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Poll: Were/are your parents in the translation business?
论题张贴者: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
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Mar 3, 2010

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Were/are your parents in the translation business?".

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Interlangue (X)
Interlangue (X)
安哥拉
Local time: 19:52
English英语译成French法语
+ ...
Not in "the business" Mar 3, 2010

but somehow involved in languages - teacher and multilingual secretary (and 'immigrants').

 
Catherine Shepherd
Catherine Shepherd  Identity Verified
英国
Local time: 18:52
Spanish西班牙语译成English英语
+ ...
Not in "the business" either, but... Mar 3, 2010

Interlangue wrote:

but somehow involved in languages - teacher and multilingual secretary (and 'immigrants').


Same here - my father used to do voluntary interpretations, and my mother was a Spanish teacher and now helps immigrant children to learn English.


 
Joy Phillips
Joy Phillips
荷兰
Local time: 19:52
Dutch荷兰语译成English英语
Not translators, but freelancers Mar 3, 2010

My parents certainly passed on their love of language, although neither was a translator; we used to read etymological dictionaries for fun at bedtime However, my father was a freelance illustrator and graphic designer throughout most of my childhood and I do think that inspired me to seek a freelance profession.

 
Xanthippe
Xanthippe
法国
Local time: 19:52
正式会员 (自2008)
Italian意大利语译成French法语
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
not translators Mar 3, 2010

not translators but my father worked in another country and use to speak at least 2 languages all the time.

 
Latin_Hellas (X)
Latin_Hellas (X)
美国
Local time: 19:52
Italian意大利语译成English英语
+ ...
Languages & business good, but not necessarily language business Mar 3, 2010

One parent ran a small/medium-sized business, wife and her family mostly small business owners. Mainly working in a local context on mostly monolingual continents, no multilingual skills among them.

Nonetheless, it is certainly helpful in business, especially in a globalized economy, to know as many languages as possible. However, my guess is that the majority of people who conduct business in several languages are not necessarily in the language business.

My experienc
... See more
One parent ran a small/medium-sized business, wife and her family mostly small business owners. Mainly working in a local context on mostly monolingual continents, no multilingual skills among them.

Nonetheless, it is certainly helpful in business, especially in a globalized economy, to know as many languages as possible. However, my guess is that the majority of people who conduct business in several languages are not necessarily in the language business.

My experience suggests that the language business is better as a second career after experience in another business conducted in more than one language.


However, there are plenty of people whose primary education/training is language and translation and who pursue translation, or intend to pursue it, as a primary occupation/business, and it appears that the trend currently and going forward is that more and more people are entering the translation business with this background. It also appears that the downward pressure on rates reflects that trend.

[Edited at 2010-03-03 10:28 GMT]
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Gianluca Marras
Gianluca Marras  Identity Verified
意大利
Local time: 19:52
English英语译成Italian意大利语
no Mar 3, 2010

my parents can only speak Italian, but my mum loves "learning" as much as she can about different cultures. So she supported me every time I wanted to travel, study abroad and also when I decided to quit my previous job (in-house) as a web editor, to start as a freelance translator.

[Edited at 2010-03-03 11:30 GMT]


 
Valeria Fuma
Valeria Fuma
阿根廷
Local time: 14:52
English英语译成Spanish西班牙语
+ ...
no Mar 3, 2010

my mum is a housewife and my dad runs a medium-sized business

 
Jiantao Lu
Jiantao Lu  Identity Verified
中国大陆
Local time: 01:52
English英语译成Chinese汉语
interestingly Mar 3, 2010

My dad was firstly a teacher teaching Russian; then when the previous Soviet Union broke up with China, my dad became an English teacher, both in high school.
My mom was a Chinese teacher in junior high school.
Now I am a freelancer translator, from English into Chinese.


 
David Russi
David Russi  Identity Verified
美国
Local time: 11:52
English英语译成Spanish西班牙语
+ ...
My father was a translator, Italian to English Mar 3, 2010

The clickety-clack-clack of a manual typewriter is the background noise of my childhood.

 
Laureana Pavon
Laureana Pavon  Identity Verified
乌拉圭
Local time: 14:52
正式会员 (自2007)
English英语译成Spanish西班牙语
+ ...

版主
Yes Mar 3, 2010

My father is an engineering geologist who later in life used the language skills he picked up while working all over the world to become a translator/interpreter (mostly interpreter). He's now retired.

My mom is a Spanish/Spanish Literature teacher.

[Edited at 2010-03-03 17:12 GMT]


 
Yvonne Becker
Yvonne Becker  Identity Verified
Local time: 13:52
English英语译成Spanish西班牙语
+ ...
No Mar 3, 2010

but my uncle is a part-time interpreter and my grandmother (who died when I was a child) was a translator

 
Sp-EnTranslator
Sp-EnTranslator
美国
Local time: 13:52
Spanish西班牙语译成English英语
+ ...
My mother - Freelance Translator for 35+ years Mar 3, 2010

In the beginning it was the manual typewriter, with layers of copy and carbot sheets beneath the original paper.

Later on, it was the IBM typwriter, again, copy and carbon sheets attached.

Today, she's still in the computer (At last, no more messy carbon-copy).

As fate would have it, here I am, too.


 
Louise Souter (X)
Louise Souter (X)  Identity Verified
英国
Local time: 18:52
Spanish西班牙语译成English英语
+ ...
Likewise Mar 3, 2010

xanthippe wrote:

not translators but my father worked in another country and use to speak at least 2 languages all the time.


We also travelled a lot when I was a child and both my parents speak French.


 
Irena Kacarski-Kimova
Irena Kacarski-Kimova  Identity Verified
马其顿共和国(前南斯拉夫马其顿共和国)
Local time: 19:52
English英语译成Macedonian马其顿语
+ ...
no Mar 3, 2010

but my aunt who had a great influence on my life (passed away prematurely) was an English language teacher. I think I came to love the English language because I loved her so much. Her two daughters, interestingly enough, are also studying languages (English included).

 
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Poll: Were/are your parents in the translation business?






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