They say reading offers you windows to other worlds. With translation, I get to build those windows for other people, one sentence at a time. Sometimes, I even get to build doors – for refugees looking for a safer place to raise a family, for inventors seeking buyers or producers for their new technology, for international couples preparing to commit to a life together. It’s an honor to be involved in such pivotal moments of strangers’ lives.

I also have the rare privilege of walking freely through these worlds that non-translators only catch glimpses of. Translation requires an intimate knowledge of both cultures involved. In an odd anthropological twist, I almost have to become the Other in order to properly comprehend the subtleties of the ideas I am asked to transmit across the language divide. This adds thrill to travel and to my everyday experiences: at all moments, in all places, I am both local and foreign.

This privilege may become less rare. Forty-five percent of Californians now speak a language other than English at home. The lines between local and foreign are blurring for the average monolingual American, too. This is beautiful and exciting. As translation grows in importance to the mainstream, there are so many windows and doors being built – so many opportunities!

To answer the question, I think what I love most is success: not just my own, but helping people I form a connection with to succeed. Nothing feels better than knowing you helped a great idea gain traction with a broader, international audience. Translators help great ideas grow.

What I find most interesting about translation is the fact that it gives you an opportunity to live different lives through different languages. Each language is different and has its own world. Another important thing is that translation helps you to know about both strengths and weaknesses of your native language. Some scientific and technical concepts are easily expressed in English, but require a great deal of effort to express in Hindi. It is not that Hindi lacks the capacity to express such ideas. It is because Hindi doesn’t have the opportunity to be a language of science and technology due to historical factors. Translators keep on finding new ways to express new ideas in their native language. Last but not least, translation has given me the satisfaction of contributing to my native language. Hundreds of sentence structures and idioms have been included in Hindi by translators. It is really surprising that more translators are not aware of this contribution to their native language.

What stands out for me is the variety of things I learn while working. As a translator I’ve learnt about higher education systems in different European countries, the make-up of African and Latin American economies, the technical and tactical aspects of transatlantic sailing, the history of Spain, the graphic design process from start to finish, how small businesses operate and what services they offer, and a vast range of other fascinating information. What’s more, my translations have given a much wider audience access to this information.

I love unravelling a complex medical text in Spanish and putting it together again in English. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle.?You have all the pieces and a picture of how it should look. You size up the pieces against each other, put some to one side and try others with a different shade of the same colour. You take a step back, to get a better perspective. And all of a sudden you have it: the whole picture.

With translation, pieces are missing from the box. I have to look up terms and context in dictionaries and subject-specific resources. But I still get that exciting feeling of achievement?when it all comes together and the whole picture has been rebuilt.

That’s what I love about translating.

What we love the most about translating is the fact that we play a small part in making global communication possible.

Working as a translator is like getting paid to solve puzzles all day. Sometimes the puzzles are easy and you speed through them, other days they’re like monster brain teasers that follow you from your desk to the grocery store to the dinner table to the shower. And then something clicks and the answer is right there. You found it! Or did it find you? Either way it’s a good day’s work.