Spanish vs JournalismAlaina Dehner

Contemp. 3rd HourNovember 21, 2013

Career options in Spanish

• Government• Diplomat• UN Translator• Court Interpreter• CIA/FBI Linguist• Peace Corps• Armed Forces• Various government

departments

• Social Service• Law enforcement• Case worker• Health services• Nursing

• Education• Teacher• Translator• Editor• Textbook author

Freelance Translator

Career options in Journalism• Medium

Photojournalism Broadcast Journalism Print Journalism Multimedia

• Content Sports Politics Business Education Art and Culture Crime

DutiesTranslator• Tranlsate material from one

language to another with good grammar and sentence structure for each,

• Interpret documents without losing the meaning

• Direct communication with two people or groups that are unable to communicate otherwise

• Edit/Proofread

Journalist• Attend press conferences,

council and board meetings, and other events

• Conduct interviews• Take notes quickly and type

them up on a computer• Be able to drop everything

to cover breaking news

Working Conditions

Translator• Wide Variety

– Hospitals– Court Rooms– Military Base– School

Journalist

• Possibly long and unpredictable hours

• Wide variety of conditions depending on the story being covered

• Some travel• A lot of time spent in front

of a computer

• Travel may be needed

How to get there…

IN TRANSLATION…

• MUST BE FLUENT IN ENGLISH AND ANOTHER LANGUAGE• A college degree is not always necessary, but helpful• NO universal certification, but it is helpful to have some from:– American Translators Association– National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and

Translators– U.S. Department of State– International Association of Conference Interpreters

• IN JOURNALISM…

• Degree in communications while taking classes in reporting, ethics, English, and a wide variety of other things such as business, current issues, and economics– Must be somewhat educated about the things being

written about• Involvement with class or local news programs for a

background in the career

University of Michigan• Spanish– Internship programs

right in Ann Arbor– Easier to study abroad– Spanish “Coffee Hours”

and “Lunch Tables”– Various language

oriented student groups

• Communications– Easily accessible

internship programs– Student groups such as

Michigan Association for Communication Studies

– Student Media Watchdog Association

$24,186

SALARY!Translator• $162,000 per year

Journalist• $46,000 per year

Comparison

Mastery of Language

Good people skills

Varying hours and working conditions

Follow the money

Translator Journalist

Lots of work spent at a computer

Well spoken English

Money depends largely on the story

Lots of work spent working with other people

Must know at least two languages

Makes considerably more money

Which one I prefer……..

Spanish Translation

I really enjoy the more social aspect that being a translator has over journalism. One of my biggest pet peeves is the language barrier. To be able to work around that for others would be something that I would really enjoy!