How to go about becoming an interpreter?

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>Hi. I have a passion for languages, but the college I plan to go to doesn’t have specific interpreting courses. In fact, the only Uni in the US that I know that has such courses is NYU. Anyway, I plan on going to the University of Oklahoma (where I live), and the college is fine in regard to languages. It offers Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, German, Spanish, French, and many others. I plan to take Mandarin Chinese and one other; probably Spanish, since it’s so useful in the US. I want to become an interpreter and perhaps a translator (to freelance for some extra cash), but I don’t know if I need to be certified, or what. I don’t want to do anything major like interpret for the UN; I mainly plan to just move to a bigger city out of state (after college) and try to get a job with a police department, a hospital, or a school system as an interpreter. So I have some questions:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>What should I major in?</p></li>
<li><p>Do I need a certification of some sort?</p></li>
<li><p>Will a bachelor’s do, or must I get a master’s?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Becoming fluent in Chinese is very hard and I don’t really know if you would be able to achieve native speaker competence within the span of college. A Romance language is easier to master.</p>

<p>Also, google… I found some useful links. I do think you need certification.</p>

3

<p>It might be slightly different for an ASL interpreter, but they have to be certified. My sister is going to a Columbus State (a community college) which supposedly has one of the best ASL interpreting programs in the country. I would say you definitely need to find a college with interpreting classes. Being fluent in a language and being able to interpret it are very different things.</p>