The field of language translation has remained robust despite tough economic times. Embarking on a translation career can be a wise decision for young people who love languages. Hundreds of colleges all over the world offer translation programs. In the US, the American Translation Association has approved over fifty programs so far. Translation programs at conventional and online colleges vary in size, languages offered, and specific coursework, but they all cover the same fundamental topics.

Students studying to become translators must first gain a solid foundation in language and culture. College language courses teach vocabulary and grammar, but students must achieve superior levels of language fluency in order to succeed in the translation industry. They must also understand their chosen languages’ cultures on a deep level. This understanding comes from exposure to the literature, visual arts, music, and even film. History courses also play a role in cultural understanding. Most US colleges strongly encourage study abroad, although most don’t require it. In the UK, and most of Europe, however, a period of study in a country where the language you are learning is spoken is a compulsory part of the course.

After a linguistic foundation is laid, students can learn advanced translation techniques through practice. Just speaking a language well is not enough to make someone a good translator. Translators must know how to select the appropriate style, tone, and voice when translating documents. Vocabulary choices and sentence structure greatly influence these three qualities.

Knowing which words to use in a translation isn’t as simple as it seems. If the task were straightforward, computers would be able to take the place of humans. Human translators aren’t in any danger of losing their jobs because each language’s subtle nuances of meaning make translation a complex subjective process. Translators can’t simply rely on a dictionary to make their vocabulary choices.

Some idioms don’t have obvious target language equivalents. Individual words don’t always have corresponding one-word translations. Sometimes five different words might be technically valid translations, but only one will sound right in context. It takes extensive study to get comfortable choosing which words to use. Colleges provide examples and exhaustive practice sessions to help students learn how to accurately match any document’s style and tone through word choice.

Sentence structure also receives a great deal of emphasis. A document’s overall tone and voice is influenced by the length and complexity of its sentences. Translators must be able to replicate tone and voice by manipulating sentence structure as needed in the target language.

For instance, sometimes a sentence from the original work must be split into two sentences to achieve the best result. Beginning translators are often too faithful to the original sentence structure, and insist on producing overlong, awkward sentences in the target language. On the other hand, translators should refrain from unnecessary changes to sentence length and flow. Translation instructors take great pains to help students strike this proper balance.

Colleges translation training programs understand it isn’t enough for most translators to be generalists. The most successful translators have subject area specialties. For example, some translators focus exclusively on legal translations, while others focus on finance, business, or technology documents. Most colleges let translation students pick their specialties early. That way, students can earn minors or additional majors to support their translation specialties. Having credentials in both general translation and a specialty makes students more competitive once they graduate, as well as simply better prepared.

Translation and language study in college is rigorous and challenging, but also highly rewarding. During their time in school students gain invaluable insights into other cultures, their worldviews are expanded, and they become better communicators. When they graduate, they have all the skills they need to succeed.

Written by Marina Salsbury

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Marina Salsbury planned on becoming a teacher since high school, but found her way into online writing after college. She writes about everything from education to exercise for various websites.

Recent reports have explained how a Polish man recently spent 18 days in São Paolo’s airport.  Having arrived at the airport on a flight from London the 17th June, he finally left the airport on Tuesday 5th July.  In a story reminiscent of the Tom Hanks film “The Terminal” (though without the appearance of Catherine Zeta Jones, as far as I’m aware), Robert Wladyslaw Parzelski arrived at the airport, on a mission to go to Brazil and then return to England with two telephones.  Why he was undertaking this trip with this particular goal in mind is, as yet, unknown. (more…)

European Union institutions are currently under-represented by British natives, in part due to low-level language skills. Just 5% of positions in the European Parliament and Commission are filled by Britons, despite the United Kingdom comprising 12% of the total population of the European Union.

English is commonly used as a universal language in international situations and, as we commented in a previous post, the number of students of foreign languages in other European countries is high above the figure in the United Kingdom. What’s amazing to me is that some people still argue that there is no need for native English speakers to learn other languages, when in conducting international relationships with other EU countries, understanding another language, culture and country is paramount. As Michael Shackleton, Head of the London European Parliament Office, commented “The balance of the use of language has been in favour of English, but to understand what people are thinking about you also have to get a sense of them and how they see the world.” (more…)

A Spanish friend recently sent me the link to an article published online.  This “guide” explains to the rest of Europe what British people really mean when they say certain things, and what others understand by what has been said.

For example, according to this article, when a British person says “You must come to dinner”, the real meaning is “It’s not an invitation, I’m just being polite”, whilst the listener will think “I will get an invitation soon”.  Obviously, this is an extreme generalisation, but I have to admit, it does ring some bells.  If you accidentally bump into someone and they say “we must do lunch” or “we must get a coffee one day”, chances are you won’t set eyes on them again until you accidentally bump into them again… (more…)

As schools contemplate the removal of a second language from the national curriculum, the fast approaching Olympic Games should actually be reminding us of the importance of languages.

The government’s decision to include French as a core language at the Games demonstrates the significance of languages and communication in today’s society.

With every word spoken at the games repeated in French, Great Britain will seem diverse, cultured, and prepared for the international visitors who have arrived on our doorstep to watch the games. Can we say the same about our school pupils, however? (more…)

I have to say, if asked, I would find it difficult to say how many Spanish or French words I know. An article on the BBC website reported that Fabio Capello recently claimed he uses just 100 English words to communicate with players. (more…)

If you are interested in learning a new language or improving your existing skills, there are many free online resources that can help. A number of schools, including MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Utah State University, have begun to offer free foreign language courses online. Free lessons can also be found through the BBC and the many foreign language learning networks that have cropped up on the web. This article provides a list of 15 places to find free foreign language lessons online:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers over 60 courses in foreign languages and literature. Users can find courses in Spanish, Chinese, Spanish, German, and Japanese.

The Open University - The Open University’s modern language unit features courses for Spanish, German, English, and French. Courses are available for beginner, intermediate, and advanced level language learners.

Utah State University - Utah State University offers several free online courses in languages, philosophy, and speech communication. Two courses that are particularly popular are the Chinese I and Chinese II language courses.

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