Carrera De Traductorado Publico / Interprete Simultaneo

[syngirl]

Has anyone on the board ever pursued one/both of these degrees in Buenos Aires? I know they are obviously directed at Spanish mother tongue students, wondering if anyone has had any success applying as English mother tongue. Not really looking for a 4 year (or 5 as UBA states!) degree but wondering if maybe as English mother tongue I'd be able to fast track some courses? (And use that time to improve technical spanish and accent...)

Any info / opinions appreciated. Finally after 8yrs + realising we're probably not getting out of here anytime soon so thinking to pursue career change, or add a career (so that yay, I can have two kind of crappy paying careers going at once, woohoo!)

 

[French jurist]

If your priority is to make money (and not facing the challenge of going back to University & getting a degree), then consider the fact that freelance translators working for foreign companies from Argentina make likely much more money than official translators here. Also, working as a freelance translator makes you able to get paid in dollars.

 

[syngirl]

Hey Frenchie -- to be honest I think I'm more interested in the Interprete portion, though perhaps I'm not well suited to the job as I can find it hard to not express my opinion, jaja. The people I know making the most money as translators have done their official carrera (and scored jobs with FMI etc). Thansk for input though. University here I feel is a challenge really because of the bureaucratic mess, and also a lot of unwilling to bend rules -- ie at home I could probably talk my way into fast tracking a lot of the English language portion of the programme by sitting exams, here not sure if they'd allow it....

I think I should probably just get on oDesk or some other platform as well to see if I can get any translation work going for the moment...

 

[nikad]

Hey Frenchie -- to be honest I think I'm more interested in the Interprete portion, though perhaps I'm not well suited to the job as I can find it hard to not express my opinion, jaja. The people I know making the most money as translators have done their official carrera (and scored jobs with FMI etc). Thansk for input though. University here I feel is a challenge really because of the bureaucratic mess, and also a lot of unwilling to bend rules -- ie at home I could probably talk my way into fast tracking a lot of the English language portion of the programme by sitting exams, here not sure if they'd allow it....

I think I should probably just get on oDesk or some other platform as well to see if I can get any translation work going for the moment...

Hey Syngirl, Traductor Publico degree is 5 yrs at both UBA and private schools. I saw a place that offers the online degree - about 4 years It might be best to network with your contacts abroad and do website translations, etc. oDesk and such are ok to test yourself and your work, but you will not make much $ there. If you still want to go with the degree, you have Traductorado tecnico, cientifico and literario that is shorter than Traductorado Publico.

 

[nlaruccia]

I studied public certified translation in a private university in Buenos Aires and ended up changing careers. The program here is very difficult because you must study law. To be a translator you need a licenciado, aka Bachelor's Degree, then you can study for your Master's Degree in simultaneous interpretation. You the must get certified en the Colegio de Traductores Publicos because all translations must be legally certified. In the States that's not the case. You can get a lot of translation work in the States via the internet but from Argentina, and get paid in dollars and you don't have to certify the translations. The downside is that a native English speaker might find it difficult since it's taught from a Spanish speaking perspective and you'll have to take a lot of required grammar classes and syntactic analysis of the English language when what we need is to study those same subject matters in Spanish. I wish you the best of luck and applaud hour desire to return to the university. Education is never a waste of time. One other thing. Because of university bureaucracy you can't sit English exams or fast talk your way out of English classes and they won't help improve a Spanish accent. They will however force you to learn to speak with a British accent.

 

[fifs2]

Syngirl it's worth noting that into EN translations with native EN speakers pay at least 100% more than into ES so any language into EN as a degree will serve you a hell of a lot better than ES. I myself am a qualified Arabic - English interpreter and translator...believe me, rarity plus a degree is what you need..not to be one more in a the tens of thousands of average translators in today's AR market! Sent you a PM.

 

[nlaruccia]

Oddly enough, in the States they need more English to Spanish translations than vice versa and often ignorance leads people to hire native Spanish speakers assuming they'll be more accurate.

 

[syngirl]

I studied public certified translation in a private university in Buenos Aires and ended up changing careers. The program here is very difficult because you must study law. To be a translator you need a licenciado, aka Bachelor's Degree, then you can study for your Master's Degree in simultaneous interpretation. You the must get certified en the Colegio de Traductores Publicos because all translations must be legally certified. In the States that's not the case. You can get a lot of translation work in the States via the internet but from Argentina, and get paid in dollars and you don't have to certify the translations. The downside is that a native English speaker might find it difficult since it's taught from a Spanish speaking perspective and you'll have to take a lot of required grammar classes and syntactic analysis of the English language when what we need is to study those same subject matters in Spanish. I wish you the best of luck and applaud hour desire to return to the university. Education is never a waste of time. One other thing. Because of university bureaucracy you can't sit English exams or fast talk your way out of English classes and they won't help improve a Spanish accent. They will however force you to learn to speak with a British accent.

Thanks everyone for their responses, I haven't had a chance to go much further with this yet.

NLARUCCIA, can you tell me about the Simultaneous Interpretation -- I have tried to see if it is possible to get a degree / certification in this separate from the traductor publico -- as far as I can tell this is not possible, it can only be done inconjunction with the traductor publico carrera? Is that right? It is the same in Canada, you can do some translation work but if you actually wnat to do anything of import or the higher paying jobs you need to be certified officially.

I think for now I am going to see if I can't get in touch with UBA to do a placement level for m Spanish, I don't know if perhaps it is worth doing the DELE (the Ministro Espanol exam for proficiency)?

FIFS2 -- Thanks very much for your message, I sent you a PM, it would be great to meet even over a coffee to find out more about your work and perhaps figure out what sort of path I should take.

Thanks again!

 

[nlaruccia]

In Argentina in order to be an interpreter you must have be a translator first. There are no short cuts. You must always have high school equivalency exams done as well or your degree here won't be worth anything. That means taking all high school exams at a public school here: educacion civica, historia argentina, geografia argentina, literatura argentina, etc.

In order to work as a translator or interpreter you must go through the Colegio de Traductores Publicos because it's the only way a company that hires you can determine your authenticity when any legal translation is necessary, unless you want to translate restaurant menus or interpret guided city tours for tourists.

 

[nlaruccia]

The thing about translation or interpretation in Argentina is that it's not enough to be bilingual or we'd all be interpreters. You have to study morphology of words and letters, syntactic analysis, phonology and phonetics and if you choose to study in UBA keep in mind that they don't separate the law major from translation major. That means you'll have to study law as if you were studying to be a lawyer. The translation program is easier in a private university.