Conclusion

In this free course, Translation as a career, we have introduced you to what being a professional translator is like. We hope you have found it useful to think of the skills and knowledge needed to be a translator, both in terms of translation competence and more specifically in terms of language competence. We hope you have enjoyed meeting the translators who have shared glimpses into their lives with you, and finding out about possibilities for volunteering in this field. Finally, we hope you have started to think about how translating is not just about translating literally one word for another, but that there are other issues to consider, and that translation theory provides strategies and constructs to enable us to think about some of the issues that are involved when we translate.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course L801 Introduction to translation theory and practice [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] , which is the first part of the OU’s MA in Translation. You might also be interested in the second part: L802 Translation in practice.