Translation Student: suggestions for additional languages to study?
Tanja Young United Kingdom Local time: 08:50 Member (2010) English to Serbian + ...
German seems to be in demand
Dec 19, 2011
I've attended several conferences and seminars in London and I've heard that German is in demand from the UK perspective - German into English and vice versa. Once you specialise in the languages you're already studying, you may add another language - why not? That's what translators who work for EU institutions do - they add new languages all the time. Once you master one foreign language it is easier to master new ones too. Good luck!
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Tanja Young United Kingdom Local time: 08:50 Member (2010) English to Serbian + ...
EU Traineeships for Linguists - Three EU Languages
You will notice that the requirement is for at least three EU official languages.
European Parliament
University graduates with knowledge of at least three EU official languages
Who can apply: university graduates who have perfect knowledge of one of the EU official languages or of the official language of a candidate country and thorough knowledge of two other EU official languages
Starting dates and application deadlines (in brackets): 1 January (15 August), 1 April (15 November), 1 July (15 February), 1 October (15 May)
Traineeship duration: 3 months
Where: Luxembourg
How to apply: online application form
Grant: € 1,190.71/month (2010)
University students with knowledge of at least three EU official languages
Who can apply: students enrolled in a university with perfect knowledge of one of the EU official languages or of the official language of a candidate country and thorough knowledge of two other EU official languages; priority will be given to students who are required to complete a traineeship as part of their studies
Starting dates and application deadlines (in brackets): 1 January (15 August), 1 April (15 November), 1 July (15 February), 1 October (15 May)
Traineeship duration: 1-3 months
Where: Luxembourg
How to apply: online application form
The European Parliament does not provide training for conference interpreters. However, it might grant a bursary to graduates with an interpretation Master's degree, who plan to take the interpreter accreditation test of the European institutions, to cover their stay abroad on an interpreting course in a selected European university giving linguistic support to other student interpreters.
Other types of traineeships with the European Parliament
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European Commission
University students specialising in translation
Who can apply: candidates who have completed the first cycle of university studies and are able to translate into their main language from two EU official languages (one of which must be French, English or German)
When: summer traineeship: 1 March – 31 July, winter traineeship: 1 October – 28 February
Where: Luxembourg, Brussels
How to apply: submit the online application form and send it together with all the required documents to Directorate-General for Translation
Application deadline: summer traineeship: 1 September, winter traineeship: 15 February
Grant: € 1,066.93/month (March 2009)
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Court of Justice
Newly qualified conference interpreters
Who can apply: newly qualified conference interpreters with a diploma in conference interpreting
Traineeship duration: 10-12 weeks
Where: Luxembourg
How to apply: complete the application form (available in French only) and send it by post together with the required documents
Other types of traineeships with the Court of Justice
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Nicole Schnell United States Local time: 00:50 Member English to German + ...
Whichever language you choose
Dec 19, 2011
Make sure that you are prepared to spend a long time in the respective country of the source language. Preferably several years. The KudoZ forum is already cluttered with questions by colleagues who don't have a grasp of the idiomatic nuances of their source language or consider even slightly old-fashioned texts with all their elegance, quirks and peculiarities "badly written" or "possibly written by a non-native speaker".
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de>en United States Local time: 03:50 Member (2011) German to English
Study another technical field
Dec 19, 2011
In addition to specializing in a commercially or scientifically important language pair, I would suggest specializing in a particular subject. Or a few pairs and a few subjects.
This will help you to understand technical jargon, and to resolve ambigous terms based on your enhanced understanding of the context.
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Andreas Morgenstern Germany Local time: 09:50 Member (2008) English to German + ...
Languages take time
Dec 20, 2011
MarianaPereira wrote:
Hi everyone!
My name is Mariana and I'm a 18-year-old translation student from Portugal. I'm studying in Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto. At the moment I'm learning how to translate from portuguese to english and spanish but next year I would like to learn another language. I've thought about learning japanese or italian but I don't know if those languages are very demanded in terms of translation. Since this forum has lots of professional translators, could you please tell me what language should I learn?
Thank you very much!
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2011-12-19 15:58 GMT]
Hello Mariana,
you should learn a language that you really like. Learning a language up to the point where you get a really good feel for the language almost always takes over 3000 hours of study, which, if you don't like the language you are studying, can be an eternity. If you want to study Japanese you will also have to practice writing Chinese characters for at least 30 minutes a day (and several pronunciations for a character).
Another language to consider would be Chinese, which is also what I am studying now after, at first, failing horribly at Japanese. I find Chinese much easier to start with, as it mostly only has one pronunciation and syllable per character, while Japanese has several.
Actually, I now study both, as remembering characters has become much easier, but I don't plan to translate either language before at least 2016-2018 and I treat it as a hobby, which takes away a lot of the pressure.
I hope I could help you
Andreas Morgenstern
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Michael Grant Japan Local time: 16:50 Japanese to English
Don't get the cart ahead of the horse...
Dec 20, 2011
Peter Linton wrote:
Different countries have different conventions about translation, but even so I am astonished that you are learning to translate apparently from your mother tongue into other languages.
I agree with Peter, however, if you are dead-set on learning another language (and I mean "learning the language," not "learning to translate from Portuguese into that language"...there's a BIG difference!), I would not rule out learning Japanese(my second language).
