Carrera De Traductorado Publico / Interprete Simultaneo

[syngirl]

Yes you absolutely must. It doesn't matter what your college background is or from what country. You didn't have an Argentine "high school" education and the degree you get here won't be worth anything if you don't complete all the courses and take all the high school exams.

Thanks for the info on the HS exams... can I ask though, are the HS exams something you need to present in order to receive your university degree, or are you saying that when you apply for jobs you need the HS to be recognized. It sounds like you didn't actually need them in order to start your degree (btw is this your first degree, and curious in the end which carrera you chose b/c you said you changed -- was the traductor boring, what did you change to etc?)

I'm 37, if I do one of these courses I'll be over 40 before I finish -- I don't see anyone at an interview asking me if I have ever finished high school. In fact, once you're beyond a certain age no one ever even asks to see your degrees, let alone your high school diploma.

To be clear, from what it sounds like, I don't know that I'd go for the Traductor Publico, I don't want to go through law school, especially at my age, especially here with the bureaucratic mess it becomes. The literario might be more my path IF I do either one, so I don't even know that anyone would need to see the degree and especially not the high school diploma (*and I'm not saying skip the degree courses, I'm saying if you don't have to present the HS diploma before receiving one's degree at the end of studies, why do it? Can you see I've been living in Argentina long enough that I consider these things?)

 

[nlaruccia]

You can get into the university, but every time you have to take a mid-term or a final and all the students sign up, you're prohibited from taking exams and have to go to the students' office (Alumnos) and explain that the high school diplomacy equivalency is "en tramite" so that they'll let you sign up for exams. You have to finish all the high school exams before you finish university or they won't give you the degree whether it's a bachelor's or master's degree. I don't think any reputable company will hire you as a translator if you don't have a university diploma, which allows you to get certified at the Colegio de Traductores Publicos, because every translation or interpretation in Argentina "must" be legalized via Colegio de Traductores Publicos. You absolutely have to be certified with Colegio de Traductores Publicos before you can work and before that you must have your university degree and before that you must have the high school diploma equivalency. It's just the way it's done here. However, you might study for a degree here even though you won't receive it in the end (due to high school equivalency) and go back to the States, where a translation or interpretation doesn't need to be certified, and maybe a company in the U.S. will hire you even if you don't "technically" have the college degree but finished the university program.

Don't be fooled into thinking that literary translation is any easier than legal translations. It can be very difficult. Especially when you have to decide which translation technique to choose: direct, adaptation, transposition, plus the semiotics of the texts and then add in the complication of semiotics of culture. There are many works of literature that are not translatable because of cultural differences. A friend of mine is a translator at the UN and interprets for the G-8. She was asked to translate a Maya Angelou book from English to Italian and she turned the offer down. She said the significance of the story would be lost in translation. Imagine trying to translate Southern African American slang into Italian slang. See what I mean? Have you watched the movie "Pilot" from the 80's. Do you remember the scene where there are some African American passengers that the flight attendant can't understand and she asks if anyone can speak ebonics? Imagine having to write the Spanish subtitles of that scene. Especially when in movies you can only use a certain amount of spaces for letters per scene, which really limits you as a translator. It's very challenging and you have to be creative without modifying the meaning too much.

They say that medical interpreters are in demand since so many medical congresses here, but they generally need interpreters that can interpret the foreign language into castellano.

 

[nlaruccia]

Come to think of it the movie wasn't called "Pilot". It's called "Donde esta el pilot" in Argentina. I got confused. It's called "Airplane" in English. That scene with the elderly lady interpreting ebonics is hilarious.

 

[syngirl]

Come to think of it the movie wasn't called "Pilot". It's called "Donde esta el pilot" in Argentina. I got confused. It's called "Airplane" in English. That scene with the elderly lady interpreting ebonics is hilarious.

LOL
----
What degree did you end up changing to out of curiousity?

 

[nlaruccia]

I remember the first day of class the professor asked us why we had chosen translation to study and one of the students responded that he was studying engineering and thought translation might be easier. The professor just cracked up. She was right. It's really hard.

I ended up changing universities and changing my major to gestion hotelera.

The high school exams are a pain in the neck and you can't talk your way through them. Example: the Argentine history exam consists in the 3rd, 4th and 5th year of high school history combined into one exam.

 

[French jurist]

Don't be fooled into thinking that literary translation is any easier than legal translations. It can be very difficult. Especially when you have to decide which translation technique to choose: direct, adaptation, transposition, plus the semiotics of the texts and then add in the complication of semiotics of culture. There are many works of literature that are not translatable because of cultural differences. A friend of mine is a translator at the UN and interprets for the G-8. She was asked to translate a Maya Angelou book from English to Italian and she turned the offer down.

