But how does one become an expert translator in a certain field? And where to start as a beginner fresh out of university?

Here is what I would recommend:

First of all, you have to identify the area or areas you are going to specialize in. Start with what you already know well.

• What areas do you have previous work experience in? For example, if you worked as a tourist guide before becoming a translator, you could specialize in translating texts related to tourism.

• What did you previously study? For example, if you have a degree in marketing, you could specialize in marketing translations.

• What are your hobbies? For example, if you practice martial arts, you could specialize in martial arts translations.

• What other fields are you interested in? Identify the areas that you have an interest in and would like to learn more about. Many novice translators want to know what areas are most in demand in order to specialize in those areas. While you obviously have to pick a specialization with high enough demand to keep you busy, I don’t believe that focusing only on what field has the highest demand is a good approach. Even if I could earn twice as much as I currently do if I specialized in medical translation, I could never do it, as I absolutely hate everything that has to do with medicine and would not enjoy my work anymore if I had to switch to medical translation. As in any other job, if you don’t enjoy what you do, you will never be successful or happy. So choose a specialization that allows you to get enough jobs, but most importantly, choose a field that you really enjoy researching and learning about as you will spend a lot of time immersed in it.

Next, learn as much as you can about the fields you have identified. Become a sponge and absorb everything related to them.

• Sign up for courses in your fields. You don’t necessarily have to do a full degree; you could attend public lectures at your local university, take a class at community college evening courses, summer courses, sign up for correspondence courses or continuing education classes, etc. If you can take classes in different languages, your source and target languages, that’s even better.

• Attend specialized translation courses, conferences or seminars in your fields and languages. While such courses don’t exist for every language and every specialization, an increasing number of universities and translator associations offer courses on legal, financial or technical translation.

• Read as much as you can about your subject in your source and target languages. If you read what the experts in the field are reading, you will not only acquire a lot of valuable knowledge of the field, but you will also pick up the related terminology and can start compiling your own specialized glossary.

• Invest in the best specialist dictionaries and reference books in your field, but don’t rely blindly on them, always cross-check with other sources.

• Have your translations proofread by an expert in your field and learn from their experience.

Nobody becomes a specialist overnight. Becoming an expert translator in a specific field takes years and you learn something new with every translation you do. It’s a constant learning process and, just like for every other profession, it is practice that helps you to improve.

Do you have any other tips? How did you become a specialized translator? Let me know and leave a comment below!

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- Get listed in the Yellow Pages or other local business directories in the “translator” category. Even in the Internet age, a lot of people (and local businesses) first turn to the Yellow Pages if they need to find a translator and they often prefer to work with somebody in their area rather than somebody on the other side of the planet. Over 90% of my direct clients (businesses or private clients as opposed to translation agencies) are located within 50 km of where I live.

- Print professional business cards and hand them out to everybody you know and meet. Make sure everyone in your family, your friends, acquaintances, neighbors, etc. know that you are offering freelance translation services. They might need your services one day or refer you to people who do.

- Network with other translators. Getting to know other freelance translators is always a good idea. You will certainly make new friends and they might also refer clients or potential clients to you, either when they are on holiday or too busy to take on any new work or when they are offered work in language pairs or specializations they don’t work in. You can even build a network or a team with other freelance translators you know and trust.

- Register on online translator directories. The most well-known sites are ProZ and TranslatorsCafe, but there are many other translator directories on the Internet. (Click here for a list of online translator directories). While the jobs that are posted on such sites tend to be rather low-paying (with some exceptions), it is the fact that these websites allow you to have an online profile to showcase your skills that makes them interesting. Many translation agencies and also some companies browse those directories to find translators. The more solid your profile, the higher your chances of getting contacted directly by prospective clients. Make sure you list all relevant details, such as your language pairs, specializations, your educational background and previous experience, etc. to make you stand out from your competition.

- Get a professional website. It doesn’t have to be expensive and very fancy, a simple, well-built website with the most important information (who you are, what you are offering, your language pairs and specializations, your qualifications, contact information, etc.) will do. You might not get a lot of clients directly via your website (unless your website gets top results in Google and other search engines), but you can include it on your business card, link to it from other online profiles and refer potential clients to it. A well-designed website conveys an image of professionalism and makes you look more trustworthy in the eyes of potential clients. Be sure to get your own domain name instead of a free website and use a professional email associated with your domain. Tip: I have found that a website is especially useful if you work with a rare language or a very specific and rare specialization, as there are much less websites with those keywords and you can stand out more easily. My professional website is currently ranked by Google on page 1 for the keywords Luxembourgish translation. I couldn’t achieve such visibility for French translation for example, as there is much more competition and many more websites with those keywords.

