nd3rd
184 x402 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.333.33 (6 ratings)3.33 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 4 users entered 5 "like" tags
  • 1 user agreed with "likes" (1 total agree)
gerade so viel, dass es zum Leben reichte.
Flows well
Michaela Pschierer-Barnfather
+1
ein entsprechendes Fachstudium absolviert
Good term selection
Claudia Matt
mich in Fortbildungskurse für Versicherungsleute zu schicken
Flows well
Gut gelöst​!
markusg
wälzte
Good term selection
Arendine Hoewe
Wie es dazu kam?
Flows well
Michaela Pschierer-Barnfather
Entry #35282 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Germany
Winner
Voting points1st2nd3rd
184 x41 x20
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.673.33 (6 ratings)4.00 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
Brandschutzvorschriften
Good term selection
gut gelöst​!
Verena Zipperer
Entry #34954 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Finalist
Voting points1st2nd3rd
122 x41 x22 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.443.50 (8 ratings)3.38 (8 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 2 "like" tags
  • 1 user agreed with "likes" (1 total agree)
mich in die Akten einzulesen
Flows well
markusg
+1
Das ging runter wie Öl!
Other
Nice image​ry
Suzanne Repnak
Entry #36026 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Germany
Finalist
Voting points1st2nd3rd
111 x43 x21 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.753.75 (8 ratings)3.75 (8 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 3 "like" tags
  • 1 user agreed with "likes" (1 total agree)
völliges Neuland
Flows well
markusg
Jetzt hatte ich den Luxus,
Good term selection
Michaela Pschierer-Barnfather
+1
1
selbstredend
Flows well
markusg
Entry #35434 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Germany
Finalist
Voting points1st2nd3rd
201 x20
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.793.86 (7 ratings)3.71 (7 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
„Viel besser als das, was wir sonst so gewohnt sind“
Flows well
markusg
Entry #35524 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Finalist
Voting points1st2nd3rd
0000
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.593.50 (6 ratings)3.67 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags


Non-finalist entries

The following entries were not selected by peers to advance to finals-round voting.

Entry #35611 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.083.33 (6 ratings)2.83 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags
Entry #36250 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Germany
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.073.14 (7 ratings)3.00 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 2 "like" tags
waren immer mehr Menschen, die beruflich übersetzten
Flows well
markusg
alleine, was das Übersetzen anging
Flows well
Gute Lösun​g, um das ​"Geschlech​terdilemma​" zu verme​iden
Claudia Matt
Entry #35144 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Germany
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.003.00 (6 ratings)3.00 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 3 "like" tags
Anschluss zu finden
Good term selection
markusg
Übersetzerfreunden
Good term selection
Michaela Pschierer-Barnfather
Ein echter Fortschritt im Vergleich zu dem, was wir gewohnt sind
Flows well
markusg
Entry #35432 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Germany
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.923.17 (6 ratings)2.67 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
Was war geschehen? I
Flows well
Michaela Pschierer-Barnfather
Entry #35698 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.863.00 (7 ratings)2.71 (7 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
. „Das sieht gut aus im Vergleich zu dem, was wir gewohnt sind,
Flows well
Anahí Seri
Entry #35938 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Germany
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.822.88 (8 ratings)2.75 (8 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
wesentlich mehr drauf haben
Flows well
Gute Lösun​g!
markusg
Entry #34661 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Germany
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.702.80 (5 ratings)2.60 (5 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
in der dortigen Bibliothek
Flows well
Michaela Pschierer-Barnfather
Entry #35201 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Germany
Larissa Gudat
Larissa Gudat
Wielka Brytania
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.592.50 (6 ratings)2.67 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
durch die Akten zu arbeiten
Flows well
markusg
Entry #36275 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Germany
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.292.57 (7 ratings)2.00 (7 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags
Entry #34901 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Germany
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry1.471.44 (9 ratings)1.50 (8 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags