TRANSLATION DIRECTION: WHY TRANSLATING INTO A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IS DIFFERENT FROM TRANSLATING INTO YOUR OWN

Translating is not the same task in every direction. When a translator works from their own language into a foreign language, the work is different from when they work from a foreign language back into their own language. This paper looks at these two directions and compares the problems that come with each one. It also explains what this means for people who train translators. The main idea is simple: translating into a foreign language is mostly hard because of writing, while translating into your own language is mostly hard because of understanding. Neither direction is simply "easier" than the other — they are hard in different ways.