I’ve come across various threads in which posters mention that they do translation, and that got me curious. So I came up with a list of questions that I thought would be interesting.
I’ll start.
LANGUAGE PAIR(S): Chinese (simp or trad) to English
SUBJECTS: Science, patents, medicine, law
YEARS EXPERIENCE: 4 full-time, 1 part-time
EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Freelance
HOW YOU GOT STARTED: Editing of English brochures for friends in Taiwan. Then one day this guy showed up at my ESL school with a brochure in Chinese for a brand of scooters. I translated it that night, and then went out and ordered business cards the next day. It slowly built up from there.
AGENCY-DIRECT CLIENT RATIO: 80% agency, 20% direct client
CLIENT LOCATION(S): Mostly USA, some Canada, occasional Taiwan
PURCHASE VALUE OF HARD-COPY REFERENCES: approx. US$2,000
SOFTWARE YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT: ISYS:desktop
DOLLAR AMOUNT RIPPED OFF BY JAGOFF CLIENTS: US$350 over four years–not bad!
PRIMARY WORK HOURS: 12:00 pm to 3:00 am, with much procrastinating and many breaks in between.
WORK IN UNDERWEAR?: Sometimes, though I’m trying to quell this nasty habit
WACKIEST JOB: One-page waybill for a Taiwanese company. When the xiaojie showed up to get the job and pay me she told me it was her homework! That helped explain why the waybill was dated 1988.
BEST ASPECT OF YOUR BEST CLIENT: Bob (not his real name) simply sends me emails asking if I can do the attached job by a certain date. The turnaround time is usually spot-on. He always grants me an extra day if I ask for it.
WORST ASPECT OF YOUR WORST CLIENT: Knob (should be his real name) asks for discounts on every job (volume, repetition), even though I never give them. I’d tell him to shove it, but I like the work I get from him.
RICHEST MONTH: US$15,000
POOREST MONTH: US$200
LONGEST SPELL WITHOUT WORK: 3 weeks. I wondered how I was going to pay the rent that month.
SECRET AMBITION: Find a novelist in Chinese I admire and translate his/her books.
LANGUAGE PAIR(S): Chinese (simp or trad. Trad preferred.) to English, Japanese to English (for fun only. Miles short of professional level.)
SUBJECTS: Gaming, Culture, General
YEARS EXPERIENCE: (C-E).5 part-time, .5 full-time, (J-E) 3 hobby-level part-time
EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Freelance, Junior In-house for Sinorama
HOW YOU GOT STARTED: Aimed to get into the industry since about age 16, originally planning and studying for J-E. After a few twists, ended up switching focus to C-E. University had a subscription to Sinorama, and after graduation an old classmate (still studying) was talking to an old lecturer, who pointed out an ad in Sinorama seeking new translators. Bumped into said classmate at the supermarket one day, he told me about the ad, I went and checked it out, and off I went.
AGENCY-DIRECT CLIENT RATIO: 10% agency (if you count Sinorama as an “agency” when the CCA goes through them), 90% direct client
CLIENT LOCATION(S): Mostly Taiwan, occasional New Zealand, one UK
PURCHASE VALUE OF HARD-COPY REFERENCES: not the foggiest at present
SOFTWARE YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT: None, really, aside from Firefox
DOLLAR AMOUNT RIPPED OFF BY JAGOFF CLIENTS: Not a sausage. I’m expecting this record to go down the toilet soon enough though.
PRIMARY WORK HOURS: 12:00 pm to 3:00 am, with much procrastinating and many breaks in between.
WORK IN UNDERWEAR?: Only first thing in the afternoon, after rolling out of bed onto the chair in front of the computer.
WACKIEST JOB: None really. All been kinda plain, aside from the occasional “Taiwan is GREAT” CCA speech.
BEST ASPECT OF YOUR BEST CLIENT: Ready and very able support from other translators for Sinorama, the (official) core of which I’ve heard from a couple of others are “amongst the best in the business in Taiwan”.
WORST ASPECT OF YOUR WORST CLIENT: Haven’t got enough to really have any complaints yet, aside from one agency back in NZ who kept wanting me to decipher handscrawled notes from doctors in Simplified
RICHEST MONTH: NT$80,000 (which I thought wasn’t too bad for a new kid)
POOREST MONTH: NT$10,000 (which gave me the green apples something chronic, when my rent alone is NT$9,000 )
LONGEST SPELL WITHOUT WORK: About 3 weeks for me too… but that was back when I was still on the unemployment benefit
SECRET AMBITION: I don’t have any secret ones! One would be to be the head translator on a big-selling video/PC game, another would be to work in subtitling for a really good HK movie (although this one won’t happen - I’ve heard what the work is like, and what the odds of them ever hiring a pro to do it are), and the third would be to find and translate a really good novel (I had considered the Infernal Affairs novelization already, but even reading it bored me. Jin Yong is still on the list though…)
LANGUAGE PAIR(S): Chinese (simp or trad) to English; Spanish (Latin American or Castilian) to English; interpreting between the three
SUBJECTS: Science, patents, medicine, industry
YEARS EXPERIENCE: 17 full-time
EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Freelance
HOW YOU GOT STARTED: I was called by a bank to do a French to English translation while I was still in high school (this was the biggest joke in the translation industry’s history, mind you; I had had like 2 years of HS French!) But I did it anyway, and since I’d taken all the major Romance languages plus Russian in HS, decided to major in Chinese when the coin flip came out that way (otherwise I’d be in Tokyo)
AGENCY-DIRECT CLIENT RATIO: 50% agency, 50% direct client
CLIENT LOCATION(S): USA, Spain, Germany, Taiwan
PURCHASE VALUE OF HARD-COPY REFERENCES: approx. US$1,000 (but admittedly I hardly ever open 'em anymore)
SOFTWARE YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT: Trados
DOLLAR AMOUNT RIPPED OFF BY JAGOFF CLIENTS: Can’t remember the amount, but it was 15 years ago – Merck Frosst Canada. Am expecting another one over a late cancellation on an interpretion job last week, however.
PRIMARY WORK HOURS: 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., and 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. for that nasty Taiwanese government organization.
WORK IN UNDERWEAR?: Sometimes. Prefer the thrill of spell-checking naked.
WACKIEST JOB: Interpreting for the baker who had a shop below our flat in Taipei as he attempted to romance two foreign women at a sleazy bar. (I met him on my Vespa at an intersection about a year back and he gave me a big grin and a wave. Satisfied client??)
BEST ASPECT OF YOUR BEST CLIENT: Bob (not his real name) pays me in cash before I ask him for the money. He says he hates to owe people money.
WORST ASPECT OF YOUR WORST CLIENT: Knob (should be his real name) (is his real name in the opinion of many) asks me periodically to translate stuff for ridiculously low prices and is well known in the industry as a non-payer.
RICHEST MONTH: ???
POOREST MONTH: ???
LONGEST SPELL WITHOUT WORK: About 3 days. Except this year when I just told everybody I was going on vacation for 2 weeks and then I actually did it!
SECRET AMBITION: To make Chinese people realize that they will never become actual native speakers of English no matter how hard they try. (Oh, and to give them that “proximal radar” thing that Americans seem to have, so they wouldn’t bump into me…but that’s not linguistically-related, is it?)
I tried answering the questions but too many of them don’t apply to me any longer. I did translation professionally full-time for five years, but now am an IP network and computer training consultant. I do translate technical material from Chinese (either form, but first learned simplified) into English when feel like it, but most of my Chinese language use now is reviewing the technical accuracy of networking and computer-related materials translated into Chinese for my customers.
Same here. I have a translation degree and did some freelance jobs back home. But here, I’m mostly busy with administration and project management. I’ll probably go freelance again when I move back to Germany next spring. Ask me again then
LANGUAGE PAIRS - Chinglish to English.
Subjects - T.V. Guide. The Art of Happiness.
Years Experience - Ten partly full part time.
Employment status - I have no status.
How I got started - My mom thought I should try to be an ESL teacher and then I discovered Japanese girls. The rest is history.
Agency-Direct Client Ratio -50/50.
