Career possibilities for Bilinguals and Multilinguals

There are many more possibilities out there for people who are speakers of two or more languages and since this is a great skill, there are many more possibilities of careers than Community Interpreting and Translating. Bilingualism is only one skill that we posses, there are many more that can be used in conjunction with it and turned into interesting and prospective careers. Please share your ideas and experiences in bilingual careers.

Some 6 years ago, the last thing I would imagine is teaching.... however while I was in university, I was contacted by a local council and offered to work as an interpreter. I took on this challenge as means of earning extra money and to gain some new work experience. Later on I was offered to teach Russian for beginners and as part of my work placement was to develop training program for interpreters, I was offered to teach courses for interpreters. At that time time I had no formal teaching qualifications, but was studying towards a degree in business management and had acquired some experience as a community interpreter. Additionally, I have always been said to have great analytical skills and ability to work under pressure, as well as natural liking to work with people and and empaty. Confidence and assertiveness also helped. 5 years on it has turned into a great career and a job that I love.

Tell about your experiences.

Some useful sites and articles for interpreters and translators and language teachers

Over the time, I have researched and gathered a wealth of information of interest for interpreters, translators as well as anyone who is bilingual and interested in languages and linguistics.

Please share any interesting articles, research or websites in this category.

Here are some more links to some sites that may be of your interest:

http://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/index.htm#trans

In Translation Directory you can find over 2000 articles on all possible topics related to interpreting and translation:

http://www.translationdirectory.com/article_index.htm

Translator Cafe has a wealth of information and informative artcles on a range of different topics:

http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/LV/Resources.asp

These are just the few... feel free to add more... Thanks

Translation and Interpretation Blunders and Jokes

Sometimes, interpreting can be amusing. Here are some cultural awareness fads. Just to show how important a cultural awareness can be.

Please share some more with us, if you have some funny interpreting jokes or misinterpretations.

See links below.

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cross-cultural/intercultural-communication-translation-news/2007/10/09/funny-signs-from-around-the-world/

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cultural-services/articles/crosscultural-marketing.html

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/translation/articles/lost-translation.html

Changing nature of work

The nature and requirements of the job of community interpreters. I have recently attended a conference organised by the IoL relating IT skills and development of websites for the community interpreters. Many more community interpreters are currently working freelance and marketing them selves. In addition to the professional skills, there seems to be an increasing demand for sets of new skills, so called 'soft' skills. What are your opinions, what new demands have you noticed since you started your career? Or what gaps do you feel you have in your skills that would be helpful to work more effectively?

Hi,

In this section I intend to keep updates on any upcoming events and training in the field as well as any other events which you might find useful and of interest. I will be adding links to the third parties websites to direct you, so I cannot guarantee that they will always work perfectly.

Hope you will find it interesting and useful. And please do post any events that you know of for attention of others as we can all benefit from them.

Signe

The research of Public Service organisations

Hi All,

This post is intended to encourage current students on the NOCN L2 and L3 courses to share research on the Public Service Organisations which is relevant to the community interpreters. Please share any sources of information such as glossaries and vocabularies of terms, any information about organisational systems and aims, and any information that can be useful. Thanks in advance.
Signe

New qualification for community interpreters

We are currently in the process of developing a new qualification for Community interpreters and translators. The current content is narrow and some aspects are not really relevant to the demands and dynamics of the profession. Therefore, we are looking at changing some of the current learning outcomes as well as adding aspects relevant to the practice of interpreters. it is very important to know what you think are the demands and gaps in current qualification and what you feel you would need to know to be able to perform to the best practice. I am currently looking at aspects such as employability skills and developing one's profile and credentials as a community interpreter and translator, use of ICT in the day to day work as well as subject specific aspects such as medical interpreting and court and police interpreting. It would be interesting and extremely important to know what you would like to see in a course for interpreters. please share your thoughts and ideas, so we can develop a course that would be applicable and useful for our profession and personal and professional development.
Look forward to see your comments.