Secondly, although nearly everyone on this list (including myself) learnt how to translate through on-the-job training, nowadays there is another option available in the form of postgraduate courses in Japanese/English translation (e.g. the courses in Hawaii, Monterey and Brisbane). These are aimed at professional translation (nothing like any translation you may have done in your undergraduate Japanese courses), and they are a shortcut to acquiring some of the knowledge and experience that most of us have taken years to acquire. At the University of Queensland, we are also often able to introduce students to job opportunities that get them started out in the profession. (Apologies for the plug!)
        I myself learnt Japanese/English translation in three quite different ways. After formal studies in Japanese I worked in Japan as an in-house translator and then as a freelance translator for about nine years. Then I did a PhD on Japanese-English translation, and this provided a whole new perspective and depth to my practical experience. And now I teach J-E translation, and every day I learn enormously both from my students' problems and from their solutions to their problems.
        Judy Wakabayashi
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        I aquired my language skills through self-study. As in, several hours a day (basically, because I liked it). I spent nearly five years in Japan, the first two as an English conversation instructor.
        After two years, I was able to find work as an in-house translator of magazine and newspaper articles about Japanese society, politics, economics, and other subjects of general interest. I was lucky: I applied at several companies for in-house translation jobs, and none of the companies cared as much about experience, academic background, etc., as they did about my ability to apply my alleged skills to their tests. The interview and testing process earned me a demanding and fulfilling job, where I stayed for nearly three years before returning to the United States and embarking on the freelance path.
        If pressed to explain how I learned enough Japanese in two years to become a translator, I would say 1) I am visually oriented, and readily took to kanji; and 2) I learned natural sentence patterns, and expanded my vocabulary, by supplementing textbooks with magazines and other material designed for native Japanese readers as soon as I was ready--maybe even before I was ready. I would listen to the radio and watch TV even when I was not yet able to understand one-tenth of what was being said, and in the same fashion I tackled magazines, manga, etc. (I also knew better than to try to force myself to slog through material in which I personally had no interest. Thus I inevitably chose manga or pop magazines over, say, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.)
        I now do work for various agencies and the occasional direct client. It has not been smooth sailing all the way, and it sounds as though some people on the list make more in a month than I make in a year! Then again, the cost of living here is lower, and I have been known to turn down work if it would cut too much into my leisure time. Thus far, I have managed to pay my bills and even put a bit of money away.
        Most of my work as a freelancer has been in the area of corporate communications (promotional materials, etc.)--which I really enjoy. I've also translated a health-related book this past year.
        In addition to translation, I also do checking and editing work. (Until I went to Japan, editing was my full-time profession.)
        Jenny Nazak
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        I had the good fortune to be able to learn Japanese under the direction of some first-rate literary translators at the University of Michigan, and I remember one telling me that "understanding the Japanese is the easy part; expressing it in English is the hard part."
        I've since found that to be true for myself. The limiting factor on my skill as a Japanese-to-English translator is not my Japanese, it's my English.

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