This paper is based on the author's PhD, in which he discusses thoroughly the methodological foundations of verbal report methods and describes the translational behaviour of eight subjects. The subjects are all German students of French as a foreign language (FL), i.e. non-professional translators. The data include translation processes into the subjects' mother tongue and into the foreign language. The focus of this paper is on the nature of the problems the subjects encounter as well as the problem-solving strategies they use.