When you leave for university you’re bombarded with advice, whether it’s from your parents, fellow grade 12 classmates or older cousins who have already lived “the student life”. But, once you’re in university, you get bombarded with questions and stereotypes. In my case, anyways.
I’m currently in my second year of Translation and oh boy have I been insulted 5 too many times, but of course nobody was intentionally being rude! Here’s 5 things I’ve been asked or told so far about my program.
1. “So, how many languages do you know? Like probably a billion.”
No. I live in Canada, our official languages are French and English therefor I know French and English. Knowing Spanish or Italian wouldn’t benefit me much here anyways.
2. “Oh, so all four years of school you just learn English and French?”
Yeah, totally!!! NOT. I’m in university not kindergarten! We learn how to properly translate hence the word TRANSLATION.
3. “All you do is translate?”
Excuse yourself but there is so much more to it than just picking a word in French that matches the English word. There are steps and rules to follow, not to mention taking into considering connotation and denotation. And you can never forget translating from a poorly written text… Translating an article takes hours and you will never finish it because there’s always room to improve.
4. “You’re just going to sit around all day in an office when you grow up?”
And so will majority of the population who have careers. But, on the bright side I can literally translate in my bed, wearing pajamas. 1 point for Liette, 0 for you.
5. “Oh, that article isn’t long, it’ll be easy to translate!”
The length of a text never determines how easy it is. Especially if the article is poorly written and incomprehensible. Imagine reading an article written about a subject you have never heard of before nor understand, now try to explain it in a complete different language.
I get it, you aren’t educated on my education and I might not understand everything about your program either. But, before you ask me a question please, please for the love of languages, make sure your question has some sort of logic behind it and isn’t insulting me, my program or my future career.
