Translator Talk

4 Reasons Why People Give Up On Becoming a Freelance Translator

noreply@blogger.com (Tiidraws) — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 17:25:00 +0000

The thoughts of us being a full-time freelance translator who get to manage our own time and amount of work to do each day, being our own boss while making triple the amount of money others make working for other people is definitely very enticing. ฺBesides, what very special about this is, this dream can actually come true. Many people made it into the industry and love it.

But why do a lot of people give up on their dreams of becoming a freelance translator?

After working for others all my life, I decided to work on my own as a freelance translator at the age of 33. It all started from the fact that life as before no longer provide me with enough time and freedom now that I am married and have 2 beautiful children. The expenses increase while the paycheck never raised, the absence of time flexibility, all the while having to put up with work that I dreaded waking up every morning to go to. Fast forward to this moment, I am now on my third year of my career and doing well.

Having said that, the factors that determine success though, are what also determine whether or not ones will continue on the path of becoming totally independent in their career or rather bitterly turn away. Here are my short list of 4 reasons why people give up on becoming a freelance translator;

Expect fast results: Whether your plan is to become a freelance translator by attending course or jump right in to the market, one of the first things that needs to be done is to be known by as many translation agencies as you can be. They will not know that you are available to work with them unless they know you exist. This means you will spend most of your first year in the industry creating resume, building website for portfolios, and sending out emails to all the translation agencies you find online. If you expect that from the moment your website is set up, you will be swarmed with work and so swimming in money right away, you will be discouraged very quickly.

Fear the future: When you decide to quit your day job and start your journey as a freelance translator. One of the things that will popped up in your mind a lot is whether you will make ends meet. During the first few year, unstable income is what keeps you on edge most of the time and that is just the nature of the journey you embark on. I am one of those who kicked start while out of job. As a result, I desperately hoped that whatever I make throughout the month will cover all my expenses, and the fear that it will not be so is massive. The only reason why I kept going was because it was the only way forward for me at that moment and I truly believe I could actually live my dream if I go on. So expect that fear. Maybe start the journey as a translator on the side while you are still working full time, or start on putting some savings aside for rainy days. The idea is to be well prepared.

Overwork: As a freelancer, you are on your own in managing time and resources. It is way too easy to find yourself overwork and starts to think if what you are doing right now is what you actually really wanted to do. When work starts flowing in, you are happy at first but soon realize the challenges and felt overwhelmed. Relax and start learning the art of time management. All you need to do is promise yourself free weekends for quality me time (or a wonderful time together with your children). Put your working hours up on your website and in your email signature. Split work, no matter how much, into small percentage and fit them into your work schedule according to the deadlines and keep at it. Remember to come up with the ideas each day to work smarter, not harder. Keep in mind, that you are working for a living, not living so that you can work.

Dwell on mistakes: On the way to success, it is not uncommon to face criticism. No matter how much you know the both of your language pairs and no matter how hard you work on each project making sure the output is spotless as much as possible, you will likely to make some mistakes along the way. Depending on the people you work for on that particular project, some might not be professional enough to just request for revision (which is quite common), but top that up with criticism they know will most hurt your confidence. If you are facing this at the moment, relax, and try the best you can to response professionally. Use terms that are strictly business without any traces of emotions involve. Revise the work the best you can and immediately move on. Learn from mistakes, but do not dwell on them.

Keep going if your dream of becoming a freelance translator is bigger than your fear and the discouragement you feel. You know you are moving forward when you make mistakes, learn from them and get better as you go. The reality is, you will get there if you don't look back, and believe in yourself.

Automatic Translation Vs Manual Translation

noreply@blogger.com (Tiidraws) — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 01:47:00 +0000

Translation can be defined as an act of interpretation of the meaning of a content and consequent re-production of equivalent content. The content or the text that is required to be translated is called "Source Text" and the language in which the source text is to be translated is known as "Target Text". In simple language, translation is also described as a communication written in second language having the identical meaning as written in a first language.

