The How-To Library

Should I Become A Translator?

By Arthur Borges. Submitted on Sunday, July 10,
2005
About the author: Arthur Borges has been translating and interpreting
since 1989 and teaching Second Language English since 1975. He is a TC
forums administrator and moderator.
Home / The How-To Library / Working as a Freelancer / How to become a
translator and/or (court) interpreter
First off, your heart alone can answer that. I can only map out a few
questions and considerations for the two of you to meditate.
The next few paragraphs may amount to a tall order to someone straight
out of university as well as to non-grads with all the right ingredients but
give yourself a break because, if youve gotten this far, your heart headed
you here and when you really want something and start doing something
about getting there, you find allies along the way, along the same way that
gives you time to fill in the blanks somehow or other.
Discard concern about conforming to a one-size-fits-all profile. Good
translators may come in any size, shape and color: neurotic but idealistic
language teachers, laid-off factory workers, ex-army commandos in from
the cold, sharp disbarred lawyers, retired physicians and poetic alcoholics.
We are all human. We all have both failings and the strengths that flourish
from them: you are one of us to at least some extent.
Next, mercilessly strangle any noble aspirations you may have of
translating enough true literature in the near term to pay bills regularly: the
royalties are small change unless you do dimestore novels and better
literature largely goes to academics with connections, doctorates, tenures
and bibliographies of Amazonian length and Pacific depth.
Most translations are intended for extremely narrow readerships, e.g. user
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manuals for lens polishing machines, sale contracts & commercial leases,
government tenders, depositions, spec sheets and things of the like. So this
begs the question of how innately curious you are. Innate curiosity is easy
to measure: if you see someone in his 70s walking backwards along a park
path around a lawn, do you see a loony and give him wide berth or do you
feel like asking him why hes doing that?
The Holy Trinity of Translation is Language Proficiency, Specialization
and Writing Skills and the ideal translator is a seriously bilingual and
bicultural lad or lass with several years of work experience in absolutely
any one field who writes great emails and loves crosswords, anagrams and
the like.
Language proficiency is about feeling comfortable in two wordworlds:
have you got it or are you prepared to get it by spending at least two years
in a country that speaks your source language (i.e. the language you want
to translate out of)? Specialization is about hands-on knowledge of
anything from basketweaving and meatpacking to phased array radar
technology and offshore oil services. Writing skills is about how many
different ways you can express the same thought in properly spelt and
punctuated sentences.
But theres more. Documents arrive in different formats: how much of
Microsoft Office can you exploit? Some terms are special to an industry or
even a company: how deep are you willing to dig to find the right match in
the target language (your mother tongue)? A touch of masochism helps: are
you deadline-drive and able to work under pressure? Being a bit of a
neatness freak helps too: are you a perfectionist about layout, spelling,
carriage returns, numbering, spelling, grammar and, just before you do the
final SAVE, can you go through a document to remove all the extra spaces
after the periods and all the extra line feeds on the last page? Yes, the
spell/grammar checker will help lots, but it suggests the occasional howler
tooyou have to have some personal judgment now and then.
Finally, translation is as much as business as hamburger retailing: how
much managerial, bookkeeping, advertising and networking skill have you
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got? Or willing to cultivate? Some clients studiously avoid immoderate

honesty: can you go after money folks owe you like a Strella locking in an
MH-47 Chinook? How easy is it to browbeat you in believing your work
was gibberish unfit for printing on dried but used nappies? Some clients
freak out when you use terms theyre not comfortable with: are you willing
to adjust your impeccable prose and wordchoices down to someones
expectations? Some clients feel alienated and dispossessed of their ideas
when they see the reflection of their thought in the mirror of a foreign
language: are you open to nurturing folks beyond their any vaguely defined
concerns they fret over? Most clients will cheerfully acknowledge that its
OK for you to know their business less well than they do but get justifiably
heated up when your translation reads like pure fudge: are you brave
enough to commit to paper exactly what youve understood in plain
language, flag it as a question and cheerfully appreciate the frowns,
feedback and corrections? Or are you tempted to hide your ignorance
behind vague, ambivalent terms and syntax?
