Zihong’s early fascination with English TV shows led him towards the MA Translation with Business Interpreting (Chinese) course at Bath. During his studies, he completed an internship with the United Nations. The course and internship have steered his career and has moved on to career in communications tech in his homeland of China.

Zihong sings the praises of the teaching ethic and experience on the course which challenged and developed his skills.

The art and science of translation

I'm from Guangzhou in China and came to Bath in 2021 to study MA in Translation with Business Interpreting (TBI) (Chinese).

At undergraduate level, I majored in English with a focus on English translation. This meant I came to the TBI course with a good understanding of the subject.

Many students in my cohort came from a variety of academic backgrounds. There is a saying that to be a good translator or a good interpreter, you have “to know something of everything and know everything of something,” so that variety of knowledge was important in the cohort.

I was drawn to languages after watching British TV shows growing up. I really liked the Sherlock Holmes series and found the articulacy and clarity of the British accent very special. I would memorise scripts and then watch episodes again, completing the sentences in advance! I’m sure this helped me get such good results in my school exams, becoming top of the class in English.

I became increasingly interested in the nuances, and subjectivity of, interpretation and translation, comparing English novels alongside their Chinese translations. It is easy to see the art and science of translation when you are comparing word for word, sentence by sentence.

Exacting standards in a nurturing environment

I wanted to study something that I was good at, enjoyed and felt in control of doing well. I knew that top interpreters are held in high esteem, so this seemed the obvious route.

Choosing Bath was simple, the rankings and reputation are so highly regarded in academic circles everywhere globally. I saw a Bath graduate in China on social media, who was quite influential and shared information about the University, including the connections it has with United Nations (UN) agencies around the world.

The interview process is rigorous; academics look beyond your oral and written ability, paying close attention to how you think, how you interpret current events, and how motivated you are. You need that inner curiosity and drive to push and learn more.

The quality of teaching was inspiring, and our teachers were a window into a bigger world. One who inspired me was Miguel Fialho. He's the current Director of Studies for the course and, as well as being bilingual in English and Portuguese, spent ten years in China and speaks Mandarin. His work ethic and experience in the field motivated the cohort to be their best. He has interpreted for the Chinese president and business leaders and worked on prestigious events like the Cannes International Film Festival.

In this field, you learn the most from mistakes and corrections. You have to be open to that. In a sense, I felt under harsh scrutiny because our teachers held us to very high standards but, at the same time, they are incredibly patient. In Chinese, we use the word ‘gardener’ to describe teachers because they take care of you and nurture you to become the best version of yourself as both an interpreter and as a person.

Exploring a new city

When I came to Bath, I saw how beautiful the city and surrounding area is - the views from Alexandra Park, the Skyline walk - it doesn’t take long to appreciate that this is a wonderful place with so much history and culture.

I used to walk up the hill to the campus whenever I could - it's a lovely walk with the most amazing views and scenery and air so fresh. Having a library that is open 24 hours, 7 days a week, felt conducive to working hard and prioritising my learning.

Using technology and translation for global impact

A project leader from the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management at the UN approached Bath to find an intern and I was lucky enough to get this role. I tested new functions of their translation systems and was assigned a task to compare metrics used for machine translation quality evaluation This prompted me to learn more about Natural Language Processing (NLP), which is a foundation for many of today’s AI tools. I was given with a whole new perspective around linguistics, whose development has led to the disruptive generative AI we use today.

I now work for an information and communications technology company in China. I would say the work is 90% translator and 10% interpreter. My internship was very relevant to my current role; when I was interviewed my director said that the niche area of technology in relation to translation helped me to stand out.

I look at translation technologies and how effective they are and develop tools to improve this. Whilst maths and technology are useful for developing tools like these, translation is a human job and is very subjective. To create accurate translation, subjectivity must be reduced as much as possible. The quality of your translation is vital if you want to be the best.

I’m becoming something of an AI expert in this area. Sometimes we think of AI as something that is hurting us, but I prefer to think of it as like wielding a sword to help us. AI can help empower us, but it is not 100% accurate. I believe humans are still very much needed to modify, adjust, understand context, and correctly interpret tone, to write speeches, to contextualise information and relevance and to finesse the messaging. AI can get us more quickly to this point, but it doesn’t take over.

Thinking of doing this course?

If you want to be a top interpreter at the UN, for example, then act and live like you ARE in that role already. Act up towards what you are aiming for. The learning curve is considerable, but you see your ability and confidence grow day-by-day. This work is ideal for the curious, for those who like a learning journey - you are always learning.