Practice, Practice ,
Practice.... but Where to Start?
You speak two languages fluently, you are sure that your
command of your mother tongue is impeccable and so are your writing skills. You
believe you’d make a great translator, but where to start? How to know if this
is indeed the case? What can you
write in your resume that counts as “translation training/ experience”?
While I think it is really important to formally study the
theoretical principles of translation, nothing is more helpful than practice,
practice, and more practice. Learning-by-doing is undoubtedly the best way to
become a better translator.
When I was an undergraduate, I was lucky enough to have four
translation and interpretation introductory courses. I learned, among other
things, about the necessary steps to follow before beginning a translation,
writing glossaries, and the proofreading and editing of a translated text. Getting
a formal instruction in translation has brought me many benefits, and I would
certainly recommend it to everyone thinking about becoming a freelance
translator. However, if you will not be taking any formal classes soon or if
you just need more translation practice, I have compiled some resources available
for free in the Internet to help you practice and get more experience in
translation.
TED
I love this website! Most of you might be familiar with TED. It is a project aimed at spreading wonderful
ideas. This project makes talks from researchers, activists, and artists available
to everyone through their website. They have an Open Translation Project.
You can sign up and start translating the videos you choose. Every translation
goes through a review process, which makes possible for you to get
feedback/suggestions about your work.
Also, they credit your work on the web page of the talk you translate,
and you can have a profile in their Translators’ page.
Khan Academy
The Khan Academy
is a not-for-profit organization that aims at providing great education “for
anyone anywhere and at no cost”. You can volunteer your translation skills for
this wonderful cause while getting more experience in audiovisual translation
(subtitling and dubbing.) The Khan Academy has an international blog where they
post about their translation and localization efforts. You can apply to become a volunteer here.
Translators without
Borders
TWB is a
non-profit organization dedicated to “increase access to knowledge through
humanitarian translations.” In order to be a volunteer, you need to have four
years of professional experience or 2 years of experience and a university
degree in translation or related subject. If you comply with this requirement,
I highly recommend you to join this
organization. It is a great way to contribute to a more equal world by
helping others to get access to crucial information they need. This is what
translators do best. We help break language barriers.
Wikipedia
My idea of translating for Wikipedia
originated when I decided to search for some biographical data of a rather infamous British diplomat,
who recently made the news
in my home country, Ecuador. When I went to Wikipedia to find out more
about this person, I looked at both the English and the Spanish versions of the
entry in Wikipedia. While the information in English was very complete, the
Spanish version was less than two paragraphs long. This got me thinking about the disparities regarding access
to information. I thought I would help shorten this disparity by translating
into Spanish some entries from Wikipedia written in English. It is not only
great practice for me, but it gives many people access to the information they
are looking for in their own language.
Indigenous Peoples' Center for
Documentation, Research and Information -DoCIP
I have worked
with this non-profit organization by providing my translation and
interpretation skills at the UN
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). This forum is held in Geneva and New York. This is truly a great experience to help
indigenous communities and their representatives to get their voice heard at
the UN. DoCip offers opportunities to do
short- or long-term volunteer
work, in-house or by e-mail translations.
If you are looking for some more practice, the “Route into Languages”
consortium has a wonderful website with some translation exercises. Here is the
link.
Finally, interesting opportunities to practice/refresh your
interpreting skills include ICVolunteers. Here is the link
to a video
about the experience of several interpreters at ICVolunteers. Babels is another organization that
groups hundreds of volunteer interpreters and translators.
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