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The key steps to becoming a freelance translator
Thread poster: SamuelDJones (X)
polyglot45
polyglot45
English to French
+ ...
@ Maria Sep 1, 2016

Frankly, in this day and age, I wouldn't advise a child of mine to go into translation. We could embark on an exchange about the future world of employment, how things are about to change big-time. But the fact remains that translation as a profession, unless you have other associated skills (writing techniques, ability to manage projects, etc.) then you really should be looking elsewhere.

 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 12:16
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Thanks for clarifying that Sep 1, 2016

polyglot45 wrote:
This is yet another generalisation and anyone who thinks otherwise may just be trying to decredibilise me !!!!

That certainly wasn't my intention. It was simply that the statements about "we" seemed to be in juxtaposition to those referring to Dan and others like him, who were all by inference automatically lumped in with those "poorly-paid etc" translators. If that isn't what you meant to infer, then that's fine and I apologise for any offence .

I am referring to a world out there that exists. I thought it was about time that somebody mentioned that there is another way (in addition to the Dan-type way, which is not accessible to OP, as far as I can judge).

I absolutely agree. The problem is when individuals have little to offer clients other than fluency in two or more languages. There's an enormous way to go from there to running a successful freelance translation business. If price is your only bargaining chip, then you might well have to use it to undercut everyone else if you hope to interest clients, particularly in the common pairs.


 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:16
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Must say I agree Sep 1, 2016

polyglot45 wrote:
But the fact remains that translation as a profession, unless you have other associated skills (writing techniques, ability to manage projects, etc.) then you really should be looking elsewhere.

At a conference last year I stood up and posed a question to the panel: should everybody under 30 years of age simply forget about translation? It was meant to provoke and it did; a ripple of laughter and murmurs went through the audience, but people were interested. If I remember correctly the responses from the panel were largely sympathetic to my point.

After all, as a 22-year old fresh out of university in the UK with a degree in a language or possibly translation, what do you offer, really? What's your unique selling point? Are your linguistic skills really good enough? What do you know of how business works? When I graduated from SOAS, the answers to these questions were: a serious attitude; I don't have one; no; nothing.

It seems to me that most people would be better advised to go and work in a field they enjoy, that engages their linguistic skills, and return to translation later in life. For one thing, if they're good in that field, they'll probably make more money with greater stability than they would from translating. It's later in life, when one gets less willing to put up with the inanities thrown up by corporate life - and corporate bosses - that freelancing looks attractive.

I am afraid that young people coming into the profession "too early" find it disproportionately difficult to extract themselves from the low end of the business and end up working very hard for a dispiritingly low income. They might be excellent natural linguists, but some time in industry would only enrich those skills, while teaching them how the world of business works and imparting some domain-specific knowledge.

This is the sort of situation in which you suggest an MA might be genuinely useful. I agree that if the individual concerned is adamant that they do not want to work in industry, that might be the case.

Dan


 
Rita Translator
Rita Translator  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 13:16
German to English
@polyglot45 Sep 2, 2016

To throw in my 2 cents, I would like to say that I think it is beneficial to hear from those involved in the education side of translation chiming in here. You said you would never again go against the established proz.com wisdom, but I hope you do.

I'm afraid that in the end I agree with those who believe knowledge of a specific sector is more important than knowledge of translation theory - assuming the person in question already has the necessary language proficiency and excelle
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To throw in my 2 cents, I would like to say that I think it is beneficial to hear from those involved in the education side of translation chiming in here. You said you would never again go against the established proz.com wisdom, but I hope you do.

I'm afraid that in the end I agree with those who believe knowledge of a specific sector is more important than knowledge of translation theory - assuming the person in question already has the necessary language proficiency and excellent writing skills. Still, I appreciate your standpoint and like to read what you believe to be the greatest benefits of a translation-specific education.

On the point of networking, I have also found it to be very beneficial but haven't needed an MA program to do it. I am in professional networks and meet colleagues at conferences and continuing education seminars.

I also work almost exclusively with direct clients except for one boutique agency I thoroughly enjoy working with because of the type of texts I get, excellent communication, decent pay (about 2/3 of my direct client rates), and work that is dropped in my lap with no marketing efforts on my part. The only reason I'm able to command anything close to the rates you mentioned, though, is because of my experience and publications in the field in which I work. If I tried to get these jobs with no experience in the field but an MA in Translation, I don't think I would be successful.
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polyglot45
polyglot45
English to French
+ ...
@Kelly Sep 2, 2016

For every rule, there have to be a 150 thousand exceptions.
I'm glad you are flourishing without an MA. So are lots of others.
I have and had no wish to make this into a sort of competition to decide which of the two profiles (MA or industry experience) is the more likely to succeed. I was, however, concerned about OP, who does not have the latter and could therefore do with the former.

While I see where Dan is coming from, I note, for example, that he studied first at S
... See more
For every rule, there have to be a 150 thousand exceptions.
I'm glad you are flourishing without an MA. So are lots of others.
I have and had no wish to make this into a sort of competition to decide which of the two profiles (MA or industry experience) is the more likely to succeed. I was, however, concerned about OP, who does not have the latter and could therefore do with the former.

While I see where Dan is coming from, I note, for example, that he studied first at SOAS, which means that he had a solid language base to begin with. That he should wish to use that knowledge in what can loosely be classed as "industry" is something I can only but applaud. That he should later revert to translation for reasons that are his alone is none of my business.

I also said that I would NOT recommend translation as a profession today. Indeed some of the leading postgraduate schools in the field are shifting their emphasis towards a broader form of education, to kit out their students for other than pure translation or interpreting.

I recently attended an event where a well-known professor (not a linguist) claimed that translation as a profession was in its dying days. I have to say that, in general, I agree with him. While googletranslate remains a joke and sites such as linguee (which are not without interest in the absolute) suffer from the fact that the search engines pick up translations from the web without being able to sort out the wheat from the chaff (cf. wrong answers selected in Proz), there has been massive progress in automatic translation. To me, this does not necessarily signal the end of translation as we know it but it does imply that the weak will rapidly fall by the wayside and that translators will need USP to stand the course. The form that this USP will take can vary: the ability to write good copy, proofreading skills, project management skills, organisational skills.......even technical knowledge and - believe me - you can pick a lot of stuff up from engineers and technicians if you are bright enough to assimilate it and to ask the right questions. This is yet another benefit of direct clients. But I digress.

For those for whom working first in finance, law, medicine, engineering is not an option, then an MA is a great point of entry. I will not repeat the advantages in terms of networking, etc. What is perhaps more important is that students pursue their studies for a further two years, have time to mature, embark on projects they manage themselves, do translations for their seasoned translator teachers, discuss the results, pick up tips, learn shortcuts, understand the structures of different languages and, in the case of most European languages, come to recognise the differences in sentence structure and use of parts of speech, fine-tune their writing skills, learn what liberties you can and cannot take and when and generally benefit from two years of tutoring and mentorship.

And it does not stop when they leave: the alumni associations and the teachers are there to help out in case of need. Surely this has to be a better point of entry than a "mere" degree, little or no experience and only internet platforms to help you?

I rest my case.
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