Tired Hands, Reading Backwards

I love translating, but my hands get very tired most days. Each particular task comes with its own ache - the first two fingers on my right hand burn after a day of time coding subtitles, my left wrist gives out on me after a couple of hours of fast typing, and the space between my right thumb and forefinger gets sore when I use the mouse to edit. And for a hobby, well, I knit!

Since I want to keep working for many, many years these aches and pains are starting to worry me. I've already tried the fancy ergonomic keyboard. It didn't help. Other translators swear by speech recognition software. I'm kind of a technophobe, so I've put off investigating this possible solution. But I noticed the free Dragon Dictation app in iTunes the other week and decided to give it a spin.

Two observations: 1. The software works surprisingly well. 2. I don't like dictating translations.

Working with Dragon Dictation has made me realize how deeply ingrained my translation habits are. When I look at a chunk of Russian text, I start typing words that I think may be useful in the translation. Not always in order. Then I use shortcut keys to run back and forth between the words, rearranging them and adding new information. To an observer, it probably looks like I'm playing a strange version of the shell game. If I want to use dictation software, I'll have to form complete sentences in my head and then read them aloud. That's doable, but it won't be easy.

I do have one trick up my sleeve, though. When I'm in a big hurry, I do what I call "reading backwards." Longer Russian sentences tend to organize their information "backwards," putting the new or important information at the end. English puts new or important information at the beginning of sentences. So I read each Russian sentence backwards and type it out in English as I read. This works surprisingly well, and it may be a good technique to combine with dictation to save my poor hands some pain.