Engineering terminology Thread poster: Helen Hagon
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Helen Hagon 
Local time: 06:14
Member (2011)
Russian to English
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Having worked for an engineering company for a number of years, I have some knowledge of engineering terminology in the field of transport and exhaust systems. I would like to improve my knowledge in the area and am looking for any useful materials which might help with this. There is a whole range of resources available for translators working with legal, medical or financial texts, but I am struggling to find similar things which relate to engineering. Can anyone recommend any books, websites,... See more Having worked for an engineering company for a number of years, I have some knowledge of engineering terminology in the field of transport and exhaust systems. I would like to improve my knowledge in the area and am looking for any useful materials which might help with this. There is a whole range of resources available for translators working with legal, medical or financial texts, but I am struggling to find similar things which relate to engineering. Can anyone recommend any books, websites, courses etc. which might be helpful? ▲ Collapse
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Each large company in any industrial sector has branches, manufacturing plants, distributors, representative offices etc. in many countries including the UK, France and Russia in particular.
Just read their multi-language web sites. Look for technical data and descriptions in English, French, Russian. Compare the content sentence by sentence.
These are the best sources for up-to-date technical terminology.
| | | | | Get your hands dirty | Nov 10, 2013 |
If you want to be able to translate engineering terminology correctly, I think you need to have been there. Buy a lathe, learn to weld, take your car/motorcycle apart, etc... I can always tell the difference between a "dictionary" translation and someone who has actually been there and knows what is involved.
Steve K.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:14
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Helen Hagon wrote:
Having worked for an engineering company for a number of years, I have some knowledge of engineering terminology in the field of transport and exhaust systems. I would like to improve my knowledge in the area and am looking for any useful materials which might help with this. There is a whole range of resources available for translators working with legal, medical or financial texts, but I am struggling to find similar things which relate to engineering. Can anyone recommend any books, websites, courses etc. which might be helpful?
"Engineering" is a generic term that would cover everything from satellite optics to dental instruments. You're asking for a lot !
But you say you already have a specialisation in the engineering of transport and exhaust systems. I don't know much about exhaust systems but transport is a rich field for translators.
I would suggest that you focus on your own special fields; in my experience this will bring you far more work than trying to spread out and venture into fields about which you don't really know anything.
[Edited at 2013-11-10 10:39 GMT]
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Jean Lachaud
United States
Local time: 01:14
English to French
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| Couldn't have said it better myself | Nov 10, 2013 |
Steve Kerry wrote:
If you want to be able to translate engineering terminology correctly, I think you need to have been there. Buy a lathe, learn to weld, take your car/motorcycle apart, etc... I can always tell the difference between a "dictionary" translation and someone who has actually been there and knows what is involved.
Steve K.
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Steve Kerry wrote:
If you want to be able to translate engineering terminology correctly, I think you need to have been there. Buy a lathe, learn to weld, take your car/motorcycle apart, etc... I can always tell the difference between a "dictionary" translation and someone who has actually been there and knows what is involved.
Steve K.
I wouldn't recommend this method for certain fields (nuclear engineering comes to mind)
| | | | jane mg
Italy
Local time: 07:14
Italian to English
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Hi Helen,
If you're interested in doing courses, there are lots of different university consortiums offering them online now for free or for a small fee (eg. USD 40) if you want a certified "statement of accomplishment" at the end. My fa... See more Hi Helen,
If you're interested in doing courses, there are lots of different university consortiums offering them online now for free or for a small fee (eg. USD 40) if you want a certified "statement of accomplishment" at the end. My favourite platform is www.coursera.org, but there's also www.edx.org, www.futurelearn.com, Stanford University offers some directly on its main site and various others.
The great advantage of Coursera is that you can enroll, download the material - video lectures, slides, handouts and tests - then do it at your own pace if you don't have time to keep up with the class.
I've done 4 so far and downloaded 3 or 4 others, and the fabulous thing about them is the quality of the profs and the fact that you're getting a version of what is being taught to undergraduates at the world's major universities, so the presentation is usually very well thought-out and the information is absolutely up to the minute. Also, because the assessment in the science courses is quantitative +/or requires you to use state-of-the-art software, you are actually getting hands-on experience in applying theory, apart from terminology and pronunciation (who ever knew "processes" was pronoounced so differently in US and UK English?).
One thing, I've found that often (though not always) when the course description says "only high school maths required" they actually expect you to know calculus. In which case the lifesaver is www.khanacademy.org.
HTH
Jane ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I don't know though.. | Nov 11, 2013 |
Orrin Cummins wrote: Steve Kerry wrote:
If you want to be able to translate engineering terminology correctly, I think you need to have been there. Buy a lathe, learn to weld, take your car/motorcycle apart, etc... I can always tell the difference between a "dictionary" translation and someone who has actually been there and knows what is involved.
Steve K. I wouldn't recommend this method for certain fields (nuclear engineering comes to mind)
See "K19 - the Widowmaker" Amazing what you can do with a Stillson wrench and a bit of determination...
Steve K.
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Steve Kerry wrote: Orrin Cummins wrote: Steve Kerry wrote:
If you want to be able to translate engineering terminology correctly, I think you need to have been there. Buy a lathe, learn to weld, take your car/motorcycle apart, etc... I can always tell the difference between a "dictionary" translation and someone who has actually been there and knows what is involved.
Steve K. I wouldn't recommend this method for certain fields (nuclear engineering comes to mind) See "K19 - the Widowmaker" Amazing what you can do with a Stillson wrench and a bit of determination... Steve K.
Just don't end up like this guy...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn
| | | | Helen Hagon
Local time: 06:14
Member (2011)
Russian to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Thanks for the suggestions | Nov 12, 2013 |
Thank you everyone for all the ideas. I guess I probably knew some of them already, but just needed someone to give me a nudge. I'm particularly interested in transport (road, rail, shipping) and related manufacturing. I have spent a lot of time in factories and workshops and live quite near the National Rail Museum. I'm not sure about taking my own car apart, though - perhaps I'll try on someone else's first! As for nuclear engineering, that's much lower down the 'to do' list...
| | | | | going back to university | Dec 28, 2013 |
I'm well aware that most people working as freelancers will not be able to do this, but after two years as an in-house translator I quit my job and started studying Engineering. Although I realized that this wasn't for me at the beginning of the second semester, it was helpful nonetheless.
| | | | Oliver Walter
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:14
German to English
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| Bosch dico to download | Dec 28, 2013 |
There's a Bosch dictionary in English, German and French containing automotive terminology, available as a PDF file (with 169 pages, size about 1 MB). I downloaded it about 2 years ago (probably not from the following Russian website - I didn't keep a record of where I got it). It contains about 7000 terms:
http://vwts.ru/vw_doc2/bosch_dict_en_ger_fr.pdf
(If you p... See more There's a Bosch dictionary in English, German and French containing automotive terminology, available as a PDF file (with 169 pages, size about 1 MB). I downloaded it about 2 years ago (probably not from the following Russian website - I didn't keep a record of where I got it). It contains about 7000 terms:
http://vwts.ru/vw_doc2/bosch_dict_en_ger_fr.pdf
(If you prefer to find this somewhere else, search the Web for:
bosch fachwörterbuch kraftfahrzeugtechnik
)
I'm currently trying to turn it into an Excel list - not quite straightforward because some entries are on more than one line in the En and/or De &/or Fr column.
Oliver ▲ Collapse
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