Life as a teacher/translator

[SirGod]

Now that I have been admitted to the best Foreign Languages university in my country, I am seriously thinking about what should I do after I graduate. A translator or a teacher? What do you think, how is it like? I will learn English and Dutch. Is Dutch a good choice (I had three choices: Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese)? Or should I go in another country to study something computer related after I graduate? I cannot lie, I want a decent paycheck, too.

 

[5jj]

Now that I have been admitted to the best Foreign Languages university in my country, I am seriously thinking about what should I do after I graduate. A translator or a teacher?

Only you can answer that. I do think that teaching is one of those careers where you need to have some real desire to share knowledge and share in the development of young people. If you are in it just for the money (which is not very good in most countries) you will probably be neither successful nor happy.

 

[SirGod]

Thank you for your input, fivejedjon. I am not in it just for the money, I chose it because I liked it. I just wanted to hear some pieces of advice from more mature and experienced people who were in this domain.
Update: It looks like I have been transferred to Spanish instead of Dutch (the only difference now is that I have to pay no fee). What do you think? Is it bad to I learn a more common language?

 

[konungursvia]

Now that I have been admitted to the best Foreign Languages university in my country, I am seriously thinking about what should I do after I graduate. A translator or a teacher? What do you think, how is it like? I will learn English and Dutch. Is Dutch a good choice (I had three choices: Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese)? Or should I go in another country to study something computer related after I graduate? I cannot lie, I want a decent paycheck, too.

The two are opposites in a sense. Do you love working with young people, or alone at your computer? That should answer your question. Or why not do both?

[Edit] And I love Dutch, but it is a small language group (you said you were looking for good money) and the Dutch themselves are so good at it, and at English, that they may not really need your help all that often.

 

[5jj]

And I love Dutch, but it is a small language group (you said you were looking for good money) and the Dutch themselves are so good at it, and at English, that they may not really need your help all that often.

That's a good point, but there may well be a shortage of people who can translate from Romanan into Dutch and the other way round. Then again, there may not be much demand for this.

 

[konungursvia]

That's a good point, but there may well be a shortage of people who can translate from Romanan into Dutch and the other way round. Then again, there may not be much demand for this.

I do translations myself, and I find that generally, there is little demand for work between smaller languages. The smaller the language, the more likely the work is to be toward French, Spanish or English.

For example I was asked to translate some software from FR>EN and it was from Romania. Others were then called in to do French to Arabic, English to g-d-knows-what, and so on. I don't think there were any translators asked to do Romanian to Dene.

 

[5jj]

You learn something every day in this forum. I now know of the existence of Dene - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

 

[Tdol]

It depends how decent a paycheck you mean,but of those choices, computer-related work definitely has the potential for the fattest cheques.

 

[Ouisch]

Teaching can be a frustrating career path, especially depending upon the age/grade level you are teaching. You also have the daily struggle with the bureaucracy of the institution in which you work....the school might rely on government money or the endowments of wealthy alumni, and in that situation you will be pressured to "pass" as many students as possible, despite their grades. :-? (I honestly don't mean to discourage you - the world will always need good teachers. You should just be aware of the realities of the job versus what you hope to personally and professionally accomplish.)

If you plan to work as a translator, having Dutch as your second language will be very limiting. It's not widely spoken outside of the Netherlands. However Spanish is spoken in Spain as well as in Mexico, Central America, much of South America and even many parts of the United States. Fluency in Spanish would be a more valued skill on a global basis than Dutch.

If you are able to major in two disciplines, I would recommend learning both Spanish and brushing up on your computer skills. That gives you a stronger and more diverse skillset, especially if you're looking for the most lucrative career path.

 

[Verona_82]

SirGod, I used to work as a translator (technical documentation), and I hated my job. Sitting all day long at my computer drove me round the bend. Although the money was quite good, it couldn't compensate for the growing feeling of dissatisfaction. However, some of my university friends find this kind of work pretty motivating and rewarding, especially when it comes to comparing their salaries and those of most teachers. What I'm trying to say is that you won't probably understand what you would like to do until you try one or the other or both. You could do some translating and volunteer teaching while studying and then choose your career path. (but there are also other fields that require superior language skills

 

[SirGod]

konungursvia: I am not sure what I like and what I don't. I think I like both working with people and working alone. Neither of them bothers me, but to know for sure, I have to try.

fivejedjon: I thought that if it was not a widely spoken language, it would be good, because there were not so many translators around (any combination between Dutch-Romanian-English).

Tdol: That's what I thought. These days, a computer related job is the most profitable job you can get.

Ouisch: Thank you, you encourage me. At first, I thought that it would be bad to learn Spanish because there were already too many people who spoke it. I am thinking to leave the country for one where I can speak the languages that I am major in and brush up my computer skills. Then I think it will be easier for me to find a better job.

Verona_82: As you have said, I have to try to understand. Maybe I would like to sit all day long in the front of the computer if my paycheck is good. Maybe not. Maybe I would like something more challenging, such as teaching. About volunteering, I translate TED talks and I like it.

 

[Hedwig]

For what it's worth, I tend to agree with those members who think that a language like Spanish will give you a wider field of work than Dutch.

 

[konungursvia]

Or is the OP thinking of German, Deutsch?

 

[SirGod]

Or is the OP thinking of German, Deutsch?

Not Deutsch, Dutch. Definitely. In case OP means original poster.

 

[Over the top]

When you think of translation think of interpretation, it will make you determine your goals better. You can work as a simultaneous interrupter in international conferences or live for a TV or a consecutive as in courts (maybe?). Written translations will not give you a good living but you can survive anyway. Let alone translator programs or online text converter like google have hit translators career

 

[SirGod]

You kind of offended me, I am not using any crappy tools to translate, I do it all by myself. I only use dictionaries and grammar references when needed. I don't care what translations I will be making (written, oral) as long as I am decently paid.

 

[Hedwig]

I don't think he meant to offend you, but to point out that flesh and blood translators will be a little less on demand because many people (who don't care much about precision, may I add) will tend to resort more and more to translating programmes.

 

[Tdol]

You kind of offended me, I am not using any crappy tools to translate, I do it all by myself. I only use dictionaries and grammar references when needed. I don't care what translations I will be making (written, oral) as long as I am decently paid.

I think that Over the top was referring to the general impact that translating tools have and will have. I often use Google translate for Japanese websites and it does give the gist, but I recently used it on a French website and was quite impressed by the quality. I think these tools will have a considerable impact on general translation in the future, so the market for human translation will become more specialised. I will use Google to translate a website so I can navigate it, but I will get a professional in to do a contract. Fortunately for translators, globalisation increases the number of documents that require serious translation. Our translation links section has a lot of specialised companies- medical, legal, etc. That's the foreseeable future, along with interpretation IMO.

 

[konungursvia]

You kind of offended me, I am not using any crappy tools to translate, I do it all by myself. I only use dictionaries and grammar references when needed. I don't care what translations I will be making (written, oral) as long as I am decently paid.

Actually, no serious translators work on their own these days. It's a must to have either SDL Trados, Wordfast, MemoQ or a similar translation memory (TM) tool.