hi there~

i once was channel surfing when i came upon some court tv of some
chinese political guy being on trial here in the u.s. for something. 
dont remember at all what he was on trial for because i was totally
and completely entralled by the translator who was working for the
defendant.  the translator was this young kid (he couldnt have been
more than 25 years old) tall, and kind of hungry looking, like a grad
student.  but he looked a lot neater than a grad student, spiffed up
for tv.   professional looking.  and he was doing this real-time
translation where the chinese guy (his mandarin was definitely beijing
sounding) would talk for 30 to 60 seconds and then the translator
would talk for 30 to 60 seconds.  what was neat was this translator
was a white guy.  i mean maybe he grew up in beijing or something with
his ambassador parents or something, but he was cool, slick.  there
were times when we got the chance to hear the translator's mandarin
and it was pretty damn good sounding.  (i dont speak, but i did study
it for a year.)

i was astounded.  you would think that ive never seen a translator
before.  (ok, i hadnt.)  it was AWESOME.

there was a second chinese guy on trial and he also had his own
translator, a young asian woman.  and she may have been as good as the
other white guy, but she had a note pad with her, which she would
scribble occasional notes when the chinese guy spoke.  the white guy
was especially impressive because he had no notepad with him.  he
memorised EVERYTHING.  i dont think if i heard something for a minute
in english that i could repeat it back, even if i were repeating it
back in english...

what do the top translators (like this guy) make a year?  where do
they go to learn their trade?  how do they learn?

i ask partially out of self interest and not because im simply
curious.  i am not fluent in korean, but i am thinking about improving
it to the point where i could translate (im korean and i speak it with
my parents and my husband, who is a korean national, but thats pretty
much it.  i speak english all the time.  i dream in english and
konglish, tho).

also, while we are at it, could you please give me more information on
text translation?

if i were to consider seriously going into the world of text
translation, where would i start?  how could i learn?  how much could
i expect to earn (if i didnt do something sexy like translate murakami
haruki's books into english, but more mundane like user manuals,
newspaper articles, product copy, etc)?  im pretty sure that i would
be working from korean text -> english text because as one who isnt a
native speaker of korean, that would probably be best...

i have thought about starting out by translating korean man-wha
(comics) for little pay into english to get my foot into the door...

anyways, any and all comments welcome!

banchan

Hello,

The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Handbook does not have a
complete listing for translators, but the California Occupational
Guide does. (1) All information below is from the California guide
unless otherwise noted.

Note that most pages list interpreters -- oral translators -- and
"translators" -- people who specialize in written translation --
together.

Question 1 -- How much do translators make? -- In 1995, free-lance
court translators made between $155 and $230 a day. Translators who
worked for the California state government made $2,379 to $2,853 per
month; federal translators made between $19,693 and $71,521+ per year.
The U.S. Department of State paid an average of $110 per 1,000 words
translated in a document.

According to the American Translators Association: "In the federal
government: Beginning: $19,500-$24,000 per year; Average:
$33,500-$49,500 per year. Top Earnings: $62,000-$75,000 per year. In
the large corporation setting earnings may vary between
$50,000-$80,000 per year. Earnings vary depending upon difficulty of
language and task." (2)

According to the National Association of Court Interpreters and
Translators: "In some parts of the United States the pay is dismal; in
others it is more reasonable. As of January 2000, the federal courts
pay $305 per day to per diem interpreters (Before that, the per diem
rate had remained at $250/day for nine years.) When interpreters are
hired by private parties, the rate of remuneration is negotiable.

"Most court interpreters are freelancers (self-employed) and
considered independent contractors. Where the volume of work is
greatest, the courts tend to have full-time staff positions, almost
all of them for Spanish-English. Starting staff interpreter annual
salaries may range from around $30,000 up to around $80,000. Freelance
interpreters and translators can earn over $100,000 per year, but
generally not without working long hours. These are rough figures at
best, and to this writer's knowledge, no systematic compensation
survey has ever been done in this field." (3)

Question 2 -- How do you learn and break into the field? -- A college
degree in the language and travel abroad is recommended. The ATA lists
institutions that train translators at
(http://www.atanet.org/bin/view.pl/30472.html).

To prove that you are a legitimate person to hire for a translation
job, you might need accreditation from the American Translators
Association. Visit (http://www.atanet.org/bin/view.pl/29169.html) for
information on the accreditation program. The National Association of
Judiciary Interpreters and Translators also accredits people (4).

The Translators and Interpreters Guild labor union has a referral
service designed to match translators with prospective clients:
(http://www.ttig.org/).

Check out the NAJIT links page for more information:
(http://www.najit.org/links.shtml)

For information on breaking into book translation, go to the American
Literary Translation Association at
(http://www.utdallas.edu/research/cts/alta.htm), click on "ALTA Guides
to Literary Translation" and then "Breaking into Print." Membership in
ALTA puts you in an online directory of translators.

I hope this answer meets your needs. If not, please request
clarification.

References
(1) California Employment Development Department, "Translators and
Interpreters"
http://www.calmis.cahwnet.gov/file/occguide/TRANSLAT.HTM

(2) University of Missouri Career Center, "Interpreter/Translator"
http://career.missouri.edu/holland/e/interpretertranslator.html

(3) NAJIT, "FAQs about Court Interpreting"
http://www.najit.org/faq.html

(4) NAJIT, "Frequently Asked Questions about the National Judiciary
Interpreter and Translator Certification (NJITC)"
http://www.najit.org/ssti/examfaqs.php

Search strategy:

translators career
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=translators+career

translator earnings
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=translator+earnings

Translator Association
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=Translator+Association

translator accreditation
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=Translator+accreditation

translation books statistics
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=translation+books+statistics

---

Request for Answer Clarification by banchan-ga on 14 Oct 2002 09:58 PDT

before i rate, please try to provide a few more links about:

1) breaking into the interpreter field.  (other than just the ATA
site).
2) breaking into the book translation field (other than just the ALTA
site).

can you find at least 5 links to faq pages that are as interesting
(very subjective word, i know.  i promise to be generous) as the
following page: http://www.najit.org/faq.html ?   links that arent
just about court interpreting, but about other facets of
interpretation and translation a big plus.

all in all, im pleased thus far with the answer, but please give just
a little more.

thank you very much in advance!~

---

Clarification of Answer by mwalcoff-ga on 14 Oct 2002 10:29 PDT

Hello,

As requested, here are five more links:

1) Monterey Institute of International Studies, "GSTI Employers"
http://www.miis.edu/gsti-career-employers.html

2) AIIC Training Committee, "Advice to Students Wishing to Become
Conference Interpreters"
http://www.aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/page56.htm (also available in
Korean!)

3) The Translation Refernce Center, "Mailing Lists"
http://transref.org/default.asp?docsrc=/main.asp?key=mailing (includes
links to several job boards).

4) Translatortips.com (Claims to be able to help you make more than
$80,000 a year as a freelance translator.)

5) California Courts, "Becoming an Interpreter"
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/programs/courtinterpreters/faq1.htm#becoming

Unfortunately, none of these links is as comprehensive as the FAQs,
but they should help point you in the right direction.

thank you.