I am working as a translator and interpreter for the last 21 years and when I think of Joseph Smith translating the Book of Mormon without online dictionaries and Oliver Cowdery transcribing with no computer, not being able to use "copy and paste", make my testimony about the divinity of the Book of Mormon even stronger.

I'm a translator, and I hear you!!
Thank you for this article.
I should show it to every person who asks me "Oh? and how many languages do you speak?" when I tell them I'm a translator.

thank you, I only try the one language I was born with, often times going from my brain to my mouth the words get lost in translation.

Thank you for this. People translating *into* their native tongues is the best way to go. Translators are under appreciated and needed to further this work. Otherwise inadvertant mistakes will be made.. like when I mistranslated and insulted the king of Spain.

Interesting article. As a professional translator, it's nice when someone appreciates how difficult the job can be.

However, there are some exceptions to the rule about translating into your native language. I work with technical documents, often written in engineering or shop jargon. The meanings of some terms aren't found in any published dictionary or glossary; you simply have to work in the industry to become aware of them. Some of my clients have made embarrassing mistakes when they confided these translations to native Spanish speakers, who were unaware of these meanings.

Another example: say you have 20 hours of audio surveillance, recorded by the police in the apartment of a suspected drug dealer. If the suspect is from Columbia, or Russia, or Albania. it's extremely unlikely that a native English speaker is going to understand the slang.

But those are exceptions. Your article does a good job of introducing a novice to the pitfalls of translation.

Great article — I'm a professional freelance translator and I appreciate you highlighting the difficulties of the trade. Thank you!