Written by Donovan Nagel mezzofanti 20 Comments. As many of you know, when I travel and live in a foreign country to learn the local language I usually support myself by teaching English.

It also gets me in a social environment every day where I can meet native speakers and most jobs tend to offer accommodation, airfares and medical insurance which makes life a lot easier! Since I get questions about translation work from time to time I thought it would be a good idea to respond to some of it here.

I was attracted to her lifestyle more than anything and the fact that she could set her own prices and her own schedule, as well being able to take her work anywhere she wanted. Arabic to English James Dickins. The Issuer and the Company hereby ratify, approve and authorize the use by the Underwriter, prior to and after the date hereof, in connection with the offer and sale of the Series A Bonds, of the Official Statement.

The Underwriter agrees that it will not confirm the sale of any Series A Bonds unless the settlement of such sale is accompanied by or preceded by the delivery of a copy of the final Official Statement. Now ask yourself — if a translation agency sent this to me in another language could I produce something like this? Likewise, would you feel comfortable translating a medical or legal document that could be damaging to somebody if not done properly? Think outside the box too.

I did a marketing translation recently for a coffee company and I confidently took the job because I used to work for a coffee company years ago in the UK. The only way you get better at something is to do it often. Remember that translators are excellent writers first and foremost. You often need to strike the balance between being literal and keeping true to the mood of the original text.

Sometimes this means you have to use a completely different word, expression or sentence to carry the same effect intended by the original author.

One thing I often do is go to news portals where there are usually tabs at the top of the website for different interests Technology, Health, Business, Politics, etc.

There are also associations that you can join e. AUSIT and ITI which are great for helping you network with the right people in the industry, attend workshops to increase your skills and find work.

You should also check out Proz and Translators Cafe which are forums dedicated to translation not entirely free to use! You eventually should get hold of some CAT computer-assisted translation software like SDL Trados which is pretty much essential for many jobs. An excellent CAT tool to get started with is OmegaT which is completely free I still often use this as it runs well on Linux.

Since I love outdoor adventure and social interaction this gets stressful for me at times! The money I get from what I do could easily allow me to live comfortably in the kind of countries I like to live in where living costs are extremely low e.

Ultimately I love what I do even though I am really hoping to find the right girl, get married and buy a house in the next couple of years with an in-house or government translation job ideally. Did you find this interesting, useful or encouraging? Just please be respectful. Any abusive or nonsensical comments will be deleted.

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Join Now No spam. Foreign Languagestranslation. November 11, at People have a lot of misconceptions about what working as a translator entails. And yes, you should always translate into your mother tongue only and only in fields you know inside out. Most professional translation work is specialized, legal, financial, medical, etc. There is a lot of competition, so you need to stand out from the crowd.

It takes a lot of time and active marketing to build a client portfolio. My advice to anyone that wants to become a translator is to invest in training. You really can only learn to translate by doing. Try to find a seasoned translator with the same language pair that is willing to mentor you or edit your work. Network with other translators, attend conferences, invest in continuing education and specialize.

I know quite a few freelance translators that spend a lot of time abroad or divide their time between two countries. You do have to make sure however to do so legally, to be properly registered and pay taxes, social security, etc. For me, being a freelance translator is my dream job.

I get to combine two fields I love, law and languages and I do so on my own terms. Nothing beats being your own boss! November 11, at 9: I'd be interested to hear your story about how you started out and the lessons you've learned along the way.

Were you working in Law prior to getting into translation? I never thought I'd become a legal translator actually and I've never worked as a lawyer nor do I want to.

We had several specialization courses to choose from, legal, economic, technical and literary translation and I discovered that I really enjoyed legal translation. Two of my favorite professors had law degrees as well as degrees in translation and I discovered cotatii valutare forex I could study law by distance learning at the Sorbonne in Paris for only a couple hundred of euros, so I gave it a shot.

The initial idea was just to robert borowski forex sailing some courses as continuing education while I started to work as a freelance translator, but I ended up discovering a real passion for law and finished the degree in 3 years.