- Become a member of a translators’ association. One of the many benefits of being a member of a translators’ association is that most associations have an online member directory where prospective clients can search for freelance translators suited for their projects. Being a member of a recognized association also adds to your credibility and image of professionalism. (Click here for lists of translators’ associations around the world).

- If you are a sworn or certified translator (a translator who has the authority to translate and certify official documents), get in touch with embassies and consulates of countries where your source or target language is spoken and let them know that you are offering your services as a sworn translator. Most embassies and consulates have lists of sworn translators that they will distribute to people who need a certified translation for immigration or visa purposes.

- Offer your services to translation agencies. You can easily find the addresses or websites of translation agencies in the yellow pages or on the Internet. Make sure that the agency works with the language pairs and specializations you offer and that they accept to receive applications from freelance translators. Many have online forms to fill out or indicate an email address to send your application to. Before contacting an agency, make sure that they have a good reputation and won’t suddenly disappear without paying you (see also my post on how to avoid non-paying clients).

- Offer your services to companies in your area. Make sure that the particular company you are targeting actually needs translation services in your language pairs and specializations (for example a company that does business with a country where your source or target language is spoken or a subsidiary of a foreign company). Bear in mind that many companies probably already have their regular translators or prefer to work with translation agencies, so you might not be immediately successful with this approach. However, if you are a recognized expert with experience in the field the company you are targeting is active in, it is certainly worth a try and you might win an interesting client.

The most important tip and the one that summarizes all of the above is: BE VISIBLE! If you want to attract clients, let them know where they can find you and what you can offer them.

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- Excellent command of your native language and excellent writing skills, as well as ability to use various styles and registers and adapt to different types of texts. A translator is also a writer, whether he translates literature or technical documentation. Your translation has to be flawless in terms of grammar, spelling, vocabulary and style. A good translation is one that faithfully reflects the original text, but also one that reads well in the target language and sounds natural to the target language reader.

- Excellent command of your foreign languages (source languages or languages you translate from). Two years of French at school or university do not make you an expert in the French language. You have to be able to understand nuances, jokes, wordplays, slang, cultural references and idiomatic expressions. Knowing a language also implies knowing the culture. Ideally, a translator should have spent a considerable amount of time in a country where his source language is spoken and be completely immersed in the language and culture.

- Broad general knowledge. In order to translate a text, you have to understand it first. Understanding the words is not enough, because we don’t translate the words in a sentence, we translate the meaning of the sentence. So, in order to produce a good translation, you have to understand what you are translating. Most translators translate a variety of different texts. One day, you can be translating the website of a hotel, the next a business letter, then a lease contract, followed by a recipe book. You obviously can’t be an expert in everything, but it is extremely helpful to have at least some general knowledge in a large variety of fields. If you translate a text on gardening tools for example, you are highly unlikely to produce an acceptable translation if you don’t have a clue about gardening.

- Specialist knowledge of one or more fields. There may be translators who only translate general texts, but most prefer to specialize in one or more areas they know very well. You simply can’t be an expert in everything. I would find it hard to trust a translator who claims to be a specialist in medicine, law, literature, engineering, IT, nuclear physics and knitting at the same time. Most translators concentrate on a few areas they have work experience in (i.e. an engineer turned translator who specializes in technical translation), have degrees in (I got a law degree after my translation degree in order to specialize in legal translation) or know extremely well due to other circumstances. It can simply be an area that they like, have taken courses in or have read extensively about. The important thing is that you have to know the field inside out and you have to master the specialist vocabulary. If you want to translate legal texts, you have to understand the legal systems involved and know how legal documents are written. Subject matter + specialist terminology is the key.

- Good research skills. If you don’t know it, you have to know where to find it. A good reference library with specialized dictionaries is still useful, even in the Internet age when much information can be found online. Good research skills also mean knowing which sources to trust and how to double-check.

- Good IT skills. The days when translations were written on a typewriter and sent by mail are long gone. Today, it is necessary to know how to use email, the Internet, various software programs (MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint as a minimum), translation memory programs and electronic dictionaries, FTP, file encryption, file compression and decompression, backing up files, antivirus, and many more.

- Good business and marketing skills. As a freelance translator, you are a small business. You have to find clients, market your services, advertise, know how to negotiate rates and payment terms, sound professional on the phone and write professional emails. You also need to know how to write an invoice, how to handle your business expenses, how to chase payments, how to file your taxes (or hire a good accountant), how to plan for your retirement, among many other things.

