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Has anyone heard of this school/institute? Global Translation Institute / (CTP Program)
Thread poster: Richard Levy (X)
Francisca Turner
Francisca Turner
United States
Local time: 11:56
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Please don't tell me GTI is not for real, help me! Jan 18, 2014

Ok, I am a brand new Global Translation Institute student. I am a stay home mom, who wants and needs income to help my husband but I would like to work from home.

I love languages and have done most of my translations in church environments for over 15 years. I have been looking for a certification program that would accurately qualify me to apply for some of the online agencies among other local places. I found CTP program and I had been saving money for a while trying to get this
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Ok, I am a brand new Global Translation Institute student. I am a stay home mom, who wants and needs income to help my husband but I would like to work from home.

I love languages and have done most of my translations in church environments for over 15 years. I have been looking for a certification program that would accurately qualify me to apply for some of the online agencies among other local places. I found CTP program and I had been saving money for a while trying to get this certification. I had to finally ask for additional assistance in order to come up with the funds to purchase the book as well as the actual fee for the test.

I honestly don't know what to think, but I have been reading the interaction between Tomas Cano Binder and Adriana, CTP founder and president, and I'm honestly a bit worried and overwhelmed.

Please help me! People believed in me and just as myself, had the best intentions when they helped me pay for this. I had never tried to find a certification before now and I cannot afford to waste the money I've spent. I am not trying to create an argument here but I need the more experienced people to please give me suggestions on what other steps should I take in order to start. Please!

My email is [email protected]

Thanks,
Francisca
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Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 16:56
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Best to look for proper training/certification programmes Jan 19, 2014

My ideas about the GTI and the CTP are clearly expressed in my postings in this forum. Normally what you expect from an institution producing a certificate about your abilities is that they are not a business (which, after all, has to sell their product/service), i.e. that they are a recognised professional association registered as such, a government body, an educational institution (university, college, vocational training center) operating as such, etc., all people who do not need to certify ... See more
My ideas about the GTI and the CTP are clearly expressed in my postings in this forum. Normally what you expect from an institution producing a certificate about your abilities is that they are not a business (which, after all, has to sell their product/service), i.e. that they are a recognised professional association registered as such, a government body, an educational institution (university, college, vocational training center) operating as such, etc., all people who do not need to certify you and only do so if you are worthy of being certified.

I reckon you have read the European Union report from 2012 I pasted a piece from in this same forum. Just in case, I paste it here again:

The Global Translation Institute1 is managed by Adriana Tassini from an office in Portland, Oregon (although it seems not to be registered with the Portland Revenue Bureau, which does not list it at the address given). It sponsors a Certified Translation Professional (CTP) Designation Program2, managed by Adriana Tassini with a telephone number in Massachusetts. It links to free information on the translation industry and how to become a translator3, all of which comprises some 40 short online articles by Adriana Tassini. Adriana Tassini describes herself as a “Harvard University Alumni Member with a background in international relations and translation work in São Paulo, Brazil and Boston, Massachusetts (USA)”. She names no completed degrees. Her declared training team comprises 12 people, none of them with any formal training in translation. To become a Certified Translation Professional, you pay US$227 per language pair, study the learning materials (none of which is language-specific) and sit the online exam. It is not clear to what extent the exam tests language skills, but the programme offers certification in 22 language pairs, of which the training faculty are presented as being experts in five.


In my humble opinion, your best bet is to ask Adriana for a refund if you can, and then carefully look for and follow a translation training programme/course with a university in your area, or via distance learning with a good university. The certificate you will get from that will already be a good reference of your abilities, and in the long run you can try the ATA certification, which has a very low pass rate and is difficult to achieve. Another option in the long run is the British Chartered Institute of Linguists, www.iol.org.uk and the Diploma in Translation, although this one is also hard to pass.

It is best that you invest your money in a proper training programme with educational institutions, and in due time try certification. Other colleagues will surely have more suggestions if you peruse these fora here in Proz.com and other translator fora.

Good luck!
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Jorge Payan
 
Werner Maurer
Werner Maurer  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 08:56
Spanish to English
+ ...
Maybe that answers My question Oct 27, 2014

I was looking for a good place to ask the following question (but your comments sounds like a credible answer) - any other answers out there?



I've been getting emails from Adriana Tassini's outfit for several years. Obviously she's trying to build credibility/viability/value/client-recognition for her certification. Is anyone aware of whether she's made any progress over the years? I.e. has any working translator found it beneficial to mention that they have said certificati
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I was looking for a good place to ask the following question (but your comments sounds like a credible answer) - any other answers out there?



