8 Tips for translation students

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Tips for translation students

Here are some recommendations for translation students to further develop their training and career orientation.

1. Never stop improving your working languages.

Improve the working languages you already have in your combination before starting with new ones. Don’t forget to improve your Spanish as well. Although the general belief outside the translation world is that the most important thing for a translator is to know many languages, in reality the most important factor is often overlooked: the mother tongue. Without a strong and fluent mother tongue, you will not get very far as a translator. That is why we recommend that you never stop taking an interest in your own language; it is never too late to learn new words, expressions or grammatical, syntactical or orthographical curiosities.

2. Get familiar with the use of Office and Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) tools.

We live in the age of technology, and recent graduates are expected to have an advanced knowledge of technological tools specific to the translation industry. It is important to take advantage of the resources around us, particularly in universities, which often offer the opportunity to learn how to use CAT tools by lending licenses to their students or providing them with equipment with the main CAT tools on the market (SDL Trados, Déjà Vu, Wordfast, OmegaT, etc.), text aligners (Bitext2mx, WingAlign) or terminology management tools (Multiterm, AnyLexic).

We also recommend that you acquire advanced Office skills, particularly Word and Excel. Clients often ask us to maintain the formatting of a translation and it will be easier for us to do this if we have a thorough knowledge of the programmes our clients work with.

Develop technological skills: it is essential to keep up to date with new technological changes and how to make our work more efficient. Technological learning must be constant, both in translation tools and in formats and media.

3. Encourage curiosity and continuous learning

A translator must always be willing to discover new subjects and areas of specialisation. Intellectual curiosity and a desire to learn are fundamental to successfully dealing with different types of texts and cultural contexts.

4. Learn to be autonomous and decisive.

During your degree, it is easy to leave problems unsolved. If we can’t find a term for a translation, we can just put in the first thing we find and wait for the professor to correct it, with no more penalty than a couple of points off the mark. However, in the world of work, a bad translation can lead to big problems. For this reason, we advise you to take advantage of your degree to learn to be decisive. Translation problems can be solved by consulting the right sources, and your teachers will be happy to guide you in the right direction rather than do the work for you. In this connection, we would particularly like to emphasise self-revision. It is not enough to translate a text, look up the vocabulary as you go along, put the finishing touches to it and print it out or upload it to the course platform. Errata, repetitions, wrong numbers, double spaces, omissions, poor lexical selection… The list of calamities is long. It is necessary to get into the habit of checking our translations thoroughly. Ideally, we should let them rest for a few hours, or a day, and then check them again carefully.

5. Develop interpersonal and management skills.

In addition to language skills, it is important to cultivate skills such as persuasion, initiative and resilience. These skills are valued in selection processes and can make a difference in your career.

6. Build an online image and a professional network

Establishing an online presence through a professional website or specialised social media profiles can increase your visibility and attract job opportunities. In addition, participating in translator communities and forums will allow you to connect with colleagues and potential clients.

Además de las habilidades lingüísticas, es importante cultivar aptitudes como la persuasión, la iniciativa y la resiliencia. Estas competencias son valoradas en procesos de selección y pueden marcar la diferencia en tu carrera profesional.

7. Take advantage of opportunities for internships.

Nowadays, many universities have internship agreements with international institutions, NGOs, translation agencies, private companies, etc. Even here at AltaLingua, we offer internships for students every year. Whenever there is such a possibility at your university, don’t miss it, as an internship can be very useful to begin to understand the world of work and gain some experience that will surely have a great impact on your CV.

8. Be interested in other areas of knowledge.

All translators end up specialising to a greater or lesser extent in a particular field. Whether it is legal, medical, scientific, literary, publishing, localisation, etc. Sometimes this specialisation arises from the experience we acquire, but on other occasions previous training in other fields is decisive in order to end up translating one type of text or another. There are many ways to study subjects other than translation in depth: either on your own or in parallel studies, or through short courses, seminars, training days or even specialised courses for translators in certain fields in particular. Our advice is that you should always be interested in the things you like.

AltaLingua

AltaLingua is a trusted name in the translation and interpreting sector and provides language solutions in all languages for clients across the world. https://altalingua.co.uk/