Introduction

This course, Translation as a career, explores what being a professional translator is like. During the course, you will meet professional translators discussing their work and reflect on what they say. You will assess your own language level and find out how translators maintain their language skills. You will also engage in short translation activities. The course is divided into four sections:

1. Translation as a profession: this section provides an overview of the skills and knowledge needed to be a translator and what is meant by translation competence
2. A day in the life of a translator: in this section, you will meet some translators who tell you about their work, and about giving back. You will also find out about volunteering opportunities as a translator
3. Your language skills: explore what it takes to be a translator in terms of language skills, and find out what translators do to keep up their languages
4. Translation theory and practice: exploring the notion of equivalence by undertaking a short translation activity (don’t worry about your language skills, you can also translate from English into English!).

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• Understand the skills required to become a professional translator and what is meant by translation competence
• Have an awareness of what it means to be a professional translator
• Undertake an independent research activity
• Evaluate personal language skills
• Undertake a translation activity.