A career as a translator is an excellent idea for the person who is good at languages. Increasingly, international trade is being carried on between more and more countries, often each with their own language, and thus the demand for expert trasnslators has never been higher. In asddition to trade and commerce there are whole areas of science, technology and medicine that span the globe with individual contributions being published in many different countries.
A translator converts written information from one or more source languages to the "target" language without losing any of the sense of meaning along the way, or distorting the meaning in any way. It is essential to be accurate with translation since mistakes could prove costly to those who require the information. In addition to the areas previously mentioned, translators may also be required to translate legal, literary, or educational documents. Scientific and technical work may require certain extra specialised vocabulary. Health or medical translators often work in hospitals and need to understand medical terminology. Legal translators usually work in the courts or for solicitors dealing with documents from people of different countries. Literary translators often translate journal articles, books, poetry, and other literary works which entails a need to maintain the tone of the author in addition to the meaning of the words. Localization translators tend to work in commerce, dealing with foreign languages as they relate to products and translating from one to another. The work also can involve translation of marketing materials, instruction manuals, and website content.
Translators sometimes work from home, or in specific settings as mentioned, but often join a translation company in order to get a constant workload, pleasant conditions to work in, and up to the minute technical equipment and help. (more...)