| Pages in topic: [1 2 3] > | The hard beggining. Thread poster: Vitor Visconti
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Hi folks,
I´ve just decided to change my career plans and become a translator. Altough i hadn´t enough experience to say i´m a plain professional, and no university degree related to the profession (i´m a former cinema student), i begun my journey by delivering several emails for agencies all over the world. I had a few responses, and unfortunately, most of them required skilled or local translators (in worst cases, both of them). The next step was looking for voluntary jobs. I ... See more Hi folks,
I´ve just decided to change my career plans and become a translator. Altough i hadn´t enough experience to say i´m a plain professional, and no university degree related to the profession (i´m a former cinema student), i begun my journey by delivering several emails for agencies all over the world. I had a few responses, and unfortunately, most of them required skilled or local translators (in worst cases, both of them). The next step was looking for voluntary jobs. I found a few websites who offer that opportunity, and i´m still waiting for some response. The fact is, there are few jobs for my language (brazilian portuguese - english) , but i´m hopefully waiting for some response. Also, i´ve been learning how to improve my Memo Q capacities trough the webinars, eager to find some job and put it to full practice... I´m wondering if you can give me some advice. I think the first step is the harder one, but a single hand may be more than just fair.
Thank you for your attention,
Vitor ▲ Collapse
| | | | | My initial advice | Jun 5, 2013 |
Harsh though it may sound, my advice is not to claim to be able to translate into English. Judging by your post, your English skills are not sufficiently good to be able to translate to the level of a native English speaker. Stick to fields you know in your native language. I hope someone else can give you some advice about the Brazilian market.
Andy
| | | | Vitor Visconti 
Brazil
Local time: 18:17
English to Portuguese
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TOPIC STARTER | Autocriticism | Jun 5, 2013 |
Thank you Andy.
I think i can point out the mistakes:
- "Altough i hadn´t enough experience to say i´m a plain professional, (and no university degree related to the profession)"
- i begun my journey (by) delivering several emails
- I found a few websites (who) offer that opportunity
- The fact is(,) there are few jobs for my language
It is indeed a very imprudent translation, but also a way to learn. Could someone... See more Thank you Andy.
I think i can point out the mistakes:
- "Altough i hadn´t enough experience to say i´m a plain professional, (and no university degree related to the profession)"
- i begun my journey (by) delivering several emails
- I found a few websites (who) offer that opportunity
- The fact is(,) there are few jobs for my language
It is indeed a very imprudent translation, but also a way to learn. Could someone point out more mistakes?
Thank you!
Vitor ▲ Collapse
| | | | Heinrich Pesch
Finland
Local time: 00:17
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
| Stay away from translating into second language | Jun 6, 2013 |
Or find a partner that is native English. In any case that is my advice, form a team with a native English translator who has Brazilian or Portuguese clients. Most of all beginners need feedback. And you should have special fields where you have solid knowledge of the subject. Good luck!
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Woodstock (X)
Germany
Local time: 23:17
German to English
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| Lots of information right here on ProZ | Jun 6, 2013 |
about getting started:
http://www.proz.com/translation-articles/
http://www.proz.com/translator-training/
http://www.proz.com/forum/getting_established-15.html
Proz is a gold mine of useful information. The articles and forum threads (1st and 3rd link) are free, of course, and some of the courses in the second link are, too. Don't worry about CAT tools like MemoQ right now, though if you want to practice, download the trial versions and use those to see which ones you like best. Use your fields of study or work experience to your advantage and specialize in those. Also look into other types of translation, such as subtitling or transcription (you can learn more about those on ProZ or just on the internet, in general). Above all, translate ONLY into your native language, the one you grew up with and were educated in. Only then can you guarantee good quality and idiomatic language.
Best of luck to you! ▲ Collapse
| | | | DLyons
Ireland
Local time: 22:17
Spanish to English
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Vitorvisconti wrote:
It is indeed a very imprudent translation, but also a way to learn. Could someone point out more mistakes?
Thank you!
Vitor
Also "I" must be a capital
Good luck Vitor.
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Can I offer one more tip?
Always run everything (absolutely everything, including titles of posts, email headers, etc.) through a spell checker before you post or send it. (Cut and paste into Word or similar if necessary.) It's so easy for an error or typo to slip through, even when you're writing in your native language, and it doesn't give the best impression to potential clients.
