A world behind a translation company

Abstract

Through my studies in translation at the University of Los Andes, I learnt that a translator is a bridge between languages and sociocultural systems. I could practice different types of translations, such as general, journalistic, technical, scientific, legal, academic, and literary. Our professors taught us how to develop translation, documental, and terminological skills, in order to solve problems when translating. My internship at San Pancracio Traductores e Intérpretes Públicos C. A. was my first experience as a professional translator. This report is a compilation of all activities I did as an intern at SP Traductores, as it is also called, which is one of the major translation companies of the country. It was founded in 1982 as Traduceidioma T.I.C.A., by Mrs Luilla Molina, a certified interpreter and translator of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. She is the Translation Manager of the company, and she was my institutional proof-reader and supervisor as well. In the first part of this report, I will present the profile of the Host Institution. SP Traductores is a company located in the state of Miranda, Venezuela. It employs around 150 freelance translators, and certified translators and interpreters in 35 languages. Among its services, it offers oral and written translations in diverse fields of knowledge. Subtitling and interpretation are also included in its services. It also provides assistance before making legal procedures and legalizations, and paralegal services in national institutions as well. SP Traductores has designed a group of paid workshops in English, French, Italian, and Spanish, each of them in specialized areas of translation. All translations at the company are received by the Receipt of Documents Unit, and they are sent to the Coordination Department, where the Coordinator assigned the work to any translator of the unit where I worked. I was placed at the Translation Office. There, translators work mainly from a foreign language into their mother tongue. When translations are finished, they are sent to the Digitization Unit, where all images from the original document are scanned and copied to the last version (translation). Most translations we worked were legal instruments. For this reason, they are signed and sealed by a certified translator or interpreter of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. In the second part of this report, I will present the nature of my internship, that is to say, all tasks I was assigned during my internship. In order to carry out my activities successfully, I had to master computer, grammatical, translation, and languages skills. My activities were mostly focused on how a translation company works. Among them, I learnt how to elaborate translation budgets, and how to manage translation administrative business. My principal role was to be a translator. I translated 36,831 words in 47 works, from English, French, and Italian into Spanish, and from Spanish into English. Most of the works were legal translations. I divided all translations I made in 3 fields: legal, technical and scientific, and academic. I will briefly explain the difficulties I had when translating them. I will also mention some complementary activities I did as part of my internship training. In the third part of this report, I will develop a reflection essay on the problems I had when translating scientific, technical, and legal languages. I explain both the major difficulties and solutions to face specialized translations. In the fourth part of this report, I will present some recommendations to the Host Institution. Next, there are some recommendations to the School of Modern Languages, specifically oriented to the Translation Department. And afterward, there are some pieces of advice to other translation students, in order to have a better development as interns, and as future professionals in translation. I finally close the report with an analysis of how my academic training, mainly in Translation, and my internship helped me to build a translator's character and how it would help me in future as a professional.