Speaker 1: What are some of the best translation online courses out there? Coming up. Hello and welcome back to the Freelanceverse. Thanks for coming back to the channel. Today is a video that has been long in planning for several months actually. I'm going to share the top eight translation courses that are available for you guys online. Now it's important to specify here a little bit because I'm not talking about for example university degrees, bachelor masters that you can do online. Obviously there are many of them available and very good ones, very prestigious ones, but oftentimes they cost like thousands of dollars and are not attainable for many of you guys out there or you just don't want to spend three, four years to get a university degree, right? That's what these are for. These are specifically self-paced online courses that that take from a few weeks to a few months, that you can do that are usually free, or if you have to pay, then you have to pay a monthly fee to the platform that they are on. They are offered by accredited institutions, universities, one is from PROSE on the list as well, and you will get a certificate that you can then share with your employer, with your agency, with your direct client, et cetera. So I did some research. I searched the internet, the depths of the internet for the best ones that I could find, for the most interesting ones. Obviously, I didn't take part in all of these. You know, that would take too long because they all take several weeks or months to complete. But I did my research, I see what they offered. So I came up with the eight best ones that I found and I would like to offer them to you as a resource if you feel like, especially if you have some down time at the moment, if you're not fully working on projects, why not do something like this? maybe complete one, two, or three of these and get your experience up and also your credibility because then you have certificates. So let's get started with number one. The first one I'd like to talk to you about, not in any particular order, by the way, this doesn't mean that it's the best or the least good of these eight. It's just a random list I have. The first one is the introduction to internationalization and localization. This is offered by the University of Washington. It is a massive online open course. It teaches internationalization and localization end-to-end. You can learn how digital product needs to be designed to be a world-ready and how it's getting adapted to the needs of the international target. It's an introductory course, it covers all the basics, but still it is an advanced course, especially advanced for people that have interests in computer science. So the prerequisites are knowledge in computer science, knowledge of another language, then English can be helpful but is not required. You will get professional certificate in case you pay if you do the free course it's completely free you can do this course at any time but then you will not get a certificate but you can still add it to LinkedIn etc. If you pay 204 euros you will actually be able to get graded exams and a certificate. The course takes six weeks for if you spend two to five hours a week on it. You will learn why apps should be localized, what markets to cover first, the basic concepts of localization, sourcing models etc. So this is really quite technical if you're interested in localization, especially technical and apps. The next course I'd like to talk to you about is called Working with Translation Theory and Practice. This is offered by Cardiff University in Wales. If you take this course you will explore what it means to communicate in multiple languages in a variety of contexts and discover your inner translator. So this is really for beginners if you are just starting out this is great there are no prerequisites this course is for anyone interested in language and translation you will get a digital certificate the course on its own is free but you have to pay for the future learn subscription which is $23.99 a month but then you can access endless courses on there so maybe check if there are also other courses on there you like it's a four-week course if you spend four hours a week so you can technically also do it within one week, you will learn what is translation, who translates, where does the translation take place, what is a good translation, etc. So it's really beginner level, right? On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments. The next one is called Translation in Practice from the Nanjing University. This one I see everywhere, it has very good reviews, people take it all the time. I think it's on Coursera, is it? Yeah, I think so. So if I go based on popularity this one is very high on the on the list. Translation in practice offers you basic but valuable techniques used by a good translator in the translation between English and Chinese but it also focuses on any language that's not only for Chinese translators but probably specifically for them. You discuss what is translation, what's a good translation and learn about how produce good translations. It's a 23 hours course, you get the shareable certificate if you do the paid version. Again if you do the course for free you don't get a certificate. Subtitles are offered in many different languages so it's also good for if you don't speak Chinese or English. It has a very good rating 4.71 out of 5. It's for beginners and what you will learn is a brief introduction to translation, the process of translating, understanding and expressing word meaning, sentence translation, word order