Good luck with your new business!
| | | | | Just in the changes you made... | Jun 6, 2013 |
Please see below for adjustments on the sentences that you posted (there could still be further improvement required from someone with even better English than mine, but this is largely for demonstrative purposes):
Vitorvisconti wrote:
- "Altough i hadn´t enough experience to say i´m a plain professional, (and no university degree related to the profession)"
>> Although I have not had enough experience to claim that I am a professional and have no university degree related to the profession
("plain"? Meaning not clear from context here at all)
- i begun my journey (by) delivering several emails
>> I began my journey by delivering several emails
- I found a few websites (who) offer that opportunity
>> I found a few websites that offer the opportunity to...
- The fact is(,) there are few jobs for my language
>> The fact is that there are some jobs in my language pair
Bear in mind that if I were your proofreader, or bilingual editor, I would expect to get paid for reviewing your work and fixing your English mistakes. This will inevitably either force you to increase your translation rates or accept that you will not receive the full amount for the job.
In addition, providing a poor quality translation will give your potential clients (whether agencies or direct clients) a negative impression of you, and in the long-term, this will work against you - which would be a shame if you found a way to improve. Thus, a great starting point would be to spend some time reading up on both English and Portuguese grammar from the basics up - ensure that your language skills are as good as they can possibly be. You could also request a mentor via the ProZ community mentoring program, or find one yourself by searching for someone who translates in your language pair.
I do completely agree that you should rather avoid translating into English altogether - take your time and start your career the right way, build a good reputation and then branch out when you have had time to fine-tune your skills.
Good luck with your career - read as much as you can about the profession via this site and translation blogs so that you can make an informed decision about everything.
[Edited at 2013-06-06 07:08 GMT]
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with what everyone says regarding English. Forget about translating into English. Translation clients expect a text that looks as though it were written originally in the translated language. A large proportion of native English speakers couldn't translate into English simply because not all native speakers of a language are careful writers or know how to choose the correct words to deliver the meaning, register and style required.
I'm sure that you communicate very well in English and su... See more with what everyone says regarding English. Forget about translating into English. Translation clients expect a text that looks as though it were written originally in the translated language. A large proportion of native English speakers couldn't translate into English simply because not all native speakers of a language are careful writers or know how to choose the correct words to deliver the meaning, register and style required.
I'm sure that you communicate very well in English and sufficiently well for anyone to understand you but expecting to be able to translate into English when you're not a native English speaker is unrealistic.
However, if you're a former film/cinema student, I would advise that you look into using your existing skills and know-how and applying them to your translation career.
What about looking into subtitling? I'm sure that there is an industry there for subtitling English (language) films/series into Brazilian Portuguese.
I know nothing about subtitling but maybe someone else could give you more specific advice. It just strikes me that you could blend your existing skills with your language skills and put both to good use.
[Edited at 2013-06-06 07:24 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Balasubramaniam L.
India
Local time: 02:47
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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SITE LOCALIZER | An interesting take on capital I | Jun 6, 2013 |
DLyons wrote: Vitorvisconti wrote:
It is indeed a very imprudent translation, but also a way to learn. Could someone point out more mistakes?
Thank you!
Vitor
Also "I" must be a capital
Now that you have mentioned it, an important English broadsheet in India, the Times of India, which also happens to be the largest broadsheet in English in the world in terms of readership, has taken a conscious decision not to capitalize the pronoun I.
Explaining its decision in a major editorial the paper said that it was unnecessary and goes against the grain of the language as all the other pronouns of English (including other versions of I such as my and mine) remain in small case, and capitalizing only "I" smacks of conceitedness.
So in this paper, the I pronoun is never capitalized, and since this paper is read by millions, this is not a trivial decision.
This is just to say that many of the "rules" of the language are arbitrary, and if a powerful entity decides to break it, then the broken version of the rule becomes another "rule" of the language.
Of course, if less powerful entities (like us translators) break language rules, they are penalized and are severely ridiculed.
How unfair the world is!
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 23:17
French to English
| Not even beginning! | Jun 6, 2013 |
You have probably successfully used English in previous situations but translation is perhaps the profession requiring the highest level of written expression, and very few people achieve that, even when translating into their native language.
There are plenty more mistakes in your post which show that your written English is way below standard for translation. It's not a matter of correcting a few slip-ups. If I were given your post for editing or proofreading I would probably rew... See more You have probably successfully used English in previous situations but translation is perhaps the profession requiring the highest level of written expression, and very few people achieve that, even when translating into their native language.
