Spanish Translation Blog

Common Myths About Translating

Myth 1: Anyone bilingual person can be a good translator.

This is probably the most common misconception. It is indeed necessary to know more than one language to be a translator, but to be a good translator, the most important requirement is being a good writer. A professional translator needs a mastery of words, plus control over different writing styles and registers that he or she can employ for different types of projects, such as legal, medical, fiction, financial, etc.

Myth 2: You need a degree in translating or a foreign language  to be a professional translator.
This is not necessary to be able to work for the vast majority of translation agencies, and even less so for freelance work. In fact, translators often come from different fields, such as engineering, medicine or law, and then use their background knowledge to specialize in that type of translation.

Myth 3: Computer programs are better translators than humans.
Computers are great tools for translators, with their online glossaries, CAT tools, etc., but machine translations have a long way to go before they can produce something comparable in quality to a translation done by a professional translator. Check out the video below for a few examples of these funny translation mistakes.