Any of you NOT in academia?

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Inasmuch as I have run afoul of the three-message-a-day limit in the
past, I will be combining my responses within this thread. I sure hope
your server doesn't reject long messages... :-)

Nora Favorov wrote:

> > Genevra Gerhart wrote:
> >
> > > Dear Katie,
> > > It's no problem at all (to support yourself using your Russian)!!
> > >
> > > Just marry someone willing to support you.
> >
> > I DO hope that was a joke!
>
> Well, Paul, I'll jump to Genevra's defense.  Those of us more focused
> on the humanities side of Russian translation/literature/culture
> simply couldn't be doing what we do without a little outside financial
> support.  The only translators I know who manage to crack the
> $20,000/year mark are those who work in engineering, science, law or
> finance (and in some cases, medicine)--and of course interpreters, who
> make a much higher hourly rate and possess a rarer gift (personally, I
> couldn't stand in front of a room of people and repeat for 2 hours in
> English what was being said in English, no less translating on the
> spot what was being said in Russian).

I understand that humanities are not well paid. I also understand that
translation has traditionally been a profession, er, no, an enterprise,
no, still too commercial, um, an *activity* engaged in largely by
amateurs, dabblers, hobbyists, and part-timers. And if what you have in
mind is something to put in the cookie jar for a rainy day but not a
profitable venture that will support your family, there are certainly
those types of opportunities in the translation field. I just don't see
that as the hope of most college juniors and seniors.

But let's be perfectly clear -- and as an ATA member you are surely
aware of this -- that there are at the very least hundreds of
Russian/English translators supporting themselves and their families
with their translation businesses. So if a student is prepared to treat
translation as a profession, not as a hobby, and to do the things any
serious businessman will do to make it a success, then success is there
to be had. What am I talking about?

First of all, a serious translator absolutely has to have the оргтехника
(office equipment, yes, but I would be a bit broader) to get the job
done. He must be able to create and edit computer files in both
languages, and exchange them with clients. He must be proficient in
Internet research techniques, in computer maintenance (both HW and SW),
and in email. If you can't get the job done and deliver it, why should
anybody hire you? In any business?

Second, a serious translator has to analyze the market and find one or
more niches that is (are) profitable. Every business does this, and to
sit back and bemoan the sad state of the market for 17th-century love
sonnets is unrealistic. In most cases, a translator has to be a sort of
Renaissance man -- a person capable of stretching into allied fields and
performing at a professional level. For example, when I got started, I
had a background in geology, but there was only a little call for that,
mostly from mining and oil companies. What do you think happened? The
oil companies who hired me for straight geology liked what they saw, and
they asked if I could do petroleum exploration as well. They wanted to
know if I could handle some light legal. They offered me environmental
protection. And so forth. And 20 years later, I do all those things on a
regular basis, and people seek me out because I have learned to do them
well.

Third, or maybe I should say second-and-a-half, a translator needs to
have both the aptitude and the commitment to learning new things on a
daily basis for the rest of his career. It does not work at all to walk
out the door with your sheepskin and expect a lifetime position from
Megabux Corp. Intl. A translator is forever researching the topic, the
wording, and so forth. If you can't be dedicated to that, if you don't
love that, if growth is not essential to your happiness, then
translation will be a curse that will eat you alive. And guess what --
this is not a feature peculiar to translation. Read "In Search of
Excellence" and you'll see what I mean.

Fourth, a successful businessman in any field must be able and willing
to get out and meet clients, and once having met them, he has to be able
to keep them happy. It's not enough to do good work. You have to stroke
your clients, and you have to educate them (or train them, as the case
may be), and you have to draw them out so you can learn about the needs
they didn't think to mention. You have to collaborate with them. And you
have to nudge them from time to time for more work -- there's an art to
this, too.

Fifth, a successful businessman must know the market for his services.
If everybody is asking eight cents a word for general business
correspondence and you want ten, you had better find a reason to justify
it to your clients. Are you faster? Are your translations that much
better than the competition? Or are you just inefficient? A related
topic here is calculating your rates. It won't do to sell at market if
you can't earn a living at that rate. Maybe you shouldn't work in that
segment of the market. Or maybe you need to improve productivity. Or
maybe you can justify a higher price. Making all these business
decisions well is essential to your success.

I think you can see from the above that translation is not for everybody
-- just as acting is not for everybody. If you can be an excellent
translator, and an excellent businessman, success is waiting for you.
But to draw an analogy, if you're not in love, you shouldn't get
married. And if you do get married, that's only the beginning of the
commitment. You still have to live the vows.

> And here I'll put in a plug for the Slavic Languages Division of the
> American Translators Assoc., of which I'm currently the administrator
> (of the SLD).  Any of you with students/grad students interested in
> developing themselves into translators or interpreters can feel free
> to tell them to contact me or at least check our web site (below).
> We have rather a nice newsletter, The SlavFile, posted on our website,
> written by and for us translators/interpreters working in the Slavic
> languages.

