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Poll: Do you have a linguistic background?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 20:22
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Partially Mar 23, 2018

I never went to college for languages, if that's what you mean. I have studied five languages, studied in international biliangual schools, loved languages, read a lot, straght A student in grammar, literature, EN, PT, FR, ES... but I graduated in other areas, and worked for 20 years in the areas I now specialize as a translator. The knowledge I acquired in all these years and courses cannot possibly be pursued in any language course at all.
Considering the level of the professionals, incl... See more
I never went to college for languages, if that's what you mean. I have studied five languages, studied in international biliangual schools, loved languages, read a lot, straght A student in grammar, literature, EN, PT, FR, ES... but I graduated in other areas, and worked for 20 years in the areas I now specialize as a translator. The knowledge I acquired in all these years and courses cannot possibly be pursued in any language course at all.
Considering the level of the professionals, including translators, who have limited themselves to the study of languages, I would never go for that, and I would persuade my kids to never do it either. Thankfully, I didn't have to do that, because they all chose other courses in their lives.
The best translators I know and I have ever worked with have studied, graduated and worked in other areas, usually the areas they specialize at as transaltors now. Some of the worst translators and revisers I ever met and worked with were linguists or graduated in language courses. It may be different in other countries, of course, but in Brazil, the translation and language/art courses in college are very weak and rarely prepare the students to be anything but teachers. Very far away from preparing someone to be a translator.

[Edited at 2018-03-23 01:51 GMT]

[Edited at 2018-03-23 01:52 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 
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Poll: Do you have a linguistic background?






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