KHAZAR UNIVERSITY

Faculty: School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences

Major: Translation

RESEARCH PAPER

Theme: How to become a successful Translator

Student: Yusubov Hasan

Supervisor: 1. Leyla Rahimova

Baku, 2020

The place of Translator in job market is important and essential in my point of

view. You may say there are a lot of devices to do this job for you, however,
they are not effective and not 100% correct all the time. On the other hand real
experts of these jobs have less chance to be incorrect. The main point of
Translation is making your life easier. You may ask how it makes your life
easier? The answer is very simple, to give an example: if you find a great film
to watch or a book to read but don’t know the language of that film or book
because you don’t know that language then suddenly you find variations of
exact books-films in your language, so this is exactly what translators do. They
make such things easier for you to understand and make them available in the
language you use.
I have informed you about general purpose of translators, now I would like to
inform you about difference between an Interpreter and a Translator before I
move on the main subject because both Translator and Interpreter look similar.
However, there are differences between an Interpreter and a Translator.
Interpreters are also translator, we can call Interpreter a branch of Translation
like Translator but the way an Interpreter translates is different than the way of
Translators. Interpreters do the job of translation orally. They work as a part of a
company at meetings and translate people’s speech orally whereas Translators
translate some texts, documents, books etc.
I would also like to inform you about 8 different translation types according to
https://culturesconnection.com . These are Technical Translation, Scientific
Translation, Financial Translation, Legal Translation, Judicial Translation,
Juridical Translation, Certified Translation, and lastly Literary Translation.
The first type of translation is Technical Translation. People can understand the
term “Technical Translation” in 2 different ways. First one is very wide known.
It is about translating internal notes, medical translations, administrative terms
in general, financial reports, and so on. However, these documents are for a
specific and limited target audience and usually have a limited shelf-life. The
second way people understand this term is known by less people. It refers to
“technical” documentation such as engineering, IT, electronics, mechanics, and
industrial texts in general. Technical translation requires knowledge of the
specialized terminology.
The second type is Scientific Translation. As you can see from its name, the
purpose of Scientific Translation is to translate scientific articles, theses, papers,
conference presentations and so on.
The third type is Financial Translation. We can also call that Economic
Translation. Purpose of Financial Translation is dealing with documentation
related to finance, banking, and stock exchange activity. This gathers company
annual reports, financial documents, financial statements, financial contracts
etc.
The fourth type is Legal Translation as I mentioned above. Legal Translation
covers a wide range of different documents. These may include legal documents
such as summons1 and warrants2; administrative texts such as registration
certificates, corporate statutes and remittance3 drafts; technical documents such
as expert opinions and texts for judicial purposes; and a number of other texts in
addition to reports of court proceedings.
The fifth type is Judicial Translation. Do not confuse it with legal or certified
translation. It may look exactly like Legal Translation but there is a crucial
difference between Legal and Judicial Translation. While Legal Translation is
the translation of any document fitted within any branch of law, judicial
translation is the translation of any document that is part of a judicial
proceeding. It refers to the task of translation undertaken in a court setting.
These Translators are specialized in translating documents such as letters
rogatory4, judgements, expert opinions and more to count.
The sixth type is called Juridical Translation. Before I explain what Juridical
Translation actually is, I would like you to know that these translators should
have a legal background in addition to their linguistic skills. Juridical translation
refers to legally-binding. This could be the translation of documents such as
laws, general sales and purchase conditions, legally binding contracts such as
license and commercial contracts and so on.
The seventh type is Certified Translations. These Translators may use their
signature to authenticate official translations. These are usually documents that
require legal confirmation and are thus referred to as “certified” or “sworn”.
Certified translators often work in courtrooms as juridical translators, or act in
the capacity of a legal expert, as well as providing translations of civil status
documentation, marital agreements, divorce settlements, deceases, for example.
The eight and last type is Literary Translation. This type of Translation is the
hardest of all the different kinds of translation. A Literary translator should be
extremely skilled to understand the meaning of the content and be able to
translate it correctly. In addition to that they have to deal with a number of other
difficulties, such as:
1
Summon - an official demand to appear in a law court.
2
Warrants - an official document, signed by a judge or other person in authority, that gives the police
permission to search someone's home, arrest a person, or take some other action.
3
Remittance – an amount of money that you send to someone
4
Letters Rogatory are also called letters of request. These are a formal request from a court to a foreign court
for some type of judicial assistance.
Polysemic word play specific to literary texts, as behind a word or a phrase,
there lie a number of connotations which the writer has tried to transmit or hint
at subtly and which the translator must attempt to render;

The author’s own particular literary style; the translator must try to transmit the
unique way in which the writer has couched their ideas;

Rhythm, meter and the innate balance of the phrase; this is particularly
important in poetry but equally present in prose, where the translator must work
out the best way to resolve the delicate task of rendering the music inherent to
the text –assonance, alliteration and asyndetons.

Now you know 8 different types of translators and main point of translation
with these information I mentioned above. Now I would like to move on the
main subject - How to be a successful translator.

Translators may know more than 2, 3 or even 4 languages but in my opinion

they should focus on learning and mastering one language before moving to
another one. It is good to know as much language as you can if you are a
translator, however it does not mean that you can just move on and learn
another language before mastering first one before. I would like to give you
some advice about how to become a successful translator.
First of all, you must focus on learning one source language extensively. You
should choose the language you want to translate wisely. Take a look at job
markets and meet the percentages of translators like how much percentage of
them are translators of German language or French or Spanish. Focus on
learning unique language to translate because that will make your chance higher
to obtain a good, well-paid job as a translator compared to other common
translators. Do not forget that there are a lot of translators all around world that
is why you should choose the language you want to translate wisely.
Secondly, you must get specialized training. The fact is that even if you are
fluent in a language, it does not necessarily mean you have the skills to
translate. If you want to be able to provide clear and efficient translation, you
must get specialized training in addition to language study.
Thirdly, you must get certified. It is an obvious fact, if you get certified you will
prove that you have the skills to do the work and it will make finding a job a lot
easier for you. So, try and get a certification from world-wide known
certification centers.
Fourthly, get specialized in a specific industry and learn industry-specific terms.
It is a well-known fact that you can not be a translator in every single industry.
It will not be wise choice if you try to get mastered in every single industry.
You should choose your style of translation, and choose one specific translation
type to be and be a master of the job you do, do not only try to get a job, try to
also be master of your job so it will grant you the job you desire and will
probably grant you more than that.
Fifth and last tip, to further grow your career, learn more languages. As I
mentioned above, you have to focus on learning one language before moving on
other languages. After you master one language, it means it is time to learn
more languages. Do not forget that as a translator you will have higher and
greater chance to obtain a job if you know many languages. After you learn one
language try mastering the second, then the third and maybe forth. Keep
learning until you know enough.
To sum up, if you want to be a successful translator, you should follow tips I
gave above, and gather all the abilities that are needed to be a successful
translator in yourself.

REFERENCES:
https://culturesconnection.com
https://www.fluentu.com/