duffer

Hello All,

Just looking for advice on behalf of a dear friend. She's Italian and married to an American. Her work situation is a bit dire so she is about to embark on a diploma course from the IoL.

She would welcome any type of advice possible, e.g. resourceful websites, personal experiences, getting work, getting started, translation agencies.

I have suggested that she start translating Italian into English as her English is very good but of course the diploma course would be the opposite.

What is the situation in Italy for translations? I guess it's more Italian into English than the other way round?

Thanks in advance!

Nellybell

As a translator myself, first and foremost your friend should realise professional translators only ever translate from their "second" language into their mother tongue. What's more, simply being able to speak and write two languages to a very high standard is no guarantee that you will make a successful translator.

Competition is huge, prices are falling, due to people offering "silly" prices either because they want to get started, don't really understand the time needed to produce a good translation, or are working on the side. Add the advent of Machine Translation (think Google translate) and competition via the internet from third world countries, and you have a recipe for disaster for established professionals and hopeful newbies

Finally, the combination English - Italian is already flooded with translators, many with years of experience.

HTH - Nelly

duffer

Hi Nellybell,

Thanks for the input, yes I thought as much that she would have to stick to English into Italian.

Did you start out in Italy? How did it go?

Also, do you mean English into Italian is very competitive or either way in general?

Thanks!

Nellybell

got my degree in mod languages in the UK, moved out here, worked in export for 15 years, had a baby, started freelancing 14 years ago.
English-Italian is very competitive here because supply exceeds demand by far. Italian - English might be slightly less competitive, but not by much.

Any "lavoratori autonomi" out there will also be well aware of how ridiculous the taxes are. Also, since there is no "professional cassa" for translators to pay into, we have to pay into "Gestione Separata" so we will have very little pension to look forward to despite paying in abundantly.

Also, when (or if) you are paid, terms are often 90 - 120 days after delivery, with very little feasible action for you to take if an agency/customer simply decides not to pay.

All in all, I would advise teaching English instead.

Garbatellamike

I think NellyBelly is giving good your friend good advice here (I do a lot of Italian into English translations but never vice versa). Moreover, I would advise telling your mate to think in the broadest terms when teaching English i.e. think about marketing "business english" as well as just plain english.


OH is shortly arriving from UK and first up for her will be a CELTA course.

duffer

Yeah I am telling her to focus on teaching English. She already earns 20 Euro per hour doing teaching in the evenings and used to work for an English school for a short period before finding full-time work.

She is however convinced that the translation diploma will greatly enhance her CV and give her an upper hand over other teachers.

I did a CELTA course many years ago too. Full time 4 weeks in London.

Garbatellamike

OH is doing the 4 week CELTA here in Rome in June.