I've been getting emails from Adriana Tassini's outfit for several years. Obviously she's trying to build credibility/viability/value/client-recognition for her certification. Is anyone aware of whether she's made any progress over the years? I.e. has any working translator found it beneficial to mention that they have said certification, particularly in the absence of any other certifications. Also, has anyone here taken her exams and found them sufficiently challenging to give them confidence in the certification once they have earned it?



After all, the professional associations have had exactly the same mountain to scale, that of getting clients and agencies to not only recognize and honor their certification, but eventually begin to demand that translators possess it. It has taken these associations many, many years to reach that point, but at least here in Canada, one almost can't find work without their seal.



Frankly, if there's any meaningful degree of stringency at all to Ms Tassini's exams, then I wish her all the luck in the world on trying to get her certifications to attain widespread client appeal. Competing professional associations benefit everyone. I'm saddened to see that North American accountants, for example, now have only one association to turn to, whereas there used to be three. I'd love to see things moving in the opposite direction for us, who earn a good deal less than accountants do.



In summary, is her certification any more worth having than it was, say, three or four years ago?
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Alexandre Varfolomeev
Alexandre Varfolomeev
Australia
Local time: 02:56
English to Russian
+ ...
I am GTI certified Jul 23, 2016

After all, it really comes down to your abilities and not certifications... ATA, NAATI, etc. make money just like any other businesses. They may be called associations, have fancy bylaws, etc. but they charge way too much for their "certification programs" to be called non-profit organizations.

I have paid 227 dollars for the GTI CTP program awhile ago. Back then, I was not be able to obtain ATA, NAATI, etc. certification for one simple reason: I live in the middle of Siberia. I had
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After all, it really comes down to your abilities and not certifications... ATA, NAATI, etc. make money just like any other businesses. They may be called associations, have fancy bylaws, etc. but they charge way too much for their "certification programs" to be called non-profit organizations.

I have paid 227 dollars for the GTI CTP program awhile ago. Back then, I was not be able to obtain ATA, NAATI, etc. certification for one simple reason: I live in the middle of Siberia. I had no money to pay for the tests and I couldn't afford to travel to the exam venues. I also did not see the reason to go to university to study something I was already able to do myself.

You are saying that GTI tests your translation abilities on the basis of 3 books... First of all, the exam is rather challenging. The program is designed for those who are already able to translate! You would never be able to pass the test if you were unable to translate. And how many books do you have to read to be called a translator? I am a bilingual translator with a law degree... I can tell you that in order to be a legal translator, you have to be a lawyer! I have seen tons of translations done by translators with formal lingustics education, and most of them contained horrific mistakes because those translators simply did not understand what they were writing about. Furthermore, I am familiar with linguistics and I can assure you that none of that stuff is useful when you are translating a contract. Two things are important: ability to produce grammatically correct sentences and knowledge of the subject. The same goes for medical translations. And other types of translations... I collaborate with all leading translation agencies and none of them care about the fact that I do not have formal lingustics education or ATA, etc. certification. All they care about is my ability to convey the meaning of the source text using the target language. I currently see no reason why I should obtain ATA (or any other) certification. It is not going to increase my profits!

Furthermore, I have several university degrees myself and I can assure you that universities are businesses and they offer training for one simple reason - to make money! They intentionally mislead students about the importance of lecture attendance (complete waste of time as you can read way more material in the library while a professor will be trying to explain concepts to all 150 ... whose daddies paid for their education, who don't really want to be there, etc.), exam sitting (are you that useless that you need the threat of the exam to learn things?), etc. and they hold students back by making training courses longer then they should be (in reality, any degree can be obtained over a period of 1 year! trust me on that one!).

GTI certificate looks fancy. And I can always say that I am CTP when I need it... Although I cannot remember the last time I needed to do that

[Edited at 2016-07-23 22:16 GMT]

[Edited at 2016-07-23 22:17 GMT]

[Edited at 2016-07-23 22:21 GMT]
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Romana RCG T&LS
 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 16:56
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Just a piece of paper Jul 24, 2016

Alexandre Varfolomeev wrote:
After all, it really comes down to your abilities and not certifications... ATA, NAATI, etc. make money just like any other businesses. They may be called associations, have fancy bylaws, etc. but they charge way too much for their "certification programs" to be called non-profit organizations.

