SOURCE TEXT:
With voice-activated navigation, intuitive maps and on-demand travel
information, this GPS Navigation System is ready to lead you down the road in style!
The 4.2" widescreen navigator is packed with enough great features to make all your
holidays cheery and bright.
Only $199!
1. Analysis of the text
I read the text and circled words I don’t know in English.
This text is about a GPS navigation system. I’m not sure yet what it is used for, but
maybe for cars or trucks because it mentions the road.
The audience appears to be someone reading a catalog listing this product, or perhaps a
web site, or maybe it is a label on a shelf in a store.
The register of the text is casual with a little slang and some technical terms.
The tone of the text is enthusiastic, trying to sell a product.
There are some special formatting issues (bold, indentation, italics, centering).
There are some U.S. symbols: 4.2”, $199
“ I will have to decide whether or not to convert inches to the metric system.
$ I will have to convert dollars to Euros.
GPS – I can’t remember what that stands for.
I will need to look up or research these words and phrases in English first so that I can
really understand the text:
voice-activated
intuitive
on-demand
lead you down the road in style
cheery
The above words and phrases may be difficult to translate. I will have to look them up in a
bilingual dictionary too.
2. Research
I researched GPS on the Internet using Wikipedia. GPS stands for “Global Positioning
System.” Also found helpful ads for GPS with descriptions of features.
Voice Activated. Looked up in English dictionary. Not found. Did a Google search. Found
this: “Voice activated products offer hands free ways to get things done” and this “Control
your Audio and Video equipment with the sound of your voice!” So, now I understand that
the idea is you can control the maps with your voice so you don’t need to use your hands
while driving.
Intuitive. Looked up in several English dictionaries. First dictionary says that it has to do
with feelings. What could this have to do with maps? This still doesn’t make sense to me.
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Second dictionary referred to the word “intuition.” This means to understand something
quickly. So, “intuitive” means something that can be understood quickly. So, here, maybe
it means that the maps are easy to use, easy to understand.
On demand. Looked up in English dictionary, but reference was to “payment.” That did
not seem to apply. After a Google search, ended up in the Wiktionary and found this
definition: “when needed or required.” So, here, it means I can get information whenever I
need it. Still not sure what specific “travel information” the text is referring to.
Lead you down the road in style. Could not find anything about this. Had to ask a native
English speaker. Learned that this refers to something fancy, like a nice car.
Cheery. Looked up in dictionary, then thesaurus. Synonym = happy.
I looked up German ads for GPSs and found that they all used the American inch (“Zoll”
in German), so I am not going to convert the screen size to the metric system.
3. Glossary
GPS = same in German!
voice-activated = Sprachsteuerung
intuitive = Intuitiv (still don’t understand exactly what this means in context)
on-demand = nach bedarf?
Cheery = vergnügt
4. First draft
As soon as I thought I understood everything, I translated the text as fast as possible
without thinking too hard about whether or not it sounded right.
I was still unsure of what to do with “on demand” so I underlined the German in my
translation.
Also still not sure of “intuitive” so I left it in English and underlined it in my draft.
FIRST DRAFT
Mit sprachgesteuerter Navigation, intuitive Mappen und Reiseinformation nach
bedarf, dieses GPS-Navigation System ist fertig um Sie stilvoll auf die Strasse zu
bringen! Das 4.0 Zoll Breitbild-Navigations System ist mit genug Funktionen
ausgesattet, um ihre Ferien schön und angenehm zu machen.
Nur $199
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5. Edit for style
I read my draft out loud to myself.
I decided that intuitive is a true cognate and it’s ok in this context in German.
I decided that “sprachgesteuerter Navigation“ was redundant in German, so I changed it
to “Sprachsteuerung“ (this means: voice navigated).
“Ist fertig” did not sound right in German, so I changed it to “startklar“ which is a better
idiom in German.
“Auf die Strasse” is a word-for-word translation and doesn’t really make sense in
German. I changed it to “von A nach B zu bringen“ (this means: take you from point A to
point B).
“schön und angenehm” did not have the same impact in German as “cheery and bright,”
so I changed the end of this sentence to “noch ein bisschen schöner und angenehmer zu
gestalten” (this means: make your holidays a little nicer and more comfortable).
I like the way the translation sounds now!
6. Format
I compared my draft translation to the English text.
I made sure that the first sentence was indented.
I made sure that “Sprachsteuerung,” “intuitiver Navigation” and “Reiseinformation nach
bedarf” were all in bold to match the source text.
I made sure that “Nur $199” was in italics to match the source text.
I made sure that “Nur $199” was centered to match the source text.
INTERMEDIATE DRAFT
Mit Sprachsteuerung, intuitiver Mappen und Reiseinformation nach
bedarf, ist dieses GPS-Navigations System startklar, um Sie stilvoll von A nach
B zu bringen! Das 4.0 Zoll Breitbild-Navigations System mit genug Funktionen
ausgesattet, um ihre Ferien noch ein bisschen schöner und angenehmer zu
gestalten.
Nur $199
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7. Review for accuracy
I compared each sentence of my translation to each sentence of the source text.
Now that I understand the text better, I realized that “Mappen” is a false cognate. The
correct word in German is “Karten”. So I changed it.
I found that I had left out a word “ist.” So I added it.
I noticed that I got the number and the punctuation (comma in German, not a decimal
point) in the size of the screen wrong! So I corrected it to 4,2.
8. Proofread
I read my translation over again checking German punctuation, spelling and other
possible minor errors.
I remembered that “bedarf” is a noun and that it should be capitalized in German.
I remembered that “Navigation System“ is one word in German and I corrected it.
I realized that “ausgesattet” was misspelled and I corrected it to “ausgestattet”.
I realized that I had forgotten to convert dollars to Euros. I Googled the exchange rate
and converted the price in my translation to Euros, putting the Euro symbol after the
numbers which is more common in Germany.
FINAL TRANSLATION
Mit Sprachsteuerung, intuitiver Karten und Reiseinformation nach
Bedarf, ist dieses GPS-Navigationssystem startklar, um Sie stilvoll von A nach B
zu bringen! Das 4,2 Zoll Breitbild-Navigations System ist mit genug Funktionen
ausgestattet, um ihre Ferien noch ein bisschen schöner und angenehmer zu
gestalten.
Nur 153 €!
9. Delivery
I delivered my translation on time.
10. Follow up
I am still waiting for feedback.
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