Should I study translation...?

Flavio Granados wrote:

Sebastian, ojala todos tuvieran "tu problema".

Mi recomendación:

1) Existen institutos en el mundo que imparten la carrera de traducción de manera semipresencial o a distancia, busca uno.

2) Ya que te gusta la informática, estudia una carrera afín a esta, u otra de tu elección, pero no te quedes solo con el conocimiento de traducción que adquirirás.

El "depósito de oportunidades" que genera las condiciones que mencionas es, para ser exagerado, infinito, aprovéchalo.

Saludos,

Flavio

Jenae Spry wrote:

Sebastian,

Would leaving and going to school somewhere else be an option for you? I know in the states there are a few programs (I went to the Monterey Institute of International Studies) and I'm not sure what other SA countries might offer, but you might expand your horizons a bit if that is an option for you.

Another option would be to see if you can find a mentor in your language combination. The ATA (American Translators Association) and Proz both have mentorship programs. If you already have some translation skills, you might find a professional who can help guide you in the right direction. Ideally, you would want someone who is also in your desired specialization. Sometimes Mentors will outsource a job or two to a mentee and you would do it for free or at low cost and the Mentor would provide you with feedback in exchange.

Once your skills are up to par, you can take the ATA certification exam (or perhaps there is a professional exam in Columbia?) in order to provide potential clients with a validation of your abilities. In the meantime, you can always work on your writing skills in both languages because grammar, punctuation, wording, etc. are all crucial as a professional translator. Our job is not just getting the point across, but getting the point across in a highly accurate, well-worded and clear manner. Your blog gives you a great opportunity to showcase your abilities and/or receive feedback from those that are qualified to provide it.

Just be sure you consider all your options and your goals before you shell out money and time for school. Getting a degree just to get the piece of paper can backfire, and like I said, once your skills are up to par, you can take that exam as proof that you are a qualified translator. As you have clearly seen with your friends, a degree does not necessarily guarantee a job and to succeed in this industry, you largely have to be prepared to run your own business. A paycheck is not a reality for most of us as in-house jobs have dwindled to nearly non-existent. Running your own business is a VERY rewarding and fun process, but is also a lot of work.

I hope that helps.

LilianBNekipelo wrote:

If you haven't been translating much in your life, try translating for a week -- like some newspaper articles, for example, at least 8 hours a day, and see if you like it, after a week. If you do, go to study it, or you can study something else in a related field such as literature, language studies, applied linguistics, but it is essential to go to university to study for a few years.

Also, if you decide to devote your professional life to translation, you may be required to work in a pet store or a flower shop, for awhile, when getting established. These are the challenges of our profession.

With your deep interest in computers, you don't have to study translation. You can study computer science or graphic design, and just take a few courses in linguistics and translation, and work on both of your languages all the time. Very few universities in the US have translation as their majors -- the same way as in Colombia

I personally don't think you should waste your time and money to study translation as a major, unless you want to be a literary translator, but then it might be advisable to study literature and writing, and then take a graduate program in literary translation. These are usually Fine Arts degrees.

[Edited at 2013-12-14 12:15 GMT]

Edward Vreeburg wrote:

a good specialist field of knowlegde (IT) and a platform to put it all on (blog)... Now all you need is experience and clients. Formal education is not available right now (although online courses or remote studies might be an option)...

You are however competing in an extremely competitive market...
- so prices are low
- budget is low
- many people have no formal education

Do you see many requests for "only apply if you have this or that exam"?

Basically you will need to figure out a way to either get paid to write articles, or use that experience to attract customers for translation work...

I think formal education in your case is something you might pick up later...

Depending on how good your Japanese is, you might attract some clients in that area
Jap->Eng or Jap->Sp..., or simply En->Sp from a Japanese client...

Ed

felicij wrote:

in this world-wide market. Let's take me as an example. I studied German as a sole language and haven't used English almost 10 years. When I decided to be a translator, I wanted to be perfect in the language pair I studied for. But every client that got in touch with me eventually asked me if I could also translate from English. Since it was my first foreign language I agreed. And now it represents 70% of all my projects (after 13 years).
I have no B.A. in it, I also stopped learning it (in school) approx. 20 years ago but I am equally proficient in it as I am in German...