You Can Be Anything › All careers › Media, Communication & Journalism
Translator / Interpreter
Converts spoken or written content between languages — bridging cultures and enabling communication.
Did you know?
The UN has six official languages, and its interpreters turn every speech into the other five at the same time as the speaker talks.
How subjects help
- Languages: Turn a book or speech into another language so it keeps the same meaning and tone.
- Linguistics: Understand how grammar differs between languages so translated sentences don't sound odd.
- History: Know a culture's past so its references, jokes and sayings keep their real meaning.
A famous name
Gregory Rabassa: Translated Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude from Spanish into English in 1970.
Try it yourself: Pass on a message without changing it
- Rewrite the message for a five-year-old, or in another language you know. Keep every important fact.
- Give it to someone and ask them to tell you the facts back.
- Did any fact get lost or changed? Which words were hardest to put another way?
- Why is it important not to add your own opinion when passing on someone's message?
Translators and interpreters carry the exact meaning from one language to another, including sign languages, without adding or leaving anything out.
Also try: Write a dictionary entry.
Known for it in
Switzerland, Belgium, EU institutions, USA, Japan