By Mohamed Saleh

Modlingua at a glance
Modlingua Certified Translation Services in New Delhi, which was founded in 1999 by Prof. Ravi Kumar, is an ISO 9001:2008 certified translation and language services leading company. All of the team members of Modlingua are professionals and expert in many fields such as languages, translation, interpretation, localization.  In addition, “Modlingua has independent specialized divisions namely Lingua India, and HR lingua that help it offer customized solutions in Indian Languages, Language Training and HR consultancy for languages respectively.”

About the founder
Under the leadership of Mr. Ravi Kumar, the founder, Modlingua has become India’s No. 1 in the field of languages and translation services. Mr. Kumar is M.Phil. holder and  a specialist in translation and interpretation in more than four language pairs. Moreover, Mr. Kumar played a great and significant role in uniting Indian translators, as he is the founder president of Indian Translators Association. He aims at promoting the industry of translation.  He was elected in Shanghai in 2008 as Council Member of International Federation of Translators. He is also co-founder of the Association of Asian Translation Industry. In addition to that, Mr. Kumar is the founder of Hindi Center, which is a translation and research center that connects more than 10000 specialized people in various fields.  Furthermore, Mr. Kumar has edited a series of books on translation studies, supervised more than 300 research papers, presented more than 30 research papers, and organized and attended many national and international conferences and symposiums in different fields. For more details about Mr. Kumar, click here.

Internship 2017
Under the auspices of Mr. Ravi Kumar, the internship lasted for around three months. The program started in June, 7^th, 2017 and ended in August 20^th, 2017. Around 120 people from different countries were meeting together with Mr. Kumar, the supervisor and trainer, on weekly basis through an online platform (Go To meeting).  With the collaboration of Mr. Kumar and all interns, the internship was successful and fruitful.   

The internship covered a wide range of topics in the fields of project managements, Quality Standards, Entrepreneurship, business development, content writing, social media marketing, and other topics related to languages and translation. After each session, we had an assignment that all interns had to submit within a specified deadline and all assignments were published on Modlingua website (blogs section), for the public domain. The total number of the assignments is seven. The aim of these assignments is to ensure that all the topics covered are understood properly. Here is a brief background about each one:

1^st assignment (Creating a professional profile)
 All interns were required to create a professional profile and upload it on Modlingua website. The profile included the intern's name, picture, educational qualifications, language skills, Professional training and expertise, and hobbies. Moreover, interns also had to choose four areas to work on during the internship to develop their skills and add to their professional career. I have chosen the following four areas to work on to develop my skills: content writing and citizen journalism, project management, quality standards, business development, and entrepreneurship. The interns were asked to promote Modlingua channel on YouTube through different social media websites such as Facebook and twitter. The number of people who subscribed in the channel increased in a short time until it reached 837 and it is increasing a day after another. You can view my profile by clicking here.

2^nd assignment (Networking in translation industry)
Interns were asked to choose a question out of four and write a 400 to 600 word article about the importance of networking in translation industry. Every question has an image which we had to study before answering the question. These images were the wolf pack strategy, ants cooperating with each other, digital media and traditional media, and spoken languages in the world. Such questions encourage critical thinking and creativity.  Before the assignment, Mr. Kumar discussed some those points with us, provided us with the sources we should look at. I chose ants cooperation to write about which I tried to find the link between the community of ants and the community of translators and language professionals. You can click here to read the article.

3^rd assignment (Google search and Top ranking, content writing, and linguistic phenomena)  
The third assignment was built on various topics such as "Google Search Engine, relationship between Content writing, Online Marketing and translation, Globalization, Localization, and Internationalization". In order to get the utmost benefit, we had an interesting, beneficial lecture by Prof. Ioanna K. Daskalopoulou- Stamopoulou, an ESL teacher and professional translator, about entrepreneurship, personal branding for translators and language professionals, and how can translators make new clients. In addition, the differences between in-house translators and freelancers were tackled. My topic was about the Importance of 'Google Search' and 'Top Ranking' for Translators and Linguists. You can read it by clicking here.

4^th assignment (Topics for translators and linguists)
There were four different areas to write in and we had to choose one topic only. These topics were visibility of language professionals and their role in society and business field, power relations in society, role of translators, and entrepreneurship. My article was “how can translators hunt new clients?” and you can read it by clicking here. 

5^th assignment (Quality standards in translation)
The fifth assignment was mainly about quality standards in translation and the importance of the linguistic and non-linguistic aspects in the industry of translation. We, as translators, learnt how to produce perfect, accurate, and error-free translations that satisfy the client and add to the translator’s reputation. We also learnt how linguistic and non-linguistic aspects such punctuation, numbering, and other factors can make a difference. My article was about quality standards. You can read it by clicking here.

6^th assignment (project management)
The sixth assignment was about project management and how it is important in the field of translation. In this session, we learnt also how to improve the quality of our translation and how to deal with clients. My article entitled “The importance of the linguistic and non-linguistic aspects in translation process.” You can read it by clicking here.

7^th assignment (Internship report)
The seventh assignment, which is this article, was about writing a report on all activities that we did during the internship. The aim of this assignment is to help the interns recover what they have already worked on during the internship and will also help all people who are interested in languages and translation know more information in many aspects related to languages and translation, in particular.

lessons learnt  
I have learnt many things from this internship and from Mr. Ravi Kumar on the education and personal level. The following are some of them:  
 - Translators should always seek to improve themselves
 -  (Punctuality is a necessity) in the translation field (Time = money), so successful translators, especially freelancers, have to finish their assignments perfectly within the deadline 
-  Translators must make sure that the translated text has no errors, both linguistically and non-linguistically
- Translators should always market themselves in order to get better jobs or earn new clients
- Translators have to establish friendly relations with clients
- Translators should work hard and at the same time, they have to dedicate some time for relaxation and entertainment

Personal evaluation
It was an honor and privilege for me and for my dear colleagues to have this summer internship with Modlingua and Mr. Ravi Kumar.  The internship was helpful, beneficial, and fruitful. I have leant new things in different fields and it added a lot to my skills and career. In addition, I acquired more knowledge and gained new experience.

During 3-months period, we succeeded to cover many topics not only in the field of translation, but also in various fields such entrepreneurship, project management, personal branding, content writing and other topics. The internship was online and completely for free which opened the door widely for a large number people from different countries around the world to join.

All the people were helpful and cooperative. The topics that we worked on were chosen carefully by our supervisor, Mr. Ravi Kumar who was helpful, flexible and provided us with all the resources we need and a real job experience. There were certain rules we had to follow in order to provide the proper environment for learning. This internship helped me gain knowledge in many different fields, and added to my skills in translation. In addition, we were able to hold online meetings, know new people, exchange opinions with other people, and identify other cultures.

Thanks to Mr. Ravi Kumar, who took the initiative to carry on this internship and exerted much time to have this internship succeed, and it was successful and all of us enjoyed learning. After the internship ended, I realized that I was punctual and eager to learn more and more (I remember that I have not missed a session). It was really a good experience for me. Thanks Modlingua, thanks Mr. Kumar!   

Mohamed Saleh, English-Arabic translator, interpreter, and proof-reader, and Translation Intern at Modlingua, India's No1. Certified translation and Language service providers based in New Delhi, India.