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The need to specialize to make more money as a freelance translator
Thread poster: Bonita Mc Donald
Marijke Singer
Marijke Singer  Identity Verified
Spain
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Dutch to English
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If you specialise you will also get the really interesting jobs Sep 16, 2006

Another reason why you should specialise is that you will then also get the interesting jobs. This happens to me quite regularly and I thoroughly enjoy doing this. I specialise in technical translation work. One of my specific areas is wind energy. Often, I will be given a document to translate that deals with new technology. I find this fascinating but you really cannot translate this kind of document unless you have a solid background in the subject. Asking a friend or expert will not do in th... See more
Another reason why you should specialise is that you will then also get the interesting jobs. This happens to me quite regularly and I thoroughly enjoy doing this. I specialise in technical translation work. One of my specific areas is wind energy. Often, I will be given a document to translate that deals with new technology. I find this fascinating but you really cannot translate this kind of document unless you have a solid background in the subject. Asking a friend or expert will not do in this case. It often involves "new terms" that also require "new translations". So, basically, you need to know what you are doing. The same is true of other fields. I get a real buzz of finding out a few years later that whatever I used in that initial translation has caught onCollapse


 
Bonita Mc Donald
Bonita Mc Donald
Local time: 18:12
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TOPIC STARTER
A couple of other possibilities: Sep 16, 2006

Screaming Lord Sutch wrote:

Sadly, the world does rely to a certain extent on the honesty of those putting themselves forward as professionals. But as in other fields, the cheat will always win - just as a cowboy builder will get richer than a real builder by doing jobs that look right and disappearing before his clients realise that what they thought was a good job by a competent professional was actually rubbish, this market is now inundated with people trying to justify the extension of their competencies into fields they know absolutely nothing about. Ideally, if you are going to translate design instructions for suspension bridges you best have built a few. Second best you have a thorough understanding of civil engineering backed up with formal education in the discipline if possible. The same goes if you're going to translate clinical trial protocols or some sick guy's MR scan.


Or third, you simply love the topic and may have already read extensively about the subject, to the point where you are as familiar with it as, say, a person whose hobby is quilting is familiar with quilting.

Or fourth, as previously mentioned by another member, you have a natural talent and knack for words and know what you're doing, with the added bonus that you also might be a very good researcher and resourceful person capable of turning out a good translation and taking the necessary steps to assure that, once you turn it in, you won't be endangering other people's lives or setting yourself up for a lawsuit ("formal education" not required, just raw talent and a genuine desire to please).


 
Paul Merriam
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Specialization not always financially a great idea Sep 16, 2006

Just because you're an expert in a field doesn't necessarily mean that you can count on being paid a premium to translate documents in it. There also has to be a market. For example, I know of a woman who knows a lot about music theory and is very good at translating material about the arcane aspects of this field from Polish to English. I've seen this material and I think that if I were to translate it, the result would be what we used to call "translating from Polish into Greek", i.e., comi... See more
Just because you're an expert in a field doesn't necessarily mean that you can count on being paid a premium to translate documents in it. There also has to be a market. For example, I know of a woman who knows a lot about music theory and is very good at translating material about the arcane aspects of this field from Polish to English. I've seen this material and I think that if I were to translate it, the result would be what we used to call "translating from Polish into Greek", i.e., coming up with a bunch of English words that are just as comprehensible as the original Polish to a native speaker of English with no knowledge of Polish. (However, I'm quite okay translating documents about other subjects from Polish to English.) So I suppose you could say that she specializes in translation of documents about music theory from Polish to English except, for one thing. No one pays her to do it. After all, the people who read the translations usually don't make decisions involving money or medical treatment based on the translations. Many of her potential readers find the subject as arcane as I do. So most of the documents she translates are about other subjects.

A variation on your "money back guarantee" that you discussed earlier. Write to an agency that specializes in medical translations along the lines of "I have an interest in medical translation and would be interested in your opinion on my skills. I am willing to translate a couple of pages of medical material for you at no charge provided that I get a marked up copy of the translation back from you along with your editor's written assessment of my strengths and weaknesses." Based on their response, you can decide what to do next.
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Charlie Bavington
Charlie Bavington  Identity Verified
Local time: 00:12
French to English
The salient point Sep 16, 2006

Bonita Mc Donald wrote:

What if the outcome is the same (a satisfied customer) no matter who of the two the client finally chooses?

