posted 22 October 2003 22:47            

Welcome to translation!

I don't imagine there's much demand for translations of children's books, and what demand there is may well already be covered by companies' "preferred translators" - translation for publication often is.

You're right - "other fields" could be absolutely anything else. From technical manuals to contracts to bread packaging to toy instructions to....

Why not have a think about the specialisms you can offer? Something you studied at college, maybe, or subjects that interest you personally? These would be a good place to start from.

What I'm trying to say is, don't restrict yourself to just children's books, because you won't be able to make a decent living from it early on in your career....

Hope it all goes well!

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posted 22 October 2003 23:08            

I will take your kind advice and try to find other things. Thank you very much!

posted 23 October 2003 11:14            

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I used to go to free translators site where people ask for volunteer translators for free help, and all I learned there was that I don't have to have knowledge but I do need to have a skill to find whatever I need to find....usually meant "technical terms"...Is this a dangerous thought...?

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In view of my practice this is a dangerous thought. I'm a technical translator and sometimes ask pros via ProZ for clarifying "technical terms". In most of cases I seek to confirm my owm suggestion. For this purpose, asking the professional is very helpful. That is to say, you should know the subject of your question. Otherwise you may finally receive a discussion of pros on your "technical term".

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I'm more interested in working on children's books, thought I'd like to challenge other fields,too.

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As I said I'm a technical translator and so I positioned myself to agencies. However I receive offers in a wide range of fields, from medicine to tourist handbooks. You may position yourself as a translator of juvenile literature and, say, marketing and general texts. Then evaluating particular offers, you can decide where do you want to extend your interests.

posted 23 October 2003 11:17            

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Originally posted by seika:

I always thought translators should be able to translate anything as long as they have ways to find out whatever they need to know (I mean technical terms and such).

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In theory you are right, in practice you are not. Let's take an example - computers.

If you are not fairly proficient with computers and computer terminology in both source and target languages, you will simply not be able to translate a computer manual.

Let's face it, computer manuals are often very hard to understand - even by people who do know the field. If you can't understand the original, how can you render an understandable version of it in another language?

A lot of legal and commercial work is badly written also. People write complicated sentences which only them and a few others will understand properly. It makes them feel clever and important. Then one day, one of these impossible documents needs translating. Unless you are very good at commercial lingo, or have a personal interest in these things, you'll be well and truly stuck.

posted 23 October 2003 12:16            

Just out of curiosity...how many words/how much work do regular translators translate a day...?

posted 23 October 2003 13:46            

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Originally posted by seika:
Thank you very much for taking time to help me, Apollo, phedorovich and Alex!

Just out of curiosity...how many words/how much work do regular translators translate a day...?

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Pleasure.

Mr/Ms Average Translator is said to translate 2000 words a day - this figure includes proofreading any translation done. Some of us do more, some of us do less.

Do whatever you're comfortable with, but the best advice here is don't take on too much to begin with! Better to have a few hours with nothing to do than to have to work 26 hours at a stretch to meet an otherwise impossible deadline...

Oh, and to agree with the others above - yes, only translate things you know something about. Simply "having the right dictionaries" doesn't work and is dangerous! There are few things more embarrassing than starting a job and then having to give it back to the client because it's just too difficult.

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posted 23 October 2003 13:49            

Of course it depends on the type of text and how quickly you can type or dictate your work.

I have heard figures of 10,000 for people who are experienced conference interpreters and who are using dictation software.

But that does beg the question of how thoroughly the work could be checked. I'm not sure I'd like to check 10,000 words of work in one day, let alone do it as well.

posted 05 June 2004 23:13            

Yes and no. I find that there are many kinds of business texts, such as advertising and marketing (tourism in particular, but others, too) that may require a creative sensitivity similar to that which is required for "literary" texts. If you limit yourself to certain types of translation, you are also limiting your experience and your chance to grow as a writer. It has happened to me quite often that so-called "business translations" have turned out to contain "literary" elements.

posted 07 June 2004 00:48            

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Originally posted by deufrang:
I don't have much confidence in "translators" claiming to be able to translate 5,000, 7,000 or even 10,000 words in a day. At best, they will produce a very shoddy translation, full of mistakes and bad syntax (and a number of serious mistranslations, because they don't take the time to analyze the source text properly and thoroughly).

