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.

Starting your career as a freelance interpreter/translator is challenging, but the above-mentioned resources can provide you with a taste of what to expect in you future profession, and they can also help you gain invaluable experience.