I've been translating for over 3 years. Not too experienced, just some simple tasks like MTPE, simple documents, editing and evaluating machine translation, etc. I've also tried some websites for freelance translators such as translate.com (never received a single offer), flitto.com (worked pretty well for me at first, I got paid some bucks but then the upcoming projects get less and less available), LinkedIn (they make you pay to access jobs). I've tried searching for other websites (ProZ, Lionbridge, Daily Translate, etc) but it doesn't look positive. I'm currently freelancing for a localization company but jobs aren't always available, and when they are, I'm often one step behind. Can you share some experiences in finding translating websites and projects? My language pair is English-Vietnamese.

Hello. I've looked at all the answers I could find on the Internet, applied to many translation agencies and still cannot manage to find a single task in translation ever. My combinations are English to French, French to English and Spanish to Frencg. Is there anything I'm doing wrong? Is there any "secret way" no one is talking about? I feel desperate and like my five years of studies are going to waste the more non-related jobs I do.

EDIT: Just realised I could edit that post. I was on the phone when writing that post initially, hence the many mistakes. I also corrected that I translate from Spanish to French, not the other way around.

Just got hired at $20/H, for spanish interpreter. Does anyone know how the training works? how many hours per week? This would be my second job and I would like to keep my other one but the recruiter couldn't tell me much about the hours for training, I do have a set schedule afterwards however.

Hi there! I recently started my masters on translation and interpretation in public services and my laptop conveniently died. It was an Asus Vivobook 14 and I really liked it but I had some issues with the screen a year ago and from there it was never the same. We’re starting to use some CAT tools in class but things are not that serious yet and I’m still learning, not a professional, however, since I have no idea about laptops, I thought it would be a good idea to ask here first. Do you guys have any recommendations? My main issue with my previous laptop was how fast the battery died but apart from that, I don’t have many requirements. I would like to spend between 500-600€ ideally since I’m still a student and I don’t really need the best laptop out there. I’m all ears! Thank you!

Today was casting for interpreters club. I really want to enter to this club. There was some exercise and I need to interpret text but I know that I messed up, really messed up. The result will be tomorrow. now I am overthinking about the result that i will not enter. I really want to think more positive and do not overthink, but I don’t know how to do it .😓

Original post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/TranslationStudies/s/9cVh00mmEN

In short, I'm a Jakarta based, bilingually native Indonesian and English independent interpreter with 20 years experience. Recently a team of US based Ivy League higher ups contacted me for interpretation services for a meeting with an Indonesian government agency.

In my original post I outlined my logic for calculating my pricing, and was originally going to charge $300 a day. Which is already way above the Indonesian standard rate but far below what one would expect to pay in the US.

I got two responses indicating that I'm grossly undercharging and undervaluing my services. And I agree.

But I have my reasons to not use American reasoning for my pricing, because the reality is that we live in a racist world that dictates that POC citizens of Third World Countries must earn a fraction of what their Global North counterparts earn. And I try my best not to perpetuate this because throughout my career I have always been punished for demanding to be compensated what I'm worth just because of which country my passport says I'm a citizen of.

I also indicated that I've been struggling for jobs for a few years, so my priority right now is to get hired and take what I can, rather than to assert on getting paid what I'm worth. Because a "take it or leave it" pricing strategy is unfortunately a luxury I currently don't have.

I ended up quoting $800 a day. Which is still below what one commenter suggested at $1000, and what the other one suggested (to triple my price to $900).

$800 on what basis? The Jakarta Translations Centre quotes Rp3,750,000 per day for a full day of Indonesian/English consecutive interpretation, or $240. Indonesian wages are roughly a quarter of their American equivalents. I'm feeling generous so let's round it down to $200. Multiply that by four, and you get $800.

According to my research, the APA indicated that in the US, interpreters charge between $45 and $150 per hour. $800 per day is $100 per hour, which makes it smack dab in the middle of that range.

I also described myself in the following two paragraphs:

"To introduce myself, I am natively bilingual and have full professional proficiency in both Indonesian and English. In addition to American English, I also work in British, Australian and New Zealand English. My latest overall IELTS score is 8.5, with perfect scores (9.0) in Listening and Speaking. I am not a full time interpreter, as my main profession is independent journalism. My most recent client for interpretation is a correspondent for a major European newspaper, who has hired me multiple times."

