Q. Tell me about yourself.
A. My name is Rick and I am a professional translator and able to translate several languages to and from English. Usually I translate Chinese, Japanese, German, Hindi and Arabic to English and vice versa. I have completed my MA in English and also have attended professional courses on German, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese and Hindi. I have been working as a professional translator on full time basis and did the job for numerous organizations and individuals. I have been working as a translator for around last six consecutive years.
Q. Why do you want this job?
A. I want this job as my current translation project is almost done and the authority appointed me asked to search for a new one as the project I worked in is about to close. I worked here for last one year and translated different documents from German to English and English to German. I also find your company very good one and think this will be an excellent career opportunity for me to work here. I am also a very deserving candidate for this post.
Q. Why did you become a translator and what path did you take to get to this point in your career?
A. I became a translator as it is my passion to explore different languages. When I was a student of English Literature, I explored the entire language and the language appeared too interesting to me. Thereby, I decided to attend some professional course on other languages and after completing these courses, it popped up in my mind that translation would be my potential profession. I also had to undergo different situations and had to do hard work for learning the languages perfectly. I travelled extensively and tried to learn the difference of spoken and written for of a language and also read a lot and worked quite hard to get to this point of my career.
Q. What has been your biggest professional challenge?
A. Well, the challenges are always difficult to overcome. The biggest challenge in my profession is that I am non-native to every language I learnt and translating. Often I have to experience some unwanted issues like the literal or verbal meaning of the phrases and proverbs or any specific words. Sometimes the translation work involves tasks that I have to work on for long hours and this to an extent contradicts my family life. Apart from that, I would say I quite enjoy my job and I am ready to face any challenges in my professional life.
Q. What advice would you give to an up and coming translator?
A. This is the age of globalization and learning languages is one of the most important keys to success. If the coming translators do not focus on learning several languages, there are chances that they may fail to keep pace with the fast world. So, the coming translators should start learning several languages to sustain in the competition. I would also advise them to get in to this profession only if they have real passion in this job.
Q. Are there any pitfalls to avoid in the translation business?
A. Yes, there are some pitfalls and those are the literal meaning. The literal meanings are not always suited with the translations and may change the entire meaning of the translated sentence. So, the translators should try to avoid the literal meanings and use their intuition to guess what could be the exact sense of the sentence and translate accordingly. Besides, only famous books or literature works should not be translated and translation industry should not be able making money rather than to expand knowledge and literary works among all nationalities of the world. In my opinion if this is followed, translation business will flourish more in the upcoming future.
Q. What’s unique or interesting about your particular language combination? Do you have any specific advice for up and coming translators pursuing the same combination?
A. I find interest in translating from German to English as I am a German by birth. So, everything appears easier to me in this particular case. I have mastered English as like my mother tongue and the coming translators should also pursue language(s) like me. Aspiring translator should master at least one language perfectly so that the language turns interesting for them. They should also make a habit to travel different parts of the people and observing the difference between written and spoken languages.
Q. How would you explain our organization’s mission?
A. Your organization mainly focuses on expanding knowledge in the world regardless of a person’s language. It also aims at creating awareness about child health and particularly the child mortality issue among the families in Poor countries in the world. Since all the documents are in English, a translation in other languages is a must so that all the people could understand the missions of your organization. This is definitely a praiseworthy initiative to save the lives of the children in the country.
Q. What qualifications do you have for the post?
A. I am a skilled translator of Hindi, Malay, German and three other languages and have attended a professional course of one year where I passed with distinctions. Moreover, I am able to speak, understand, read and write a standard form of Hindi and Malay which backs my candidature against the post. I have been in this industry for more than 5 years and I closely understand the need of a quality translation. My dedication and passion for my work would make me a deserving candidate for this post.
Q. What other skills are needed for this profession?
A. The profession also requires frequent field trips for communicating with the targeted populations and I am mentally prepared to undertake the field trips. The profession also needs to speak with the people of all class in their language and bring out their opinions about the child mortality or neonatal health. I am also a voracious reader and passion in reading is another important requirement for this profession, I guess.
Q. In which area are you more convenient: reading or writing?
A. Well, I am passionate in both reading and writing. Reading and writing are equally preferred to me. I am a good writer and reader of the language. I consider reading as learning and writing as to gather and express my thoughts.
Q. What languages can you translate into and from?
A. I am able to translate several languages into and from naming - German, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Arabic and English.
Q. How many years of translation experience do you hold?
A. I have six years of experiences as a professional translator.
Q. What types of clients do you typically work with?
A. Generally I work with book publishers, development organizations, local and international NGOs and sometimes I work as a freelance translator.
Q. Why did you leave your last translation position or job?
A. I have to seek another position of translator into any different organization as my current position is about to be over shortly.
Q. Would you ever want to work on your own and start your own freelance translation business or translation agency?
A. Initially I am not planning to have my own translation agency but I have a plan to form my own translation agency where I should serve different clients together and will work with my own team. But my idea will require much more time to materialize and seek out the right hands to form the team.
Q. What kinds of people do you have the most difficulty working with?
A. There are some people and organizations that set a strict deadline to complete the tasks and when I am to do the work, I find the work volume is larger than it was told and it becomes tougher for me to meet the deadline. It happens mostly when I work with individuals. Sometimes people who have little knowledge on translation job manage translation project and those are the people who are tougher to work with.
