Translator, language teacher

Briefly explain what you do for a living.

I work as a translator and English teacher. I primarily translate books from English to Finnish, mainly for two literary translation customers who represent various publishers. I also translate documents for import and export companies from Finnish to English and vice versa. I additionally teach English to adults at educational institutions and companies.

How have you ended up in the profession of your choice?

I have always been a bookworm, and languages were an easy subject for me at school. Because I was so interested in languages, I have known since I was young that I wanted to work with them. But the thought of being a teacher was terrifying to me because I was so shy. I happened to read an interview with a translator in a magazine, and up until then, I had not really realised that this kind of profession exists. I became interested because I thought that, as a translator, I could work in peace without social pressure. I was accepted into university to study translation on my first try. Through my studies, I gained job opportunities and a social network, which helped me get started in my career.

For a while, I just worked as a translator, and I was satisfied with that situation for a long time. But at some point, I started to want something new for my career. As I became more confident socially, I gradually started to focus on language teaching. I had positive experiences of guiding and coaching others. At the moment, I am happy to be able to do both jobs, as these two professions support one another and my coping at work.

Describe your typical working day or week.

On a typical workday, I spend a large part of my time translating texts. It is normal for me to do work for four different customers in one day, translating and teaching. I usually deliver business-related translations on a tight schedule. Book translations have reasonably long delivery times, which makes it possible to set the translation down for a couple of months and focus on other translations and teaching. Teaching, on the other hand, is organised around educational institutions’ and companies’ schedules. I teach during semesters, and when the semester ends, I may have a break for up to several weeks.

What kind of work environment or working hours do you have?

I do the translation work at my office, and I mainly teach at the premises of educational institutions and companies. I work from morning to evening and sometimes also on weekends if necessary. School classes are usually between 8 am and 4 pm. At companies, I do contact teaching on a weekly basis, and I also do some remote lessons.

What kind of competence or qualities are required in the profession?

As a translator, you have to be interested in reading, otherwise the work will be difficult. You have to read the customers’ texts carefully to understand their message and be able to convey it in another language. The work requires strong language skills and the ability to concentrate for long periods of time. In addition, a translator has to be prepared to continuously learn new things related to language and the subject matter of their work. It is also essential to be able to critically assess your own work without getting too attached to it. You have to be able to plan your work and follow a schedule to deliver translations on time.

Teaching, on the other hand, is very social and intensive work. You have to be able to repeat the same instructions on things like grammar and pronunciation again and again for different students and groups, from a perspective that is right for each individual and at an appropriate level of skill. A teacher needs to be willing and interested in supporting other people in their growth and development. You also have to be empathetic to make classes as comfortable as possible for the students. A teacher also has to accept that not everyone will always like them or be interested in what they have to teach, but they still have to be able to offer their guidance to everyone.

What is the best thing about your profession?

I am glad to be able to use my expertise to help others – people who like to read books as well as the professionals in different fields who participate in my classes. When a great translated book gets published, or when a student’s face lights up with insight, it makes me feel great and gives me professional pride.

What are the downsides of the profession or what seems challenging?

When you are self-employed, you have to be able to tolerate financial uncertainty. The work is partly seasonal, so you have to be able to sacrifice your free time when work is available, to carry you through quiet times. For example, I may have a two-week or even a two-month break when no one orders translations, so managing the big picture requires a systematic approach.

What would you tell a person considering the profession of a translator or language teacher?

Anyone interested in working in the language sector should keep up with the times and what is going on in the world. For translators, this year has been a turning point, because machine translation services based on artificial intelligence, such as DeepL, have entered the translation market more forcefully. Of course, AI has already been used for a long time to support translation, but applications are developing rapidly, for instance because the processing capacity of computers is growing dramatically. Still, studying languages is not a wasted effort because in-depth language proficiency opens up work opportunities, and it is also useful outside language specialist jobs.

If you are interested in working as a language teacher, you should study the language as a major or minor subject and work on in-depth language skills. As you study and do projects for work, you get a better idea of what you would like to do.

How do you see the future of your profession?

I think that the profession of translator in its current form is not entirely safe. I think that fewer translators will be needed in the future, as one person will be able to do several translators’ work with the help of AI applications. But as long as machines cannot think, we’ll need people. In this field, you need to take a flexible approach to find your role.

From the perspective of a book translator, it is difficult to imagine the future when you don’t know what kind of format will be used to manage sets of data. For now, that format is a book, because it is an easy and clear entity in its different publication formats.

Improving other peoples’ language proficiency with the help of your own language skills is a task that is sure to remain relevant, but teaching will become increasingly interactive: instead of listening to lectures, students will be offered ways of thinking and tools for independent development.

Knowing languages is an essential skill that will always be in demand. That is what I believe, which makes me think that learning a language is not only fun but also a smart career move.