National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters

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NAATI is an Australian government-owned company established in 1977 to establish and maintain standards for interpreting and translation. NAATI is the only officially recognised authority for accreditation of interpreters and translators, and recognises four levels of ability in each discipline:

  • Paraprofessional Translator (formerly known as level 2)
  • Paraprofessional Interpreter (formerly known as level 2)
  • Translator (formerly known as level 3)
  • Interpreter (formerly known as level 3)
  • Advanced Translator (formerly known as level 4)
  • Conference Interpreter (formerly known as level 4)
  • Advanced Translator (Senior) (formerly known as level 5)
  • Conference Interpreter (Senior) (formerly known as level 5)

There is an additional category of 'Language Aide', not considered an interpreter or translator, which was formerly known as level 1.

NAATI publishes a quarterly newsletter for people to keep abreast of what is happening within NAATI and the Australian translating and interpreting community, as well as a number of publications and products designed to aid translators and interpreters (such as the Directory of Accredited and Recognised Practitioners' of Translation and Interpreting, which is available for free online).

Contents

[edit] Training and Workshops

NAATI offices in all states and territories of Australia run various workshops for candidates, in order to assist them in successfully obtaining their accreditation, and cover such topics as:

  • Insights into interpreting
  • Ethics and professional conduct
  • Note taking
  • Basic interpreting and translating techniques
  • Test preparation

[edit] Testing

NAATI runs both an annual testing program and a special on-demand test. The annual testing program runs over a twelve month period starting in July each year with translation tests in November and interpreting tests from March to June. Special on-demand tests attract a higher fee than those in the annual testing program.

In order to be eligible for a test, candidates must satisfy a number of criteria based on the test level for which they are applying ranging from (at the Paraprofessional level):

  • Having general education equivalent to at least 4 years of Australian secondary school
  • Providing evidence of proficiency in both languages
  • Having a minimum of 3 years work experience in any field

To having either general education to degree or diploma level in any field and/or NAATI accreditation as a Paraprofessional Interpreter in the language they are seeking accreditation (at the Professional Interpreter and Translator levels). Both the levels of Advanced Translator/Conference Interpreter and Advanced Translator(senior)/Conference Interpreter(senior) are currently unavailable through the testing method.

[edit] List of languages tested by NAATI

Albanian, Alyawarra, Amharic, Arabic, Assyrian, Auslan, Bangla, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cantonese, Chinese (translation only), Croatian, Czech, Dari, Djambarrpuyngyu (interpreting only), Dutch, English (translator only), Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hakka (interpreter only), Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Kriol (interpreter only. Which type is not specified), Kurdish (Kurmanji), Kurdish (Sorani), Lao, Macedonian, Malay, Maltese, Mandarin, Persian, Pitjantjatjara (interpreter only), Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Pushto, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Serbian, Sinhalese, Slovak, Somali, Spanish, Tamil, Tetum (interpreter only), Thai, Tigrinya, Tongan, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Warlpiri (interpreter only), Western Arrernte (interpreter only), Yankunytjatjara (interpreter only).

[edit] External links

In other languages