Q. How much do you currently charge for your translation work?
A. I charge the minimum for the translation and usually I charge one dollar ($1) for per 20 words in any language. However sometimes I charge for the entire work and that depends on the work volume and the amount of effort it requires.
Q. Do you have any references available that we could speak with regarding the quality of your work?
A. Sure. You can speak or communicate with my current employer or I also could provide references of some individuals who will speak for me honestly. There are some well known publishers and writers who I guess would be better people you can talk to about my translation quality.
Q. Did you bring any sample translations with you today?
A. Yes, I did. Here it is. Alternatively you can visit some URLs that have my work published with my credential.
Q. How well can you understand different dialects and accents?
A. Well, at times it becomes difficult when I work from recordings as the dialects are not the same everywhere. But after playing the record for several times, I understand the dialects and accents properly.
Q. Do you have a certain area of specialization or do you work on generic translation projects of many types?
A. Sorry, I do not have any certain area of specialization and I prefer working on generic translations. However I am quite flexible and can adopt with any short of translation work unless they are quite technical and full of jargon.
Q. What is your biggest strength as a translator? What about the biggest weakness?
A. I have mastered several languages and able to use them in different circumstances which is my biggest strength. I do not own any weakness over the same issue.
Q. Do you hold any translation certifications?
A. Yes, I have certificates from the language centers and the university where I learnt the courses. Besides, I also have achieved translation certificates from a couple of international NGOs working in over 50 countries across the world.
Q. Why do you enjoy being a translator?
A. When I started learning the course, all of the students had to submit home assignments and I scored the best among them in the assignments. I found that it is natural for me to translate the languages while the others had to struggle a lot with different words and sentences. But the most difficult one appeared to be easier to me. I started enjoying and since then, it has become a passion for me to translate. My passion has become my profession now.
Q. What type of ethical dilemmas have you encountered as a translator and how did you deal with those?
A. When I worked with individuals, some ethical issues emerged there. Most of the cases, the deadlines were strict but once the tasks were submitted, they used to make delay with the payment. It was irritating indeed. At times I had to wait for the payment for longer days, and sometimes I asked them politely to clear the due payments when a month was over after the translation submission. Sometimes my appeal worked and often the individuals avoided me with the excuse of their highly occupied business schedules.
Apart from that, sometimes project owners of individual projects want me to reflect something they want rather than what it really should be. This is a dilemma I usually solve with the project owners with extensive discussion.
Q. Have you had any client or employer conflicts in the past over translation projects not being completed on time or accurately?
A. No, there are no such records over project completion. When I am assigned with the tasks of translations, I work hard and sincerely to complete the project. In all of the cases, I have completed the tasks before the end of the deadline. So, there were no chances for any conflict with the clients or employers.
Q. Where do you want to be in your translation career in 4 or 5 years from now?
A. I want to see myself as professional translator of at least 10 languages and accordingly I have started learning some other languages as well in the local university. I want to translate some other languages like French, Spanish, Italian, Bengali etc. Obviously I want to be popular in some parts of the world though my works.
Q. What would you do if you were interpreting and a person said something that you did not agree with or found upsetting?
A. You know, every time one cannot agree with the others and this is quite natural. In that case I will take a brake and contemplate over the statement from the other part. If I do not agree with the statement, I will clearly mention about the reason for disagreeing with the issue. On the other hand I would try to understand his reason for believing so.
Q. What would you do if you were interpreting and a person used gestures which are not understood in the culture of the other person?
A. Well, in such case, I will try to comprehend the inner meaning of the gesture and then start my work accordingly. Often it happens that the gestures are misunderstood and it is better to share the issue with someone who is expert. I will try to discuss with an expert if I have the chance.
Q. When you are interpreting, do you try to establish a relationship with the person or do you try to keep the relationship formal and more detached?
A. No, I always try to keep the relationship less formal as it helps to build a friendly relation with the person. In some cases, I move forward to make the relationship. The important factor about the informal relationship is that it makes the working environment convenient for me and the person starts trusting on my skills which is essential for my career growth.
Q. What do you do if you didn't hear exactly what a person said but you get the general "gist"?
A. It may happen that I missed some of the parts of the discussion or need to be clearer about the idea, and in such cases I will describe the entire event in my view so that the other part should point out if there is any discrepancy with my understanding.
Q. Do you try to translate every single word or idea expressed, or do you try to summarize what was said?
A. Well, it actually depends over the individual or organization. Sometimes, I have to translate every single word and in some cases, I have to summarize the entire idea by my own way. Whatever the method is, I try to get clear instruction from my client, always.
Q. Do you do anything to prepare for a translating session?
A. Yes, I undergo some home works. Often I try to get a clear idea about the entire issue which I have to translate and then try to sort out the disadvantages of the work. If I find any disadvantages, I try to solve them and inform those to the client. Besides, I also try to seek out the pros and cons of the entire project and after solving all the issues, I start working. I do the ground works so that there are no troubles on the midway of the translation.
Q. What would you do if you made a mistake in translation or did not understand a term?
A. Mistakes, though unintentional, may happen, and if it is done by me, I try to correct the mistake. If I do not understand any term, I seek that in dictionary of search on the internet. I use the term after the meaning is ensured by the encyclopedia or dictionaries.
Q. Do you think knowing about the culture of a region is equally important as having knowledge about the language?
A. Yes, knowing a culture is important like knowing a language. The meanings of words often vary from regions to regions and they also have some different senses in different culture. If the translators are aware about the local culture, it becomes easier for them to guess the meaning according to the culture and translate the word accordingly.
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