That's right: ATA and NAATI are associations, formed and managed by members who are elected directly by voting members. Let me ask you: have you been given the chance to elect the president and management of the GTI? Have you enquired about GTI's official status as an association in the US? Have you ever seen the GTI's bylaws? The fact is that the GTI is just one of the expressions of a corporation founded by Adriana Tassini, even if they misleadingly claim that they are an association.

The GTI needs to sell the certificate (they are a business), while ATA, NAATI or other certificating bodies have no need to give you the certificate, to advertise their product, or to be promoted by members. To me, this is a very important point.

Alexandre Varfolomeev wrote:
I was not be able to obtain ATA, NAATI, etc. certification for one simple reason: I live in the middle of Siberia. I had no money to pay for the tests and I couldn't afford to travel to the exam venues.

Yo have no excuse now to take the NAATI exams: according to your profile, you live in Australia, right? As for the cost, if you had better rates you could afford go to the exam venues.

As for having to travel to exam venues, the fact that the exams take place under controlled circumstances (limited time, no electronic means, no Internet, just paper dictionaries, permanent invigilation) is a key point in the certification. Are you able to translate different types of test, in a limited time, with just paper dictionaries, paper and pen? You might argue that this is not how we translate in daily life, but the same could apply to any other profession: doctors might never encounter the situations and cases asked about in their exams, but they have to know about them to be called doctors.

To me, the main reason why you would find it difficult to pass the ATA, NAATI, or DipTrans is that you give no value to translation knowledge. As a lawyer who speaks languages, you might excel in the specialised legal translation papers, but would find it hard to pass the general test, which requires deep linguistic, cultural, and translatorial knowledge. Even seasoned general translators find it hard to pass the general paper.

I sincerely encourage you to take a proper certification exam and put your abilities to a test. If you pass, it will be good news and it will definitely give you a competitive edge with any customer, giving you the chance to increase your rates and live a better life. If you fail, it might make you think of whether your CV and knowledge are solid enough to call yourself a translator. It would be the first step in improving for the long run.

Alexandre Varfolomeev wrote:
Furthermore, I have several university degrees myself and I can assure you that universities are businesses and they offer training for one simple reason - to make money! They intentionally mislead students about the importance of lecture attendance (complete waste of time as you can read way more material in the library while a professor will be trying to explain concepts to all 150 ... whose daddies paid for their education, who don't really want to be there, etc.), exam sitting (are you that useless that you need the threat of the exam to learn things?), etc. and they hold students back by making training courses longer then they should be (in reality, any degree can be obtained over a period of 1 year! trust me on that one!).

It makes me deeply sad to see that your university did not change your perception of the world around you. As such, your university failed to turn itself into your alma mater, and the source of knowledge and critical thought it ought to be. I am lucky to say that my professors at university deeply changed my perception of translation when I started going to class three years ago, after 20 years as a professional translator.

Alexandre Varfolomeev wrote:
GTI certificate looks fancy.

It might, but that does not mean that it is worth something in the eye of those who select you among other translators, or who have to accept your rates. You might want to ask yourself why your rates are so really low. Clearly, the agencies you are working for do not see you as a valuable professional, or they would accept much higher rates (most legal translators I know charge thrice your rate).


 
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Romana RCG T&LS
Romana RCG T&LS
United States
Local time: 11:56
English to Czech
+ ...
ATA Certification and GTI program Jan 16, 2019

Dear Tomas,

I don't think you realize just how difficult it is to obtain certification in some language pairs. I am a Czech and Slovak translator/interpreter, and I've been looking for a certification in the US which actually tests my ability in both languages for years. Most organizations only certify languages which are standard such as Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, etc.

ATA does NOT offer either of my language pairs.

Ref. ATA website:
"A Guide
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Dear Tomas,

I don't think you realize just how difficult it is to obtain certification in some language pairs. I am a Czech and Slovak translator/interpreter, and I've been looking for a certification in the US which actually tests my ability in both languages for years. Most organizations only certify languages which are standard such as Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, etc.

ATA does NOT offer either of my language pairs.

Ref. ATA website:
"A Guide to the ATA Certification Program
ATA has established a certification program that allows translators to demonstrate that they meet certain standards of the translation profession. Translators who pass the examination are certified by ATA in a specific language pair and direction (from or into English).
Certification is currently available
into English from Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Ukrainian.
from English into Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Ukrainian."

