I sent my translation to one of my family member, expert on alpine skiing, so that he told me what his thoughts were about the document. Since he knows a lot about the subject and about its specific vocabulary, it was a good way to make sure the terms I used were relevant.

Apparently they were, because he only suggested that I change some phrase structures that sounded odd.
I am still waiting for some feedbacks from my american coworker, but I don't think I will have many things to change. Maybe I'll copy-paste again the image he used on the first page, since I became all blurry when I transferred the file on open office.

I finished translating the ski parts schema. Some terms don't appear in the actual instruction guide, but most of them do. It is actually a good thing in order to help people visualizing the different parts of their skis, even apart from the instruction guide.

Now I only need to add it to the translated document.

On the other hand, I waiting for some feedback from my american coworker, so that he tell me what he think about the layout of the translation.

Depending on what he tells me, I may have to change some details.

Today, I worked on the layout of my translation. I wanted it to look clean and nice, so that the viewer find it easy and enjoyable to read. Doing the layout of the various images was proved to be rather difficult, since my co-worker and I don't use the same text-writing software (I use Open Office while he uses Word, so the layout may change between the two).

Finally, I sent to my amercian co-worker an almost finished version of my translation. I asked him to tell me if the whole document is pleasant to look at, and if there is some details he would like me to change.


I only have one major thing left to do: translating the ski schema listing the different parts of the alpine ski.
One major problem : the terms used on the schema are not the same terms that he used on the proper instruction guide. For the translation of this schema, I think I'll try to use some of the vocabulary that I already used on my translation. By doing so, there will be more of an idea of continuity about the terms used in the guide.

In english, the terms used to describe some of the materials speak for themselves, so that the reader don't need specific knowledge about skiing to understand them. Take for instance ski iron or base cleaner...
However, the official french translation of these terms uses a ski tuning-based concept : "farter". It's basically the idea of ski tuning. So, to use the examples cited above, we talk about "fer à farter" or "fart en spray".

If an experienced skier will be familiar with this concept, a french person who knows little to nothing about skiing would be lost for this first tuning, for this word would sound rather strange. I wondered if I had to add a "farter" definition in the glossary.

I asked my coworker who was mainly geared by this instruction guide (if it was confirmed or beginner skiier) here is his answer:

Camille,

Perfect! How was the translation? Its mainly geared toward people who have some knowledge regarding skiing. Hope this helps!!

Scott

Thus, I decided I will leave "farter" as it is and not add more definitions, since the reader is supposed to have some global knowledge about skiing.
However, since "mainly" doesn't mean "only", I also decided not to use this term unless there is no other term that can be used. "Farter" may seem familiar to those that are used to skiing (and still, not always), but using this possibily strange-looking term too often may discourage the reader, and may have the whole instructions guide looking more complicated that it actually is.

In a first instance, I've been re-reading my translation. My main problem about it was how I translated the introduction. The register of language was a bit off. The introduction was written only so that the reader can understand how necessary ski tuning is, and what it can change when using them.
I realized that I translated this introduction in a "too beautiful" manner, one that wasn't too faithful to the register of language in the english text. Sure, with this approach, we gained "belles-lettres", but we lost this technical aspect the introduction was trying to set up.

It was actually difficult enough to modify, since I find it very hard to write a flowing-styled text without having very meticulous expression and vocabulary. However, I realized that the reader of a ski tuning instructions guide is not looking for beautiful expressions and vocabulary, splendid metaphors and so on, but only clear explanations.
Starting from that, I used a more basic, but more fitting vocabulary.