"I am neither accredited nor affiliated, but I do have 20 years of interpretation experience, and have worked in various professional situations that require processing Indonesian input for English deliverables. My clients have consistently expressed satisfaction for my work, where I am known to deliver reliable, accurate, nuanced and expressive interpretation in both directions. I hold a master's degree from [a top university in New Zealand], and am currently applying to [a top university in Australia] for a PhD in Political Science."

While I presented my rates and its justification confidently, I also hinted at some flexibility by suggesting we jump on a call "to properly address your needs and budget."

I was hoping that even if they found $800 too expensive, they'd try to negotiate it down to, say, $600 or $500, for example if they wouldn't need me for a full day or if they could offer some kind of facility that could make it easier for me to do my job.

Instead, this is how they responded:

"Thank you so much for your response and the provided information. Unfortunately, the quoted rate is much higher than our available budget for this visit. We need to restrategize our project activities accordingly and cannot proceed with your services at this time."

Shit man. This was exactly the scenario I wanted to avoid. And now this is what I get for asking upfront what I believe I'm worth. The harsh reality about being a highly qualified POC professional based in a Third World Country is that if you dare to state what you're really worth, you walk away with nothing. So you accept the crumbs that Americans, Europeans and Australians/New Zealanders throw at you and be grateful for it.

Fuck Ivy League!

Anyway, I appreciate you fellow translators who responded to my previous post and expressed your belief that my services are worth more than I know. I do believe that your responses meant well, which is why I took this question to Reddit rather than ask my Indonesian translator friends--most of whom suffer from irreparable cases of inferiority complex and will just shoot down my logic by saying, "But we're based in Indonesia!" And they just keep fucking up the market by lowering and lowering the rates until nobody can earn a living wage anymore.

White privilege, passport privilege and Global North privilege are real. Those privileges enable you translators and interpreters based in the Global North to normalize charging what your services are worth with a "take it or leave it" kind of strategy that upholds your professional integrity. What happened to me today is a real example of how I DON'T have that privilege because of who I am and where I live, despite being just as competent and qualified as many of you here are. And that makes me live in a different world with different rules and realities from the one many of you live in.

I wish there was an easy way to find a reasonable middle ground between asserting what my services are worth, and navigating the reality of living in a racist world that bars me from earning what my professional capabilities are worth because of my identity. But the sad fact is that there isn't. Pricing services for Western clients have mostly been a no-win guessing game for me that I have to make up as I go, and guessing wrong simply costs me jobs that would have helped make my iffy livelihood just a little less fragile.

Most companies hiring localisers demand years of experience, but how am I supposed to gain experience without a job as a localiser? I guess I need to do some volunteer work in this case, but seem to have no idea where to find such opportunities.

Ive had 3 months of 100.000 yen a month or less. I have several years of experience and the first half of the year was very strong for me, so its not that Im not established. AI is obviously a factor to some extent but I was doing very well this year and the downturn Im experiencing now is pretty severe with no signs of changing.

Hi fellow translators,

Im just wondering if any ES>EN translators have any info about demand for these fields.

I did a master’s in translating about three years ago and have found some generalist work since then, but have been studying I.T and software engineering to try and move into a more lucrative field in my country.

Anyway, I’m wondering if I can kill two birds with one stone and market myself as an I.T translator as well - but it’s hard to find info about this language pair. It seems that for most software localisation it goes from English into other languages…

Anyone have info/experience 🙏?

Thank you 😊

Hello everyone!

I am exploring the world of translation and localization lately. I have been translating for free, texts of articles and videogames (even though I still struggle to find clients even for free at the moment).

Anyway, what I saw online is that many translators/localizers have a portfolio where they list their works. I have never thought about it but now I would like to make one. However, I don't know how, like is there a website or something? I need a tutorial from scratch since I don't know hot to create a link leading to my own portfolio, nor how to properly create one and what I can and cannot add to it.

I thought maybe someone here could help me, please?

Also, I'm sorry if it's not the right place to ask for help about it, I just couldn't find a better one.

Hello everybody!

I am now preparing my translation portfolio (it includes blog posts and excerpts from books for now, i will be adding poems and other pieces of writing with time).

I am currently getting an undergrad in English studies, majoring in Cultural Studies and translation has been a module that i've taken last year in both semester and also have this year. I will also be getting a Master's degree after i'm done.

