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Poll: When you were a child/in your early teens, did you think you'd be a translator one day?
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May 12, 2012

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "When you were a child/in your early teens, did you think you'd be a translator one day?".

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Hipyan Nopri
Hipyan Nopri  Identity Verified
Indonesia
Local time: 22:15
Member (2005)
English to Indonesian
+ ...
I wanted to be a doctor May 12, 2012

In my childhood, every time I was asked of what I want to be, I answered, "I want to be a doctor".

And yes, now I am a doctor, a lexical doctor.:)


 
Julian Holmes
Julian Holmes  Identity Verified
Japan
Local time: 00:15
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
Nope May 12, 2012

I wanted to build and design rockets.

My first and last attempt failed when I, as a 9-year-old lad, went to the local ironmonger's and found out that he didn't stock liquid nitrogen.
I wouldn't have got much, anyway, for two shillings.

True story

Edited small typo

[Edited at 2012-05-12 16:57 GMT]


 
Ty Kendall
Ty Kendall  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:15
Hebrew to English
Had an inkling May 12, 2012

When I was 15 they made us take a careers test (JIIG-CAL)*

JIIG-CAL stands for “Job Ideas & Information Generator – Computer Assisted Learning” and is a software application that helps students to work out, based on a simple questionnaire, what they would be good at/interested in career-wise.

The results of mine were:

JIIG-CAL 1995
Job Suggestions

1. Interpreter/Translator
2. Teacher of Languages

Although I'd alre
... See more
When I was 15 they made us take a careers test (JIIG-CAL)*

JIIG-CAL stands for “Job Ideas & Information Generator – Computer Assisted Learning” and is a software application that helps students to work out, based on a simple questionnaire, what they would be good at/interested in career-wise.

The results of mine were:

JIIG-CAL 1995
Job Suggestions

1. Interpreter/Translator
2. Teacher of Languages

Although I'd already known for a few years by this time that I wanted to do something with languages.

[Edited at 2012-05-12 08:45 GMT]
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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 15:15
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
No May 12, 2012

I was a very good student, with excellent grades all throughout high school. Everything (but chemistry) interested me though without a real direction or a focus on what I wanted to do later in life...

 
Allison Wright (X)
Allison Wright (X)  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 15:15
By the age of 15 May 12, 2012

I knew I wanted to be a translator shortly before I turned 15.

At that age, when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I always replied, "a translator", although what went through my mind was that, actually, I was a translator, just waiting to grow up (and learn a bit more). But I already knew not to bore people not interested in language with this sort of distinction. It would have shown a great deal of disrespect....
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I knew I wanted to be a translator shortly before I turned 15.

At that age, when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I always replied, "a translator", although what went through my mind was that, actually, I was a translator, just waiting to grow up (and learn a bit more). But I already knew not to bore people not interested in language with this sort of distinction. It would have shown a great deal of disrespect.
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Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 16:15
French to English
I think I did the same questionnaire May 12, 2012

as Ty, and I got the same result too.

Then the careers guidance person said "but to be a successful translator you have to have lived abroad to really get to grips with the language, and you have to have connections otherwise nobody gives you work. So it's an ideal career for the children of diplomats, and for anyone else it's pretty hard to penetrate that world," which quite dashed my hopes. But I got over it.


 
Susanna Martoni
Susanna Martoni  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 16:15
Member (2009)
Spanish to Italian
+ ...
Yes, May 12, 2012

I should have considered it since I have always been keen of words, language, written documents, looking at a printed page, reading everything (yes, also the vacuum cleaner instructions in various languages when I was 10 years old or so) with "utmost" attention and curiosity.

Anyway, something involving linguistics.


 
Ty Kendall
Ty Kendall  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:15
Hebrew to English
Spooky! May 12, 2012

Texte Style wrote:

as Ty, and I got the same result too.

Then the careers guidance person said "but to be a successful translator you have to have lived abroad to really get to grips with the language, and you have to have connections otherwise nobody gives you work. So it's an ideal career for the children of diplomats, and for anyone else it's pretty hard to penetrate that world," which quite dashed my hopes. But I got over it.



You've just jogged my memory - the EXACT same thing happened to me!
I did the test, was really happy with the results, then in true British fashion - I was put in my place like a peasant reaching above his station - by a quite unpleasant careers adviser who was probably tainted by the fact they wanted a high flying career and ended up as a (rather bitter) careers adviser.

I remember being told something along similar lines. It's probably part of their "training" to issue a reality check, but it's not like my top career choice was "Astronaut" and I suspect they took this part of the job way too far.

Career advisers - dashing the dreams of ambitious schoolchildren since 1980-something.

Fortunately, I never listened......


