Professional suitability and professional requirements for translators

The concept of “professional suitability” includes natural prerequisites for the implementation of translation activities, taking into account the psychological attitude. The concept “professional requirements” is broader, it includes the required set of skills. Some qualities that are inherent in an interpreter can be developed and improved already during the process of work in the translation field.

There are a number of generally accepted qualities that characterize professional suitability, they include: good memory, speech reactivity, psychological stability, communication skills, decency and the ability to switch from one language to another as quickly as possible without stopping.

Speech reactivity means not the ability to speak quickly, but the ability to perfectly perceive someone else’s speech and quickly reproduce it in the necessary language. Many people have this ability from nature, but for successful practice in the world of translation services they need to systematize and improve it every day. Speech reactivity in some people can be nervous. To work in the field of interpretation, such people need to learn to control their emotions. Sometimes there are people who are not able to develop an accelerated speech, they do not need to look for work in the field of translation services.

As for human memory, the number of people with phenomenal memory is minimal. If you understand, the translator does not need a brilliant memory. The translator must have a professional, trained memory that allows you to remember important information, and not forget the necessary material. The long-term memory of the translator in a translation agency should contain a huge amount of vocabulary in two languages. The memory of a professional translator differs from the memory of a simple person in the ability to memorize a large number of linguistic units. To work in the field of translation services, even a person with very good memory, it must be constantly trained.

Ability to switch attention is peculiar to people of many professions. It is believed that women can switch faster, compared to men. But when translating, you need a special kind of switching between languages, so to speak from digital coding to verbal coding. That is why, in people in the field of language services, the predisposition to quick switching of attention develops into a stable skill.

Many specialists in the field of language services, on the first place in the ranking of the necessary professional qualities, put psychological stability and this is not accidental. Given that an interpreter can continuously speak during the working day using a reactive speech speed, often switches between languages, constantly watches, with someone else’s thoughts unable to voice his own – all this contributes to psychological congestion. Psychological sustainability includes: resistance to stressful situations, strong-willed qualities, poise, ability to win and solve complex professional issues.

Communicability characterizes the desire to communicate freely with different people, almost everyone has it. It can be limited in the process of forming a person’s personality, because of life experience or personal desire. This can lead to the isolation of a person. But communication is important for many professions, including for the profession of an interpreter. A professional translator knows that he is not just an expert in language, but also a connoisseur of two cultures and peoples. Still sociability helps to establish contacts between different parties, with its help it is easier and easier.

Decency means good education, a wide range of knowledge and skills, and active self-education. The translator always deals with people of completely different professions, different views on life and with completely different preferences. This also applies to texts that have different themes, styles and specializations.

As for professional requirements, they are not very many:

  1. Each professional translator must have a correctly delivered voice and be able to use it. In cases of voice overload, he must know how to restore it in the shortest possible time.
  2. The absence of speech defects and excellent diction are mandatory for every language professional.
  3. The ability to professionally master the techniques of translation is mandatory for everyone who wants to achieve success in the field of translation. These include: mnemonics; The ability to switch to different types of coding; Speech compression; Speech deployment; Generalization; Antonymic translation; Compensation, etc.
  4. Ability to work with dictionaries and other sources plays an important role for specialists in the field of translations.
  5. Possession of translation notation and ability to reduce will not be superfluous.
  6. Understanding the basic types of texts and mastering the main speech genres are no less important condition for the success of the translator.
  7. A translator should know a foreign language almost at the level of a bilingualist.
  8. The constant replenishment of the vocabulary in two languages, will allow the translator to achieve high results in the work.
Professional suitability and professional requirements for translators обновлено: August 30, 2017 автором: azurit