Your Gateway into the world of translation!
By Endpoint Translation Company
With the 21st century vast expansion of businesses inside and outside the countries, translation services have become highly needed with all its various types, WHICH IS GOOD NEWS FOR YOU!
Do You know what else is good news?
While not being limited to legal, literary or medical translation; translation and localization industry has newly encompassed types like games translation, software localization, marketing translation, commercial and business translation. This means that all of your interest in what’s going in the modern business market nowadays have already been embraced in industry of translation and localization, and we are spotting the light on it all now!
Excited enough?
YOUR FULL GUIDE TO THE TRANSLATION AND LOCALIZATION INDUSTRY
As a language student or a fresh graduate who passionately aspires to build a career in the translation field, this article is your ultimate gateway!
By continue reading this article, you will explore the following:
1. Statistics about the industry
2. Basic skills for translators
3. Important tools for translators
4. Self-training and courses
5. Job opportunities involved in the industry
6. Types of translators: full-timer, part-timer, and freelancer
7. Top translation companies in Egypt
IT IS HUGE: Know about the translation field size in figures!
Based on the insights of worldwide career experts, it is a perfect choice to seek a profession in the translation and localization field. As our world is getting more interconnected, there has been an increasing demand for translation services by companies and organizations that want to expand outside their borders and reach a greater segment of clients. According to Statista the global language services have witnessed great growth over the last ten years, reaching 46.9 billion USD in 2019. Talk Business also indicated that the language industry size was estimated to be 43 billion USD in 2017, and is expected to reach 47.5 billion USD by 2021. This can make you reassured that you are concerned with a huge major industry, that is continuously and rapidly grows!
YOUR MUST-HAVE TOOLKIT OF SKILLS:
Success in the translation field does not only depend on the full command of both source and target languages. Rather than this, you should arm yourself with basic skills that craft a successful translator. Let us give you some clues:
1. Bookworm, is that you?
Translators are supposed to be cultured and knowledgeable persons by nature. This means that they should be good readers who observe, collect and extract new vocabulary, expressions, and styles. You can read novels, short stories, books and articles in the fields of interest, etc. This will help you to promote your knowledge in the first place and enhance your style in translation. Since, we are more than glad to empower you through your journey, we have a gift for you!
A must-read translation-related books + LINKS TO THEM:
* The Art of Translation by Dr. Mohamed Enani
* The basics of Translation by Ezz el-Din Naguib.
* Translators Beacon by Hamdya Hassan. by Hamdya Hassan.
These books will provide you with tips and tricks on dealing with translation problems based on the experiences of their writers. (You can find more similar books from the following link https://www.targem-app.com/index.php)
2. Computer literacy:
Gone are the days of translating with pen and paper! As a translator, your whole work is on PCs and laptops. At least, you should be able to deal with Office applications and different file formats. You should also improve your typing skills to be more productive. A piece of cake one, isn’t it?
3. Research:
As a human being, we are not a humanized machines or dictionaries. We always need to apply some actual research. This requires to be a distinguished researcher, who is able to reach the needed information effectively and in a timely manner. Time for more gift from us!
- Try to know more about Google search operators to get more specific results while doing your research.
- Also, you should have a list of reliable online dictionaries, including monolingual dictionaries such as Oxford Learners’ Dictionary, Cambridge Dictionary, and The Free Dictionary.
- As for bilingual dictionaries, you can use Almaany Al-Qamous Word Reference, UNterm and Reverso.
4. Organization:
Being organized is a key skill for any successful translator. For example, you should know how to organize your files, in order to save a lot of hassle resulted from losing important information about your projects. Organization also helps you to meet deadlines, gain trust and be reliable.
5. Time management:
Translation as a profession is time-consuming, so you need to know how to manage your time effectively. Whether you work in a company where you are limited with a specific quota or as a freelancer, time management is important in order not to spend all your time on work. To achieve this, try to isolate yourself from any distractions during work time, allocate specific time for research, use keyboard shortcuts and become a faster typist.
TOOLS THAT MAKE A GREAT DIFFERENCE IN YOUR TRANSLATION!
We are into tools, and you should be too! It is the age of technological and digital advancements. This is strongly reflected in the translation field through Computer-Aided Translation tools (CAT Tools) such as SDL Trados MemoQ, Wordfast, Memsource, as well as Quality Assurance tools (QA tools) such as Xbench.. Those tools aim to help translators to increase their productivity, promote consistency, provide error-free translations, and etc. As a translator, you should have the ability to deal with those tools, in order to increase your employability rate. The more you learn tools, the more you get tremendous opportunities. You can get free trials from the official websites, or you can buy the original editions whenever there is a promotion or a discount.
NEVER STOP DEVELOPING!
If you have recently graduated and you think that the journey of learning has ended, you should reconsider your perceptions! Your language studies put you on the right way, however, you need to work more on yourself.
First, you can start with self-training, in which you basically depend on comparing bilingual translated texts. You will observe the style and techniques used in the translation, so that you develop your style and improve your level. Instead, you can translate first on your own, then compare your translation with the original text, detect your mistakes and learn effectively on your own. There are many sources for bilingual texts that will help you in this approach, find below some of them:
Second, if you are not that person who can manage this matter independently, or you want to go into a much deeper step, you can go for courses.
