WAYS TO GROW AS A TRANSLATOR
One of the ultimate goals of every career is growing and achieving success, reaching a point where waters are calm. According to Lotfipour, the translator’s task is to create conditions under which the source language author and the target language reader can interact with another. It is, indeed, a profession directly related to facilitating communication and even making it possible. Therefore, growing as a translator involves being passionate about languages and communication, practicing and training. Here is a list of some things that will help you blossom and grow as a translator.
Become a good writer first
Having total control of their own language is one of the first requirements for a translator and the best way to be aware of one’s boundaries in terms of language is to use it on a creative field. Also, writing is in fact the main job of a translator. Though writing comes natural for some, it is skill a skill that can be acquired with practice and training. You can work on storytelling by using prompts and by reading. Anything, from blogs, to guides, to novels helps us develop our creativity, diversify our vocabulary and enhance our writing skills.
Gather experience
Since there are different structures and some irregularities in every language, the best way to excel your abilities with them is through experience. You can either keep practicing or studying. However, total immersion in the language offers some special know how. Traveling offers the opportunity to have linguistic immersion and to gain culture intelligence. After developing a good competence in the source language and the target language, translation itself may begin, but there is one important stage that consists in becoming aware of various sources to gather information, such as monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.
Have passion
Having a true passion means you want to discover more and never get tired of something. Being passionate about languages is what differences a good translator from a great one, so it is not rare that being passionate will help you grow as a translator. Language is not just a job, it is part of your life and you should have energy and passion to keep studying it and exploring every corner of it since it is the only way to enhance your skills. Once you fall in love with a language, there is no way to let go and the more you love a language, the happier you will be to keep learning. The more you learn, the more you grow.
Develop another specialism
Nobody can claim to know it all since there is always something new to learn. Some translators can grow by excelling a certain topic, while others may decide to develop another specialism. Whether you decide to go deeper into a field you already manage well or you spot a promising niche and decide to focus on it, know that it will make you a better professional. Keep the appetite for learning. Further education can help master a new field or language and achieve qualifications that will help you grow.
Diversify your services
If you decide to keep working within your specialisms, diversifying the range of services you will provide is a good idea. For example, besides of translation itself, you can do some tests with services of editing, transcription, linguistic validation or even content writing in your mother language or target language.
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