How to Become a Translator
From time to time, we all come across low-quality translations in various periodicals, in movie subtitles, or in newspaper articles.
If you speak a foreign language, you’ve probably had this experience before: You read a text which makes little sense, and then you realize that it must be a literal translation from a foreign language. You may think to yourself, “How on earth can people who don’t even know this get to translate?”
In fact, however, such a translation may have been done by a qualified and experienced professional, the only trouble being that the topic or domain of the translated text was not suitable for this translator. This unfortunately happens from time to time. Obviously, translators are not born overnight. It is an ongoing process; translators spend their entire lives educating themselves and improving their skills. But languages are such complex things that it is almost impossible to be an expert on everything. It’s only logical – we need to understand that good translators must have expertise not only in the language in question, but also in their mother tongue.
Many translators get degrees from universities where they attend courses in literary translations, and they often dream that they will be translating book after book in their cosy loft apartments. However, in reality, many of them will never translate books, and if they do, they will be professional texts rather than fiction. Sooner or later, translators find that they prefer certain disciplines to others. This can be influenced by their education, interests, or their own creativity. Translators begin to specialise, attend various courses and workshops, and start gaining expertise in their respective fields.
One of the reasons why our clients prefer to use our services is that we maintain detailed databases and use experienced translators, fit for the given language combinations and domains. We know who is an expert in legal translations and who will perfectly translate an article on the arts. We know their strengths and weaknesses, and so we always find just the right person to provide the best translation by the required deadline.
Keep in mind that we also deal with creative texts on a daily basis, and there are many translators who prefer this type of work. Can you imagine yourselves translating an add from Czech, as spoken locally in Brno, into English? We can, and we have already done this. 🙂
