earticle

영어

This study aims to explore the experiences of first-time in-house interpreters/translators as they make transition from school to the workplace. A case study methodology was applied to gain a deep understanding on the nature and characteristics of their experiences as they begin to work as in-house interpreters after finishing a graduate program of interpretation and translation. Four participants were invited to participate in the study, where they submitted weekly reflection reports for 12 weeks after which they were interviewed by the researcher. The qualitative analysis of the reflection and interview data suggest that there were gaps between what the participants expected and the reality of the workplace. The participants also experienced difficulties in adjusting to the workplace as novice in-house interpreters. In particular, they struggled to define their status at the workplace in relation to their users and to get used to handling different types of translation and interpretation work that they were not familiar with. Some participants received support from the organization while others were left on their own to figure out the inner workings of the organization and their roles in the workplace. The findings of the study are expected to shed light on the experiences of novice interpreters at a deeper level, which in turn can help improve translation and interpretation education in Korea.