It was exhausting to work and study at the same time, but definitely worth it. Having both the degree in translation and the law degree has opened a lot of doors for me and allows me to work directly for law firms, notaries and international institutions.

I've now decided to go for a master's degree in law as well, as it is a prerequisite to work as a lawyer-linguist for the European Court of Justice.

There are translation agencies trying go get people to work for 0. November 11, at 1: I considered becoming a Russian-to-English translator. As of right now, that plan has been shelved. Maybe I earn money translating portuguese try hard enough, but I had trouble finding decently paid work.

A lot of people who aren't in the field and often don't speak a foreign language seem to think that translation is easy, which couldn't be further from the truth! Unfortunately, this problem manifests itself in low rates. Plus, there are a lot of Russians who learned English as a second language and offer Russian-to-English translation services too.

Again, this is just based on my limited experience. From talking to other translators, Forex rate today rawalpindi think it coursera make money a lot by language pair. Donovan, with your Arabic skills, you could get a really, really nice government job in the US if you were a US citizen.

Earn money translating english portuguese Freelancers and Jobs - Freelancer

Arabic is a very "in" language right now. Russian used to be, but then the Cold War ended. I guess I was born 10 or 20 years too late. And regarding that random boring passage about the bond issuance — I'm weirdly proud that I understood that. I'm not a lawyer, but I am doing a finance degree and that's some of the stuff we've learned.

It can be dreadfully boring at times, which is why I study languages among other things in my spare time. I would have thought you'd have plenty of opportunities as a Russian translator. I say keep trying!

to earn money - Portuguese translation - uyanilalabiwi.web.fc2.com English-Portuguese dictionary

Arabic was in huge demand here as well at the height of the Iraq war which is best software for stock trading in india I almost went into the military as a translator a few years ago. I know that with increasing immigration from the Mid East there are a lot of opportunities for Arabic translators as well.

April 19, at 7: I am a native Arabic speaker, and near native English Speaker. I've lived in the US. I have been trying to land a translation job for several years, I am still unsuccessful. I applied to a contract job in Iraq and it is still up in the air. I received a Bachelors in Aviation Technology and Space Commercialization in the USA so I could translate in the technical field? I am open to anything else.

Do you have of any agency where I can apply? How do you market yourself? I am currently doing odd jobs such as teaching yoga, how to get fast gold aqw 2016 in cafe shops…etc, it would be nice if I can capitalize on the skills that I already have!

Like Donovan said, keep trying! It took me a year to be able to make a living when I started out and that's perfectly normal. It takes time to built a client base, especially if you don't have a lot of experience. Finance is definitely among the best paid fields. My advice would be to stay away from the big translation agencies that only compete on price and to look for the smaller, specialized ones and for direct clients banks, funds, investment companies once you have some experience. With Russian, I'd definitely look at the UN, the IMF, the World Forex warlord review etc.

November 16, at Yes,people don't understand what serious translation entails. Also, pure and simple fiction books translation can be very difficult — because, if you translate a medical or a legal text, generally the words are clear and refer to something specific and you only have to make everything sound clear and professional. But when you get a text with puns, metaphors and the like, then you should have as much talent as the original writer to make it work. And it can very much depend on the language also, some things do make sense and are good in one language, but not in others.

November 18, at 1: Freelancing is not for everybody, definitely not for me. I like writing and studying and I love translating, but the stress of constant marketing and networking is not for me. I find self-promotion as depressing as subscribing to a dating website. I think the internet is responsible for this: February 13, at 8: Hi good job, Just translated this for you, You are legally bind to send me the sum of, one hundred U. S Dollar for this work…just kidding! March 23, at I really like the practical measures on how to do the translation jobs properly.

Since Donovan and Christine shared their views I see my own experience from a perspective. It had always been stressful. When with clients, I was sometimes out of words and I felt I was doing a bad job. I am sure I was currency converter uae dirham to euro hard on myself and also it was invaluable experience.

