Seeking advice on where to do my Masters
Thread poster: Adam, MA Trans
Adam, MA Trans
Adam, MA Trans
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:50
French to English
+ ...
Dec 17, 2018

Hi everybody,

I have decided to embark on a Masters in Translations, primarily because I feel and hope that it will be beneficial to my career in translation.

I've decided I would like to enrol on the Masters at the Open University. It has a very good reputation and also has a partnership in place with the Chartered Institute of Linguists and is a Corporate Member of the institute of Translating and Interpreting. As a side note, I'm not entirely sure what the benefits
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Hi everybody,

I have decided to embark on a Masters in Translations, primarily because I feel and hope that it will be beneficial to my career in translation.

I've decided I would like to enrol on the Masters at the Open University. It has a very good reputation and also has a partnership in place with the Chartered Institute of Linguists and is a Corporate Member of the institute of Translating and Interpreting. As a side note, I'm not entirely sure what the benefits would be of joining these organisations upon hopefully completing my Masters, could anyone please tell me?

My only concern with the OU course is you only work with a single source language, whereas I work with 3 source languages. Am I right in thinking this isn't necessarily a big deal because it's a qualification to prove our aptitude of translation, rather than of our source languages? There is a Masters in Translation at Bristol University where you can choose 2 source languages, but I would prefer studying with the OU, based on the good things I've read about the course and the university.

If anybody has any advice or could help with my questions I would really appreciate it.

All the best,
Adam
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Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 17:50
French to English
ITI, PM viewpoint Dec 17, 2018

I can only speak of the ITI, which I used as a precious resource for translators as a PM in an agency. With one exception, the translators I found there were all really good, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it should someone need a translator when I can't recommend a particular person.

When I did my Masters, I remember we were told that we would not be taught languages, we were supposed to already know the languages inside out. Of course we would be learning new terminology, b
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I can only speak of the ITI, which I used as a precious resource for translators as a PM in an agency. With one exception, the translators I found there were all really good, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it should someone need a translator when I can't recommend a particular person.

When I did my Masters, I remember we were told that we would not be taught languages, we were supposed to already know the languages inside out. Of course we would be learning new terminology, but the grammar and basic vocab had to already be at our fingertips. The course would then focus on how to move from one language to another.

I'm not sure that people are necessarily all that finicky about which languages you do the Masters in. If you can prove your knowledge of a language and have learned translation techniques, you should be able to manage.

As a PM, I systematically sought out translators with more than one source language. I dealt with all translations into English, and being in France, we obviously had more FR-EN than anything else. If a translator proved to be reliable in that, I could then trust them in their other source languages. This worked out great because we didn't have enough of other language pairs to forge a trusting relationship with somebody working in just that language.
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Adam, MA Trans
Adam, MA Trans
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:50
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you Dec 18, 2018

Hi Kay,

Thank you for your reply. I thought it was a very interesting insight that as a PM you went straight to the ITI. This confirms that joining these organisations would be very beneficial to my career. I imagine there are networking opportunities there too. Regarding the languages, I agree, I think it goes without saying that if you offer them as a source language one would think your level is very high! I'm really looking forward to starting my Masters, I suppose that can only
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Hi Kay,

Thank you for your reply. I thought it was a very interesting insight that as a PM you went straight to the ITI. This confirms that joining these organisations would be very beneficial to my career. I imagine there are networking opportunities there too. Regarding the languages, I agree, I think it goes without saying that if you offer them as a source language one would think your level is very high! I'm really looking forward to starting my Masters, I suppose that can only be a good thing. I really can't wait for the day when I can, hopefully, one day put that on my CV! Thank you again, Kay. All the best, Adam.
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Kay Denney
 


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Seeking advice on where to do my Masters







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