{"id":10023,"date":"2012-10-31T09:44:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-31T09:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musik.a-z-translation.com\/how-not-to-become-translator\/"},"modified":"2020-01-03T11:34:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T11:34:00","slug":"how-not-to-become-translator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/en\/how-not-to-become-translator\/","title":{"rendered":"How Not to Become a Translator"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nSince I am completely swamped with work, I thought I’d share Per N. Dohler’s very interesting translator profile from the Translation Journal<\/a> (Volume 7, No. 1, January 2003).
\nHave fun reading!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\n

\n How Not to Become a Translator <\/h2>\n

by Per N. Dohler<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

 <\/p>\n

hen Gabe asked me to “be” the Translator Profile for this issue of his wonderful Translation Journal<\/i>,
\n I felt opportunity knocking. A typical freelance translator, spending
\nmost of his or her time alone in a room (well, alone with the world
\nsince the advent of the Internet, but still), will readily discourse at
\nlength on just about anything, given a fraction of a chance. My wife
\nThea, who has had ample occasion to study the social behavior of
\ntranslators, calls this “translators’ logorrhea” and considers it a
\nprofessional disease.
\n Anyway, here it goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n
\n It’s easy to waste an
\nimmense amount of time
\nrepeating everybody
\nelse’s mistakes. <\/div>\n

<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Uh, well\u2014what
\ncan I say. (Ahem, a lot, obviously.) I am a freelance translator (I like
\n to say “independent translator”). My native language is German. My
\nextraction is German, Romanian, Hungarian, Polish-Jewish, and other
\nthings I will never know about. My country is Germany, but if I hadn’t
\nadopted the U.S. and Sweden on the side I could never stand being here. I
\n translate from English and the Scandinavian languages into German. My
\nfields are dental, medical, financial, marketing, PR, IT, localization. I
\n live and work in Barendorf, a small community in the center of Northern
\n Germany, together with said Thea, who is an independent consultant, my
\nbest editor, and a lot of other things that don’t belong here. And in
\ncase I have forgotten something, you can always look it up at www.triacom.com<\/a>.
\nUnfortunately, on top of all that, I am also probably one of the world’s most eminent experts on how not to become a translator.<\/p>\n

I know what I am talking about. In my first years as a translator I
\ndid almost everything wrong, and I certainly made plenty of the most
\nelementary mistakes.<\/p>\n

I’d say I wasn’t even a translator initially; I was just posing as
\none. True, I had an academic background in U.S. literature and English
\nlinguistics, painfully acquired after meandering through the academic
\nsystem for too many years (easy enough to do at those unstructured
\nGerman universities). And, having spent a couple of years in California,
\n I felt that my English was adequate and that I knew a little about the
\nU.S. But that, of course, is nowhere near good enough to hang out one’s
\nshingle as a translator.<\/p>\n

My first paid translations were done, somewhat accidentally, in 1982,
\n for a professor of history. I had to translate source documents from
\nU.S. history into German for inclusion in an annotated textbook. The
\nvolume in question did eventually appear; my contribution was hardly
\nrecognizable. But no one told me what I had done wrong, or how. <\/p>\n

The next step in that dubious career of mine came over a year later,
\nwhen my father\u2014a dentist and director of the state dental
\nassociation\u2014referred Germany’s largest dental publisher to me (just like
\n that, he had no idea whether I would perform OK or not). So I started
\ndoing dental translations, all of which were edited by my father. (“That
\n may sound good, Per, but it’s not what a dentist would ever say!”) (HINDSIGHT:
\n What I gained from this cooperation over the next few years was the
\nbest practical education in the field I could have had, short of
\nactually becoming a dentist myself.)<\/i> But from a business angle, the
\nwhole setup was a disaster because I simply swallowed what I was fed. I
\nwould receive two or three dental articles a month to translate from
\nEnglish into German. I was getting paid by the printed page, a few
\nmonths after the article appeared in print (if it appeared), at a rate
\nset by the publisher. It was not until over a year later that a new
\neditorial coordinator took pity on me and suggested that I submit an
\ninvoice for what I had not heretofore thought of as accounts receivable.
\n <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, my M.A. thesis was finally completed, even well
\nreceived\u2014but there were no jobs for linguists. I’d had an invitation to
\nwork toward a Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley, but the
\n family finances did not stretch that far. To turn a dead end into
\nsomething useful, I started out to get a second degree, this time in
\ncomputer science (there were, and still are, no tuition charges at
\nGerman universities, so that was no problem). Something with language
\nand computers\u2014that could be hot, or so we thought, even though it was
\nnot quite clear how. (HINDSIGHT: This was going to give me an enormous advantage in the 1990s, when localization became a big hit.)<\/i>
\n To put bread on the table, I continued working for my dental publisher,
\n even acquired a second one and a pharmaceutical company somehow (word
\nof mouth, probably), and audited assorted university-level classes in
\nmedicine and dentistry. I managed to muddle through in this manner for
\nsome time more.<\/p>\n

