The ability to speak English and Chinese does not make a translator, says Huang Youyi, vice-chairman of the International Federation of Translators and also of the Translators Association of China (TAC)

Huang, 58, the vice- president of China International Publishing Group, says that despite the rise in China’s foreign language proficiency, particularly in English, there are still too few top-notch translators working.

“Society tends assume you are capable of doing translation if you know a foreign language, but that’s not the case,” said Huang.”To know a foreign language is only one of the basic requirements.”

To Huang being a top translator demands an understanding of culture and language combined.

Huang didn’t exactly pick his career track but embraced the chance to study language, leading him to become a translator.

During the time that Huang was a university student, China was going through the changing times of the “cultural revolution”. Huang, a Beijing native, was relocated to work in the countryside. It wasn’t until 1971 that he returned to school.

Recruited by Beijing Foreign Language Institute, now Beijing Foreign Studies University, Huang was told that he was going to study language, and that language was English. Other students were steered to Arabic or other languages. Read more.

See: China Daily