Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Spanish term or phrase:
Militar profesional de tropa
English translation:
career member of the armed forces
Added to glossary by
cristina_uceda
Aug 18, 2014 16:15
9 yrs ago
7 viewers *
Spanish term
Native in: Spanish 
, Galician
Works in: English to Spanish, French to Spanish, English to Galician
Militar profesional de tropa
Spanish to English
Other
Certificates, Diplomas, Licenses, CVs
CV
I am translating a CV; the employment history reads "Militar profesional de tropa - Ejército del Aire". This person has carried out administrative and military tasks: customer service, database updating, escorting, etc.
It is a CV from Spain to translate into UK English.
Thank you very much.
It is a CV from Spain to translate into UK English.
Thank you very much.
Proposed translations
(English)
| 4 +1 | career member of the armed forces |
philgoddard
|
| 4 | Serviceman / servicewoman (junior other ranks) |
Charles Davis
|
Proposed translations
+1
1 hr
philgoddard
United States
United States
Native in English
United States
Six languages into flawless English
Native in: English
Works in: German to English, French to English, Spanish to English, and 4 more.
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career member of the armed forces
Tropa means army, but this person is actually a member of the ejército del aire, or airforce, so I suggest "member of the armed forces".
Similarly, "profesional" can't really be translated as "professional", since all members of the armed forces get paid, so "career" is also an approximation to the Spanish.
You could just translate the whole thing as "Spanish airforce", but that might be a bit too minimalist for the customer's liking.
Similarly, "profesional" can't really be translated as "professional", since all members of the armed forces get paid, so "career" is also an approximation to the Spanish.
You could just translate the whole thing as "Spanish airforce", but that might be a bit too minimalist for the customer's liking.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Very helpful. Thank you all!"
9 hrs
Serviceman / servicewoman (junior other ranks)
This is not just any member of the armed forces. "Tropa" means the lowest category in the hierarchy: neither officers nor non-commissioned officers, but just ordinary privates/able seamen/aicraftmen and corporals. In NATO terms, ranks OR1-OR4 but no higher.
"tropa
4. f. Mil. Conjunto de cabos y soldados."
http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=tropa
"Militar profesional de tropa" is actually short for "Militar Profesional de Tropa y Marinería" (MPTM). As you can see here, it is the bottom category in each service (here's the Air Force section, but if you scroll up and down you'll see it's the same for the others):
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalafón_militar_de_España#Ej....
The other thing about an MPTM, apart from rank, is that he/she is initially NOT a career member of the armed forces. In the first instance they sign up for 2-3 years renewable. They can then move to a "compromiso de larga duración", which means they can carry on to age 45, and from there they can become permanent, though most do not. But basically it's a non-permanent position: precisely not a career member. Here's the relevant law governing their status:
https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2006-7319
Well now, in US English those below officer rank are called "enlisted", and in UK English they're called "other ranks". However, in both cases these terms include NCOs (suboficiales) as well as "tropa". So strictly they don't correspond. To be accurate we have to add "junior":
""US "Enlisted" and UK "Other" ranks compared
The British Armed Forces do not use the term Enlisted Ranks. The equivalent in the Royal Navy is Ratings and in the other services is Other Ranks (divided into Warrant Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers or Airmen). [...]
In the US Army OR-1 to OR-4a (Specialist) are junior enlisted, OR-4b (Corporal) to OR-6 are Junior Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs), and OR-7 to OR-9 are Senior Non-Commissioned Officers (SNCOs)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_United_Kingdom_an...
Similarly in UK military language "junior other ranks" is used to refer to corporal and below: ranks below NCO, which is what MPTM means:
"Among the Other Ranks, there was a lower proportion of personnel that were female (9.1 per cent), but a smaller difference between junior Other Ranks (9.5 per cent) and senior Other Ranks (8.2 per cent)" (see tables below where it's clear that "junior" corresponds to "Corporal and below"):
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...
See question 11 here:
http://www.opiniontaker.com/surveys/statistics.asp?URN=E0@3C...
"Seldom will officers themselves have all these capacities, certainly not subordinate officers and non-commissioned officers - let alone the junior other ranks."
http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S0018-229X2013000100...
So I think this is the expression that should be used for UK English. For US, change "other" to "enlisted".
"tropa
4. f. Mil. Conjunto de cabos y soldados."
http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=tropa
"Militar profesional de tropa" is actually short for "Militar Profesional de Tropa y Marinería" (MPTM). As you can see here, it is the bottom category in each service (here's the Air Force section, but if you scroll up and down you'll see it's the same for the others):
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalafón_militar_de_España#Ej....
The other thing about an MPTM, apart from rank, is that he/she is initially NOT a career member of the armed forces. In the first instance they sign up for 2-3 years renewable. They can then move to a "compromiso de larga duración", which means they can carry on to age 45, and from there they can become permanent, though most do not. But basically it's a non-permanent position: precisely not a career member. Here's the relevant law governing their status:
https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2006-7319
Well now, in US English those below officer rank are called "enlisted", and in UK English they're called "other ranks". However, in both cases these terms include NCOs (suboficiales) as well as "tropa". So strictly they don't correspond. To be accurate we have to add "junior":
""US "Enlisted" and UK "Other" ranks compared
The British Armed Forces do not use the term Enlisted Ranks. The equivalent in the Royal Navy is Ratings and in the other services is Other Ranks (divided into Warrant Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers or Airmen). [...]
In the US Army OR-1 to OR-4a (Specialist) are junior enlisted, OR-4b (Corporal) to OR-6 are Junior Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs), and OR-7 to OR-9 are Senior Non-Commissioned Officers (SNCOs)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_United_Kingdom_an...
Similarly in UK military language "junior other ranks" is used to refer to corporal and below: ranks below NCO, which is what MPTM means:
"Among the Other Ranks, there was a lower proportion of personnel that were female (9.1 per cent), but a smaller difference between junior Other Ranks (9.5 per cent) and senior Other Ranks (8.2 per cent)" (see tables below where it's clear that "junior" corresponds to "Corporal and below"):
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...
See question 11 here:
http://www.opiniontaker.com/surveys/statistics.asp?URN=E0@3C...
"Seldom will officers themselves have all these capacities, certainly not subordinate officers and non-commissioned officers - let alone the junior other ranks."
http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S0018-229X2013000100...
So I think this is the expression that should be used for UK English. For US, change "other" to "enlisted".
Discussion