In 1996 I was flat broke. I was counting the pennies every time I went to the supermarket (literally). I’d just failed the competitive exam bonanza that the French hold every year to recruit new teachers by 0.4%. I was seriously pissed at the time but grateful in retrospect. Why would I want to go to some crummy school on a Parisian sink estate to teach 13-year olds who just didn’t want to be there some basic English? I was far better off with my frozen beefburgers, cheap beer and benefits. But I did need some money.
So what was the solution?
I didn’t have any formal qualifications in translation, only a love of writing and my language. I had a 15 year old History degree, not even one in English. My interest was sparked by a job ad I saw for translators from a recently formed company. I called and got a gig. It was a medical translation. At the time I thought nothing of doing a technical translation with a Harrap’s dictionary and a University library nearby for reference, but in retrospect it was complete madness. I got through and got paid so I was happy.
The company was local so I delivered the work by hand on my bike as I didn’t even have a fax machine, let alone a modem. Sometimes I was even invited to lunch and I worked for them for about 18 months until the company moved on to pastures new. .
More customers?
Having got one customer, I needed more. In the days before a viable Internet and with little or no knowledge of marketing, the only way to do so was to take the phone directory (those big old books with phone numbers and addresses in) and write to agencies. There were 160 or so in Paris at the time and I wrote to them all, even the Chinese and Arabic specialists I think. A handful of them replied and even sent me work. I’m still working with some of them today. Some of the work they sent me included a job about the work of Médecins sans Frontières in the Phillipines, some technical specifications for the yet to be completed VAL driverless metro in Rennes and a 9,000 word document for the construction industry without a single punctuation mark. My Harrap’s dictionary was being seriously streched by then.
There are two types of translator, the specialist and the hungry
There’s only one real piece of advice I can give budding translators (or copywriters). Specialise, specialise and specialise. My experience with the construction industry, machine tools and anything vaguely technical that’s not IT taught me that if I’m not interested in the subject or I don’t know anything about it, I shouldn’t touch it. It can be tempting when all you have to keep you busy is Solitaire (or YouTube, its modern equivalent) just to take anything. If you make a mess of it, you’ll do your reputation no good.
So I specialised. I only ever did one medical document, but there were to be no more construction, machine tools or scientific texts. I focused on the commercial , marketing and cultural ones and started to build up some loyal customers. I hate marketing so I had to keep hold of them as far as I could. 10 years down the line I’ve branched out into other things but the basic principles are the same. Keep an interest in everything, deliver quality and have a good relationship with your customers and you’ll do just fine.
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