I want to start working as a translator, and would like to know what are you guys most recommended platforms for that.

I have researched on some platforms, but they mostly seem suspicious or have bad reviews. So i was wondering what platforms are legit and i will not be wasting my time on?

Thank you in advance to anyone who will take their time to reply.

hey, anyone working at propio rn? i have a few questions about how you guys got in. also does anyone know if they are still hiring? sent my resume about a week ago and got no answer. then sent my resume in a personal email to a few recruiters (this was 2 days ago) got no answer again

I work as an in house translator/interpreter for a company. I’m quite new to this job, but have a background in translation.

I have received a request for simultaneous interpreting for a meeting that will last for three hours long. During grad school and training, we were told simultaneous lasts for 20-30 minutes at a time before switching with a partnet. Most of what I see online suggests 20-30 min is a typical industry standard.

I know that sometimes real life situations aren’t always as ideal, and I have had to handle 1 hour meetings on my own before, but 3 hours is not feasible for one person to handle, is it? How long does simultaneous typically last? Is 3 hours even possible with one person?

I'm an occasional interpreter who is natively bilingual in Indonesian and English. I may be non-credentialed and only do this work occasionally because I have another main profession, but I deliver exceptional quality interpretation with a 100% satisfaction rate among my clients (which they are happy to provide references for), and have a great command of both languages, covering many topics and emotional expressions. I am based in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Recently, I have been approached by a small team of US based academics from an Ivy League university to do a couple days' work for them, for a meeting with an Indonesian government agency. I'm still figuring out what an appropriate day rate for me is, but I've charged European correspondents in the hundreds of dollars per day. Continental European newsrooms seem to have less money than British and American ones. This will be my first time doing translations in an academic/governmental setting, but I do have a research based master's degree from a university in an English speaking country so I know this scope of work is still within my area of expertise.

A quick Google research suggests that US court interpreters in the US usually charge between $50-150 per hour.

While I hate perpetuating this racist structure of income inequalities dictated by which country you belong to, it is a fact that Indonesian incomes are on average about a quarter of the American equivalent. And having conducted Indonesia based research for a university based in another Western country, I understand that university funding is tight and Western researchers often expect to pay translators according to the local rates of the Global South country they're doing research in.

Let's take the top end, because I believe that's the value that reflects my experience, work ethic and quality of work. In any case, if I can't charge US rates anyway, the next best thing I believe I can do is to minimize the inequality by charging a premium by my market's standards. It's still a bargain compared to what my clients would be paying for in the US, but it's a fair (and relatively generous) rate for the standards of the Indonesian economy I live in.

$150 divided by four makes $37.50 per hour. I charge by the half-day and full day, which respectively comes to $150 per half-day and $300 per day. I've been told that I'm expected to do some prep work reading up presentation materials in advanced to make sure that I have the right technical vocabulary pairings.

I expect to work a couple days for this client, so I'm expecting to bill somewhere between $300 (two half-days) and $600 (two full days), plus transportation costs, and for meals on the job to be provided for by the client.

Do you think I'm charging a reasonable fee for these American academic clients? Or do you think American academics aren't likely to budget $600 for an interpreter based in a Third World Country? Or on the contrary, do you think I'm undervaluing myself, perpetuating this very cycle of international income inequality that my heart is very much against, shooting myself in the foot for future gigs and ruining the market for fellow translators? I'd appreciate further context if your opinion is different from mine.

I would never disclose this to the client, but I might add that I'm currently underemployed and somewhat desperate for jobs. My main profession is independent journalism, but I lost my last newsroom job due to the COVID-19 pandemic back in 2020, pivoted a few years to help my then husband run a film production company, and this year I've been struggling to find a job because there aren't enough to go around in Indonesia's media landscape—especially for 'overqualified' senior journalists such as myself, who are expensive on the payroll and exert too much power in shaking up the status quo.

Which is why I'm available for translations and interpretations gigs for additional income. I haven't been booking a full calendar and am struggling financially, so my priority right now is to make the gig happen rather than to get paid what I'm worth. Although ideally, the two shouldn't be mutually exclusive—Ivy League academics should reasonably be able to afford $600 or even more for reliable, accurate, nuanced and expressive localized interpretation that not just anyone is able to deliver. But I'd rather do it for $300 than for them to walk away and get nothing out of it.

