Advice for new translator!

Hi all,

I am new to the forum and new to the idea of translating as a career! My story is that I studied Marketing and Spanish at uni. I lived in Spain for 3 years and have a Spanish boyfriend, although I have always worked in Marketing I feel a career change coming on...

I am 25 and the only experience I have of translating is from my degree, where I did many modules in it. I have no paid experience however. I would say that my level of reading and listening - well understanding Spanish is advanced as is my spoken Spanish (European level C), but my writing is definitely rusty as I only write on the internet to friends. I know that writing is not an issue but I am worried that my level of Spanish over all is not good enough to work as a translator at the moment as the translators I know have lived in the country for 10+ years.

The advice I need is, how does a young person start to get into translation professionally? Do I just start looking for jobs? I am happy to volunteer/ take low paid work in the beginning. I see this as the very beginning of my translating career, I am currently based in the UK but will be moving back to Spain with my partner in the next year and I plan to teach English and translate as my main income in the long term.

I look forward to hearing your advice and personal stories of how you got into translation!

Thanks :)

Bienvenida al Foro Clarabell! Para que practiques con la lectura te escribo en español :) Respondiendo a tu pregunta, para comenzar a trabajar profesionalmente convendria iniciar con simples traducciones, temas en los que te encuentres familiarizada, por ejemplo marketing. Como freelancer seria una buena opcion, la cual te permitiría seguir estudiando y ademas ganar algo de dinero. El cambio de país ayudará muchisimo para tu aprendizaje.
Espero tengas suerte, de cualquier forma este foro es una excelente medio para comunicarte con otros colegas y hacer todas las consultas que necesites, sobre textos que estes traduciendo, siempre poniendo tu interpretación primero y luego indicando que nos parece o como lo traduciría otro.
Sos bienvenida!
Saludos

Clarabell

I have a lot of trouble with the notion of people wanting to teach and/or translate just because they speak or think they know both languages. This is a real profession and as such you need to train for it. Knowing the two languages alone will not take you very far because at times you will come accross problems that need further linguistic knowldedge to be solved.

I'm asuming you aim to translate only from Spanish to English, since to do it the other way around you'd need to be a native speaker.

My advice is if you want to be serious about this profession —and not fall into the group of mediocre so-called translators— take a course or a master's degree in translation. There are techniques, do's and don't's, etc. that you need to know before you attempt to work as a translator.

Suerte!!

:)