On line Translation courses, recognized worldwide?
Thread poster: Davide Rota
Davide Rota
Davide Rota  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 10:51
English to Italian
+ ...
Feb 18, 2017

My question is very simple

- Do you know the existence of serious courses that could be followed in e-learning from home for somebody with no university?
- I mean some serious courses that will be testifying someone's professionality, worldwide recognized?


[Edited at 2017-02-19 16:00 GMT]


 
Françoise Vogel
Françoise Vogel  Identity Verified
Local time: 10:51
English to French
+ ...
Feb 19, 2017



[Edited at 2017-02-19 17:54 GMT]


 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
@Davide Feb 19, 2017

Unfortunately, translators seem to be the only specialists (almost deliberately) expected to do "free tests" to prove their credentials on a regular basis.

Perhaps, references and recommendations from satisfied clients?
On the other hand, if your content client is working in the same field as your prospect client, they may be business rivals, rendering your testimonial as a possible trick...


 
Anton Konashenok
Anton Konashenok  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
Local time: 10:51
French to English
+ ...
Recognition is unimportant, and even a course itself is optional Feb 19, 2017

Unlike professions like medicine or jurisprudence, translation is not really regulated (except in specific cases like state-recognised certification), so the worldwide recognition of your diploma makes very little difference. In my 32 years in this industry, I was asked for my diploma only 3 or 4 times. It's the quality of the course itself that matters, but again, the vast majority of what you can learn from a lecture course can also be learned by reading a few good books on translation. On the... See more
Unlike professions like medicine or jurisprudence, translation is not really regulated (except in specific cases like state-recognised certification), so the worldwide recognition of your diploma makes very little difference. In my 32 years in this industry, I was asked for my diploma only 3 or 4 times. It's the quality of the course itself that matters, but again, the vast majority of what you can learn from a lecture course can also be learned by reading a few good books on translation. On the other hand, it helps a lot to have a good mentor who would guide and correct you in your practical translation endeavours. A reasonable approach to this would be to find an experienced translator who would edit your translations and give you critical feedback.Collapse


 
Davide Rota
Davide Rota  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 10:51
English to Italian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
What I mean is ... Feb 20, 2017

I realize I wasn't very clear with my question

The point is : what can I do to dind customers if my CV doesn't show y translations skills, since I dont have any translation degree or certificate?

- The idea was to start with and official certifyng course, but I can only attend that on-line.
- Or anyway, does it make sence to get a worldwide certification?


 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 10:51
French to English
online courses Feb 20, 2017

I don't know of any "worldwide certification". The best you could hope for would be to sign up with a school or university that's well-known in your language pair(s).

I have heard of some online courses run by universities in the UK.

Living in Paris, I was able to attend the top translation school in France. I only had to do a handlful of classes because I went through a system whereby I proved that I had plenty of professional experience, and was thus dispensed from a
... See more
I don't know of any "worldwide certification". The best you could hope for would be to sign up with a school or university that's well-known in your language pair(s).

I have heard of some online courses run by universities in the UK.

Living in Paris, I was able to attend the top translation school in France. I only had to do a handlful of classes because I went through a system whereby I proved that I had plenty of professional experience, and was thus dispensed from attending about 95% of the classes.

I had previously looked into online courses and didn't find any of them to be satisfactory. In fact, I found it highly beneficial to actually have to attend conferences in person. Firstly, I made several friends in the process, and secondly, I was able to meet my future competitors and clients (my first translation after graduating was from the father of another student working in a different language pair). I was also able to join the alumni society, another good source of business contacts. And I found it very refreshing to discuss issues with other students in person.

It was hard to make the time, I had to negotiate my hours (I was working in an agency at the time), I had to ask my partner to come home earlier for the kids on the nights I had a late class, I had to give up other activities for the duration (volunteer work, yoga classes etc.) but in the end it was well worth it.
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Davide Rota
Davide Rota  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 10:51
English to Italian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
IOL ena ATA ? Feb 21, 2017

What of IOL and ATA certificate?

I mean, maybe I could follow some course preparing you to get those certificates?
Do they make a clou? Do I need them to be more competitive?


 
Graeme Jones
Graeme Jones  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:51
Member (2015)
French to English
+ ...
ATA, CIOL, ITI etc. Feb 23, 2017

CIOL and ATA both seem to be well recognised (and ITI - see below). The difference is that with CIOL you sit 3 exams on one day and, if you pass, you get a Dip Trans (Diploma in Translation) which is something you keep with you - it's a fully recognised postgraduate level qualification; with ATA you sit 1 exam with 2 test pieces and this qualifies you to be a certificated member - but only for ATA. So if you leave ATA, you are back to square 1 in a sense.

