What makes a professional and competent translator?
Why do we need to distinguish ourselves as professional translators? “Professional lawyer”, “professional teacher” or “professional accountant” — you simply don’t see such names of occupations preceded with the word professional. The “liberal professions” go back to the notion of artes liberales. Cicero and Seneca believed these pursuits were carried out by a free person and their learning was a necessity for any free Roman citizen. Occupations such as teacher, lawyer, master builder, architect, engineer and physician were described as “artes liberales” and the term centred on a social, moral and legal consideration of the activity at hand. Endeavours such as fieldwork…