How translations help you as a writer.

Let me begin with the stages of the subconscious process linked with translation.

Translation involves three stages: reading, understanding and reproducing.

The first stage needs the given text, from what is called by professionals as the source language, to be read properly. 

If there is a difficult word you need to understand its meaning first in the right context.

Once the text has been understood, the second stage involves its interpretation. By interpretation I mean understanding it in its totality.

In the last stage, you reproduce the text in an entirely different language, called the target language in the professional jargon.

Here, it is worthwhile to mention that for amateurs, these three stages may be segregated, independent from each other but, for professionals, these three stages form a continuum in their entire process of translation.

But that’s really not the point here.

The point is, if you continue to practice the art of translation, over a period of time, two things happen.

First, you are exposed to the writings of different writers. This helps you to learn the styles in which the original content from the source language is written. This, in turn, helps you when you are writing your own thing.

And, let me tell you, every translator needs a bilingual dictionary, even a professional. That means you can immediately refer to any word in the source language and find out the equivalent of it for the target language.

This exercise, if performed over a period of time, greatly improves your vocabulary not in one but two languages, simultaneously.