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Professional Interpretation | ||
Tags: Interpreting | Career | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| Davezs Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6700 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 1 of 9 03 September 2006 at 3:12pm | IP Logged |
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Does anyone here do profesional interpretation/translation work or know someone who does? If so, I'd love to know what this profesion demands (mentally/physically) what path of studies you took, and some of the experiences and challenges you've faced.
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| Thomaskim Groupie Joined 7275 days ago 84 posts - 85 votes  | Message 2 of 9 04 September 2006 at 2:49am | IP Logged |
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Are you referring to conference interpreting or written translation?
If you're interested in the former check out AIIC - if you are in the US one of the top conference interpreting schools is in Monterey,CA. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lugubert Heptaglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6873 days ago 186 posts - 235 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Danish, Norwegian, EnglishC2, German, Dutch, French Studies: Mandarin, Hindi | Message 3 of 9 06 September 2006 at 2:15pm | IP Logged |
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I have been working as a translator for several years. My specialities are medicine and chemistry.
To be successful, you should have several years of experience (preferably theoretical as well as practical) from the subject area in which you work. You should also have extraordinary good command of your target language. Some knowledge of the source language is helpful. If you have these skills, AND have a keen sense of finance and marketing, you should be able to survive on translating. I had a masters in chemical engineering and a bachelors in linguistics, and some ten years in pharmaceutical marketing, before I understood that there was a translation industry. Regarding my source languages, I learned English, German and some French in school, and Dutch during a two months summer job at a chem-phys lab in Amsterdam. I live on the west coast of Sweden, and my father was from the very south, so Danish and Norwegian aren't too difficult for me without any formal trainign. I translate only into my native Swedish. Very few people can work into more than one language. Having worked as a translator full time for almost 20 years, I'm beginning to be fairly good at it and live comfortably. But I know too many who struggle for jobs and earn their living mainly from other occupations. Those people are often former language students who don't have acquired a profound knowledge of a speciality area, like technology, medicine, finance, or law. If you feel that you're up to it, don't be afraid of future computer software. It will never replace humans, among many things because it can't handle puns and has huge difficulties in "understanding" if a word is a name or a noun. "The Importance of Being Earnest" for example. Some programs make great tools for the translator, though. Edited by Lugubert on 06 September 2006 at 2:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Vlad Trilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member Czechoslovakia foreverastudent.com Joined 6590 days ago 443 posts - 576 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Czech*, Slovak*, Hungarian*, Mandarin, EnglishC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Serbian, French Studies: Persian, Taiwanese, Romanian, Portuguese | Message 4 of 9 17 December 2006 at 4:41am | IP Logged |
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I was working for 2 different translating angencies as a freelance translator for maybe 5 years and for the last 2 years I had my little translation business running on my own.
I can't find the exact expression in english in the dictionary for it though. It's a Slovak legal term for a business, where the person owning it is the sole employee and owner. It has been set up as allways for tax purposes. I've been translating from English to Slovak and back, from German to Slovak and back, and from Italian into Slovak. I also tried Spanish to Slovak and German to Italian, but it took me much longer and the price was the same as in my 'strong' languages, so I gave it up. as far as written translations go..I was doing mainly technical trasnations regarding technical manuals and project documentations for different types of machinery, building site projects, internal construction of electric devices and so on. as for oral translations..I was usually doing simultaneous transaltions between the English and Slovak languages usually for formal or informal business meetings between companies from abroad and our, Slovak companies. at an unofficial level (meaning not beeing paid:-) I was also doing simultaneous translations between different combinations of the languages I know: Italian-German and back, Hungarian-German and back, Russian-Slovak and so on. It's a nice job, well paid, clean, like everything else..the beginning is terrible, once it gets at least a little into the sub-conscience it's quater the stress. however..it is extremely boring as you sit behind the computer all day and type. oral translations are much more fun. good thing with the written ones is, that you can obviously decide how much of the work and when you want the work done. other than that for me.. it is very very boring. Edited by Vlad on 19 December 2006 at 7:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tipdog Diglot Groupie Australia Joined 6561 days ago 50 posts - 51 votes Studies: Spanish, English*, Japanese | Message 5 of 9 26 December 2006 at 12:36pm | IP Logged |
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I worked part-time for the US Military as a Japanese interpreter and translator for about three years during the early 90’s. The first time I had a job as an interpreter was in Kyushu Japan with the JGSDF (Japanese Ground Self Defense Force) and the US Military. It was a bilateral field operation that lasted 3 weeks. Fortunately for me, they were just small briefings and most of the Officers were happy to communicate with their counterpart at any level other than picture drawing—so, I guess you could say I was a small asset. At least we didn’t have to draw any pictures. My language ability was adequate for the job, but I didn't have any formal interpreting training. That can be a big mistake. Fortunately, I was a witness to most of those mistakes.
