Translation and Interpreting
"In Babylon, the cursed city, that tower was rising which was a sin of human arrogance. And the thunderbolt of wrath was not long in coming: God condemned the builders to speak different languages, so that no one would ever again be able to communicate with anyone, and the tower remained forever half-built. According to the ancient Hebrews, the diversity of human languages was a divine punishment. But perhaps, wishing to punish us, God did us the favour of saving us from the boredom of the single language."
Eduardo Galeano
In his book Espejos: una historia casi universal.
Translation and Interpreting in figures
Turnover
Around 700 million euros per year.
Employment
12.000 people, including in-house translators (3.528) and freelancers (8.472).
According to the EU Directorate-General for Translation, in 2021 there were some 4,300 in-house translators and 800 interpreters, with 30% of the work being outsourced to external companies and freelancers, making it the international organisation with the largest number of translators/interpreters.
Source: Situación y perspectivas del mercado de los servicios lingüísticos y la comunicación multilingüe en España. Department of Applied Communication Sciences (Complutense University of Madrid), 2024
"By the will of fate I came to play a part in not letting Hitler achieve his final goal of disappearing and turning into a myth".
Elena Rzhevskaya
In her book Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle of Rzhev to Hitler's Bunker.
Useful tools for interpreters
Here are a number of tools that can be very useful for interpreters or anyone discovering this exciting profession.
Videos
Find out from professional interpreters about the experiences, characteristics and peculiarities of this profession
Virtual Communities
To be in this world, you need to belong to the community, to be in contact. Here we offer you several virtual communities of interpreters that will help you to practice and be in contact with other professionals.
Bibliography
Discover the professional opportunities in interpreting in the attached bibliography
