By Apurva Dubey
Editor's note: Adapted from Apurva's August 2018 internship report. This is a personal account of that programme, not current guidance about internship arrangements, software or publishing tools.
The 2018 Modlingua summer internship helped me connect language work with editing, audiovisual tasks and business planning. Online lectures, assignments and discussions gave me several ways to practise. By the final report, I was thinking about more than translation alone: I was also considering how language professionals present their work and build a business.
Seeing corrections side by side
One early task taught us to identify errors and edit unclear text. We set out the original wording and the corrected version in a table. Having them side by side made it easier for me to spot mistakes and learn from the changes.
A later assignment explored quality control in content writing and translation, including tools such as Grammarly. I used a Modlingua video to help prepare my response. In my report, I saw these tools as support for future writing tasks, alongside the editing techniques we were learning.
Listening closely and timing subtitles
For transcription, each of us chose a video from Modlingua's YouTube channel, listened to the speech and wrote it down. It was a practical challenge in careful listening.
The next assignment used that work for subtitles. I found the timing tricky and time-consuming: the written words needed to appear with the relevant speech. This made the relationship between listening, written text and the moving image much clearer to me.
Those tasks belonged to the 2018 programme. They are described here as my learning experience, rather than instructions for using today's YouTube interface.
Thinking about the business of language work
The social media marketing assignment moved into management. We consulted videos and prepared a business plan for Modlingua. It gave me an opportunity to think creatively about promotion and how a business might grow.
That part of the internship changed how I viewed a possible language-work venture. I felt that language ability mattered, but that business planning and marketing would also need attention if I wanted to establish my own work.
Trying a dramatic approach to script writing
For a script about someone connected with translation or interpretation, I chose Friedrich Schleiermacher. I tried to tell his story from a different perspective and add a little drama, drawing on a class about building a story.
The next script concerned a business personality. I chose Oprah Winfrey and felt that this was the assignment into which I put my best effort. Writing about someone I found inspiring gave me a reason to work carefully on the narrative.
Learning online without doing every optional task
Working online meant I did not need to travel to attend. Recordings helped too: I missed two live sessions and could return to them later. I could not volunteer for the additional creative video summaries, but I made a point of reading the published articles and watching the uploaded videos.
Learning also extended to group discussions, including a conversation about citizen journalism. I valued those exchanges alongside the formal assignments.
What I took from the programme
My final report brought together writing, collecting useful information, careful listening, note-taking, editing, scripts, subtitles and marketing. The range of tasks helped me use my summer time productively and see different sides of translation and interpretation work.
I was grateful for Ravi Kumar's guidance and encouragement throughout the programme. I finished with a wider view of the field and a better sense of the practical and business skills I wanted to keep developing.