Just some food for thought, friends. Enjoy chewing on that for a while...


For any given single text, it is entirely possible that the result from a specialist versus a non-specialist will be the same.

However, I would put it to you that over the course of time, a specialist is more likely (hopefully for obvious reasons, but basically wider experience in the field and more in-depth knowledge) to produce more consistently high-quality texts with fewer errors than a non-specialist, even one with a flair for language and a profound desire to please who spends 2 weeks researching brain surgery then 2 weeks researching hedge funds then 2 weeks researching skull types of early hominids and so on.

They then, perhaps, could be said to deserve more wonga on the grounds that:
a) any given translation has a higher probability of being "better" than the non-specialist translation, although for a given translation taken at random the 2 results may be equal, and
b) that the foundations on which that translation is built (background knowledge, experience, etc. which may be usused but which give the specialist the confidence that the translation makes perfect sense) are solid, not based on frantic mugging up beforehand.

And it may be an old saw, but is none the less true: jack of all trades but master of none. Which is, as I see it, not exactly a glowing recommendation of the non-specialist approach.


 
Ford Prefect
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Burkina Faso
Local time: 00:12
German to English
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... Sep 16, 2006

Bonita Mc Donald wrote:


Or third, you simply love the topic and may have already read extensively about the subject, to the point where you are as familiar with it as, say, a person whose hobby is quilting is familiar with quilting.


Fine. Probably.

Or fourth, as previously mentioned by another member, you have a natural talent and knack for words and know what you're doing, with the added bonus that you also might be a very good researcher and resourceful person capable of turning out a good translation and taking the necessary steps to assure that, once you turn it in, you won't be endangering other people's lives or setting yourself up for a lawsuit ("formal education" not required, just raw talent and a genuine desire to please).


Then you need to make a professional judgment about how well you can manage the text. If you overestimate yourself and spend too much time on it, decreasing your rate per hour, then you think harder the next time a similar text comes along. Not doing work that's beyond you is a sensible business decision as well as an ethical decision.


 
Ana Cuesta
Ana Cuesta  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 01:12
Member
English to Spanish
My two cents... Sep 16, 2006

I think this thread is mixing-up different aspects of the “specialize or not” dilemma, since the title points to the convenience of specializing so as to earn more but then Bonita elaborates on her post on whether anyone with proper resources can do a good job out of a specialized job and in a later post on how someone can become a specialist… I would rather address all those points separately:

1. Is it advisable to specialize as a way to get a higher translation income?
... See more
I think this thread is mixing-up different aspects of the “specialize or not” dilemma, since the title points to the convenience of specializing so as to earn more but then Bonita elaborates on her post on whether anyone with proper resources can do a good job out of a specialized job and in a later post on how someone can become a specialist… I would rather address all those points separately:

1. Is it advisable to specialize as a way to get a higher translation income?

A translator income depends on how many words she translates (which in turn depends on how many orders she can attract and how fast she can translate) and how much she is paid per word. The per word rate is normally higher (even a lot higher) for specialized jobs so there is certainly a higher earnings ceiling provided you can translate at a reasonable pace and your area of specialization has enough volume of translation work to keep you busy. Now, translation pace is inversely proportional to the difficulty of the task and the amount of research needed, which would ruin attempts to earn more by accepting specialized jobs and then “just” devoting enough time to research an unfamiliar topic. On the other hand, when you have really become a specialist (let’s leave the how for later on) you’ll find that you can translate a text inside your specialization area much faster than a so-called general text (say a journal article) so once you enter that route it becomes a vicious circle, because you’ll accept preferably jobs inside that area and will gradually get to know more of it and work faster/earn more…