There are plenty more mistakes in your post which show that your written English is way below standard for translation. It's not a matter of correcting a few slip-ups. If I were given your post for editing or proofreading I would probably rewrite it entirely. Tweaking and spell-checking might improve it but it would need a rewrite to actually have an authentic ring to it.
You will need to improve your English, but for the purpose of understanding your source text, to be sure of translating every last shade of meaning. Of course I have no idea of how you express yourself in Brazilian Portuguese, but you'll probably need to brush up your writing skills in that language too. I always got top marks for essays in English at school, but I have still spent an inordinate amount of time honing my writing skills to produce the best possible translations. I have mostly done this on an informal basis, reading, keeping a lookout for interesting language use, making lists of words that might come in handy, and reading even more, but any kind of course involving writing can help. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Ty Kendall
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:17
Hebrew to English
| Me, myself and I | Jun 6, 2013 |
Balasubramaniam L. wrote:
Now that you have mentioned it, an important English broadsheet in India, the Times of India, which also happens to be the largest broadsheet in English in the world in terms of readership, has taken a conscious decision not to capitalize the pronoun I.
Explaining its decision in a major editorial the paper said that it was unnecessary and goes against the grain of the language as all the other pronouns of English (including other versions of I such as my and mine) remain in small case, and capitalizing only "I" smacks of conceitedness.
It has nothing to do with conceitedness. That's reading something into it which isn't there. There are typographical and orthographical reasons why "I" is capitalized.
http://hotword.dictionary.com/whycapitali/
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03wwln-guestsafire-t.html?_r=0
There's something quite pathetic about a lowercase "i" - not to mention it's barely visible (at least "a" is harder to miss).
Good luck getting the rest of the English speaking world to follow suit on that one!
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DLyons
Ireland
Local time: 22:17
Spanish to English
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| Good luck to them. | Jun 6, 2013 |
Balasubramaniam L. wrote:
Now that you have mentioned it, an important English broadsheet in India, the Times of India, which also happens to be the largest broadsheet in English in the world in terms of readership, has taken a conscious decision not to capitalize the pronoun I.
Fascinating!
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 17:17
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Title: The word is "beginning" not "beggining". And no native speaker would ever say "hard beginning". You have to say "difficult beginning".
Also, "voluntary jobs" should be "volunteer jobs" (the meanings of the words are different).
"My MemoQ capacities". We don't use "capacities" like that in English (false cognate). We say "skills".
We don't write "in worst cases". We would say "in the worst case" or "in the worst(-case) situation".
"A few ... See more Title: The word is "beginning" not "beggining". And no native speaker would ever say "hard beginning". You have to say "difficult beginning".
Also, "voluntary jobs" should be "volunteer jobs" (the meanings of the words are different).
"My MemoQ capacities". We don't use "capacities" like that in English (false cognate). We say "skills".
We don't write "in worst cases". We would say "in the worst case" or "in the worst(-case) situation".
"A few websites who offer that opportunity". You cannot use "who" like that because a website is not a person (false cognate with Portuguese "que"). You have to use either that or which.
"i´m still waiting for some response". You cannot use "some response" like that. You have to say "I am still waiting for a response / for a reply." You can say "Some responses are helpful".
"i´m hopefully waiting for some response". You cannot use "hopefully" here because you are saying that "with any luck I am waiting for a response" as hopefully has taken on a different meaning (at least in AE) in addition to the fact that its use is hotly debated and best omitted from a professional translation.
Vitorvisconti wrote:
Could someone point out more mistakes?
Vitor
[Edited at 2013-06-06 19:56 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Gül Kaya
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:17
Turkish to English
+ ...
| I doubt a small i will catch on | Jun 6, 2013 |
"There's something quite pathetic about a lowercase "i" - not to mention it's barely visible (at least "a" is harder to miss)."
Yes you're right, it looks quite bereft all on its own!
I'm very surprised that the Times of India has taken such a radical approach and also surprised that the Guardian hasn't picked up on it. I think we in the language profession are very resistant to change. Change it does however. See how funny "connexion" looks to our modern eyes, or "been... See more "There's something quite pathetic about a lowercase "i" - not to mention it's barely visible (at least "a" is harder to miss)."
Yes you're right, it looks quite bereft all on its own!
I'm very surprised that the Times of India has taken such a radical approach and also surprised that the Guardian hasn't picked up on it. I think we in the language profession are very resistant to change. Change it does however. See how funny "connexion" looks to our modern eyes, or "beene" or "physick." ▲ Collapse
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