Hi everyone,

If I were to learn Japanese solely to become a translator(mostly of technical/legal/etc. documents - I've heard that's where the most money is), what would be the most efficient path to take? This is a largely hypothetical question as I have many of other Japanese-related goals, but translating is something that I would like to do in the future as on-the-side work or perhaps full time. Since my recreational time is already spent in Japanese, I figure that side will largely take care of itself so I might as well spend my more intense study time focusing on a more "useful" aspect of the language.

Where I am currently: I finished RTK 1 quite a while ago, made my way through the majority of Tae Kim's guide(went through a rough pre-made deck as I read through the guide just to keep what I learned in mind), have been sentence mining(though not too hardcore), and I'm currently going through the Core 2K deck on Anki at ~60 cards a day. I'm immersed in Japanese most of the day and thoroughly enjoying myself.

I figure SRSing mass amounts of vocab, learning more advanced kanji and lots and lots and lots of reading would be the way to go, but I'm kinda lost when it comes to resources. I was thinking of picking up RTK 3 and KO2001, but there may be learning materials out there better suited to my purpose.

I realise this is a very long-term goal. Also, I know that being well acquainted with the style of English I will be translating into is equally important as being well acquainted with the type of Japanese I will be translating from. I feel I am somewhat well covered on that front but can definitely improve so advice from people with experience in this area is also welcome.

I'm hoping for some replies from people who work in/have previously worked in the translation industry, but any and all help is appreciated.

.

If you want to be a technical translator, you need technical knowledge. If you want to do legal translation, take some law courses. If you want to translate finance, take some economics courses. What you write has to look like it was written by a native English speaking economist/lawyer/automotive marketing drone (me)/whatever. You can't just process the Japanese into English like a machine. Direct translation is a very bad thing.

Study translation itself. You might want to make the masters degree merlin mentioned a masters in translation. There are a few famous schools for it around. I personally don't have a masters and I do fine, but I do have a certification from a 2yr course in translation as well as a strong background in both the sciences and humanities thanks to spending way too long in university.

Study English. This was the failing of most people in my translation course. They could understand the Japanese, but they were unable to put it into attractive, publishing-worthy English.

Enjoy language. "I figure that since I'm aiming to bilingual I might as well do translation" is not a good way to think. You have to enjoy playing with words or you'll hate your job and it'll show in your product and limited skill development. You don't really need to study linguistics like merlin said (though you should have impeccable grammar and be able to explain WHY things are or aren't correct - you will need to frequently justify your word choices to people further down the line), but you should WANT to study linguistics because you should be finding it fascinating. If you don't, you probably shouldn't be a translator. Liking Japanese is not enough. You will spend 10% of your time reading the Japanese source material and 90% of the time devising and revising the English.

Just knowing Japanese isn't enough to be a translator any more than having hands is enough to be an electrician.

The more I think about it, the more it really comes down to is it fun for you or not? For example, if one is learning Japanese but doesn't find it fun to do/interesting. In the long-run it will show. I presume translation is the same, if it's fun to you and a long-term goal. I don't see any reason why anyone can't do it. Then again, not everyone has the same passion to keep learning. Another good tip is, don't presume it will be a quick-fix type of thing. It will take time but it isn't impossible to do.

Jarvick7 Wrote:Study English. This was the failing of most people in my translation course. They could understand the Japanese, but they were unable to put it into attractive, publishing-worthy English

I want to second this... Of course everyone has to start somewhere.

[Zgarbas]

Translating is serious business.

Japanese is hard enough, but translating in any language can be difficult, and the differences between English and Japanese can make that even more of a challenge.

I've been raised bilingual in my native tongue and English and STILL can't translate properly, despite being basically a native in both languages. You'll have to learn translation in addition to Japanese.

merlin is giving you good advice there. I also suggest getting your hands on a bilingual book(or on the same book in both languages) and reading them at the same time to get a good feel on how a translation should be like.

merlin.codex: Dear god, interpreting? Japanese-English? I tip my hat off to you, good sir.

merlin.codex Wrote:1) You'll probably need to become a linguist to have a shot at succeeding

I'm not sure what you mean by "linguist" here; studying linguistics is not necessary to translate.

Studying linguistics is not really necessary to anything.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Reading over my first post, I didn't word my motivations well at all... One of the main reasons for my wanting to get into translation is a love for language. I have wanted to write as a hobby for quite a long time, but, unfortunately, Japanese and music beat out creative writing as my main time-sinks. I'm looking to translation as a means to justify spending time doing something I enjoy: studying the deeper aspects as English and writing. Also, I would try to translate subjects that I'm interested in like IT, Math, Economics, maybe even something music or video game-related(I'm aware of how taxing that last one is and how little it pays). The motivation is there. I will probably have to wait until at least a couple of years into my Japanese study to see if it will hang around, though.

Improving my English is something I had planned to do all along. I have a larger than average passive vocabulary due to reading a lot, but my understanding of grammar is largely intuitive. Actually, at this point I would say it's entirely intuitive. That's something I will definitely work to improve.

The only thing I wasn't planing on was taking courses. I had heard that not many companies will ask for degrees but will use a trial-piece as the main means of evaluation. I figured that a very strong grip on both Japanese, English, and the writing style used in the field along with a deep knowledge of the field would be enough.

Do you think heavy reading of the subjects(both in English and in Japanese) over the period of a few years would suffice, or will I need the bits of paper from the courses? I already have a relatively strong foundation in most of the fields that I plan on translating within, but I would need to make sure it's completely fleshed out be sure I pick up the nuances of the language used and can reproduce them.