2. Is it necessary to be a specialist to do a good job in a specialized area?

Not all specialized texts have the same level of difficulty. I am willing to accept that any professional translator can do a decent job out of a divulgation article on any topic (by doing a fair amount of research ) The problem with specialized texts is that they can become really specialized (subspecialized, whatever you want to call it) and really complex (not always easy to judge a priori if you are not familiar with the subject), so you may find after all no glossary goes deep enough to cover the terminology you need, or you don’t know where to find such glossary although it exists, or you find it and get translations for all terms but don’t really understand the meaning of the sentences so as to put the puzzle together (even worst, you may think you understand the text when in fact you misunderstood a number of things)… If you were a client and could choose between a specialized translator (i.e. one which, for whatever reason, has translated lots of similar documents before) and a generalist one to translate your specialized text, which one would you prefer/find less risky?

3) Is it necessary to have formal training in a specialized area in order to call yourself a specialist and do a good job/reap the benefits of specializing?

Now, what makes someone a specialist? I would say a specialist is someone who works preferably in a particular subject area, even a particular topic she is familiar with (again, how deep to get into specialization will depend on how much work a certain topic, subtopic can attract and so how many you need to cover to keep reasonably busy). Of course if you have previous formal training/experience in a particular topic, you are already geared to specialize on it (in that case the problem is normally the opposite, i.e. do you have the linguistic skills you need to become a translator?). Also, if you have a particular hobby, something you read and know a lot about just for fun, you have already gone a long way towards making it your specialization. So, if your formal training is in translation/languages and you have no particular hobby that attracts a lot of translation orders, does it mean you cannot become a specialist? I wouldn’t say that. I’m sure there are great technical translators without a technical degree, but I’m also pretty sure they are not in their 20-30s, since getting to know any subject in depth takes time and effort.

For those who’ve read so far, I’ll end by apologizing for such a long post and accepting that my views may be tainted by the fact that I was a chemist before I became a translator, but I think that also gives me some “insider knowledge”, doesn’t it?
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Balasubramaniam L.
Balasubramaniam L.  Identity Verified
India
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English to Hindi
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The other side of the coin Sep 17, 2006

Too much specializing can be harmful too.

Translation is also about communication and a good communicator is one who has a wide exposureto various subjects and can talk to a wide variety of audiences, specialists as well as non-specialists.

In an attempt to be technically accurate, a specialist translator may churn out a translation that is incomprehensible to his/her audience, especially if the subject is not as established in the target language as in the source lang
... See more
Too much specializing can be harmful too.

Translation is also about communication and a good communicator is one who has a wide exposureto various subjects and can talk to a wide variety of audiences, specialists as well as non-specialists.

In an attempt to be technically accurate, a specialist translator may churn out a translation that is incomprehensible to his/her audience, especially if the subject is not as established in the target language as in the source language.

For example, let us take a hypothetical situation of a technical text in German which has to be translated into Hindi. Now a specialist technical Hindi translator may do a very good job, using just the appropriate word for the technical jargon, but the end result might be a mass of unfamiliar words that no one can understand because technical jargon is not that well understood in Hindi.

Whereas a non-technical person might opt for a simpler alternative of approximations or explanations that are more communicable.

Now which is the better translation, the one that communicates or the one that doesn't but is techincally correct?
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Williamson
Williamson  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:12
Flemish to English
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People Service Profit Sep 17, 2006

My 2 cents : With regard to money-back guarantee and the comments about this :http://www.proz.com/topic/54354.
I picked up that principle at my ex-employer, FedEx.
Another principle, I learnt there was People Service Profit: the companies' leitmotiv.
--
I am not an engineer or medical doctor. I studied various subjects and have a good knowledge of those.
However, my best friend is an engineer obsessed by technology. My neighbour is a former electronics engineer, wh
... See more
My 2 cents : With regard to money-back guarantee and the comments about this :http://www.proz.com/topic/54354.
I picked up that principle at my ex-employer, FedEx.
Another principle, I learnt there was People Service Profit: the companies' leitmotiv.
--
I am not an engineer or medical doctor. I studied various subjects and have a good knowledge of those.
However, my best friend is an engineer obsessed by technology. My neighbour is a former electronics engineer, who worked at Siemens and is now on a pre-pension scheme. One of my fellow students at a postgrad in management works at Janssen-Cilag as a pharmacologist. I asked her if she wanted to help and be paid for it. She said "yes". In fact, I kept the entire list of my fellow students, who are specialised in various domains. They don't ask peanuts for their work, but at least a plumber's hourly wage. Hence, I can not ask peanuts for translations either.