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Not true. I generally produce 5000 words a day as standard (8-hour working day) and I usually find very few errors or sections requiring rewriting on proofreading my texts. It's all a matter of what you're used to and how well you know your source language and subject. As for client complaints - I very rarely get any, and when I do it's always, always from foreign clients who think they can speak better English than a native of the UK.

There's no need to generalise to this extent. How do you know that the people claiming a potential 10000 words a day aren't working 16 hours a day to complete that number of words?

2000 words a day is the accepted industry standard in the UK. Not express rate - standard rate. And it's generally accepted that most translators do actually translate more than this each day thanks to the advent of Trados and suchlike.

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apollo@translatortips.net

p.s. I don't refer to myself as a translator-in-inverted-commas just because of the speed at which I translate, and I don't expect other people to do so either!

posted 10 June 2004 22:12            

I think we'll have to agree to differ on this one...

That said, I do I agree that 16-hour days aren't clever. I've done these on occasion, and I know many of my colleagues have in order to help out clients or whatever. But as a general working practice, it's a bad idea. Definitely agree with you there.

As I said though, in my normal 8-hour working day I normally turn out about 5000 words - source words that is, not target (target is normally about 6500). And I've never, ever found a single client "complaint" about my work to be justified, for reasons outlined in my previous mail.

Of course, the subject matter makes a difference too. It's easy to translate subjects you know a lot about, working from a language you feel totally comfortable with. If you're constantly stop-starting to look up terms and concepts, of course you'll translate more slowly.

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I have been around for well over 17 years, and I have yet to see a good translation that was produced at such ridiculous speeds.

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I'd send you some of my work and let you decide for yourself, if only it weren't governed by client confidentiality! Trust me: I learned to translate quickly and accurately because I worked for an agency that demanded that kind of performance (no comment!). Now I do it as a matter of course, because I can thanks to years of practice.

I'm not the only one, either - there are plenty of professionals outputting work at "ridiculous speeds", and doing so very well. I'd even hazard a guess that over 50% of professional translators in the UK translate at least 3000 words a day. I seem to recall an ITI survey on this very topic - maybe Alex might remember more about it?

I even seem to recall asking many, many translators about this very subject when I was working as a project manager. I encountered very few who worked to 2000 words a day, and none who did less than that. Most seemed to do between 3000 and 4000 a day.

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I also know that very many translators regularly overestimate the volumes they handle ("it feels like 7,000 words; therefore, I must have translated 7,000 words").

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But once you have plenty of experience (and clients!) then you have to know how many words you translate in a day: if you don't know, you'll constantly find yourself with either too much or not enough to do, and nobody needs that kind of stress.

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It is possible to translate, say, 6,000 words in a day once in a while (especially if you are well rested ;-) ), but on a regular basis no one can keep up that pace.

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Sorry, but this is where I disagree with you. I do this most days - although I prefer to keep it to 5000 so that there's time to fit in other things as well.

I think what I'm trying to say in this blatant thread hijack (sorry Seika!! ) is each to his own. So you're not comfortable doing more than a couple of thousand words a day? Fine. Live and let live and all that. But 5000 words a day works very well for me, and I don't much appreciate the implication that I must somehow be a poorer translator for it. Far from it - I received a mail only this morning from a client who was overjoyed with the book I've just translated for her. At a rate of 6000 source/about 7500 target words a day. She didn't know that.

So in a nutshell, what I'm trying to say is that what works for me - and others - clearly doesn't work for you. That's life. Let's agree to disagree....

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I don't have much confidence in "translators" claiming to be able to translate 5,000, 7,000 or even 10,000 words in a day. At best, they will produce a very shoddy translation, full of mistakes and bad syntax (and a number of serious mistranslations, because they don't take the time to analyze the source text properly and thoroughly).

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....though I would appreciate it if you would refrain from rubbishing my work without even seeing it, simply because I happen to be able to work (and type!! ) quickly.

Oh, and in a rather lame attempt to drag this thread kicking and screaming back on topic - Seika, stick to translating as much as you're comfortable with. Don't go mad at first and try and do too much, but build up gradually until you find a level that's right for you.

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posted 11 June 2004 09:47            

Sorry to hijack your thread.

Please don't work 16 hours a day!! It's not good for you. I was simply referring to a hypothetical situation. I don't know anyone who does 16-hour days as a matter of course.

Personally, I just translate and communicate with clients during the working day. Invoicing and admin things are normally done in my "spare" (!!) time. That's not true for everyone, but I find it works for me.

Have I confused you totally yet?!

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