I'm 19, about to enter my second semester of college, and an air force recruiter contacted me, saying that Persian/Dari/Taijiki, Pashto and Urdu translators are currently easily employed by the government. I have a few questions about this:
1. How similar are Persian, Dari and Taijiki? If I learned Persian (the only one which I have access to classes) would I be able to understand the other two?
2. Has anyone ever made a living translating and interpreting speech and text? How is the work, what is your normal workday like, and how much do you get paid?
3. How hard is Persian to learn for an English speaker? What are some tips I should remember?
Name:
Anonymous2011-01-01 7:33
studied persian at soas university 3 years. I'm quite sleepy so first I must apologize for the sloppiness of my reply in advance.
yep those languages are in demand for military, security and intell services. However. the language that is really needed, is Uzbek - different structure entirely. There are many persian speakers in USA most of which will understand persian to a level far in advance of any college course ie Tehangeles - collq for LA's Iranian crowd, few are in the services not surprising given the xenophobic employment policies.
1. Essentially the same language, certainly as far as you as a beginner would require. Not that anyone would understand you. When you leave the cities.
2. The level required for professional work is extremely high, having done it for 3 years I wouldn't claim to have that level. However ad-hoc translation of docs and recordings is always possible - there are many agencies offering this work. I don't do jobs like that not of any interest to me - probably pay ok....
3. Not very. Most difficult part is the spoken style is very different to the written style, ie speech is collq and script is now. Learn to master the use of ezafe it will make your spoken style more acceptable. You really need to visit and talk with natives, LA is the best place in USA. I am assuming as an USAFag getting into Iran is too hard - shame for you.
Verbs in persian are very regular.
As you advance you will find many complex words that are Arabic in origin, they are a pain to master esp if like me you did not have Arabic language skills. Arabic is not essential, they are after all both different lang.families but it is helpful to have both. Also makes you job prospects far higher.
I have piles of books etc, so I could get the names of the best ones I found, can you give me a list of books etc for the course
In addition this site is the best for materials
uztranslations or uz-translations its a blog you'll have to google for the correct url