| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: Why are you a translator? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| A combination | Apr 10, 2017 |
Always wanted to be one from a really young age (4 or so), especially to unite nations and achieve world peace. By the time I realized I wouldn't be able to, I couldn't think of anything better to do.
| | | | ipv
Local time: 06:51
Member (2015)
English to Croatian
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| To unite nations and achieve world peace | Apr 10, 2017 |
Of course
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I had more than a couple of other completely different professions before this one and then one day translation found me: part-time for a few years followed by 20 years as full-time in-house translator and reviser (retired now). I have been freelancing full-time since 2006.
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Chris S wrote:
...What inspired it was seeing, in quick succession, forum posts from a former architect, a former financial markets trader and a qualified doctor. And it made me wonder what they were doing here.
Why would anyone go from a really well paid and respected job to this?
Were they just useless at their job and got kicked out? Or are they lying - did they really just make the tea?
Conceivably they always had a parallel burning passion for language. But my experience of people who come to translation from elsewhere doesn't support this.
And if you tired of medicine, why would you translate medical texts of all things?
This is what I was trying, and failing, to get at.
Well, Chris, I'm a former architect, and I still love it, but I burned out. After more than 20 years of architectural practice I couldn't go on facing the client's claims and taking responsibility for the errors of the constructors (and all the sub-contractors). You can make wonderful projects, but you need a lot of people to build them, and it's exhausting...
I wanted/needed a job where I just had to answer for my own work, and freelance translator is the perfect choice.
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Henry Schroeder 
United States
Local time: 00:51
Member (2002)
German to English
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| Still failing in other careers, need to survive | Apr 10, 2017 |
Other career: writing
Need to survive: food and shelter
| | | | | Couldn't think of anything (period) | Apr 11, 2017 |
I was always good at languages but more specifically French (my native tongue). People started calling me Mr. Grammar by the end of secondary school. I had no idea what to do with my life so I chose the language program at college hoping to figure it out by the time I earned a degree that could be useful in most careers. After two years I still had no idea and I started failing classes to stall for time. I started looking for a job as a reviser, but I live in a rural area so my options were limi... See more I was always good at languages but more specifically French (my native tongue). People started calling me Mr. Grammar by the end of secondary school. I had no idea what to do with my life so I chose the language program at college hoping to figure it out by the time I earned a degree that could be useful in most careers. After two years I still had no idea and I started failing classes to stall for time. I started looking for a job as a reviser, but I live in a rural area so my options were limited, between a non-profit publishing house for first-time authors that released a handful of books in a given year, newspapers that didn't care to hire for that kind of position, and printers that already had their contacts.
But I found myself at the right place at the best possible time. I offered my services to a local web agency whose websites were riddled with errors, and they said they weren't looking for a reviser but they were just about to launch a new platform that they wanted in several languages. My hiring process essentially boiled down to "Can you translate to English?" "Um, yeah I guess." "You can start next week and do as many hours as you want."
The next year I started moving to freelancing on a friend's recommendation because I found out I had thoracic outlet syndrome and I couldn't stand to work at a computer all week, so I needed either a better paying gig (fewer hours) or a completely different job. And good for me, because the company started laying people off half a year later.
Turns out I love translating and I volunteer to do it in my spare time when work is sparse. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 01:51
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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| Better than any other career | Apr 11, 2017 |
I tried several other careers, having in mind that the right thing to do was to "get a job", etc.
But I kept working as a translator, since I was 19. It was a secondary or extra for a long time. Until I decided to become a full-time translator. I should have done it a lot earlier. I found out I was totally wasting time in all other jobs I had. I would be rich today if I had chosen this career when I was 20 instead of 40.
| | | | | For the craic | Apr 11, 2017 |
I needed to find something interesting to do as empty nest syndrome loomed, so I embarked on an MA in translation. My intention was to find a kind of hobby, and I imagined myself spending my days translating literary texts for my own amusement. It hasn't turned out quite like that.
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Some interesting answers. I love the idea of Miss World, the former librarian, giving up on uniting the world through architecture and yielding instead to her secret addictions - translation and AC/DC... Hell's bells!
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