Letter to a beginner translator

Today is September 30, the day of our patron saint, St Jerome, known as a translator of the Bible from ancient Greek and From Hebrew to Latin. You may remember him late at night, and with a hard deadline to meet, but I hope you also remember the advice of that letter.

1.   Study hard and study all the time.

Study your mother tongue as much as you study your second language. Grammatical rules change, are forgotten, false cognates deceive even the most attentive linguist, spelling agreements are concluded, new entering are included in the dictionary.

Do not lose your love of language, by carving meanings, diving into dictionaries.

And study, study hard. Your translations will be better for this.

2.   Don't make technology your enemy

Think of the translator who was reluctant to abandon the typewriter over the computer, thinking that the computer would be just a "passing grind." Think of the translator who didn't bet on the internet. It is impossible to think of the craft of translation nowadays without these tools. CAT Tools aren't that complicated, talk to a friend translator, search for a video on YouTube, take a course.

But always be willing to incorporate new technologies into your work, this will make you a more flexible, more productive and sought after professional.

3.   Cultivate relationships

Many translators work alone, but you should not feel isolated by your profession. Talk and befriend translation colleagues, go to events in the area, both congresses and lunches. If you work with translation agencies,meet your projectmanagers. Have a good relationship with your customers.

If the distance is not a hindrance, visit your customers (whether they are direct customers or translation agencies).

4.   Choose your specialty areas well

Translation and interpretation have wide fields of activity. Choose areas that you have affinity and knowledge. It is not necessary to be a lawyer to work with legal texts, but it is important to have experience in the area, study hard and research. By the way, the research is my next piece of advice.

5.   Search a lot, but always check the font

The internet greatly facilitated the research process for translation. Just a few clicks and your favorite search engine will tell you thousands or millions of pages that may contain the answer to your question.

But remember that not every site is reliable, not all information on the internet is true.

6.   Comply with the combined

Think hard before you accept a job or a deadline, know your limits not to accept something that is beyond your ability. It is better to refuse a job than to tarnish your reputation with delays or misdone translations.

Translation is a wonderful profession, and like any other profession, some moments are tiring, of a lot of work and little time. But there is an indescribable satisfaction in delivering a great job to your client, an inenacable pleasure in finding the perfect word for that term in another language that torments you for hours and turning off the computer at the end of the day with the feeling of duty Fulfilled.