Off topic: Must-have things to begin the translation activity Thread poster: Bruno Depascale
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Bruno Depascale 
Italy
Local time: 23:35
Member (2009)
English to Italian
+ ...
Hi everybody,
this morning I felt a bit hilarious, so I came up with the must-have things to start a translator career:
1) A brain and knowledge of at least 2 languages.
2) A room
3) A computer with some software in it
4) An Internet connection
5) A table
6) A seat
7) Patience (for different things related to your hardware/software or to the jobs)
an... See more Hi everybody,
this morning I felt a bit hilarious, so I came up with the must-have things to start a translator career:
1) A brain and knowledge of at least 2 languages.
2) A room
3) A computer with some software in it
4) An Internet connection
5) A table
6) A seat
7) Patience (for different things related to your hardware/software or to the jobs)
and the most important thing, without which is completely meaningless to even try:
Passion.
I hope you find this funny.
Have a good day! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tony M
France
Local time: 23:35
Member
French to English
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | Principal omission | May 31, 2013 |
Bruno Depascale wrote:
... so I came up with the must-have things to start a translator career:
Sadly (rather than funnily), you seem to have missed out the one key factor so often apparently lacking:
an aptitude for the profession and the smallest amount of talent.
| | | | Bruno Depascale
Italy
Local time: 23:35
Member (2009)
English to Italian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Translation as activity, not profession | May 31, 2013 |
Tony M wrote: Bruno Depascale wrote:
... so I came up with the must-have things to start a translator career:
Sadly (rather than funnily), you seem to have missed out the one key factor so often apparently lacking: an aptitude for the profession and the smallest amount of talent.
Thank you for your input Tony,
no, I didn't missed it out.
I admit I expressed myself bad in saying "translation career".
I wasn't talking about being good or bad translators, but to be simply a translator.
One can also start a translation activity for him/herself, like translating a novel...
| | | | | A presence on Proz | May 31, 2013 |
You forgot that too. Whether full member, partial member or non-paying member, many people seem to 'begin' their 'translation activity' by signing up on Proz.
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Willingness to charge more than the average cleaning lady...
| | | | | Worldly wisdom | May 31, 2013 |
Having done something in life, or seen something of life, before striking out in translation is pretty much a sine qua non, although sadly one sees more and more fresh graduates taking up a translator’s keyboard who have hardly seen anything of the world of work, culture, business, industry, politics, human interaction outside their own circles, or anything else (in their own country or abroad) when they start translating, and it shows in their work — for the rest of their careers.
| | | | Balasubramaniam L.
India
Local time: 03:05
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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SITE LOCALIZER | Actually nothing is required | May 31, 2013 |
Considered as an activity, you don't need any external aid. Not even pen and paper. Stripped off of all trappings, translation is just conversion of messages in one language to another (recording it is a separate activity, and it is this that requires external support like computers, TMs, software, pen and paper, etc.).
All you need to translate (or to use any language based function) is speech. And this most of us have.
So if you have knowledge of two languages, and y... See more Considered as an activity, you don't need any external aid. Not even pen and paper. Stripped off of all trappings, translation is just conversion of messages in one language to another (recording it is a separate activity, and it is this that requires external support like computers, TMs, software, pen and paper, etc.).
All you need to translate (or to use any language based function) is speech. And this most of us have.
So if you have knowledge of two languages, and your speech faculties are unimpaired, technically you can begin a translation activity.
Doing it as a profession is of course an entirely different kettle of fish and we are not talking about that here. ▲ Collapse
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Tony M wrote: Bruno Depascale wrote:
... so I came up with the must-have things to start a translator career:
Sadly (rather than funnily), you seem to have missed out the one key factor so often apparently lacking: an aptitude for the profession and the smallest amount of talent.
He mentioned 'brain' and the knowledge of 2 languages. Nothing else is needed that is not a subset of 'brain'.
And I'm not sure how much talent is needed to be commercially successful in this 'industry'.
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IrimiConsulting
Sweden
Local time: 23:35
Member (2010)
English to Swedish
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| No one has yet mentioned... | Jun 2, 2013 |
... coffee (or tea).
Coffee, not oil, is the real black gold.
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Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz wrote:
And I'm not sure how much talent is needed to be commercially successful in this 'industry'.
Several translation agencies have tried to convince me that all that one really must have to translate is Trados, absolutely nothing else! They don't seem to care at all about training, skills, experience, specialization, nor talent. As I don't have Trados, I wouldn't know how successful this approach can be.
| | | | | That's more or less where I was driving at | Jun 2, 2013 |
José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote: Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz wrote:
And I'm not sure how much talent is needed to be commercially successful in this 'industry'. Several translation agencies have tried to convince me that all that one really must have to translate is Trados, absolutely nothing else! They don't seem to care at all about training, skills, experience, specialization, nor talent. As I don't have Trados, I wouldn't know how successful this approach can be.
| | | | | But it really takes off when you do some marketing and find a client | Jun 2, 2013 |
You can translate to your heart's content and beyond, but if you are going to make a career of it, some clients and ultimately some fees will help!
Even though patience is definitely required, first to 'catch' the clients and then to deal with them... One of my colleagues asures me clients are the devil's invention.
Trados is a hungry beast, and useless unless fed properly with input. You are right not to include it among the first ten essentials!
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