Summer Placement Diaries
Charlotte's summer placement with CB Multilingual
For my summer placement, I spent four weeks working at CB Multilingual near Zurich, Switzerland. As a first insight into a translation company, this was an ideal start. Working closely with my placement supervisor Silvia Cerrella Bauer was very helpful and resulted in a productive internship. CB Multilingual provides translation and interpreting services, as well as terminology management and other multilingual services. Working on site gave me the opportunity to learn about each of these aspects of the company, and follow along with everyday business processes.
One of my main tasks of my placement was to write blog posts for the company website. I wrote a short series on an interpreting conference, providing insight into the world of interpreting, aimed at clients of CBM. This was a good opportunity to get more familiar with the subject of interpreting, while also practicing my (non-academic) writing skills. Next to that, I also wrote a series of blog posts on machine translation and post-editing. As new technologies are being used more and more, my supervisor thought it useful to have some information on the company website on this topic. I was able to use a lot of what I learned at the University of Wolverhampton to write these posts.
As well as the blog posts, some other online marketing included posting updates on the LinkedIn page of the company, as well as drafting webpage content.
Another interesting task included the alignment of the CBM website content, in English, French and German. To see the process of alignment in practice allowed me to apply some of the teaching from my first year of EM TTI. This offered a chance for me to see how alignment software functions in a work setting, making more sense of the theoretical courses on the topic.
Other tasks included translating short texts such as flyers and newsletters, from German to English. Even though I am well acquainted with linguistics and languages in general, this was my first experience translating, and with my supervisor’s feedback it was very instructive. Finally, I also reorganised some data for the company, providing a more efficient database of freelance translator contacts.
Overall, the internship provided varied tasks which I was able to successfully complete with my supervisor’s feedback. The Swiss emphasis on efficiency and delivering quality work suited me, and I look forward to applying the knowledge I gained during the rest of my studies as well as my professional life. Of course, the amazing backdrop of lake Zurich and the Swiss mountain air deserve some recognition in making this a productive four weeks, too. As a first experience working in the field of translation, this internship was very valuable.
Post written by Charlotte Van de Velde
