How to Prepare for Life as a Translation,

Interpretation, and Localization Management

Student
1. Read extensiel!, especiall! in !our non"natie
language#s$.
Read high quality newspapers (e.g. the New York Times, Wall Street Journal) !RY
"#Y $or at least a year.
Read high quality news maga%ines (e.g. the &onomist), &o'er to &o'er.
Read your $a'orite topi&s in your non(nati'e language(s).
Read other well(written material that will help )roaden your general knowledge.
%. &atc' t'e T( news and listen to radio news and
podcasts on current eents in all wor)ing languages.
"on*t +ust listen to news stories, analy%e them.
-eep a)reast o$ &urrent e'ents and issues.
Re&ord news programs and inter'iews so you &an listen to them later.
*. Strengt'en !our general )nowledge of economics,
'istor!, t'e law, international politics, and scientific
concepts and principles #in t'at order$.
Take &ollege(le'el &ourses, re'iew high s&hool te.ts, et&.
Strengthen your knowledge in a spe&iali%ed $ield (pre$era)ly in a te&hni&al $ield, su&h
as &omputers).
+. Lie in a countr! w'ere !our non"natie language is
spo)en.
# stay o$ at least si. months to a year is re&ommended.
/i'e with and0or $requently intera&t with nati'e speakers o$ your non(nati'e language.
Take &ontent(related &ourses (e.g. ma&roe&onomi&s, politi&al s&ien&e) in your non(
nati'e language (not +ust pure language &ourses).
Work in a setting that requires high le'el use o$ your non(nati'e language.
,. -ine"tune !our writing and researc' s)ills.
Take &hallenging &omposition &ourses (not +ust &reati'e writing &ourses, )ut &lasses in
+ournalism, te&hni&al writing, et&.) so you &an 1speak2 +ournalese, 3Nese, legalese, et&.
4opy ()y hand) se&tions o$ te.t)ooks and periodi&als in your non(nati'e language(s).
5ake a note o$ un$amiliar or trou)lesome grammati&al points and work towards
mastering them.
6ra&ti&e proo$reading.
.. Improe !our pu/lic spea)ing s)ills.
Take rigorous spee&h &ourses and0or +oin Toastmasters (www.toastmasters.org).
6ra&ti&e writing and making presentations in $ront o$ other people in )oth your nati'e
and $oreign language(s). (7a'e nati'e speakers o$ your non(nati'e language edit your
spee&hes.)
0. Hone !our anal!tical s)ills.
6ra&ti&e listening to spee&hes and orally summari%ing the main points.
6ra&ti&e writing summaries o$ news arti&les.
6ra&ti&e de&iphering di$$i&ult te.ts (e.g. philosophy, law, et&.).
6ra&ti&e e.plaining &ompli&ated &on&epts understanda)ly.
8denti$y resour&es $or )a&kground resear&h (e.g. li)rary, 8nternet, et&.).
1. 2ecome computer sa!.
9amiliari%e yoursel$ with na'igation and $ile management under &urrent Windows
operating systems (most o$ the so$tware tools used in the lo&ali%ation industry today are
not &ompati)le with the #pple operating system).
"e'elop an understanding o$ the $eatures Windows o$$ers $or multilingual pro&essing,
su&h as language(spe&i$i& key)oard layouts, regional settings $or units o$ measurement.
/earn to use ad'an&ed $un&tions o$ Word, .&el, and other 5i&roso$t :$$i&e
appli&ations in )oth your nati'e and non(nati'e languages.
;e&ome an e.pert in sear&h engines and online resear&h )y using these tools on a
daily )asis.
3. Learn 'ow to ta)e care of !ourself.
at sensi)ly, e.er&ise regularly, and get su$$i&ient sleep. These are all ha)its required o$ a good
translator0interpreter.
14. 2e prepared for lifelong learning.
;e patient. ;ringing your language skills and analyti&al skills up to the le'el required o$ a
pro$essional translator or interpreter is not a task that &an )e a&&omplished in a $ew short
years. :nly with a lot o$ sustained hard work &an anyone truly su&&eed in these &hallenging
and e.&iting $ields.
Simultaneous Interpretation5
Practice Tec'ni6ues
9irst o$ all, simultaneous interpretation is hard. 8 am not an interpreter )ut 8 ha'e
tried my hand at it a &ouple o$ times and my &on&lusion is that it takes a spe&ial
person to interpret simultaneously at a high le'el.
;e&ause o$ this, there is a demand $or good simultaneous interpreters, )oth $or
&ommonly spoken languages as well as less &ommon ones. So i$ you are
interested in )e&oming a simultaneous interpreter, or interested on impro'ing your
skills, there are some spe&i$i& things you &an do.
8$ you*re +ust )eginning to e.plore interpretation as a &areer &hoi&e, the $irst thing
you need to know is that with simultaneous interpretation, you*re multitasking like
&ra%y. You listen to what the speaker says, wait a se&ond or two, interpret what
they said while at the same time listen to what the speaker says ne.t and
remem)er that so you &an interpret that segment &orre&tly when you*re done with
the &urrent one your working on<
That*s why a simultaneous interpreter needs at least a = minute )reak $or e'ery
hour o$ interpretation.
So in order to impro'e your skills, you need to )e a)le to multitask on a high le'el.
The 'ery $irst step then is to do something &alled shadowing. Shadowing is
repeating what the speaker says word $or word in the same language. This will get
you used to maintaining the &orre&t delay and will help you listen to what the
speaker says while repeating what he0she has +ust said.
The ne.t step is to add another element while your shadowing. This &an )e
something simple like )oun&ing a )all to yoursel$ or drawing a simple pi&ture while
you*re shadowing. What this does is get your )rain used to doing multiple things at
on&e. The goal is to get to where you*re doing things on a su)&ons&ious le'el
)e&ause i$ you ha'e to think while you interpret, you*ll )e dead in the water.
9inally, when you &an do multiple things while shadowing (in )oth languages), it*s
time to add in the a&tual interpretation. 8t is a +ump to go $rom shadowing to $ull(
$ledged interpretation, )ut the shadowing part is ne&essary to help you get a $eel
$or the super(linguisti& phenomenon you*ll en&ounter in the a&tual interpretation,
su&h as the speed o$ di$$erent speakers, how mu&h you &an delay, and enduran&e.
The great thing a)out pra&ti&ing simultaneous interpretation is that you &an do it
anywhere. While you*re dri'ing, tune your radio to talk radio and shadow what the
host and &allers say. While e.er&ising with your i6od, listen to some pod&asts and
pra&ti&e shadowing or interpreting what is )eing said. Shadowing while e.er&ising
is de$initely multitasking< 8*'e also posted an arti&le a)out how you &an use 'ideo
sites like Youtu)e to do some simultaneous interpreter training.
Just remem)er that e'en though interpretation is di$$i&ult, it is a skill that &an )e
learned a$ter a lot o$ pra&ti&e, so i$ you*re willing to sti&k to it, you will rea&h your
goals.