So, How Long Does It Take to Become a Freelance Translator?

The short answer would be, it depends.  However, some basic steps and time approximations from one man’s experience are as follows:

• Startup Phase – 1 month
  • Basic website
  • Targeted resume
  • Join professional associations
  • Make area contacts
• Gathering Clients – 1-6 months
  • Research companies to see who’s hiring
  • Send out resumes and business cards
  • Apply to agencies
• Building Your Business – 6-18 months
  • Steady clients
  • Other projects
  • Additional job opportunities
• Expanding Your Business – 1 year and onward
  • Marketing campaign
  • Ability to pick and choose between projects

 If you’d like more details on this topic, see http://thoughtsontranslation.com.

Crowdsourcing and Translation

As defined on Wikipedia, “Crowdsourcing is a neologism for the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people or community in the form of an open call.”  Perceived benefits of crowdsourcing include:

• Problems can be explored at comparatively little cost, and often very quickly.
• Payment is by results or even omitted.
• The organization can tap a wider range of talent than might be present in its own organization.

Some possible pitfalls of crowdsourcing include:

• Added costs to bring a project to an acceptable conclusion.
• Increased likelihood that a crowdsourced project will fail due to lack of monetary motivation, too few participants, lower quality of work, lack of personal interest in the project, global language barriers, or difficulty managing a large-scale, crowdsourced project.
• Below-market wages or no wages at all.
• No written contracts, non-disclosure agreements, or employee agreements or agreeable terms with crowdsourced employees.
• Difficulties maintaining a working relationship with crowdsourced workers throughout the duration of a project.
• Susceptibility to faulty results caused by targeted, malicious work efforts.

For further information on crowdsourcing, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing.

 The effects of crowdsourcing on the translation industry are debatable.  On one hand, it follows that some companies will turn to crowdsourcing to fill their translation needs.  However, as such a method requires a much longer time continuum to complete in order to receive quality results, it is likely that many companies will continue to outsource their translation needs to well-known professionals in the field.

Translation as an Art Form

“If literature is an art form, then the translator must also be an artist.”  Such reads a statement from Kersti Juva who is arguably the world’s most widely known translator.  Her fame began when she was appointed an “Artist Professor” in Finland.  This position has earned her attention not only in Finland, but throughout the world. 

As one might expect, Juva, who has translated works from authors ranging from A.A. Milne to William Shakespeare, has much to say on the topic of translation as art.  She explains, “Translating can be described more or less like this: I dress myself in the original text and start to imitate the author’s gestures and movements . . .”  She also describes how a good translation must both resemble and yet differ from the original text: “If one sets out from the premise that the translation must be the equivalent of the original text in another language, translating is impossible.  A translation cannot empty the original into a new language.  The true goal of a translation is not to resemble the original text, but to fill its place, or, perhaps better, to create a similar place within the target culture.”  By doing so, the translator allows those in the target language to enjoy literature from all over the world. 

To learn more about Kersti Juva, visit her website: www.turanko.net/kersti/classics.html