Interpreting is a skill that needs to be learned and developed. No matter how good your language skills are, they won't amount to much if you don't have interpreting skills. I feel that the two major ones, which go hand in hand, are composure and paraphrasing. Paraphrasing: Paraphrasing is an important skill because it helps you to interpret quickly and confidently, which will impress a time-conscious employer. For example, I was sent to a section where my military terminology was limited, but I needed to relieve another interpreter who had been working with that section for a week. Well, the Japanese counterpart arrived and we started a short briefing, which actually took only five minutes. After the briefing the Officer praised me by saying: “You are a better interpreter than the other guy…Normally, these briefing take about a half hour or so because the interpreter is always looking up the words in the dictionary.” I then told that Officer, I am not sure if I am any better because I didn’t say everything word for word. He replied that was ok because he now has the time to finish his work, which he couldn’t do because the interpreter took too long during their briefings. You will eat up too much time, and look like you don’t know what you are doing if you have to stop and recall how to say a certain word. Composure: I remember listening to an interpreter who was (from a linguistic point of view) excellent and very accurate--but, he didn't maintain composure thru the briefing. Later on, I overheard the Officer complain that his interpreter wasn't any good. I was a bit aghast at what that Officer had said; however, I then realized because that Officer can not speak the target language, he was only making a judgment based on the interpreter’s demeanor not his linguistic ability. You can be a super interpreter and linguist, but if you don’t appear to know what you are doing, then say good-bye to any repeat business. There are other things to consider: where you stand or sit is important. If there is no microphone you have to be heard—so, figure out where you can stand to best be heard by the target audience. This was one of my major mistakes. I didn’t know the audience was going to be split in half. And, I didn’t know that my voice wouldn’t project to that half of the audience which needed to hear me. Ooops. Now, translating is a completely different animal. For translating, ACCURACY is paramount. Unlike interpreting, where every eye in the room is trained on you, most of the time, the employer is not going to watch you while you work. I mean who wants to watch someone type and look up words in a dictionary? If you do freelance, you could be sitting naked at the computer listening to Enya, it really doesn’t matter. But, the employer’s target audience is going to be looking at your translation; so, accuracy is of utmost importance. Discipline is also ridiculously vital. It goes without saying, DEADLINES must be met!!! Organize how you are going to efficiently tackle the task, because if you run into a problem somewhere in the document, that problem could put you behind. Resources are important, not just dictionaries—but, other people who have knowledge in that field who can help you whenever you get stuck. At any rate, these are a few things that I can remember. The best advice is take some courses on interpreting at University. And IF possible, take it from DLI (Defense Language Institute). I heard it’s one of the best. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| solidsnake Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7047 days ago 469 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 6 of 9 26 December 2006 at 2:48pm | IP Logged |
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fascinating post tipdog, thanks for that.
If you wouldnt mind sharing, I'm sure some forum folks (myself included) would be interested in hearing about your path from beginner to advanced fluency in japanese and what you do now to maintain the golden four skills. (listening, speaking, reading, writing) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tipdog Diglot Groupie Australia Joined 6561 days ago 50 posts - 51 votes Studies: Spanish, English*, Japanese | Message 7 of 9 26 December 2006 at 11:23pm | IP Logged |
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I don't mind sharing at all; however, shouldn't it be in a different section? Since this is my first time posting here; and the second time ever posting on any forum, I am not sure about forum protocol: i.e., thread highjacking and other such faux pas.
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| solidsnake Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7047 days ago 469 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 8 of 9 27 December 2006 at 12:10am | IP Logged |
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you could just start a new thread down in the member profile section
detailing your language learning experiences, or you could just post here and if a moderator sees fit he'll move it himself. People here are pretty chill either way, and I for one am definitely interested in hearing your story. Edited by solidsnake on 27 December 2006 at 12:11am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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