Today translation has turn out to be one of the key tools to have a better understanding of different cultures and in past couple of years has gained its recognition world-wide. However, looking at the present scenario translation service can be broadly categorized into two categories, namely:

Automatic Translation: Automatic or automated language translation is a process where any translation task is carried out by computer software. The most vital point to understand automatic translation is that by applying specific rules, the software initially analyze and then transmits the grammatical structure of the source text into the target language. Also known as machine translation, it is a process where the translation is produced by contemporary technology, without the interference of human translators.

Advantages of Automatic Translation: The main advantage of automated language translation in comparison to manual translation is that it is done by computer and therefore it works faster than a person and thus saves time while translating any large content. Moreover it is cheaper and reliable than manual translation. In addition to this you can also translate any web page content and inquiry of search engine by the use of machine translation systems. This is especially efficient when the language combination belong to the same family, like Spanish/ Portuguese, Spanish/ French, Spanish/ Italian.

Disadvantages of Automatic Translation: It is based on systematic rules and so sometimes it is unable to solve the uncertainty. It can not always produce perfect quality translations, but as a tool for having the gist or generating the primary draft of a translation, it can be very cost saving and beneficial. The most important point to consider in machine translation is if you run the translation task through machine translation system and reverse the translation process in order to re-translate the content back into the source language, this activity can increase the error rate and will make translations quite silly, though sometimes useful for getting the gist.

Manual Translation: As the name suggests, this is a translation process, where any translation task is carried out by human translators. In manual translation, the translations assignments are performed by translators and editors who are experienced enough to perform the translation task and convert the source text into target text.

Advantages of Manual Translation: The most vital advantage of manual translation is it maintains the confidentiality. In most of the cases people use translation service to translate their private emails or legal documents. Now in case of machine translation any minute file corruption or deletion can result in the wrong translation result. No one would agree to give or store his private correspondence in any computer, therefore maintaining the ethics of this profession, manual translation can be more trustworthy. Though the processing speed in machine translation can be high, but with manual translation the probability of improving syntax or grammatical errors is higher. Sometimes it can be more suitable to choose manual translation for certain tasks. For example, if a content that is required to be translated contains repetitions of same text, then it comes into special consideration, and with manual translation you can have better result.

Disadvantages of Manual Translation: Usually any professional translator is either specialized in one or few defined field and can perform translation task in his/her specialized field but with machine translation system you can translate any copy and any area. Apart from this if you want to translate special terminology, all you need to do is just switch on a corresponding setting. Finally in case of a professional translator, if he or she translates your source copy, you have to pay enough money for each page but very frequently we require only a rough idea of the content. In this case machine translation system is more consistent and effective for you.

On the face of it, all you need to do is decide what kind of translation you require depending upon the complexity of the source text and the time required to get the final result.

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Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Automatic-Translation-Vs-Manual-Translation&id=1036194] Automatic Translation Vs Manual Translation

Unpaid Test

noreply@blogger.com (Tiidraws) — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 18:02:00 +0000

The Code of Professional Conduct and Business Practices" of the American Translators Association stipulates: "As an employer or contractor of translators and/or interpreters, ... I will not require translators or interpreters to do unpaid work for the prospect of a paid assignment." (www.atanet.org, 2002)

I' ve done many unpaid tests in the past for various agencies and direct clients precisely because I was fairly new and desperate to get my dream career going. Most times, they yielded poor results, which in my view, is because test translation can be abused, and since everything is internet base, the abuser can easily disappear into thin air without ever admit their wrong doing. I have quite a few of my translation pieces stolen through this medium.

Having said all that, I have to also add that test translation landed me many contracts with many reputable translation agencies and even direct clients to date. If you ask me, I would say what makes the difference is elements in which you use to decide whether test translation is a good idea. For example, if you are asked to do short test translation by a reputable company(do some background check, take note of company's address, landline number, and its overall online presence) prior to a commence of a project, then in my humble opinion, go for it! On the other hand, if you are asked to do five pages translation unpaid by a client who claim he/she is from an agency but use free email account, and so much in a hurry to get the translation done.. you know where this likely to take you, right?

Test translation can be tricky at times especially when you just started your journey as a translator. Do keep in mind that, with the risk of free test abuse, test translation is consider a common practice by many. If you decide to ever go ahead with test translation, it is advisable not to exceed 250 - 300 words.

