- •Introduction
- •Lecture 1. What a translator is and what a translator does
- •1.1. Notes on the Profession
- •1.2. Translator and Interpreter
- •1.3. Bilingualism
- •1.4. The Education of a Translator
- •1.5. Process and Result of Translation
- •1.6. Materials for Translation
- •Lecture 2. The role of the translator
- •2.1. The Qualities Each Translator/Interpreter Possesses
- •2.2. Don’ts of a Translator/Interpreter
- •2.3. What an English-speaking Client Expects of His Interpreter
- •2.4. Another Glimpse into the Future
- •2.5. Comparison with other Professions
- •2.6. The Five Year Itch
- •2.7. Industry Trends
- •2.8. The Last Word about the Profession
- •Lecture 3. The basic principles of the translation theory
- •3.1. Translation Theory as a Theory of Transformations
- •3.2. Problem of Non-translation
- •3.3. Extralinguistic Factor
- •3.4. The Subject Matter
- •3.5. Machine Translation
- •Lecture 4. Units of translation
- •4.1. Classification of Translation Units
- •4.2. Level of Intonation
- •4.3. Translation on the Level of Phonemes (Graphemes)
- •Lecture 5. Translation on the level of morphemes
- •5.1. Morpheme as a Unit of Translation
- •5.2. Some Insights into How to Become Word-conscious
- •5.3. Latin and Greek Prefixes
- •5.4. Latin Roots
- •5.5. Latin and Greek Borrowings in English
- •5.6. Dictionary of Greek and Latin Roots
- •5.7. Latin Roots in English
- •Lecture 6. Translation on the level of words
- •6.1. Examples of Translating on the Level of Words
- •6.2. Category of Gender in English and Ukrainian
- •Sonnet 66
- •Sonnet 40
- •Sonnet 58
- •Сонет 40
- •Сонет 58
- •Lecture 7. Singular and plural of nouns as a translation problem
- •7.1. Peculiarities of Singular and Plural in English and Ukrainian
- •7.2. Plural of Compound Nouns
- •7.3. Nouns Used Only in Singular
- •7.4. Nouns Used Only in Plural
- •7.5. Grammatical Disagreement of Singular and Plural of Nouns in English and Ukrainian
- •Lecture 8. The problem of translating articles and pronouns
- •8.1. Translation of Indefinite Articles
- •8.2. The Problem of Translating Pronouns
- •Lecture 9. “false friends of the interpreter”
- •9.1. Interpenetration of Words in Different Languages
- •9.2. Mistakes in Translation Related to Differences in Realia
- •9.3. Interlingual Homonymy and Paronymy
- •9.4. Examples of Translating Newspaper Clichés
- •9.5. Semantic Peculiarities of Medical Terms
- •Lecture 10. Translation on the level of word combinations
- •10.1. Problems of Translating Idioms
- •10.2. Etymology of Idioms: Weird History
- •Lecture 11. Translation on the level of sentence and text
- •11.1. Translation of Clichés and Formulas
- •11.2. Types of Proverbs and Their Translation
- •11.3. Translation on the Level of Text
- •Список літератури
2.6. The Five Year Itch
Most of the translators I know do not plan to translate for the rest of their professional lives. It is surprising, of course: most translators leave the profession within five years of entering it. Many plan their departure ahead of time, developing the skills or receiving the education necessary to make their move. The rest just get out, for a host of reasons.
The departing translators head in generally the same directions. Some move on to start translation agencies or language consulting firms, some become technical writers or authors, some become interpreters, some enter academia as linguists or literature professors, and some few head off on other paths (naturally, there are many other paths, but the above careers were mentioned much more frequently than any others).
They also depart for basically the same reasons. Lack of long-term job security, frequently low pay for the value of the work they are doing, no benefits (which becomes more important as people grow older and have families), and little job satisfaction. Every industry benefits from having seasoned professionals, but the translation profession almost seems to prevent people from staying in for very long. Although I do know translators who have been in the industry for over twenty years, most of them have moved back and forth from in-house to free-lance as well as back and forth among the countries where their languages are used.
This is not to say that every translator moves on or that someone contemplating this profession should not enter it. First, the relatively high turn-over rate is good for those trying to get in. Second, the industry needs as many competent and responsible professionals it can get, so the more the merrier. Third, there are few professional careers in the world in which you do the exact same thing for five years. In most corporations, you get regular promotions, moving up the ladder and working towards greater responsibility, income and security. Translators don’t have that in their profession, so perhaps they are just creating it for themselves by moving on to a related field within five years or so.
2.7. Industry Trends
The translation industry seems to be in a state of flux. Computers are having an ever increasing impact on translators, the government is poised to affect some form of regulation or standardization, and the marketplace itself is changing.
The impact of computers on translators cannot be underestimated. Computers now or soon will allow us to send and receive jobs instantly, to do reference work and glossary and terminology research without leaving our keyboards, to provide desktop published documents ready for final printing, and to translate large projects more efficiently and accurately, using software which tracks our terminology and phraseology.
Regulation of translators and the translation industry seems almost inevitable at this point, though like machine translation, there is much debate concerning how and when it will occur. Regulation may benefit translators in their daily struggle to find work, secure fair contracts and agreements, get paid, and pay taxes.
The marketplace is also changing, both as a result of the on going changing in the world economy and political structure and the availability of inexpensive computer software and hardware. Gone are the days when a translator would produce raw text on a typewriter. Translators now have to produce polished text in a word processor or desktop publishing package, manage fonts and formatting, and then deliver the finished product via modem. Now more than over, translators have to develop a host of ancillary skills in order to secure work. And, they have to invest heavily in hardware and software in order to remain competitive.