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Poll: What skill do you believe is the most important for succeeding as a freelance translator? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "What skill do you believe is the most important for succeeding as a freelance translator?".
This poll was originally submitted by Rodrigo Gaion. View the poll results »
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 12:32
Spanish to English
+ ...
IMHO we are missing the option "All (or most) of the above".
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Noura Tawil 
Syria
Local time: 13:32
Member (2013)
English to Arabic
The poll misses THE most important skill for a translator.
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Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:32
Russian to English
+ ...
In memoriam
Thorough knowledge of source and target languages.
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Britt Laux
Local time: 12:32
German to Norwegian
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I agree with Noura, and I also miss accuracy, reliability and accessibility
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Claire Cox
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:32
French to English
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... but surely the most important skill of all is the ability to translate well..... (by no means always a given)
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The poll misses many important skills for a translator, moreover, as neilmac wrote, I think it misses the option "All (or most) of the above".
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564354352 (X)
Denmark
Local time: 12:32
Danish to English
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| Other - Excellent language skills | Feb 10, 2014 |
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Noura Tawil
Syria
Local time: 13:32
Member (2013)
English to Arabic
Jack Doughty wrote:
Thorough knowledge of source and target languages.
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Helen Hagon
Local time: 11:32
Member (2011)
Russian to English
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| Persistence and determination | Feb 10, 2014 |
While all the other qualities are very important, and I wouldn't recommend anyone try to be a translator without first-class language skills, you will not be successful as a freelancer unless you have the persistence and determination to go out there and find the right work for you. You have to be able to overcome the many obstacles in the way and not be deterred when things go wrong.
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Diana Coada (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:32
Portuguese to English
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Thorough language knowledge is a pre-requisite. So I would say that in this day and age, marketing and business skills are crucial.
Helen Hagon wrote:
While all the other qualities are very important, and I wouldn't recommend anyone try to be a translator without first-class language skills, you will not be successful as a freelancer unless you have the persistence and determination to go out there and find the right work for you.
[Edited at 2014-02-10 16:13 GMT]
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| Other: knowledge | Feb 10, 2014 |
That was my first reaction: knowledge of the two languages and knowledge of the subject matter.
Then comes skill at resolving the lexical and syntactic differences between the two languages.
Then comes good writing style.
I find it quite surprising that these were left out. IMO, everything else is secondary. With only the other attributes listed:
organization
good communication with clients
patience
speed
memory
... See more That was my first reaction: knowledge of the two languages and knowledge of the subject matter.
Then comes skill at resolving the lexical and syntactic differences between the two languages.
Then comes good writing style.
I find it quite surprising that these were left out. IMO, everything else is secondary. With only the other attributes listed:
organization
good communication with clients
patience
speed
memory
the Emperor would have no clothes. ▲ Collapse
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Noura Tawil
Syria
Local time: 13:32
Member (2013)
English to Arabic
Diana Coada, PGDip DPSI NRPSI wrote:
Thorough language knowledge is a pre-requisite.]
That's what one would think, but paying a visit to the Kudoz section reveals terrifying "linguistic" findings about seemingly good translators who DO receive jobs!
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Jack Doughty wrote:
Thorough knowledge of source and target languages.
Exactly.
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Jack Doughty wrote:
Thorough knowledge of source and target languages.
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