Hello, I'm Steven Wonnacott, senior lecturer in translation at the
University of Bath.
The following video is taken from a recent careers event.
And in the video I'll be discussing translation, including the skills
you'll need to be a successful translator, how to enter the
profession and where you might end up working after the MA.
I hope you find it useful.
Let's get started and I'm going to kick off and I'd like to start by
just getting the difference between interpreting and translating
clear, so please feel free to put in the chat what you think the
difference is between translation and interpreting.
There may be lots of differences.
There may just be one, but feel free to put in the chat what you
think the main differences are between the two.
Instant translation and interpreting, interpretation is live.
These are all great answers. Translation is written interpreting his
vocal.
Brilliant. Excellent.
Thank you very much, Katie, Mary and Olivia, great start, yeah.
So essentially, that's it.
If we take it in very basic terms, interpreting is oral, listening
and speaking and translation is written, so reading and writing.
It's important, I think, to have that distinction clear from the
outset, just to make sure we're clear on what we're talking about,
although we will see that there are several similarities, when you're
looking at them as professions there will be some overlap between my
presentation and what Louise is going to talk about in her
presentation afterwards.
So why, why consider pursuing a career in translation?
I suppose I'm a bit biased being a graduate of the course, being a
professional translator and a lecturer in translation now.
So I'm going to try and keep an open mind when I'm talking you
through why I think you should pursue this career.
It's a way of maintaining your hard earned language skills.
You'll need an excellent understanding of your source languages, so
by that I mean your foreign languages, the languages you're working
out of and your target language, so in your, it'll be your first
language, your native language.
So in my case, I work from French, Italian, Spanish and I work into
English. Flexible lifestyle.
Translation Jobs come in all shapes and sizes really.
And I think our alumni will attest to that later on.
So you could use the flexibility of freelance work, you could go for
the security of in-house roles.
So there's really something for everyone in terms of translation jobs
out there. It can peak and maintain your interest.
So even if you decide to specialise in a certain area, you're still
going to learn an awful lot with each new project as each new text
will bring its own challenges.
So say, for example, you decide to specialise in corporate
communications where you might be doing, I don't know, an internal
email one day and then you might be looking at marketing copy the
next day. So there's a variation even within a specialism.
You also might choose to add another string to your bow so you might
decide to move into editing, proofreading or revision work alongside
translation. So it really can keep you, keep you on your toes.
Creative outlets and an intellectual challenge.
Well, no matter how dry a text might seem at first, thinking back to
that corporate email I mentioned just now, the exercise of finding
the most accurate and the most idiomatic way of rendering what the
original writer wanted to say is always a creative process.
So just to share a little example with you, in last semester's French
class, we went through a royal canine text looking at dog food.
And you might think at first, at first reading, well, that's a fairly
dry topic to be talking about.
Well, actually, it caused probably the most lively discussion and
debate that we'd had in that first semester.
And French students will be able to vouch for that.
So it really, the creative process can be found in the driest of
text, really.
Transferable skills. So whether you're freelance or in-house, you're
going to be very familiar with computer assisted translation tools,
CAT tools, you'll have to remain diplomatic, let's say, if you have a
particularly difficult client or co-worker.
And these are all useful skills that can be used in any in any other
profession as well. You'll be working with a diverse range of people.
You'll be working with project managers.
You'll be working with fellow translators in your network.
You might be, well you will be interacting day to day with clients.
So lots of different people involved in that in that sort of
immediate network. And the last one might sound a little bit cheesy,
I suppose, but you'll be making a difference as well.
At the end of the day, the aim of a good translation is to facilitate
communication so it can make a real difference to the people who are
relying on your translation at the end of it.
So that's something I try to keep in mind as well.
So I've convinced you to be a translator, but what skills will you
need to be a good translator?
Well, an excellent understanding of your foreign languages, or
language, and cultural awareness.
And again, I suppose this goes without saying, doesn't it?
But it's worth emphasising that you'll be, you'll need to be able to
understand the nuances in the language, so whether that's register,
humour, cultural references.
You need to understand when you need to bridge a gap.
So maybe there is a cultural reference that needs to be explained to
the target audience or replaced even in some cases.
And I thought I would also touch briefly on language combinations
here. This is something that you might be able to put to the alumni
panel as well. But I often get these questions about which is the
best combination.
And the answer is really that all combinations are good for
translation. Translators, more often than not, they will work into
their main language from any number of foreign languages.
It is true that certain combinations will open certain doors.
So if you're looking, if your dream is to be a translator at the UN,
then of course French Russian, French and Spanish.