Minority language certifications are nearly impossible to obtain not to mention you make it sound like ATA does not make money and lets just anyone take the exam with no strings attached. You HAVE to be a member first, and that costs you. You cannot take the exam without the membership, which is currently $ 195 annually, and this year examination fee goes up to $ 595. The exam comprises of two translation segments, so no theory, no ethics questions or any other industry concerns are addressed, no business training for freelancers offered, etc. I do grant you that members have to agree to follow their code of ethics and conduct, but any decent and professional translator does that already. Last but not least many companies are looking merely for an ATA member designation, and that itself requires no exam whatsoever, it is however viewed as a credential.

The CTP exam I took with GTI (obviously I don't want to reveal exact details and hope what I do disclose is acceptable to GTI) is composed of 2 essays writing, 80 challenging questions from translation industry theory and two translation segments (one from and one to your target language). It's certainly challenging, and it is also timed. It does not even allow the use of spell check which is disabled in the interface, evaluates grammar, style, etc. and requires the ability to address a wide range of topics. You will not be able to pass unless you have studied the materials. You certainly do need at least some translation experience as well. As I've already stated the CTP program (unlike ATA test which will cost you over $ 700 at this point) also offers a lot of valuable resources, some of which were new to me even after several years in the industry, and I found them very valuable.

I certainly do not consider myself gullible (as our esteemed colleague in one of the previous comments put it), and I had reasonable expectations signing up. I was fully aware of what this program had to offer before even purchasing it as all of my questions were promptly answered by either Adriana or the administrative staff. I never felt at any point that they were trying to mislead me and sell something they didn't deliver.

There are many private certification bodies throughout this country and the world, and it's definitely not exclusive to the translation industry, so your point is not exactly valid. Not to mention that this country is notoriously known for private universities who conveniently forgot to disclose the lack of accreditation or lapse thereof and left their alumni with thousands of dollars in debt and with worthless degrees.

I understand the fact that many colleagues frown upon private company certification, but unless you yourself tested the program, your assessment is nothing but speculation. I certainly appreciate the resources and training offered and the fact that they actually have a professional who was able to grade the language I was seeking certification in and did not just certify me without knowing if I can even speak the "other" language. Many organizations (including government contractors I have subcontracted for) merely took my word for it and based the assessment of my knowledge and abilities on a pure assumption. According to their testing (solely in English) the fact I was born in the "other country" meant I had to be able to translate in a medical or legal setting. I think we all know that is very far from the reality.

I would love to get certified by the government, but the truth is that I've tried that route and they are either not able to accommodate my language pair or will not test me unless I work for them full time which I am definitely not capable of due to medical and family limitations. Same goes for court interpreting.

BTW, I am getting ready for my CoreCHI exam as I am also a medical interpreter and guess what, all that is available for both of my language pairs is a written exam which merely tests my ability to understand English and to be knowledgeable of the ethics and medical terminology again in English only. Oral exam part is not available at all for minor languages.

So while there are ample resources for certification when your language is common the same does not apply to many whose language specialty is not considered popular enough to provide testing materials for (which BTW are developed not by the government, but again private organizations contracted to provide the work).

I am sorry I went on for so long, but I felt that some points needed to be addressed as this thread, in my opinion, viewed GTI and their CTP program in unfavorable light without having any factual information based on personal experience with the program which would justify the position.

This is obviously not meant to convince you of anything, and my only intention was to offer bit of insight from someone who actually completed the program which I personally did find worth the money spent.

Have a lovely evening
Romana

[Edited at 2019-01-16 19:10 GMT]
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Rosa Fierro
Rosa Fierro  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:56
English to Spanish
+ ...
Misleading information May 29, 2019

I was researching this certificate but when I saw this text on their website (the CTP program) "This is the only online certification training and certification program available in the industry" I immediately stopped trusting. This is NOT the only online certification in the industry, there should be many more, but at least this is one that I know... See more
I was researching this certificate but when I saw this text on their website (the CTP program) "This is the only online certification training and certification program available in the industry" I immediately stopped trusting. This is NOT the only online certification in the industry, there should be many more, but at least this is one that I know: https://extension.ucsd.edu/courses-and-programs/translation-spanish-english?vAction=certDetail&vCertificateID=174
Look at the FAQ on the UCSD program and they say: "This program can be completed entirely online. All assignments, discussion posts, and tests can be completed online and submitted through Blackboard, our online learning platform."
So why the CTP program writes that they are the only online certification? People are free to choose any certificate, but if they think the CTP program is the ONLY option online, that is misleading information.
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Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 16:56
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Rosa May 30, 2019

Rosa Fierro wrote:
When I saw this text on their website (the CTP program) "This is the only online certification training and certification program available in the industry" I immediately stopped trusting.


