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Would third culture kids make good translators?

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anonymoustck

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I’m just curious if third culture kids make good translators? Have you ever considered being a translator?


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June 30, 2008 | Filed Under Ask Uncle, General Forum 

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5 Responses to “Would third culture kids make good translators?”

  1. 1
    mairabay
    mairabay Says:
    July 1st, 2008 at 5:32 pm

    you know, sometimes when I go to the movies (here in Brazil they usually play in English with subtitles in Portuguese) and I see those awfull translations I think “oh my god, this is such a basic mistake, if these losers can work as a translator so could I!” :D

    but I never tought seriously about it…why? I don’t know, good question :D

    (Is this spam?)

  2. 2
    Unregistered
    Chi Says:
    July 1st, 2008 at 9:21 pm

    Well, I want to say some simiplar experiences as Mairabay. I often find the translation mistakes in movies and TV shows. Yes, sometimes they can be basic mistakes. But it still does not motive me to be a translator eventhough I could. I don’t mind to be translate for someone shortly on the street to help people get the things they want. But I am not interested in doing this and have translation become a significant part of my job.

    Eventhough I don’t like doing translation, I still stranslated a book from English to Chinese. I did this because I think that is an awesome book and I think every Chinese speaking person should read it. And I am very familar with the author and the background of the book. So I did it. Just want to make some contributions to my culture.

    (Is this spam?)

  3. 3
    Ayako
    Ayako Says:
    July 2nd, 2008 at 1:12 am

    As someone who made a living out of this for more than a few years (and it was always a part of my work no matter what I did) I’d have to say that I’d look for other options first before considering this as a career, even though it will provide you with a pretty nice income. You can also always do it on the side :p It doesn’t have to be your main job.

    One issue with translating / interpreting is that you can never say what you mean because you’re there to say what others mean. ;)

    Did you know that in a psychiatric evaluations this is one of the questions they ask you, i.e. whether you can or can’t say what you mean? ;)

    If you only get to ever translate for brilliant talented people this will never be an issue for you and work will always be rewarding and gratifying….but the reality is that you will be translating / interpreting for many incompetent people so you will get frustrated. You have to deal with this because it’s part of your job. :)

    On another note you can also do some of the work at home in almost any location of the world if you have Internet and a ’supplier’ of work. So it can work for a TCK.

    As for whether TCKs make better interpreters, I personally think they do because they understand the culture that comes with the languages they are dealing with, but people who expect interpreters to be robots who just spit out coordinates of languages prefer mono-cultural coordinate bilinguals. :)

    Also human beings as always with their biased minds, tend to think the interpreter who speaks their main language better is the better interpreter regardless of anything else.

    Anyway good luck if you want to become a translator. If you are a TCK who speaks more than one language then you have a good foundation for becoming a good translator / interpreter already.

    :)

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  4. 4
    Unregistered
    MsMerising Says:
    July 4th, 2008 at 10:51 am

    I once met two people who spoke “English” - one from London, the other from Watts (L.A.). The other did not understand the other’s slang & words. So I translated for them…it was a very interesting moment to say the least, lol…

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  5. 5
    Os
    Os Says:
    October 27th, 2008 (4 weeks ago) at 8:36 pm

    Oddly enough, no.

    Just because you’re bi/multilingual and probably know the right terms, it has more to do with the movie industry and who is allowed to actually make the translations. Think of it like this:

    A doctor is a profession.
    A translator is a profession.

    ‘Nuff said. It’s also why they can never get the titles right, or take the time to culturally digest humor. As for a government/political translators, you must have certain levels of accreditation to even be involved.

    So, as a career, it would make sense. In reality, it takes years of “training”, accreditation, and on-the-job experience.

    I did, however, do many on-the-side translations for comic artists/cartoonists when I lived in S.A.. We had an English paper (The Daily Journal) where many of my Latino teachers/friends would publish their cartoons into English.

    This did not go over well. Many times we would have to redo the way the strip was laid out just to get the point across, and woe to the man who tried to be funny!

    Since the boom of Anime, translators have always been a part of the industry, and at times, are even hired to do voice-overs. Disney would love you! But who can love Disney? *gag*

    Good luck!

    (Is this spam?)

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