There is still little research on the actual translating process, ie on what happens in the translator's mind when translating a particular text. This activity involves, broadly speaking, two main processes:

• decoding: understanding a source text (ST);
• encoding: rewriting into the target language conventions, according to a brief.

Translators, however, are not fax machines. Between understanding a ST and producing a TT, a series of (linguistic and non-linguistic) activities need to take place. According to Malmkjaer (1998: 7), professional translators engage in at least five different types of activities:

• anticipation (finding out about the ST);
• resource exploitation (using monolingual/bilingual dictionaries, glossaries, the World Wide Web);
• co-operation (consulting customers, other translators, experts, etc);
• revision (reworking draft translations, producing a final polished version);
• translating (producing a target version).

Once more, we can see how translation involves much more than just sitting in front of a piece of paper, with a dictionary at one's side. Each stage is an important part of the translation process and the actual 'translating' activity might occur during any of the stages. However, they are all important phases and none should be omitted from the process.

The ability to translate, or 'translation competence', does not develop automatically from competence in a foreign language (Toury, 1986). As well as fluency, or communicative competence in a foreign language, the translator needs to acquire a different set of skills, including:

• extra-linguistic competence in the languages involved;
• ability to transfer between systems;
• strategic competence (how to solve problems, make the right selection etc);
• professional competence (codes of conduct, customer relations etc).