What Competencies are Required in the Present-Day Translation Market?

Compilation

Abstract

The steadily globalizing world today is in need of more translators and interpreters to keep up with the pace of development. Yet, the issue remains as to the right skills and competencies to respond to the new technological and cultural requirements along with cognitive and professional capabilities among the field professionals. The present paper – novel in terms of bringing together a set of requirements and comeptencies – suggests that in order to develop cross-cultural communcation skills in translation and interpretation, practitioners in the field are required to discover the humanistic nature of the source and target languages as a reflection of their sociocultural identity. To do so in the present-day market, they are expected to use the stuructural aspects of language properly, conduct research, develop technical skills, and frame an understanding of professionalism to bridge the source and target cultures. Such efforts will result in establishing a set of competencies which, when reflected in translation/interpretation, are the much-needed qualities in this market today.