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| Thanks for the questions and your intentions for helping out.
More details below
- Profile : Mother of 2 / housewife in a bilingual family
- Looking for : freelancing / in house work
- Language proficiency : DE as mother tongue, EN used in daily life
- Association : none
Any further points will be really helpful. | |
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I fear that if your only qualification to translate is speaking two languages, you're going to have to get some training by practising translating and probably look at getting a formal qualification. Mere bilingualism does not a translator make, I'm afraid.
There are lots of options; one of the best institutions here in Switzerland for translation courses is ZHAW. Plenty of universities in the UK offer an MA in translation, and the Chartered Institute of Linguists is a qualification provider for the postgraduate Diploma in Translation (DipTrans). There are many options for remote study, especially preparation courses for the DipTrans, and the Open University's MA in translation.
Two things I would say:
1. don't underestimate the DipTrans - the first-time pass rate is only around 25-30%, I myself took two attempts back in 1996/7
2. without either a formal translation qualification or a formal qualification in some other specialist field e.g. law, engineering, software development etc. along with some translation experience, you will find it nigh on impossible to break into the field except through personal contacts and luck.
In-house jobs are like hens's teeth (although there are more around now than, say, 10 years ago and there are more in Switzerland with German as the target language than with English TL) and you will be competing with people with an arm full of qualifications. Agencies have so many applications they just bin anything without formal qualifications, and even those with qualifications find it hard to stand out. One of my mentees has a background in language teaching and the charity sector (which is always crying out for trained translators to work pro bono) and is really struggling to get a foothold until she's passed the DipTrans.
In short, translation is a profession, just like the law, medicine, accountancy etc. and not something you can really do "on the side" just because you fancy it. It's also far more than just mechanically transferring one word to another: the art is transferring *meaning* and *writing* in your target language. You also need to know the business side. After all, freelancers are running an independent business, and even in-house translators need to understand what their employer is trying to achieve and how.
But - having spent this whole post pouring cold water on you (possibly completely incorrectly, if my assumptions about your background are wrong) - I would also say, if you feel called to translation, then do go for it (properly)! There are lots of translators but few great ones. If you have the picky, perfectionist mindset of a translator, it can be immensely satisfying, it's incredibly varied as every text is different, and you are a key stakeholder in the communication process and hence, very often, in the entire success or otherwise of business and personal transactions (and not just in the monetary sense).
Why not have a look at the websites of the
Chartered Institute of Linguists and the
Institute of Translation and Interpreting to start your research? There are other institutions in most countries (ASTTI here in CH, BDÜ in Germany, SFT in France, ATA in the US); I'm recommending these two because I'm originally from the UK and, after nearly thirty years in the profession I'm a Fellow of both
Good luck!
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