I agree that that is misleading. On the other hand, one should not take sales talk too literally. Do we also avoid eating So-and-so's "world famous waffles" for the same reason? Or, will we avoid an agency that uses images of people on their web site that aren't really them? (-:

Instead of being blinded by this marketing speek, why not investigate the programme itself and determine if what they offer is worth the money you pay?

What you're paying for, is an online exam. You pay $550. "The exam is 80 multiple choice questions, 2 written essays, and translation of two passages (one from English to your target language, and one from your target language into English). The exam will open ... for a full 24 hours and ... [o]nce you start it, you have 3 hours to complete it." Not everyone taking the exam passes it.

If you pass the exam, you can call yourself a "certified" translator by the definition of "certified" that is used by the CTP, unless you live in a country where the word "certified" is governed by law (do you know of any such country?). If you encounter other translators who use a different definition of "certified", then that is their problem, not yours, as long as you're happy with what you have obtained for your $550.


Jorge Payan
 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
Branding, marketing, and flexing May 30, 2019

1) According to Google--
Certification provides independent* verification of a certain level of expertise in a particular area. Basically, it means you have completed the steps required to receive a particular designation.
Therefore, even a diploma and portfolio should do.

2) How did ALL companies/associations appeared? It takes at least some three random guys and much time, arranging the Rule book and Statute (aka membership). Egg vs Hen dilemma, forgetting Rooster.

3) Everything changes, so who decides?
No education/certification could cover specific and interdisciplinary skills. (Business awareness for freelancers, anyone?)


Stay cool, you're a businessperson, not a collector. So, don't fall for those fancy names and titles because only the result matters, not 'proper' alma maters or 'approved' brandish fads, let alone when it boils down to ever-newbish low rates and free tests with notorious "discounts".

P.S. I somewhat doubt many even decent translators could successfully write L1-L2 and L2-L1 essays ad-lib)


 
Meiyu Liu
Meiyu Liu
Taiwan
Local time: 23:56
Member (2019)
Chinese to English
+ ...
ATA, CTP, NAATI, CIAL...and other respectful ones are about the CHOICEs Nov 13, 2022

I am from Taiwan, 50 years old, a mother who has 2 childrens and had have 15 years of freelance career since 2008.

I, personally, want to give a neutral but positive attitude toward this topic.

CTP, as indicated from its website and after I googled it for a while, provides a chance for linguists desiring or planning to be proved or to engage his career as the starting point in this industry but his mother tongue language is not supported in other global famous transla
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I am from Taiwan, 50 years old, a mother who has 2 childrens and had have 15 years of freelance career since 2008.

I, personally, want to give a neutral but positive attitude toward this topic.

CTP, as indicated from its website and after I googled it for a while, provides a chance for linguists desiring or planning to be proved or to engage his career as the starting point in this industry but his mother tongue language is not supported in other global famous translators associations/institutes.

In other words, CTP intends to create a blue sea for the linguists on this planet, this may be the core of the plan, in my viewpoint.

No right or wrong if we see it from this view.

This is about the chance, the choice you make, nothing to do with right or wrong.

The reason why 80 questions are nothing about the grammar, syntax, just a general knowledge or cognition for people who want to be linguists serving others in this planet, because English knowledge, syntax, grammar...whatever about the English, is a skill/technology (you can say that), although top priority, but, morality or ethics is significant, nothing inferior to English knowledge. These questions are just raised to ask examinees about this part, as a linguist, you have to know what you should do and should not do. This common sense prevails in all industries, no matter what it is.

Honesty, integrity, I believe it to be worshipped always.

Then, let us figure out the CHOICE. Make your own choice pursuant to your rule. Others have no right moment of taking negative altitude on this, because no one is you. You do what you should do. That's all.

How do you know that one day, a linguist who chooses CTP would not have a good future? In any second, any choice is born from one who judges right, and as long as it does not hurt others, hurt himself/herself, why not? Perhaps this is just the starting point, prehaps, after CTP, then, NAATI....etc.? Who knows? You know? You can predict the future?

I want to show respect to anyone who criticizes CTP poor, and this is the respect, because you have freedom speaking out what you think and how you think in this world.

I also would like to encourage linguists who want to invest in CTP, because this is the chance you can take, at least, in your life here. After pass, you can execute your next plan, of course. ^^

Freedom is always the top beauty in the humans' world.

ATA, CTP, NAATI, CIAL...and other respectful ones are about the CHOICEs only.

Carrie
Proz member
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Has anyone heard of this school/institute? Global Translation Institute / (CTP Program)






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