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Choosing a language for interpreting | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| jjackson112 Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4779 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, Italian | Message 1 of 7 16 August 2011 at 12:43am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello! I'm new to this forum. I just had a question that could use some good input from
all you fellow language learners. I know that the top 5 languages in the world are: English, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, and Russian. Right now, I'm close to being fluent in Spanish, but I'm starting to get bored with it. I've been dabbling in Italian, but as an interpreter, there's not that high of a demand for this language. I'm a beginner in Japanese, but I have no good technique to learn it. There are so many good languages out there to learn, but I just can't make up my mind which one I want to learn right now. Should I push through Spanish, choose Japanese, or learn both? What are the most useful languages for an upcoming interpreter to know? Edited by Fasulye on 16 August 2011 at 6:39am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| The Aussie Newbie Australia Joined 4643 days ago 10 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 2 of 7 28 August 2011 at 6:34am | IP Logged | ||
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In my opinion, Mandarin would be useful to learn. You could work as an Interpreter for businessmen negotiating with say, Chinese coal giants. Being an Interpreter means no Dictionaries or Glossaries are used, as you are mostly translating orally. If you reach a good deal of fluency in Spanish, you could always move to the border of Mexico and try to get a job as a Interpreter there, talking to illegal aliens, I've never been to the USA, so I'm not quite sure if there is a demand for Spanish interpreters on the border. If you learned Japanese you would most likely be dealing with more businessmen, as not as many Japanese people speak English at all, you could also pick up freelance work translating Manga comics or something.
I suggest finishing Spanish, as being fluent could be very useful, while traveling for example. If you want to learn Japanese, do it! Spanish and Japanese is like Chalk and cheese, it should be easier to learn them side by side as you are already established in Spanish, as you are unlikely to get things mixed up. I could suggest using Assimil Japanese with Ease, although i haven't used the program and i do not know how good it is. In my opinion, you should learn both, just throttle back your studies in Spanish to maybe 15 minutes a day, and focus more on your Japanese by putting the study for that up to 40 minutes a day. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5176 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 3 of 7 28 August 2011 at 4:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Learning any language to interpreter level is a feat very few achieve. Are you sure you can just pick a
language and stick with for years, perhaps over a decade, just to be an interpreter? I hear Japanese-English simultaneous interpreters in Canada can make upwards of $1200 a day, but work is not all that frequent. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dizzycloud Triglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6393 days ago 88 posts - 109 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Turkish | Message 4 of 7 28 August 2011 at 4:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have been considering following the interpreting career route too, and with a En/Fr/Sp combination I would also have to pick up another language. After speaking to many professionals (from the European Union, for example), it seems that if you want to be a <i>conference</i> interpreter, then it's best to aim for the <i>rarer</i> languages that English natives tend <b>not</b> to learn. Whilst you would expect these languages to be Chinese or Japanese for example, these languages are infact <b>German or Dutch</b> or some Eastern-European languages, as there is a shortage of native English speakers who speak these languages.
However, if you wish to be a public services interpreter/liaison interpreter for businesses and such, then yes, Chinese is one of the many up-and-coming languages in demand, though be aware that you need an acute knowledge of the language (it goes without saying), and Chinese is notoriously difficult to achieve fluency...therefore is it perhaps worth the effort to study this language for a decade or two before being able to use it professionally? Ultimately you should learn whatever language you are attracted to, as without your raw passion for the language and culture in question, you'll lose motivation to persue studies in that language (and therefore use it professionally) Good luck in whatever you choose :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6645 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 5 of 7 29 August 2011 at 4:13am | IP Logged | ||
So twice you recommend things and then admit you have zero knowledge on which to base your recommendations? Interesting. Your first recommendation is way off. Everyone and their mom speaks both English and Spanish near the border. Even in Dallas, where I worked in retail management for several years, people would literally get offended and angry that I didn't speak Spanish but was in a customer service position. If you applied for an interpreter position for Spanish, you would be competing with tons of people that had been speaking both languages their entire lives. Now who do you think is going to get the job? The person who is bilingual from birth, or the person who picked up the language in adulthood in order to get a job? Your second recommendation, however, is on the mark. Assimil's Japanese course is quite good. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Iwwersetzerin Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member Luxembourg Joined 5464 days ago 259 posts - 513 votes Speaks: French*, Luxembourgish*, GermanC2, EnglishC2, SpanishC2, DutchC1, ItalianC1 Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 6 of 7 29 August 2011 at 11:17am | IP Logged | ||
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I have to agree with what Arekkusu said above.
First, you would have to learn the language to near-native level and then spend various years more being trained as an interpreter. That's going to be a long time and a lot of hard work. And just learning the language, even to near-native level, is not automatically going to make you a good interpreter. It takes years of training and dedication. I'm a professional translator and certainly know my 5 working languages very well, but I would never dream of trying to interpret, as I know that it's impossible to do without proper training. I have a lot of respect for this profession. In the US, the fields most in demand are certainly court interpreting and medical interpreting. There are certifications for both areas, so if that's something you are interested in, you should definitely look into that. And Spanish is by far the language most in demand. Even if there are a lot of bilinguals in the US, there are very few qualified and certified legal or medical interpreters compared to the huge demand. As for training, the number 1 institution in the US is the Monterey Institute of International Studies 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4925 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 7 of 7 29 August 2011 at 3:33pm | IP Logged | ||
On the other hand, there is quite a need for ES<>EN interpreters specializing in specific industries, whether it's legal, medical or oil (among others). Living on the border and speaking both languages your entire life won't be the only requirement. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful |
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