I started looking for volunteer opportunities July 95. Within 6 months effectively, I grabbed direct clents, and met opportunities other than translation (somewhat more attractive and more active) but related to Japanese language.
        Sachiko Honda
        ________________________________________
        I got my first real translating job working for a semiconductor manufacturer last summer, and more than anything else, my Chemical Engineering background and past work helped me to get the job. While I only worked there for a summer, ever since then I have had several opportunities to do translation, and I was able to use my experience to give my claims of being able to translate Japanese some leverage.
        Kevin M Koga
        ________________________________________
        I concur with other Honyaku guidance counselors: get a job, preferably with a Japanese company or subsidiary thereof, and preferably not with translating as your major function. Learn every aspect of the business, and how it's expressed in both languages, formally and colloquially. But mainly, absorb it physically, actually do the things you'll be translating, get your feet wet and your hands dirty. The translations will come along in the course of time.
        Advantages of working in-house:
        1. You can see the widget, fiddle with it, take it apart. (I wound up installing them in the field.)
        2. You know the target audience, e.g., layman, company stockholder, technician, sales rep nado and you can tailor your translation accordingly.
        3. For letters, nado, you can get filled in on the background, what transpired previously, and what this letter is supposed to accomplish. Such information is nearly impossible to acquire through an agency.
        Advantages of working through an agency:
        1. Anonymity: if you botch the translation, only the agency knows you're the screwup.
        2. Broad range of subjects: You'll learn, albeit superficially, about almost any subject anybody would want translated.
        3. Right of refusal: An in-house employer owns your ass, a direct end-user client effectively does. In the case of an agency, you can turn down a job if you're too busy, it's out of your bailiwick, or whatever. (But do so quickly so they have time to find somebody else. Don't leave the agency hanging in limbo for a week, then tell them you can't do it.)
        Disadvantages of working through an agency:
        1. Low pay.
        2. If they find out you're any good, they'll foist off their worst cases on you. You end up with all the tuffies and effectively subsidize inept translators who get all the cushy jobs.
        3. Difficult to consult the client. You're mostly on your own and have to figure out the jibberish for yourself.
        Disadvantages of freelance translating:
        1. Low pay.
        2. Cycles of feast and famine. Sorta fun when you're single, not so enthralling when you're married with bills to pay and mouths to feed.
        3. No freedom. In-house, you can rest on holidays, snooze it up. Freelancing, you're like the fireman, you work when there's a fire. Two fires, you work twice.
        4. No respect. You're treated like a two-bit typist.
        Sure you want to translate? I'm not trying to discourage you, but if you come up with a better way to make a living, go with that.
        Joe Mann
        ________________________________________
        Joe Mann lists "Low pay" as a disadvantage to freelance translating. I have strong doubts about that. Was this compared to in-house translating? If so, even if the freelancer is working for agencies at low agency rates, a fairly prolific and professional translator will be able to make much more freelancing than it would be possible working in-house. The dynamics of the situation, as I have seen them work, are something like this.

上一页  [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] 下一页