Seeking specialization as a "generalist" translator
Thread poster: Siskia Lagomarsino
Siskia Lagomarsino
Siskia Lagomarsino  Identity Verified
Mexico
Local time: 05:08
Member (2023)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Nov 18, 2020

Greetings everyone.

I find myself in a very specific situation that I'm unsure how to grow out of. Rather than specifically studying to become one, I became a translator by having the "craft" inherited to me by my mother. As such, I started doing small translations and subtitling projects between the ages of 16 and 17 (as summer jobs) and translating just became my de facto job right out of high school. I learned from and followed her work ethics and practices, her clients continued
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Greetings everyone.

I find myself in a very specific situation that I'm unsure how to grow out of. Rather than specifically studying to become one, I became a translator by having the "craft" inherited to me by my mother. As such, I started doing small translations and subtitling projects between the ages of 16 and 17 (as summer jobs) and translating just became my de facto job right out of high school. I learned from and followed her work ethics and practices, her clients continued using my services and in this manner, I grew my own customer base over many years.

The problem here is that I studied an unrelated undergraduate (English Lit) that, while sometimes useful in humanities, arts and entertainment related projects, does not directly impact my skills as a translator. Now, almost 19 years after starting as a translator, I find myself tired of being a generalist with no specialization, which I find rather strangely limits my access to new customers and the type of project I can handle.

After doing some research, these are the two (wildly different) fields that my attention is drawn to:
- Legal translation
- Video game localization

Legal translation I'm attracted to on an academic level--the older I become, the more interested I am in legal and judicial matters, the logic behind legislation, how it affects citizens, etc. It would be very interesting for me to weave this new, very specific knowledge, into my profession.

The latter interests me purely from a hobbyist's point of view: I've loved games of all sorts for nearly as long as I've been able to read, I've witnessed the technical and methodological changes that have occurred with the evolution in consoles, PCs, and more recently mobiles, and I know the market only continues to grow with each year. It's also appealing because game-related content occupies a very broad swath of topics and themes: culture-specific text, marketing, PR, legal, etc, while also requiring some knowledge of localization and transcreation.

For both of these fields, the problem remains the same: I have been a jack-of-all-trades for so long that I have no idea how to move into a specific niche. I do not know, for example, how to proceed if I wanted to specialize in legal translation. Should I take up a new undergraduate and figure out on the go how to incorporate this new knowledge with my chosen profession? Should I look at translation specific course and certifications?

I guess that what I'm looking for is opinions and experiences from people who've either gone from generalist to specialist, or people who planned their development as a translator with a certain direction or specialization in mind.

Thank you in advance for taking some time from your day to read this!
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Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 11:08
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Try both? Nov 19, 2020

I am a generalist too, having come to translation fairly late in life. My source language, Danish, is not quite a specialization in itself, but there are not too many English native speakers who can take it on.

I do not know about Spanish and Japanese, but my Danish colleagues who specialize in law say that machine translation in the field is sometimes 'frighteningly good'. That may not apply so much to your language pairs. In any case, there are still jobs that only humans can do,
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I am a generalist too, having come to translation fairly late in life. My source language, Danish, is not quite a specialization in itself, but there are not too many English native speakers who can take it on.

I do not know about Spanish and Japanese, but my Danish colleagues who specialize in law say that machine translation in the field is sometimes 'frighteningly good'. That may not apply so much to your language pairs. In any case, there are still jobs that only humans can do, and there always will be. Find some courses in law and comparative law for translators. You need to understand the legal systems and the terminology that applies where YOUR languages are spoken, and how they are translated, but you do not necessarily need to qualify to actually practise law.

Personally, I enjoy legal translation up to a point, but sometimes find it depressing. There are always long sections about problems! Contracts try to solve potential problems ´while the parties are still friends´, but there can be several pages of penalties and, basically, threats of what will happen if the contract is breached.
Happy families do not need lawyers, but once a lawyer is called in, you may find page after page of a tragic story, spouses quarrelling, illness, insurance not paying up ... or whatever. Bankruptcies and disputes never make cheerful reading...

After jobs like that (I am half way through a divorce and custody of the children case right now!), I am really pleased to see some marketing or just anything different!
____________________________

What is a hobby for you is lucrative business for others, and I advise people to go for a specialist subject that they are passionate about. Look at your basic knowledge of games localization and fill out the gaps. There will probably be a lot of competition, but if you are good, then you can come out on top.

