Yesterday, I nosed into the translator business a little deeper. In my teaching career this has never been an interesting field to me as I basically thought being a native German speaker was simply not sufficient to be a good translator.
My few experiences with translating documents from French or English into German seemed to prove me right as I had the impression that this was a pretty lengthy and tedious process. On the other hand, it made me increasingly curious what translators like about their work and business and why translating or interpreting is not a boring job for them at all.
I then got to know just the perfect person to do the new KWestions with via Twitter. Paul Sulzberger is a translator with an impressive career of over 30 years in the business. During several talks I not only learned many interesting things about the translation business but also about second language acquisition as Paul did extensive research and his PhD in that subject.
Having such a long career I was of course very interested in whether and how technology first and later the Internet have influenced the work of translators. During the interview I got the impression that Paul has always embraced new technologies and has seen some value for his work. Now, in times of Internet and being connected more or less all the time, it is of course a very compelling argument that his company NZTC International is based out of Wellington, New Zealand and they can do lots of translation for customers in Europe literally over night.
What I find fascinating is that Paul truly is an edupreneur as his next business, a platform for customers and translators, is in the making.
If you’re at all interested in the field of translation and interpretation you must watch this KWestions not only because Paul is a great conversation partner with so many interesting stories to tell but also has so much market expertise.
Moreover I’d like to recommend reading his highly informative blog translationbiz.wordpress.com and to follow him on Twitter.
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Music by: Dan-O | “The Owl Named Orion”
