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I'm interested in making some additional money by translating from Spanish to English, but I don't know how I'd start. What is the pay like? What kinds of documents are there to translate? My plan was to start off with a couple of short stories just to prove to potential clients that I can actually produce good English text from equivalent Spanish text. Does that kind of thing actually matter? What is a reputable path to find work starting out?
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Mar 24, 2014 22:34
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 22:48 |
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Which language do you speak natively, or did you grow up speaking both from a very young age? Generally, people are better at translating to their native language than from it, if I'm not mistaken, and obviously it's best if you are a native speaker of both. Other than that, I don't know much. Do you have any practical experience at this point? It's deceptively hard even if you have a good command of both languages. Basically, it's very possible to "know" what something means and still be unable to make a natural sounding translation.
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Mar 24, 2014 22:39
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it is posted:I'm interested in making some additional money by translating from Spanish to English, but I don't know how I'd start. What is the pay like? What kinds of documents are there to translate? Literally any document you can imagine: instruction manuals, short stories, whole novels, menus, contracts, lists of ingredients on food packages, government publications, flower-identification guides, video games, textbooks, advertisements etc. It depends on what you are actually able to do. In most places, translators belong a professional organization, and you need some kind of training (like a university degree in translation). If you just happen to be extremely fluent in English and Spanish, you'll be able to find some casual work, but don't expect to get paid much. Large companies or the governments won't be interested in you unless you're certified in some way, and even a small business is probably not going to trust a non-certified translator to get its flyers translated. If you're actually interested in doing this work long term, find out what it takes to join a professional organization.
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Mar 25, 2014 02:16
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Cool, thanks for the responses. Yeah, I'm native in English and Spanish is my secondary. I don't have any sort of certifications though; I'm in the software industry where the rule is generally that a person who can program will get hired. I'll look into options for certification and see what kind of ROI I can expect, but I'm now skeptical that this would be a particularly viable path for additional income. Thanks for the info!
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Mar 25, 2014 15:12
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it is posted:I'm interested in making some additional money by translating from Spanish to English, but I don't know how I'd start. What is the pay like? What kinds of documents are there to translate? Have you considered working as a phone operator? Companies pay pretty good for bilingual operators. I know when Verizon Fios came to my area they put in a major push for English/Spanish employees to work the line, and supposedly the pay was pretty drat good.
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Mar 26, 2014 06:11
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it is posted:I don't have any sort of certifications though; I'm in the software industry where the rule is generally that a person who can program will get hired. That makes sense. Certainly having a small portfolio of example translations makes you a more attractive candidate for a job. Do you have any formal education in Spanish? That's something you can sell yourself on too. It would probably be worth your time to try and translate a few things if only to see how much you actually enjoy doing it, and how long it takes. Long ago I thought I wanted to be a translator, and after a year of actually doing it at university I switched programs. It was WAY more boring in practice then I expected it to be. Also, check craigslist in the "writing/editing" part of the jobs section. There are sometimes short-term translation projects that show up there.
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Mar 26, 2014 06:27
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You won't get jobs translating books or novels just like that, and jobs translating important documents pretty much require you to have certifications, but with a background in computers you should be able to pick up casual technical translation jobs, since you know the lingo. Just contact companies that you know do things you'll be familiar with, and ask if they need someone. Could work, and if it doesn't, no harm done. Also subtitling is grunt work that's easy to get, but I don't know how many Spanish movies and TV-shows need English subtitles, so I don't know how big the market is. But yeah, the less formal qualifications you need to get a job, the less it'll pay.
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Mar 26, 2014 09:31
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A certification would help out a lot. My wife is planning to work on getting hers. I think its something like 150 bucks for the test at the New York Institute or something. It helps a lot, especially for Government jobs. You whereabouts do you live? Some places like hospitals, police, and Fire Departmets need help translating with patients and other individuals. Id also recommend volunteering somewhere. Reason being is Volunteer hours can be put on resumes. Without certification, this could give you a leg up trying to get a job instead of applying with no experience.
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Mar 26, 2014 10:29
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I've started a fresh freelance translator thread in the Languages forum, come post http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3641054
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Jun 8, 2014 07:48
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 22:48 |
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Does the phrase "so I was thinking about getting into translation" show up anywhere? Because that poo poo is like my trigger word.
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Jun 8, 2014 15:41
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