How you train is up to you. In the end, it is not a question of how many diplomas you have, but whether you can produce the translations clients want, when they want them. You know all about that already.
Look into the market where you are, and I hope you will get some answers from colleagues who can be more specific.
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Sheila Wilson
Aline Amorim
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Zibow Retailleau
Jorge Payan
 
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Germany
Local time: 11:08
English to German
In memoriam
re Videogames Nov 19, 2020

Your impression that videogames cover a broad range of topics is correct, and this is part of the fun. Your past experience with videogames can form the nucleus of a specialization, but keep in mind that game localisation also has a lot of technical sides: you will deal with tons of tags and placeholders and contextless software strings when doing this kind of work. You need at least some affinity to technical issues and to "programmer-think". Also, content can be repetitive and it will not alwa... See more
Your impression that videogames cover a broad range of topics is correct, and this is part of the fun. Your past experience with videogames can form the nucleus of a specialization, but keep in mind that game localisation also has a lot of technical sides: you will deal with tons of tags and placeholders and contextless software strings when doing this kind of work. You need at least some affinity to technical issues and to "programmer-think". Also, content can be repetitive and it will not always be fun since many games are simply about who kills better, or something to that effect. But it's a growing field, even more now that everyone sits at home and is online. If you feel inclined, I believe you can start out directly with your kind of experience, I would not expect you to need any extra certification.Collapse


Zibow Retailleau
Jorge Payan
 
Aline Amorim
Aline Amorim  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 07:08
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Try both Nov 19, 2020

I am a generalist too. I started in translation on December 2014. My fields of work are: E-commerce , education, tourism, linguistics, academic documents (abstracts), research proposals, automotive, environmental reports, technical, general culture among others. However, I have been working with others fields, I've already translated subtitles and Legal documents.

 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 10:08
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Go for it? Or go for training, if you prefer. Nov 19, 2020

Firstly, according to your profile here, you already specialise in linguistics, music and poetry/literature. Those are the only fields selected as specialisations. Those are the only subject areas you'll be eligible for when potential clients do a search of the directory and say they want a specialist, or when they tick that box on a job posting. But maybe you aren't looking for work here?

FWIW, I agree with Christine when she says "How you train is up to you. In the end, it is not
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Firstly, according to your profile here, you already specialise in linguistics, music and poetry/literature. Those are the only fields selected as specialisations. Those are the only subject areas you'll be eligible for when potential clients do a search of the directory and say they want a specialist, or when they tick that box on a job posting. But maybe you aren't looking for work here?

FWIW, I agree with Christine when she says "How you train is up to you. In the end, it is not a question of how many diplomas you have, but whether you can produce the translations clients want, when they want them."

I suspect that, with all your wealth of experience behind you, you could just change your marketing stance. Go from marketing yourself as a generalist to being a specialist in law and video games. There's nothing to stop you still taking any and every translation going. I imagine you already have some experience in the fields you're looking to specialise in? If so, highlight that experience over other, more general experience. Have two sections at the top of your CV for them, then follow with the more general experience. Justify your specialisations the way you've justified them to us -- it works.

Study at the same time if you feel the need. I'm sure it would be a good idea, but it needn't take the form of diplomas in a classroom setting, particularly for the game localisation. It could be single webinars, MOOCs, blogs, tutorials... Or you could indeed invest in a single-language subject course (e.g., a post-graduate diploma in law, if such a thing exists), or a bilingual course that concentrates on that sector (e.g legal translation). Check out the education section here on ProZ.com for a start. There's a vast array of training videos and courses. If you were to become a PLUS member here, you'd have access to the whole library at no extra cost.
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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Christine Andersen
Zibow Retailleau
Eric Azevedo
 
Rachel Waddington
Rachel Waddington  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:08
Dutch to English
+ ...
My experience Nov 20, 2020

My route to specialisation has been via serious study of the field. I studied a degree in engineering part-time over a number of years by distance learning and I am now studying part-time for an MSc in renewable energy.

The plus side of taking this route is that your learning process is massively accelerated compared to normal translator CPD such as MOOCs, webinars and the reading and research typically done alongside translation projects. Sure, you CAN acquire the same knowledge by
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My route to specialisation has been via serious study of the field. I studied a degree in engineering part-time over a number of years by distance learning and I am now studying part-time for an MSc in renewable energy.

The plus side of taking this route is that your learning process is massively accelerated compared to normal translator CPD such as MOOCs, webinars and the reading and research typically done alongside translation projects. Sure, you CAN acquire the same knowledge by just reading the text books but you will probably get distracted at some point as pressure of work takes over (this has been my experience anyway). Knowing that I have undergone a period of intense study and have a serious qualification in my field gives me confidence - I know that I know my stuff and it's easier to convince clients that I do. I also genuinely enjoy studying and learning, and I am fascinated by renewables so I feel that my life has been enhanced by taking these courses.

The downside is fairly obvious - it's massively expensive and massively time consuming and there is no guarantee that you will ever earn enough to pay those costs back. If you're going to take this route you probably want to make sure you are interested enough in the subject to pursue it for its own sake because it can be a slog at times. To me, it has been more about the satisfaction of building my knowledge than earning a lot of money. Financially, you may be better off just investing in better marketing!
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Dan Lucas
Christine Andersen
Zibow Retailleau
Marina Taffetani
 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:08
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
Talking about specialization Nov 20, 2020

Do you really think legal translation is a specialization?

