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I can hear the real world sneaking up on me, and as much as I wish it weren't true, the fact is that I can't make a living as a freelance translator right out of grad school. My degree has a reputation; I don't. (More on that in a minute.) So I need to build a reputation. However, while I'm doing that, I also have to have food and shelter and various other things, which I can't afford at $.06 per word when I can get work at all (if the going rate is really $.06 per word, that is). The solution to that is easy: get a "real" job and translate on the side. I can do that; I've had real jobs before. The question is, can I go back to being a secretary and not hate it so much if I have something else I like doing?
Back to this reputation problem: I honestly don't know if I'm any good as a translator or not, and I'm inclined to say I'm at least fair, but not great. How much leeway am I getting here? I get As on Master's-degree-level translations, but they still come back with mistakes. In order to make a living as a translator, how many mistakes can I make? Is it like a driving test, where as long as you can do it perfectly once and get the license, you can make minor mistakes afterward? Or is it an ongoing thing, where once you've done a good enough translation to get work from an agency, you have to be perfect forever after? (And what agency representative is going to answer that question honestly? If asked, I suspect they'd say they want it perfect every time, and I'm sorry, but I'm human, and I can't guarantee that.) How do I prove that I'm good enough even if I'm human?
How does one develop enough of a sense of security in one's newly-proven skills to convince other people of them?
New subject...the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of writing a paper on the translation I did as my final composition project last semester and submitting it to the ATSA for the 2006 conference. I think they'd like it; it deals with translating cultural in-jokes in children's literature. (And if they accept the paper, I get to go to San Diego.) How long does a paper have to be to support a 20-minute presentation?
Back to this reputation problem: I honestly don't know if I'm any good as a translator or not, and I'm inclined to say I'm at least fair, but not great. How much leeway am I getting here? I get As on Master's-degree-level translations, but they still come back with mistakes. In order to make a living as a translator, how many mistakes can I make? Is it like a driving test, where as long as you can do it perfectly once and get the license, you can make minor mistakes afterward? Or is it an ongoing thing, where once you've done a good enough translation to get work from an agency, you have to be perfect forever after? (And what agency representative is going to answer that question honestly? If asked, I suspect they'd say they want it perfect every time, and I'm sorry, but I'm human, and I can't guarantee that.) How do I prove that I'm good enough even if I'm human?
How does one develop enough of a sense of security in one's newly-proven skills to convince other people of them?
New subject...the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of writing a paper on the translation I did as my final composition project last semester and submitting it to the ATSA for the 2006 conference. I think they'd like it; it deals with translating cultural in-jokes in children's literature. (And if they accept the paper, I get to go to San Diego.) How long does a paper have to be to support a 20-minute presentation?