Language Proficiency
This is far more than speaking one language at home and another in your
environment or pocketing a degree in a given second language. Not only
do different folks use different words and grammars, they also think
differently, their emotions respond to different stimuli and they have
different moral value systems, e.g. the French read womens liberation
along a scale of values that goes from traditional to modern lifestyles while
Americans read it along a scale from slavery to freedom; chrysanthemums
are suitable gifts only for dead girlfriends in France; a smaller share of
European women consider adultery is grounds for divorce than American
women.
Your immigrant parents probably taught you such distinctions only
incompletely because theyve been adjusting their native standards to the
country you were all brought up in. Moreover, languages are like flesh:
they are subject to the law of birth, growth, old age and death. Immigrant
parents lose contact with the evolution of their native tongue by living
outside their native culture: you have to go back there for at least two years
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to get the hang of how folks think, act, feel, talk, gesticulate and generally
operate. Or you have this degree in Tibetan from the University of
Hintertupfingen that didnt teach you any of the Chinese loanwords in the
terminology of ATM maintenance training in Lhasa: you have to go there
for at least two years toowho knows what China will be exporting next!
But the baseline is about becoming bi-cultural: learning the mindset behind
the words.
Specialization
You get these agencies that list every discipline and language they can
think of and polish off both lists with and others. So you sit there and do
a piece of dumb arithmetic: you take the 40 languages they list, multiply it
by the 40 disciplines they list and infer that they have 1,600 translators.
And thats only if they do all 40 only into English: double the figure
because they are implying they work both ways and serious translators
only translate into their mother tongue. Start raising that figure by a few
dozen powers because the ad also implies they can mix n match any
which way: like Swahili and Urdu or Greek and Samoan and this is before
you factor in the specializations. In short, get really focused, ideally, by
listing one foreign language, one target language and one area of expertise.
Choose the area of expertise from your job history: a smart bilingual
bookkeeper should be able to translate accounting, a smart factory worker
should be able to do industrial user manuals. If youve got a degree, check
with friends with familyyou have convenient, readymade mentors all
around you: if dads a psychopathologist, if moms a sex worker or if your
spouse is anybodys combat diver, they are walking dictionaries and
encyclopedias (fields: psychology, police/legal and military respectively).
They have detailed knowledge of a trade, know their trade literature and
can find out who publishes their mindfood. Target their trade literature for
your adsgo down to the publishers, talk to someone who can identify
which issues to advertise in: some issues are far more widely read than
others. Relatives and friends with expertise can also explain the fuzzy parts
of any sentences you are translating, which is critical to minimizing
mistranslations. You WILL make mistakes: we only murder virtual doc
files but by analogy, the more patients a surgeon has killed, the higher
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her/his skill levels

Writing Skills
You have to enjoy writing. You have to enjoy playing with words and
figuring out the meaning and intentions behind the words: some brilliant
specialists write terribly but clients and readers will be judging you by the
clarity of your translation. Although the Internet and websites like
Translators Caf are enabling the creation of social and professional
networks whose potential is still early in the curve, translation is a lonely
job and it helps if you can get playful about the words you handle: can you
stop and wonder why aircraft have no wing nuts? Or why they have
cosmonauts, official state atheism and censorship while we have
astronauts, separation of church and state, and news management? If the
Hebrew original uses the word terrorist, does your bent of mind translate
it as freedom fighter? If you do that, you probably just blooped big time.
Or did you add quotations not found in the original: you blooped bad
anyhow.
PC Skills
Translators are keyboard warriors: you need all 10 trigger fingers. Take
touchtyping lessons with a bunch of bowheads for big bucks if you have to.
