Dear translators:

I have a question for you. It’s my understanding that translators generally describe their language skills in one of two ways:

1. A language which you can translate into or out of
2. A language which you can translate out of

I’m using plain language because I find that the terminology used in the translation community can be a bit confusing. (Cases in point: the term “working language” seems to sometimes refer to either one of these two. The term “native language” usually implies that the translator can translate into or out of the language. Both of these terms seem to have exceptions.)

And another question:

I saw a CV of a translator who described their language skills as follows:

• English → French
• English → Portuguese
• French → Portuguese

What I don’t understand is, why wouldn’t one also list Portuguese to French? Isn’t it fair to assume that if a translator can transate into some French from English, that it’s safe to assume that they can also translate into French from any other language they know well (Portuguese, in this case)?