Audiovisual Translators and the Skills Needed for this Profession in Romania

Abstract

Translation is characterized by its internal interdisciplinarity (Mayoral, 2001: 65), so the audiovisual translation process requires specific skills from the translator, such as: an extraordinary facility for the foreign languages used, a developed visual sense, an excellent understanding of the rhythm, both of films, as well as of reading, but also a special ability to condense and know how to exclude conversation from different sections that are not crucial for comprehension (Ivarsson and Carroll, 1998: 1). This study particularizes and defines all these competencies and abilities stated above, which audiovisual translators in Romania have or consider necessary. To define them, we conducted questionnaires and interviews addressed to both translators and employers in which they classified the most important from their point of view.