Any MN translators out there? How do I break into freelance translating?

[missbumpy]

I've got a degree in French and Spanish (Spanish fluent...French a bit rusty these days ). I used to do the odd bit of translating but life and my career seem to have taken a different path and I want to know how to get back into languages. Now I've got my lovely DD (6mo) and I'm dreading going back to my office job, I'd like to do something more freelance. Translating seems like good option. My dream job would be literary translating but no idea whatsover how to get into it. Any ideas?
Does anyone know of any good courses/agencies/jobs?!

My sister is a freelance translator - she did a one-year course (I assume it was a post-graduate course) at Guildford University, She belongs to the Translators' Association which I think is a source of work, but you have to have published a work before you can join - I'm not sure where she got her first commission from, but I think it came from some correspondence she'd had with the author when she was doing some translating for her course - it ended up in her translating a book on genomes from French.

i'm an occasional translator, never really pursued it as full time option (i find it incredibly isolating and have to go off and let off steam big time after finishing an assignment!)

A diploma in translation from the Institute of Linguists would be a good start training-wise, it's also well recognized internationally. I studied for mine at the University of Westminster (one evening a week). It's no more difficult than translation you would have done on your degree course but it means a lot more.

I occasionally use this website - I've had work offers through my profile page (even though I never update it!) and there are useful forums and sources of help.

to be honest, most of the work I have had (on literary journals and the like) has come via university contacts - are you still in contact with any of your lecturers? this kind of work is satisfying intellectually but not very lucrative.

Dh runs the translating /interpreting department for a local council (so not exactly what you're after, but might be helpful)

All the people they use have either a DPSI (Diploma in Public Service Interpreting) or a certificate in Community Interpreting or if doing translations they have a DipTrans (Diploma in Translating). They wouldn't use anyone without one of these qualifications - knowing the language is all well and good, but there's other skills needed too. Also need CRB checks, plus (for DH at least) they need professional indemnity insurance as they are all freelancers.

Have a look at The Mary Ward Centre or The IOL

Dh doesn't go through an agency, they deal direct.

HTH

I think you'll probably need to do some sort of PG qualification to get any substantial work as a translator. The institution I work at runs a highly-regarded MA (CAT me if you want more details - don't want to give too much out here as it makes me very identifiable) and there are others around the country. It's possible to do the MA part-time over two years if necessary. Literary translation is very difficult to get into, and my impression (though it could be wrong) is that foreign-language publishers often have their own 'favoured' translators. I've just published a translation, but it's an academic thing, rather than a commercial one, so I won't get paid for it (and it won't sell enough for me to get any royalties [sob]).

Good luck.

PS Sorry... to get a place on an MA course you'll probably need a good 2.1 and you'll probably have to do an entrance test (a translation exercise) too.

Hi Miss Bumpy, my husband and I have a two year old son and are freelance Welsh/English translators. Would you like to email me to discuss getting into this field?

Being a successful freelance translator is all about contacts. You can have all the diplomas in the world but without being well known you won't get anywhere.

Most translators work through agencies and are given work through them. Generally speaking, a translator will accrue experience and thus contacts over the years.

If you register with an agency you will generally need to have "specialisms", ie subjects you have an in depth knowledge of. Some texts can be very technical (ie legal, IT, science etc) and if you haven't really got these extra things you may have to learn.

It's a very competetive business for European languages. As lots of people have them, you can't expect to be paid as much as you would for the Scandinavian and Asian languages for example.

Literary translation is phenomonally difficult to get into. You would not be able to survive from this, certanly not at the start, and would almost definitely need to focus on the more mundane subjects like washing machine manuals etc.

Generally speaking you will need to be prepared to take on work whenever its offered, overnight, weekends etc. If you don't, you will lose credibility very quickly.

I used to be a translator and have also worked as a project manager at an agency which is how I know all this.

I hope I haven't put you off: it's just people often have quite romantic illusions of translating Proust in their front garden. In reality it's a hard world to break into, subject matters can be very dry and the pay is not very good at all. In fact, at my agency, the hourly rate of pay had actually fallen over the past few years as the market was so competetive.

Hope that helps!

Oh and one more thing - you will need to be familiar with translation memory software, Trados etc. It's not obligatory but if you want to work regularly with the same client it will be and you might be overlooked for work if you don't have it.

