Demand for J->English / J->German translations ? Thread poster: vieleFragen
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Hello. I'd like to become a translator for either japanese or chinese (I've yet to decide which language I should take up...). My only concern with learning japanese is that the ratio of supply and demand for the language pair J->German and maybe even J->English might be too small.
Hopefully anybody can tell me a little something about the demand in these language pairs. I assume it's very unlikely that anybody on this forum is familiar with the demand for J->G, but maybe somebody c... See more Hello. I'd like to become a translator for either japanese or chinese (I've yet to decide which language I should take up...). My only concern with learning japanese is that the ratio of supply and demand for the language pair J->German and maybe even J->English might be too small.
Hopefully anybody can tell me a little something about the demand in these language pairs. I assume it's very unlikely that anybody on this forum is familiar with the demand for J->G, but maybe somebody can tell me if a J->E translator usually has any difficulty getting enough work.
(I've been told, that some native german speakers who translate mostly from Japanese to german also translate into english so they don't run out of work...besides I think I might be able to translate into english, too if necessary...with a native proofreader of course)
Thanks for all of your help! ▲ Collapse
| | | | mstkwasa
Local time: 17:44
English to Japanese
+ ...
| Choose carefully! | Mar 5, 2005 |
It is a bit difficult to say about JP > DE - there is some demand for DE > JP - though I would think there is a reasonable demand for it. My guess is that there is a substantial market but the number of translators is small so that many clients rely on relay translation. If you can establish yourself in the field, it may work out. However you are in for a long haul, especially you are yet to embark on learning the language.
JP > EN is more common, the bread and butter stuff really, ... See more It is a bit difficult to say about JP > DE - there is some demand for DE > JP - though I would think there is a reasonable demand for it. My guess is that there is a substantial market but the number of translators is small so that many clients rely on relay translation. If you can establish yourself in the field, it may work out. However you are in for a long haul, especially you are yet to embark on learning the language.
JP > EN is more common, the bread and butter stuff really, but there is more competition. You will be at a disadvantage since I assume that English is not your mother tongue but German is. Clients usually like to have someone translating into his/her mother tongue (whether that is a good policy or not is a matter for discussion since if someone is not sure about the source text, it can cause trouble).
For the JP > EN pair, the important question is your proficiency in English. A simple test: if you were to translate JP > EN, do you think you could do that directly and not mentally translating the Japanese text into German first (i.e. JP > DE > EN)? You might also want to start with DE > EN and EN > DE combinations and see how you fare.
Along with language competence, you will need to develop a field in which you specialise - mechanical, engineering, patents, medical etc. Different types of documents demand different skills so you will need to work on this too. If you are passionate about languages and prepared to put in the hours, translation (in my view) is one of the most rewarding and creative occupations around. ▲ Collapse
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Hi. Thanks for the answer!
First of all: Sorry for posting pretty much the same topic twice..I just did that because I thought my other thread had gotten lost (didnt realize it had to be checked by a moderator first).
If I were to translate from french into english, I think I would translate directly into english. However I have to say, that I don't think my english would be good enough to do professional translations into it, yet. I guess, I forgot to mention, that I'm... See more Hi. Thanks for the answer!
First of all: Sorry for posting pretty much the same topic twice..I just did that because I thought my other thread had gotten lost (didnt realize it had to be checked by a moderator first).
If I were to translate from french into english, I think I would translate directly into english. However I have to say, that I don't think my english would be good enough to do professional translations into it, yet. I guess, I forgot to mention, that I'm only 21 years old and I'm studying business management/japanese. My plan is to start working in a business job where I deal with japan a lot and have to use and thus be able to improve my japanese language skills (and also my english of course, because in business english is the lingua franca like everyone knows, I assume) and become a translator for j->g / j->e later in life. That way I'd also have an expertise (business, finance) and should be able to understand business documents very well...and thus could try and become a translator.
Actually, I think the fact that English isn't my mother tongue wouldn't be too much of a problem for me, especially as I'd also like to move to an english-speaking country later in life (California in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand,..a place where the sun shines longer than in germany ). Besides, I've actually never been to an english-speaking country before and think I could further improve my english by at least spending a year or so in one (or like I said maybe even moving there for good). I'm just worried, that I might have more difficulty acquiring jobs, because English still won't be my official mother tongue, no matter what I do.
One more thing, though: I know Japanese->English is the bread and butter, but is it usually easy for a jap->english translator to get enough jobs to work fulltime..? I know the demand must be pretty high, but I have no clue about the supply of available translators for that language pair. I've heard up to 80/90% of j->e translations were done by non-native english speakers, though. That would mean, the demand rather exceeds the supply than the other way around, I guess?..on the other hand I dont really know whether it's true, at all.
Do you think it's possible to specialize in patent translation (after starting with translations of business documents) even if you don't have a degree in that field? It's probably way more than just a matter of learning the necessary vocabular, I guess...?
(I've heard of one j->g and g->j translator who operates in that expertise and actually gets probably more work than he wishes for, because he doesn't have any real competition in that language pair and expertise)
mstkwasa wrote:
It is a bit difficult to say about JP > DE - there is some demand for DE > JP - though I would think there is a reasonable demand for it. My guess is that there is a substantial market but the number of translators is small so that many clients rely on relay translation. If you can establish yourself in the field, it may work out. However you are in for a long haul, especially you are yet to embark on learning the language.
JP > EN is more common, the bread and butter stuff really, but there is more competition. You will be at a disadvantage since I assume that English is not your mother tongue but German is. Clients usually like to have someone translating into his/her mother tongue (whether that is a good policy or not is a matter for discussion since if someone is not sure about the source text, it can cause trouble).
For the JP > EN pair, the important question is your proficiency in English. A simple test: if you were to translate JP > EN, do you think you could do that directly and not mentally translating the Japanese text into German first (i.e. JP > DE > EN)? You might also want to start with DE > EN and EN > DE combinations and see how you fare.
Along with language competence, you will need to develop a field in which you specialise - mechanical, engineering, patents, medical etc. Different types of documents demand different skills so you will need to work on this too. If you are passionate about languages and prepared to put in the hours, translation (in my view) is one of the most rewarding and creative occupations around. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Carmen Álvarez 
Spain
Local time: 18:44
Member (2014)
English to Spanish
+ ...
| Japanese to German | Jun 23, 2005 |
Hallo vieleFragen!
Well, I live in Japan for more than one year and I am learning Japanese also. As you, I would like to become "irgendwann" later a translator of Japanese into Spanish, although it will take quite long
I am not in a hurry to find jobs for this pair yet, but I made some "investigations" and that is what I can tell you:
1. Almost all the translations are into English. For examp... See more Hallo vieleFragen!
Well, I live in Japan for more than one year and I am learning Japanese also. As you, I would like to become "irgendwann" later a translator of Japanese into Spanish, although it will take quite long
I am not in a hurry to find jobs for this pair yet, but I made some "investigations" and that is what I can tell you:
1. Almost all the translations are into English. For example, the manuals of electrical appliances, are translated into English here in Japan and the English version is later sent abroad to be translated into the rest of the languages.
2. As an exception to that, I have found many Japanese websites wich are translated into Chinese and Korean.
3. I found a translation company specialized in Japanese into Spanish. They translate comics (manga) and TV animes. I think in Germany there is demand for that also, but I don't know if you are confortable with this kind of translations (I am not).
Finally, note that China is now developing very fast. My husband is a Japanese business man and is studying Chinese in order to profit at work in the near future. Maybe Chinese is a better election, but there are countless more kanjis than in Japanese!
Good luck! ▲ Collapse
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