Online training to become a professional translator (Translating into Simplified Chinese) Thread poster: Jorge Rodríguez Rodríguez
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Dear colleagues,
I would like to ask you all that live in China or translate from or into Chinese for advice.
My wife is a native Chinese (Simplified) speaker, and she speaks Spanish (Spain), English and Japanese at a very high level.
She is pondering to become a professional translator in some years, but she studied Law in China and a training course at the Confucius Institute to become a certified Chinese teacher. She has been working as a Chinese teacher... See more Dear colleagues,
I would like to ask you all that live in China or translate from or into Chinese for advice.
My wife is a native Chinese (Simplified) speaker, and she speaks Spanish (Spain), English and Japanese at a very high level.
She is pondering to become a professional translator in some years, but she studied Law in China and a training course at the Confucius Institute to become a certified Chinese teacher. She has been working as a Chinese teacher several years and still does.
I would like to know if you know about online training courses at any University or well-known institution anywhere around the world to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to become a professional translator. It may be a Bachelor's Degree that can be attended part-time or short courses too, since I have told her that, if she wants to try, she should try firstly with a short course to see if she likes it or not.
In any case, it is necessary that any recommended training can be followed from the European timezone.
Of course, it has to be translation from EN, ES or JP into Simplified Chinese. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Barbara Carrara 
Italy
Local time: 08:58
Member (2008)
English to Italian
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| Chinese forum? | Oct 5, 2022 |
Hi, Jorge.
I would suggest that your wife registers on ProZ as a non-paying user. That way, not only will she be able to access the English forum herself, but the Chinese forum ( https://www.proz.com/forum/34 ) as well, and start interacting with our Chinese-speaking colleagues directly, to get all the answers and help she needs.
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To be honest, a lot of translators (including myself) do not have any formal training. Translation requires reading fluency, some cultural fluency, and the intellectual flexibility to research unfamiliar topics and learn how to use CAT software. I started with small jobs on this site, and online agencies, and slowly built my experience, and eventually established some long-term partnerships.
Many agencies ask applicants to do a sample translation and/or interview, regardless of the credent... See more To be honest, a lot of translators (including myself) do not have any formal training. Translation requires reading fluency, some cultural fluency, and the intellectual flexibility to research unfamiliar topics and learn how to use CAT software. I started with small jobs on this site, and online agencies, and slowly built my experience, and eventually established some long-term partnerships.
Many agencies ask applicants to do a sample translation and/or interview, regardless of the credentials or experience listed on their resume.
One agency that I often take work from is [deleted name]. They are based in China but handle a lot of other languages using their freelancer network. Some jobs use their Trados-based cloud software MarsCAT, and a lot of other agencies use Memsource (I love Memsource) so you don't need to invest in CAT software right away.
Freelance work allows you to turn down projects if they're too big or a topic that's too unfamiliar. I would advise your wife to register with [deleted name] or a similar agency immediately and start working. Think of it as a paid internship.
[Edited at 2022-10-05 11:23 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Barbara Carrara
Italy
Local time: 08:58
Member (2008)
English to Italian
+ ...
You may want to remove the name of the agency from your post, as that's against the Forum Rules:
8 Outsourcers may not be discussed specifically.
Posts or comments regarding a specific outsourcer (identified by name, reference, link or other means), whether positive or negative, are not permitted. (To indicate their likelihood of working again with a given outsourcer, site user... See more You may want to remove the name of the agency from your post, as that's against the Forum Rules:
8 Outsourcers may not be discussed specifically.
Posts or comments regarding a specific outsourcer (identified by name, reference, link or other means), whether positive or negative, are not permitted. (To indicate their likelihood of working again with a given outsourcer, site users should use the ProZ.com Blue Board.)
https://www.proz.com/?sp=siterules&mode=show&category=forum
Thank you. ▲ Collapse
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| Formal training | Oct 5, 2022 |
Jocelyn Laney wrote:
To be honest, a lot of translators (including myself) do not have any formal training. Translation requires reading fluency, some cultural fluency, and the intellectual flexibility to research unfamiliar topics and learn how to use CAT software. I started with small jobs on this site, and online agencies, and slowly built my experience, and eventually established some long-term partnerships.
Many agencies ask applicants to do a sample translation and/or interview, regardless of the credentials or experience listed on their resume.
One agency that I often take work from is [deleted name]. They are based in China but handle a lot of other languages using their freelancer network. Some jobs use their Trados-based cloud software MarsCAT, and a lot of other agencies use Memsource (I love Memsource) so you don't need to invest in CAT software right away.
Freelance work allows you to turn down projects if they're too big or a topic that's too unfamiliar. I would advise your wife to register with MARS/CCJK or a similar agency immediately and start working. Think of it as a paid internship.
Thank you for the information, Jocelyn. Yes, I know that many translators do not have formal training in translation, but to be honest, I don't know if it is most of them or not. As far as I know, there are no translation studies in many countries, like, for instance, I think there aren't in the US or the UK. I am not sure.
I asked because during my career, some agencies have asked me for my diploma (I think that mostly German ones) and many of them state in their website that they work only with certified translators. It may be true that, once you get jobs for a certain period even without formal training, and that may not be that difficult in some markets, you can get established and get work from a wider range of clients.
Fortunately, if my wife decides to try, she has got me to help her with all the taxes and CAT tools stuff.
Greetings.
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