 
Alison Sabedoria (X)
Alison Sabedoria (X)  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
French to English
+ ...
I didn't know translators existed! May 12, 2012

As a small child I just wanted to draw pictures, sing songs and live with (other) rabbits under the roots of a big tree in the woods. I've been paid to do two out of the three, which is not bad.

Once I found out a bit more about careers / life choices, I considered various options:
- vet (but gave that up when I found out it involved killing animals)
- trapeze artist (I acually ran away with Big Ted to join the circus when I was 4, but turned back because it was nearl
... See more
As a small child I just wanted to draw pictures, sing songs and live with (other) rabbits under the roots of a big tree in the woods. I've been paid to do two out of the three, which is not bad.

Once I found out a bit more about careers / life choices, I considered various options:
- vet (but gave that up when I found out it involved killing animals)
- trapeze artist (I acually ran away with Big Ted to join the circus when I was 4, but turned back because it was nearly time for Sunday dinner - no change there!)
- gypsy (I had the looks, but my parents weren't impressed with it as a career choice)
- archaeologist (I still don't know why I didn't pursue this - probably couldn't spell it)
- architect (but my Lego technique didn't impress at degree level and building beautiful, eco-friendly homes wasn't high on the profession's agenda in the '70s)
- belly dancer (I shocked my nan by anouncing this, aged about 6. At first she thought I meant "ballet dancer" - wot? moi?)
- jeweller / horologist (regretfully turned down in favour of architecture. I never did get all those broken clocks to work again, but at least I now know why - still working on this one)

Oh, how Julian's thwarted rocket building resonated! When I was 5, my "spitfire" project (large offcuts of wood, roughly nailed together but beautifully painted) foundered when it dawned on me that I would need an engine...
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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 15:15
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
I wonder... May 12, 2012

... how many of us have a diplomat as a father/mother! In my case, my mother was a ballet accompanist (retired now) and my father an economist.

Texte Style wrote:

So it's an ideal career for the children of diplomats, and for anyone else it's pretty hard to penetrate that world," which quite dashed my hopes. But I got over it.



 
Chun Un
Chun Un  Identity Verified
Macau
Member (2007)
English to Chinese
+ ...
No, May 12, 2012

it never occurred to me. It took me roughly twenty years of schooling plus working to figure out what I am good at... And up until I completed my translation degree (MA), I had had no clue that freelance translator could be a viable career path.

[Edited at 2012-05-12 10:40 GMT]


 
Marlene Blanshay
Marlene Blanshay  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 11:15
Member (2009)
French to English
+ ...
no May 12, 2012

I did want to be a writer or a journalist, which I was for years (journalist). Like a lot of journalists, i got into translation and other forms of writing because i like it, it pays far better and there is much more opportunity.

 
Alexandra Speirs
Alexandra Speirs  Identity Verified
Local time: 16:15
Italian to English
+ ...
no May 12, 2012

Coming from a family of teachers, I more or less automatically expected to become a language teacher.
It was only after I graduated and got a job teaching English in Italy that I realised teaching was not my scene.... but that job also introduced me to translating.

My French teacher at school had always said my French-English work was good, so I suppose she recognised my potential as a translator!

We had careers talks at school too, they were very fond of advisin
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Coming from a family of teachers, I more or less automatically expected to become a language teacher.
It was only after I graduated and got a job teaching English in Italy that I realised teaching was not my scene.... but that job also introduced me to translating.

My French teacher at school had always said my French-English work was good, so I suppose she recognised my potential as a translator!

We had careers talks at school too, they were very fond of advising us to become physiotherapists, I remember.
One girl in my class, who was from a Polish family, asked about careers in interpreting, only to be told we had no hope, you had to be absolutely bilingual (the girl was bilingual!), I don't think the adviser knew anything about it ....
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Pierluigi Bernardini
Pierluigi Bernardini  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 16:15
Member (2011)
English to Italian
+ ...
Other May 12, 2012

Although I have always had a passion and a flair for languages at school, being a translator/interpreter was just a faint idea at the time. I admiringly used to listen interpreters' translations on TV then, but I didn't even know that there were schools for translators/interpreters...

During my teen age my mother once invited me to consider the case, but I could never imagine to do it really one day. It was too early to realize that this should be my career.

I was keen
... See more
Although I have always had a passion and a flair for languages at school, being a translator/interpreter was just a faint idea at the time. I admiringly used to listen interpreters' translations on TV then, but I didn't even know that there were schools for translators/interpreters...

During my teen age my mother once invited me to consider the case, but I could never imagine to do it really one day. It was too early to realize that this should be my career.

I was keen on wildlife at the time and I would have liked to be a wildlife scientist/zoologist/ethologist and alike, studying animals around the world like in documentaries.
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Poll: When you were a child/in your early teens, did you think you'd be a translator one day?






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