Although I was happy with rates, I prefer not to do it for living. I was doing it without any translation training. My another experience is translating. I was asked to make a translation from English into Polish. I was surprised how much time it took me to do it. It was not a complicated text, but simple issues hinder your efforts.

For example, names of institutions that do not have counterparts in either of the countries. Translation requires a lot of practice, training and perseverance. If someone feels it can be interesting, should hook up with someone who does it. It is great to gain an insight knowledge from a professional. The best is surely to experience the job yourself. April 4, at I am so glad you posted this! I have a question for you though. Since your main language is Arabic, perhaps you know a bit about other areas nearby.

Do you have any advice? I just am at a total loss when it comes to finding someone who might give me advice on this issue.

June 21, at 2: July 9, at 3: October 4, at 6: My language combination Korean mother tongue born and raised but spend most of my teen years in Canada, Quebec All of 3 languages are on par with one another except for my English, because i did post and post secondary schooling in English and French, I am more articulate in specific fields such as business and IT.

Anyway my goal with translation is i want to be able to find enough work so that i can live off of this work and then do my art work at the same time. Am i too far off from reality. I am also orally very comfortable but conference interpretation seems a daunting task to me. July 11, at July 22, at 9: Hello, I am a 17 year old boy almost 18, i was wondering if someone could help me finding a job as a translator or suggest me where i could find a smiliar one.

I live in Colombia, i speak enlgish since 4 years old and have a B2 degree on it and i am a native spanish speaker. November 6, at 7: Hello, Donovan thanks much for these tips of yours. Really wish to know more about these translation agencies, if you could have tips on how to build a solid portfolio in this domain, and many other tips.

December 9, at 3: Hi Donovan, You have mentioned NAATI in your post. The advice to get certified in Australia is very good. It can be a difficult process but a lot of the work requires accreditation.

Your translation rates will be higher when you are certified. While you are going through that process, it is worthwhile contacting translation agencies but be prepared to highlight your specialisations, and willingness to prove yourself with translations in your field. March 5, at 1: Thanks for this great post, Donovan! It provides a lot of help for new translators.

I myself was a freelancer and now lead a small translation team specializing in the language pair of English and Chinese. Although not some sort of high-tech industry, language translation is still a very challenging trade. It takes tremendous training, wide range of knowledge, years of hands-on experience and of course a bit of talent to grow up as a top professional translator. Good luck, fellow linguists! I love comments and feedback positive and negative but I have my limits.

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Language Tools Read Blog. How To Become a Freelance Translator and Earn Money On The Road Written by Donovan Nagel mezzofanti 20 Comments Update: Translators are excellent writers first and foremost! Boring as hell, right? Take anything you know really well and specialize in it. You could have near-native fluency and still be a pathetic translator believe me!

Great writers are great readers!

Online translator jobs with Unbabel

Begin building your own glossary of terms. Does translation pay well? It certainly can but in my case not really!

A few days later I get paid electronically. No face to face contact whatsoever. Share your thoughts below!

I'm an Applied Linguistics graduate, teacher and translator. I have a huge passion for language learning especially Arabicraising awareness of endangered minority languages and simplifying language learning for millions of people around the world. Sign up and stay connected. Can you help me with something? Support me by clicking one of these buttons thanks: There was an error submitting your subscription. Spanish French Arabic Chinese Mandarin German Italian Russian Korean Japanese Portuguese —— Afrikaans Albanian Armenian Basque Bengali Bulgarian Catalan Cambodian Chinese Cantonese Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Fijian Finnish Georgian Greek Gujarati Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Gaeilge Javanese Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Malayalam Maltese Maori Marathi Mongolian Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Punjabi Quechuan Romanian Samoan Serbian Slovak Slovenian Somali Swahili Swedish Tagalog Filipino Tamil Tatar Telugu Thai Tibetan Tongan Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Uzbeki Vietnamese Welsh Xhosa Zulu Other Enter your email: I should have let you write that post for me!

I didn't understand it. Hello, I am a native Arabic speaker, and near native English Speaker. Tell me what you think of my translation. I'll write you later what I think of this subject. Thank you again for writing this!

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