How to Travel With a Translator

Whenever you go abroad or to a region of the country where you know a language other than your own will be spoken, it can be wise to take a translator or interpreter along with you. Hand-held "translators" are only glorified dictionaries, with the accompanying limitations and disadvantages. But traveling with a translator also requires some careful thinking.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Determine your travel needs. Make a distinction between what a translator--as opposed to an interpreter--offers you. A translator works with written material; an interpreter translates during a spoken exchange.

2. Locate someone who speaks the desired language and preferably one who has experience in the country or region to which you are going.

3. Find a translator by contacting universities and community colleges in your area or in an area to which you are willing to travel. Many professors of language are also skilled translators and interpreters, though they may not be professionally certified.

4. Search the website of the American Translator's Association for a translator or interpreter near you. The site is well organized and will guide you to people who have professional proficiency in the language in question.

5. Remember that your translator is a person, not a computer. She is susceptible to errors in listening or understanding just as you are in your native language. Any number of factors can affect the way she might translate something, so be patient.

6. Make up your mind to pay your translator what he is worth. You may be asked to provide traveling and lodging expenses as needed, along with the translator's hourly rate. It's worth it.

Tips & Warnings

• Always check the credentials and reputation, where possible, of the person you want to hire. If she has done work for clinics or other organizations in the area, call them to see what her success rate and work ethic are like.
• Spanish, for example, while largely homogeneous across 21 countries, allows for many regional variations which can change the meaning of sentences entirely. For example, in one country, the word "guagua" means "bus," but in another, that same word is used as a slang term for a "baby." Make sure that the translator you travel with has a good grasp on the local flavor of the language.

Resources

• The website of the American Translator's Association