As an alternative to the test translation, you could offer your clients a sample translation (of non-confidential nature) for review. Given that the piece is in the same or related field, it should act its part as your competency representative.

Translator and Moral Question

noreply@blogger.com (Tiidraws) — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 09:02:00 +0000

Are there any translation that shouldn't been done?

Some years back, I was offered an on-going translation project concerning religious and lifestyle. I took a quick look at the articles and realized it had to go with supporting men to have many wives, and many other topics that raise eye brows.

I had a little thought about whether there are clients or specific information I wouldn't want to work with. If I should go ahead
and spread the words (in different language) of what I am originally not agree with, and what are the consequences. It took me a few hours to make a decision not to take up the offer.

Professionally or personally, I do think healthy boundary is good guidelines. However, this is entirely your choice as an individual. The good news is, as freelancer, we are not obligated to follow any instructions on how or when we must or should take up on projects as it is your decision to make. So go ahead and make the best decision possible for your own benefit.

Why I Love Working Early

noreply@blogger.com (Tiidraws) — Sun, 30 Nov 2014 01:51:00 +0000

Early morning is the most productive time for me. As a mother of two, my life at the earliest time of day I could manage is the most peaceful. I like a little over 2 hours in the morning to myself with my coffee. When everyone else is still in bed, my head works smoothly.

What I do in the morning;

Mess is stress: I don't usually start work right away. In fact, all I do is switch on my PC and let it run its course while I make a one round walk around the house and pick up used drinking glass from coffee table, kids toy from the floor and do
my little bits to clear the mess left from the night before. Messy room ad work doesn't go together very well unless it's an art project my kids need help with.

Coffee starts the day: I know I'm not the only one that needs a cup of coffee to kick start the day. Without preference or exception, all types of coffee is fine by me.

Checking emails: Some say you shouldn't check emails first thing in the morning, but I think my profession calls for an exception. Email is the very channel my work projects land in, also there's time difference come into play (my clients are now mostly agencies from Rome, UK, USA, India, Vietnam and others, while I'm in Bangkok).

Finally start work: After the above activities, I start work. I try keeping it at 90 minutes work interval with 15 minutes break. This formula keeps me from getting too tired.

New Translator and Low Rates

noreply@blogger.com (Tiidraws) — Sun, 30 Nov 2014 01:38:00 +0000

Recently, a translators asked me if he should lower his rates being that he is new to the industry and long to get into the workforce for both financial reason and to gain experience as a translator. The advice I gave him, without any intentions to invade in his decision making aspect was; "No, I really don't think you should.". The reasons? Let me explain.

When I first kick started as a translator, I dealt mostly with direct clients.
My method of getting myself into translation business, was to take all jobs without much of any terms to work by from my side. The result? Not at all good. I was once got hired by a client through Elance. I was pretty new
on the site and yet to have any feedback or experience to show. The offer was that she has pretty big, on-going project, supposedly a scope of up to 200K source word. Precisely using that reason, this particular client is only happy to pay 0.02 USD per source word. My rate was higher, but I considered the work seriously and finally take up the offer. In this way, I have cut my own price by half and this means I have to work double in volume to meet up with the rate I usually work for. To make matters worse, I started work without any definite payment terms as in when exactly I would get paid and whatnot.

Having done up to 45K source word, it was about the time the client said she will make payment. She now asked me if I could be the one responsible for Elance fee, since she can only pay 0.02 USD per source word regardless of whether there were any charge incurred! Now that means the rate is no longer the already tiny amount of 0.02 USD but even lower having to deduct Elance fee out of it!

This is very painful experience for me since I've done the work to the best of my ability and by far accepted as job well done. I couldn't count how many sleepless nights I went through to ensure the quality of work.

All in all, I would say lowering your rate will not guarantee good pay, large volume or continuous workflow. More often than not, it spells out desperation, poor judgment and even lack of principle on your part. Sure, there are times with exception cases, all I am saying is; if you ever doubt, for even a split second, that it might not be a good idea, it might just not be a good idea.