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Poll: Did you want to work in translation/interpreting when you were a kid?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Aug 30, 2018

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Did you want to work in translation/interpreting when you were a kid?".

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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 09:25
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
No Aug 30, 2018

When I was a kid work was never part of the equation (read and play were) and during my teen years I was much more interested on my studies and doing well in school than on what I was going to do with later on.

 
Alexandra Speirs
Alexandra Speirs  Identity Verified
Local time: 10:25
Italian to English
+ ...
No Aug 30, 2018

When I was 8 or 9, I wanted to be either an air hostess or an opera singer.

Later on I thought I'd be a language teacher, following a family tradition.
Tried that and didn't like it much, eventually drifted into translating.


 
Yetta Jensen Bogarde
Yetta Jensen Bogarde  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 10:25
Member (2012)
English to Danish
+ ...
No Aug 30, 2018

it never crossed my mind.

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
Katharina Tomenendal
Katharina Tomenendal
Germany
Local time: 10:25
English to German
+ ...
Yes Aug 30, 2018

My mother and my uncle are translators. They have always been my role models!

 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 10:25
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
No Aug 30, 2018

My parents discussed languages all the time, and I wanted nothing to do with them!
I wanted to read medicine instead.
But even the aunt I modelled my medical dreams on spent a lot of time struggling with Yoruba...


 
Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 10:25
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
No Aug 30, 2018

I wanted to then become the first female pilot with Lufthansa, but an accident put an end to that dream. But... even my first choice profession had something to do with languages.

 
Natalia Pedrosa
Natalia Pedrosa
Spain
Local time: 10:25
Member (2012)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Yes Aug 30, 2018

I've always gone camping with my parents since I was little, and met a lot of foreign kids like me.

I speak English since I was 8 years old.

Definitely yes!


 
Barbara Cochran, MFA
Barbara Cochran, MFA  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:25
Spanish to English
+ ...
Since I Was 15 Aug 30, 2018

When I was a 15-year old second-year Spanish student, our teacher gave us an assignment where we had to translate several paragraphs into Spanish. I remember that I titled my translation "Mi Hogar". She had me read my rendition to the rest of the class. When I was done, all she said was "excelente" and didn't make a single correction. That, along with the fact that I had enjoyed the exercise so much, convinced me to go into the field of translation.

[Edited at 2018-08-30 14:13 GMT]


 
Ricki Farn
Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 10:25
English to German
Yes Aug 30, 2018

When I was really tiny, I wanted to become a professional cleaner. After that, I always thought I'd be a translator one day. Actually, I see the parallels - cleaning up rooms or sentences both require attention to detail, and promise the satisfaction of perfection.

neilmac
P.L.F. Persio
 
Debora d'Amato (X)
Debora d'Amato (X)  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 10:25
English to Italian
+ ...
A resounding yes Aug 30, 2018

Since my teenage years I have been longed to be an interpreter.
Being a translator crossed my mind later.


 
Laura Nagle (X)
Laura Nagle (X)  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:25
French to English
+ ...
No Aug 30, 2018

When I started college, my plan was to major in music and minor in French. After repetitive-stress injuries convinced me that a career as a violist wasn't in the cards, I switched my major to French. I was fascinated by translation and wrote my honors thesis on a literary translation topic, but didn't have practical training in translation available to me at that time. I eventually did take some translation courses while working as a high school teacher, built up some experience and contacts ove... See more
When I started college, my plan was to major in music and minor in French. After repetitive-stress injuries convinced me that a career as a violist wasn't in the cards, I switched my major to French. I was fascinated by translation and wrote my honors thesis on a literary translation topic, but didn't have practical training in translation available to me at that time. I eventually did take some translation courses while working as a high school teacher, built up some experience and contacts over the years in my limited free time, and finally made the leap to freelancing on a full-time basis.Collapse


 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 10:25
Spanish to English
+ ...
Other Aug 30, 2018

I don't recall having any specific career plans when I was a kid... or ever, really. Journalism was vaguely on the cards when I was a teenager, but in those days you started at the bottom as a tea boy and worked your way up and I never got round to it.

PS: Now that I think about it, I probably toyed with the idea of translation when I started studying languages in secondary school, as we had to translate a lot of short texts and I quite enjoyed it, compared to maths and science, whi
... See more
I don't recall having any specific career plans when I was a kid... or ever, really. Journalism was vaguely on the cards when I was a teenager, but in those days you started at the bottom as a tea boy and worked your way up and I never got round to it.

PS: Now that I think about it, I probably toyed with the idea of translation when I started studying languages in secondary school, as we had to translate a lot of short texts and I quite enjoyed it, compared to maths and science, which I wasn't keen on.

[Edited at 2018-08-31 07:23 GMT]
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Elena Mordenti
Elena Mordenti  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 10:25
German to Italian
+ ...
Yes Aug 30, 2018

My mother was a bit worried about when I asked her a dictionary DE-IT for my birthday (I was eight)! I began translating Burda magazine for my mother.

P.L.F. Persio
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 10:25
French to English
No Aug 30, 2018

As a kid, I wanted to be a famous writer, or a zookeeper.

Then as a teen, I wanted to be a nurse or a translator.

I did a computer test that actually listed translator as one of the possible careers for me, but the careers advisor told me you had to be the child of a diplomat living in several different countries to be able to ever speak foreign languages well enough, and you needed to be very well connected to know people who would give you work.

So I dr
... See more
As a kid, I wanted to be a famous writer, or a zookeeper.

Then as a teen, I wanted to be a nurse or a translator.

I did a computer test that actually listed translator as one of the possible careers for me, but the careers advisor told me you had to be the child of a diplomat living in several different countries to be able to ever speak foreign languages well enough, and you needed to be very well connected to know people who would give you work.

So I drifted into teaching English instead and finally started translating simply because I knew people who offered me work.
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Poll: Did you want to work in translation/interpreting when you were a kid?






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