On 26th – 30th October I “attended” a Financial Markets and Accounting for Translators course ran by eCPD Webinars. This course consisted of three one-hour lessons: Shares, Bonds and Cash, Property, Gold, Hedge Funds and Derivatives, and Accounting, and was given by Paul Urwin, an entrepreneur, translator and former fund manager. It was aimed at translators who come from a non-financial background, but either work with financial texts or are interested in specialising in the translation of these types of texts.
I’ve been a translator for seven years and I’ve ended up specialising in company reports. I’ve developed an in-depth understanding of this type of text. However, I saw this course as an opportunity to test my knowledge of accounting terminology and learn about other areas of finance.
Terminology for financial translators
As should be the case with specialisation courses aimed at translators, the emphasis was on understanding the terminology used in texts which a financial translator might be required to work on. Paul highlighted the importance of glossary building and provided us with a list of terms in English for which we were required to find appropriate translations in our other languages. He also provided a clear analysis of how financial markets and accounting systems work.
Paul was friendly and approachable and answered our questions with patience, telling us where to find parallel texts for translation practice and clarifying queries we had with some of the concepts discussed.
What I got out of it
A three-hour course can’t teach you everything you need to know about a subject. However, the course reassured me about my understanding of accounting terminology and gave me an idea of how to improve my knowledge in other aspects of finance. As a result, I feel more confident in my abilities as a financial translator.
