Hey guys I was wondering what should I do before heading to Japan?[1-2 years time] More precisely, should I volunteer at Japanese centers/ESL centers near me to gain experience/references (even though it might not be related to what I'm aiming for, which is Full-Time translation work).
I've been researching that general translation work on a full-time 1 year contract usual pays around 40,000-50,000/yearly.[In Japan of course and usual requires only JLPT 1 and some general translation experience as well as being a Canadian citizen and getting a working visa to get the job] Technical ones obviously pays more (then again, it's not something I can just jump out of the blue to get but I'm trying to work on getting that good).

So to put it more directly:
1. What to aim for volunteer work
2. Should I volunteer at few places (become a member even?)
3. Work at a Japanese place and get paid for the work (even if it isn't much, it should help out a lot)
4. What should I do via the translation work? Aim to get more work and try to gain a lot of experience here in Canada (via online work or should I take courses at my local universities for Japanese translation)

Need some advice on this, I'm kinda worried I might overload myself on trying to do so many things at once. Any help will help me out

[P.S. I'm following the advice of durnlap (not sure if I spelled it right....) and just joining those FC2 chats and going at it. So far so good but still suck as usual but the will to learn is still strong!

If you're really serious about translation, I would save up $100-200 and join the Japan Association of Translators for a one or two year subscription. Here's the website:
http://jat.org/

Then, try to find meetings and events you can go to so you can meet people, ask questions, and network. If you can, go to the big event they do yearly: the International Japanese-English Translation Conference (ijet). This years is in June in Hawaii. However, if it's too much money try going to a meeting a bit closer.

Also, make a Linked In profile and try to make contacts with translators who can give you advice and might help you get a job.

If you can get an in-house job in Japan it can be nice, because even if you decide you want to do freelance later on, the fact that you worked in-house will let companies know that you have some real experience.

I don't think volunteering for ESL centers or anything like that would help, unless what you're doing involves translation work.

Tzadeck Wrote:If you're really serious about translation, I would save up $100-200 and join the Japan Association of Translators for a one or two year subscription. Here's the website:
http://jat.org/

Then, try to find meetings and events you can go to so you can meet people, ask questions, and network. If you can, go to the big event they do yearly: the International Japanese-English Translation Conference (ijet). This years is in June in Hawaii. However, if it's too much money try going to a meeting a bit closer.

Also, make a Linked In profile and try to make contacts with translators who can give you advice and might help you get a job.

If you can get an in-house job in Japan it can be nice, because even if you decide you want to do freelance later on, the fact that you worked in-house will let companies know that you have some real experience.

I don't think volunteering for ESL centers or anything like that would help, unless what you're doing involves translation work.

Thanks for the reply back, appreciate it. That is some solid advice. The reason why I thinking of doing volunteer is just for that 'Japanese references". Then again if I'm trying to get translation work going, then I should try to network in that direction.

So what I should aim for is one
1st: get more translation experience
2nd: network and meet more people in the field

Since I live near Toronto, there are a lot of Japanese places there, so right now I'm just choosing what's the best options for me at the moment.

[Zgarbas]

Why not go directly to a publishing house? Getting a full-time without experience would be pretty difficult (if not impossible), but I doubt anyone would refuse an internship/collaboration.

There are plenty of things you can do to help your chances before visiting Japan. Obviously practicing translation is one of them. Any odd jobs or even volunteer work for a charity would be useful, although the best thing would probably be a situation in which you can get your work checked and corrected by someone with more experience (easier said than done though). Other than translation you should also think about getting more experience in a field you want to translate in (for example through an internship at a company or any kind of summer project work at a university). It's a lot harder to get that sort of experience once you've moved to Japan.

Another thing is to improve your business Japanese. Even if you're only translating you'll still need to communicate with coworkers and clients.

Lack of time spent in Japan might be a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to looking for a full-time position in a Japanese company. Companies are more likely to be suspicious about your Japanese ability and also whether you'll be staying in Japan long-term. Generally though, the most important thing is whether you can do a good job and not your qualifications. In other words, the important thing is whether you can do well on the company's trial and interview.

If I were you, one thing that I would definately consider applying for is to be a CIR on the JET programme. If nothing else it would get you to Japan and give you some experience living there, and depending on the position might also give you a lot of translating and interpreting experience.

If you're just starting out in a Japanese company with no formal translating experience I'd say not to expect to be paid much more than most english teachers are. If you get good experience at the start though I'm sure it'll pay off in the long run.

Zgarbas Wrote:Why not go directly to a publishing house? Getting a full-time without experience would be pretty difficult (if not impossible), but I doubt anyone would refuse an internship/collaboration.

That does seem reasonable, most places require some translation experience (not much which surprised me when I compare the jobs here in Canada which require a ridiculous amount of experience,degrees and proficiencies exams. )

I'll see what I can do near me but anything towards the translation direction is the way to go. I think volunteering at a Japanese Foundation can help but I feel I need gain references just as well as experience. Networking is key here and from past experiences knowing people in the field helps tremendously with finding future work.

mutley Wrote:There are plenty of things you can do to help your chances before visiting Japan. Obviously practicing translation is one of them. Any odd jobs or even volunteer work for a charity would be useful, although the best thing would probably be a situation in which you can get your work checked and corrected by someone with more experience (easier said than done though). Other than translation you should also think about getting more experience in a field you want to translate in (for example through an internship at a company or any kind of summer project work at a university). It's a lot harder to get that sort of experience once you've moved to Japan.

Another thing is to improve your business Japanese. Even if you're only translating you'll still need to communicate with coworkers and clients.

Lack of time spent in Japan might be a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to looking for a full-time position in a Japanese company. Companies are more likely to be suspicious about your Japanese ability and also whether you'll be staying in Japan long-term. Generally though, the most important thing is whether you can do a good job and not your qualifications. In other words, the important thing is whether you can do well on the company's trial and interview.

If I were you, one thing that I would definately consider applying for is to be a CIR on the JET programme. If nothing else it would get you to Japan and give you some experience living there, and depending on the position might also give you a lot of translating and interpreting experience.

If you're just starting out in a Japanese company with no formal translating experience I'd say not to expect to be paid much more than most english teachers are. If you get good experience at the start though I'm sure it'll pay off in the long run.

I feel I should head to Japan but I want to prepare myself as much as possible before leaving. Most people say staying with a job for at least 2 years is necessary.

I'd say the best thing is trying to work in the Japanese places near me, even if it is for charity,odd jobs,etc.

That is a good way to get into Japan and probably the easiest way(JET program,etc).
I am aiming for Full-Time translation work and part-time teaching (since I will be in Japan, I might as well get the most out of it)
Well I am studying chemistry (put it more specifically it's industrial chemistry which can branch off to pharmaceutical chemistry).I think getting a job in that field would help but I would need to at least study another year in order for me to get another diploma/degree.

I would probably not get much but then again, I don't expect that much but if I do network and work on my skills, I know I can make a good decent amount.

I saw some employment ads for translating some kind of documents full time in my city, the qualifications were pretty low, and seemed like it would be easy for you to get that kind of a job, but the pay was also ridiculously low, something like 800-1000 yen per hour.
Minimum wage is something like 600-650 ¥p hour. But normal salary for baito is like ¥700-800.

You better prepare yourself well, take your time, and aim high, for a high salary.

Because they even pay low salaries like 800 yen per hour for translating

A full time lowest salary job in softbank is like ¥1250-1500 per hour, and you dont need very good qualifications or anything.

If thats the case then you can save yourself lots of time and effort, and clean toilets or something, cause youll get the same salary ( just joking about cleaning toilets).

But yeah, aim for a high salary and find out about how to make it happen, even if it takes some extra time.

Btw i also recommend you to join a translators community in mixi, introduce yourself to some translators, send them some private messages and ask them questions.