Finally, one morning in 1988\u2014six years after my first translation!\u2014I
\nlooked at myself in the mirror and said, almost a bit surprised, “You,
\nPer, are actually a translator.” (HINDSIGHT: I was not, yet.)<\/i> I
\ndropped out of school, bought a new computer and more dictionaries, sent
\n out some makeshift mailings\u2014I didn’t know anything about marketing
\neither\u2014and actually landed one or two new clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n
\nEverything I ever learned
\nI learned from someone else.\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

But I still hadn’t ever spoken to
\n a “real” translator, had never had a translation of mine critiqued, had
\n been denied membership by the regional translators’ association, had
\nnever participated in any kind of professional exchange, had never even
\nread a book on the art or the craft of translation\u2014nothing. Despite all
\nthat, I was doing relatively well financially, and I even became
\naccredited by the Chamber of Commerce in my home state. I was
\ntranslating more and more, but I still wasn’t a translator. Not until
\n1991\u2014nine years after my first translation. (HINDSIGHT: Most of the
\nlittle odds and ends picked up along the way will ultimately come in
\nhandy in some translation. There may be no more “renaissance men” in
\nthis world, but a broad range of interests does not hurt.)
\n<\/i>So what happened in 1991? CompuServe, the U.S.-based online
\nservice, started doing serious business in Germany. I signed up and soon
\n found the legendary FLEFO community of translators\u2014then just about the
\nonly such online community, with the possible exceptions of sci.lang.translation<\/i> on Usenet and LANTRA-L<\/i>
\n , if I remember correctly. A new world opened up for me\u2014the world of
\nactual translation. And actual translators. (And virtual translation.
\nAnd virtual translators.)<\/p>\n

Translators must be one of the most interesting breeds of people.
\nMany are probably a little weird, myself quite possibly not excluded;
\nbut most of those I met in the ensuing years\u2014and I met plenty of
\ncolleagues at home and abroad over the years, enjoyed their company,
\nenjoyed their hospitality, tried to lure them to Barendorf (“Hotbed of
\nNorth German Translation”), almost as if to make up for lost time\u2014are
\nreally interesting people with strong opinions, which they are eager to
\ntry on others. We come from an incredible wealth of backgrounds and
\nbring this diversity to the incredible wealth of worlds that we
\ntranslate from and into. <\/p>\n

I don’t know who said it, I may even have made this up myself:
\n“Everything I ever learned I learned from someone else.” In my case,
\nwhen it comes to the art, the craft, and the business of translation,
\nthe “someone else” would usually have been someone I originally met on
\nFLEFO, and the time would have been the early 1990s.<\/p>\n

So in this manner, I became a translator after all. Things have been largely uphill ever since.<\/p>\n

Appendix 1: How To Be a Translator<\/p>\n

<\/b>I am afraid more people than care to admit it have taken an
\nequally long time and equally circuitous routes in becoming translators.
\n If you are just starting out, save yourself some valuable time. Do not
\nemulate our haphazard paths. Instead, proceed as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Take a sober inventory of what you bring to the job. All of us\u2014all
    \nof us!\u2014have learned interesting things in our lives, which might be
    \nuseful in one way or another when translating in various fields. But if
    \nyou lack certain essentials\u2014for example, if you are not a good writer in
    \n your native language\u2014then do consider pursuing a different path. <\/li>\n
  • Take a sober inventory of what you still need to acquire. Then
    \nacquire it. Spend some time on training first\u2014it need not be in
    \ntranslation as such\u2014specialty fields are just as important for many.
    \nAllow yourself some time abroad; read, read, read; and listen, listen,
    \nlisten. Even if you think you already have a solid foundation and you
    \nhave work, set aside enough time so that you can still do all of the
    \nabove on the side. <\/li>\n
  • Seek out colleagues wherever you can. Good places to look are
    \nInternet “hangouts” for translators and (yes) translators’ associations.
    \n Collaborate whenever you have a chance. Edit and be edited, even if you
    \n hate editing. Above all, keep your mind open. What we learn today isn’t
    \n going to last us a lifetime! <\/li>\n
  • Don’t deceive yourself into thinking you are some kind of an artist
    \nenjoying artists’ (and fools’) privileges\u201499% of the time you are not. <\/li>\n
  • Think of yourself as a businessperson first and foremost. Be
    \ndependable. Be available. Be visible. Be serious. Market yourself. Stick
    \n to deadlines religiously. Don’t guess what your customer needs\u2014if you
    \naren’t 100% sure, ask. If you don’t like what you hear, say no. If you
    \nare called upon to do something you cannot do, say no. But if you do
    \nengage in a contract, abide by its terms. Sound trivial? You’d be
    \nsurprised how many translators fail in precisely these trivial things.
    \nThe most rigorous translation is worthless if it arrives after<\/i> that atomic power plant blows up. <\/li>\n
  • Develop a set of negative criteria for those projects you don’t want to do. Then don’t do them. <\/li>\n
  • Develop an O.K. set of positive criteria for those projects you
    \nreally do want to do. Then pursue them whenever you have a minute to
    \nspare. <\/li>\n
  • Determine where you want to go. Ask yourself: What would I like my
    \nprofessional life to be, say, ten years from now? From time to time,
    \ncalibrate the things you do on a daily basis against that overall goal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Appendix 2: Truisms … or Controversial Food for Thought<\/p>\n

