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What are the different types of jobs an English to Spanish Translator/Interpreter can have?

I'd like to know what types of information (and words) its common for Spanish Translators to use, and which ones are the most fun environments to be in! #spanish #translation

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Raffaella’s Answer

Hi Kayla B., as an English into Spanish translator, if you enjoy computers, video games, and if in general you are comfortable with technology, you may find fun to work in software localization (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization), to do software testing for high-tech companies for instance, they always need linguists to test their new apps. I am originally a translator French, English into Italian specialized in legal and financial translation, but when I started working at a financial software company 20+ years ago I discovered that localization was more fun than anything I did until then :-)


See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_localization

https://medium.com/@nikolaybondarenko_41585/how-video-game-localization-works-and-how-much-it-costs-in-2018-664e2748a121

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Sankeshwari’s Answer

Hi Kayla!
As the world becomes more globalized & localized, there will always be a need for translators and interpreters - even with machine translation, humans are needed to monitor/fix/train engines.
English to Spanish is indeed a very good language pair to choose as Spanish is one of the most widely translated into languages.
In general, there are many opportunities for careers in language translation and interpretation and your level of success depends on your knowledge of the language as well as the subject you choose to translate.
While translation would require a good level of expertise/proficiency in written Spanish, Interpretation requires verbal proficiency.
You can choose either or both depending on your level of comfort.

If you are keen in exploring beyond the translation/interpretation roles, the localization industry also offers many interesting roles such as Voice-over artist, Directors, Copywriters (creative content) for the advertising industry, work with UN etc. where you can leverage on your knowledge of Spanish combined with another area of interest.

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Elaine’s Answer

First of all, being bilingual will be extremely beneficial in any career you choose. There are many companies that hire interpreters/translator for business needs such as call centers or medical transcriptions. There is also United Nations!
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Jenna’s Answer

Like everything, it depends! Some translators work with text documents, and some are verbal, working with people in real or delayed time. You usually translate into your native language. If you have a specialty, like law or medicine, you are translating different texts than if you have marketing or general information. The types of documents you are translating will affect the vocabulary you use, but verbs are ALWAYS important, so conjugating exercises are important to master if this is a direction you want to go. Hopefully, if this is a career path you choose, it will be fun (at least most of the time), no matter what environment you are in.
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Rachel’s Answer

I work with Spanish translators every day in the medical field. These translators must have additional knowledge of medical vocabulary in English and Spanish to do their jobs effectively. They must be reliable, considerate, and be able to maintain calm in stressful situations.
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Valerie’s Answer

You can become a voice. My company (medical devices) for example often needs videos to be translated and recorded. We use "voices" from our translation agencies. My guess is that nowadays, you only need a good mic to be able to record and don't have to go to any studio anymore like it used to be in the past. You could send an email to all translation agencies you find on internet and offer your services. You can record a few articles to show what kind of tones you can offer (Advertising, marketing, technical, etc). Whatever you prefer.
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Gabriela’s Answer

Each field within translation and interpretation has its own specialized vocabulary so I wouldn't say there are necessarily words that are common in general but there are certainly words that are common in each field. As for the most fun environments, I would second that localization is very fun as well as anything that involves word play or puns. Those are the times you most get to test your brain and figure out equivalents that convey the same or a similar message.
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Dawn’s Answer

You might think that these professions go hand-in-hand, but they are actually quite different from one another. The biggest difference is that a translator deals with written language, while an interpreter works with spoken language. Both require the professional to be familiar not only with the language, but with the context of what is going on during the exchange.

Most interpreters will need to research the content of what is being exchanged before showing up to the job. This is because it requires on-the-spot interpretation of what is going on. A translator needs to also have a strong writing background in both languages. An interpreter might perform their job in person, over the phone or internet, but a translator will mostly work independently of others to complete their job.

Here are a few career options that you can investigate:

Simultaneous Interpreter
Literary Translator
Localization Translator
Medical Translator
Judiciary Translator

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