Advice needed on becoming a translator

reeso3000Threads: 1 Posts: 6 Joined: Jan 17, 09	Mar 3, 09, 01:29 / #
I was just wondering if anyone could give me some advice on becoming a translator. My fiancée just finished a degree in English and is currently teaching English in Poland, she will be coming to the Uk shortly to live and she would like to look into translation as a career. She has done quite alot of translation in relatively big church conferences etc without any problems so I believe she has the credentials but my sticking point is there seems to be so many different qualifications and so many governing bodies, then you have sworn translators etc which gets all a little confusing. Any advice on courses she should do, governing bodies she should join etc would be greatly appreciated in order for her to become a freelance translator or interpreter- there are vacancies in the area but they require the relevant qualifications for such work. Thanks in advance for any light that some of you may shed :D

SwiteziankaThreads: - Posts: 525 Joined: Jun 17, 08	Mar 7, 09, 23:33 / #
It depends on the kind of translation she wants to do. If she wants to translate leagal papers, she must be a sworn translator. It takes some special course and a state exam. As far as other kinds of translations are concerned, I don't know of any official regulations. If you want to join an gency, it's good to have a degree. But to translate for TV, you need to know the right people, qualifications or actual skills don't matter... For a start it's good to know some other freelance translator who gets too many orders and needs aid. You can get some experience by working for such a person.