精明的多样化系列-建议我希望我已经遵循了如何成为一名医学翻译
精明的新人团队对过去一年进行了盘点,发现许多自由笔译和口译人员的一个关键优先事项是多样化. 在不同的行业或不同的客户提供多种服务可以帮助永利登录网址在风暴来临时稳定下来. Diversification can help us hedge against hard times. 记住这一点, 永利登录网址邀请了一系列客座作者来撰写帮助他们的企业蓬勃发展的多样化服务产品, 希望能激励你拓展到可能适合你的新服务产品!
I had just graduated with an MA in translation from Kent State University. My grades were good, 和 I had some real-world experience under my belt. 但我想要保住自己在美国的自由西班牙语-英语翻译职位&I industry was still off to a bumpy start, 和 I wasn’t sure why.
事实证明,我犯了一个非常常见的新手错误:我不想把自己限制在一个专业上,因为害怕错过工作, 所以我把自己定位为一个愿意处理任何项目的普通翻译. 如果你在一个共同的语言对中工作,并且没有积极地尝试让自己与众不同,那么很容易迷失在人群中. When these broad marketing attempts were met with crickets, I realized that I needed to choose a specialization 和 really commit to it. I had enjoyed learning about diagnostic tests, 外科技术, 和 medical conditions for assignments in the MA program, 我喜欢传达清晰准确的医疗信息,帮助病人获得高质量的医疗服务. 所以我开始继续接受医学概念方面的教育,并开始以医学翻译的身份推销自己. I only really hit my stride when I made that change.
Here are some tips I wish I had been given (or taken 更多的 seriously!) when I was working to break into medical translation:
- 不要害怕专业化:它很可能不会限制你得到的工作.
专业化导致了 更多的 potential client interest in my business, not less. 客户可能会担心翻译人员的质量,因为他们提供的翻译范围太广. 缩小我网站上的文案范围,专注于如何帮助我在医疗领域的客户,这让我建立了良好的客户关系,并逐渐建立了对我能力的信任.
- Support 和 learn from translators in your language pair 和 field.
翻译人员常常将同语种和专业的同事视为直接竞争对手,会损害他们的业务. I’ve found the opposite to be true. My Spanish-to-English translation colleagues, particularly my colleagues at the Black Squirrel Translator Collective, have introduced me to good Spanish-English medical translation resources like Cosnautas, helped me dissect tricky medical concepts, given me information about upcoming continuing education opportunities, 和更多的. 与更有经验的翻译人员交谈是我业务增长的关键部分,也是我作为医学翻译人员的信心.
- 研究 什么 people communicate about in the medical field.
It’s nearly impossible to accurately translate concepts you don’t underst和. 建立你的医学概念知识可以提高你工作的准确性和速度.
Take translator-oriented training on language services in health care.
In 2020 和 2021, Michèle Hansen taught a set of courses for 翻译培训 called “Medical Concepts 和 Terminology for Translators 和 翻译s.这些为期数周的互动课程涵盖了不同身体系统的解剖学,并强调了翻译人员应该特别小心的术语. 我从作业中得到的反馈是无价的,让我更加自信,我可以在这个专业上取得成功.
参加ATA会议和ATA分会培训活动让我在行业中建立了联系,并了解了更多关于医学翻译的各个方面. 我试着报名参加关于我在工作中经常看到的疾病的网络研讨会,比如癌症和糖尿病, so I’ve found ATA webinars like Yuliya Speroff’s “Oncology for Medical 翻译s 和 Translators和特蕾西·杨的Diabetes 101: An Overview for Medical Translators 和 翻译s特别有用!
Don’t underestimate monolingual resources on medical concepts.
有几家公司 Coursera 和 EdX 提供免费或低成本的健康和医学自定进度的大规模在线开放课程(mooc). 我修的课程似乎与我在医学翻译中可能看到的概念相关,比如医学术语, 生命体征, 成像研究. 虽然这些课程是用英语授课的,并不针对翻译, I kept a log of important terms 和 researched their Spanish equivalents. I used this to create a helpful reference for translation projects. This really drove home the meaning behind the words I translate.
- 研究 如何 people communicate in medical contexts 和 why
了解目标语言的写作习惯是很重要的,这样你的作品才会让你的目标受众觉得尽可能的专业和自然.
阅读和分析该领域的各种平行文本,以了解目标受众对不同文本类型的期望.
These can include documents like your own medical records, inserts that come with your medications, 期刊文章, 和 patient-oriented articles on specific diseases. 当你读到的时候, identify the audience of these sources: Is this document written for a doctor, 研究员, 或者一个病人? 这些目标受众如何影响目标文本的用词、语域和语气? How would you reflect those aspects of the text in a translation? What is the purpose of this text? 如果你要翻译文本,你需要考虑哪些文化差异? 这种批判性分析可以帮助您了解如何处理类似的现实世界项目.
学习目标语言的医学写作资源,以加强在该领域的良好写作实践.
美国医学作家协会(AMWA)为所有经验水平的医学作家提供资源. One of its most comprehensive resources for beginners is the Essential Skills 永利登录网址 Program, which consists of self-study workbooks 和 exams on grammar 和 usage, 医学术语, 道德, 标点符号, 句子结构, 统计数据, 表格和图表. This program refreshed my underst和ing of target language writing conventions, 帮助我更好地理解医学期刊文章中遇到的统计概念, 和 improved my ability to catch 和 avoid grammatical issues. 回顾 美国医学会造型手册 还可以帮助翻译人员处理英语医学专业人员习惯看到的文本的缩写和度量单位等方面吗.
The path to specializing in medical translation is not one-size-fits-all, 但是依靠翻译社区并找到不断了解该领域的方法可以使这个过程变得容易得多!
This blog post was edited by 维多利亚Chavez-Kruse of 精明的新人 团队.
作者简介
汉娜·桑普森,马萨诸塞州,康涅狄格州, is an ATA-certified Spanish-to-English translator 和 editor based in Ohio. 她的学位是B.A. in Latin American Studies 和 Spanish from Ohio Wesleyan University 和 an M.A. 来自肯特州立大学应用语言学研究所的西班牙语翻译. Hannah has collaborated with the Black Squirrel Translator Collective since 2019. She specializes in medical translation.
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