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Poll: At what age did you decide to become a freelance translator/interpreter? Лице кое објавува дискусија: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "At what age did you decide to become a freelance translator/interpreter?".
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Muriel Vasconcellos (X) 
Соединети Американски Држави
Local time: 01:58
шпански на англиски
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I was learning Spanish in school and couldn't resist trying to translate the books we were reading.
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Tim Drayton (X)
Кипар
Local time: 11:58
турски на англиски
+ ...
| I first aspired to become a freelance translator at about the age of 25 ... | Oct 30, 2014 |
but I was over 40 when I received my first ever paid translation job.
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neilmac
Шпанија
Local time: 10:58
шпански на англиски
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Pleasantly surprised to find myself in the majority so far. Although I'd always enjoyed translation and language/s in general, and my degree was in languages, I did other jobs before moving into TEFL, which eventually led to my becoming a full-time translator.
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Cecilia Civetta
Италија
Local time: 10:58
Член (2003)
италијански на шпански
+ ...
So young!
I didn't know what I was getting into!! (just kidding )
I'm 45 now and still a translator.
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| Around the 1st year of grammar school | Oct 30, 2014 |
Because that's all you do when you study Latin and Greek - parse, read and translate. That's about all you can do with dead languages in secondary school. And that's all I did when I studied modern and classical Japanese in college - read and translate.
While I was doing all of this, I thought to myself "There just had to be a way of making some money out of 'reading and translating.'"
However, I cannot imagine making a 'freelance' living out of translating Tacitus or the Tal... See more Because that's all you do when you study Latin and Greek - parse, read and translate. That's about all you can do with dead languages in secondary school. And that's all I did when I studied modern and classical Japanese in college - read and translate.
While I was doing all of this, I thought to myself "There just had to be a way of making some money out of 'reading and translating.'"
However, I cannot imagine making a 'freelance' living out of translating Tacitus or the Tale of Genji. 
PS
At the age of 11, I was more concerned about earning some 'pocket money' using my language skills rather than earning a living.
Added PS
[Edited at 2014-10-30 10:00 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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While in school, I enjoyed languages as well as philosophy, mathematics, history, physics and it was hard for me to choose which one would be right for me! In "desperation", I chose economics but life has pushed me personally and professionally in different directions and translation came my way in my early 40s...
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Sheila Wilson
Шпанија
Local time: 09:58
Член (2007)
англиски
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| >41 in the lead (after 212 votes, anyway) | Oct 30, 2014 |
neilmac wrote:
Pleasantly surprised to find myself in the majority so far.
It is quite surprising to hear that we're in the majority, particularly as everyone else who's commented here so far has decided at an early age. But then you do hear a lot of people here saying that they came to translating as a second or even third career.
I couldn't accept my offered place at SOAS back in the '70s for family/financial reasons so I did a one-year bilingual senior secretarial course locally instead. But that was back at the start of an earlier economic crisis and the executive secretary was the first to be chopped as typing pools took over (no way was I about to be a typist!). It wasn't until the late '90s that I achieved my 20-year dream of moving to France. Even then, I waited about 7 years before feeling fluent enough to translate for money, though my EFL business students were getting plenty of translations and revisions for a bottle of the local Languedoc produce.
Of course, I did eventually end up typing all day, though not in a mindless draft/audio in and typed sheet out mode.
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Ty Kendall
Обединето Кралство
Local time: 09:58
еврејски на англиски
14 when I first knew I wanted to be a translator (and when the school's careers advisor did everything humanly possible to deter me) and 31 when I finally decided to become one.
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oxygen4u
Португалија
Local time: 09:58
англиски на португалски
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I always say I was born a translator.
As a child I was always fascinated by music. I wanted to understand what singers were saying and my parents told me that first I had to learn how to read and write Portuguese and then I had to learn a foreign language. I was also very curious about those "white lines" (subtitles) on TV whenever I watched a movie. But I think no one ever took me seriously until much later, especially because no one in my family could speak a foreign language.... See more I always say I was born a translator.
As a child I was always fascinated by music. I wanted to understand what singers were saying and my parents told me that first I had to learn how to read and write Portuguese and then I had to learn a foreign language. I was also very curious about those "white lines" (subtitles) on TV whenever I watched a movie. But I think no one ever took me seriously until much later, especially because no one in my family could speak a foreign language.
I think I am very lucky that I found my passion at such an early age. My oldest son in 16 and he has no clue about what he wants to do in the future. He's all about Roman history and unfortunately that will not get him far... ▲ Collapse
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| I recommend Latin and Greek | Oct 30, 2014 |
oxygen4u wrote:
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My oldest son in 16 and he has no clue about what he wants to do in the future. He's all about Roman history and unfortunately that will not get him far...
Why not get him to try classical languages like I did. This might prompt him to learn Japanese or some other 'quaint' minority language? 
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Kay Denney
Франција
Local time: 10:58
француски на англиски
Ty Kendall wrote:
14 when I first knew I wanted to be a translator (and when the school's careers advisor did everything humanly possible to deter me) and 31 when I finally decided to become one.
(I think we had this conversation before)
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Gudrun Maydorn (X)
Германија
Local time: 10:58
англиски на германски
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I was 12 when I started checking terminology in my spare time, I passed my translator's exams at 25, but I was >41 before I changed from in-house translator to freelancer.
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Gudrun Maydorn wrote:
I was 12 when I started checking terminology in my spare time, I passed my translator's exams at 25, but I was >41 before I changed from in-house translator to freelancer.
That's funny, I could have written nearly the same thing, with the difference that I changed from teaching to freelance translating.
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oxygen4u
Португалија
Local time: 09:58
англиски на португалски
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My son actually wanted to take up Greek, but that option was not available.
I'm all for "different" languages, however in Portugal that is nearly impossible. It's basically just English, some Spanish, some French and almost no German. Oh, and no Latin! Portuguese comes from Latin and yet no one learns Latin anymore.
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