Here's a question for our members who are FLUENT in both German and English, and also in the particular terminology of our model railways hobby.

I'm particularly interested in a translation of the introduction sections of the Koll's price guides.

For example, I have or have access to several Koll's editions which I have borrowed and oogled from time to time, and for the individual item descriptions you can generally work out the finer detail. And in the worst case, I simply re-type the original German text into an online Translator and the result is generally good enough for what I need.

But taking the several-page introduction for example, not only is it laborious work typing it all in, but it's also a much less satisfactory translation method relying on a machine which does not get to subtleties and nuances of what is being conveyed.

So my question is, for those who are truly fluent in both, I understand that you really 'know' a different language when you actually 'think' (and sometimes dream) in that language. My dream would be to know German to that level, but without a regular partner and practice it just does not happen.

So if you were reading a German text, what goes on in the mind when you are translating to another language? - and here I'm thinking of Interpreters such as those used in Political or Business discussions where a near-perfect translation is done 'on the fly' as it were (and usually two-way to preserve the integrity of what was said).

And then I got to thinking, how easy would it be for someone with this skill, to take any given text (such as the first several pages of a Koll's edition), or maybe a technical description of some item or topic and do the same type of interpretation while also speaking into a voice-recognition system??

And this got me on to thinking about the Microsoft Office suite which already has voice recognition built in, a feature that not a lot of people know about and even less actually use but it's actually very helpful.

Effectively you are using Word or Excel as a Dictation machine except that you are not recording the translation audibly, rather the spoken text is being captured into the document (although you could also record it to an audio format such as mp3).

However I've found it to be brilliant when I'm needing to put a lot of information into a spreadsheet for example, and I just find it a heap easier to 'talk' the text in rather than type, mainly because I'm not a copy-typist (Nadine is a good copy-typist but I save that for the really important stuff and it's really slow-going typing German when you don't know it).

So how' that for an interesting question?

And for those interested in how it's done, if you have a compatible version of MS Office (I think at least 2003 on does it, but I'm using 2007) and a suitable Microphone/Headset, here's the steps... it is surprisingly accurate but you must take the initial few (15-20) minutes to 'train it' to your voice by reading the sample texts provided in setup.

To dictate text

1: Open Speech Recognition by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, clicking Ease of Access, and then clicking Windows Speech Recognition.

2: Say "start listening" or click the Microphone button to start the listening mode.

3: Open the program you want to use or select the text box you want to dictate text into.

4: Say the text that you want dictate.

Pretty easy huh?

Thanks Mike, yes I was mindful of the order of German speaking where the entire text needs to be processed before making a response, and fortunately in this instance I am referring to translation of printed articles so I imagine that the person doing the translation would first read the topic, either sentence by sentence, or paragraph to understand the concept/context, and then repeat the phrase or block of text in the desired output language.

I guess it would be slow, and we used to have a translator in our club who regularly translated articles for us who was actually a professional translator as well so I guess he knew his stuff, but if I recall, he would sit down with the original text, and then translate by hand-writing or typing it in English.

But the translation must have already been done in his mind at that point so I wonder if a dictation method of capturing those thoughts would have been quicker than the writing or typing of those same thoughts.

I also suspect, that translation of the type I am proposing might be easier than translating something more abstract such as a work of fiction, or someones informal thoughts?

In this hobby at least we are dealing with defined items, a relatively narrow range of specific terms/descriptions etc. Is the Koll's introduction (several pages) written in a formal or informal style??

Thanks again for your input

Voice recognition is overrated.. I would hate to think how many dialects of German there are nowadays.. I drive a German car and have to use a Texan accent to get the car to understand me! There are many videos of the great Scottish war against Siri that rivals the English and Scottish border wars with massed frying pans!

OMG will I have to speak with a swedish accent in the VOLVO

R So but the RH Drive vehicles are made in Sweeden. China is mainly making BIG cars and SUVs for the US Market. Hope springs eternal

Now a bit OT, have you got them driving gloves and cloth hat in stock yet??

Oh I got the points and I admit that my experience with PC-based voice recognition tools is dated, but I doubt that they are THAT good. Further, how much are you going to pay the poor German soul who has to read 1460 pages (less pictures) of a pretty dull book?

Today an introduction.. Tomorrow the whole book.. I have not seen a mad rush from the speakers of fluent German on this forum to take up your offer..

If every member chips in one dollar, we ought to be able to hire a UN Translator. LOL