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5 things translation students can never forget

13Aug

By Gareth SeagullNo Comments

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5 things translation students can never forget

Translation students. What do you need to know? Becoming a translator isn’t easy. But nothing worth doing. Is ever worth doing. It takes more than just language skill. No matter your experience. Many students graduate each year in language related fields. With hopes to take the industry by storm. Only to be hit by reality. Of being a translator. So what does a prospective translator need to know? 1. Competitiveness Whether you’re a freelancer. Or an employee. You’ll face steep competition. Many linguists don’t realise the level of competition. For in-demand languages. Such as Spanish. French. German. Italian. Or Polish. The competition is more. Linguists working with these languages. Often compete on a number of factors. Not just price. And accuracy. But in-depth knowledge. Exper...

6Aug

By Gareth SeagullNo Comments

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6 great jobs for expert linguists…

Learning languages can be fun. But also useful. Other than just a translator, what other jobs can linguists get? There are plenty of jobs a language learner can get. Even usual jobs now require or advise that applicants speak at least one foreign language. Whether you speak Spanish or French to Catalan or Occitan, you can get great jobs. 1. Online Tutor This job was unheard of 10 years ago. If you know a foreign language and want to teach others. But don’t want to have to mark stacks of books. This job is for you! As an online Tutor, you can interact on a 1 on 1 or 1 on 2 basis. You can teach at your students pace without having to worry about the curriculum. You can do this relatively simply- set up a listing on something like EBay, Craigslist or set up your own w...

Which languages are in demand the most for linguists

23Jul

By Gareth SeagullNo Comments

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Which languages are in demand the most for linguists

Last week, we did an article on how to become a translator. However, many people might ask what languages are the most in demand for linguists today? The most in demand languages will depend on where you are located. However, generally speaking: Spanish, French, Russian, German and Portuguese are often in high demand. In Britain languages such as Romanian, Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Arabic, Hindi and Bengali are often in high demand as well. The languages that are most in demand are those where there are large minority communities. In Britain there are large Polish, and Eastern European minority communities, as well as large Indian, Bengali, and Pakistani minorities. Due to this job agencies (who often find employment for people of these minorities) require translators with ...

16Jul

By Gareth SeagullNo Comments

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How to become a translator

Anyone with budding language skills should consider a path in the translation industry. It is an industry valued at $40 billion! The average translator earns staggering $50,000! Not bad at all. A translator should obviously speak 2 two languages, preferably as their native tongue. A translator should preferably have at least a bachelors degree in one of the languages, although the most important thing is that they are fluent in at least two languages (eg. English and another language). For anyone looking to become a translator, many translation agencies also look for: Multiple Languages: If you can speak more than one language (eg. English, French, Spanish and Portuguese). This is because Translation Agencies like people who are diverse in the languages they can provide tra...

Translator or Interpreter?What’s the difference?

9Jul

By Gareth SeagullNo Comments

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Translator or Interpreter?What’s the difference?

Translator or Interpreter? It's a common question. And it's one thing many people get confused about in the translation industry. And this lack of concise knowledge can cost you and your business everything. For me personally, this can be one of the most irritating things about being a translator. Because people don’t seem to know the difference between a translator and an interpreter. Which is one of, if not, the most annoying things about being a translator. A few days ago, I was reading through the comments section of another blog for another respected translation agency, and a comment read “what is the difference between a translator and an interpreter, you basically do the same thing, one’s is with words on a page, the other is with words being spoken.” This comment really...

25Jun

By Gareth SeagullNo Comments

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Will Machine Translations Take Over?

Machine Translation, including such applications as Google Translate, have a pretty terrible reputation, and quite frankly, they do not work. I am not going to sit here and tell you that automation is not really a threat or that it won’t cut jobs, because it will, and anyone who says otherwise needs to get with the times. This got me thinking after talking to friend of mine who is also a translator, will automation- in this case machine translation- one day take over and displace human translators? My friend argued no, that machines can never always get the intricacies of language correct 100% of the time. All they are is a box of algorithms, which is a fair point. He also talked about how applications such as Google Translate aren’t particularly accurate,something that anyone ...

How long should it take you to learn a foreign language?

18Jun

By Gareth SeagullNo Comments

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How long should it take you to learn a foreign language?

Learning a foreign language is essential. Any budding future translator knows that the first step to becoming a translator. Is to well you know, learn the foreign language that you wish to be a translator for. One of the most common question people have before they begin is. How long will it take me to learn the foreign language? How long it will take you to learn a foreign language will be affected by a large number of factors. Such as: your native tongue, the languages you grew up around. How long you’d be willing to spend each day learning. But luckily for us, again the FSI has provided us with an infographic on how long it should take you to learn a language. *This was made concerning native English speakers **Unclassified languages are Celtic languages When ...

11Jun

By Gareth Seagull2 Comments

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Why Chinese Doesn’t Rule The World

Chinese is the most spoken language in the world with roughly 1.2 billion native speakers. Much more than the measly 360 million native English speakers, or the measly 350 million native Spanish speakers. So this begs the question, why isn’t Mandarin, the Lingua Franca? There are many reasons why English is the Lingua Franca and not one of the many dialects of Chinese. One of the largest may be the fact that 1.5 billion people speak English as either a first or second language. This is more than the speakers of the many dialects of Chinese. And plus, the 1.5 billion speakers of English, are dispersed throughout the World, not just situated in one country. In this case, only China and some of its surrounding countries. Most people know that if a Uruguayan man, a Russian man and ...