division, etc. Next up is the Online Translation Certificate by the University of Arizona. This program, developed with support from a grant from the Arizona Board of Regents, is designed to prepare students with a good writing proficiency in Spanish and English for careers in translating and in related areas. We will cover three specializations, medical, legal and business. It's a 16 weeks course, so it's quite long and you get a University of Arizona non-credit certificate in translation, so it doesn't help you if you are doing a university course but it's still a university accredited certificate. English-Spanish speakers with no formal training in translation can participate. To apply you will need to complete and submit a background information form and a written entrance exam. it's quite much more serious and this one is actually quite expensive this is the most expensive ones I have on the list it's 825 dollars per course so this is a really serious one if you're really thinking about getting a university degree this could be kind of a middle middle ground if you don't want to pay tens of thousands of dollars but just a few thousands of dollars this could be it. Next up is the introduction to intercultural studies from Leeds In this course you will explore intercultural communication by understanding the relationship between language and cultural identity. So this is more focused on cultures, on language, but equally important for translation of course. What is language? What's the relationship between language and culture? It's a short two-week course, five hours a week. You get a digital certificate. If you pay, you will get a full certificate. certificates if you pay $27.99 a month for the subscription. There is no requirements, it's for beginners and on every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas etc. Next one is again by the University of Washington, we go back to that. It's called localization adapting digital content to local markets. So very interesting and again much more technical. In this course you will learn what it takes to tailor digital products for international markets through localization. Find out what other steps localization project entails and how cost schedule and quality are managed. It's a six weeks course if you spend two to five hours a week and if you pay you will get the full professional certificate. If you don't pay you don't get a certificate but you can still use it as experience. Again you need some knowledge in computer science and another language apart from English. You will learn how to set up localization projects, how to define the scope within them, managing translation assets, translation tools etc. Next up is the only one that's not by a university institute but by pros themselves. It's called how to get started as a freelance translator. This is a course that you can access on the education page of pros. It costs at the moment $99 with a discount. It's self-paced except for the cohorts that you work with students and teachers. It can be tough to get started. How do you find clients? How you can convince people that you have experience when you don't, what should you do about CAD tools and online platforms etc. You will learn how to become a freelance translator, why do clients hire translators, getting the most out of your PROSE profile, so if you are especially if you're starting out on PROSE this is very interesting to do, 15 hours video material plus then the study material and you get two months of support by the PROSE people and you will get a certificate of completion as well. No prerequisites, anyone can join. And the last one I want to mention is by the University of Geneva. It's a course called International Organizations for Interpreters. So this one is specifically focused on conference interpreters, not on translators, but I know that many of you are also thinking about this pathway, so that's why I mention it here as well. This course is aimed at students of conference interpreting or people who wish to begin studying interpreting. It is based on a long-standing lecture course given by the oldest interpreting school in the world, the Faculty of Translation in Geneva. You will learn about the history, evolution and trends of the industry, multilingualism in international organizations, competencies and function of international organizations that you need. It's a 17-hour course, you get a shareable certificate. If you don't want the certificate it's free, otherwise it's 49 dollars and you don't have any prerequisites. It has a rating of 4.8 so I think for anyone thinking about going into interpreting, this is a great first step because then you know if you will like it and then you can still go to an actual full university program. But just to start out in the industry I think this is a great way to enter the market. There you go, I hope this makes sense. These are my top eight online courses. Let me know in the comments if you have taken part in any of them or if you have taken another one. There are thousands out there, you just need to find the ones that work for you. These ones are a bit, you know, some are translation specific, some more technical, localization, some interpreting. So I try to cover the whole spectrum. As I said before, if you currently don't have a lot of work, this could be one avenue to explore because it's great to do CPT, continuous professional development, as we call it. Very important. So whenever I find a course that I like, I also write it up. Thanks for watching. Make sure to subscribe to the channel and like the video. And I see you next Monday. Bye bye.