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Poll: Which of these professions do you think has the most parallels with translation?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Apr 23, 2018

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Which of these professions do you think has the most parallels with translation?".

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Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 19:06
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Crime scene investigator Apr 23, 2018

But where are the options "Other" and "All of the above"?

I actually think 'musician' and 'medical doctor' are better choices.


 
Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 03:06
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
Crime scene investigator Apr 23, 2018

Since not all criminals are speaking the country's language.

The options of the professions seem to have been randomly picked. Therefore, I agree with Muriel, adding movie/video production companies.


 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 03:06
Spanish to English
+ ...
Hitman Apr 23, 2018

Because you're supposed to have to do what the client wants, whether it's right or wrong.
And in ES-EN, I often have to "take out" errant commas...



[Edited at 2018-04-23 09:31 GMT]


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 02:06
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Crime scene investigator Apr 23, 2018

I agree with Muriel and Thayenga, the options are rather limited and somewhat arbitrary. As a freelancer I’m sort of a mercenary but I’m not an hitman (a female version of) or a beach bum for sure!

investigator


 
Morano El-Kholy
Morano El-Kholy  Identity Verified
Egypt
Local time: 04:06
Member (2011)
English to Arabic
+ ...
Crime scene investigator..... Apr 23, 2018

Yes, according to our daily researches among various online articles/links/news/blogs. I think we are closer to the works done by the crime scene investigator! We are spending our life investigating and searching for ultimate true translations/meanings/sentence structures...

 
Noura Tawil
Noura Tawil  Identity Verified
Syria
Local time: 05:06
Member (2013)
English to Arabic
Hitman Apr 23, 2018

I found the options rather amusing. With this amused mood, I chose "Hitman".
We kill thousands of words everyday and guide them to rise again in a new form and place, and among new people.


 
Nuno Rosalino
Nuno Rosalino
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:06
Member (2012)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Other - Actor Apr 23, 2018

I know, it probably sounds like an odd answer. Actors are always upfront and center on stage and we're always hidden in our offices - no two professions could be more diametrically opposed, right? On the face of it, maybe. But when you get down to the nitty-gritty of what we do, I can find no other profession that parallels translation as closely, not even writers. But let me explain.

Take Sir Anthony Hopkins. He, somewhat famously, reads his lines hundreds and hundreds of times so
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I know, it probably sounds like an odd answer. Actors are always upfront and center on stage and we're always hidden in our offices - no two professions could be more diametrically opposed, right? On the face of it, maybe. But when you get down to the nitty-gritty of what we do, I can find no other profession that parallels translation as closely, not even writers. But let me explain.

Take Sir Anthony Hopkins. He, somewhat famously, reads his lines hundreds and hundreds of times so that he can internalize them, so that they become second nature, so that it's as if they came from him in the first place, not from the script. Isn't that exactly what we all do? The only difference is that we then take that internalized information and give it shape in a different language.
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DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
Hitman Apr 23, 2018

(As most jobs) translators are to have the job done: eliminate the problem and wastes.
No man, no issues, why?)


 
Togobickij Vera
Togobickij Vera  Identity Verified
Local time: 03:06
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Crime scene investigator/athlete/truck driver Apr 23, 2018

Crime scene investigator when I am proofreading a text which is criminal... Or, when I am up till late in the evening, I often think about ultra-runners. This job could help me prepare mentally for a 24-hour race for sure
But most of the time, I think of myself as a truck driver


 
Egmont Schröder
Egmont Schröder  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 03:06
Member (2013)
Chinese to German
+ ...
Professional Gambler Apr 23, 2018

That's the only way how to describe my feeling when I am working on a project with erroneous source text, a lot of acronyms, a buggy CAT tool, a tight deadline or all of them together.

 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 23:06
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
No OTHER option??? IMHO Photographer Apr 23, 2018

Look at the parallels...

1. Deregulated - anyone can do it anywhere without a professional license.

2. Training/Education - there are secondary technical schools, higher education courses, sidetracking courses, and yet self-learners are possible too.

3. Variable levels of equipment - while some may use Leica, Hasselblad or Nikon, it is possible to do it with a lightproof box with a pinhole. Translators may use a vintage netbook or a SOTA computer with CAT t
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Look at the parallels...

1. Deregulated - anyone can do it anywhere without a professional license.

2. Training/Education - there are secondary technical schools, higher education courses, sidetracking courses, and yet self-learners are possible too.

3. Variable levels of equipment - while some may use Leica, Hasselblad or Nikon, it is possible to do it with a lightproof box with a pinhole. Translators may use a vintage netbook or a SOTA computer with CAT tools etc.

4. Radical changes in the past few decades - photography moved from film to digital, and translation went from the typewriter to computers.

5. Specialties - a fashion photographer would have a hard time shooting sports or industrial photography; meanwhile a legal translator would probably flunk in IT or medical translation.

6. Automatic vs. human - In the film days, a photographer could deal with f-stops and shutter speeds or choose a fully automatic camera, with midway options too. A translator can shoot text through machine translation, or do it him/herself.

7. Fixing afterwards - In digital photography, a klutzy photographer who doesn't bother about adjusting automatic exposure for backlight, sharp shadows, etc. can use Photoshop. A translator can do PEMT.

8. Quality in the eye of the beholder - Some may celebrate casual snapshots, and sneer at truly artistic photographs. Likewise some may like slovenly translations, "at least now I can read it, which I couldn't in the source language", and don't care if it is a definitely clear, cogent message in the target language.

9. Price - One can pay what an experienced pro costs to get best results, however the neighbor's nephew can wing it, if the budget is small.

The list goes on and on.
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Elif Baykara Narbay
Elif Baykara Narbay  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 05:06
German to Turkish
+ ...
CSI Apr 23, 2018

Being a forensic expert, I can assure you that translating is very similar to crime scene investigation

 
Agneta Pallinder
Agneta Pallinder  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:06
Member (2014)
Swedish to English
+ ...
I said cartographer Apr 23, 2018

Because both the translator and the cartographer take one reality (source text/landscape) and turn it into another (target text/map).

On the other hand, my real other title is probably Professional Pedant.


 
Julian Holmes
Julian Holmes  Identity Verified
Japan
Local time: 11:06
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
Other Apr 23, 2018

Person who defuses and clears land mines - whatever that is called.
I bump into so many linguistic clustermesses everyday that it defies the imagination.


 
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Poll: Which of these professions do you think has the most parallels with translation?






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