    Translators<\/p>\n

    <\/b><\/p>\n


      \n<\/b><\/p>\n
    • It has been predicted that translators would be obsolete “in ten
      \n years” for about fifty years now. These predictions will probably
      \ncontinue to be issued regularly for the next fifty years. <\/li>\n
    • There are translators who claim they never allow a less-than-perfect translation to leave their desk. They are lying.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Translation<\/p>\n

      <\/b><\/p>\n


        \n<\/b><\/p>\n
      • Translation is not a commodity. (Translators are usually not freely interchangeable.) <\/li>\n
      • Translation is a potentially scarce item. (Neither the number of its producers nor their output can be increased at will.) <\/li>\n
      • Translation is not scalable. (Volume discounts in translation don’t make sense.) <\/li>\n
      • Terminology is to translation what trees are to the forest. But you often don’t see the latter for the former. <\/li>\n
      • There is no such thing as a perfect translation. There isn’t even
        \nsuch a thing as a translation most people would consider pretty good. <\/li>\n
      • “Quality” in the sense used in ISO 900x has nothing, absolutely
        \nnothing to do with “good” or “bad.” ISO 900x is not applicable to mental
        \n activities such as translation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Marketing<\/p>\n

        <\/b><\/p>\n


          \n<\/b><\/p>\n
        • All marketing methods (such as a website) work best as part of
          \nan overall marketing concept. Such a concept need not be aggressive. But
          \n why not try “quietly pervasive”? <\/li>\n
        • There are clients with low-quality needs, clients with top-quality
          \nneeds, and the gamut in between. There are translators to accommodate
          \nall those markets. Over time, the choice is ours. <\/li>\n
        • A company that is a delinquent payer will probably stay a delinquent payer. Caveat vendor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Business<\/p>\n

          <\/b><\/p>\n


            \n<\/b><\/p>\n
          • Like all other human activities, translation is subject to the
            \nlaw of diminishing returns. Happy translators know when to stop worrying
            \n about the remaining details. <\/li>\n
          • There are more translators earning decent money than the general chorus of complaining suggests. <\/li>\n
          • Saying no to unreasonable demands may do nothing for your checking
            \naccount in the short run, but it will work wonders for your self-esteem
            \nin the long run. <\/li>\n
          • The Internet revolution is actually over. The CAT revolution is
            \nactually over. The next revolution has not yet surfaced. Those who catch
            \n it early will be ahead of the game. But don’t expect anyone to tip you
            \noff\u2014you have to look around for yourself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            Tools<\/p>\n

            <\/b><\/p>\n


              \n<\/b><\/p>\n
            • Our most precious tool, beyond our brains, is our own data on
              \nour own computers. Dictionaries, programs, CD-ROMs can usually be
              \nreplaced if lost. Our own original data can’t be. <\/li>\n
            • CAT tools make translation faster. They can make translation more
              \nconsistent. But CAT has pitfalls, such as disparate translation
              \nmemories, which probably lie at the bottom of a lot of incoherent
              \ntranslations\u2014mumbo-jumbo like nothing anyone would have ever come up
              \nwith before CAT.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u00a9 Copyright Translation Journal<\/i> and the Author 2003<\/b><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I am completely swamped with work, I thought I’d share Per N. Dohler’s very interesting translator profile from the Translation Journal (Volume 7, No. 1, January 2003). Have fun reading! How Not to Become a Translator by Per N. Dohler   hen Gabe asked me to “be” the Translator Profile for this issue of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[889,90,886,166,683],"class_list":["post-10023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unkategorisiert","tag-colleague","tag-english","tag-kollegen","tag-translation","tag-translator","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10023"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10449,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10023\/revisions\/10449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}