Becoming a translator is not as easy as it seems at first glance. It is necessary not only to perfectly learn a foreign language, but also to perfectly know many other areas of life: business topics, art, literature or technical features of production.
The desire to become a translator may appear among many future high school graduates or even among mature people. The profession of a translator is quite promising, profitable, associated with knowledge of foreign languages, which in itself opens up good prospects: you can freely communicate abroad and study literature with films in the original.
However, can everyone become a translator and, most importantly, how do they become one?
Choose direction
It is wrong to believe that you can learn to be a translator once, and your entire further career with the same skill to be able to translate both technical and literary texts, lead excursions in the form of a guide-translator, be an interpreter for businessmen or interpret simultaneously at conferences. These are completely different areas of the translator's activity, it is simply impossible to do a little bit of everything.
Therefore, the first thing you need to do is decide on a specialization. Answer yourself to the question: what do you do best: to present information orally or in writing, to work in a technical, literary field, or to communicate with people? What are you most interested in: working in the areas of service and hospitality or with business documents? Only after that you can decide on the choice of an educational institution and apply for a certain specialty.
Don't be afraid of the new
Even if you do not have a profession of a professional translator, you can work in this area. The condition will, of course, be a good level of a foreign language. If you have lived abroad for a long time, studied English intensively in courses or at school, learned the language on your own, you can become a translator.
To do this, you can get a certificate at refresher courses. The duration of the courses is different, from 3 months to 1.5 years, depending on the chosen profession. Many higher education institutions offer an additional degree in addition to the main one for a very short study period if you already have completed higher education. Ultimately, you can enter a second higher education and start working as a translator at the beginning of your new profession. The main thing here is to agree with the company and the employer.
You can get a job as a translator without a diploma at all if you take orders as a freelancer. And for many ordinary employers, the main thing is your knowledge and skills, and not a diploma obtained long ago. So if you can show that you are a specialist in your field, the doors of a new profession will open before you.