I agree, furthermore legal translations often have very similar sections like disclaimers & such so if you use a CAT tool, it's quite easy to work fast. So far, my record for legal translations was to translate 9.000 words in 1 day (4 or 5 typos max in the whole text), just because of that (but I work like 13/15 hours a day of course... 16 months now working 7/7 with not a single day of vacation because I have a few projects in mind).

When I studied Law, I passed an exam, just for the fun, to be legal translator but many translators are succesful without a diploma.

Working with online agencies, you can make from 3 to 11 cents (USD) per word (but getting paid below 5 cents is really not recommended).

The best strategy I'd recommend to work as a translator:
- Creating a profile on ProZ & pay for a membership (why, because when agencies look for translators in your language pair, your name will show up first).
- Answering as many "Kudoz" questions (for free... but that's fun) as you can in order to rank high in the leaderboards (why, because your name will appear even higher in the leaderboards).
- Answering job offers is OK (watch out for the profile of the agencies = many deadbeat payers) but following the 2 steps above will lead to a situation where agencies will contact you (some are really not serious, but some are high profile).
- Contacting online agencies (discard eLance, oDesk & such = low pay)

Little by little, you'll have more & more clients, then you can start to get rid of the low paying ones, the ones you don't like to work with, etc.

The "weak point" of Syngirl's approach, if I may (of course I can!), is the financial aspect: why sweat in order to get an AR degree, to later work mostly in pesos? (unless Syngirl has a specific strategy about that).

Translating is a great job. I never thought I would work as a translator in fact but now, I find it quite enjoyable to make a living in USD, in a bathing suit, nearby my pool, surrounded by my 5 dogs.

Aside of the legal translations, I take a lot of pleasure with other fields:
- Trading/Forex (a lot of work)
- Mobile apps (a lot of work!!! Buy an iPhone + iPad + Android and learn a bit about XML, HTML, etc. = success almost guaranteed)
- Adult content (impersonating a 20 y/o girl & typing prerecorded posts to feed chats / translating a whole website with sexcams -hi girls!-, etc.)
- Games: for online casinos/poker sites that's really an easy terminology. Best experience so far = translating a whole game, Counter Strike like, to be released soon on Steam, with full freedom given (no instructions, do as you wish = I like that)
- etc.

Diversity is another important aspect to my eyes, I wouldn't like to always translate the same type of content, I like to switch gears.

 

[syngirl]

Have you thought about a master's degree in translation? Both UBA and Belgrano have programs and neither of them focus specifically on legal translation. However, only UBA has courses specific to interpretation.

I wrote to U Belgrano this morning and was shocked to get an email right away... obviously they actually have their automatic mailer actually set up and working, I wrote back with some more questions, we'll see how long it actually takes to answer something beyond the form...

Anyhow I thought I'd let you know that:

1) There are no high school requirements for the programme.
2) As a foreigner you will have to pass a placement exam beore being allowed admission to the course.
3) You have to show a legalised photocopy of your degrees -- I have written back to ask if the legalizacion needs to be done at the Embassy in the respective country where you received your degree, which will be a huge pain if that is the case. Also asked if they need to be translated or what. I think my undergraduate degree might be written in Latin(!) so that's a pain if so. And then my other one is from the States, so ugh, could be another headache. Also asked if they need transcripts or just the degree.
4) They sent me the application, ugh, it's like nightmares of my MA application all over again. Describe yourself, describe your most important achievement to date, describe a situation in which you failed and how you overcame it, You have to propose a final project (thesis):

Una vez aprobadas las diez materias del plan de estudios, el maestrando deberá elaborar un trabajo final de traducción, o bien una tesis, con la dirección de un tutor. Dicho trabajo deberá tener, como mínimo, 20000 palabras y contar con la correspondiente fundamentación teórica, y deberá entregarse en el curso de los dos años posteriores a la fecha de aprobación de la última materia.

5) The current tuition is 21 cuotas of $2267. There are becas (I have written to find out what conditions must be met) and prestamos.

 

[fifs2]

Happy Translator's Day to all esteemed translation colleagues around the world. Like Frenchie I work way too many hours and translate for fun in my spare time apart from running our company and raising a family. Happy Day all!

 

[French jurist]

Lots of fuzzies to everyone!

 

[fifs2]

Lots of fuzzies to everyone!

100% match to that!