Documents come in different formats based on different software: pirate or
buy it and learn it (buy the real thing as soon as you can for the tech
supportcrashes ALWAYS happen somewhere towards the end of your
document on the eve of your deadline and the lost business will erase any
savings you made using pirated software). You have to have reasonably
state-of-the-art versions: Windows 3.0 and Word 2.0 will not do; Windows
98 and Word 97 can maybe still get by for the output (as at July 2005) but
you may have problems importing documents into Word 97 that were
generated under later versions of Word and the lost enrichments may cost
you repeat business. You have to have, and regularly update, your antivirus and spyware software. Though most clients wont ask for it, you may
need encryption softwareall documents from any client are confidential
by definition. Even a clients name is confidential: if your combination is
Hebrew to Chinese and I know your field is electronics, give me the name
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of a client who just commissioned a translation system for you, I can find
out what the company makes, look at which China is likely to want and
perhaps become able to infer that, say, Israel is selling China another
advanced air defense system that will have Washington seething, causing
your clients deal to fall through.
You may also need a safe: the loss or leakage of any classified material
will leave you with many-many time-consuming questions to answer,
sometimes by two interrogators, one nice, one nasty. They take turns and
do shiftwork on you. Room and board will be free but you may not get a
window or have any control over meal times, menus, air temperature,
humidity, noise levels, type of music and volume, WC/shower access or
even the light switch. They take away your cellphone, MP3 and gameboy
too. You will not like that.
But this is very unlikely to happen to you: classified material usually gets
translated in-house or goes to colleagues who already have security
clearances that cost tens of thousands of dollars to get.
Living With Your CAT
Also relevant are CAT tools, or computer-assisted translation software.
You can still survive without it for the time being but if you have it, your
chances of securing commissions improve nicely. That said, increasing
numbers of agencies and clients expect you to buy that software and then
use it against you to pay you a lower word rate. However, once you
establish your reputation on the marketplace, you become immune to such
practices: nice quality is a jewel that many clients and some agencies are
prepared to garnish with at least the standard rate for your language pair(s).
Business Skills & Setup
You have to know what a purchase order is: you are a light bulb and the
purchase order is what operates you: when you have one, you turn ON,
without one, you sit tight in the OFF position. If you have a duly completed
p/o, you stand a good chance of securing payment, if not you fall prey to
the mercy of your client plus that of your unpaid landlord, heartless utility
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companies, unfed children, wailing housepets and various bailiffs or

Federal marshalssome traditionally-minded countries do not have such
officers because they send you straight to debtors prison.
Next contact a bill collection agency or smart business owner to find out
the right contents of a p/o, its various forms and how to collect payment
from folks with creative payment practices. You will also feel more
comfortable knowing all the rules and, if necessary, making an
appointment with someone who did his best to charm you into using their
services.
You need to do bookkeeping. You have to invoice and track payments.
You have to advertise; to advertise you have to write up the ad copy and do
the graphics to sex it up. You have to socialize on the Internet, join
voluntary associationsmany are sponsored, patronized and frequented by
prominent figures with oodles of connections to paid work: 40%+ of
salaried recruitment happens through personal contacts. I dont know the
figure for freelance translations but I do know that word-of-mouth will get
you the clients who pay the best rates and stand the best chance of
becoming loyal customers.
If you are bookkeeping drives you up the wall, you can farm that out but
you have to understand it anyhow, otherwise youre leaving yourself open
to all sorts of fraud and embezzlement.
Incorporation
See a smart accountant before going into businessincorporating as a
physical may not be the way to go. The consultation may be expensive but
it will save you more money than you can imagine ever even earning when
youre all inexperienced and scared about taking the leap.
Power & Humility
You incarnate the skills to package content in polished form; your client
has the content. Most clients realize a good product depends on an alloy of
both skills. If you cant find a term, flag it and ask. If a sentence is unclear,
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flag it, translate it in the plainest way you can, add an alternate translation
if you have one using the NEW COMMENT function of the REVIEWING
toolbar and ask the author. There is no shame in not knowing something
but everybody suffers if you try to pass off fudge for real substance. Stand
your ground on style as gentle-firmly as possible but bow gracefully to
client choices on terminology and, even if it means a clumsier final
wording, rephrase anything s/he is not comfortable with: remember that the
author has to feel confident about your product.
