The internship that I completed in the spring of 2025 in Lyon, France was for an organization called “Lire et Faire Lire”. The main objective of the organization is to provide English and French translations of children’s books with the goal of immersing elementary school children in both the French and English languages and to expand their vocabulary in both languages. Situated in Villeurbanne, France, the organization of staff members, volunteers, and interns meets every Tuesday and Thursday in an elementary school with the students and read to them in both French and English. Currently, they are looking to expand their existing library of books to be translated, whether that be from French to English or English to French. Because of this, they look for volunteers and interns to help with the translation process or to help read the translated books to the students. As an intern, I work in the translation process where I am to translate a book, typically every other week in either French or English, and meet with the other interns and volunteers and the supervisor to peer review each other's work. Every meeting, we compare each other's work and decide which translation is to be used. During the second half of the semester, we would sometimes translate a book altogether in the meeting. In total, we have translated about 6 or 7 books. 

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Some skills that I believe I enhanced include a wider range of varied vocabulary, greater knowledge of more common French phrases, and being able to write in French more fluidly. When I am translating, I usually have a translated list of words or phrases that have the same meaning, usually with help from the supervisor and my colleagues. Associating words that I have not learned before with words that I am comfortable with helps facilitate a more varied use of vocabulary. The use of idiomatic phrases is also greatly relevant when translating. These types of phrases are used in everyday conversation by locals, so it is important to familiarize oneself with them to keep a piece of dialogue sounding more natural. Lastly, the more I write in French, the more comfortable I feel the next time I write in the language. This is especially useful in upper-level French classes that require more writing. I would still like to keep developing all of these skills because even though I am better than I once was, there are still areas where I can greatly improve on such as expanding my vocabulary. I tend to keep using words that I am comfortable with even if I have already learned a less commonly known synonym. 

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Because I really enjoyed this internship, I am considering pursuing a career that involves translations or interpretations. Before this internship, I had already been interested in the field, but now I have a stronger interest in doing translations. I have been suggested that there are government jobs that practice this kind of work which is something that I would like to do. Furthermore, there are schools and classes dedicated to translations in a foreign language. I have found a few in South Carolina and I am going to look deeper into the topic. Because of this, the internship has really helped me understand what I would like to do with my degree in the future.

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Below is my internship report in French. Click on the button below to view the full report. 

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