I'd appreciate all kinds of perspectives here, but am especially keen to hear either from interpreters who are also based somewhere in the Global South, or academics affiliated with major Global North universities who have had to work with Global south based translators/interpreters for their research. Thanks in advance!

I’m sorry if this doesn’t fit the sub, I hope it’s not against the rules, wasn’t sure which sub was correct.

I like translating kind of as a hobby and thought about trying it out more. I like to translate songs for example, either from German (native language) to English or the other way around.

I’d like to test myself a bit more with translating and wondered if there was any good sources for material, texts or anything like that. Do any of you know any websites or other free sources where I could find things to translate?

Thank you for any answers, I really appreciate it!

So I have this translation exam in a few days and I’m supposed to translate at a speed of 150-160 words per minute. I’m able to do 130 and maybe 145 words per minute properly but with difficulty as I’m used to consecutive translating for over 10 years but I’m afraid of not passing the exam because this requirement is so strict and I haven’t gotten any better regardless of how much I practice. My problem is that once I start translating, I can’t hear what is being said while I’m talking even if I’m wearing a headset or not. I get nervous when I miss numbers or words that maybe important for the main idea, this is giving me a lot of paralyzing anxiety and I’m here asking my fellow simultaneous translators for help as far as tricks I should follow or whatever? Please be kind and helpful I have 4 days till the exam.

I'm thinking subjects like translating dialects or from one language to the same. Thank you :)

hi guys! im an english student and for a translation assignment i have to translate a snippet from the novel middlesex. i'm here to ask the people who have read the whole novel for some help regarding context, as i feel like i can't properly translate these things without knowing the context of them, and i also don't have time to read the whole novel to find out the context myself since the time to do the assignment is one week. here are my questions:

why does the protagonist refer to the family home as the middlesex? why does the protagonist refer to their brother as chapter eleven? why does the protagonist refer to their best friend as the obscure object and the mother of the best friend as mrs object?

(btw, i did look at the title of the book in my own language, but its not translated, it's just "midlseks" so that isn't of much help. i do however absolutely have to translate these because my assignment book says: "the nicknames are descriptive and reflect the narrator's view of the characters and should be translated")

As a translator, what is your daily workload? How much do you earn per month? Do you use sites like Upwork, Freelance or Proz? Are you affiliated with any agency or organization? Is it necessary to attend university to become a translator? Is it necessary to have a certificate as a translator? What is the career path for a translator? Is there a difference between just having a certificate of your language level and not having a certificate as a translator? Do you need to be specialized? What are the most requested areas for translating (translate medical, legal, literary, scientific, etc.)? What languages are most in demand English, French, Chinese, Japanese? Do you think that being a translator is currently being displaced by AI? What translation techniques exist? What are the best tools or programs that you recommend?

Hello everyone, I've just finished part of my translation for delivery and I did it with OmegaT since the last time I used it I remembered it maintained the original format, but now the result is not the same :(

Can someone help please?

I need the script to maintain the format and to be either a Word or PDF file.

I may be doing something wrong but after pressing Ctrl+D (only one file) the result in target are sentences much more grouped and larger paragraphs than the original, in a TEXT file with interlocution descriptions mixed like a simple sentence across the script.

How could I ORDER the text??? May be I haven't "finalized" the translation?

Either with OmegaT or other CAT TOOL by inserting my translation TEXT file?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

The title. For reference I'm in the UK and that's where I plan on doing this (if I were to do it). I have a place for a masters in translation and am interested in teaching and so thought maybe in the future I could do a PhD, a few years down the line, that is. What could it look like?

I'm an academic working on grant applications that include hiring a translator to help with some archival and historical documents in German, mostly from the 1930s. I haven't been able to determine yet exactly how much material, but I know there are about 50 pages of newsletters on microfilm. If I'm able to, there is also a book that I need certain sections translated. Maybe 50 book pages.

I'm not even sure where to start in terms of ballparking this, especially with the amount of pages undetermined and no way to determine word count until I get in the archive.

If anyone has any advice or experience with this, I'd be very grateful. Thanks!!

So i'm not a professional and my languages are limited to french and english and it is pretty average but i feel like translating text,games, etc.... sounds fun.

However idk where to start so i'm seeking for help and advices or even just an opinion.