My experience as a translator at the Science and Technology Museum

Abstract

The academic studies made by students during eight semesters in the School of Modern Languages have been an important factor in their lives to acquire knowledge that they will put into practice. After eight semesters, the students have the opportunity to participate in programs of internship in order to show everything they learn in a real context. It is also an opportunity to insert the students to the labor market. Performing the internship in an institution different to the educational institution helps the students know and interact in the working environment. At the same time, the students have the opportunity to interact with others who do not belong directly to the university environment. Moreover, during the internship the students acquire new experiences in the different areas that involve translation. It is important that the students may participate in the development of the activities of the organization where they were assigned as interns. The students will learn to associate everything they know at work and find the way to develop more their skill and abilities. The students have acquired knowledge day by day at the university and they will improve their knowledge in their professional life, because the learning process never ends. In the following report, I present my experience as an intern of Modern Languages for a period of twelve weeks. In this report I will present all the experiences I lived at the Museum of Science and Technology as a translator of scientific and technological texts from English into Spanish. Moreover, I make emphasis in the development of the translations of the different areas represented at the Museum of Science and Technology. Initially, I introduce the profile of the institution where I worked. I describe the location where the museum operates, some relevant aspects of its institutional history, the mission, the vision and the proposed goals. I also introduce my institutional mentors in the internship and I describe the environment of work and my relationship with the staff of the institution. I also present the structure of the museum through its organization chart at the end of this section. In the following section, Nature of the Internship, I do a description of my duties as an intern at the Museum of Science and Technology. In this part of my report I talk about the tools I used to translate, the organization to translate the articles from English to Spanish and about some problems I had to translate some information and the solution I found. Moreover, I comment through an example a way to find solutions in a specific translation problem. In addition, I tell in this section the importance of decisions making during the process of translation and, on the other hand, the importance to look an expert else to whom to turn if I do not have a clear knowledge of the topic to be translated. In my Reflection Essay, I reflect on my positive and negative experiences in the internship and the satisfaction I had when I found solutions to translate some hard sentences from English into Spanish. I also mention some of the subjects taken during my academic studies and how useful and important they were at the moment I was working in the museum. Finally, I present my conclusions of the report and some final recommendations to the School of Modern Languages and to the Museum of Science and Technology. In the conclusions, I summarize the activities I did as an intern in the museum and I mention all I have learnt in my work as a translator. My gratitude to the School of Modern Languages and to the Museum of Science and Technology is also shown within my conclusions, in order to make them know how important they have been in the development of my activities as an intern. In the topic of recommendations I provide some suggestions to both institutions in order to have a better performance.