Quickest path would be going to Japan as an English teacher and looking for work while you are there. If you can speak enough Japanese to get through a job interview and say you are willing to stay for many years, you could get a job as an in-house translator in no time. Couple of years experience, then start looking for similar jobs back home if you want. Forget the other stuff. Unless you are of Asian descent. That's a game changer.

If you want to work in the highest paying fields (legal, finance), you really should have a few courses under your belt, if not a major/minor. Saying "I read a bunch of books about it" isn't as impressive even if you have the same level of knowledge.

Quote:If you can speak enough Japanese to get through a job interview and say you are willing to stay for many years, you could get a job as an in-house translator in no time.

Not true, as there are VERY few openings, even if you are willing to work for exploitative wages. You're going to need to pass translation trials to even get to that interview too.

Coming over as an English teacher is a good idea though as it is MUCH harder to get a job offer (or even interviews) without a visa. Even worse, not being in Japan at all reduces your chances of getting hired to virtually nothing outside of events like the Boston Career Fair. Just don't stay teaching for too long or you'll get trapped. I only did it (jr. highschool ALT) for a couple months.

.

Sorry to intrude on your thread but if I was to get an Australian double degree in Arts/Law and work my way up to fluency in Japanese do you think this would be enough to become a translator? Are there many jobs available or is it a hard to get into industry? I'm in the middle of choosing a degree right now and have decided career wise I'd like to become a Japanese-English translator and so I want to study something that will help me to achieve this goal.

[Zgarbas]

Why don't you just go with a degree in translations then? o.O

Zgarbas Wrote:Why don't you just go with a degree in translations then? o.O

Because a degree in law or any other lucrative field would be much more valuable to an aspiring translator. Not sure where art fits into it though.

Yes, I assumed it would be better to study something like law so that I have the knowledge to do more than general translations. As for Arts, from what I've seen Australian uni's recomend that students study law as a combined degree and by choosing arts I could study subjects such as Japanese and linguistics as well.

reality is a bitch... (*crosses out becoming a translator in the future*) I know my English skills are in no way suitable to do any kind of major translations.

I wish colleges would come out and directly say how hard it is to jump in the translator business. I know people in my 4th year Japanese class that can barely speak any coherent Japanese at all. Reality is really going to hit them hard once they finish college.

Hashiriya Wrote:reality is a bitch... (*crosses out becoming a translator in the future*) I know my English skills are in no way suitable to do any kind of major translations.

I wish colleges would come out and directly say how hard it is to jump in the translator business. I know people in my 4th year Japanese class that can barely speak any coherent Japanese at all. Reality is really going to hit them hard once they finish college.

4th year? They still can't speak well? I'm lucky I'm taking the time now(at the 2 year mark) to improve that skill+writing. I expect by my 4th and 5th year studying jp to be completely fluent.

Colleges don't tell you a lot of things. I know a few people in university/college who are in debt like no tomorrow and when they finish there programs, there pay will most likely be 15$/hr or even less than that. Pretty sad but the wages for jobs seem to be going down. I might just go into trades for good jobs...

Well our 4th year classes still use the Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese book. The people with the biggest differences in language ability are always those who seek to educate themselves through self-study outside of class. That is another thing colleges should tell people. You can't learn the entire language from one group of textbooks. I can only imagine the ability of a group of college students that were taught and forced to use a SRS like Anki from the first day of class.

I know a few Japanese people that graduated from my University and are now translating from Eng --> Japanese. They write manuals for various items that you may find at a convenience store or appliance store. They don't have any linguistic training or anything like that. So maybe it is possible for you to find a way.

[Zgarbas]

ta12121: Most Universities aim to have people graduate with an N3, if that. We do have like...1 person in the class take the N2 before they graduate, but most of our second years have yet to reach N5 level. Hilariously enough, one of our dropouts enrolled when she already had the former level 3 under her belt and is now in her third year...still at at N4 level.

Which is particularly fun when coupled with the fact that there are no Japanese masters in the entirety of Europe(except the UK), so you just spent 3 years barely getting the basics of a language which you are unable to pursue in an academic matter.

...or go teach English in Japan, but it's not like you need to know Japanese to do that.

<- one of many who should have really checked the master courses before enrolling.

Zgarbas Wrote:<- one of many who should have really checked the master courses before enrolling.

Think of it as an opportunity to travel overseas, perhaps even to Japan when you pursue your studies further.

[Zgarbas]

...Just the plane ticket to Japan is my rent for 10 months. So yeah. I think I'll just become a store clerk or something.

V You'd be amazed at how much BS the teachers can throw at you in order to secure their positions. And at how gullible certain students can be(we had people complaining that they could say their age and name in Japanese, yet didn't get full scholarships as the Uni promised)

Hashiriya Wrote:I wish colleges would come out and directly say how hard it is to jump in the translator business. I know people in my 4th year Japanese class that can barely speak any coherent Japanese at all. Reality is really going to hit them hard once they finish college.

Did you ask them?

I know 2 people that do translation.

Think there are lots of different types of translation jobs with various skill requirements.

One JP native just did it part time for some manga (jp-> eng) with no training at all.
Her English is not perfect and was just a part time thing, but was good enough.

The other JP native I know works for a japanese company in the US and translates business/legal japanese -> english. She said that they don't allow her to rephrase it into more readable or natural english for legal reasons.

Whatever the document says in japanese she has to use the exact english for business legal reasons. She was telling me that even if the japanese made no sense at all and was wishy washy then that's the same way the english should read.