Dear fellow students:

The topic I will speak about today is "The Usefulness of Translation Studies". My focus will be on the usefulness of Translation Studies in working life. As translation students, I am sure this topic will interest all of you.

During our years in university, we learn translation or interpreting or both. Apart from studying the theory of translation, we also have a lot of practical training — we do translations, we interpret speeches. We are trained to be good translators and interpreters. As we all know, the main aim is that, once graduated, we will find a full-time job as a translator or as an interpreter.

But what happens if one day you walk out of this building with a diploma in your hand and dive eagerly and with great motivation into working life — only to realize that there are not enough jobs as translators or interpreters on the Finnish market?

Just imagine: at every translation bureau the door is slammed in your face. Every e-mail returns to you with the standard phrase: "Thank you for your application. We received many excellent job applications and found the person we were looking for. However, this time our choice was not you."

When this continues on and on, it is quite natural that you might lose your motivation and become depressed. There may not seem to be a solution. Okay, you might go abroad and try it there. And that is of course a good and valuable option. But what if want to stay in Finland and there doesn't seem to be a job available?

I'll bet the question might arise: did I study all those years in university for nothing? Was there any sense in studying translation and interpreting? Wouldn't it have been better for me to have learned another profession instead?

But I will tell you — No! You didn't study all those years in vain. The choice to study translation and interpreting was a good choice — maybe even the best choice of your life so far. As I will show you shortly, the years spent in university studying translation can be of great use wherever you work and whatever you do.

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Last October an 8-month-programme started here in Tampere with the aim to train Tourist Guides for the City of Tampere. There were 15 lucky students taken into this particular programme, and I was one of them. The programme was divided into two parts: the first was 5 months long, and the second 3 months.

The first 5 months of the training consisted of lectures, visits and literature exams. We had lectures every Wednesday and Thursday evening from six until half past eight. We had 20 books to read and three different papers to write. It was very interesting but also quite exhausting, as you might imagine.

The second and last part of the training started in March this year. It will continue until the end of May. This part of the training consists mainly of bus rehearsals. In the bus rehearsals we guide the bus driver around the districts of the City of Tampere and simultaneously explain to the passengers what there is to see. The route has been defined beforehand by our teachers.

I can tell you that it is actually quite hard to give directions to the bus driver with one hand, hold the mike with the other hand, and then still remember to say something! Furthermore the things you say should be correct and relevant!

However, in both parts of this training, my background in translation studies has been very helpful.

In the first part, the part with the lectures, visits, exams and papers, we often had to search for specific information by ourselves. I could do this quickly and successfully thanks to having studied translation. Searching for a specific term for a translation has taught me how to use different search tools efficiently — where to look and, most importantly, how to look. This proved extremely helpful when searching for information for course papers and checking numbers and dates, for example.

In the second part of the course, with the bus rehearsals, I could make use of all the speaking and interpreting practice I had had in university so far. Especially this course in "English Public Speaking" proved useful. Unlike my fellow-students on the bus, I felt comfortable with the bus microphone from day one. The only thing I was nervous about was how to remember the route and how to instruct the bus driver correctly — and that was one big thing less to be nervous about than my colleagues had. Speaking to an audience didn't feel that bad either, because also there I had had some training — thanks to you!

Anyway, what I wanted to show to you with this example is that the skills we learn here in university can also be useful elsewhere, and in other jobs. In future, if you happen not to get a job as a full-time translator or interpreter, remember that there is no need to panic. You certainly can use the skills you have achieved somewhere else.

In the current era of growing globalization, the big tourism, travel-industry and other business and governmental organizations will all need people who know languages. Specifically they will need people who know how to use languages well, as we do. And, last but not least, they will need people who know how to speak in public — confidently and effectively.

So I say, no matter what job you land in, your studies in translating and interpreting will be of use. Thus your choice to become a translator or interpreter certainly was a good choice. Congratulations on this wise choice, everyone!