Dictating on Dragon or otherwise

[Kim Braithwaite]

This is in response to a message, posted on July 29, about Dragon Voice Recognition and its positive effect on output. It sounds intriguing.

Since I wasn't a seelangs member at the time I didn't see the message myself. The substance of it was passed on to me by a colleague who knows I dictate my own work, not on Dragon or similar software but on microcassettes for transcription by a typist.

I would like to compare notes with the person if he/she cares to.

I'm a long-time freelance translator, mostly from Russian and Georgian, occasionally from Belorussian and Ukrainian as well. Years ago I converted from typing the material myself to dictating on tape, and it not only boosted my output greatly but proved to be much less tiring physically. For me, at least, it's a lot quicker and easier to say "bookkkeeping," "extraordinary," or "discombobulate" (for example) than to type it. Faster production and bigger earnings per time put in more than make up for the cost of the transcription.

I know two or three other translators who dictate their work, but none who use Dragon or whatever, and I'd like to hear more about your experience. I have my own ingrained habits, of course, and my splendid long-time typist (a freelancer herself) does a superb job of catching what I say. She gets my slurrings exactly right 99.99 percent of the time. I spend about 85 percent of my work time dictating, the other 15 percent on final editing. Could I benefit from Dragon? Have to think about that.

Mr Kim Braithwaite
kbtrans at cox.net 

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