by Himani Khera
About Modlingua
Modlingua Learning Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India, founded by Mr. Ravi Kumar. Modlingua is a leading Translation and Interpretation company certified by ISO 9001:2008 that provides certified translation and interpretation services. All their team members are native speakers or took formal language course in foreign countries. Modlingua has high quality professionals within different areas of expertise and are in touch with the latest technologies in the translation business and are always ready to adapt ever-changing technology needs including Localization and CAT Tools as per needs of client. They have more than 1000 clients all over the world. Their main focus is based on Translation Quality, Global Project Management, Task Automation, Process Consistency, Flexibility and Customer Service.
Modlingua is internationally reputed as they are socially responsible company and involved in promotion and development of translation profession within India and across the globe. They also organize events, seminars and conferences related to Translation, Project Management, Culture Studies and Social Media.
About the supervisor
Mr. Ravi Kumar, founder of Modlingua group and our trainer during internship period. He has done B.A., M.A. and M.Phil. in Spanish and Latin American Studies from Jawaharlal Lal Nehru University, New Delhi. He attended a one year PhDlevel specialized course in Translation Studies at University of Ottawa, Canada. He is a seasoned translator and interpreter. Mr. Kumar also owns HRLINGUA, a language job portal and HISPANICINDIA, a networking site that connects India with Spain and Latin America. He has edited few books named, “Role of Translation in Nation Building”, “Joy of Translating Indian Literature”, “Theoretical and Empirical approaches to Translation”, “Machine Tools and Translation Process” respectively. His special interests are entrepreneurship, social media, networking, digital marketing, web development, terminology management and research related to Indian Diaspora and Business School of Translation. He also has keen interest in writing. He writes for a series of National as well as International journals and magazines. There’s a lot more about his works and his achievements.
Throughout the internship he had been very motivating and encouraging. He shared his experiences and his struggles during meetings, which was very overwhelming and full of encouragement
About the Internship
We all have been a part of Summer Internship conducted by Modlingua Pvt. Ltd. as management interns. The duration of internship was around three month’s w.e.f. 7thjune, 2017 to 25th august, 2017. All the lectures and interactions were conducted online on weekly basis by our supervisor Mr. RaviKumar at our meeting platform i.e. “GoToMeeting”. In our first lecture he introduced us to the company, to himself and to the internship. We all were given an open platform i.e. Facebook page, where we all were free to ask queries, share anything related to the basis of our internship i.e. translation management. We were supposed to do assignments with deadlines. We used to get small activities based on our then upcoming assignments. All of us, very interestingly participated in those activities. Later on we also got the opportunity to get connected with our trainer at WhatsApp. Our first activity was to introduce ourselves which was conducted at our Facebook group only. That was the time when we got to know that the interns are not only delhites but also from out of Delhi and were even from outside country and we were around 250 interns this time. We were having so many creative, curious, ambitious and informative minds with us as interns which made us learn quite a lot many new things not from our trainer only but also from each other. We all worked as a team, helped each other in case of query and appreciated each other’s work by sharing them at social media sites. Our assignments, after being approved by our trainer, were termed as Blogs. These blogs were not only meant to be there till the internship period but we could also use them as work and could share it in future whenever we go anywhere for further jobs. Also we could share our professional profiles (our first assignment) with an d whenever we apply for new jobs. Things were not limited to do work n submit it, we could later on make changes in our profile and all other assignments, if needed.
Assignments
Our first assignment was to create our professional profile at Modlingua, which was further to be linked with all our assignments. After our first assignment, we were given 10 topics out of which we had to choose 4 topics as per our interest and in which we want to develop our core competency. The topics were:
- Content Writing and Citizen Journalism
- Project Management and Quality Standard
- Entrepreneurship
- Business Development
- Social Media Marketing
- Computer Assisted Tools (CAT Tools)
- Online Marketing
- Blogging
- Web Development
- You Tubingand Video Casting
Out of these ten topics I chose Content Writing and Citizen Journalism, Social Media Marketing, Blogging and Computer Assisted Tools (CAT Tools). Reason behind choosing these topics, was these very common and well used in today’s time and I wanted to become perfect in these. Among these Citizen Journalism and CAT Tools were new for me but now after doing assignments and by our trainer’s grace and my own little research I am well informed about all the topics I chose. Another reason was these topics demand creativity and I have keen interest in creative things.
