Any of you NOT in academia?

[Steve Marder]

Hi, Dad,

FYI: The following is a long but interesting reply from someone who runs a
translation agency. You might like to have a look at it, but only after your
Birthday Festivities, okay?

Love,

Steve
____________________________________________________________________________




> 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
> 
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