For CIOL - there are a numb
... See more
CIOL and ATA both seem to be well recognised (and ITI - see below). The difference is that with CIOL you sit 3 exams on one day and, if you pass, you get a Dip Trans (Diploma in Translation) which is something you keep with you - it's a fully recognised postgraduate level qualification; with ATA you sit 1 exam with 2 test pieces and this qualifies you to be a certificated member - but only for ATA. So if you leave ATA, you are back to square 1 in a sense.

For CIOL - there are a number of online preparatory courses. One example is City University in UK (www.city.ac.uk). They run 3 series of 10 week 'courses' throughout the year and they are aimed specifically and only at preparing you for the CIOL exams. They are just over £400 for a 10 week session currently. They would be useful in helping you know if you are close to the standard required or not. They don't teach you language skills as such though - and I think they offer a range of from and into English (including Spanish and Italian), but not sure about your other language pair. City is just one place - there are others too - check Google.

For ATA - they are quite transparent about what they require and what their mark scheme is (www.atanet.org). They also offer you a 'practice paper' - you pay some money and they send you a typical exam test. They then tell you if you would have passed, based on how well you did. The thing with ATA is that they have many exam sittings every year but the vast majority are in the US. There is one in Hungary in the next few months I believe. You need to join the organisation first.

There is also ITI (www.iti.org.uk). They also have an entrance test. It's a bit more modern day in that you can do it from home, using your standard reference dictionaries etc. rather than having to go to an external exam sitting. You need to apply first and be able to show that you have been working as a translator for at least 3 years. If you pass, you become ITI qualified - but, as with ATA, it is specific only to ITI.


If you feel like really pushing the boat out, there are a number of 'distance learning' MA courses in translation. In the UK, there is Bristol, Portsmouth, Birmingham and the Open University has just started one too. So you don't need to be on campus/site at all. Some of these, I think, allow you to do a Certificate, or a Diploma, or the full MA.
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Mair A-W (PhD)
Mair A-W (PhD)
Germany
Local time: 10:51
German to English
+ ...
Distance learning Feb 23, 2017

While it's true that there are several in the UK, they focus on translation into English, which is not the OP's pair. If he wants to go down that kind of route, I would suggest that he searches for "distance learning" and "translation" in Italian ...

 
Graeme Jones
Graeme Jones  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:51
Member (2015)
French to English
+ ...
Update on language pairs in UK Feb 23, 2017

Just a bit more info: City's language pairs are as follows (including English-Italian):

English - Spanish | Spanish - English
English - French | French - English
English - German | German - English
English - Italian | Italian - English
English - Portuguese | Portuguese - English
English - Dutch | Dutch - English
English - Russian | Russian - English
English - Polish
English - Arabic
English - Turkish
English - Slovak
... See more
Just a bit more info: City's language pairs are as follows (including English-Italian):

English - Spanish | Spanish - English
English - French | French - English
English - German | German - English
English - Italian | Italian - English
English - Portuguese | Portuguese - English
English - Dutch | Dutch - English
English - Russian | Russian - English
English - Polish
English - Arabic
English - Turkish
English - Slovak
English - Czech

CIOL's Dip Trans does specify that it can examine in pairs which do not include English, depending on examiner availability, so it's worth asking if you're interested in that. Then you just need to find somewhere that will coach it!
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Serious courses that could be followed in e-learning from home Mar 6, 2017

Davide Rota wrote:

My question is very simple

- Do you know the existence of serious courses that could be followed in e-learning from home for somebody with no university?
- I mean some serious courses that will be testifying someone's professionality, worldwide recognized?


[Edited at 2017-02-19 16:00 GMT]


Dear Davide,

please visit www.traduzione.icon-master.it.

This website presents an online Italian "Master universitario di I livello" in Technical and Scientific Translation from English into Italian.

The "Diploma di Master" is issued by the Universities of Pisa and Genova, member Universities of the ICoN interuniversity Consortium - Italian Culture on the Net (www.italicon.education).

The Domains offered are: Law, Economics, Engineering, Computing and Localization, Bio-medicine and pharmaceutical sciences.

The Programme is addressed to translators or candidate translators from English into Italian wishing to obtain a high-level specialization and a leading position in the premium segment of the international market in the field of technical and scientific translation into Italian.

The Master’s Program is open to undergraduates (at least Italian laurea di I livello or equivalent foreign qualification) with an advanced knowledge of written Italian (at least near-native) and a good knowledge of English.

The Programme meets high standards thanks to the collaboration of qualified scholars and professionals from universities, from the translation industry and from leading companies in the field of computer aided and machine translation.

The "Master" is equivalent to 60 ECTS credits (European Credits Transfer System) and lasts one year.

For further information, please contact [email protected]

Best regards,
Laura De Renzis
ICoN Consortium
Italian Culture on the Net


 


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On line Translation courses, recognized worldwide?






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