3 rd October 2007
Schools and Tertiary Institutes introduce more Translation Courses.
Translation courses are not new in Singapore. But they are only gaining popularity now. Three years ago, about half a dozen of schools in Singapore introduced English to Chinese and Chinese to English lessons to its students. These (mostly one-hour) lessons fell under the Chinese Studies programme which also taught students about the Chinese culture and language.
Two years ago, a graduate diploma in translation in Chinese and English was introduced at Nanyang Technological University. The response delivers about 50 applicants annually and the school takes in only 20 students.
Three months ago, UniSIM, introduced the first translation degree in Singapore. 100 student applied for this course and out of the 69 that were selected, some were teachers, doctors, lawyers, court interpreters and pre-school principals. They all had their own reasons for wanting to do a whole degree just in translation. But what will the job front look like after these students graduate?
In a Straits Times report, Associate Professor Helena Gao, from NTU said: “Highly qualified translators and interpreters should be able to find good job opportunities both within and outside the country.”
There are an estimated 1000 translators in Singapore. Some of these translators work part-time or offer their services on a freelance basis.
Translation courses and the need of this service is becoming more popular. This need could have been backed up by the “trade and exchanges between Singapore and other parts of the world especially China, where the prospects of the industry are bright” as reported in the Straits Times.
However, will there be scope for translation courses in other languages ? Said a part-time Punjabi language educator, Jazpreet Kaur “It’s an added skill. We have started off with the English to Chinese and Chinese to English translation courses, which is a great effort. Hopefully we can expand into other languages. Other languages may not have much opportunity here but in countries like Australia, translation from English to an other language has scope.
Sources: The Straits Times, 2 nd October 2007
Quotes extracted from The Straits times are in Italics.
