Translator Prerequisites and the A-Z of becoming a Translator
If you are serious about becoming a translator, you must be able
to fulfil the following criteria, at the very least.
Translator Prerequisites
Your standard of education must be very high; with very few
exceptions, a degree is essential, though not necessarily in
languages - it is a positive advantage to have qualifications or
experience in another subject. Postgraduate training in
translation is useful. You must be able to write your own mother
tongue impeccably in a style and register appropriate to the
subject and have a flair for research on technical subjects.
It goes without saying, that you should have a thorough grasp
of the languages in your language combination, you must also be
familiar with the culture and customs of the country. The only
way to do this is by surrounding yourself with the language,
i.e: by living/studying in the country where the language is
spoken. German is spoken in 5 countries: Germany, Austria,
Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. There is no
substitute for first-hand experience of living in a foreign
culture, and as an Irishman living in Berlin, Germany, I can
only recommend this course of action. It is best to have a
specific field that you specialise in, be it literature,
technical, medical, legal. Have invested in a minimum of
equipment and software - At a minimum you should have a computer
and appropriate word-processing software; fax machine and
internet connection; suitable dictionaries, preferably online
dictionaries like LEO, which return results at the touch of
button, saving you an enormous amount of time searching through
printed dictionaries. A telephone; answering machine (and,
optionally, a dictating machine); increasingly, today's
translators are also using translation memory software and other
translation tools. In an office translation environment, the use
of the Computer-Aided Translation (CAT)-tool Trados has become
the standard. CAT-tools like Trados or D