Being part of social media team we were also assigned a task of promoting YouTube channel of Modlingua with target of 500 subscribers by end of June and 1000 subscribers by the end of 2017 and I can proudly say that we have more than 750 subscribers now and we also added few of our friends in another Facebook page which was for people who speak different languages professionally. Not only the You Tube channel was meant to be shared but also our profile and all our work done was meant to be shared on social media sites. I shared it all at Facebook, linked In and WhatsApp, also with my new friends as the video on channel were helpful for everyone whether he/she is from language background or not.
For our second assignment, we were given some activities on our Facebook group where we had to describe the images related to Networking, either of Wolf pack, Ants working together and some were given in assignment, from which I described Youth and Digital Media from Credibility to Information Quality in which I described Citizen Journalism also.
For our third assignment, we were given activities where we had to give our opinion on Google Search Engine and Globalization, Industrialization, Localization and Translation. In our meeting for this assignment we discussed on these topics and also on Content Writing and Online Marketing. From these four points I chose GILT
(Globalization, Industrialisation, Localization and Translation) in multiple languages.
Fourth assignment was somehow quite different as it was not only conducted by Mr. Ravi but also by Prof. Ionna Daskalopoulou. She discussed all about Entrepreneurship and Personal Branding for Translators. In which she made us aware about how can we promote ourselves as a Freelancer and how to handle our clients, both as Freelancer and while working under someone or with some company. We also discussed difference n freelancer and in-house translators. With this we were told to discuss visibility of language professionals in society as well as in business field; how can we retain our clients; if there is any alternative available for language professionals; and concept of power relations in society and position of a translator. From these, I wrote about language professionals as entrepreneurs.
In fifth assignment we were informed about Quality Standards; how they are important and helpful for translators, service providers and language professionals. Topics for discussion here were- development of quality standard across the globe in translation process; importance of linguistic and non-linguistic aspect in translation process; and how lack of awareness about quality standard is hampering development of translators and language professionals. Last topic was what I discussed about in my assignment.
Meeting of sixth assignment was about Project Management, for assignment we had present- how project management improves quality and increase efficiency at work; relation among Project and Translation Management; role of Charter and Documentation in Project Management; and Project Management Tools. I discussed about Tools of Project Management.
In assignments, there used to be videos and article for our help in making our assignment fruitful for others. We were allowed to consult other external sources for our research. All the assignments were provided at Modlingua website and were meant to be submitted there only.
Personal Evaluation
The summer internship at Modlingua had been an outstanding experience; it was, for me, a bag full of information about translation and its management. From June to August we are now well versed with basics of translation management, content writing, blogging, quality standards, citizen journalism, personal branding and management. Our meetings with Ravi sir and Madame Ionna had been very helpful. Firstly I used to wait for new assignments to come and lately I used to wait for my assignment to publish, so that I could share it with others. By Prof. Ionna we got know how we can use our skills as a brand. We are also informed about how to develop our communication skills with all ranks of people inbusiness and how to treat our clients.The internship was not only limited to formal meetings but Mr. Ravi also organised a meet up at Connaught Place, purpose of which was to know more about the interns and also that we could know each other and share our experiences.
I learned basics of translation from Alliance Française, Delhi, which is why I chose to get professional experience in this field and hence, I joined Modlingua as an intern thinking it will help me as they will provide projects and material to translate. But, I developed my skills as translation management intern. I got to know translation business, and all the possibilities, benefits and disadvantages we have as language professionals. Now, I am looking forward to develop my skills more on Content Writing and Cat Tools which are very helpful while doing translation.With this I would like to give my gratitude to Ravi sir for selecting me for this internship and for always being so supportive.
http://www.modlingua.com/interns/375-himani-khera-french-english-translation.html
