Vidisha Shah

Bonjour everyone! My name is Vidisha Shah from Mumbai and I’m currently completing my Masters in Commerce with a specialization in Business Management from NarseeMonjee College, which is affiliated with Mumbai University. I currently speak French, English, Hindi and Gujarati and will soon be adding Spanish to my list of working languages. Currently, my working pair of languages is English and French.

I have studied French at Alliance Française de Bombay and have completed up to Level C1 and will be giving my DALF C1 examination in June 2018. I have worked as a Customer Service Executive cum French Translator for 1.5 years at one of the worlds most known NGO’S, Lions Clubs International. At Lions Clubs International, my role was to assist the French Speaking Nations of Africa such as Morocco, Tunisia, Congo Republic, and Senegal. I was required to process and develop the new Lions Clubs and Leo Clubs in the French-speaking countries and also to assist the senior translator in all French related communication taking place within the organization.  I have also translated emails and travel-related documents such as Itineraries, Hotel confirmations and Air tickets and sometimes even legal documents such as minutes of meetings. 

I’m also a private tutor and am tutoring children who are learning French for educational purposes of different age groups. I teach students from IB, IGCSE and ICSE Boards of all age groups for the past 5 years.

During my summer vacation, I would like to intern with Modlingua to develop and further sharpen and use my linguistic and management skills. This would be a great opportunity for me to gain professional knowledge and real-time experience about the Translation Industry by completing and understanding the projects offered as a part of the Internship such as Research, Content Writing and Report Preparation on Business Issues such as Branding, Market Research etc. I hope that this experience as a summer intern at Modlingua helps me gain a deep understanding of the Translation Industry and what it is to have a career as a Translator.

In the future, I would like to work as a Translator either in a French MNC or a French bank wherein I can use my mixed knowledge of Commerce as well as French.

CAREER GOALS

I have always been highly interested in all things Finance and Business. Thus, my educational includes a Bachelors as well as a Masters in Commerce with a specialization in Business Management. However, all things cultural have always been my forte and that’s how I started learning the French language. Seen my love and passion for the French language and culture, I joined Alliance Française de Bombay and started learning French professionally. Today, I have successfully completed up to Level C1 and will be appearing for my DALF C1 examination in the month of June 2018. I also wish to expand my knowledge and love for languages and intend to add the Spanish language to my array of languages along with French and English. I will shortly be starting my Spanish language classes.

My career goal is to combine my knowledge of Business Management along with my love for languages and work as a Translator in this highly globalized professional world. On becoming a Translator I would like to specialize in Business and Commercial translations. In today's small world, as we call it, there are thousands of economic, business as well as financial transactions taking place in every nook and corner of the world and it is very important that we become aware and learn about the cultures that we are dealing with. Once we know the culture and language of a client, there tends to be a higher level of trust from the client and there is ease in conducting business operations. Thus, after much debate and research, I have decided to enter into the lingual world and aspire to become a Professional Translator with the following language pairs: English, French and Spanish. Some of my short-term objectives to achieve my career goal:

• 1) To acquire good quality education in the field of Translation and earn a recognized degree from a well-recognized school or university.
• 2) To familiarize self with the Translation and Language Industry in India as well as abroad.
• 3) To learn a third language i.e. Spanish to broaden my horizons in working as a Translator

My long-term objective is to achieve the position of a Translator in either a large French multinational company or any French bank in India. As mentioned earlier, my goal is to combine my knowledge of languages and Commerce/Finance and to successfully mould myself to work as a Translator.

Taking you through my educational background, I have completed my schooling in the ICSE Board and then moved on to finish my 12^th standard in the HSC Board. After12th, I completed my Bachelors in Commerce from Mithibai College, Mumbai University wherein we had several Accounting subjects such as Financial Accounts, Cost Accounts, Management Accounts as well as Direct and Indirect Taxation. After completing my Bachelors in Commerce (B.Com), I am currently pursuing my Masters in Commerce (M.Com) with a specialization in Business Management from Narsee Monjee College, Mumbai University. Along with my B.Com and M.Com, I have completed level A1, A2, B1, B2 and C1 at Alliance Française de Bombay and have also successfully attempted and cleared DALF A1, A2, B1 and B2 examinations. After completing my M.Com and DALF C1 examination, I wish to pursue my Masters in Translation from a prestigious University in France so that I am able to effectively train and qualify myself to become a professional translator.

Vidisha Shah is a Summer Intern 2018 at Modlingua, New Delhi.