Poll: Do you have formal education in your source language(s)? Tópico cartaz: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you have formal education in your source language(s)?".
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Formal:
French: 18 years (pre-school, primary school, high-school, university)
English: 12 years (high-school, university)
Italian: 4 years (language school)
Spanish: 4 years (language school)
Informal:
French: I have been living in Belgium since 1985…
| | | | neilmac
Espanha
Local time: 00:58
espanhol para inglês
+ ...
Not really. I only took a "half-class" of elementary Spanish in my final year at uni, basically as a "filler", as my core degree subjects were French and Russian. As I was concentrating on these, I attended very few Spanish classes and just managed to scrape through with a pass at the September resit. I then came to Spain the year after graduating and acquired my Spanish living and working here as an EFL teacher. I remember using a book called The Gimmick, by Adrienne, which I found to be a very... See more Not really. I only took a "half-class" of elementary Spanish in my final year at uni, basically as a "filler", as my core degree subjects were French and Russian. As I was concentrating on these, I attended very few Spanish classes and just managed to scrape through with a pass at the September resit. I then came to Spain the year after graduating and acquired my Spanish living and working here as an EFL teacher. I remember using a book called The Gimmick, by Adrienne, which I found to be a very good basic level introduction to real-world spoken (international) Spanish.
[Edited at 2015-08-10 09:16 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Billh
Local time: 23:58
espanhol para inglês
+ ...
| Didn't speak a word of Spanish until | Aug 10, 2015 |
I was 40. Found a 'School O Level Course Book' and read it by the swimming pool. When I needed some cash I decided to try translation.......
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Thayenga 
Alemanha
Local time: 00:58
Membro (2009)
inglês para alemão
+ ...
4 years of formal education (aside from German/English in school), plus nearly 20 years as an in-house translator (German / US-English).
Partial formal education in Spanish, plus regular "education" since 1980.
[Edited at 2015-08-10 10:13 GMT]
| | | | Julian Holmes
Japão
Local time: 07:58
Membro (2011)
japonês para inglês
Formal - 4 years at London University with my nose in a book behind a desk or in the library preceded by 6 months learning the lingo by myself by Teach Yourself Japanese during my 'A' levels
Very informal - 36 years or thereabouts in Japan hobnobbing with engineers from time to time, going on factory visits, playing the odd game of mahjong, and generally hanging around and chatting - and, sometimes having words - with the locals, all of which can be quite an eyeopening education in ... See more Formal - 4 years at London University with my nose in a book behind a desk or in the library preceded by 6 months learning the lingo by myself by Teach Yourself Japanese during my 'A' levels
Very informal - 36 years or thereabouts in Japan hobnobbing with engineers from time to time, going on factory visits, playing the odd game of mahjong, and generally hanging around and chatting - and, sometimes having words - with the locals, all of which can be quite an eyeopening education in itself  ▲ Collapse
| | | | Anthony Baldwin
Estados Unidos
Local time: 18:58
português para inglês
+ ...
I studied French for 3 years in high school, then tested out of 12 credits at college, and continued to study courses up to the graduate level, while also studying to become a teacher of my native tongue (ENUS).
Spanish I've spoken with family (from Mexico and Puerto Rico), since childhood, but never formally studied.
I learned Portuguese when I married a Brazilian school teacher, and was tested, approved, and interpreting in the State court system within 6 months of the wedding, whi... See more I studied French for 3 years in high school, then tested out of 12 credits at college, and continued to study courses up to the graduate level, while also studying to become a teacher of my native tongue (ENUS).
Spanish I've spoken with family (from Mexico and Puerto Rico), since childhood, but never formally studied.
I learned Portuguese when I married a Brazilian school teacher, and was tested, approved, and interpreting in the State court system within 6 months of the wedding, which I then did for 5+ years, speaking PT at home every day throughout that period.
Reading Brazilian news, watching novelas on Globo with the Mrs., and listening to lots of MPB, Tropicalia, and Brazilian Rock music helped. There is a robust Brazilian community in my state, but I still have not been to Brazil (nor France or any French-speaking place, just México, although, living in a large, East Coast US city, Spanish is spoken everywhere around me here; Probably 30% of the population of my city speaks Spanish as their first language. Rarely a day goes by I don't speak it with neighbors or friends). There ARE small pockets of Francophones, such as a small but friendly community of folks from Guinea with whom I've become well-acquainted.
But for actually speaking, despite the lack of formal studies, I speak Spanish and Portuguese both with much greater fluency than French, just for the fact that I use them far more frequently/regularly in conversation, and of course, I've been bilingual in Spanish since childhood. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Al Zaid
Estados Unidos
inglês para espanhol
+ ...
5-year major in English language.
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Christine Andersen
Dinamarca
Local time: 00:58
Membro (2003)
dinamarquês para inglês
+ ...
Sixth-form level technical college office training, a smattering of accounting and how to use a computer, WordPerfect and language secretarial training in French and German.
I could not do the undergraduate-level secretarial training in English because I did not have the necessary school exams in English, only an O-Level.  Five 'A' Levels, including French and German, got me in for those languages...
... See more Sixth-form level technical college office training, a smattering of accounting and how to use a computer, WordPerfect and language secretarial training in French and German.
I could not do the undergraduate-level secretarial training in English because I did not have the necessary school exams in English, only an O-Level. Five 'A' Levels, including French and German, got me in for those languages...
I actually had a BSc from a British Polytechnic as well, with German to English translation as a subsidiary subject. Still, you can't assume that people can read or write English just because they have English parents and have been to school and college in the UK. (I would have been more worried about my Danish, but I had that elementary office training...)
Luckily the other university took a different approach - that is where I took my Special Languages Diploma, the 'real' qualfication for translation. Even so, the one where I should have done the MA to become State Authorized would have let me in for almost any language I liked, just not English!
Never mind. This year I am a Chartered Linguist, and the CIoL accepted my Danish diploma... ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brasil
Local time: 19:58
Membro (2014)
inglês para português
+ ...
| It woulb be curious | Aug 10, 2015 |
to ask how many of us have formal education in translation. The results would be quite the opposite, I think. Although this has been asked before around here.
Also, I belive the asker is talking about, at least, an undergraduation education. If we consider high-school education, everyone will answer "yes", of course.
[Edited at 2015-08-11 16:58 GMT]
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Spanish, from 8th grade through graduate school
Portuguese, undergraduate and graduate school
I had joint majors in Spanish and Portuguese at the bachelor's and master's level and my Ph.D. major was discourse analysis with minors in Spanish and Portuguese linguistics. The courses were taught in those languages.
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