Speaker 1: The first video of the new year looks at the differences and different skill sets between translators and interpreters. Coming up. Hello and welcome back to the Freelanceverse. Happy 2021. I know that it's the first week of January when I'm filming this for you guys, so happy new year. I hope you have all your plans and your goals ready for the new year. Actually, write them in the comments, write your professional goals for this year in the comments so I can also kind of adapt my videos according to them so you get the most value from it. Today I have a rather quick video for you guys. I'm going to talk about the differences and the different skill sets you need to become a translator versus an interpreter. As many of you know, translator is kind of used often as an overarching term, synonymously for translators as well for interpreters. But technically that's not the case. It's really a different profession completely and it also requires different people. So translators work with text, with written words as well as symbols. And the goal is basically to transfer the text from one language into another language as precisely and in most detail as possible, so that the target text is created that is basically a standalone from the original. So it shouldn't be seen as a translation, this should be its own thing. Interpreters on the other hand work with speech, with spoken words and there the goal is to convey the meaning of a speech into another language. So the speech will always be related back to the original because it's mostly simultaneous. So there it's not about the details, it's about the meaning that's being conveyed. Even though the main goal of both the professions is transferring one language into another one, the skill sets are very different. Translators need to be willing to put in a lot of research, a lot of effort goes into research. You need to be perfect writers basically, writing needs to be your main skill. You have to be very detail-oriented and your orthographic and grammatical skills need to be close to perfection. Usually like yeah it can be, that's of course the generalization, but usually translators tend to be more a bit introverted or I don't really like the term, just more like you're okay with working on your own because a lot of the work by a translator is done alone. And the output of the work, as I said previously, it needs to be a standalone text that's close to perfection, as if someone wrote this as an original. So you create basically a new original out of the source text. Whereas an interpreter on the other hand will never reach perfection because there's simply not the time, right? It's done simultaneously and even okay, there's also non-simultaneous interpreting which is called consecutive and there you prepare the text beforehand. So there it's basically closer to translation, you can expect perfection. But simultaneous interpretation, what's the biggest chunk of work? You have to be happy with 75 to 80 percent of perfection. I mean the meaning has to be conveyed 100 percent, that's clear. That's basically the goal of an interpreter, to convey the meaning. But the job is done a lot by intuition, right? Because you decide on split seconds, you don't have time to do research. You do research beforehand about the topic, but anything can come up in a speech, you never know what's going to happen. So on top of being intuitive and quick in the mind, you also have to be an excellent speaker. So if public speaking is not your forte, then maybe it's not the best profession for you, you should go for translation instead. You have to be great under pressure, pressure has to be your element. So yeah, I like to compare it often with, imagine you have a conversation with someone, always after the conversation, maybe it's a bit heated, a bit emotional, and afterwards you have the good comebacks, you have the good witty comments in your mind, that I wish I said that, but you didn't, just on the spot you didn't think of it. If that's you, because that's also me, then maybe translation is better. If however you're very good in discussing, in debating, you always have the perfect comeback, then you're a good speaker, right? You're good with words, spoken words, so interpreting might be a good fit for you. And if translators are introverted, then interpreters should be extroverted for sure, because you always work around people, you are always going to conferences, going to speeches, so, and in fact you always work in pairs. It's actually, yeah, always, so interpreters always work in pairs, because it's so high pressure and so demanding, that you only can manage to do 30 minutes usually, and then you switch, and the other person does 30 minutes, and then switch back. But even during the 30 minutes of your off time, you're still following the conversation, and whenever your peer is in trouble, and you notice, you would give them hints, you know, you held them back on track, so you're always focused, but the extreme focus of interpreting can only last for 30 minutes, more or less. Interpreters tend to be higher paid than translators in general, but of course that also kind of makes sense, if you think about it, because the high pressure situation is very demanding, and it's much harder to get jobs, and you also have to travel there, it's much more effort, the whole thing, whereas translators can do more work that's paid, but generally a bit lower, but it can equal out, so of course with experience you can also earn a lot as a translator, you don't need to be an interpreter for that. Plus interpreters do much more education usually, so while you can make it as a translator without a degree, as an interpreter you definitely need one, and it's usually very demanding, because you know, you can't just show up and take notes as you normally would with words, because when you do an interpreting education, you build your own system in your mind, how you can take notes, and that's essential, right? I know people who do it with symbols, smileys, arrows, little abbreviations of words, and yeah, if you don't look at the notes, it doesn't look like a text, it's just things on the page that make sense for this specific interpreter, but it wouldn't make sense for you. So these things you have to train over years and years, very demanding education, so that leads to the fact that it's quite common that interpreters offer also translation services, but it's very rare that the translator would offer interpreting services, if that makes sense. I hope that gives you a good overview over the two professions, let me know in the comments if you are planning to pursue a career in one of them, or even if an interpreter is watching this video, I would be curious, because I know a lot of translators are watching, they comment a lot, but I haven't heard yet of an interpreter, so let me know in the comments if you are one, and again, happy new year, don't forget to let me know your goals, and I see you next week with another video, probably a bit longer again, I took a little break from filming over the holidays, that's why this is a bit shorter, but yeah, see you next Monday, bye.