A question for U.S.-born translators

[elmeromero]

Hello, I'm curious as to how any of you translators born in the U.S. became translators. Do you have any sort of certification or has your experience been strictly professional? Have you found certifications to be worthwhile or not? Thanks.

[TopNotch]

Hi there,

I know at least two Universities that have the translator carreer:
Monterrey University and Kenedy University

Nevertheless, it is difficult to find graduated translators as most of the americans are BA in the language they wanted to specialize.

Learning a language is not the same as learning how to translate.

Also, they created organizations such as ATA (American Translators Association) that provides many different types of memberships.

Type 1: You pay and become a member
Type 2: You pay and do a translation test of 500 words and you become a certified member....

If I were a customer acquiring this type of service it will not be enough...

[Veronica]

Really? you become a member by translating 500 words?

That is so short....it's true that you can catch a very bad translator in 500 but still, it's very short....the translator has to be really baaad.

It doesn't sound like you would always get the best quality, right?

[saratt]

translation (as a profession) in the u.s. is not as prevalent as in other countries, but i think it would be valuable to have certification or some sort of formal training to set you apart from the typical ba degrees in languages...have you thought about doing a program abroad in the field of translation?