By Gautam Vasisth (Russian language summer Intern 2018)
This text is the Creative Summary of the Video Lecture presented by Prof. Ravi Kumar, Our Program Director of Modlingua Summer Internship 2018.
Remember when our parents or teachers used to scold us and tell us, “once you go out of the classroom, you will know the world “.. yeah, frankly speaking, language market is totally different from a language classroom. Since we have already equipped ourselves with classroom learning of a language, we better equip ourselves with the basic survival skills of the professional market where competition plays its own role. Many times they assume cruel role because of cut-throat competition and human desire to acquire and amass wealth in excess. Yes, please note, “markets are more cruel for those who lack skills'. So in this internship program, our focus is to build on certain survival skills among the interns so that when they start interacting with the professional world, they are able to cope up well and slowly build on their own strengths in the profession and slowly diversify into a power center of knowledge and skills not only in languages but also in managerial and other related areas.
In order to achieve above objectives, it is mandatory to build on non-linguistic skills that are linked with management of problems and development of critical thinking.
Of course, as said already, we are not discussing the academic or technical requirements of translation of texts that we have already covered in our academic curriculum. Here we are discussing the market approach and management of grievances and professional problems that we generally face while at work.
Modlingua's summer internship program has a great deal of uniqueness. To our knowledge, such kind of training and internship has not be provided so far in any other corner of the world. Modlingua's research and development team has developed an integrated model of learning through practising. Means all interns are trained while on the job. They are allowed to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. Members of Senior Management provide feedback and train the interns as per their orientation.
Being one of those social ventures which allow connecting the pre-existing big names of this industry and Modlingua has certainly achieved high brand value for being a socially responsible company. It has done a lot to facilitate professional development of language experts, translators, interpreters, teachers and content writers. In order to achieve its vision, Modlingua and its management has launched Entrepreneur Development Centre (EDCenter) that has been continuously working in the field of research, development, innovation and publication. In the past, Modlingua has already published some valuable books in translation studies. They are, Role of Translation in Nation Building; The Joy of Translating Indian Literature; Machine Tools and Translation; Translation Processes. Such important books were published as a result of the deliberations and extremely strenuous efforts of linguists and researchers who contributed their efforts for a common cause.
Here in our summer internship, Modlingua gives a second life to the students who did not get the change during their college time to convert their learning into practice. The reality is the practical training not one thing or something rather it is everything for a professional. If this element is not integrated in the training program, one takes years to fill those gaps and suffers a lot in the job market. So keeping that in mind, we are trying to learn some basic skills as such- “how to brand yourself”? “how to develop professional and corporate skills?
The focus is on the following: project management, quality management, documentation, contractual documentation, social media marketing and entrepreneurial ventures.
Apart from all these, we feel highly motivated to share our knowledge and experience with the interns and help them in understanding the expectations of the clients and how to fulfil their requirements or how to make out if the client is trustworthy? Or how to filter out the bad or fake clients? etc.
Thus, the focus, as mentioned earlier will be on learning how to put our theoretical knowledge into practice. We have a golden rule at Modlingua “whatever we discuss, we practice it". And this we have learnt over a period of twenty years while interacting and providing training to more than two thousand managers whom we have groomed in languages, cross-cultural management, research and business communication.
Another aspect is that of power relations. The world runs around power relations.” Knowing is owning “ so when we say about the knowledge we don’t just mean a particular language but also a set of skills to get into a workplace environment and acquire the knowledge of the work enabling oneself with the other aspects of working verticals. Like if you know Spanish but you also know the skill to communicate with humility and elegance or confidence this adds more value in a supply chain, resulting in a better bargain and thus a better salary!
In any social setup, be it an office or family there’s is a power relation working. Those who have more knowledge, experience and skill sets negotiate a better deal in the bargain. Thus, our interns must acquire knowledge, put them in practice and evolve into a skillful workforce in order to get good figures of income, perk, salary, deals and a bigger cake in the supply chain.
So, basically in this internship program, our focus will be to upgrade ourselves technically, technologically, professionally and above and all as a passionate human being who is ready to contribute value to self as well as to the society as a whole. Also, we would like to see some of the interns take up entrepreneurial ventures by bringing the shift in the mindset of being a job seeker to a job enabler.
Lets learn and grow together.
Do take advantage of this internship program and stick to its motto of bringing improvement in self on a daily basis.
A bright future awaits you at Modlingua Internship 2018.
