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Is ES>EN worth it or should I stick to PT?
Thread poster: drake be
drake be
drake be
United States
Jan 8, 2020

Hello all,

This is an account that I've made to test-drive ProZ. I'm currently a college student in the US and who has always had a passion for languages. I took an interpretation course at my university and received some very encouraging feedback from my professors. I'm now exploring a career in translation/interpretation. My specialty would probably be science/medicine/public health since I have an academic background in those fields.

My A is English (US). My B is Fre... See more
Hello all,

This is an account that I've made to test-drive ProZ. I'm currently a college student in the US and who has always had a passion for languages. I took an interpretation course at my university and received some very encouraging feedback from my professors. I'm now exploring a career in translation/interpretation. My specialty would probably be science/medicine/public health since I have an academic background in those fields.

My A is English (US). My B is French (France). And I'm thinking about developing Portuguese or Spanish as a C. I've been studying both independently and have roughly the same proficiency and interest in both.

From what I can see, Spanish to English is very high in-demand — but also very competitive and many professionals come from hispanophone families. Portuguese to English, on the other hand, is a smaller market with an even smaller number of native speakers who study the language.

*All else being equal, would you say that I'd have better career prospects as one of many SP>EN interpreters/translators in a larger market? Or should I stick to Portuguese to have less competition for less work?*

I am looking for any opinions, pieces of advice or even other language pairs (into English) that could be beneficial to a career in language services.

Best,
Drake ▲ Collapse
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:24
Member (2008)
Italian to English
The specialism - not the language pair Jan 8, 2020

What matters is your specialism - not your language pair. In a busy market such as ES-EN you need to differentiate yourself from the others by offering particular expertise in a narrowly-defined sector. Make a niche for yourself and the work will come.


[Edited at 2020-01-08 09:02 GMT]

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Fiona Grace Peterson
expressisverbis
Jorge Payan
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 08:24
French to English
. Jan 8, 2020

SP-EN is indeed a very popular language pair, in terms of volume of work and number of translators.
I agree with Tom that the way to stand out in such pairs is to have a specialist subject. You'll need that for FR-EN too, as a similarly crowded pair.

Speaking as a former PM, I was always on the lookout for translators with at least two source languages. I would call on translators every day for FR-EN and only very rarely would need someone for PT-EN. So I liked having someone... See more
SP-EN is indeed a very popular language pair, in terms of volume of work and number of translators.
I agree with Tom that the way to stand out in such pairs is to have a specialist subject. You'll need that for FR-EN too, as a similarly crowded pair.

Speaking as a former PM, I was always on the lookout for translators with at least two source languages. I would call on translators every day for FR-EN and only very rarely would need someone for PT-EN. So I liked having someone who could do both. I would be familiar with the quality of their work in FR-EN and could readily trust them with PT-EN. It was a whole lot more comfortable than having to find someone new, especially given that I don't speak PT and thus couldn't check the translation for accuracy.
You'll probably find that you need to specialise less in PT. Meaning that you'll be asked to translate a weirder, wider range of subjects. ▲ Collapse


Jorge Payan
 


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Is ES>EN worth it or should I stick to PT?







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