Client locations - Anywhere the MRT will take me.
Purchase value… - Huh?
Dollar amount ripped off by jagoff clients - 35 dollars.
Primary work hours - 11AM - 11:15 AM
Work in Underwear? - Underwear?
Wackiest Job - They are all wacky.
Best aspect of best client - Some people have begun to refer to me as some sort of ideal type but those people are not clients they are “colleagues.”
Worst aspect of worst client -I love everybody.
Richest Month - Not much
Poorest month - Less than not much.
Longest spell without work - Dunno.
Secret Ambition - To become a sophisticated, artistic intellectual who maintains strong ethical principals and a dynamite body.
Although this is an old thread, it seems worthwhile, and I imagine we may have some translator posters who haven’t shared their info with us, so I hope you don’t mind me digging it up.
LANGUAGE PAIR(S): Chinese (trad) to English
SUBJECTS: sinopaleography
YEARS EXPERIENCE: <1 part-time
EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Freelance
HOW YOU GOT STARTED: Editing abstracts for a scholar friend at the Academia Sinica, then moving to book-length projects (just getting started)
AGENCY-DIRECT CLIENT RATIO: 100% direct client
CLIENT LOCATION(S): All Academia Sinica, Taipei
PURCHASE VALUE OF HARD-COPY REFERENCES: approx. US$2,000
SOFTWARE YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT: none
DOLLAR AMOUNT RIPPED OFF BY JAGOFF CLIENTS: none
PRIMARY WORK HOURS: 9:30 am to midnight.
WORK IN UNDERWEAR?: Yes, Spiderman boxers
WACKIEST JOB: Nothing too wacky about academic writing on late Zhou dynasty scripts.
BEST ASPECT OF YOUR BEST CLIENT: Acts as my mentor, teaching me sinopaleography.
WORST ASPECT OF YOUR WORST CLIENT: Hasn’t ever paid me; budget for current projects is still being applied for.
RICHEST MONTH: US$0
POOREST MONTH: US$0
LONGEST SPELL WITHOUT WORK: 6 months.
SECRET AMBITION: Have my name on sinopaleography textbooks used at colleges worldwide.
LANGUAGE PAIR(S): Chinese (mostly trad.) to English SUBJECTS: The whole gamut from art to zoology. Most frequently government and business, also travel and culture. I find art the hardest subject of all. YEARS EXPERIENCE: 16, with several years working full-time in other areas and translating occassionally for extra $$ EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Freelance, agencies, part-time in-house for buxiban, private cases HOW YOU GOT STARTED: Walked into a buxiban one day many years ago looking for a teaching job. They asked me if I could translate. I said yes. They gave me a sample to translate and I passed with flying colors. The rest is history. AGENCY-DIRECT CLIENT RATIO: 50-50 CLIENT LOCATION(S): Taiwan PURCHASE VALUE OF HARD-COPY REFERENCES: ABC Comprehensive Dictionary - US$45. I have a bunch of other reference materials I bought years ago, but rarely use them. The ABC is indispensable. SOFTWARE YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT: Dr. Eye, supercharged with a database of nearly 2000 terms, and growing daily. And Google if it counts. These are also indispensable resources - I don’t know how I managed back in the pre-Internet days! DOLLAR AMOUNT RIPPED OFF BY JAGOFF CLIENTS: $0. I’ve successfully followed up on every dollar I’ve been owed. PRIMARY WORK HOURS: 10:00am - wee hours of the morning. Not every day, not necessarily these hours. I often take breaks. WORK IN UNDERWEAR? Yes, sometimes. A great advantage of freelance work! WACKIEST JOB: When I first started translating, I was given a job in English that I was supposed to edit. It was the worst Chinglish I had ever seen that was not produced through machine translation. Attached was the original Chinese in the most unreadable scrawls, but that was esier to read than the English - at least I cound understand what he was trying to say. But what he was tring to say was crap. He was a student applying to a science program, and this was his study plan. He spent 90% of the time talking about Jesus and repeating that he was a Christian, and 10% of the time saying he wants to study Earth Science at “your school”. No background on his academic experience, his future study plans or his career goals. Just Jesus this, Jesus that. BEST ASPECT OF YOUR BEST CLIENT: Excellent translation review and editing process by native speakers of Chinese who are familiar with English (to check content and meaning) and by native speakers of English who are familiar with Chinese (to check grammar, style, logical flow, etc.). And the pay’s pretty good too. WORST ASPECT OF YOUR WORST CLIENT: Crappy pay, insistence on my sending them partially completed copies of projects well before the due date (because they claim they need backup copies in case my computer crashes, though I insist to them that I keep 2 separate backups at all times), and their constantly calling to remind me of things I already know about, taking 5 minutes to explain stuff to me that should take 20 seconds. (Tetsuo, you know who I’m talking about!) Now I ignore them and pretend I’m too busy so I don’t have to work with them! RICHEST MONTH: Once, years ago, I got US$4,000 for a project. It took me 3 months to complete it, but I was paid that $4,000 in a suingle month. POOREST MONTH: Not including my relatively inactive years, probably about NT$25,000 LONGEST SPELL WITHOUT WORK: 51 weeks, during the time I translated an annual report once a year for a particular client. SECRET AMBITION: To be a lion tamer!!
Am I gravedigging? Sorry, I really wanted to join the group of cool Forumosa translators!
LANGUAGE PAIR(S): Chinese to English
SUBJECTS: Mostly government reports, academic abstracts, and other random things.
YEARS EXPERIENCE: 1.5
EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Freelance, agency
HOW YOU GOT STARTED: Volunteer translated for “Watching America,” a news website, then later got recommended for a job at a translation agency in Taipei.
AGENCY-DIRECT CLIENT RATIO: 95-5 (hoping to get more clients)
CLIENT LOCATION(S): Taiwan
PURCHASE VALUE OF HARD-COPY REFERENCES: None yet.
SOFTWARE YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT: Wordfast and Google Dictionary.
DOLLAR AMOUNT RIPPED OFF BY JAGOFF CLIENTS: Must have been about $80 or so. Moral of story: Don’t trust Steven Wade of MMOSmart when he tells you he’s got a job for you translating hundreds of lines of simplified Chinese text (in a txt file) from an MMORPG somewhere in China.
PRIMARY WORK HOURS: 9:00-5:00. Frequent breaks
WORK IN UNDERWEAR? Too cold!
WACKIEST JOB: The National Freeway Bureau sent our agency a monster of an annual report totaling over 30,000 words. It was one of the worst pieces of writing I ever slogged through (there were actually whole paragraphs copied & pasted between the different chapters) and when it was over the arrogant bureaucrats complained about my wording, insisted on “correcting” it themselves (filling my pristine translation with errors in tense, pluralization, punctuation, etc.), and then sent me back their “corrected” version for me to re-correct (because they knew their own corrections were BS).
BEST ASPECT OF YOUR BEST CLIENT: Not being the National Freeway Bureau
WORST ASPECT OF YOUR WORST CLIENT: See “Wackiest Job.”
RICHEST MONTH: $40,000 NT
POOREST MONTH: $4,000 NT
LONGEST SPELL WITHOUT WORK: Couple weeks
SECRET AMBITION: Learn to breakdance
LANGUAGE PAIR(S): Chinese/English to Spanish
SUBJECTS: Politics, ecology, arts and culture
YEARS EXPERIENCE: 15
EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Full time hire
HOW YOU GOT STARTED: Translating TV series in English to Spanish for my Mom. Volunteer interpreting/translating/transcribing work for university and NGOs, for activities and publications, moving on to interpretation in bigger events and paid translations.
AGENCY-DIRECT CLIENT RATIO: 100% single client
CLIENT LOCATION(S): Taiwan, Spanish speaking countries
PURCHASE VALUE OF HARD-COPY REFERENCES: US$500
SOFTWARE YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT: Word, Google.
DOLLAR AMOUNT RIPPED OFF BY JAGOFF CLIENTS: 0
PRIMARY WORK HOURS: 9 to … when its done
WORK IN UNDERWEAR?: Now that’s a thought…
WACKIEST JOB: If I told you, I’d have to kill you…
BEST ASPECT OF YOUR BEST CLIENT: Pays on time
WORST ASPECT OF YOUR WORST CLIENT: Bit repetitive, not very creative
RICHEST MONTH: all months are the same
POOREST MONTH: same as above
LONGEST SPELL WITHOUT WORK: No breaks
SECRET AMBITION: To be a revolutionary
Not very interesting, sorry. I just have to say that one of my instructors in college warned us that we shouldn’t do this translation job full time. He said we could end up with a sticker on our chest saying: My name is Me and I live in here. Alas, should have heed his warning. Today is one of those days my tongue and brain are not connected in a single language, let alone a coherent thought…
LANGUAGE PAIR(S): Japanese to English, Chinese to English
SUBJECTS: Culture, Arts, Business, Patents
YEARS EXPERIENCE: 5
EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Freelancing/Part-time (Full-time Student)
HOW YOU GOT STARTED: Translating song lyrics (extremely badly) way back in 9th grade. Then translating manga. Translated some business letters/contracts/pamphlets Chinese-English for a company I worked at at around 19, then started doing some actual research, finding clients and getting into it a lot more.
AGENCY-DIRECT CLIENT RATIO: 60% agency (agency being a different contractor who subcontracts to me)
CLIENT LOCATION(S): Australia, Taiwan, Japan
PURCHASE VALUE OF HARD-COPY REFERENCES: $0
SOFTWARE YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT: Google and Word
DOLLAR AMOUNT RIPPED OFF BY JAGOFF CLIENTS: $0 (Oh wait, I once translated ten pages for a ‘trial’ translation for an MMORPG in China. Hmmm, John, this sounds familiar! Now I won’t translate more than a page for a ‘trial’…)
PRIMARY WORK HOURS: Whenever it comes in, though I seem to work mostly from 6 or 7pm
WORK IN UNDERWEAR?: No, I take the underwear off
WACKIEST JOB: Nothing that much fun yet. Interpreting for a bunch of drunk Chinese businesspeople while the Mayor of Ipswich (QLD) made rabbit ear impressions was fun, though XD
BEST ASPECT OF YOUR BEST CLIENT: Regular work and support
WORST ASPECT OF YOUR WORST CLIENT: Exploitative (old boss), grabs me when I walk in and say ‘I NEED YOU!’ (school office)
RICHEST MONTH: $3000 for 2 contracts
POOREST MONTH: $0 for no work!
LONGEST SPELL WITHOUT WORK: Real job is studying, so work is just intermittent.
SECRET AMBITION: It used to be to be a literary translator.
LANGUAGE PAIR(S): Chinese/English to German
SUBJECTS: telecoms, culture, websites, politics, culture/art, …
YEARS EXPERIENCE: a few years within the last 20 years
EMPLOYMENT STATUS: freelance
HOW YOU GOT STARTED: a friend translated a book and needed some help; a freelance job at Radio Free China translating Sinorama articles and news into German.
AGENCY-DIRECT CLIENT RATIO: 50-50
CLIENT LOCATION(S): Taiwan, Germany
PURCHASE VALUE OF HARD-COPY REFERENCES: ?
SOFTWARE YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT: I guess it would be Trados, if I had it
DOLLAR AMOUNT RIPPED OFF BY JAGOFF CLIENTS: 0
PRIMARY WORK HOURS: 9-12, 15-18, 19-22
WORK IN UNDERWEAR?: not anymore
WACKIEST JOB:
BEST ASPECT OF YOUR BEST CLIENT: likes my translations, pays
WORST ASPECT OF YOUR WORST CLIENT: asks me to translate English-Chinese
RICHEST MONTH: 80000NT
POOREST MONTH: 0NT
LONGEST SPELL WITHOUT WORK: 15 years
SECRET AMBITION: win the lottery
LANGUAGE PAIR(S): Chinese to English (Although I could do Afrikaans/Dutch to English and vice versa, but not much of a market for that outside of South Africa.)
SUBJECTS: So far…the Taiwanese Immigration examination booklet.
