Any member of the U-M community who is interested in translating may sign up as a volunteer. Novice translators are welcome, and in some cases may be paired up with more experienced translators. Even though translations are produced by volunteers and may not be regarded as “professional,” every effort should be made by our translators to produce quality results within the timeline of the request. The time commitment necessary will vary with each request, so please use discretion when committing to a translation project.
Volunteer Resources
Resources on Translation
Gengo Translation Resources
Provides simple guides on translation fundamentals for beginner translators. The guides are easy to follow and can help you translate more efficiently and accurately.
MLibrary Research Guides
The University libraries offer online research guides on a wide variety of subjects. The ones listed above are related to various aspects of translation, from critical theory to area studies.
Translation Links from Translation at Michigan Theme Semester
Includes links to journals, blogs, publishers, and other resources.
What did we miss? Are there particular resources you find helpful and have used on Language Bank projects? Let us know at lrc.langbank@gmail.com and we’ll add it to the list!
Glossaries, Dictionaries, Databases
United Nations Multilingual Terminology Database
A searchable database of UN nomenclature and special terms, totaling 70 000 entries and updated daily. Search and entries provided in all of the 6 official UN languages: English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Arabic.
Adsotrans: Chinese-English Annotation
An automatic Chinese-to-English-only online text translator (also outputs pinyin). Although less reliable at the sentence and paragraph levels, input of words and phrases returns fairly accurate results specific to modern Chinese, such as official English names for various commonly-used proper nouns or institution titles.
Dict.cn 海词
A two-way Chinese-English online dictionary that provides definitions, related terms, and sample sentences in demonstration of usage.
Diccionario de la Lengua Española
The searchable official Spanish-to-Spanish dictionary, published by the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy).
Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas
Another searchable Spanish-to-Spanish dictionary published by the Royal Spanish Academy; includes more colloquial terms and terms used specifically in Latin America.
Reading Tutor
Japanese-to-English translation dictionary that can provide word- by-word definitions for long sentences and paragraphs, published by Tokyo International University
Goo
Japanese only website with a two-way, searchable Japanese-English dictionary that includes definitions, common idioms, related words, pronunciation guides, and links to corresponding Wikipedia entries.
Erong Search
This website provides translation of terms and simple phrases between Chinese and English (both ways), as well as in-depth Chinese-Chinese definitions with related terms in Chinese and English. Other services include traditional-simplified conversion, a Chinese table of elements, list of zip codes for Chinese regions, and conversion between imperial years and the common era.
Babel Linguistics Glossaries
Babel Linguistics has created dozens of multicultural glossaries for the translation of very technical data. They have compiled many of these glossaries for other linguists and translators to consult. The glossaries are listed by industry and the language(s) of each glossary is noted.
Foreignword.com
Contains links to on-line dictionaries for many languages.
Language Realm
Contains resources on slang, idioms, and proverbs, as well as some technical dictionaries.
ProZ
Allows you to search translation dictionaries and technical glossaries in many languages. There is also a searchable database of glossaries on the web.
What did we miss? Are there particular resources you find helpful and have used on Language Bank projects? Let us know at lrc.langbank@gmail.com and we’ll add it to the list.
