What are careers in translation?

Medical interpreting, literary translating, and legal interpreting are careers in translation. Here are some more details on each of these career paths in translation and others.

• Medical translator or interpreter

  These translators and interpreters work in health care settings, such as hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centers, and other medical facilities. They are tasked with helping patients communicate effectively with medical staff, like doctors, nurses, techs, and others.

  Because of their specialized work, translators in this field must possess an advanced understanding of medical terminology, and must also be familiar with medical treatments, in both of the languages they speak.

  They can also assist both patients and medical staff in translating medical texts, research documents, pharmaceutical information, brochures about diseases, illnesses, and injuries, as well patient consent forms, and any other necessary medical documents or records.

  Medical translators and interpreters must maintain a level of confidentiality with their patients, as well as be versed in how to compassionately deliver negative medical information concerning a patient.

• Literary translator

  These professionals translate and convert literature from a source text to another language. Literary translators study books, journal articles, short stories, poetry, plays, screenplays, and other forms of creative and non-creative writing.

  When translating a fictional or non-fictional author's book, literary translators must be sure to accurately capture the author's tone, style, and voice in the translation. Many forms of literature can be culturally specific, so translators often refer to historical texts, and other reference materials to make sure they are properly translating a work.

• Legal translator

  Translators and interpreters working in the legal and judicial realms often perform their duties in environments such as courts or law offices. They may have to translate entire legal events, such as depositions, arrangements, hearings, and trials. During these, they might translate live conversations with legal officials, plaintiffs, or defendants.

  They also may have to translate crucial documents of a particular case or trial. Much like medical translators, legal translators must possess advanced knowledge of the legal language and the rights of legal clients.

  Oftentimes, legal translators act as advocates for people dealing with a legal issue in court or otherwise, and who can not speak English at all, or very little.

• Conference interpreters

  These translation professionals interpret and translate lectures and conference events, often for non-English speaking attendants. They may work in several different fields under this umbrella, such as international affairs, business, and diplomacy.

  Many conference interpreters are fluent in over two languages, some possessing the knowledge and skills to translate three, four, five, or even more languages. This is of maximum use when conferences are held in which the attendees are from a variety of different countries or regions, and speak several different languages.

• Community interpreters

  Community interpreters can also work in a variety of settings within a specific community, such as schools, and state or local government agencies. They also may find themselves performing work in several events, like public meetings, real estate deals, parent-teacher conferences, school board meetings, and other community events.

• Localizers

  This career path of translation has professional translators converting the text and/or graphics of products, services, instruction manuals, websites, and advertisement and promotional materials from one language to another. The definition of localizing in this profession is to make text and graphics from these sources seem like they originated in a different country or region.

  For example, if a product was made in the United States, but the company wants to market it to consumers in Germany, localizers would make the necessary language and cultural adjustments to the product and everything that goes with it, including advertising and any manuals or technical information.

  Localizers often specialize in certain kinds of products, so they may have additional knowledge of technical aspects, rather than just being able to translate the information and text from one language to another. They often use a computer and online software to complete their tasks.