Translation as a Profession (Benjamins Translation Library)

Chapter 17. Training translators 353– In the standard kind of work placement, the budding translator receives helpand advice, and translations are proofread and checked but not extensivelycommented on. Fully revising and analysing the student’s translations wouldmean being distracted from urgent work and therefore, losing money. All thesame, guidance is available whenever needed and requested.– In a sub-standard placement, the ‘intern’ is given actual translations to dowithout adequate supervision and without them being carefully proof-reador revised and therefore without any useful feedback.– Pseudo work placements can mean two different types of experience:In the first instance, the student intern is asked to do humdrum repetitivetasks which have no direct relevance to professional experience in the translationindustry (e.g. making photocopies, duplicating CDs, making tea or coffee,carrying out a telephone survey, typing or posting mail, sending faxes, copyingscreens and all sorts of boring tasks).One the contrary, in the second instance, the trainee is asked to do thingswhich are well beyond any intern’s capabilities, such as revising, dispatching,or allotting translations. Far too many agencies or brokers see interns as apermanent source of free labour, with the equivalent of at least one ‘virtual’translator position being filled by successive waves of ‘interns’ who are oftenegged on by the (obviously unfulfilled) promise of a job at the end of theirinternship.In both instances, the intern is – dare we say it – being exploited, and thiskind of practice is by no means confined to ‘outlaw’ outfits: it is also foundamong established and respectable companies. Translators, who are alwaysquick to ask for ‘an end to irregular practice’ would do well to start withdrawing up an ‘intern’s charter’. If widely adopted, this kind of charter wouldprovide the less fortunate interns with some kind of recourse in case things donot turn out as expected.Tobefair,itmustbesaidthatnomorethan2to3%ofallworkplacementsactually go wrong, but those that do can have a devastating effect on thestudents involved. And one should also remember that the incompetent,badly behaved, loud-mouthed and vindictive intern is also an unfortunatefact of lifeGeneral organisationThe following chronology shows how responsibilities can be shared out optimallybetween academic institutions and the translation industry: