Translation work in Taiwan

Does anyone know how I can look for translation, English to Chinese, in Taiwan or elsewhere?

I don’t like doing this language pair but I seem to be more competent in it compared to Chinese to English (mostly because English grammar rules are too complicated and that editors and reviewers have extremely low tolerance for mistakes). I know there has to be a lot of work for this, as China is a huge market, and I am sure Taiwan has big markets for English books or literature to be translated to Chinese as well…

I just want something better than proz.com

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My (Taiwanese) wife has had some luck on UpWork, but I think it’s quite a race-to-the-bottom depending on what kind of clients you get. They take 20% off the top for I think the first $500USD with a client, but after that it drops to 10% which is a little more manageable.

The best contract she had was for a “Chinese Content Writer” that had her writing articles in Chinese around given topics (was around $30USD/hr with very steady work), but has also found plenty of lower-paying translation work (that usually isn’t too picky since it’s English-speaking people who can’t read Chinese).

The impression I get from her is that anything that she’s found in Taiwan has paid like shit, while UpWork pays okay.

Is English not your native language? I honestly wouldn’t have guessed based on the way you write – I don’t know this, but if I were to guess I’d bet that the real money is in:

  • Business contract translations
  • Businesses who need a contact over here who knows how to source / manufacture products (and speaks excellent English)

Just some thoughts – good luck!

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Right now I get semi regular, but not too regular (maybe 100USD per month worth of work on average) from The Translation Gate. Right now they’re doing this localization of some financial trading firm (kinda like paypal but also does stocks, gold, cryptocurrencies, etc.) into Chinese. I get good reviews who described my work as fluent and acceptable after minor corrections.

English is my native language but I find that anytime I submit work in English, especially writing or Chinese to English translation work, I am not getting ANY repeat business at all. In fact work for that seems to have completely dropped off to zero and the English to Chinese work seems to pay better (about twice as much per word) and their tolerance for errors are much more generous, where in English even a single typo in 1 page (300 words) is unacceptable. I think it’s because they can find anyone, especially in India where people who are fluent in english and can read Chinese ok who is willing to work for peanuts, but most Chinese to English translators seem to be Taiwanese or Chinese who majored in English in college.

While my Chinese isn’t perfect and Chinese typing and writing is very painful, it just seems I am getting more favorable reviews compared to English. There are tools I can use such as dictation to address the difficulty in typing Chinese.

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I’d definitely check out UpWork then – Most of my wife’s clients are Americans who are doing some sort of localization who have no means to double check the work anyway.

I’m not sure if “not-looking-asian” (if you don’t) would be a mark against you (most of my wife’s big contracts want to have a video call to go over the material), but I’d think it would be worth checking out! Having English as your native language may even help in circumstances where the meaning is subtle (My wife definitely does 95% of the work, but I think her being able to ask me to clarify certain things has definitely helped her land some of the bigger contracts).

I can definitely see working with Asian clients (who need something translated into English) would pay quite a bit less than working with Western clients who need something translated into Chinese – though I am a little surprised that they are that strict on the quality (I’ve seen some sample translations from the cheaper end of things and they are not that great tbh; certainly far from perfect)

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I just signed up to upwork but I am not sure if my profiles will be accepted…

As far as quality goes, I really do not know what’s the standard because I don’t really get feedbacks from translation agencies apart from not hearing from them again. The only agency that I have repeat work from so far is The Translation Gate. But their work frequency seems kinda low. They found me through ProZ however.

It’s possible agencies vary all over the place as far as qualities they demand but it just seems the ones from Western countries probably demand perfection, while ones from India couldn’t care less. But getting consistent work in Chinese to English pairs have been very hard.

Can you ask your wife what is the criteria to join Upwork? I signed up but was rejected. Are they hard to get into?

You signed up as a freelancer?

I’m surprised that they rejected you – my impression is that it wasn’t that selective (since you have to bid for client’s yourself). What type of questions did they ask?

All my wife remembers is signing up for a regular user account (no questions or interviews or anything) and being able to message clients directly.

How long ago did your wife sign up? Was her profile subject to review?

I am just told that profiles are reviewed and since over 10,000 people sign up a day they can only accept a small percentage of them and it’s highly competitive.

They say I can submit again and make sure not to leave out anything that I didn’t include…

Probably 1.5-2ish years ago

Wow, that’s crazy that they actually got selective – and I’m surprised that you didn’t get accepted even though you’ve had previous work experience / project-based work…

Might be worth trying again if you have more information to include in your application (she has gotten quite a bit of work from there) but I also wouldn’t put it as super high quality clients either…

I wonder if they are trying to change their perception of "bottom-of-the-barrel"clients/talent (which is kind of what they were known for at least up until last year)

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yea it looks like they are doing that.

I didn’t include a whole lot because I didn’t think they were that selective. I mean ProZ doesn’t care because it’s mainly a directory (but if you buy their membership your profile gets bumped up).

I did a freelance platform called “CloudCrowd” and it got REALLY tough. At first they were putting out stuff that was just simply not done by English speakers but then it got to the point where even Hemingway would be rejected. After that they basically disappeared.

Do you think your wife could vouch for me? I hear that increases acceptance

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