Jul 7, 2011 | Translation
Interview with Angela, Interpreter and Translator from French and Spanish to English: First things first, we would love to learn more about you: why and when did you decide to become a translator/interpreter? Where did the idea stem from, and have you ever considered doing anything else? I took a course in high school regarding career choices and wrote my final project about those options in which foreign languages (as these were my strongest subjects at school) could be used. Of all the professions I researched, I liked best the idea of becoming a conference interpreter at the United Nations, as it offered the opportunities of a great deal of travel, a good salary, meeting important people who could change the world for the better (by preventing war and promoting peace) and, more importantly, I would be using my language skills to help people communicate with each other. I then planned my university curriculum around obtaining this goal. It involved studies in Vancouver, Quebec, California, Spain, France and the École de Traduction et d’Interprétation in Geneva, Switzerland. If the language career had not worked out for me, I did have a few back-up options, the first of these was as a classical musician since I studied piano up to the A.R.C.T. (Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto) performance level. More recently, however, I have added language teaching, editing & proofreading, photography, videography, writing, marketing & sales, website creation & design, tour guiding and other skills to my own company’s business package, so as to keep things fresh and stimulating, to exercise different parts of my brain, and to...
Jul 7, 2011 | Translation
Interview with Tim, Translator from English to Dutch: First things first, we would love to learn more about you: why and when did you decide to become a translator/interpreter? Where did the idea come from, and have you ever considered doing anything else? I hold a Master’s and Ph.D. degree in linguistics. When I was asked to do a translation job from English to Dutch by Lingostar, it caught my interest. Being a translator is not my main job. For the most part, I am the co-ordinator of an urban network in the southern part of the Netherlands. But both jobs are highly interconnected. It all comes down to making the effort to use a language that is fully understandable to the receiver. How different is being a translator/interpreter from what you had expected? I was not aware of the fact that translation is really more about the world than about language. However, internet always helps me to get a quick introduction into worlds that I am less familiar with. What is, according to you, the best way to learn a foreign language? How did you learn your languages? The best way to learn a foreign language is to go to an area where that language is spoken, on your own. And to force yourself to communicate solely in that language with native speakers of that language. Most of the languages I understand and speak I learned that way. What are the challenges of being a translator/interpreter? What are the perks? The most important challenge is to capture all subtleties from the source language in the target language....
Jul 7, 2011 | Translation
Interview with Sharon, Translator and reviser from Italian and French to English: First things first, we would love to learn more about you: why and when did you decide to become a translator/interpreter? Where did the idea come from, and have you ever considered doing anything else? It first occurred to me that I could become a translator when I applied for – and won – my first “real” job as Translator, Editor and Speechwriter at the Italian Embassy in Ottawa. After working there 3 years, I took and passed the certification exam for Italian to English. From then on I have always worked in the field, at first part time and for the last 12 years, full time, from my home office. I have in fact, worked in other fields, notably as a high school teacher, but translation is what I love, together with being my own boss. I have discovered that the best translators not only have in-depth mastery of their source languages; they are well-read and excellent writers themselves. We are communicators on several planes. Translation combines my own strengths and at this point, I can’t imagine doing anything else. How different is being a translator/interpreter from what you had expected? I’m not sure that it is terribly different from what I had expected, except that it is amazing how at times so many translations of a phrase can all be correct. What is, according to you, the best way to learn a foreign language? How did you learn your languages? The BEST way is to arrange to have parents who speak a different native language...
Jul 6, 2011 | Translation
Interview with Peter, Translator from English to Chinese (simplified and traditional): First things first, we would love to learn more about you: why and when did you decide to become a translator/interpreter? Where did the idea come from, and have you ever considered doing anything else? I decided to become a translator in 2004, two years after I immigrated to Canada. In order to survive in the new country, I took different jobs, such as file processing specialist with an immigration company, ESL and TOEFL tutor with some private colleges and bookkeeper with a Vancouver-based company. But none of the jobs was what I liked. Later a friend of mine, who is a translator, asked me to help him with some translation jobs, and he encouraged me to be a full time translator. I followed his advice and quit all the other odd jobs and started to work as a translator. How different is being a translator/interpreter from what you had expected? A translator’s job is more challenging and time-consuming than I expected. To be a qualified translator, one must not only be very proficient at both the source language and target language, but must also have extensive knowledge in your areas. A good translator should also know how to use CAT tools in his translation and have good project management skills. Above all, a good translator must be committed to his work and clients What is, according to you, the best way to learn a foreign language? How did you learn your languages? To me, the best way to learn a foreign language is by communicating with native...
Jul 6, 2011 | Translation
Interview with Milton, Translator from English to Chinese: First things first, we would love to learn more about you: why and when did you decide to become a translator/interpreter? Where did the idea come from, and have you ever considered doing anything else? I was admitted to the foreign languages department of my university in error first, then I was assigned a job as an interpreter upon graduation, no much choice made by myself then; Later, I went away from it by running my own websites for about five years. How different is being a translator/interpreter from what you had expected? Not much difference, but it’s becoming more rewarding now as I spend more effort and time in translation. What is, according to you, the best way to learn a foreign language? How did you learn your languages? Practice makes perfect and you need to practice it every day. I learnt it through normal schooling at first, and through working with it later. What are the challenges of being a translator/interpreter? What are the perks? Time management when facing a growing flow of work. You can earn quite a lot without the pains of 9 to 5. Thank you very...
Jul 6, 2011 | Translation
Interview with Mami, Translator from English to Japanese: First things first, we would love to learn more about you: why and when did you decide to become a translator/interpreter? Where did the idea come from, and have you ever considered doing anything else? When I was working at a Japanese community newspaper in Vancouver, I had a few occasions to translate English articles to Japanese. Since I enjoyed this experience so much, I started to see becoming a translator as my next step, and so I took a translation introductory course. During the course, my nascent interest transformed to determination that I should pursue this career and do further studies. How different is being a translator/interpreter from what you had expected? To do English to Japanese translation requires a higher level of Japanese writing skill and wider knowledge of Japanese vocabulary than I have ever expected. Also, translators have to be very detailed-oriented. What is, according to you, the best way to learn a foreign language? How did you learn your languages? Read a lot, whatever interests you. I am reading news on the internet, a few magazines, and books in my fields of interests. What are the challenges of being a translator/interpreter? What are the perks? Not to make mistranslations is challenging for me. Even though it might sound basic, the definition of words is so different between fields and this is not simple, but very important. Therefore, I am always doing in-depth research about the topics I work on. Also, I am trying hard to make the resulting text look natural, using adequate style and wording...
