ロータス wrote:When I went looking for tips on becoming a translator, I saw several people saying while you need to get good in a second language, you also need to be really good writing in your native language. For people that read my posts, you may have notice I make a few (a lot) of grammar errors. I have only started to really notice this problem this year when I took an English class at my college. Seeing my work getting corrected again really shown that while I can write about the topic really well, I make a few grammar mistakes that should be obvious with a quick reread. The problem is I do reread but my mind sometimes only sees what I meant to write, if that makes sense.
I like when smallwhite quoted me above, as I was reading to see what they quoted, I quickly see my mistake. I wrote 'pick' when I meant 'stick'. This happens in my speech as well. I'll say 'close the window' when I mean door, I check the 'living room' when I mean 'bedroom'. Always saying/writing a similar word then what I mean. Every time I see those kinds of mistakes, I feel embarrassed and annoyed. "How did I miss that? Why am I still making these kind of mistakes at my age?"
The obvious advise is "practice writing more" but I do and I still see what I meant but not what I wrote. I'm pretty sure I have some form of dyslexia. And if I do, I'm not sure how to get better at noticing my problems. Reread 3 times, 4 times? Practice spelling so I dont have rely on Google? Buy a book on adverbs and adjective so I can stop writing like a 5th grader? It really makes me sad when I want to use a 'smart' word but because I cant spell it, I downgrade to something simpler. I feel stupid that I have to study my native language again which makes me not want to do it.
This is more of a small rant triggered by seeing my mistake and stress from thinking too much.
Some tips that may help:
- Try reading the text outloud and a bit slower than usual (or if you have a text-to-speech software, that may help too. Windows, for example, usually comes with it. I notice a lot of mistakes when I do this)
- Read the text starting from the last word up to the first one: this way you focus more on the individual words and there won't be as much interference from what you were thinking while writing.
- If you can't spell a word right try googling it or writing it in the Google translator. If it's misspelled it'll give you suggestions of what could be the right word. If it doesn't give you any suggestions or it gives you a word with a different definition, you can try tweaking the spelling a little bit each time until you get the word you are looking for. This may be time consuming at the beginning but the more you do it the easier it becomes and the more you remember the right words/spelling.
Looks like a very interesting route!
(Ironically, now I'm trying to improve my korean vocabulary grasp by studying hanja XD!).
