I’ve written this article to help clients learn more about me as well as to offer aspiring translators some valuable insights on how to pursue a career in the translation industry.

Language studies

Since I was a little girl I’ve always loved languages. I’m not sure if growing up in a bilingual environment contributed to this but, when I was very young, I wanted to learn a lot of languages, visit countries and speak those languages. As my studies progressed, languages became more and more my focus subjects.

English has always been my favourite but I’ve also loved, French, German and Spanish, my second language. I also studied Croatian and Arabic for one year at university and, lately, I’ve been obsessed with Korean! I managed to learn a few words by only watching K-Dramas with subtitles.

If you want to be a translator, especially a good one, you need to study your source language very well. I know that many people out there translate even if they haven’t mastered their working languages, but that’s not me; I could never do this because the possibility of misunderstandings and making mistakes is high even when you have an excellent command of the language.

So, study the language and the culture, watch films and TV series, and listen to some music that can help you understand the culture, visit the country and, if you can, live there for a while. You really need to immerse yourself in the language if you want to be able to translate that culture. I remember when I was 12 I used to translate songs for fun. Anything helps. Read books, maybe about your favourite hobby, or literature, or any other topic you’re interested in.

Translation Studies

My undergraduate degree in Italy mainly focused on foreign languages learning, however, language learning in general in Italy always incorporates translation as a teaching method. I don’t completely agree with this teaching method because most students don’t have enough knowledge to do that, especially not when they are 12; in addition to this, translation is a different skill altogether. However, I will admit that I did like it when I was asked to translate; it was one of my favourite exercises.

At University, only English offered a translation course, and more specifically I did two years of Audiovisual Translation and one of Literary Translation. The topics to translate were similar though, both courses dealt with translating Shakespeare’s works, whether it was a theatre or a film adaptation, or the actual writing on paper. Even though it was very interesting, at some point it became a bit too much, as well as boring.

However, those courses helped me a lot with learning the basics of different translation approaches and strategies that I later also applied to non-literary material. Believe it or not, the Audiovisual Translation course during my undergraduate led me to study for a Master’s Degree in Translating Popular Culture and Audiovisual Translation in London. Over 10 years ago, London was the only city in Europe to offer this postgraduate degree, and only in two universities. This course taught me a lot about translation theory and approach, and meeting with a tutor every week was also quite helpful.

After graduating, I decided to completely shift my focus and I attended many courses and webinars on legal and certified translations. I suddenly became so interested in it that I wanted to learn everything. I did courses organised by both English and Italian providers; the Italian and the English legal systems are quite different and that’s why it was important to me to learn from both.

The takeaway here is to enrol in formal translation courses that teach the basics from the theory to different approaches and strategies. It seems irrelevant but it isn’t. As translators, we often face challenges because of some untranslatable words, cultural elements, concepts and differences, and learning how to navigate them and solve them is paramount. We cannot make mistakes, remove anything or rewrite wrong concepts. Even if it seems useless and boring, you won’t regret studying translation theory in the end!

Translation experience

Despite what we all think, especially in the industry, translation experience starts during formal studies. All the hours spent translating, researching, practising, rewriting, and learning, are all part of the experience everyone so desperately tries to gain and prove. I understand that translator project managers often don’t see it this way but experience is not measured based on pay, it’s based on practice. Of course, it’s different if you can showcase some work you have done for this or that company or brand, but your other unpaid work is not less valuable. It took me a long time to learn this and I have to thank my last mentor who taught me this.

My experience started at university, both in Rome and in London. I later helped a few friends to translate content of all kinds of topics until I started working for a Notary Public in London where I stayed for five years. There I used to translate many personal certificates, Companies House documents, powers of attorney and affidavits. It was the best experience for me because I used to see documents originally written in English, Italian and Spanish (my working languages) which helped a lot to figure out how to say some specific terms or phrases in the language I had to translate into.

I also offered some pro bono work and translated for free on a few platforms such as the European Southern Observatory YouTube channel, Babelcube and English Heritage. I still translate for English Heritage and, so far, it’s been my favourite! I love translating history and tourism content and I work with a group of Italian translators who are really good. The experience gained with these platforms has been invaluable and has helped me improve my creative translation skills.

I know that getting experience and showcasing it is where most translators get stuck. However, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Tell everyone what you do and offer services for free in exchange for a review and/or permission to use the content in a portfolio. Start gathering your most polished translations, or polish the texts you translate for fun and create a good portfolio to send to clients. This will help build both your confidence and your credibility, as well as your translation experience.

Translation work

My official translation work began when I started working with a Notary Public. I later started offering certified translation services to private individuals and companies. To be honest, I didn’t do it the smart way; I didn’t have a plan and didn’t know what I needed first and that’s why I registered with the free CIOL mentorship program (but you have to be a member already to be able to apply).

This is often the case because we are not business people, however, I think teaching business should be part of our studies because it is such a huge aspect of our career that cannot be ignored. If you are interested you can read my article 10 things I wish I could tell my younger self for more information on this topic. I also read articles online, watched videos on YouTube and followed other industry professionals for recommendations and tips. They were all really helpful but it was hard to put everything together, especially the marketing aspect. I couldn’t understand what a marketing strategy was, or how to create one, how to analyse if it was working, or not, and so much more. However, I have to be honest, when I started offering my services I was just happy to receive translation requests. I also applied for translation agencies, which was a real challenge because most rejected or ignored my applications. I knew I didn’t want to work with them anyway because the pay is usually quite low compared to the amount of work that goes into translating a text, so I wasn’t upset by this.

In the meantime, I kept working on some small paid projects for friends and the direct clients I was getting. I also started promoting my services on Facebook groups and my clients increased. Facebook groups can work but it’s a challenging strategy because you don’t know what kind of clients will contact you. However, I did gain some valuable clients such as providers for Italian citizens in the UK, like lawyers, accountants and other business owners who like to use Facebook.

So far, I have found that networking is what works best, not necessarily in networking events but also among friends or people you know, friends of friends or other translators and colleagues from your day job if you have one. It’s a shame I don’t feel comfortable with networking, otherwise, this could be a really good strategy.

During all these years, my biggest lesson was how important it is to try things and figure out what works for me. You can follow the best and most capable and successful translator but it doesn’t mean that their strategy will work for you. Don’t be afraid to try different strategies and continue investing in the one you prefer and that works for you.

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I hope you have enjoyed getting to know me a bit more and learning what I did to become a translator. Here is a more in-depth article about me.

If you are a client, thank you for reading and I hope we can work together in the future. If you are a translator, I want to thank you as well for reading and I hope you will feel a little bit more inspired. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at info@katiuskaparra.com or by using my contact form.

My name is Katiuska and I am a certified translator, consultant and blogger. I work with Italian, English and Spanish, and specialise in legal and certified and official translations. I am a Member of the CIOL and the ITI, a Chartered Linguist and I am registered with the Italian Consulate in London and Manchester as a certified translator. I hold a BA in Foreign Languages, a Master of Arts in Translating Popular Culture and Audiovisual Translation and a Diploma in legal and medical translation. I have over five years of experience as a legal assistant to a Notary Public and plenty of knowledge and expertise about translations for use abroad. You can follow me on Facebook and Instagram.