These are the skills that I consider the most important for a freelance translator, but this list is certainly not exhaustive. Feel free to share your thoughts.

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Websites
Payment practices
ProZ – Blue Board
Translatorscafe – Hall of Fame and Shame
Globtra ratings
Translationdirectory – List of untrustworthy translation agencies
Translator Client Review List
GoTranslators – Black and white list
Translation Agency Payment Practices Reputation Rating Form
Brotherhood of translators

Mailing lists
Translation agency payment
Business practices discussion
Betaalmoraal (in Dutch)
World payment practices free
Translation agencies payment practices
Zahlungspraxis (in German)
The checklist (in Italian)
Tradpayeur (in French)
Translation payments who when what

The best way of avoiding non-payment is using common sense and trusting your gut feeling. If you don’t trust a potential client or think that there is something fishy about a job offer, better stay away or request upfront payment. Better safe than sorry.
If you do have problems with a non-paying client, send payment reminders regularly, contact a collection agency or a lawyer and warn your colleagues.

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A translation agency can be anything from a small local business (including one-man translation agencies operating out of a living-room which usually don’t last very long in business) to a large company with offices on various continents and hundreds of permanent employees. Some have in-house translators and proofreaders while others solely rely on freelance translators. If you hire a translation agency, one of their in-house project managers will be responsible for your translation. He or she will assign the translation either to an in-house translator or to a freelance translator, the latter being much for frequent as much more translation work is outsourced (subcontracted) than done in-house. A serious translation agency will thoroughly check and proofread the translation before sending it to the client, a less serious one will simply send the translation on to the client after receiving it from the freelance translator.

Freelance translators are self-employed, independent professionals who usually work from home or a small office. They work as subcontractors for translation agencies who outsource work to them or directly for companies and individuals who need translation services.

Advantages of a freelance translator:

- You know exactly who will translate your text and what qualifications the translator has. Translation agencies work with many different translators and you have no way of knowing who will translate your texts and how qualified that person is.

- You have direct contact with the translator. Communication is therefore much faster and more personal, since it only involves you and the translator. If you work with a translation agency, the agency will relay the communication between you and the translator, which may cause delays in the transmission of information or even misunderstandings.

- Your texts will always be translated by the same person. The translator becomes familiar with the type of texts to be translated for you and the kind of terminology used. He or she can therefore work faster and ensure consistency of style and terminology in all your translated documents. Since translation agencies usually work with many different translators, your documents may not always be translated by the same person and there may therefore be differences in style and terminology.

- A freelance translator will often be cheaper than a translation agency since freelance translators usually do not have the same expenses as translation agencies do (fancy offices in the city center, secretaries and salaries to pay, etc.). When working directly with a freelance translator, there is no middleman (a translation agency) who takes a commission.

Advantages of a translation agency:

- Many translation agencies work with several languages (some even claim to offer “all languages”, which, considering that there are some 6000 languages in the world, is quite exaggerated). If, for example, you need an English text translated into 20 different languages, it may be easier for you to work with one translation agency that handles the project management for all 20 languages than with 20 individual translators.

- An individual translator will usually not be able to handle very large volumes in a short time, say 100 pages in 3 days. A translation agency which works with many translators might be able to split the work between various translators and proofread the final product to ensure consistency.

- Freelance translators are usually specialized in one or a few subject areas. If you need a variety of documents translated, for example one legal document, one technical document and one medical document, you will probably not be able to find a freelance translator who is specialized in all of these subjects and would need to find a legal translator, a technical translator and a medical translator. Most translation agencies work with translators who are specialized in a variety of fields and can therefore offer a wider array of subject areas.

- An agency can often provide additional services that many freelance translators don’t offer, such as multilingual typesetting and desktop publishing.

As in any business, there are good freelance translators and good translation agencies as well as bad ones. Check their references and qualifications thoroughly and do not settle for the cheapest option. Serious translation companies and highly qualified professional translators won’t sell their skills and expertise for peanuts.

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Here are some tips on where to look for a freelance translator:

- If there is a translators association in your country, a good place to start is the association’s member directory. Most associations have websites with an online list of their members. Depending on the language combination you need, it might also be a good idea to check the member directory of associations in other countries. For example, if you are based in Japan and need a Spanish to French translator, you might not be able to find a qualified translator in the member lists of the Japanese translator associations, but you will certainly find many suitable Spanish to French translators in the member lists of translator associations in France and probably also in Spain. Click here for an extensive list of translator and interpreter associations around the world.

