Evaluating a Spanish Translator Certification Program

Spanish translator certification programs are becoming more and more prevalent as more and more people realize the importance that Spanish translation plays and will continue to play now and in the future. In order to take advantage of all the opportunities brought about by an increase in Spanish speakers, those with a solid grasp of English and Spanish are taking advantage and looking for ways to become translators.

In order to better their prospects for getting business, translators often turn to Spanish translator certification programs to prove their abilities to future clients and employers. Spanish translator certification programs take many forms, but most are geared towards helping you pass various certification tests given by various translation organizations.

The translation industry, at least in the United States, is not governed as tightly as other industries, such as law, medicine, or accounting, and so a lot of confusion has arisen over time about what it really means to be certified as a translator. For other industries like the ones I just mentioned, there are national standardized tests that are rigidly controlled, and these tests must be passed before a person can be employed legally in that industry.

Translation is different. Because there is no body that has the legal right to enforce translation standardization, many people become confused with all the noise from various organizations offering their version of a Spanish translator certification program. Not only can it be confusing to (would-be) translators, but it is also confusing for potential clients.

So what should you look for if you become interested in taking part in a Spanish translator certification program? Well, there are a few things to keep in mind. The first is that although there is no federally recognized organization for governing translators in the U.S., there is a national organization that offers tests for translator certification. This organization is called the American Translators Association (ATA) and is generally recognized by most translators as being the de facto organization for translator certification in the United States.

Most Spanish translator certification programs, therefore, try to give translators enough knowledge and experience to be able to pass the ATA certification tests. There are other organizations throughout the world that offer translator certification, and in order to find them you can do a search for the country you are interested in.

If you are want to become an ATA certified translator, my suggestion would be to look for a Spanish translator certification program that will give you the best opportunity of passing the tests given by ATA. These programs can be offered as university degrees, night school classes, or even online courses. Whatever the method, becoming certified takes a lot of study and a lot of practice, but can reap big dividends throughout your translation career.

Clint Tustison is a Spanish English translator interested in helping businesses and translators better understand the translation industry. If you're interested in how to improve your translation business or your relationship with translation companies, check out his website at http://www.spanish-translation-help.com.

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Where Can You Find the Best Music Program For Maintaining Teenagers' Interest in Music?

Now let us see where you can find the best music program to keep the music interest of a teenager alive and strong. Then we shall compare the advantages of hiring a private music teacher with those of having many teachers at a music school.

To have an influence on your teenager as parents, first understand that this is the age when kids are fascinated by the outside world and they are more influenced by their friends than by you. The right way in this case is gently directing and guiding them. You need to make full use of the child's new environment, right now!

If your child's friends or classmates are learning music as well, this is a big plus. Being in the company of fellow learners is great!

But of course it's highly unlikely that your kid's classmates will want to take up music education as an extracurricular activity because it needs years of dedication. But if your child joins a music school, all the benefits come on a platter. There your teenager will have a lot of friends pursuing the same goal - music. The benefits of learning along with "musical" friends and visiting the music school two-three times a week are wonderful. Here your child will develop interests that are totally different from those of other children. The children at music school interact at a higher level - a "musical" level. They learn from each other and keep improving upon their skills and talents. Thus, it is at music schools that your child will get the best music program and sustain and develop his/her interest in music.

Moreover, since there are several levels of music lessons at music schools, grouping of the students is easy and they will be with the same group most of the time. The little world within the music school is greatly beneficial and no private teacher can possibly emulate this setting and claim that his/her program is the best music program.

As your child grows older into a teenager, and you clearly see that he/she is losing interest in music, it is probably too late to enroll him/her in music schools. It is hence vital to begin music education in music schools or academies at a young age and offer the child the best music program possible.

When I was interviewing parents and talking to them about methods of music education and where they can find the best music program, I was surprised to know that some of them had never heard of special music institutes existing in Canada and the US! They only knew of private music teachers.

When I explain to parents what music schools and academies are, some of them ponder and ask whether these music institutes have only pros and no cons at all. Of course not, I tell them. There are cons as well that you should know. Firstly, music institutes are particular about the age of the students. The students' age must be within the limits set by each existing program. Secondly, and most significantly, the tuition fees are quite high; far higher than those of private music teachers. But of course the higher fees translate into the best music program that gives an absolutely comprehensive music education! Teachers, students and parents are all delighted with the rewards of the child's efforts.

Tatiana Bandurina develops a new trend in education - Music Education for Parents. For more information on the best music program, visit http://www.quintecco.com.

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What Should We Make of Peter Thiel’s “20 Under 20″ Education Program?

Several people have been asking me to weigh in publicly on the “20 under 20″ initiative announced by Peter Thiel in which he will award up to $100,000 to 20 people under the age of 20 who agree immediately to pursue entrepreneurship (the implication of which is that they’d drop out of university to do so).

Thiel and friends will also agree to mentor these young entrepreneurs. Here is their inaugural class.

So is this a good idea? My 2 cents:

1. This is a worthy goal and I applaud Peter Thiel

We need to take some risks in education and in innovation in this country so anybody that it trying to break through the traditional mold and try to create a new model ought to be lauded, not attacked. We have a severe shortage of talented engineers in this country, for example, and science doesn’t seem to garner as much attention & focus in the US as it does in some other countries. As a country we need to address this.

