Key challenges and lessons learnt in translation implementation research
| Theme | Exemplary quote |
| Challenges | |
| Developing your voice and tone as a translator | “The first 10 or 15 transcripts I was doing, I was still trying to figure out how to translate, I was developing my style in translating.” (P02) |
| Conveying the depth of idioms | “Sometimes I feel like maybe there are certain words that could have been better translated, but I couldn't find a specific way to express them…That’s one of the main challenges that I encountered.” (P01) |
| Distance from the study context | “I still remember my first transcript, it was brutal… because I didn’t know if I could translate it well… and then we accumulate more experience, it became much easier to translate. And then you could start analysing the stories behind the transcript [because] there’s a story that comes together. You know the different levels of work from the clinics to the township hospitals to the CDC. Gradually the picture started to come together nicely.” (P03) |
| Lessons learnt | |
| Iterative word banks increase accuracy and understanding | “The unified word translation document helped it to be consistent between translations.” (P04) |
| Team building between translators can strengthen the translation process | “If you're able to connect with other translators, I think it would be very helpful…And to ask how they would approach the same problem.” (P01) |
| Introspection and reflexivity are important towards translator engagement and sense-making | “The conditions in Tibet were reminiscent of the stories of my parents growing up in kind of rural China…Like for me, in a way, it also kind of brought a different deeper sense of connection [to the text).” (P02) |