A student came to interview me, seeking to reflect with me on techniques and useful data to exercise as interpreter or translator. The truth is that I have done, for years, interpretations of English to the Spanish and vice versa, in different contexts and for different speakers and audiences. I had had my own lessons of learning in this area that I consider myself a self-taught and a beginner. I have always operated on the principle that he who knows English, is able to speak, write and also to interpret. Translation, by the way, while it is used as a methodological strategy by some teachers of language and as a mechanism of learning in some students, is an advanced skill. The career of translation has had a long career and development in some institutions of higher education in our country. This have joined some institutes that have transformed it into a technical career. I think we should start with speakers with a high level of competence in languages to form competent translators, in issue.
The ideal is to certify these powers under the prism of international standards, as e.g. ALTE 1. But then comes across another stage of training that requires plenty of exercise, many observation and permanent correction. A language interpreter is exposed to an immense psychological and mental pressure, must not be distracted nor cannot concentrate in this exercise. I think that in this field of the applied use of the language, where one is more competent in their mother tongue than in the L2, the exercise in different thematic contexts and against different types of audience is essential. In my case, I feel the adrenaline flowing in the same way as toured my body the first time I went to translate to someone against a public attentive, reflective, where every word that came out of me marked their lives in one way or another.