| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | Off topic: EN translators' Holy Grail? Thread poster: Colin Ryan (X)
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danya
Local time: 08:29
English to Russian
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| Speaking of investments | Dec 2, 2009 |
There's such a concept as cost-benefit analysis.
At a mature age, you probably will not be able to learn a language from scratch up to a healthy proficiency - which is, eventually you will, but the time and effort it'll take will push your balance far and for long into the red zone.
| | | | Jon O (X) 
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:29
Dutch to English
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| go Scandinavian.. | Dec 2, 2009 |
I think from that from an English speaker's point of view one of the Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian) would be a good bet. After all, they are comparatively easy to learn from the point of view of grammar and vocabulary (although unless you live in the countries one's exposure to them might be quite limited) and are spoken in high-income countries meaning that decent rates can quite likely be commanded for them.
The same goes for Dutch too of course for which, in my expe... See more I think from that from an English speaker's point of view one of the Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian) would be a good bet. After all, they are comparatively easy to learn from the point of view of grammar and vocabulary (although unless you live in the countries one's exposure to them might be quite limited) and are spoken in high-income countries meaning that decent rates can quite likely be commanded for them.
The same goes for Dutch too of course for which, in my experience at least, rates certainly tend to be higher than for French and generally slightly higher than German, although you perhaps should not read too much into that. Certainly though, it is very rare to be contacted by European clients/agencies seeking NL-EN translations and offering the 'bargain bucket' rates which many translators so often bemoan on this site. However, I wouldn't like to generalise too much from my own experience....
Edited for typos
[Edited at 2009-12-02 15:38 GMT]
[Edited at 2009-12-02 15:52 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Colin Ryan (X)
Local time: 07:29
Italian to English
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TOPIC STARTER | I'm really glad I started this thread | Dec 2, 2009 |
Your comments have all been very useful to me. In particular, I appreciate that the sheer amount of time I'd need to learn a new language would not really give a good return on my investment. Not as much as learning a new area of specialisation would, anyway. (Although I will keep in mind what you guys have said about Dutch!
| | | | TonyTK
German to English
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| Maybe work on your seduction skills | Dec 2, 2009 |
ryancolm wrote:
... so I'll be able to pay for my as-yet-unborn kids' education, the Porsche when my mid-life crisis hits, etc.
Not asking for a lot, am I?
1 hit for "rich widows under thirty".
[Bearbeitet am 2009-12-02 19:06 GMT]
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Cedomir Pusica
Serbia
Local time: 07:29
Member (2009)
English to Serbian
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Hi!
To answer your question: income does not depend on the obscurity of a language pair. To the contrary. The more frequent, the better. What nations in the world are the most prosperous? England, USA, Japan, Germany. The booming China is famed for its competitiveness, which is why the combo would be a suicidal one. You can never speak Chinese as well as a Chinese girl
Learn German, it is an industrial ... See more Hi!
To answer your question: income does not depend on the obscurity of a language pair. To the contrary. The more frequent, the better. What nations in the world are the most prosperous? England, USA, Japan, Germany. The booming China is famed for its competitiveness, which is why the combo would be a suicidal one. You can never speak Chinese as well as a Chinese girl
Learn German, it is an industrial nation with many reputable companies who actually do business around the globe and pay their clients. Hungarian, Azerbaijani or Slovenian would not be of much avail.
Cheers! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Williamson
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:29
Flemish to English
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is a niche-language, where supply-demand of translators is more or less in equilibrium.
What strikes me, is that when you contact natives of English, who translate from Dutch into their native tongue, is that you get an answer in English, because some are not able to answer in Dutch. I wonder how they manage to translate into English if they can not write good Dutch. Is an understanding of the target language and "native only" sufficient?
| | | | Angela Dickson (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:29
French to English
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| Acquisition time | Dec 2, 2009 |
Williamson wrote:
is a niche-language, where supply-demand of translators is more or less in equilibrium.
What strikes me, is that when you contact natives of English, who translate from Dutch into their native tongue, is that you get an answer in English, because some are not able to answer in Dutch. I wonder how they manage to translate into English if they can not write good Dutch. Is an understanding of the target language and "native only" sufficient?
Why mention "native only"? I know quite a few into-EN translators who work from Dutch but who can't speak/write Dutch very well. They get repeat business, it would seem - so perhaps one can invoke the proof of the pudding, etc.? I dare say what they have in common is that they write English exceptionally well.
To Ryan: you seem to be considering all languages on an equal footing, but perhaps from an investment point of view you should consider which languages would be easiest/quickest to acquire well enough to translate from (I wonder at what point one reaches this stage?). For an English speaker Dutch and German seem the most obvious - another Romance language, possibly, but the return on investment might not be that great, unless you have a solid specialism already and could tap into an immediate market once your language was up to standard.
| | | | | I agree with Heinrich and FarkasAndras | Dec 2, 2009 |
FarkasAndras wrote:
If we're thinking aloud about what the most lucrative course of action is, starting to learn Hungarian or Estonian doesn't sound like a winning plan.
Studying law, some aspect of engineering or other technical area seems to me to hold much more promise. If you can land a position at, say, a pharmaceutical giant or a law firm as their go-to freelancer, you're likely to make a pretty penny.
