What are the most lucrative areas in translation Chinese - English/German?
Thread poster: Carina Obster
Carina Obster
Carina Obster  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 22:42
Member (2023)
English to German
+ ...
May 23, 2019

I want to expand my field - should I just go for the Business field?

 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 21:42
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Easy May 23, 2019

Carina Obster wrote:
I want to expand my field - should I just go for the Business field?

They're the fields you're best at, meaning you are fast, confident, and give good value to clients while earning yourself a good living with minimal stress.


Jo Macdonald
Christine Andersen
Philippe Etienne
Josephine Cassar
 
Dylan J Hartmann
Dylan J Hartmann  Identity Verified
Australia
Member (2014)
Thai to English
+ ...

MODERATOR
Specialise and become renowned May 23, 2019

I became a translator for the money (funnily enough) and quickly found that the clinical trials field has never-ending work and endless budgets.

I made first hundred thousand USD after 3 years, doubled that again after 5. This is by no means an easy task, often translating several hundred thousand words/month but I have a young family to support and bills to pay! eg. on Tuesday did over 40,000 words between 2am - 9pm, and have two other projects, 100,000 words plus 20,000 words due
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I became a translator for the money (funnily enough) and quickly found that the clinical trials field has never-ending work and endless budgets.

I made first hundred thousand USD after 3 years, doubled that again after 5. This is by no means an easy task, often translating several hundred thousand words/month but I have a young family to support and bills to pay! eg. on Tuesday did over 40,000 words between 2am - 9pm, and have two other projects, 100,000 words plus 20,000 words due in 5 days.

Specialising and becoming renowned amongst project managers leads to a never ending supply of work that you can complete fast!

On a side-note: Business texts are much more diverse and have fewer TM matches, the budgets are often constrained and clients are used to haggling rates.

Hope that helps!
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Carina Obster
Jo Macdonald
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
 
Carina Obster
Carina Obster  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 22:42
Member (2023)
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you! May 23, 2019

Dear Dylan,

Thank you, that's super helpful! I was thinking about going into the field of medicine, but wasn't sure about it.

Also thank you for the side-note on business translation!


Dylan J Hartmann
 
Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 23:42
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
Chose languages from rich countries May 24, 2019

If you look for good rates you should look for agencies in rich countries like Germany, the Northern countries and Britain. Avoid agencies from Eastern Europe and Asia. (I'm talking of average rates, there might be exceptions).
Why would a customer from a rich country like Germany or Austria use an agency from low-income countries? Because they promise them low rates. And they pay you even less, of course.
There might be cases where a German agency gets jobs for multiple languages,
... See more
If you look for good rates you should look for agencies in rich countries like Germany, the Northern countries and Britain. Avoid agencies from Eastern Europe and Asia. (I'm talking of average rates, there might be exceptions).
Why would a customer from a rich country like Germany or Austria use an agency from low-income countries? Because they promise them low rates. And they pay you even less, of course.
There might be cases where a German agency gets jobs for multiple languages, even Asian ones. Then you could hope for decent rates even for these.
If you can offer service from and into Danish or Norwegian and a third language excluding English you can ask for almost any rate. Translators from these countries are almost always booked for weeks ahead.
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Carina Obster
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 22:42
French to English
What Sheila said May 24, 2019

What are you interested in? What previous experience do you have?

Previous experience:
If you previously worked in a field such as medicine, by all means go for it. Having worked in the field, you're familiar with terminology and have a better idea of where to search for definitions. And you'll get the right tone for the translation too.

Personal interest:
I know that when I'm in love with my subject, that love shines right through my translation. I'll spen
... See more
What are you interested in? What previous experience do you have?

Previous experience:
If you previously worked in a field such as medicine, by all means go for it. Having worked in the field, you're familiar with terminology and have a better idea of where to search for definitions. And you'll get the right tone for the translation too.