My method of translation is to highlight the parts of the translation I don't understand, have them write the equivalent of the words/parts above the original texts, translate it, have it revised by them and if need be a linguist. By the way, I am from a trilingual country, where most educated Dutch-speakers also know French.

Is it People Service Profit or I,(translator) Service Profit?

[Edited at 2006-09-17 09:18]
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Giles Watson
Giles Watson  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 01:12
Italian to English
In memoriam
Specialisation and rates Sep 17, 2006

Assuming - as Paul says - that there is demand for translations in his/her particular specialist sector and language combination, a translator who is able to demonstrate a solid track record in the field is likely to find customers approaching him/her rather than the reverse.

This puts the handle of the "rate" knife in the translator's hands, not the client's, and shifts the focus of negotiation from cost to quality and service. Indeed having established a reputation for quality, t
... See more
Assuming - as Paul says - that there is demand for translations in his/her particular specialist sector and language combination, a translator who is able to demonstrate a solid track record in the field is likely to find customers approaching him/her rather than the reverse.

This puts the handle of the "rate" knife in the translator's hands, not the client's, and shifts the focus of negotiation from cost to quality and service. Indeed having established a reputation for quality, the translator may be able to enforce something approaching the specialist rate for non-specialist business.

Conversely, even an excellent general translator is much less likely to be approached directly. In most cases, s/he will have to compete with other generalists for business, and the rate offered will almost certainly be crucial to clinching the deal. Satisfied customers will tend to come back, but they will probably have set the initial rate themselves.

FWIW

Giles
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Irene N
Irene N
United States
Local time: 19:12
English to Russian
+ ...
Another angle. Possibly a bit on a cynical side. Sep 17, 2006

Specialization within the right market(s) pays off tenfold, and one important aspect is your health. I know for sure that:

a. I shall never change a trade
b. I want to remain comfortable financially without increasing amount of work or the effort because with the age comes faster tiredness.
d. In my older age I would prefer to keep the chance to make an extra buck, and I want that buck to be relatively easy, as easy as possible, to save my eyes, keep good levels of bloo
... See more
Specialization within the right market(s) pays off tenfold, and one important aspect is your health. I know for sure that:

a. I shall never change a trade
b. I want to remain comfortable financially without increasing amount of work or the effort because with the age comes faster tiredness.
d. In my older age I would prefer to keep the chance to make an extra buck, and I want that buck to be relatively easy, as easy as possible, to save my eyes, keep good levels of blood pressure and avoid any 'overtime' due to an extended research. I love my trade but the older I grow, the more I love me, dearest, and quite often the number of words and a pleasant invoice oversahadow the creativity part:) - I can't wait to see my invoice paid and my money well-spent on whatever my fancy is at the moment:-)

c. I'm not that old yet:-) so I still work quite hard:-(.

Best,
Irene
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Roomy Naqvy
Roomy Naqvy  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 05:42
English to Hindi
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In small languages.... Sep 17, 2006

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

Because there are so many people out there that are able to deliver reasonably good translations from one main language into another and do it for cheap, you have either to compete with them and work as cheap or specialise.
With minor languages specialising is only useful if you find customers that need big volumes all the time.
Myself this year I have had everything conceivable, from ladies underwear to biochemical patents and EU communications, but not a single asignment from English to German, because I do not work for those low rates.
Regards
Heinrich


I think specialization is always good and better in the long run. I don't work in big languages... I work in small languages but I realize that I have moved quite a bit towards specialization and it does help.

