Translators

[MaryP0p1]

Anyone here a translator, I ask only because I speak Italian and English and wondered how you get started as a translator. Has anyone any advice?

I did it for a while as a second job, a friend of mine was a copywriter and needed someone to translate brochures and ads she wrote for Italian companies wanting to export. She also passed my name on when people asked her if she knew anyone and word got around from there. Gave it up after a couple of years as I had too much work and it was ruining my social life. Didn't want to give up the day job as the translation didn't pay well enough. Also, I did a huge amount of technical (chemical and medical) and that's pretty soulless. Most translation available is for stuff like that, not much is for the enjoyable stuff (although I did do a couple of current affairs type articles) and for novels and suchlike you tend to have to be uber qualified and have made a name for yourself.

Are you mother tongue English or Italian? In the UK or in Italy? Do you have a language degree or any translation qualification? I ask because it is better if you have either one or the other, not least because it will help with the quality of your translations as you will have an idea of things like grammar, punctuation, mood and sentence structure. Also, you should always translate into your mother tongue as you will never be good enough in your second language, no matter how well you speak it.

BTW, my advice would be to avoid an agency as they really pay a pittance. Try putting an ad in the local paper or befriend someone who's in advertising - even if they don't have work themselves they usually know loads of people who will. I speak for Italy but I should imagine it's not too different in the UK.

Oh God, I have gone on, haven't I? I hope I haven't put you off! Time for bed methinks

I got an MA in technical translation. First of all, you should ALWAYS translate into your mother tongue, as brangelina said. No one should ask you to work into another language. Second, it's very hard to get a in-house position unless you have several years of experience. The best way to start is by being independant and gradually build up a port folio of (happy!) customers. It's also always good to specialise in at least one subject and advertise it. You can get more info on www.proz.com, it's a website of professional translators, independant or not.
I've never fully made use of my degree as I had my daughter 2 months after the exam! I had the odd contract now and then but it's hard to spend too much time on it when you're a full time mum. But I'm planning to go back to it as soon as #2 starts school .
Good luck

Thanks for you help. I don't know if its something I could do but it was a thought really.

I live in Italy (le marche) I am English and work as a teacher so often have gaps between classes. My 2 children are both at school. My mother tongue is English but althought not perfect don't have any problems communicating both verbally and in writing quite natually I am more confident in English. Do you think I could do this kind of work?

Depends on what level you're looking for, how confident you are with written English and how tuned in you are to the subtleties of the Italian language. You'd certainly have the time to do at least bits and bobs.

Try looking at websites for agriturismi near you, find one where the English translation is appalling, ring them up and tell them so and offer yourself for any future work like brochures, menus and leaflets. Cheeky, but it will get you started gently and if they like you they'll tell their friends. Once you've got used to it and got your speed and confidence up you can try branching out. Also, as Piz says, it helps if you have a specialisation - perhaps toursim seeing where you are? Whereabouts in le Marche are you? I used to have friends in Pesaro and Fano and visit quite often. Beautiful area, I do envy you . I'm in the industrial north.

We live in the country between Fano and Pesaro. My kids go to school in fano and I work in Pesaro. Your right it is beautiful, but I'm sure the north (not that I've seen much) has a equally as much. Where are you?

I would agree with Piz and say you need a postgraduate qualification and some experience. You also need to be pretty confident about your English (mother tongue) spelling, punctuation, etc.

Agencies will not employ you without those two things, and you usually need to provide references too.

They don't pay as well as private clients, but can usually offer fairly regular work and proof-read your translations to iron out any inconsistencies, etc.

I wouldn't even consider doing this without the relevant experience/background, as it's so easy to make mistakes which can be very costly for your clients.

Poor quality translation really pisses me off and gives proper translators a bad name .

I'm in Monza.

Translator - agree with you re the poor quality translations. There's this American girl here who absolutely butchers the English language, although sadly she does have a translation qualification (a postal degree I suspect!). I have an MA in translation, but in different languages, so theoretically not valid here, but then most Italians don't seem to worry about that, not even the agencies as they really pay you a pittance, so attract all the dunces. Some of the worst translations I've seen have come from agencies.

When you say a pittance, how much for a non technical translation?

Well, going back to the days of the lira, rates in Milan varied at 18 - 24,000 lira a cartella. I charged L.28,000, more if it was advertising where I had to invent a catchphrase or slogan or something that was impossible to translate directly and verged more on copywriting than translating. Technical translations didn't pay better, unless your area was so specialised you were the only one doing them .

But I suppose it better that sitting reading a book while waiting for my next class!
I take it that you no longer work as a translator?

No, I got fed up with never going out and didn't really need the money any more. I got a new day job which was much more demanding and no longer had the energy to sit down in front of a computer all night after being on one all day. TBH I didn't really like translating that much, mainly because the subject matter was often extremely dull (I once did a website for rubbish compactors - 25 web pages of descriptions of every type of compactor you could imagine. Dullsville)

I see what you mean compactors aren't interesting in English let alone Italian. I didn't really give much thought on the content.

I've really been thinking what to do over the summer (schools out and I can do while keeping an eye on the kids at the beach) but today I got some good news. Normally I do a full immersion course or the local comune but a few parents from my kids school and my school had asked me to do private classes. I've grouped them together to do a full immersion at home with them and I keep all the profit. Got 10 so far any more I'll have to do 2! Good hey

I used to do translating for restaurants, tourist brochures,shops, hotels etc . It was a bit boring at times but it did bring a few pennies in. I have also done a few web pages for Italian companies wanting the stuff in English. It is something I hope to try and do a bit more of to work round DD.

I do mostly teaching but thought I'd expand as its means should I or the kids be ill I am still earning.

I'm a translator (German into English). I am bilingual and have a UK degree in European law with a focus on German law, and then a few years later I sat the Institute of Linguists' Diploma in Translation exam.
The DipTrans is a very respected translation qualification at postgraduate level with an extremely high fail rate (something like 75%), so I did a preparatory distance learning course for a year beforehand - this only took about 5 hours per week max. but really helped, particularly as I had no formal translation experience.
It took me another year or so after passing the DipTrans to get properly established and to get work at a rate I am happy with. I do mainly legal translations now working for a few agencies who specialise in legal work, and the money is very good (I think so anyway - I average about £25 p.h. which is not to be sniffed at for work done from home), but the income does depend very much on how popular your language combination is and what expertise and experience you have to offer.