I agree that a subject-matter specialization is likely to bring you more benefit than another language. You can use the knowledge and brush up on terminology in the languages you already have, rather than becoming generalist in another language.
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| Study of countries economies? | Dec 2, 2009 |
OK, here are some ideas...
I would go for a language used in a country with a high volume in exports of industrial products or value-added services.
My reasoning is customers in these countries are going to need large volumes or quality translations into English.
With this I mean: look for customers who can pay good money for your services.
This list could be a good starting point:
... See more OK, here are some ideas...
I would go for a language used in a country with a high volume in exports of industrial products or value-added services.
My reasoning is customers in these countries are going to need large volumes or quality translations into English.
With this I mean: look for customers who can pay good money for your services.
This list could be a good starting point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_exports
I think I would go for Dutch or German.
These will be very competive markets with many translators but I think that the fact there is a large demmand means that you grab a part of it if you offer good quality.
I personally would not go for Korean, Japanese or Mandarin because I think the time to recover your investment would probably be too long.
I would not go for smaller markets because I have the feeling that the demmand is too weak in terms of ammount of work and in terms of how much customers are ready to pay for a quality job. As mentioned already, it seems that, in these markets customers prefer to pay less and hire locals, even if they are not native English speakers.
Daniel ▲ Collapse
| | | | Edward Potter
United States
Local time: 01:29
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
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| Rich countries | Dec 2, 2009 |
I agree with Cedomir. Look for the countries and sectors where the most money is flowing. Also, you want there to be a lot of people speaking the languages in question, not less. It would mean the market is bigger, despite there being, in theory, more translators.
I would think being a JP > EN robotics or automobile translator should be quite lucrative. German might be another good language to look into.
| | | | Colin Ryan (X)
Local time: 07:29
Italian to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Wow. Who'd have thought, that Germany is bigger than China? | Dec 3, 2009 |
Daniel García wrote:
With this I mean: look for customers who can pay good money for your services.
Thanks Daniel. That was illuminating.
I like the arguments in favour of Dutch and German that seem to surface regularly in this thread. I might learn one of those two languages. My skills seem to be more language-oriented than speciality-oriented, so in personal terms it might be a better investment to learn a new language and keep the specialities I have rather than try to add a new speciality.
| | | | | Understanding source, excellence in target | Dec 3, 2009 |
Williamson wrote:
is a niche-language, where supply-demand of translators is more or less in equilibrium.
What strikes me, is that when you contact natives of English, who translate from Dutch into their native tongue, is that you get an answer in English, because some are not able to answer in Dutch. I wonder how they manage to translate into English if they can not write good Dutch. Is an understanding of the target language and "native only" sufficient?
Indeed it is. This has nothing to do with Dutch - English specifically, it seems. I know quite a few translators in different combinations who stick to their target language for communication purposes, which is fine with me. I'd rather have them communicate at ease in English, German or French, than feel hesitant about which nouns are feminine or masculine in Dutch. As for the proof of the pudding: quite tasty!
As an outsourcer, I want to work with translators who perfectly understand the source language and who will ask questions when they don't. Active command of the source language is far less important than excellenct writing skills in the target language.
On a different note: if you want to learn Dutch, be warned: it's almost impossible to really practise it, as nearly everyone in Holland will switch to English when they hear an accent. Many learners complain that their grammatically correct questions in slightly accented Dutch usually meet with atrocious answers in English.
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Williamson
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:29
Flemish to English
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Angela Dickson wrote:
Why mention "native only"? I know quite a few into-EN translators who work from Dutch but who can't speak/write Dutch very well. They get repeat business, it would seem - so perhaps one can invoke the proof of the pudding, etc.? I dare say what they have in common is that they write English exceptionally well.
Just asking because I am able to read and understand an Italian text written in a quality newspaper (Il Corriere della Sera) and translate Italian texts into Dutch.
If translating one way and mastering the target-language suffices, I might add Italian > Dutch as a language combination, a smaller market-niche than Italian>English.
[Edited at 2009-12-03 12:01 GMT]
| | | | Colin Ryan (X)
Local time: 07:29
Italian to English
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TOPIC STARTER
Williamson wrote:
Just asking because I am able to read and understand an Italian text written in a quality newspaper (Il Corriere della Sera) and translate Italian texts into Dutch.
If translating one way and mastering the target-language suffices, I might add Italian > Dutch as a language combination, a smaller market-niche than Italian>English.
Yes, absolutely you can. I do French>English as well, but basically all I can do is read French. I can no longer understand spoken French, and I wouldn't dare try to write or even say something now (it's been 20 years since I lived in Paris!) but if a document is in my area of specialisation, I can translate it about as fast as Italian into English. If it's not in my area of specialisation, I can translate it at about "half" my normal speed.
Yes, I would definitely add Italian-Dutch to your pairs!
| | | | OlafK
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:29
English to German
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| Love of language | Dec 3, 2009 |
I think it's much easier to learn a new language if you're really interested in the culture of the countries where it's spoken, otherwise it can become a real drag.
Re the size of the German economy: Gemany has recently been overtaken by China, it's now only the fourth largest economy in the world (1 USA, 2 Japan, 3 China).
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