Translation as a Profession: An Investigation of Commissioners' and Employers' Viewpoints[Latin Thesis]

Ayda Rashidi

Sociological approaches to Translation Studies have gained increasing visibility in recent years. One of the concepts rooted in sociology is the notion of profession. Occupations have been increasingly investigated from the viewpoint of the notion of profession to see the condition of the occupation and practitioners. As well, translation has been investigated in this study to see its professional status in Iran. Managers of 60 trading companies in Tehran have been interviewed to gather data about their employment criteria, translators' working condition, and managers' method of evaluating translations. They have also filled a questionnaire. The results of the questionnaire showed their general viewpoint of the translation and translator. It has been concluded that their most important employment criterion is being bilingual. Regarding working condition, translators do not have monopoly of action and reasonable income, and managers do not evaluate translations or evaluate them using back- translation. Therefore, managers' recognition of the profession is low, translators' working condition is not suitable, and managers are not able to evaluate translations, however their viewpoint of translation is good. Eventually, translation is not a full-fledged profession in Iran.