Japanese is easy to pronounce, the grammar is fairly straight-forward, and the Kanji isn't as difficult as you might imagine...for me it was the marked differences Japanese has from my native English that motivated me to learn it. (That, and I have always been "ga-ga" over the beauty of Japanese women!! )
To do any new language justice, you really need to live in the country where it "lives"... Have enough respect for your new language to study it until it sinks into your bones...please don't short-change it.
Learning a language, and translating a language, are two very different endeavors! Make sure you appreciate the difference...
Good luck in your work,
MGrant
[Edited at 2011-12-20 02:00 GMT]
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Ty Kendall United Kingdom Local time: 08:50 Member (2011) Hebrew to English
It does help to find the natives attractive....lol
Dec 20, 2011
Michael Grant wrote:
(That, and I have always been "ga-ga" over the beauty of Japanese women!! )
MGrant
[Edited at 2011-12-20 02:00 GMT]
...Always a good motivator to learn a language!!
I didn't study Greek to read Aristotle that's for sure!
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Russell Jones United Kingdom Local time: 08:50 Member (2004) Italian to English
MODERATOR
Curiosity and Immersion
Dec 20, 2011
MarianaPereira wrote:
I might learn a new language but just for curiosity and to communicate with people all over the globe, rather than for translation.
[Editado em 2011-12-19 22:27 GMT]
I am one of those who learnt a foreign language as a hobby, never expecting to make a career of it. That would be a perfectly valid approach, but bear in mind that it will be difficult to reach professional translator standard without living for a reasonable period in a country that speaks the language. Translating is not just about language; you need to understand the culture, history and way of life as well.
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Marie Safarovic Russian Federation Local time: 11:50 English to German + ...
Living in the country for a reasonable period of time
Dec 30, 2011
is an interesting and underestimated point. I have met so many interpreters who have never lived in an English speaking country and thought English was easy enough to get by just with your school English.
And then they don't understand idioms or colloquialisms.
I'd be interested to read how long people think this period should be? Of course there cannot be a certain answer, I am very aware of that. And studying a language and immersion are also two very different things.
I know many people here who study Russian, then they go home and talk in their native language to their flatmates, go out and meet their friends from their country. Or they keep talking English with Russians because those Russians know English very well.
Knowledge of English can actually be a hindrance when you are trying to learn another language in the country where it is spoken.
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Sheila Wilson Spain Local time: 08:50 Member (2007) English + ...
I couldn't agree more!
Dec 30, 2011
Hello Marie,
Marie Safarovic wrote:
Knowledge of English can actually be a hindrance when you are trying to learn another language in the country where it is spoken.
I tried very hard during my three years in the Netherlands, and certainly made some progress, but I had to insist in shops etc. and often had conversations where I spoke halting Dutch and the assistant replied in perfect English.
I have met so many interpreters who have never lived in an English speaking country and thought English was easy enough to get by just with your school English. And then they don't understand idioms or colloquialisms.
Again, that's just so true. I don't think it's possible to give a timeframe as so much depends on the person's age and ability and how integrated they become, but they certainly don't teach everything in school. One amazing thing I discovered, after 10 years of increasingly intensive French studies, was that I didn't even have the right words for brown, strong and big. I had just one word for each (brun, fort, grand) which turned out to be totally inadequate for daily life here. The same applied, as you said, to idioms and particularly to those everyday informal words that only have a short lifetime - the ones that are so fashionable one year and sound rather odd just a few years later.
Sheila
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Marie Safarovic Russian Federation Local time: 11:50 English to German + ...
be insistent
Jan 22
quote: "I tried very hard during my three years in the Netherlands, and certainly made some progress, but I had to insist in shops etc. and often had conversations where I spoke halting Dutch and the assistant replied in perfect English."
I know that feeling too well. I am sure it happens much more in the Netherlands than in Russia, but even here it does occur. And my reaction is just like yours, I keep replying in Russian until the other person eventually gives up ;-p
Luckily by now, all of my friends have got the message and no one talks to me in English anymore. But there are situations when I meet new people and am introduced as "this is Masha, she speaks English and German, so you can practice with her" and then I'm sometimes rude enough to reply in Russian that unfortunately, I had forgotten all my other languages. It's just that I work as a teacher, so communication is my job and people don't always understand that when I'm not at work I might not want to speak those languages as I would just end up correcting all the time. Selfish, yet efficient.
But I also had another situation when a friend of mine, who works as a translator EN>RU, kept replying in English (this was written conversation) and eventually I gave up and said "sorry, gotta go now, am dead knackered" and he just said "what?" and had not clue what I was talking about ;-p
I used to study Norwegian and got it up to pre-intermediate level so when I travelled around the country in 2008, I was really keen to practise with the natives. Their reactions were "You speak our language? WHY? We all speak English" 8 times out of 10. The rest was "wow, I have never met anyone who's studying my language, that's pretty cool." Needless to say, due to lack of practice, I have now pretty much forgotten all of it.
Sorry, this has gone a little off track. Anyway, to sum up my point, I think it helps a lot to pick a location where English or your native language aren't widely spoken when you are trying to immerse into another language and culture.
Best regards and success with everything,
Marie.
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I had just one word for each (brun, fort, grand) which turned out to be totally inadequate for daily life here. The same applied, as you said, to idioms and particularly to those everyday informal words that only have a short lifetime - the ones that are so fashionable one year and sound rather odd just a few years later. 
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