I also heartily endorse the above. But the best two things a prospective
translator can do while he's in school is to minor in business and to
learn some marketable subjects.

Renee Stillings | Alinga wrote:

> Speaking of translation as an option for Russian majors (I was not one
> - I was an engineering major with some Russian coursework), I worked
> for a few years out of college in a technical translation company -
> not as a translator, but in project management. While not still in the
> industry, I maintain contacts and constantly inquire as to whether it
> has picked up yet with Russian. The answer is still a big "no" and I
> constantly feel that the majority of Russian translation is done by
> small specialized agencies and individuals, who are willing to also
> keep themselves going by translating diplomas and transcripts and the
> like.

The Russian translation market has undergone several major changes in
the past 12 years (since the распад). Initially, Western companies were
very enthusiastic about this brave new world of the Russian market.
Almost all translators and translation companies saw sharp rises in
orders in the first two or three years (1992-1994). But the FSU was
still in a state of flux, and it was unrealistic to expect the economy
to get an instantaneous "brain transplant" from the West. The legal
system had to be built from scratch, as did the banking system, and
there was a lot of entrenched Soviet mind-set. For this reason, most of
the translation market at the time was from big corporations in fields
that could repatriate profits in tangible goods -- oil and gas, gold and
diamond mining, etc. You didn't see companies like Ford and GM going in,
because what would the Russians offer in return? You couldn't take a
ruble-denominated check, and slightly post-Soviet manufactured goods
weren't welcome...

After the initial thrill wore off, foreign investment in the FSU
stabilized and gradually began to deteriorate, largely because of issues
with the legal and banking systems. And the translation market reflected
that. In the "gold rush" days, there was such a demand for translations
that a lot of mediocre to even bad translators got hired. Once the
market settled down, clients -- especially translation agencies -- began
to sort out the good from the bad, and focused their hiring more toward
the better translators and translation companies (of course "better" can
mean a variety of things; the three factors are speed, quality, and
price, and different clients balance these factors differently). So the
better translators had a steady diet, while those in less demand saw a
drop-off.

And then came the default (what the Russians euphemistically call the
"кризис") of August 1998, when the Russians wrote off some $15 billion
in foreign debt. Many Western companies, who had been getting more and
more nervous about the Russian marketplace, took the attitude, "well, if
*that's* the way it's gonna be..." and got out. And many of those that
stayed put projects on hold or scaled them back to reduce their risk. So
almost all Russian translators in this country fell on hard times for a
year or two. Things have improved since Putin got in, but there is still
some residual caution here, and I would say the euphoria of the early
1990s is a thing of the past. I would count myself as cautiously
optimistic for market as a whole for the next five years, and optimistic
for my own company's prospects.

> What this means is that there is something rather unique going on with
> Russian. The large corporate contracts, essential to fullscale
> production translation companies, do not include Russian. On one hand
> this is a sign of the level of attention/commitment to the Russian
> market, but it may also be related to the strength of the domestic
> Russian translation industry and that most companies who are seriously
> vested in the Russian market just source locally? I would be curious
> to hear some insights from any of you translators out there as to
> whether you notice any differences in the Russian translation market
> as opposed to other languages.

You raise a few issue that I have not addressed above.

First of all, there are several major contracts that support large
translation companies. There are oil and gas projects in the Caspian Sea
region (including Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbayjan, and Russia) and
in the Russian Far East (with some Japanese involvement). There is also
the International Space Station project, which generated a lot of
translation volume (because the Russians and the NASA engineers were
constantly discussing the designs) up until the time when they started
building it. And Russia is starting to be used for outsourcing of
software development. But for the broader market, legal and banking
issues are still holding things back.

Second, with the fall of the Iron Curtain, the translation market has
been flooded with cheap Russian native speakers, who (surprise,
surprise!) have not all proven to be outstanding translators. This has
tended to depress prices for cost-sensitive market segments, but has had
less effect with quality-conscious clients. If you're building
rocketships, for example, the translation had damn well better be right
or you could have a big mess on your hands. On the other hand, if you're
translating a diploma, how far wrong can you go? (no 'fense!)

> On a similar note, how many of your departments are offering technical
> language and translation courses - that right there is one way to draw
> some minors out of the sciences and engineering!

I can't answer your question, but it does bring up another one: which is
better, a subject expert who knows the language, or a linguist who knows
the subject? (a singer who can dance, or a dancer who can sing?) In the
best of all possible worlds, the translator would be an expert in both.
But in the real world, there are sometimes reasons for favoring one over
the other. Who is the end user of the job? What is the purpose of the
translation? And sometimes a subject editor and a language translator,
or vice versa, make a good team.

If I were king of the forest (not queen, not duke, not prince), I would
establish links between translation programs and science and engineering
companies that do business with the FSU. Obviously, such companies won't
want to reveal sensitive information to students, but there may be
opportunities for internships and similar relationships. Of course, the
academic institution must also be ready to collaborate -- it won't do
for them to hold their noses in the air because the documents do not
meet the highest literary standards.

--
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                  http://home.attbi.com/~lists/seelangs/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------