London Language Show - Getting Started

I went to the London Language Show earlier in November – a great day out for Modern Foreign Language (MFL) teachers, translators, interpreters and linguists in general – and was pleased to meet lots of people there who were looking to work as translators.

There were two groups in particular I could identify with – recent graduates and teachers (I recently finished my MA and I also worked as a teacher in a past life) - so here’s some of the advice I heard given that I think might be useful for those groups in particular and anyone thinking of a career in translation generally:

New Language Graduates

Unfortunately for you there are thousands of good language graduates, especially in the European languages, and competition in translation is tough. Few organisations seem to take on in-house translators, and those that do generally require specialist subject knowledge – legal, medical, pharmaceutical, technical, business-related.

There is no particular identified career path for becoming a professional translator, but most of the successful translators I know have developed knowledge of a field before going on to become translators. From what they tell me, real world knowledge is often more important than academic qualifications.

So my Top Tip is: Move to the country of your source language of choice, get a job in an area that interests you and develop that subject knowledge as fully as you can before moving into freelance translation later. It will be a lot more fun than sitting in your room with a pile of dictionaries and will vastly improve your life in other ways too!

Here are some sources of appropriate jobs – I met all these providers at the Language Show:

www.adamsrecruitment.com
www.europa.eu/eures
www.bluelynx.com
www.toplanguagejobs.co.uk

Secondary MFL Teachers looking for a career change

This one is harder unless you are prepared to study for a further degree in a subject area, or to up sticks and join the recent language graduates in starting afresh. There is a lot of competition in freelance translating and unless you have something special to offer it can be hard to make a stable living.

However, I have a plan B which might be of use to you. It is still teaching, but without the sneering uncouth adolescents who don’t see the point in learning languages at all.

The government is pressing to move MFL into primary schools, and many schools are eager to have languages taught. You could contact your local LEA or local primary schools directly, offering them your language teaching skills, suggesting that you could work across the age groups and maybe throughout a cluster of local schools.

(We have a teacher who gives French lessons from Year R to Year 6 every Tuesday, a pattern she repeats on two other days in other local schools.)

The enthusiasm and lack of inhibition of the smaller children will be refreshing and might even restore your faith in education!

Here are some links I found at the Language Show that you may find useful:

www.dfes.gov.uk/languages
www.eurobooks.co.uk
www.linguascope.com
www.talkingdice.co.uk
www.language-stickers.co.uk

That Elusive Number Seven

Aha! Following a belated flash of inspiration I can now fill in the missing number seven.

The other best thing I have done has been to take advantage of other (and practically any) work opportunities which have arisen, simply in order to keep things afloat.

Some of this doesn't really serve my long-term goals - and being in a classroom when you are aware calls/mails may be coming in at home can be frustrating (I have missed a couple of translation jobs this way) - but a little of what you don't particularly want to do may help you reach your goal in the end. Bankruptcy does no-one any good!

Other odd jobs have related more directly to skills used in translation: English language editing of e-learning courses on project management and home wireless systems, and teaching a Specialised Translation Unit on the MA course at Portsmouth University.

So my advice is to be resourceful and exploit your whole skillset. These sorts of jobs all help pay the bills and feed subject knowledge and related skills to some extent. And even if they don't, they will help keep the wolf from the door.

So say it loud: "I'm poor, I ain't proud," and do what you need to do to keep it going.

Your Starter for Ten

Here is a little list of the 10 best things I’ve done since I decided to launch a freelance career in the UK, more or less in order of importance. You might find it useful (then again, you might not):

1. An MA in translating - it answered a lot of the questions I had asked myself about how translation works, (amazingly enough I wasn't the only person to have wondered about these things…) and improved my chances of getting decently paid jobs

2. Become an Associate of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting, ITI, - a professional association working toward due recognition of our line of work and even Chartered Status - offers sound information and support

3. Go to the Association of Translation Companies conference in London this year – some excellent presentations and up to date info on what the Translation industry is up to (more about that later)

4. Join the ITI Peer Support Group – where experienced translation professionals help advise new freelancers on how to launch their careers

5. Do the free local Income Tax Office (HMCR) course on “becoming self-employed” – provides all the info you need on record keeping, tax obligations, National Insurance payments and the other dull but necessary stuff

6. Go to a free Business Start Up event at the Excel Centre, London, lots of hype and unnecessary tripe, but also some sound advice on launching your own business

7. I’ve been sat here for half an hour and I just can’t think of a number seven

8. Join ProZ (with some reservations) – has a lot of good elements, a questionable bid for jobs system, but a vibrant and active community of translators and interpreters

9. Make a website – looks professional to potential new employers, holds more information than any CV (you can look at it if you like on www.griffin-mason.co.uk)

10. Do this blog – I’m enjoying this!

New Blog!

Welcome to my Blog!

By launching this Blog whilst launching my freelance career I hope to work out what Blogging has to offer personally and professionally to a new freelance translator.

I also thought it might be a good place to post any ideas I might have about how to further my career (and increase my earnings) and that it might be of some use to others in the same position.

I don't actually have any idea of what sort of people read Blogs - I have only read one in my life (the link was sent to me by someone I know for their own Blog) - so it'll be interesting to see what happens on this one.

Well, good to meet you, I'm off to find out what features are offered on this Blogsite.