Can anyone who knows two languages well be a translator?
This is a common misconception. Translation involves much more than just looking up a word in a dictionary. A good translator has a broad knowledge of the cultures of the languages in which he or she translates. Each language has its own resources and may convey the same idea using different words. A simple example is the various ways in which languages express the idea “My name is ….” In Spanish, they say, “I call myself…,” whereas in Russian it is, “They call me….” It gets a lot trickier when you are dealing with complex, abstract ideas (or proverbs), but the idea is the same. In addition, just as a great mathematician or athlete has certain innate talents, so translation also requires a special talent that can’t be learned.
