Job Discussion Forums

JonnytheMann · Joined: 01 Dec 2004 Posts: 337 Location: USA

Anyone have any suggestions on how to get started in a career in translation? I'd like to do translation while I teach EFL abroad to supplement my income. If it became a full-time gig, it would be icing on the cake.

Anyone know how to get started? Can anyone direct me to websites, companies, etc. that can help me get started?

Any help would be appreciated.

cujobytes · Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 3:31 am Post subject: >

I take it then you can read write and speak Chinese pretty well.

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

The title of your thread suggests that you are at odds with the inversion rule of English syntax; what other language do you know?

Translating isn't a well-paying line of business - in general! And you have to specialise in an area.
Interpretation is different; if you can do simultaneous oral translation you get a pretty high salary. BUt few people have the mental power to do that. And it's an exhausting kind of work; at conferences interpreters take turns - in China, for instance, every twenty minutes and up to 2 hours.

JonnytheMann · Joined: 01 Dec 2004 Posts: 337 Location: USA

Anyone have any suggestions on how to get started in a career in translation? Anyone know how to get started? Can anyone direct me to websites, companies, etc. that can help me get started?

cujobytes · Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 8:52 am Post subject: >

What languages are you fluent in?

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Do you agree that if you are fluent in a language it doesn't mean you can be an interpreter. My brain only works in one language at a time. Even if you know the language similtaneous translation is a skill. I don't have it.

JonnytheMann · Joined: 01 Dec 2004 Posts: 337 Location: USA

I would like to translate. I am not interested in interpretation.

If I could translate documents that are sent to me via e-mail, I could earn a US wage while living in South America. Even if I earned $500/month, that would be a pretty good wage in South America.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to get started in a career in translation? Anyone know how to get started? Can anyone direct me to websites, companies, etc. that can help me get started?

P.S. Spanish, German & Russian. If I started having success at translating, I would start to add more languages like Portuguese, French, and maybe Italian.

EnglishBrian · Joined: 19 May 2005 Posts: 189

Jonny,

Can't help with contacts re. translation I'm afraid, but where I've worked translation's always been pretty much limited to the locals who'll happily do it for a small fraction of the price that a foreigner will. They usually do it so badly though, that proof reading could be a real money spinner for you. Don't neglect that field.

Good luck

JonnytheMann · Joined: 01 Dec 2004 Posts: 337 Location: USA

I'm hoping to get translating work from countries like Germany and Spain that can give me a decent Western wage. I am hoping that my location in South America won't matter to them. I would only do work translating into English.

EnglishBrian · Joined: 19 May 2005 Posts: 189

My experience with big corporations (taught in Philip Morris for a while) was that they just expected their staff to be English fluent (yeah right) anyway as that was the official company language. Smaller companies where Ive been would just go to the little translation bureau 2 blocks down. Don't know how much work there is with the major languages that needs to be emailed round the world.

Still, I'd love to be proved wrong, and having said what I have it's very likely someone will be happy to contradict me - often happens.

All the best with it

Henry_Cowell · Joined: 27 May 2005 Posts: 3352 Location: Berkeley

Start by considering who can provide translation work (into English) on a regular and steady basis. For a start, here are some examples:

***Publishers of reference and scholarly books (they receive articles and entries from contributors all over the world; many need to be translated into English)

***Websites (to localize content that's been written somewhere else)

Translators are typically paid by the word or (less commonly) by the page. Good translators can make decent wages, and they can indeed work from anywhere.

Your best bet is to do an "informational interview" with a nearby publisher. Contact the managing editors of local university presses (e.g., Duke is probably the largest in your area; there are also Indiana and Illinois) to find out how and when they hire translators. Ask if you can take an hour of their time to find out how it all works. In return, you buy them lunch!

There are also, of course, professional translation certificate programs in the U.S. Try to interview somebody from one of those programs well before you go to South America. They'll know the current state of the profession. "ATA certification" is the current U.S. standard (American Translators Association: http://www.atanet.org ). Do searches on the Internet to learn more.

Good luck ...

JonnytheMann · Joined: 01 Dec 2004 Posts: 337 Location: USA

Thank you! Smile

Ailian · Joined: 15 Apr 2004 Posts: 192 Location: PRC!

There's a great mailing list for translators that always welcomes questions, LANTRA-L. For more information, go here.

Sheep-Goats · Joined: 16 Apr 2004 Posts: 527

http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/0505/international_freelance_work_as_a_language_translator.shtml

There you go, translator guy.

A synopsis of the above:
1) You don't get paid for translating literature, and probably never will. Lots of poeple do lit trans for free to up their reputation or for enjoyment.
2) Most jobs these days are had by bidding and posting qualifications on the internet. If you're new at translating, the only way you'll get work is by doing it at miniscule rates.

Sounds like a tough goddamn gig to me. But I'm grateful there are people out there willing to do it.

JonnytheMann · Joined: 01 Dec 2004 Posts: 337 Location: USA

Sheep-Goats,

Thank you so much! I appreciate the help. I'm looking at this translator thing to help me out while I am living in Argentina so though the rates might be miniscule for an American, maybe they'll be tolerable for an Argentine lifestyle?

I guess I'll start out by doing things for free and treating it like an internship. I'm planning on teaching EFL and private lessons to pay the bills while I am there. If I could eventually work as a translator, even if it took several years, I assume I'd make at least $1000/month, right? Having that money in Buenos Aires would make me pretty well off.

It seems like it will be hard, but ... where there's a will, there's a way.

I think US$500 would give me a decent lifestyle in Buenos Aires.