Translation Music

Thursday, 28 January 2010

Isn’t it funny how some music has no adverse effect on (or even helps) the translation process. I find that when I’m translating material with which I’m familiar, almost any type of music will do, and some actually lifts my mood and thereby improves my productivity. Ambient electronica (Air, Moby etc.) and neo-psychedelia (Dandy Warhols, UNKLE, Spiritualized etc.) fall into this category. How about others? What does it for you? iTunes seemed to be in a hard rock/heavy metal mood today, which was just no good. I had to speak to the computer sternly about its choice of genre.

So why is it, then, that I find I need almost complete silence when I’m reading what I’ve translated, which I always do the following day unless I have a very tight deadline? This can be tricky with an almost 1-year old child in the house, but a pair of noise-isolating earphones seem to deal with that. A 3-storey house with 2 storeys between my office and Tom’s nursery is definitely a plus as well.

A selection of tasty Japanese beverages