Determining translation competence

by Rene
(San Jose, California, USA)

Rene asked: What is the best way for determining translation competence?

To give a little background: I had been translating for different law firms in the Bay area, but I'm looking for a different environment of work, and I'm very interested to work in the health industry where my language skills may be an asset to the company that I may be representing and most important to the people that may need my services.



The Spanish Translator: Thanks for the question, Rene. Determining translation competence is something that translation theorists have been debating for a long time, and I'm sure will continue debating for the foreseeable future. There are so many different ways to determine how competent a translator is but sometimes the methods are contradictory and do not allow for practically implementing the appropriate methods.

But often when a translator decides to add another area of expertise to his/her bag of skills, it is definitely important to know how to determine their skill level in the new translation area. I assume that is what you are referring to by pointing out that you want to switch from legal translations to translating for the health industry.

I think the most important thing to do is really assess your abilities by doing practice medical translations. You can find plenty of medical texts online and I would take a few, translate them on your own, read them over and do a personal assessment, and then finally, give your translations to a native speaker and ask them to really critique the translations. If you truly go through this process, you will really understand your translation competence and know if you are ready to do medical translations for clients.

Hope that helps, and good luck!