Chinese, Arabic, they will be languages that will open the door to
the UN, whereas French Italian, French and German would be more EU
combination. So that's that's true for the big organisations.
But if you're looking at freelance work, any combination and then any
number of languages will be useful.
The next point is one that shouldn't be overlooked, really, but quite
often it is it's one that sort of comes afterwards, but it's equally
important, if not more important.
Full command of your first language.
So translation is essentially writing, isn't it?
You need to have a passion and a talent for writing in your first
language in order to render all of those nuances I mentioned in the
first point fluently.
So what can you do to build up your first language?
You could start writing a journal.
You could start writing a blog.
You could contribute to your student newspaper if you're still at
university at the moment.
You could start translating on your own.
And by that I mean you could take a website or a novel that you're
reading at the moment and translate a page or two or a chapter every
day to try and keep your, sort of, to keep the skill of translation
going and to keep your writing skills up, as well as curiosity and
research skills, whether it's the search for, you know, thinking back
to the marketing text, maybe you're searching for the right pun, the
right play on words for a title or whether it's finding out exactly
what dog food to give in the text, what kind of rendering for that
dog food text or what causes toxic algae blooms off the Italian
coast. As another nod to an Italian text that I've used in the past.
Curiosity is going to be vital if you're to become a successful
translator, because assumptions and guesswork will probably get you
into trouble. So you'll have to be curious about, you know, why have
they used that subjunctive there and how does it change the meaning
or what does that term actually mean?
And trying to get to the bottom of it.
Flexibility. One client might want you to use the UN style guide.
Another one might want you to use an EU style guide.
You might be asked to work from a PDF as opposed to a word document
for a certain client.
You might be given a new draft of a text fairly late on in the
project's life cycle.
A new glossary might make its appearance towards the end of a
project, which might mean going back and sort of making sure
everything is in line with that glossary.
These might sound like stressful situations, and I suppose to a
degree they are. But it's also an example of, you know, again,
keeping you on your toes, keeping the interest in a project and in a
profession. Professionalism, by that I mean cover everything from
keeping to deadlines, having a code of practice, charging appropriate
rates that aren't undercutting the market and your general conduct as
a translator. And then the last one attention to detail.
As my students will tell you, it's not unusual for us to spend a
large chunk of the class talking about where to put that comma or
should it even be a comma, should it be a semicolon.
And that kind of linguistic care and attention, I think, will stand
you in good stead as a translator.
So if you're the kind of person that will cringe at apostrophe use in
your WhatsApp groups, then I think this is the profession for you.
Join our club. So how can you enter the profession then, if you're
really keen on joining it now.
Well, there are different routes, so a degree in languages is common,
is the most common probably route into it.
It's a very good starting point.
You can gain fluency in the language, in the foreign languages, and
you can get to know them inside out, which is really important as a
basis. But it's not necessarily the only route.
Some translators will have studied different subjects at
undergraduate level.
Some will have a multilingual background and they're all valid routes
into the profession, really.
The MA, or diploma in translation is becoming increasingly necessary.
So many job ads will require five years experience or a master's in
translation, for example, so it can get you a bit, a head start.
But you need to watch out when choosing an MA, you need to decide what
kind of MA you're looking for.
So if you see one in translation studies, studies is the clue here
that it will be mostly theoretical.
So you might need to decide whether you want something theoretical or
practice based. And I think Bath, although there is a theoretical
element to it, it's mainly learning on the job.
Professional associations are wonderful, and I'd encourage you to look
at them, even if you're just starting out as translators, they give
you opportunities for CPD, networking and general support and advice,
which is really important. So you have the ITI and the Institute for
Translation and Interpreting and the CIOL and the Chartered Institute
of Linguists, they're two of the sort of main ones in the UK.
So where might you end up then as a translator?
I've given you a list here.
It's definitely not exhaustive.
It's just to give you a sort of flavour of where recent graduates
have ended up. They've worked for themselves, so they've started
their own freelance translation companies.
They've worked as freelance and in-house translators for Amazon,
Routledge, UNHQ in New York, and then Vienna and Geneva as freelance
translators, editors, precis-writers, freelance and in-house.
They worked as content editors for Expedia, transcreation managers
for Unilever, translation coordinators at the Wine and Spirit
Education Trust, project managers at RP translate and lawyer
linguists at the ICJ.
So that's just to give you an impression of, you know, you can end up
anywhere, basically, it can take you anywhere in the world.
Thank you for taking the time to watch the lecture.
I hope you found it useful.
And if you would like any further information about the course of the
university, please go to our website.
Thank you.