- Another good place to search for translators is your local business directory or Yellow Pages in the “Translation” or “Translator” category. There you can usually find both freelance translators and translation agencies.

- Nowadays, many freelance translators have their own website. You can find them by simply introducing relevant keywords in a search engine such as Google. For example, if you need a Spanish to French translator specializing in tourism, you could enter “Spanish French freelance translator tourism”. Today, this search (without using quotation marks) returns 28,200 results in Google and I am happy to see that my own website is on the very first page You can also restrict the search to a particular country or include the name of your city if you want to work with a translator near you. The more precise you make your search, the better are your chances of finding a suited translator.

- Many freelance translators register in online translator directories such as ProZ or TranslatorsCafe (click here for an extensive list of translator directories and databases). Some of these sites simply feature a list of translators with the services they offer and a link to their website. Others are more elaborate and allow translators to create a complete profile. On some sites, clients can post their job offers and receive quotes from translators who are available and meet the stipulated criteria. Or they can search for the most suited translator in the directory and contact them directly.

- Ask colleagues and acquaintances whether they can recommend a good translator to you.

You might also be interested in reading this article:
How to choose the right freelance translator?

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- Is the target language (the language the text will be translated into) the translator’s native language? It is generally believed that translators produce better quality when translating into their mother tongue. One usually has broader vocabulary and better writing skills in one’s native language than in a second language. A translation done by a non-native of the target language is likely to sound less natural or even awkward. If it is not possible to find a translator whose native language matches the target language (for very rare language combinations for example), make sure that the translation will be proofread and edited by a native of the target language. This criterion is especially important for literary or marketing texts where style and nuances are very important. Keep also in mind that for some languages spoken in various countries, there are considerable regional differences. Brazilian Portuguese is different from European Portuguese, Canadian French from European French, Mexican Spanish from Argentine Spanish, UK English from American English, etc. If your Spanish translation will be used in Chile for example, it will be much better adapted to the local market in Chile when translated by a Chilean translator rather than by a translator from Spain.

- How well does the translator know the source language (the original language of the text to be translated)? In order to produce a good translation, the translator must understand all the nuances, implied meanings, word plays, various registers such as slang and administrative or legal jargon, depending on the text, cultural references in the source text. Ideally, the translator should have been immersed in the language and the culture by living for an extended period of time in a country where the source language is spoken.

- How familiar is the translator with the subject field? Most professional translators specialize in a few areas and will refuse texts that are outside of their fields of specialization. If you need to have a legal document translated, choose a translator who has substantial experience in legal translation and is familiar with the legal systems involved, ideally a translator who has also studied law or was trained in legal translation.

- Does the translator hold any official certification or credential? Some translator associations such as the ATA in the US or NAATI in Australia offer certification or accreditation exams for translators. In some countries (France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and others), legal translators can become sworn translators before a court. They are thus authorized to translate official documents and certify their translations. Therefore, if you need an official (certified or sworn) translation, make sure that the translator is duly accredited and inquire about the procedure in the country where the translation will be used, as each country has its own system and requirements.

- Does the translator have a degree or a certificate in translation? Many people believe that knowing two languages is enough to be a translator. It is not. Translation is a skill (some say that it is an art) that has to be learned, either through courses or practical on-the-job training. Therefore, make sure to choose a translator who has studied translation or acquired his or her translation skills through extensive practical experience, ideally a combination of both.

- Is the translator experienced? Does he or she have a solid track-record, satisfied customers, good references? Many translators prefer not to disclose the names of their clients because of confidentiality issues. Instead of asking for names of clients, rather ask if the translator has worked on similar projects before and if he or she has experience in translating the type of document you need. Many translators are also willing to show you sample translations they have done before and some accept to do small test translations.

You might also be interested in reading this article:
Where do I find a freelance translator?

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The skills required to become an interpreter are not the same as those required to become a translator. Both need to have a profound knowledge of their source and target languages as well as subject matter knowledge and broad general knowledge of course. In addition, interpreters also need a good memory, they have to be able to react very quickly, overcome a difficulty within seconds, understand a variety of different accents and pronunciations and they also have to be able to concentrate intensely. As for translators, it is important that they have an excellent writing style, impeccable grammar and spelling and broad vocabulary in a variety of fields and genres. An excellent interpreter can be a very bad translator and vice-versa, although there are a certain number of people who successfully combine the two professions.

In short, the mission of both translators and interpreters is to get a message across in a different language, but translators do so in writing while interpreters do so orally.

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