Personal interest:
I know that when I'm in love with my subject, that love shines right through my translation. I'll spend longer on making sure I have found the exact right word simply because I'm interested in reading around the subject. The clients can feel it even if they don't exactly say so. Like the woman I was discussing a problem with the other day. I was asking whether a particular nuance was important or not, and suddenly she exclaimed, "oh I'm glad I didn't just run this thing through Google" - she had realised that a thinking, interested human being was going to make a better job simply because I'm willing to stir up my grey matter and hunt all over the place till I find a suitable term.
Once, in my days as PM, when looking for a translator to do a press release on a horse-riding event, I just performed a search on all the translators in our database and found that a technical translator, who did all sorts of nuts and bolts stuff like specifications for turbines, had listed horse-riding as a hobby. She was able to do the translation, and despite not being used to doing press releases in marketing style, she did a beautiful job, simply because of her love of horses.
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Carina Obster
Sheila Wilson
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
 
Carina Obster
Carina Obster  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 22:42
Member (2023)
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
That's right May 24, 2019

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

If you look for good rates you should look for agencies in rich countries like Germany, the Northern countries and Britain. Avoid agencies from Eastern Europe and Asia. (I'm talking of average rates, there might be exceptions).
Why would a customer from a rich country like Germany or Austria use an agency from low-income countries? Because they promise them low rates. And they pay you even less, of course.
There might be cases where a German agency gets jobs for multiple languages, even Asian ones. Then you could hope for decent rates even for these.
If you can offer service from and into Danish or Norwegian and a third language excluding English you can ask for almost any rate. Translators from these countries are almost always booked for weeks ahead.


Yes, that might be right. The rates of translation agencies in Asia are ridiculously low. (Unfortunately) Chinese is the language I love and want to work with 😬


 
Paweł Hamerski (X)
Paweł Hamerski (X)
Local time: 22:42
English to Polish
+ ...
A strange question - most lucrative is interpreting at conferences, big events, etc. May 24, 2019

but what about the skills? and why Chinese?

 
Carina Obster
Carina Obster  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 22:42
Member (2023)
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
What I meant by "lucrative" is "In which area are translations from Chinese in high demand"? "? May 24, 2019

Paweł Hamerski wrote:

but what about the skills? and why Chinese?


As to why Chinese, well, why not? I have studied it after all.

What do you mean "about the skills"?


 
Paweł Hamerski (X)
Paweł Hamerski (X)
Local time: 22:42
English to Polish
+ ...
you have to be really good to interpret at conferences and your profile May 24, 2019

shows no Chinese

 
Carina Obster
Carina Obster  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 22:42
Member (2023)
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
I don"t want to become an interpreter May 24, 2019

Paweł Hamerski wrote:

shows no Chinese


... but a translator, this should be clear from my entry statement


 
Phil Hand
Phil Hand  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 05:42
Chinese to English
The arts is a decent area May 26, 2019

I used to do translations for museums that paid reasonably well, and it's interesting work.

I think once you're established you will be able to name your own prices - there is an acute shortage of Chinese-German translators, and I'm sure many German companies are fed up with working through English. The luxury car market might also be a good source of customers.


 
Carina Obster
Carina Obster  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 22:42
Member (2023)
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Wow, really? May 26, 2019

Phil Hand wrote:

I used to do translations for museums that paid reasonably well, and it's interesting work.

I think once you're established you will be able to name your own prices - there is an acute shortage of Chinese-German translators, and I'm sure many German companies are fed up with working through English. The luxury car market might also be a good source of customers.


That would be my dream since I've studied a bit of art history too


 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 22:42
French to English
me too May 26, 2019

I have done a fair bit for museums but I have never been paid more for that than for any run-of-the-mill stuff.

 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
depends May 26, 2019

I asked a few colleagues and come to the conclusion it's mostly rewriting/copywriting and transcreation--(1) private clients' jobs, (2) advertisement, (3) web/contents, and (4) erotica/porn.

*If the writer is smooth or the info is exclusive, then I would also add (5) writing dedicated teach-yourself books or courses.


 


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What are the most lucrative areas in translation Chinese - English/German?







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