| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: Do you have a degree in translation or interpretation? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you have a degree in translation or interpretation?".
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My degree is in economics.
| | | | | | expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 16:44
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
A bachelor degree in Modern Languages and Literature, Portuguese and French Studies, with specialisation in translation.
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| Other: I have a postgraduate diploma | Oct 14, 2022 |
This option is often left out of these lists and surveys, and I do not like to call it a degree. It is an Erhverssproglig Diplom, ED (Special Language Diploma) from the University of Southern Denmark.
It was two years' part-time study, equivalent in ECTS points to a year´s study full time, but it is not the same as a two-year postgraduate degree. It was run as part-time study, and it was not possible to study for it full time.
My bachelor degree was called Information ... See more This option is often left out of these lists and surveys, and I do not like to call it a degree. It is an Erhverssproglig Diplom, ED (Special Language Diploma) from the University of Southern Denmark.
It was two years' part-time study, equivalent in ECTS points to a year´s study full time, but it is not the same as a two-year postgraduate degree. It was run as part-time study, and it was not possible to study for it full time.
My bachelor degree was called Information Science, but I prefer to explain it as technical librarianship, and its successor was called Business Information Management. (There was possibly more business and less librarianship, I am not sure.) Mine included translation from German, but I would not call it a degree in translation.
Then I have a collection of odd extra modules of this and that, but I use law and medical translation.
It is still not a degree, but it qualified for Chartered Linguist status.
The Dip. Trans. is also a postgraduate diploma, but not actually a degree.
[Edited at 2022-10-14 09:32 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 17:44
Spanish to English
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Just a bog standard BA in modern languages (French and Russian). In those days, language courses included quite a lot of translation both into and out of English, but we never bothered with theory or machine translation or any of that airy fairy 21st-century nonsense.
| | | | | I started on one of those... | Oct 14, 2022 |
neilmac wrote:
Just a bog standard BA in modern languages (French and Russian). In those days, language courses included quite a lot of translation both into and out of English, but we never bothered with theory or machine translation or any of that airy fairy 21st-century nonsense.
I started on one of those, but could not for the life of me imagine what I was going to do with essays on Racine and Goethe afterwards. One thing was reading the books and perhaps some of the historical background, but I was simply not mature enough to know what relevance Phèdre and Andromaque had in the 20th century. My German was too shaky to get as much out of Wilhelm Meister as I probably should have done.
I had to drop out in the second year year because I was ill, and when I came back the syllabus had changed... It was probably a lucky escape in the long run, but it took me some time to find my feet again!
A lot of theory still goes way over my head, but solid technical German at Leeds Poly was an eye-opener - this was translation that I could imagine actually being useful!
Likewise the Special Language Diploma - hardly anyone reads or speaks Danish outside Denmark, and the country lives on trade! So translation is vitally necessary, and it was hands-on, practical business, and far more to my taste.
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I also have a bog standard modern languages degree, in my case in Hispanic Studies, although some 17 years ago I got the Dip Trans, which was what gave me the confidence to start translating and stop teaching.
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Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 17:44
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
3-year full-time translation studies, but it's not a "degree". I wanted to study a 4th year and turn the diploma into a degree, but most of my fellow students were happy with their diploma and wanted to enter the job market, so there weren't enough students for the 4th year in my year.
| | | | Michele Fauble
United States
Local time: 09:44
Member (2006)
Norwegian to English
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Degree in English Language and Literature with Latin and Ancient Greek.
| | | | | English Philology | Oct 14, 2022 |
A 5-year licentiate degree in English Philology that I did in Spain. I also have a teacher's certificate and diploma from the RAD (Royal Academy of Dance) but not many people are interested in that.
| | | | S_G_C (X)
Romania
Local time: 18:44
English to Romanian
In translation and interpretation, both English and French, though I stopped interpreting many, many years ago.
[Edited at 2022-10-15 16:53 GMT]
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I don’t have a degree in anything - let alone translation or interpretation. The only language exams I passed in my entire life were O-level English, French and Latin, way back in the 1960s.
I have always been very appreciative of employers (including some major players in the broadcasting industry) and clients (including several lawyers) who value my proven ability to do the job well, far more than they do the number of certificates hanging on the wall of my office.
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What all our answers boil down to is that there are many ways to become a translator…
| | | | expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 16:44
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| I agree and I would add: | Oct 16, 2022 |
Teresa Borges wrote:
What all our answers boil down to is that there are many ways to become a translator…
A diploma does not guarantee we are better professionals than others, and not everyone who is successful as a translator or other has a degree, as well as not every client cares about higher degrees.
Everyone is knowledgeable in their own field of study, whether it was obtained through a university, working at a company or from books.
Also, I can say that until today I have met people from other fields of study with no higher education who are excellent professionals than others who have a university degree.
I have a deep admiration for them.
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