I have a few clients sending me "legal translation" jobs regularly, but 7 out of 10 times the files they want me to translate are business contracts. For 3 out of 10 times, they send me complaints, petitions, and appeals their clients have submitted to the courts.

Do you think you need to be specialized in legal translation in order to do a good job in translating these kinds of documents? If so, it will not tak
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Do you really think legal translation is a specialization?

I have a few clients sending me "legal translation" jobs regularly, but 7 out of 10 times the files they want me to translate are business contracts. For 3 out of 10 times, they send me complaints, petitions, and appeals their clients have submitted to the courts.

Do you think you need to be specialized in legal translation in order to do a good job in translating these kinds of documents? If so, it will not take a long time for to become an expert legal translator.


[Edited at 2020-11-20 13:37 GMT]
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Rachel Waddington
Rachel Waddington  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:08
Dutch to English
+ ...
Yes I do Nov 20, 2020

jyuan_us wrote:

Do you really think legal translation is a specialization?

I have a few clients sending me "legal translation" jobs regularly, but 7 out of 10 times the files they want me to translate are business contracts. For 3 out of 10 times, they send me complaints, petitions, appeals their clients have submitted to the courts.

Do you think you need to be specialized in legal translation in order to do a good job in translating these kinds of documents? If so, it will not take a long time for to become an expert legal translator.



I can't really speak for legal translation, but I see a lot of technical translations done by translators who clearly have no technical background at all. I've see horrible mistakes in straightforward-seeming texts where the translator probably didn't even know they were on dodgy ground. If you don't have a good grounding in at least the basics of a field, you don't know when you're out of your depth. That's why translators specialise.

[Edited at 2020-11-20 11:23 GMT]


Eric Azevedo
Christine Andersen
Michele Fauble
Marina Taffetani
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 11:08
French to English
. Nov 20, 2020

jyuan_us wrote:

Do you really think legal translation is a specialization?

I have a few clients sending me "legal translation" jobs regularly, but 7 out of 10 times the files they want me to translate are business contracts. For 3 out of 10 times, they send me complaints, petitions, appeals their clients have submitted to the courts.

Do you think you need to be specialized in legal translation in order to do a good job in translating these kinds of documents? If so, it will not take a long time for to become an expert legal translator.


I studied just enough legal translation and comparative law at translation school to know that I would never want to specialise in legal translation. I'll take on a straightforward contract with a proviso that the original prevails in the event of discrepancies, or general terms and conditions of sale, but given how legal systems differ from each other, and the fact that your client is a lawyer who can easily take you to court if you make a mistake... I don't think it's necessarily a good idea to take stuff on that you're not 100% sure of. I wouldn't do it unless I could do some kind of training first.


For video games, I would say to just go for it. Your enthusiasm and personal experience will be enough. However I have a feeling it might be badly paid: I know that a lot of software developers take a cut in pay just to be able to work in a fun industry, and I somehow doubt translators will be treated any better.


Rachel Waddington
Christine Andersen
Marina Taffetani
mughwI
 
Siskia Lagomarsino
Siskia Lagomarsino  Identity Verified
Mexico
Local time: 05:08
Member (2023)
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks for all the advice! Nov 22, 2020

Apologies for not coming back to my own thread earlier. I was very pleased to read all your different points of view and valuable experiences and hindsight, and will take them all into account as I plan short and long term for where I want to take my career.

Sheila Wilson wrote:

Firstly, according to your profile here, you already specialise in linguistics, music and poetry/literature. Those are the only fields selected as specialisations. Those are the only subject areas you'll be eligible for when potential clients do a search of the directory and say they want a specialist, or when they tick that box on a job posting. But maybe you aren't looking for work here?


Not exactly. I've had a Proz free account for several years but the overwhelming majority of my client base came from out of it. I do want to start connecting with customers through Proz, however, and have been considering signing up to the PLUS membership, both because of the improved opportunities to connect with new clients and because it seems to have robust education and support platform for translators.

The fields I've selected as specialization as those I'm best at through a mixture of my degree and personal experience. However, they're far from the only topic I cover. I'll look into fixing my profile as part of the change in marketing stance you mention.

Rachel Waddington wrote:

I can't really speak for legal translation, but I see a lot of technical translations done by translators who clearly have no technical background at all. I've see horrible mistakes in straightforward-seeming texts where the translator probably didn't even know they were on dodgy ground. [Edited at 2020-11-20 11:23 GMT]


This is precisely what I want to avoid. The field itself is of great interest to me but I know I'd be out of my depth if I were to just "dive in" into something as technical and self-contained. The idea of looking into MOOCs rather than getting a new degree seems like a good one.


 


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Seeking specialization as a "generalist" translator







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