There are definately some translators out there working for very low rates or hourly wages, but my guess is that those jobs are mostly taken by people like students or housewives who are just trying to make some extra cash, or people just starting out and trying to get experience.

A degree in chemistry will be a big asset, or at least I'd like to think so being a fellow chemistry graduate. I also think anything you can add to your resume other than just "chemistry graduate" will help even further. I was lucky that I was able to do an internship for a year of my course and also continue to do a masters back when U.K. university fees were cheap.

One other thing that might help you a lot to improve your skills, even if it's not exactly something you can put on a resume, is to focus hard on your writing skills in terms of your university course. Each time you write a report really focus on the style of your writing and be thorough about checking for mistakes. When you read technical documents pay attention to how they are written, not just to the contents as you might normally. For example if you were suddenly asked to translate a chemical safety data sheet or a journal article from Japanese, could you instantly imagine what one would normally look like in english. Now is a good time to learn while you're surrounded by those sorts of resources. If I had known at the same stage as you that I wanted to become a translator that's something I would have definitely tried to do.

jettyke Wrote:I saw some employment ads for translating some kind of documents full time in my city, the qualifications were pretty low, and seemed like it would be easy for you to get that kind of a job, but the pay was also ridiculously low, something like 800-1000 yen per hour.
Minimum wage is something like 600-650 ¥p hour. But normal salary for baito is like ¥700-800.

You better prepare yourself well, take your time, and aim high, for a high salary.

Because they even pay low salaries like 800 yen per hour for translating

A full time lowest salary job in softbank is like ¥1250-1500 per hour, and you dont need very good qualifications or anything.

If thats the case then you can save yourself lots of time and effort, and clean toilets or something, cause youll get the same salary ( just joking about cleaning toilets).

But yeah, aim for a high salary and find out about how to make it happen, even if it takes some extra time.

Ouch that is low. I'm making more here in Canada, even though the jobs don't pay that high here either (talking about non-translation work).

I think as long as I go in the direction of translation work, joining the groups and networking (which is vital) can help me a lot here.

I think for now, getting those jobs (well via online or in-house translations if I can find them where I live or at least close). Just something to get my foot in there and network.

jettyke Wrote:Btw i also recommend you to join a translators community in mixi, introduce yourself to some translators, send them some private messages and ask them questions.

Sounds like a good idea. Thanks for the comments, I appreciate it. I'm making a list of what I should do. Almost done for this semester so I will have a lot of free-time to get things in order. I'll make to keep you guys posted on any developments and such.

mutley Wrote:There are definately some translators out there working for very low rates or hourly wages, but my guess is that those jobs are mostly taken by people like students or housewives who are just trying to make some extra cash, or people just starting out and trying to get experience.

A degree in chemistry will be a big asset, or at least I'd like to think so being a fellow chemistry graduate. I also think anything you can add to your resume other than just "chemistry graduate" will help even further. I was lucky that I was able to do an internship for a year of my course and also continue to do a masters back when U.K. university fees were cheap.

One other thing that might help you a lot to improve your skills, even if it's not exactly something you can put on a resume, is to focus hard on your writing skills in terms of your university course. Each time you write a report really focus on the style of your writing and be thorough about checking for mistakes. When you read technical documents pay attention to how they are written, not just to the contents as you might normally. For example if you were suddenly asked to translate a chemical safety data sheet or a journal article from Japanese, could you instantly imagine what one would normally look like in english. Now is a good time to learn while you're surrounded by those sorts of resources. If I had known at the same stage as you that I wanted to become a translator that's something I would have definitely tried to do.

I guess for now aiming to get those jobs (freelance or in-house if I can that's near me) I will try for those. Wouldn't mind getting extra cash at the moment but as long as I'm working for the goal of getting a good paying translation job in the near future.

Writing skills makes sense. I guess it's best to go over grammar,essay writing,technical writing related to chemistry (had to take it with my program). It pretty much taught me that if I have to make a chemistry-related document. I'm going to try to balance a lot of things (i.e. go work at different locations and see what works well)