YEARS EXPERIENCE: I spent a month on that booklet.
EMPLOYMENT STATUS: n/a, still dreaming of the day
HOW YOU GOT STARTED: See above. I did do some Afrikaans to English translation for my Alma Mater though.
AGENCY-DIRECT CLIENT RATIO: n/a
CLIENT LOCATION(S): [url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/cracking-the-naturalization-language-exam-a-guide/57206/1
PURCHASE VALUE OF HARD-COPY REFERENCES: ?
SOFTWARE YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT: MDBG
DOLLAR AMOUNT RIPPED OFF BY JAGOFF CLIENTS: 0
PRIMARY WORK HOURS: n/a
WORK IN UNDERWEAR?: When am I not in my underwear?
WACKIEST JOB: n/a
BEST ASPECT OF YOUR BEST CLIENT: Northcoast Surfer’s praise, and another lady who passed the immigration test due to my translation.
WORST ASPECT OF YOUR WORST CLIENT: n/a
RICHEST MONTH: n/a
POOREST MONTH: n/a
LONGEST SPELL WITHOUT WORK: n/a
SECRET AMBITION: To be an actual qualified working translator. My hero is Ironlady and my ambition is to be just like her. But without the women’s clothing.
LANGUAGE PAIR(S): Traditional Chinese <=> English
SUBJECTS: Anything but medicine and law.
YEARS EXPERIENCE: 1 full-time, ? part-time
EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Freelance / unemployed by choice
HOW YOU GOT STARTED: Test translations
AGENCY-DIRECT CLIENT RATIO: Whoever pays is a client.
CLIENT LOCATION(S): Taiwan
PURCHASE VALUE OF HARD-COPY REFERENCES: Roughly NT $2,000.
SOFTWARE YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT: Ubuntu
DOLLAR AMOUNT RIPPED OFF BY JAGOFF CLIENTS: Unpaid test translations are rip-offs.
PRIMARY WORK HOURS: I’m unbelievably accommodating about work hours, as long as I don’t have to leave home.
WORK IN UNDERWEAR?: Nothing wrong with the birthday suit.
WACKIEST JOB: Shhhhhhhh! It’s strictly confidential.
BEST ASPECT OF YOUR BEST CLIENT: Helps me pay a few bills.
WORST ASPECT OF YOUR WORST CLIENT: Slow payer. Oh, and the in-house editor sucks!
RICHEST MONTH: NT $60,000
POOREST MONTH: NT $0
LONGEST SPELL WITHOUT WORK: ?
SECRET AMBITION: Be a hermit.
LANGUAGE PAIR(S): Chinese (simp or trad) to English
SUBJECTS: Business/Management/Engineering
YEARS EXPERIENCE: forever
EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Freelance
HOW YOU GOT STARTED: started through a friend of a friend
AGENCY-DIRECT CLIENT RATIO: 100% referral
CLIENT LOCATION(S): Taiwan/China
PURCHASE VALUE OF HARD-COPY REFERENCES: $500 US/lots of stuff online
SOFTWARE YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT: ISYS:desktop
DOLLAR AMOUNT RIPPED OFF BY JAGOFF CLIENTS: nothing, although some clients want extra time to go over the same document again and again.
PRIMARY WORK HOURS: depends on the deadline
WORK IN UNDERWEAR?: housecoat
WACKIEST JOB: tatoo related website. pretty mild though.
BEST ASPECT OF YOUR BEST CLIENT: PHD thesis. Students don’t give a shit. They just want to finish and get the hell out of school.
WORST ASPECT OF YOUR WORST CLIENT: Clients that copy 90% of their dissertations and deny it.
RICHEST MONTH: fall is pretty busy as a lot of submissions are due and the conferences are set for the spring.
POOREST MONTH: summer is slow as most phd students are collaborating research and don’t have deadlines until the fall.
LONGEST SPELL WITHOUT WORK: fall 2008/winter 2009 financial crisis. Businesses cut R&D so nothing was going on for a while.
SECRET AMBITION: Retire.
Now I won’t translate more than a page for a ‘trial’…)