Read the opening quote from his initial press release on the program …

“Warning that America’s long term economic prospects are uncertain without radical innovation in technology, Peter Thiel this week launched the Thiel Fellowship to foster the next generation of tech visionaries.”

That’s a goal I can get behind. And think about it – is it really that radical? He’s going to hand select a group of 20 very high potential individuals with really high IQs and presumably from prestigious universities and offer them not only fellowships but also the exact same kind of “social proof” that one gets from graduating from Harvard or working for McKinsey. Actually, they’ll get even more attention because this selection will put them in an even more exclusive peer group and will introduce them to even more connected mentors.

So I don’t mourn for their lost youth or their downside consequences if their businesses doesn’t succeed. In a way, they’ve already “made it.”

2. Do not try this at home

What worries me about “20 under 20″ is not Peter Thiel but the potential for lesser-quality knock-offs. Let me give you an example. In the US we now have some very well established incubation programs run by high-caliber mentors including IdeaLab, yCombinator, TechStars, BetaWorks and Launchpad LA. Suddenly everybody wants to be an incubator. I get approached literally EVERY week by some new person with no real outstanding track record wanting to launch yet another incubator. You know how this ends.

So while “20 under 20″ might encourage 5-10 similar initiatives I think the broader message isn’t necessarily the right one. Just because I think that it’s OK that a group of 20 Mensa candidates is hand selected to have access & guidance doesn’t mean it’s the right answer for the masses. It probably isn’t. When students drop out of a middle-tier university to join an also-ran copycat program of “20 under 20″ and when their startups aren’t successful they will likely find themselves in employment no-man’s-land. That’s not wise. Especially if they have 1-2 year’s college debt accumulated.

3. The value of a college education

I am very passionate and on record about the value of education. Yet ironically it’s not always the classroom experience that provides all of the value. Going to college is about creating independence. It’s about discovering who you are as a human being. What you think. Whom your lifetime friends will be. It’s about exploration. Having fun. Trying all sorts of new things. Gaining new skills. Education is self discovery.

And I’m very on record as saying that I learned more about leadership from becoming president of my fraternity than I did in any classroom. I was prepared way more for business success in my political science classes than in my economics ones (I was a double major). In Poly Sci I learned critical thinking and writing. I also become interested in geopolitics, which led me to a life of wanting to travel and work in different locations. I subsequently lived abroad for 11 years in 5 countries and worked in 9 countries. That would never have come if I had been more single-minded at 18.

Single minded is good for some. Not for others. Actually, not for many. As humans we need empathy. We need to draw on multiple disciplines to make better decisions. We need to study humanities, religion, politics, biology, economics as well as computer science. We become more rounded individuals.

4. The challenges of a system that aims to educate all equally

I do struggle still with our college education system in the US. I’m not sure how much sense it makes to be graduated from a fourth-tier university with an esoteric major and being unprepared for the workforce ahead. I somehow think a system that goes back to a model of “apprenticeships” or “trade guilds” might churn out people more ready for the workforce. But the other problem is equally important – not graduating students starting life with large amounts of debt. If you’re graduating without the perfect credentials and without the right skills for employment yet you have debt accumulated over 4-5 years you’re already starting life on the wrong foot. I worry that we create people who start their careers as indentured servants.

So while college needs to be an option for all, there has to be a middle ground between a 4-year university degree and somebody only employable in a low-income job. This is where training programs come into play. Maybe 2 years of computer training would suit some people better than 4 years of book study? Maybe off-shoring could become more on-shoring and helping drum up employment in places like Detroit.

5. Would I ever encourage anybody to drop out of his or her education?

99.9% of the time where people ask whether I think they ought to stay in school the answer is “yes.” If I’m counseling young people I often coach them to consider getting degrees that will be practical for becoming more employable when they graduate. But stay in school. Experience life. Discover who you are. Get that piece of paper that shows the workforce that you have a degree of discipline to start and finish something.

But the truth is that there ARE outliers and I think that in my gut I feel the same way I image Peter does. I’ll give you a real world example. A friend of mine is currently pursuing a joint JD/MBA at Stanford. He graduated from Harvard undergrad. He’s already built several tech/media businesses and I know he is talented enough to do something significant in life – whatever he chooses. He is torn between finishing his degrees and starting his next entrepreneurial endeavor 3 years earlier (he is finished with year 1 of 4). He doesn’t want to practice law. What I said to him was,

“You’ve already got the credentials for success. You have the Harvard undergrad. You built a company at 22. You were accepted to Stanford Law School AND Stanford Graduate School of Business. That’s enough. Anything else you do in life you will always have that calling card. Being a graduate of SLS or Stanford GSB won’t give you anything else that you don’t already have. You’re not looking to practice law. You don’t need a network.

You’re more entrepreneurial than 99% of people in any b-school class. You have a stated goal of building your company. You’re not going to learn anything in that classroom that you wouldn’t learn better by doing at your next company. You have no debts to pay off. Why wouldn’t you start now?”

6. And finally …

I don’t give a shit whether you were graduated from college or not. If you’re excellent at what you do (coding, sales, marketing, leadership) and you can demonstrate that, I really don’t care if you went to or dropped out of college. At least not as an entrepreneur. Others might care so you should take that into consideration. I personally don’t. And I can attest to this because one of my leading developers at both of my startups never finished college. It never affected him when it was time to check in his code and I’d hire him again in a second.

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