Translators that translate in more than one direction

golf264 wrote:

Translators in both directions translate into a language pair

I find it strange. I do not condemn it per se, or say that it is not possibly, but my own experience is that it simply does not work.

If I were to translate a text into English I can compose something that is grammatically correct and readable and even no errors but somewhere it sounds onnatural and forced and * gape - translated. The text does not captivate and sometimes it is quite ambiguous.

I also have ridiculous turnaround time, I have to usually spend 2 to 3x times as long as for Dutch.

It seems to me that one only translates best into their mother tongue.

Interpreting is perhaps not as difficult as one only needs to limit himself to the spoken language and can make errors in between without too much embarassment.

But I see it quite frequently actually on proz.com, it is certainly no exception to the rule. I understand that everyone's skills and talents vary, but it seems that few people on this earth have very special talents, no matter what the talent is.

I just wanted to gauge what you all think of it, whether this practice and especially the frequency at which it occurs is justified.