famzokko

Is there anyone who works full/part time in translation?

I have been working in Madrid in teaching in schools for the past five years and am considering a career change after having a baby in order to be able to have more flexible working hours and possibly be able to work from home. I am therefore considering doing an MA in Translation to accompany a BA in languages.

However, I was wondering whether translation is the way forward with so many children being brought up 'bilingual' these days in schools and the amount of competition there seems to be.

If there are any translators, what would your advice be regarding the field? Is it a saturated market with few prospects for the future or one worth pursuing?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

missile

I would suggest there is a market, but your prospects would be better in one of the expat areas. Perhaps you could post a few adverts to test the market in your local area?

snikpoh

I used to employ translators from all over the world for our localisation programs. However, we had a very strict rule about them having to be native speakers.

Therefore, I suspect your best bet might be to offer you services in expat areas as @missile suggests.

famzokko

Thanks for your response. When you say they had to be native speakers, of which country were you referring? I am English but live in Spain and was thinking about translating from Spanish into English.

cricketman

The trouble with being a Spanish to English translator in SPain is that most people will not want to pay you

Spanish business owners all have a niece or nephew who speaks English well enough to do a (bad) translation of a website etc

Expats will only pay for translations if they are legal translations, in which case you need the relevant legal qualification