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Lee Wing-Sze

Translating prepares you for the education, publishing and business worlds

Young Post: What kind of translation job you are doing, and what have you done?

Leung: I'm now working for an American-based bank, translating text related to the business field and industry.

Before that I worked for translation agency for a year and an independent non-governmental statutory body for three years.

At the translation agency I translated texts related to IT, such as corporate training programmes and menus of computer software and products. And I worked on texts concerning the stock market and financial regulations in the previous job.

YP: What training did you receive to become a professional translator?

L: I did a four-year translation degree at Baptist University after being a journalist for three years and doing editing jobs. Through this I came across translating work and realised that I was interested in translation and wanted more training in the field.

YP: What do you need to study for translation?

L: Translation is very practical. It helps prepare you for the publishing, education and business worlds.

If you have good language skills you'll have an advantage studying translation. Language skills are just fundamental tools, you need to overcome lots of things too.

You don't have to be an expert on the topics you translate, but you need to have a concept or basic knowledge of the area. This is what we call background knowledge, which is really significant.

For the same word, it could mean different things in different industries. If you don't have the background knowledge, you won't understand that concepts and this could cause you to make mistakes.

The central concept of translation is to knowing how to solve obstacles, like how to present a new concept in another language.

YP: What do you think about your job right now?

L: I do not enjoy it as much as I did before. It's nothing to do with the job itself, I still get satisfaction from every job I complete.

But when you have done the same thing for a long time, you will look for improvement. I've been translating for years and learned loads of things, but at the same time, I think actually I have stopped learning much new stuff.

A few years ago, I would be really happy whenever I finished a job, as I thought  I had learnt something new.

YP: What is the difference between a translator and an interpreter?

L: You have to have a good voice to be an interpreter and be able to speak clearly, because most of your job is to translate what people say in situations like conference meetings, so you can't be a shy person.

You will get chances to travel as an interpreter. Some top interpreters go on lots of business trips, and their lives are very stressful.

Both fields need to have good background and field knowledge.

YP: What advice would you give to those who aspire to be a translator?

L: Your language skills, both Chinese and English, need  to be good. And you also need  to be curious about many things and keep abreast of  any new developments and information.

Name: Jenny Leung Siu-wai | Occupation: translator | Age: 40s



Practical concepts