Career in interpreting

I'm 22 years old and currently working in administration, which I hate. I've become really interested in becoming an interpreter - I started learning Spanish a few months ago and absolutely love it. I studied French in school and enjoyed that also but I didn't take it for GCSE. I don't have any language A Levels which I know will immediately stop me from going to uni to study languages. What other routes can I take into this? Would Open University be beneficial? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Reply 1

umbrellala

Universities Forum Helper

19

Original post by eldorado14

I'm 22 years old and currently working in administration, which I hate. I've become really interested in becoming an interpreter - I started learning Spanish a few months ago and absolutely love it. I studied French in school and enjoyed that also but I didn't take it for GCSE. I don't have any language A Levels which I know will immediately stop me from going to uni to study languages. What other routes can I take into this? Would Open University be beneficial? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

If you have the money spare and you're able to move abroad then I'd always recommend going to a language school in the country of your target language if that's possible! That's how you're going to get the highest level of fluency most quickly. There are also language schools you can go to in the UK, but if you're looking to become an interpreter then the level of fluency required will be difficult to achieve if you've never lived in said country (like any graduate of that language would have). In terms of qualifications, you should take the government-approved proficiency test. From a quick google, it looks like that's DELE for Spanish and DELF for French so they're worth looking into if you're not looking to get a degree. It might actually be worth emailing some unis to see if DELE/DELF qualifications will be accepted if that's something you're interested in

Original post by eldorado14

I'm 22 years old and currently working in administration, which I hate. I've become really interested in becoming an interpreter - I started learning Spanish a few months ago and absolutely love it. I studied French in school and enjoyed that also but I didn't take it for GCSE. I don't have any language A Levels which I know will immediately stop me from going to uni to study languages. What other routes can I take into this? Would Open University be beneficial? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

As indicated by the previous post, you need to be beyond classroom taught language level to be an interpreter, GCSE, A level and undergrad alone won't cut it. There are too many people that speak multiple languages to fluent/native level, especially if English is one of those languages.

So if you are starting from scratch, getting the basics to A level and then some form of long period immersion is probably what's going to be needed. Getting a job in the country you are interested in and spending a couple of years living there and using the language actively is probably the best way.

Reply 3

FishFinger04

14

Could you take the gcse now?

Career in interpreting

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