Translation - art & business » Getting established »
help on what its like to be a translator
Thread poster: gfetish17
gfetish17
gfetish17
English to German
Mar 6, 2005

I just recently changed my major to german -and will along with that major in the scandanavian languages, and minor in japanese. It's a whole new world for me for all my life I have been science orientated, but that lost its appeal in doing the actual grunt work. I know little about the lifestyles and accomplishments of translators and linguists, and this worries me. I love languges, and took latin all throughout high school with a little french, i started taking up japanese on my own, and playe... See more
I just recently changed my major to german -and will along with that major in the scandanavian languages, and minor in japanese. It's a whole new world for me for all my life I have been science orientated, but that lost its appeal in doing the actual grunt work. I know little about the lifestyles and accomplishments of translators and linguists, and this worries me. I love languges, and took latin all throughout high school with a little french, i started taking up japanese on my own, and played with heiroglyphs.

Could anyone give me a general idea of how it all works? The benefits. The downsides. Anything.

thank you all so much

tori ▲ Collapse
 
Ciprian Dumea
Ciprian Dumea  Identity Verified
Local time: 10:41
English to Romanian
+ ...
try this link :-) Mar 6, 2005

http://home.comcast.net/~r.chriss/Articles/Articles.html

Best of luck!
Ciprian.
 
Hilary Davies Shelby
Hilary Davies Shelby
United States
Local time: 03:41
German to English
+ ...
Read this board for a few days! Mar 6, 2005

Seriously, you'll see pretty much every issue covered; how much time we spend working, how much we earn, what tools we use, what being self-employed entails, our community...it's all here! The "getting established" forum is probably a good start - or something like this recent topic:
http://www.proz.com/topic/29411

And yes, it IS 9.30 pm on Sunday and there are loads of us at our desks ... See more
Seriously, you'll see pretty much every issue covered; how much time we spend working, how much we earn, what tools we use, what being self-employed entails, our community...it's all here! The "getting established" forum is probably a good start - or something like this recent topic:
http://www.proz.com/topic/29411

And yes, it IS 9.30 pm on Sunday and there are loads of us at our desks and posting on the boards! ▲ Collapse
 
Hilary Davies Shelby
Hilary Davies Shelby
United States
Local time: 03:41
German to English
+ ...
That article is pretty accurate Mar 6, 2005

I've just read http://home.comcast.net/~r.chriss/Articles/Article2.html from the link above - it sums it up pretty well - but don't let it put you off!
 
Michele Fauble
Michele Fauble  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 01:41
Member (2006)
Norwegian to English
+ ...
German>English Mar 7, 2005

My very first piece of advice is to change your language pair to German>English. It is recommended that a translator translate into his/her native language. Being able to write well in your native language is the first and most important prerequisite for becoming a good translator.

The great thing about translation is that you can combine a love of languages with knowledge from just about any other field. In your case, scientific/technical translation could be a promising career pat... See more
My very first piece of advice is to change your language pair to German>English. It is recommended that a translator translate into his/her native language. Being able to write well in your native language is the first and most important prerequisite for becoming a good translator.

The great thing about translation is that you can combine a love of languages with knowledge from just about any other field. In your case, scientific/technical translation could be a promising career path.


Lykke til,

Michele Fauble ▲ Collapse
 


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