So am taking N2 this summer and if I get it I’ll aim to take N1 next summer. Half of my degree was in Japanese (graduated nearly 10 years ago) and I really just miss using the language. So I’m considering potentially dipping into freelance translation as a side hustle but I suppose I’d like to know how realistic that is. I read Japanese and write English pretty well. I really enjoy reading in Japanese too. I suppose what puts me off are rumours that you have to be insanely good to ever consider translation as a means to earning money. I’ve ruled out interpreting completely as my listening would just not be good enough. Any thoughts on my ambition? I specialise in economics academically and professionally so thought that may be advantageous if I considered translating Japanese into English within business contexts. Would a masters in translation help at all?
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Yen Press is hiring. This is what they’re looking for in an editor (JPLT N3 is a requirement) Maybe see what they’re looking for and see if it’s skills you have or have time to aquire
https://www.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=cd62de57f441132d
It might be worth doing doujin on the side. Fans generally pay $20-$50 depending on the work. I can bang *some out in a day if I have the time. Record is 3.
Based on what my freelancer friends have said, I think a lot of the freelancing sites will have you take some kind of translation test before you can sign up for them, as proof that you can do it.
So if you don’t have a lot of experience you should be practicing (maybe doing Wikipedia or news articles or something) on your own and then give it a shot to sign up. Good luck!
an average economist makes 52 dollars an hour
the average translator makes 24 dollars an hour, but beginners will make much, much less than that and you might make like 50 dollars *a day* if you work it
is that a good side-hustle for you or should you focus on your core skills?
I can’t answer this for you, you honestly have to think about it
finance can be a lucrative field for translation. but, realistically, as someone just getting into it, you’ll be competing against industry vets who take all the top jobs, bottom-scrapers who work for peanuts, generalist translators who do average work but are well established, and machine translation.
you have a specialisation already, which sets you apart from a lot of others, but being just ‘good’ at translation isn’t really enough set yourself apart from the rest. most translators are at least good, or are convincingly adequate.
it’s probably never been more difficult to make a start in this industry. working against you is the fact that many clients don’t care too much about quality or are too ignorant to recognise the difference. but the flip-side is that the ones that do very much still exist and are willing to pay top dollar for it.
if you can make this work as side hustle, you will have my utmost respect, but i would encourage you to find an in-house position first. learn the ropes, hone your skill, then break out when you’re more established, if that’s what you decide. unfortunately, translation is not going to be a profitable side-hustle these days for most people.
also don’t bother with a masters. 3 or 4 years of real experience will be infinitely more beneficial.
How bad is your listening?
My experience is that if you can’t follow people having an off-the-cuff conversation about current events and their feelings, you also have a hard time reading dialog and getting the nuance out of it. This doesn’t matter for technical translation, but if you’re going to do any kind of fiction (popular, literary, whatever) then please don’t be satisfied with crappy listening.
Speaking from experience here. I’ve made a lot of progress but I’m still working on it.
Business Japanese? On one hand it is more formulaic and predictable, which helps you out, but on the other hand reading between the lines and being able to interpret cultural norms is one of the things that separates being able to work with someone to being able to work with someone *without it being too much of a chore.*
Reading fiction and listening to people talk about their lives and experiences are good ways to build the foundation you need.
Bottom line is that if listening is what scares you away from interpreting, you should definitely work at it.
I think professional translation will continue to split between “eh good enough” and “seriously let’s get this right.” In the first case, AI keeps getting better. It still benefits from some supervision, but if you’re thinking of translating anime or games, you’re gonna get *squeezed* to be more and more productive for less and less money; why aren’t you using AI? and so on. And the second one will require serious technical or cultural knowledge, ideally both.
Are you a good writer?
Because the biggest problem with translation is that you have to be a good writer to be useful.