As a localization company, translators are a big part of Lexcode’s success. For the past five years, Khalid Hassan has been one of Lexcode’s trusted Arabic translators, and he specializes in translating government files, legal contracts and forms, and product labels from English to Arabic and vice versa. During his free time, he likes to read books and play video games while paying an occasional visit to the football field with his league team.
Without further ado, here’s Khalid, our first featured translator of the translator’s series.
How did you get started with your translation career?
I started my translation career when my sister introduced me to an opening for an Arabic Financial Language Editor at Capital IQ–McGraw-Hill Philippines back in 2009.
How did you land your first translation job? How was the experience?
My first translation job was with Capital IQ–McGraw Hill Philippines, when I was tasked to translate financial statements and company profiles of Middle Eastern companies. It wasn’t a smooth ride at first, because it was a technical field and I was not that well-versed with many of the financial terms and standards used by companies, but I had a lot of help along the way and eventually grew into the job.
Best and worst part of your job?
Best part is reading the end-product of my translation work, and having a positive feedback from the client. The worst part is when something is lost in translation, more so for technical terms or idioms. Having to research the proper and most sensible translation can be frustrating at times.
Any advice for people starting their career in translation?
I would advise them to treat translation as a form of art because it greatly depends on creativity and experience, especially in cases where the source and target languages use different grammatical rules. Also, never stop learning because languages keep on evolving, and new terms and slangs are used in articles and other documents.20
