Translator Career?

Question

Hopefully I can find some good informative answers here. I am able to speak spanish about 75% fluent. But the reason Im not 100% confident about pursueing a career in translating is because of that lack of 25% im missing. I was raised in a foster home from the age of 10 to 17. My foster mom did not know any spanish and I never had any spanish speaking friends. So I lost some of that spanish i guess. Before I was placed in a foster home I could speak spanish fluently. But then once I was in a foster home till now (which im 27 years old now) I didnt have any spanish speaking friends. I am able to tell you what two people are saying. But its like if u dont use a certain word for so long and you get ready to say it and its on the "tip of your tonue" you know it but cant remember it. Thats how very little of my spanish is. So how do I gain it back. I truely dont believe I need classes just need to be around people and speak it daily. So how do I do that since I have no spanish friends?

Answer 1

Okay. No classes.
Go and get some Spanish friends! Maybe you can place an add somewhere offering help with English to immigrants in exchange for spanish. Just be careful. If you are trying to become a translator, you'll need good command of the language and not only a buch of idioms and curse words.

Answer 2

Try listening to shows, music, and things like that in Spanish. Simply hearing the language makes it a lot easier to recall that 25% that you lost. Good luck with your translator career!

Answer 3

I worked in a factory for three months in college and that did more for my Spanish than any of my classes because people in my area who are unable ot get good jobs because of not speaking English are forced to work in this factory or be unemployed. They were eager to learn English and I was eager to learn Spanish, so we helped eachother by them speaking English to me and me speaking Spanish to them and we corrected eachother.

Answer 4

watch spanish movies as much as possible. if it is possible, i would vacation to somewhere where they do speak spanish. try to get around. the best way is to fully immerse yourself in a spanish speaking society, but since that is not the issue, i would look into a spanish class where you can speak to the teacher. i wish you luck.

Answer 5

Yo soy traductora de español y japonés. Mi lengua materna es el español, pero aprendí el japonés trabajando y viviendo en Japón. Actualmente en mi trabajo uso el portugués y poco a poco estoy adquiriendo mayor fluidez. También uso el inglés, pero con menos frecuencia. Quizás el nivel de mi inglés sea como tu nivel de español, puesto que a pesar de que estudié esta lengua más que las otras, por no tener un entorno en el que se hable inglés con frecuencia, mi inglés no es muy fluente.

Podrías comenzar trabajando en alguna área que te obligue a hablar en español para ir adquiriendo más seguridad en el idioma, lo cual te permitirá trabajar de traductor.
Para mi lo más importante es tener un gran dominio de tu propia lengua (teniendo esa base puedes aventurarte a aprender cualquier lengua). Además, no tener miedo de equivocarte y construir un ambiente (amigos, trabajo, medios de comunicación) que crea la necesidad de comunicarte en español. Ojalá que con esta receta puedas realizar tu meta.