In my previous post, FAQ #3: Did Your Bryn Mawr Education Prepare You For Your Career?, I discussed how a liberal arts education prepared me for a career as a translator.

My colleague Frode Aleksandersen, an English/Danish/Swedish/Japanese to Norwegian translator who specializes in technical translation, checked in with me afterwards to offer a contrasting perspective. Since my FAQ series is intended to answer questions that aspiring translators ask me, I feel it’s helpful to present multiple sides to these issues. Happily, Frode’s given me his permission to share his thoughts with everyone.

Here’s what he has to say:

“How much [a liberal arts education] helps depends on what kind of translation you’re going to be doing I think – I do mostly technical translations, and having an IT background has been invaluable for getting into that fast, whereas the subjects I took at the university in Oslo [have had] zero impact on it. Being an expert in the fields you’re going to be translating is what really matters. I think the only thing that had an influence is that I audited (didn’t have time to do the homework or take the exam) a class in translation theory, while already working as a professional translator. It got me thinking a bit more about things such as “who is the customer”, and also being able to explain different types of translation to other people, even though I don’t actually do those kinds of translations.

For translation of popular media such as books, manga and TV I completely agree that you need a very solid background in both the culture and history you’re translating from and to. Knowing a little about a lot of things also helps, but you do get a part of that simply from working on translations and researching different things as a result. Most important is knowing how and where to look.”

My take on this? Like Frode says, subject expertise really matters. And having research skills–“knowing how and where to look”–is certainly the most important thing. It’ll make or break you, both in translation and in life. But you’re not born knowing how to research; it’s a skill that most of us need to specifically learn (see “Research, research, research” on the So, You Want To Be A Translator? page).  I’ve argued that you can acquire it very well through a liberal arts education, but the route you acquire it through is not what’s most important. What’s most important is that you acquire it.