Translator Lounge

Why did I become a translator in the first place?
To explain that I need to tell you a bit about myself.
I was born in England out of a Dutch father and a Polish mother. They decided to raise me in Dutch and Polish as I would soon learn English anyway. That’s how it all began. When I was 3 years old I was fluent in 3 languages and 2 years later my family was transferred to Holland due to my father’s job. I would stay in that chilly, little -but very friendly and organized- country until I fulfilled my military service. By now I spoke 4 languages fluently and had a good knowledge of German and French, thanks to the Dutch educational system. After a brief period of working in oil -I had studied chemistry and obtained a master in fossil fuels- I came to the conclusion that languages were just more fun than some boring, although high paying- job. To further improve my language skills -and, of course, to have a lot of fun- I decided to travel the world or a good part of it anyway. I ended up on the beautiful island of Margarita, which belongs to Venezuela where I liked it, or better said, loved it, and thought I would be nice to stay there a while longer. So I hit the streets to find a job. The third day I stumbled onto a language school in Porlamar and as luck had it; they had just fired a teacher. I could start next day!
I instantly fell in love with teaching and every free moment was spent on learning more about languages and the way we use them. I even ended up writing 5 language courses and co-writing another 3.

Even though teaching was in my blood, I did come to a point where I needed more stimulation, something where I was forced to keep learning and evolving. In the back of my mind I already knew what would be the next step. From the beginning there were always plenty of companies, especially in tourism, who needed their websites, brochures, etc. translated into different languages and due to a lack of translators on the island they usually came to us with them. So from the start I was not only teaching, I also had my share of translating to do. Despite that I was not a big fan of translating -I had no experience, didn’t think about the audience of the actual translations and wasn’t familiar enough with the necessary terminology- I did them anyway, though not with much enthusiasm. Over the years I learned that every translation, how simple and routine it may seem, needs to be well prepared. One has to study just about everything about it: Who wrote it? What was the purpose of writing it? Who will read it? What message should the readers perceive? How old are the readers? And then still some! As if this is not enough to deal with, you have to make sure you know the correct terminology for each individual project, and we have only talked about the translation itself so far! You have to know something about computers and, more specifically, their software. Not all translations are written in the same format. You need to know how to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and just about all standard software that’s running on your computer. This is not enough, of course, because nowadays we also have CAT-tools, which are Computer Assisted Translation tools. The basic idea of them is relatively simple, they remember words and phrases you have already used in your translation (or previous translations) and are able to automatically put them into your translation, saving you time and effort, and maintaining a constant translation. Although this might not always be an advantage in a translation, usually it is. You do not need to use CAT-tools to be a good translator, but many translation agencies will only send you jobs if you use them. In my opinion the main reasons are delivering a constant translation and the possibility to to pay less for repeated word and/or phrases. Unfortunately for beginning translators, CAT-tools are quite expensive.

But let’s go back to my initial story.
I was looking for a change and wanted something that would stimulate me and forced me to keep studying. Translating just seemed the logical answer. I started studying my favorite subjects because I realized that having some specializations would be more useful in obtaining work than just offer anything and keep studying everything from scrap. After that I started practicing and building glossaries, slowly preparing myself for the job as a specialized full time translator. Now we’re 5 years later and I’m still learning almost every day. Every subject you study in order to prepare for a translation makes you a bit smarter than you were before. In the meantime I have come to learn that there is no such thing as the perfect translation. First of all, you can always improve and there are always some sentences that you could have formulated better, simpler or more directed to the public the translation is meant for. Luckily there are some amazing proofreaders out there that will make those small and subtle changes for you (at least if you work for a good translation agency or if you just happen to have one for your work). Something else is that everybody has their own taste. You might think that the way you put something in your translation is definitely the way while someone else might not agree with you. This cannot be helped as we all differ as people and as language professionals. It is vital to establish a good communication with the client. Good feedback is essential for a quality translation. The client is, after all, the one who knows all the details and he or she can provide you with all necessary information for the best possible translation. Never be afraid to ask questions! We are all humans and our knowledge is limited and sometimes our insight into to something is as well (for example if you have been working for 12 straight hours on a translation it is very well possible to get stuck with a simple sentence, simply because your brain is getting tired). 2 people know more than 1 and besides, a person not involved in the actual translation might be able to provide you with a fresh insight. Remember that a translator who asks questions and feedback is a good and thorough translator.

There are pros and cons to being a professional translator. A big pro is that you can work whenever it pleases you. You have no fixed schedule and therefore you are free as a bird (well, you do, of course, have to meet the deadline!). You always keep learning (if this does appeal to you should consider another career). You make relatively much money, but this will take a while. First you have to establish yourself as a translator and slowly build up your reputation. Your reputation is all you have in this business, never forget that! Never make promises you won’t be able to keep, because it will come back to you and most likely with a vengeance! Building up a good reputation as a good, professional translator that delivers on or before the deadline is a painstakingly slow process, but ruining it is a piece of cake! A couple of negative feedback and you will have a very difficult time getting new clients.

One of the most important cons of being a freelance translator is that you never know how much money you will be making next month. Another con is that al your clients will have their own paying method (bank transfer, MoneyBookers, PayPal, checks, etc.) and different moments of paying (14, 30, 45 or 60 days after the invoice, immediately after delivering the translation, etc) so you have to do some bookkeeping. Some free and excellent invoicing systems are available such as ProZ’s free invoicing system, Facturen.net gives you the first 120 invoices for free and works very smoothly and there are more available on the web. A huge con is that there are a lot of crooks out there who will contact you for huge translation projects but without planning on ever paying you. It happens to the best of us but there are some thing you can do to avoid it from happening, at least in most cases. For example, check the clients’ credentials. This can be done though the larger translation sites. ProZ has an excellent “Blueboard” where you can read positive and negative comments about potential clients, TranslatorsCafe has something similar with the “Hall of Fame and Shame” and GoTranslators has its “Black & White list”. In order to use this information you will have to become a (paying) member of these sites, but I can assure you, it is well worth it! Furthermore you should be wary of potential clients that do not have (believable and serious) websites or that use commercial email addresses such as Hotmail or Yahoo. Any serious company has its website nowadays and they come with serious email addresses.
If you follow these relatively simple rules you should be reasonably well protected.

To sum up, if you like to keep learning new things, are willing to specialize in just a couple of subjects and you like to have a lot of freedom in your work, this might be a career for you. If you are lazy, unprofessional and/or crave regularity in your life, you had better steer clear of this profession.

If you are a beginning translator or aspire becoming one and you have any questions, you are always welcome to contact me at peter@im-translations.com.

I wish all of you a successful search for the perfect job!
Best wishes,
Peter van der Hoek
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Peter van der Hoek, IM Translations. IM-Translations is registered as Isla Margarita Translations, C.A. and is located on Isla Margarita, a tax-free, tropical island for the coast of Venezuela.