@OP, fyi, pudding cat has a thread describing their experience at Bath U's grad translation/interpreting program. You might try contacting a few programs for information. Maybe they can put you in touch with a student willing to answer a few questions. There are also a few translator forums and blogs that might be interesting for you.

Javizy Wrote:Not sure where art fits into it though.

I think they mean Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) - a general humanities undergrad (vs. Bachelor of Sciences.) "Arts" departments might include economics, history, psychology, languages, etc. That term not used in UK?

In the UK, law is an undergrad degree. It's a grad degree in North America (Australia too, I guess). Some schools offer combined undergrad/grad degrees (eg. Commerce/Law) with a reduced number of required credits (often one year less.)

Thora Wrote:

Javizy Wrote:Not sure where art fits into it though.

I think they mean Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) - a general humanities undergrad (vs. Bachelor of Sciences.) "Arts" departments might include economics, history, psychology, languages, etc. That term not used in UK?

I'm familiar with BAs but I didn't know Art by itself could carry that meaning. It now makes a lot of sense. Law and linguistics or translation would be a pretty formidable combination.

If the OP is interested in any resources there's the Google group Honyaku which has a lot of J-E pros. You can check out advice for difficult terms at Translators Cafe, and I've been reading through The Routledge Course in Japanese Translation, which might be pretty enlightening if you haven't studied anything about translation before. Even the first few chapters highlight a ton of common pitfalls I never would've imagined. A Japanese translator unwittingly translating a line of the American national anthem in Saving Private Ryan is probably the best so far.

I want to start learning technical vocab, (law, economics, etc), what do you advice me to do? I'll take a masters in translation and while taking it I will also take some of those fields classes, but right now, I want to start learning it right now, what should I do? I will buy an already mentioned book on japanese-english translation (even though my focus on my masters degree will be portuguese-japanese)

I will start reading about economics in english/portuguese/japanese of course, but do you have any more useful advices?

I would suggest reading things that have technical vocab (law, economics, etc) in them.

It's that simple.

Zgarbas Wrote:...Just the plane ticket to Japan is my rent for 10 months. So yeah. I think I'll just become a store clerk or something.

V You'd be amazed at how much BS the teachers can throw at you in order to secure their positions. And at how gullible certain students can be(we had people complaining that they could say their age and name in Japanese, yet didn't get full scholarships as the Uni promised)

Where did you study?