GoiHata Translation Services

www.goihata.com
Knowing the pros about becoming a freelancer now it is the turn for you to consider the cons as well as everything in this world has intrinsic duality.
Uncertainty By far the biggest factor! It would be great to start operations with a client base which could guarantee regular work for you to get the income needed even though you must be prepared for eventual delays on payments. But if you still do not have enough clients as to take the big step and sweat at the thought of leaving the comfort zone of a monthly salary then it would be wise not to venture on your own yet. There is no sense in putting yourself in a situation where stress will make your life miserable, right?
Lack of employment benefits This factor is important to be considered too as there are certain benefits you will lose. For example, you won’t be getting paid while you are on holiday, and so your earnings should compensate. There are also other benefits that you will no longer be entitled to such as health insurance and retirement benefits (although you can learn to organize your finances so that you put aside a percentage to cover these items)
Marketing yourself To get new clients, people need to know about you, and if you are working for yourself then the only way for this to happen is if you promote yourself. You can go from cold-calling and e-mailing, to online and newspaper advertisements, to attending events where you can distribute your business cards. How you accomplish this will be down to you and the industry you work within, but you have to organize yourself to dedicate considerable time to promote your business but don’t let yourself be put off with this, be proactive and creative!

Paulina Torres De Witt
www.goihata.com

www.goihata.com
Maybe you are starting in this profession and feel comfortable working in an office as their Translator but believe me sooner than later you are going to feel the need to expand your horizon and consider becoming a freelancer. You have to properly consider several aspects though before deciding whether to take the plunge and go freelance yourself.
Most of the attractive pros of becoming a Freelance Translator are self-evident so let’s consider just a few of them:
Working from home I guess this is the top most feature! No more daily commute to an office, no more traffic jams, no more wasted time, no more stress! The time you save can be used to advance in your current translation task or enjoyed as spare time.
The ability to set your own hours The second top most feature, of course! The ability to choose when to start or stop work is quite appealing but consider this: sometimes you will be required to overlap your hours with those of your clients as you have to be flexible and this means that you will frequently find yourself working overtime, usually more than in the ‘normal’ working world.
The income is all yours Another obvious appeal to freelance work is that the profits that you make are yours to keep. What you earn, you keep it in full except for any required taxes.
More variety and choice in assignments Working on your own means that you can choose over the kind of projects on which your skills are focused – allowing you to develop in areas that you are interested in, and keeping away from tedious jobs you might be assigned to do in a regular job which you would obviously not be able to decline in favor of your personal likes or interests.

Paulina Torres De Witt
www.goihata.com

- www.goihata.com
I recently read a very interesting interview to Mrs. Brett J. Epstein who works as a writer, Translator, editor, and English teacher in Sweden. She shares insights on the essential elements of the Translator’s craft and business.
She describes, and I totally agree with it, the job of Translators as the art and craft of bringing the authors’ real expressions, as well as their ideas, inferences, disposition, voice, style, and so forth, from the source language to the target language, without being either excessively literal and strict with the text or overly free and loose. In her opinion, a Translator must consider what and how would the author have written the document if he were writing in the target language. So, for her, translation is the delicate and formidable job of perfectly recreating the authors’ original document and I consider this statement is accurate and truly honors our efforts in a very nice way.

Due to her activities she considers that translating creative work like literature is more challenging and more interesting and thinks that writers are the ideal people to be Translators as they have experience with writing, the writing process, analyzing literature, and editing. She suggests that one of the best ways to learn about translation is to carefully read and study a document in both its original language and its translation trying to understand what words and phrases really meant and why the Translator had made certain choices comparing it to what you would have done, had you been the Translator in charge.
During the interview she also mentioned some reading material that I would like to read myself like William Weaver’s essay “The Process of Translation”, Vladimir Nabokov’s essay “The Art of Translation”, and “Performing Without a Stage: The Art of Literary Translation” by Robert Wechsler.
Paulina Torres De Witt
- www.goihata.com

- www.goihata.com
When we receive a document to translate it is very important to check the writing quality in the original. There is a tacit axiom in translation which every one of us knows: the translation will never be much better than the original (or in tech-talk: GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out!) If the original is an incoherent, illogical piece of nonsense, so the translation will be. If the source text is a brilliant piece of erudition with great literary merit, then the translation should surely be the same.

The point is Translators cannot go much above the quality of the original, and translation buyers should not necessarily blame a bad translation on the Translator. Of course, we must always do our best to render the information in the optimum manner even though it is best not to rewrite the original or improve its style or content, insert our own clever ideas or original phrases… just translate and offer quality work free of errors and omissions before deadline time. Be a competent, responsible, and capable professional who will honor agreements and produce quality work.
Make sure that there are no errors, omissions, spelling or punctuation mistakes, and that you deliver your translation on time in the form requested and expected by your client. If not sure about the client-s expectations, always ask while in time. If you do it this way, you will get more work. if not, you will only cause grief.
If a text is truly beyond understanding, the only responsible course of action would be to contact the client and leave the decision regarding whether to translate it or not into your customer’s hand. You may lose a job this way, but you will likely win the confidence of the client. The latter is ultimately worth far more than the former, no doubt!
Paulina Torres De Witt
- www.goihata.com