“How many languages do you speak?”
“It must be amazing to be able to speak many different languages.”
These are remarks I frequently encounter when I mention I’m a translator. And I won’t tire of repeating: speaking languages isn’t something that translators usually do. Translators (unlike interpreters) do not necessarily have to be fluent, confident speakers of a foreign language.
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| “How many languages do you speak?” It’s a question which I, as a translator, have been asked what seems like hundreds of times (photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash) |
Translators don’t speak many languages
Instead, the following skills are way more important – in fact, critical – to what translators do in their jobs:
- Translators need to be able to fully understand, capture and transfer the meaning, nuances and complexities of a text that has been written in a foreign language.
- Translators need to put their antennas out to sense the finer subtleties of any language around them, with the aim of exploiting language observations in their translations.
- Translators need to be skilled in writing well.
Translation work is written work
This means I’m a translator, but I don’t speak many languages. For example, I offer translations from Italian, but I admit I don’t speak Italian well. I can read and understand (and obviously translate from) Italian, but my spoken Italian is rusty, to say the least.
I’m also learning Swedish because I’m keen to be able to speak and understand it; however, Swedish is a language that’s never going to feature in my job. The basic Swedish speaking skills which I’ve acquired are worlds away from the highly specialised work required in professional translation.
Native language skills: a translator’s most important toolset
Translators
don’t tend (or need) to jump at opportunities to speak, because written
language is the tool that they predominantly work with. As a German
translator, I therefore constantly work on sharpening my German writing
skills. To this end, I routinely expose myself to language around me, by
reading, listening to and observing language.
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| Translators don’t tend (or need) to jump at opportunities to speak, because written language is the tool that they predominantly work with (photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pixabay) |
Finally, whilst the ability to speak a foreign language isn’t a prerequisite of the translator’s job, there’s no doubt that it is a beneficial additional skill that will stand a translator in good stead. The ability to strike up a conversation with a new business contact, for example, may help translators acquire clients of a wholly different calibre.
“How many languages do you speak?” It’s a question which I, as a translator, have been asked what seems like hundreds of times, but which still leaves me stumped for an answer. Perhaps my answer should simply be: “I don’t need to speak much in my job. Translators produce written translations, and I translate texts from English and Italian into German.”
In my latest blog post I explain that the following skills are way more important to the translator's job than being able to speak many foreign languages: https://t.co/0kinTDrJ0L #xl8 #t9n #1nt
— The minimalist translator (@detransferendo) May 10, 2021
