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Most lucrative languages to translate... | ||
Tags: Business | Translation | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| jaliyah Newbie United States Joined 4920 days ago 20 posts - 22 votes | Message 1 of 5 07 February 2012 at 9:14am | IP Logged | ||
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...INTO English?
(Sorry, I couldn't fit the whole question on the subject line) I'm wondering which language(s) a translator would want to know to make the most money translating into English (written material, not spoken/interpretation). Anyone know? My understanding is that the "FIGS" languages (French, Italian, German, Spanish) have so many people learning them that they don't pay well to translate into English, so... I'm especially wondering about the following: Japanese Korean Mandarin Indonesian Persian Turkish Arabic (MSA?) Portuguese (Brazilian) Dutch/Flemish Swedish Norwegian (Bokmal) Danish (2 for 1, with Norwegian?) Russian Also, if you know which "specializations" (medical, legal, finance, etc.) pay the most, that would be interesting too, especially if you can pair up language + specialization (but please, no wild guesses - you either know this or you don't - thanks) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5464 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 2 of 5 07 February 2012 at 10:07am | IP Logged | ||
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I can only give you a partial answer. It is not a "wild guess" response, but is not my personal experience either. So, apologies if it is inappropriate.
A friend of mine is a translator from Czech to English. He reckons that there has been loads of reasonably well paid work translating legal documents for all the newer member states of the European Union into English - particularly submission for EU grants for large development projects. There are some other specific points that he brought up: 1: There is no "fixed rate" for EU work. Rather, you put in bids for work, and they choose based on cost and your past experience in related areas. 2: The field is getting ever more competitive, and the rates he gets are going down. 3: The work is intensely boring. From chatting to him, it is clear that to make the "big money" you have to be in the right place at the right time with the right skills, and the situation changes quite rapidly. For example, a couple of years ago there was a lot of work for translating Slovenian into English and nobody was bidding for it, so you could name your price. A few months later, the situation apparently reversed and it was paying lower rates again. From this, I am not sure if you can already speak fluently all the languages you mention, or whether you are planning ahead long term. If the latter, then be aware that the demand today will certainly have completely changed by the time you have achieved the language level required and have enough experience in low paid work to be eligible to apply for the big-paying jobs. Edited by Splog on 07 February 2012 at 10:09am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| jaliyah Newbie United States Joined 4920 days ago 20 posts - 22 votes | Message 3 of 5 07 February 2012 at 11:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks Splog - that's good to know, if rather discouraging. You're right, I'm in the latter category... wondering if I should try to master one of these languages. Or maybe not.
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| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6744 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 4 of 5 08 February 2012 at 12:14am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know about most of the languages on your list, but I have read that translators of
Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin into English are the envy of other translators because of how much they can charge... in some cases 10 times the rates of their counterparts in Western Europe. At least in Japanese, the highest paying specialization is patents, and there seems to be no shortage of job offers for translators in this field. However, clients will usually require at least 3 years of experience (sometimes as much as 10!), and to a lesser extent the same thing goes for other specializations. As a newcomer you would have to get this experience through either pro bono work or job experience in the field for a few years before being able to move on to paid translation work. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4925 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 5 of 5 08 February 2012 at 2:20am | IP Logged | ||
I hate to say it, but without knowing any of the languages, it's a long road to travel before you have to worry about what's most lucrative. For someone just entering the field, have a look at places like proz.com and translatorscafe.com and look at what languages are most in demand and what their budgets are. Those are the types of jobs you'll be going for initially. Most of higher paid jobs don't appear on job boards like these. They come through other associations, like the ATA, IoL, or other nationally recognized associations. I've said this before (and gotten criticism for it), but most people get into the translation industry well after they've learned a language, and learned that language well. It's not enough to simply be able to speak and write the language. A deep understanding of the source culture comes into play, and that usually requires spending a significant amount of time in the country where the language is spoken. That said, I make my living primarily with two romance languages - mostly business documentation for the private sector, so there's still plenty of work out there for those language pairs. They just require the same amount of time and dedication you would give to any other language. R. == Edited by hrhenry on 08 February 2012 at 2:25am 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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