Roomy


 
Maria Rosich Andreu
Maria Rosich Andreu  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 01:12
Member (2003)
Dutch to Spanish
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big vs minor language pairs Sep 17, 2006

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

Because there are so many people out there that are able to deliver reasonably good translations from one main language into another and do it for cheap, you have either to compete with them and work as cheap or specialise.
With minor languages specialising is only useful if you find customers that need big volumes all the time.
Myself this year I have had everything conceivable, from ladies underwear to biochemical patents and EU communications, but not a single asignment from English to German, because I do not work for those low rates.
Regards
Heinrich


I agree with Heinrich. Sometimes, a minor language pair is in itself a specialization. You need to work harder to find reference material, make your own glossaries, look for almost all answers yourself, etc. In some of my language pairs there hardly are dictionaries at all (such as NL/DK/SK -> CAT); in others, none at all (NO -> CAT). Translations in these pairs may take longer, specially in the beginning of one's professional life. There is also a much smaller chance that someone will need big volumes all the time that allow you to specialize. But you can ask higher rates.

I also work in English-Spanish, which is an entirely different matter. I have a couple of specialist fields and hardly ever step out of them. The general rates on this pair do not tempt me either.


 
Bonita Mc Donald
Bonita Mc Donald
Local time: 18:12
Spanish to English
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TOPIC STARTER
I've made up my mind... Sep 17, 2006

Thanks, all, for weighing in on this. That pretty much cinches it for me. It looks like after 15 years of translating just about anything that came along, it would definitely be worthwhile for me to work on specializing.

I'm guessing that the best way to do this, at least as far as ProZ.com goes, would be to acquire Kudoz points in the fields I'd want to be known as specializing in, as well as building on the Project History on my profile page with the pertinent jobs I've done.
... See more
Thanks, all, for weighing in on this. That pretty much cinches it for me. It looks like after 15 years of translating just about anything that came along, it would definitely be worthwhile for me to work on specializing.

I'm guessing that the best way to do this, at least as far as ProZ.com goes, would be to acquire Kudoz points in the fields I'd want to be known as specializing in, as well as building on the Project History on my profile page with the pertinent jobs I've done.

Any more suggestions?

Oh, and... see you on the KudoZ boards!
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Refugio
Refugio
Local time: 17:12
Spanish to English
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How to get started in a specialization Sep 18, 2006

You live in the United States. If the fields that interest you are medicine or law, there are many colleges that offer courses in translating these fields and can recommend the best dictionaries to acquire. Then your class assignments will be good practice for later paid translations. You still won't have a heap of experience for several years, but at least you won't be a rank beginner in those fields either.

 
Bonita Mc Donald
Bonita Mc Donald
Local time: 18:12
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Well, actually... Sep 18, 2006

Ruth Henderson wrote:

You live in the United States. If the fields that interest you are medicine or law, there are many colleges that offer courses in translating these fields and can recommend the best dictionaries to acquire. Then your class assignments will be good practice for later paid translations. You still won't have a heap of experience for several years, but at least you won't be a rank beginner in those fields either.


... yes, I do live in the United States, but I'm not a "rank beginner" (whatever that is). I already work in the two fields you mention (among others) and, as you can see in my profile, I was court-certified in 1990 in Colombia, South America and have been working exclusively as a professional translator/interpreter/transcriptionist/proofreader since 1991. As for colleges, my family was never able to afford college/university in my younger years, so I'm "just" a high-school graduate with a degree in computer technology and, frankly, I don't see the need in going back to college now, nor would I even want to, unless it was to learn a third language.

I've had very bad experiences in outsourcing work to people who had a university degree in translation, so translators without a formal education in the field don't have the poor-quality market cornered. Living in Colombia I had the opportunity to be on the permanent staff of a translation agency that worked only in the SPA ENG combination, where only 1 out of the 5 working there had a University Degree (she was very good); the rest were self-taught, obviously already having both languages either from a bilingual upbringing or because they had lived in countries where the language was spoken for a long time, thus acquiring their Spanish or their English that way. My employer (and mentor) never went to college/university and I have yet to meet anyone who can surpass her at SPA ENG translation/interpretation, so college, at least for me, is not the answer. If you are already fluent in both languages and have the talent, being self-taught and/or taken under the wing of a seasoned professional not only has its perks (such as saving all that tuition money) but also, if you go about it the right way, I daresay the results are equivalent to earning a university degree in translation.

[Edited at 2006-09-18 10:31]


 
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