MOOCs: Online Learning for Translators and Interpreters
MOOCs, short for Massive Open Online Courses, have become extremely popular in recent years. They can be a great tool for personal and professional development and they are easily accessible online, on a myriad of platforms such as Coursera and Future Learn. A great deal of reputable universities around the world offer MOOCs for free; in some cases, however, you might have to pay for an attendance or completition certificate. Since MOOCs are interactive and offer a variety of resources for self-learning (videos, academic articles, lectures, assignments), they cater to different people with different learning styles and they allow the learner to progress at his/her own pace.
How can MOOCs help us as translators and/or interpreters? First of all, a good idea is to sign up for a MOOC in one of your source languages: by listening to the videos and lectures provided, you can activate vocab in your source language, which can be useful, for instance if you are trying to turn a C into a B. Additionally, by reading the materials provided or by carrying out the assignments necessary to progress throughout the different stages of the course, you can improve your comprehension skills, especially if the MOOC is on a technical subject.
MOOCs can also help consolidate your knowledge of a niche field or of one of your specialisms. For instance, Coursera has an almost endless list of courses in the Life Sciences field. If you are a medical translator, you will find courses ranging from Introduction to Breast Cancer, Introductory Human Physiology, Anatomy of the Abdomen and Pelvis; a journey from basis to clinic, or International Women's Health and Human Rights, as well as a plethora of courses onc Computer Sciences, Data Sciences, and Business. These "specialism" MOOCs are useful if you frequently deal with texts in one specific field and want to acquire new vocabulary, improve your writing skills (for instance, Writing in the Sciences) or simply understand your specialism better. Aside from MOOCs, translators and interpreters also have specific webinars and online e-learning courses dedicated to them, run by professional associations or organisations that can focus on a given specialism, or on challenges in a specific language combination, or both.
Additionally, there are several MOOCs out there for language learners, while they might not be extremely useful if you want to excel at a foreign language, they can be a fun way of sprucing up your language learning, especially if you simply want to start a language from scratch and want to figure out if you will actually be interested in pursuing that goal before paying for an expensive one-year course at your local language academy or college.
Last but not least, MOOCs are great for soft skills and personal development. You can find courses or programmes on a variety of topics, ranging from writing successful CVs, preparing for interviews, starting a business and managing your personal finances, developing digital skills, or coping with stress. But perhaps my top one reasons for being a MOOC junkie is the fact that it gives me a chance to quench my thirst for knowledge, to appease my curiosity and look into random, obscure, irrelevant topics. I have taken MOOCs on ideology and propaganda, corpus linguistics, classical sociology theory, Jane Austen, or dementia, to name some. Whether you use them to directly enhance your knowledge and vocabulary in a given specialism, whether you use them to learn or practise a foreign language, or whether you simply take them for the sheer joy of self-learning, MOOCs will offer you a library of knowledge, waiting for you to tap into it.