Thanks for all the answers. I knew there would be MNers who could help! Sounds like my dream of literary translation won't be becoming reality any time soon
I used to do some agency work and a lot of dry, legal and business documents and that's not really what I want to do (although I'm not really in a position to turn down paid work!).
I got a 1st in my degree (not boasting, just responding to Ellbell!) and I've already got an MA in French Literary Theory and half an MA in Applied Linguistics (but had to drop out due to pregnancy) so I'm not that keen on doing yet another post grad qualification.
Maybe I should get in touch with some of my old lecturers and see if I can get any academic/literary work that way?

Is there any way you can get credit for the modules in Applied Linguistics you've already done and take some additional modules that might be relevant to translation as a career (e.g. machine translation, etc.) to add up to another MA without needing to start again from scratch. Not sure if this is possible, but I don't see why not. We allow MA students to do electives in other subjects, after all. Might be worth thinking about.

An alternative, given that you have 1.5 MAs already would be to contact some agencies and see if they might take you on.

Hope my 'you'll need a good 2.1' didn't come across as snooty. You'd be amazed at how many students over the years have told me, in all seriousness, that 'I want to work with my languages' and 'I've thought of being a translator/interpreter' when they've just scraped 45% in their language exams. But with your qualifications, starting with your old lecturers and trying to build up some experience would be a good idea. You could also use your MA as a starting-point - particularly if you looked at any relatively unknown (that is, untranslated) authors, whom you might 'sell' to an anglophone public...

With your qualifications (just as an alternative idea), have you thought about teaching part-time in an academic institution? You'd obviously need a PhD for a lectureship, but a lot of places use part-timers for first-year type seminars/language classes. And if your local institution(s) has/have a Language Centre or Institution-Wide Language Programme, there might be vacancies for French/Spanish language teachers there.

Good luck.

Thanks Ellbell. Didn't think you were being snooty at all. That's a good idea to see if I can use my half of an MA towards another MA. It was at Birkbeck and I remember asking them if I could do that and they seemed a bit funny about it but I might ask again.

I'd thought of translating an untranslated author before but I have no idea how to approach publishers. With a small baby I wouldn't want to dedicate all my time to translating a novel only to find out that no one wants to publish it if you see what I mean!

I hadn't thought of teaching at a uni as I assumed you'd need a PhD for anything like that but maybe I should look into it.

Are you a lecturer or a translator?
Thanks

Why not try contacting translation agencies, explaining your qualifications and experience?

I have a friend who runs an agency and she often gives new translators a trial run to see how they do...

Oh please, if you live anywhere near me (Oxford), could you consider doing French and Spanish clubs at my local primary school? None of the Spanish speakers I contact want to do it, and although I don't really blame them, I am desperate for ds to learn Spanish!

I'm a lecturer, missbumpy. If you're in London, I'd contact Westminster and see what they say. Westminster seems to be the best place in London for translation studies.

Would you be interested in dictionary work at all? I work as a freelance editor and used, pre-children, to be staff project manager doing dictionary projects. A lot of the editorial work is done by freelance lexicographers and editors these days, including bilingual dictionaries, so they are often looking for fresh blood. It's pretty technical work but not too bad once you get the hang of it if you're at all computer-literate.

BTW, just to be clear... teaching part-time in a university wouldn't be a short-cut to an academic job eventually (you would need a PhD for that) but it would be something interesting that you could do part-time while your dcs are small... and it might also put you in touch with people who might have ideas about the literary translation idea. The Language Centre/IWLP route might be better, because you could start with teaching and then eventually take on a more managerial role (organising classes and choosing materials in a particular language area, for example).

Sorry haven't replied quicker. Been staying at a friend's with no internet access.
Ellbell, teaching in a language centre sounds like a good option. I've got a TEFL and teaching experience so that could work nicely.
Midnightexpress, I do like the sound of dictionary work actually! Never thought of it before but I'm one of those sad people who loves dictionaries (especially bilingual ones) so would be interested in working in that area. Would I just approach some of the big dictionary publishers or is there somewhere in particular I should keep an eye out for job ads?
Thanks for all the brilliant ideas!

missbumpy - CAT me if you like and I could give you a few people to approach.

Thanks....just had to look up what CAT means in the acronym guide but I've worked it out now!

Choosyfloosy I'd love to help out but I'm in London and Oxford's a bit too far to commute! Have you tried the bilingual/multilingual talk board on here? Lots and lots of Spanish mums on there. You might find someone who can help in your area.

Hello Midnightexpress. I CATed you but not sure I did it right as I haven't heard anything back. Are you out there?...