Freelance Translator:
If you know at least two languages very well, you could use your
linguistic abilities to make money by working as a freelance
translator. Of course more languages you know well the better your
chances of success.
While you may not require a PhD in languages for success in this work,
you do need to be highly proficient in both the languages involved in
the work.
This is because translating a simple business letter from say English
to German may not be that difficult but translating a legal document
would be something else again. Here you are required not only to
understand clearly the legal terms of the original document but also to
be able to express the same meaning in another language without adding
or subtracting anything.
While it would be great to be able to do all types of translation work,
you can find work that suits your abilities such as letters, articles,
books or product user manuals. So first find out what type of
translation work you can do with ease and proficiency and concentrate
on finding that kind of work.
So where do you find work?
First look at the companies in your area which specialize in
translation work. Don't hesitate to approach them thinking that they
would already have full-time translators working for them. Such
companies may possibly use your services for a rush job when their
regular translators are busy with some other work or don't have the
skills that you have.
When contacting such a company, don't just tell
them what kind of translation work you do, include some samples of your
work also to help them judge your ability.
Another place to look for translation work is the internet. Such sites
as guru.com and elance.com are the places for finding
translation and other online work.
Use Google and Yahoo groups to find people interested in translation work. One such
group that readily comes to mind is
Yahoo Translation Jobs Group. Don't limit yourself to one group, look at
other such groups to find those which meet your needs.
Another way to find translation work is to join work exchange sites
which bring together translators and prospective employers for
specific jobs. Here also a search on the internet is sure to
yield quite a number of results. In addition to job postings,
some such sites have a number of free articles on translation
work which you will find useful.
Tools of trade:
Besides good dictionaries, what makes your life as a translator a lot
easier is a CAT (Computer Aided Translation) tool. While a number of
such tools are available at a price,
OmegaT from
SourceForge.net is a free
resource used by many professional translators.
Another free resource that you may find helpful is
Free Online Language Translator from WorldLingo. Though this
free version is limited to a certain number of words for text,
webpage and email translation it is a nifty tool for translation
work in 15 languages.
