1. Answer the following questions based on the text.

• What differs a good translator from the person who knows one or several foreign languages?

• What is a good translator?

• Does a translator need a special linguistic education?

• What can say about translator’s background knowledge?

• What is a simultaneous interpretation?

Speaking

1. Provide your own answers to the following questions:

• What's the difference between translation and interpreting?

• What kind of jobs are open to translators?

• In your opinion, for a professional translator, do language skills count more than subject-matter knowledge, or less? Explain the reasons of your choice.

• Provide a description of a translation workflow, including steps to be performed before the actual translation, and after it.

• What kind of knowledge is important for a translator to have, and why?

• If you were to work as a translation project manager, what steps would you perform in order to ensure that the work you receive is of good quality?

• List a few types of translation errors, and what you would do in order to avoid them in your own work.

• Can you think of other ethical or moral problems we may have to tackle as translators? Please, briefly describe them.

2. Read the following thought exercises and reflect on what the ethical translator—that means you!—would do in each situation. Think about these scenarios as junctures or forks in the road. How does good foresight and ethical conduct avoid pitfalls?

Scenario 1: You fall ill while working on a major project, causing work to take twice as long. Not wanting to trouble others with your problems, you soldier on and don’t bring up the issue with Gengo staff—elbow grease will see you through. Before long, the deadline is here, but you still aren’t finished! What do you do?

Scenario 2: A lucrative job shows up in your queue, but on further inspection you find it consists of advertising copy for an alternative medicine product—one that you think is nothing more than snake oil. You hesitate. Should you take it? If you do, how will you word the text? How can you be sincere to both the client and to the end-user of this shady product? After some soul-searching, you…

Scenario 3: You start work on a small but honest job: the liner notes for a violinist’s debut album. While working, you spot another job just added to the queue—a textbook with a reward worth several thousands more. A dilemma: you have to pay rent and support your family. If you hesitate, that job will be snapped up. The clock is ticking, and your current job is only halfway finished. You take a deep breath and…

3. Organizing a debate:

Will profession of a translator disappear if we adopt a single international language (Linguafranca)?

OCCUPATIONAL PRESTIGE OF TRANSLATOR