March 18th 2008 01:51 pm
Skills needed to become a translator
I am starting a series of articles about becoming a translator. Please feel free to comment them and express your own ideas.
So you know a foreign language and want to become a translator. Let’s check if you have or can easily get the needed skills.
1. Language Skills
- Understanding of the
source language - Good writing skills in your target language
- Proof-reading
2. IT skills
- Using hardware and software for producing translations
- Electronic file management
3. Communication skills
- Listening and asking questions
- Expressing yourself in a clear way
- Giving and receiving feedback
4. Project
management
- Researching terminology
- Coordinating resources
- Quality control
5. Making
decisions
- Consulting
- Reflecting
- Analyzing
- Making judgments
What are your thoughts? Is anything missing from the list? Your comments are welcome.
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5 Comments »
Svetlana on 23 Sep 2008 at 1:44 am #
So,how does one become a translator?Do I need to get a degree in college?Is there a test or a sample test I can take to see what I need to work on?I think I’m good at this, but want to know how good.
Olga on 13 Jan 2009 at 11:43 am #
Another one:
1) to be ready to learn all our life. If you are translator do not say that you can translate anything. You can’t know everything.
2) to be lazy and to search for information and consult with the specialists
daniel Casserly on 24 May 2009 at 8:25 pm #
i would add in detail to knowing the source language that you should always have somebody on hand to check in case their are localisation issues. the times that you say something quite normal in your target language and get laughed at because it has a different connotation than in your source language.
zhenya on 11 Jun 2009 at 7:29 am #
So,how does one become a translator?Do I need to get a degree in college?Is there a test or a sample test I can take to see what I need to work on?
Web translator on 29 Jun 2009 at 3:48 pm #
How many skills i must to have to work as perfect tranlator. How mamy time i need to spend with translatuion business