Here are some of the top trusted:
- For translation diploma, you can go for American University in Cairo (AUC), Faculty of Al-Alsun , at Ain Shams University or the Faculty of Arts at Cairo University.
- For training courses, go for what’s offered by the Egyptian Translators & Linguists Association (ETLA). This association, founded by Mr. Hossam El-Din Mostafa serves as a syndicate for the Egyptian translators, offering them many services like free courses, sessions, workshops, seminars, scholarships, educational activities and events, local and international accreditation for translators, etc.
- Otherwise, you can join graduates training courses and workshops held by translation companies such as “Introduction to Localization”, which is a free annual training program for graduates held by Lingo Soft. . Other companies like Arabize offer similar paid training courses. The good news is that you can get hired in those companies if you showed outstanding performance and commitment. In addition, there are free and paid training opportunities presented by many prominent translators like Ashraf Amer, Muhammad Said, and Mahmoud Taher. They usually announce these opportunities on social media platforms. This is not all, more opportunities can be found in translators Facebook groups like Freelance Translators. . Keeping learning, whether through self-training methods or instruction-based courses, is an essential step to take your abilities and skills to the next level.
AND NOW, THE GOOD NEWS COMES!
Believing in our social duty towards fresh graduates and students like you and desiring to help you throughout your training journey, we proudly announce that we will be offering many small texts on our Facebook page @Endpointtranslation for translation as a training. They will be corrected and assessed by our professional translation team. This will be totally FREE without any costs.
It is not all about TRANSLATORS!
When it comes to translation, some of us might think that we only deal with TRANSLATORS, but actually, there are a lot of job roles or opportunities involved in this industry. These roles include, but are not limited to:
* Project managers: They are responsible for receiving projects, dividing them into small tasks and distributing them on a team of translators. They set plans regarding how the work will be handled in terms of time frame, project instructions, daily quota and etc. They are also responsible for dealing with any problems concerning project delivery or technical issues. Project management is an effective and essential factor for a translation project’s success.
* Revisers: Their role comes after translators, as a second step. They are responsible for verifying the quality of the translated texts in terms of the accuracy in transferring the meaning or the message expressed in the text, the consistency throughout the whole project, the style used in the translation, the commitment to the project instructions, the word choice and its suitability to the spirit of the text and etc.
* Proofreaders: They are similar to revisers with respect to verifying the quality. However, their mission is different, they usually work on the target text only. They detect grammatical and linguistic errors, correcting them based on advanced skills in language rules.
* Interpreters: They translate orally at the same time of producing the source text. They are highly skilled persons who have to listen to the speech and convey its meaning or message quickly into another spoken or sign language. Excellent language proficiency, strong ability to analyze and transfer the original message quickly and adherence to professional ethics and standards are basic requirements in the interpreters.
* Subtitlers: Another subcategory of translators who specialize in screen translation. They play a significant role in the filmmaking process. They also need to have the ability to deal with subtitling software and to limit their translations into a specific number of characters.
* DTP specialists: Apart from language-based roles, desktop publishing specialists are responsible for preparing the different files with their formats and layouts to be ready to work on them in translation software. Some of DTP specialists’ skills include a strong ability to work on photoshop, layout patterns, and graphic design.
What shall I work: full-timer, part-timer or freelancer?
The answer is there is no type is the best one, you should determine your way of work based on your skills, preferences, and priorities. Before taking the decision, let's explore the pros and cons of every type.
Pros of working as an In-house translator (Full-time/part-time)
* Fixed monthly salary
* Medical and social insurance
* Permanent workflow
* More experience
* Bonus and incentive programs
* Promotion system
* Regular feedback and assessments regarding performance
* Communication with colleagues and fellows which allows for more interaction and experience exchange
* More focus on the translation role
* Training programs, sessions, and seminars are offered
Pros of working as Freelance translator
* More income
* Flexibility in terms of the workplace, working hours, productivity rate, etc.
* Freedom of choice regarding the material to be translated, the clients, etc.
* More free time with family and friends
* A room for self-development and learning new things in the time of no work
* No daily routine
Cons of In-house translator (Full-time/part-time)
* Having no control of what the material to be translated
* Getting stuck in daily routine
* Wasting much time on going to and back from work every day (In case there is no availability for working from home)
* Working according to a specific daily quota (usually 2000 words per day for translators)
Cons of working as Freelance translator
* Having time without work
* Getting unstable income
* Bearing the burden of searching for the clients and marketing for yourself
* Having more managerial roles including communication with clients, negotiating about rates, handling technical issues, etc.
* Requiring more organizational and time management skills
After checking the pros and cons of each type, you are totally free to choose what that is suitable for you. However, if you are a fresh graduate with no experience, we recommend going for full-time opportunities. They will allow you to get regular feedback on your work, know your points of weakness, and gain wide measured experience in different fields. After gaining considerable experience and being aware of the industry secrets, you can start to build a career as a freelancer.
Top translation companies to work for!
After exploring all of the above-mentioned points, it is time to apply for a translator vacancy. You can check our suggestions for translation companies and agencies offering variable certified translation and localization services in Egypt.
This is just a suggested short list, so do not limit yourself with it. You can search for more companies as well as translation offices. As we only strive to help you, here is another gift from us!
This website is regarded as a real treasure for translation job seekers, it is full of translation vacancies from the whole world.
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