It's a technical question regarding a career in translation. One of the answers was informative and very insightful.
Q: I'm curious about a career in translation. What are the general requirments and steps I should take?
A: that depends on whether you're considering just translation or interpretation, too.
FYI, translation is documents. interpretation is spoken.
This also depends on what kind of money you're interested in. A qualified, professional interpreter makes hourly wages similar to a lawyer's. But having a degree or saying you speak a language fluently will rarely get you hired on as one.
A general fluency in a language does NOT make you a qualified translator or interpreter. All it means is that you can speak it, read it, write it, and when they do the same you understand.
The standard rule of document translation is that you translate into your native language, not your new language. It takes YEARS of experience in that language beyond your degree to even think of translating in your non-native language, and it is generally frowned upon (my professor in college, a world reknown expert on an uruguayan author, broke that rule and got away with it...his PH.D. in the literature of the target author had something to do with that) This means that you must have an extensive vocabulary in YOUR language and that you are 100% familiar with all verb tenses and the many shades of meaning in the target language. You won't get this with just a degree and a big dictionary, this involves practice and cultural experience...especially for spanish you'll find that one country uses a different word than another.
A bachelor's degree in your target language is a minimum....a master's is usually expected if you plan on being a professional document translator or interpreter. Along with that, you should have a specific field in mind. You will need to know the jargon and how to appropriately work in that field. Translating a letter from French to English is more than just trading words...you need to have a fluid flow of the phraseology and you need to translate the 'format' of the letter. After all, resumes, letters and office documents are formatted differently for each country. You need to know this.
Likewise with interpretation, it pays more but it's much harder work. Simultaneous interpretation is hard: someone is speaking and you immediately interpret...you have to know the word right then and there, you can't second guess yourself and you can't say 'wait, that's the wrong word'. That's where having a specific field of experience is so important. This is a great gig, financially, because you charge by the hour and you get to round up :)
A bachelor's in your target language and a minor in your preferred field is best. Without a target field, you won't get far unless you have a masters in translation (even then, most interpretation graduate programs require an area of specialization). Trust me, I learned this the hard way. I earned two bachelor's degrees in French and Spanish but I 'officially' don't have any minors. If I had stuck it out for one more semester, I could have had three minors, but stupidly I didn't. Now I'm trying to just get a lot of experience 'speaking' in my field before I can be considered 'qualified'
The other thing, along with your academic experience will be real-world practice. Serving as a translator or interpreter for churches, schools, non-profit events or even creating a portfolio of your best documents is a step. Most businesses though probably won't hire you straight out of college as a 'translator' or 'interpreter' unless you've got stellar academic qualifications. Simply getting a job working in the field of choice where you simply spoke your target language is the most helpful step, and of course always being open to the criticism of your target culture.
Source(s):
two bachelor's degrees in french and spanish
using my degrees at a company
attempting to get translation contracts
trying to go freelance
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