Secretaries
Hire one as soon as soon as you can afford it. Have separate phones with
HOLD buttons on each. You may be able to find cut-price interns from
secretarial schools. They can be better than fresh graduates with translation
diplomas. But talk to each. At regular points in time, ask different friends
to phone your assistant, inquire about services and ask for quotes. Have
them ask your assistant ask you to call them back. Then see what
happens.
Reachability
You have to be reachable in as many different ways as possible: email,
voice & fax landline, cellphones and mobile messaging. Handwritten faxes
remain the most secure medium of generally available transmission today.
Telephone answering machines are only for use between bedtime and
breakfast; if you sleep lightly and fall back asleep easily however, spare
yourself that investment. Buy an email address: Yahoo, Hotmail and even
AOL are for fly-by-nighters. Choose the account name carefully:
mikethespike@thunderquill.com or bubbleboobs@whoopeeword.alt will
not do. Invest as much money as you can in a professionally-designed,
maintained and updated website.
Deadlines
Deadlines are sacred: miss one and your market value falls to that of a
monolingual kindergartener holding a freshly opened box of brand new
crayons. Babys upset tummy that diverted you to the clinic for a whole
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afternoon or the broken collar bone from the mornings football match
mean the same thing: you have missed a deadline with a great excuse but
just lost the customer anyhow. Agencies will invoke breach of contract and
not pay: they just lost their client, right? One marketing study reports that
every unsatisfied customer talks to at least 11 potential customers; another
study says the 11 is 15. You may whine about their heartlessness but your
name will be moaned around the office and over their professional
networks. If you followed the advice to specialize, the grim news will soon
start sinking in.
Negotiate the longest deadline you can, but once youve committed to a
date, honor it. Before you commit to a date, make sure you have all the
assurances you need on your end to get the job done.
Help Clients Help You
Ask for background papers, glossaries, earlier editions of the same
document, the purpose of the document and its context in the processes that
spawned it; also inquire about intended readerships and formatting needs,
e.g. pdf, doc or rtf and line numbering. Figure out your clients personality
to spot insecurities and unexpressed needs. Unless absolutely impossible,
deliver your first translation in person or arrange for a personal
appointment on the day of delivery when negotiating the deadlinethis
gives the two of you to identify problems neither of you had foreseen and
to correct them on the spot. Make notes of any special needs you discover
for future reference. If the client is happy when you part company, s/he is
very likely to become repeat business, if only because you took a personal
interest in her/him.
Free Translations
Pro bono or voluntary translations are a good way to start off. Contact
your town hall and surf the Internet to identify local non-profit
organizations (also called NGOs, PVOs and INGOs) that may need your
services. Because they are local, you can get detailed feedback on the
quality and presentation of your translations, secure job references and
build up a network of professional contacts that way: all of them can
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connect you to paid work and they will out of gratitude sooner or later.
Non-profit translation agencies are actually part of profit-driven translation
agencies and they get to keep the precious contacts to paid work all to
themselvesgo to them only if you expect never to need to earn a living
from translation. Or if you cannot use a telephone directory and PC.
Moreover, you might be able to get tax breaks for free translations.
Perks
The perk is working for yourself with freedom to manage your time as you
see fit, within the limits of your deadlines
The perk is being able to live anywhere in range of the Internet. You can
live in Siberia and translate for Miami or work for Hintertupfingen and live
in the Himalayas.
The perk is inside insight to leading-edge research, business deals,
technology and whateverand a peek at how these things are
interconnecting to shape daily reality and the world around you.
The perk is developing a binocular vision of the world through a deeper
understanding of contrasting mindsets and value systemsthe more you
understand them, the more aware you become of your own.
The perk is sharpening and expanding your natural curiosity.
The perk is doing something you love.

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