Shelley
I Hate Doing Transcription! I hate doing transcription - transcribing down words you hear from a recording, say, an interview recording, a TV show recording and the like - especially when the recording is in English. As a non English native speaker, doing English transcription is really a pain in the ass, meanwhile it can also be positively seen as a challenge. Why it is a pain in the ass? Because it's barely possible for me to catch every single word in a recording, especially those prepositions and sometimes, the antecedent as "that", which can be easily missed; and therefore I have to replay the audio again and again to catch those "Golden Snitches". Sometimes, fortunate, I win the Words Quidditch game;sometimes, I just fail to catch those prepositions and other subtle words briefly flashing by my ears. Also, my short-term memory is poor, which means I have to pause the recording every 5 or 6 seconds to transcribe the words I hear. It is really a frustrating process. Being positive, I see the transcription a challenge in my current career as a translator. The failure to miss the subtle words and to get a sentence upsets me as well as alerts me that I need to put more efforts to improve my English. Such a challenge and practice can also train me to be a qualified interpreter. Nevertheless, I still hate doing transcription of recordings. I guess I will like it until the day I'm good at it. Anyone has good advice on how to improve transcription, how to catch the subtle words in English speech or how to improve short-term memory, please tell me. I'd appreciate it.
Apr 21, 2015 9:58 AM
Corrections · 2
@Johnny Thanks a lot :)
April 22, 2015
I'm a linguistics major, so we do a lot of transcription. The best way to do it is by listening to it slowly if you want to get an accurate transcription. It is a pain, but if you want accuracy, you need to take it slowly. What makes it harder for us is that we have to use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) when transcribing. I think eventually it will become 2nd nature for you and you can do transcriptions quickly. Remember, practice makes perfect! Hope this helps and good luck transcribing :)
April 21, 2015
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