What makes a good translator?

What makes a good translator?

Preparation, patience and determination are essential qualities in any sectors and are fundamental for a translator.

Acquiring competence
You cannot turn yourself into a translator in a matter of days; even if you possess a good knowledge of foreign languages (source languages) and a perfect competence in your mother tongue (target language) - you need to be prepared in the fields of your specialisation as well as being aware of the strategies behind each translation. For this reason it is important that a translator holds also a university degree (see the indications of the Directorate-General for Translation of the European Commission http://ec.europa.eu//dgs/translation/workingwithus/recruitment/translator_profile_en.htm).

Patience
A good translator never stops learning, and continues to work patiently, day after day; each translation represents a chance to deepen your knowledge and a new challenge to face. With patience.

Determination
This is a fundamental skill: the capacity not to give up when faced by the difficulties and perils which each text inevitably brings.

The job of a translator is like a true marathon, a permanent challenge. Stefania Williams of Williams Language Solutions took this metaphor literally, taking part and successfully completing the Lausanne Marathon 2008 with the time of 4h 20min. A fantastic achievement.

Congratulations!

By Morena Nannetti
(www.traduzionitaliano.eu)

Morena Nannetti is a freelance translator from English, German and French into Italian. For her the best way to maintain a keen language sense is… to keep studying literature. This makes you aware that in a written text even a comma can make a great difference.

Download the video of Stefania crossing the finishing line at http://www.translate-it.org/english/academy.html

Stefania competed in the Lausanne Marathon 2008 (www.lausanne-marathon.ch) and she hopes to finish under 4 hours at the Edinburgh marathon on 31st May 2009. Watch this space!

For the Directory of Marathon races worldwide, visit http://www.42k195.com/ or http://www.marathon-world.com/index.php

This entry was posted on 04/01/2009 at 12:16 pm and is filed under language services, North East News and Events, Traduzioni, Holidays, Translations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.