| דפים בנושא: < [1 2] | Poll: What inspired you to become a translator/interpreter? מפרסם התגובה: ProZ.com Staff
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Thayenga 
גרמניה
Local time: 12:36
חבר (2009)
מאנגלית לגרמנית
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Aside from loving languages, an accident in my early years prevented me from my dream profession, so I turned to translating, and stayed with it.
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I'd say it was mostly a love of languages and literature, especially literature. Having family from Mexico and Puerto Rico, I grew up bilingual, already, and I've been an avid reader since reading Tolkien's trilogy and The Hobbit, at the young age of 8 to 9 years, Then, in high school French class, I developed romantic notions of sitting in an Ivory Tower, with a bottle of wine, translating French literature, went on to get a degree in English literature, with a minor in French (including gradua... See more I'd say it was mostly a love of languages and literature, especially literature. Having family from Mexico and Puerto Rico, I grew up bilingual, already, and I've been an avid reader since reading Tolkien's trilogy and The Hobbit, at the young age of 8 to 9 years, Then, in high school French class, I developed romantic notions of sitting in an Ivory Tower, with a bottle of wine, translating French literature, went on to get a degree in English literature, with a minor in French (including graduate level courses, because, being the one student who had actually paid attention in high school French, I "tested out" of some 15 credit hours of undergrad French courses).
I actually enjoyed breaking down/graphing sentences into their parts-of-speech in high school English class, which was decidedly an anomaly.
I taught English for a while, then elementary Spanish, but it wasn't until I married a Brasileira, and learned my 4th language that I finally explored and learned of the opportunities in freelance translation.
Having never lasted more then 2 years working for anyone else, working for myself deeply appealed to me (I was, at the time, tired of much of the politic involved in teaching, and the poverty, trying to start my own house-painting business, as I'd painted houses for summers for a decade while working/paying my own way through university, and while teaching).
For a while I did court/medical interpreting as much as translation, but eventually transitioned to just the translation part.
The isolation part (Not dealing very much with people) is actually an attractive feature of the job for me.
Sadly, I'm in no ivory tower, and not translating literature, but rather in a shoddy apartment, translating mostly contracts, patents, technical specifications, etc., oh, and with a cuppa tea rather than wine, and at this juncture, right back in the impoverished conditions that teaching afforded me (Yes, the money was good, for a while, but, alas, nothing that good seems to ever last, eh?). ▲ Collapse
| | | | DZiW (X)
אוקראינה
מאנגלית לרוסית
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| Love for languages | May 30, 2016 |
To be more specific, love for knowledge dispersed in many languages.
[Edited at 2016-05-30 13:17 GMT]
| | | | Mario Freitas
ברזיל
Local time: 07:36
חבר (2014)
מאנגלית לפורטוגזית
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| A combination of these | May 30, 2016 |
Again, the choice "a combination" was forgotten. In my case, all of the above except university studies. My college studies did not even consider the existence of translators. I was already a translator (technician) when I went to college, and all the other reasons suggested apply.
However, the "inspiration" to become a full-time translator was a different one, already discussed many times in this forum.
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Julian Holmes wrote:
Chance and fate
Circumstances conspired, and somehow I ended up here. True story.
| | | | Rolf Kern
שוויץ
Local time: 12:36
מאנגלית לגרמנית
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נזכור
A friend of mine (mechanical engineer) was sales manager and asked me (electrical engineer) whether I would would agree to do a translation for him. That was the start.
| | | | Yaotl Altan
מקסיקו
Local time: 04:36
חבר (2006)
מאנגלית לספרדית
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| Love for languages | May 30, 2016 |
It has been a continuous cause. First, I felt the need to understand my grandfather's letters from his Itlaian mother. Then, languages gave me access to more books, this is, to more culture. Later, it became a way to spread political ideas in more languages and know what other peoples are doing.
Yes, it's useful to make money too.
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Julian Holmes wrote:
Chance and fate
I love languages. I love dealing with people. Translation Studies is one of the subjects in my university studies (MA Linguistics). I am a natural fit for translation. Even then, these things didn't contribute to my becoming a translator. Fate forced me to become a translator. Otherwise I would have become a film director or a university professor. No regrets!
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| Other: my first translation experience | May 30, 2016 |
I translated a few medical articles to earn some extra money, and the translation process was very inspiring.
| | | | | Latin classes in high school | May 30, 2016 |
I had 5 years of Latin in high school and that was just about analyzing sentences, taking them apart and 'rebuilding them' in the target language. Just like long legal sentences And I really enjoyed it for whatever reason (even though nobody else did
| | | | Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 06:36
מאנגלית לספרדית
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| Nothing inspired me | May 30, 2016 |
Most of you already know that I loathe buzzwords, including inspiration, innovation and creativity. Naturally, I'm not against using the words proper, but their misuse is grating to me. There are so many other words we can use instead of the oft-repeated inspiration. We are translators. Let's not be mediocre writers now.
Sure, I loved reading anything that fell into my hands, from magazines (not always age-appropriate ones) to medicine dosage slips (those that m... See more Most of you already know that I loathe buzzwords, including inspiration, innovation and creativity. Naturally, I'm not against using the words proper, but their misuse is grating to me. There are so many other words we can use instead of the oft-repeated inspiration. We are translators. Let's not be mediocre writers now.
Sure, I loved reading anything that fell into my hands, from magazines (not always age-appropriate ones) to medicine dosage slips (those that most people just throw away after opening the box). I also enjoyed writing, and that was the main skill that drove me to translation: since I already loved expressing myself in writing (I once won a Mother's Day composition contest for my elementary school at age 11), I wanted to do it in other languages. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | As Mario said | May 31, 2016 |
Mario Chavez wrote:
Most of you already know that I loathe buzzwords, including inspiration, innovation and creativity. Naturally, I'm not against using the words proper, but their misuse is grating to me.
I couldn't put my finger on it before.
The thing with words like "inspiration" is that they do have a meaning, and that meaning is an important one. You might be inspired by a moving experience or scene to create a great work of art or music, or to invent something that has great benefits for mankind. But translation? It was a practical way of earning a living, doing something I'm rather good at. Had I been "inspired" I'd probably be a starving artist whose works get discovered posthumously making somebody else rich - or fade away because there is nothing worth discovering.
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| Need for the product | May 31, 2016 |
I was working in a church in Puerto Rico. I could not find satisfactory Bible curriculum for children in Spanish.
I had satisfactory Bible curriculum for children in English.
I spoke English and Spanish.
I had a Spanish typewriter and lots of carbon paper. (We're talking early 1980s here.)
Ergo, I translated.
The sense that there must be help for translators, beyond the three dictionaries I owned, led me to the Graduate Translation... See more I was working in a church in Puerto Rico. I could not find satisfactory Bible curriculum for children in Spanish.
I had satisfactory Bible curriculum for children in English.
I spoke English and Spanish.
I had a Spanish typewriter and lots of carbon paper. (We're talking early 1980s here.)
Ergo, I translated.
The sense that there must be help for translators, beyond the three dictionaries I owned, led me to the Graduate Translation Program at the University of Puerto Rico.
At the age of 48, to my amazement, I became a professional translator.
And I love it.
[Edited at 2016-05-31 06:52 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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