As the world heads towards becoming a highly-integrated global village, the requirement and the importance of translators and interpreters has increased.
However, the idea that translators exist only in corporate meetings and political or diplomatic discussions is an outdated one. They are now an essential asset that exists and works in a variety of areas and fields. So if you want to be a translator or interpreter, don’t worry, thinking that you’ll be stuck in stuffy board meetings.
Here are some unique and important arenas that translators work in, which many people don’t know about. Just scroll down and take a look for yourself.
1. Concerts
Yup, that’s right! Go to the concert of any musician or artist who is performing somewhere where the public doesn’t speak their language, you’re going to find a translator there. However, they’re not there to sing the song in a different language, but to communicate what the singers or the band may share in-between their s sets, which they would want the audience to know. As the importance of sign language becomes more and more recognized and the need for accessibility is further stressed upon, you’ll also find sign language interpreters near the stage, who interpret the lyrics in sign language in real-time! Thus, translators play an important role in bridging the gap that may exist between an artist and their audience.
2. Notary Public
Most of us have the idea that translators only exist in large, international organizations such as the UN or the WHO, but they are also important for translating notarized documents. In case you didn’t know, the notary public is a public officer who serves common people in the verification and execution of non-contentious matters such as matters relating to estates, deeds, and more. A lot of the times these exchanges occur between borders and for their proper execution, accurate translations are a must. A translation notary public is only one of the aspects of the various uses that translation has in the arena of governmental and legal documentation.
3. Hospitals
Hospitals and medical institutions aren’t just home to doctors, nurses, and other medical practitioners. They have a plethora of other supplemental staff, each of whom plays a key role, and one of them is translators and interpreters. As a legal regulation, all hospitals must provide their patients all necessary documentation and information in a language that they can understand. In the US, according to HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), all sensitive information regarding a patient’s health has to be made available, without it being exposed to others without their knowledge. If in-house translators wouldn’t exist, then HIPAA violations would become commonplace since patients wouldn’t be able to speak to or access their information when and how they want.
4. Field Researchers
Before the creation of any product or the development of a scientific or historic report, field research is a must. This means that they have to collect first-hand information from people living in the area or country that they are interested in. It can be to collect consumer behavior data for entering a new market or to get additional information about the history of a place, which you cannot find through books or other sources but only through word-of-mouth that has been passed down from people to people. Translators are a crucial part of field research and they help collect valuable information from people by enabling open, honest communication in a way that makes individuals comfortable enough to share information. By doing so, they help organizations, individuals and companies realize their goals.
5. Freelance
Of course, at the end of the day, like most other skills, you always have the freedom of going freelance. Just like content writing and graphic designing, freelance translation work is also highly sought-after. Tons of people and organizations all over the world, whether it’s bloggers, small businesses, NGOs, and more, who are trying to reach out to international audiences or establish communication with people or similar organizations who do not speak the same language, require freelance translation work done. Many of them are also willing to pay handsomely, and a lot of the time, doing freelance work also gives you access to other long-term opportunities that you may not have gotten otherwise.
