Call me crazy, but I think I figured out what Im going to do for my career

[GoldCoinLover]

I want to be a translator in Japan. I know this is not easy, but I really have a love for foreign languages, and honestly, I know I can do it. Maybe it's true that japanese prefer people whos native language is japanese instead of english, but it would be cool if I could translate japanese video games to english, or some other job.

I was wondering if universities offer degrees in japanese or foreign languages?

I know alot of spanish and a okay amount of japanese.

I know that japan sometimes have bad attitudes towards gaijin, but I love japan. I am tired of american and bush. I can't wait to get my degree .

So I don't really want to hear people say "There's impossible, you cant do it" I know I can if I try hard enough. I just want to know the hard ships of it.

The problem is probably for me at least, understand particles better and writing japanese. (not typing it)

 

[GoldCoinLover]

would appreciate one reply..

 

[DoctorP]

Maybe you should give people more than a couple of hours to reply!

I think that your chances are better to become a Japanese translator in the US than they would be to work in Japan. (Just my opinion!) But, I'm not saying that it is not possible. There are opportunities around, but they are few. I'm sure that you will get other responses, so just wait it out a bit and maybe someone will say what you want to hear.

IMHO there are many people who are born in Japan to American/Japanese parents or other English speaking country/Japanese parents who would be much better qualified for the position (assuming that they study both languages equally).

 

[Davey]

well you are still young, so there is enough time to learn it, it's won't be easy and you know it yourself... so ganbatte...

and

I know that japan sometimes have bad attitudes towards gaijin, but I love japan.

no worries about the attitude, it ain't that bad... don't let all bad post influance you

 

[Mandylion]

try this link and let us know what you find.

 

[Mars Man]

Hey there GoldcoinLover san !! I haven't heard from you in a while !! Hope all is fine, and all.

I always kept the adage at heart, 'where there's a will, there's a way' when I was your age, and still do now. I have learned on this long, bumpy road, that those 'way's are not always what you may have in mind, but they are nonetheless, 'way's. So, where theres a will there's a way; and keep in mind what others have mentioned as well.

Nice to hear from you again !! Hasta la vista, amigo !!!

 

[m477]

So have you researched this to the point that you're sure that there are companies that hire non-Japanese translators in Japan, and more importantly, will sponsor visas for such positions?

I'm just asking, because I've never looked into such a thing myself.

Also, have you considered what effects the advancement of technology will have on the demand for human translators in the coming years? Not only in improvements to software translators, but also with such things like internet video conferencing becoming more widespread it seems that there won't be as much need to have the translator on site.

Not that I'm pretending to be some kind of expert on careers in this field, but with any career path you need to know about the challenges involved before committing yourself to it...

 

[bentenmusume]

Okay, I feel fairly qualified to respond to this thread, as it's an issue that hits pretty close to home for me. Let me address each of your points one by one.

I want to be a translator in Japan. I know this is not easy, but I really have a love for foreign languages, and honestly, I know I can do it.

First of all, if you really feel that you've found your "calling", and you have a true passion for pursuing this career path, then congratulations. That already puts you ahead of a whole bunch of people who have long since abandoned their dreams and resigned themselves to a career in something they really have no interest in, because they simply need to pay the bills.

Maybe it's true that japanese prefer people whos native language is japanese instead of english, but it would be cool if I could translate japanese video games to english, or some other job.

This (your first statement) isn't the case. Anyone who knows anything about translation is going to want a translation done by a native speaker of the target language (i.e. English, in the case of a Japanese video game being translated into English), so you can rest assured on this point.

I was wondering if universities offer degrees in japanese or foreign languages?

They absolutely do.

But the answer to the real question here, unfortunately, can be found in this thread. In other words, getting a degree in Japanese does not guarantee you that you will attain the level of proficiency that you're looking for.

I know alot of spanish and a okay amount of japanese.

Please don't take offense at this, but your Japanese at its current level is far below where it needs to be if you want to be a professional translator. Of course, this doesn't mean that you'll never achieve that level -- it just means that you have a long and difficult road ahead of you. But you can take heart in the fact that other people have followed this path before and done pretty well. (You're actually younger than I was when I started studying Japanese -- I was 19 and in my second year of university -- and I know people who started even later. There's no reason why you can't do what we've done.)

I know that japan sometimes have bad attitudes towards gaijin, but I love japan. I am tired of american and bush. I can't wait to get my degree.

Don't worry so much about the Japanese who may have bad attitudes. You'll find plenty who have good attitudes, and I think you'll find that if you stick with your study of language and culture you'll make many valuable friends in the process.

You may find your "love" for Japan changing form as you come to learn more of the language and experience more of the culture, but in the end I think it will evolve into something deeper than what you have at this point. The important point is to keep an open mind.

So I don't really want to hear people say "There's impossible, you cant do it" I know I can if I try hard enough. I just want to know the hard ships of it.

It's not impossible. I know this because I (and friends of mine) have done it. The hardest part of it is staying with it over time, and not giving up. (or is this the easy part?)

The problem is probably for me at least, understand particles better and writing japanese. (not typing it)

If you'll allow me a candid assessment, your biggest hurdles (I'm calling them 'hurdles' and not 'problems' because the idea is that they can be overcome with effort) from this point are going to be:
1) understanding Japanese better (not just "particles", although that's a big part of it, especially in the first year or two of your studies, before you've internalized basic Japanese sentence structure); to state the obvious, this is a pretty big hurdle.
2) writing better English; no matter how well you understand the original Japanese, if you can't render what you've read into grammatical, natural-sounding English, then you're not going to make it very far as a translator. And no, being a native speaker doesn't give you a free pass on this one. I'd suggest supplementing your Japanese studies with a healthy dose of English composition/creative-writing classes. Oh, and don't forget to read a lot (in both languages.)

Having a clear goal in life that you're working toward can make a person's daily life feel a lot more meaningful, I think. As somebody who spent a long time struggling through life before finally coming to a decision somewhat similar to yours, I sincerely hope this works out for you. It won't be easy, but don't let that get you down.

(To everyone except GCL -- I apologize if this post was overly rambling and pretentious.)

 

[GoldCoinLover]

Thanks jt.

By the way, I said my japanese was okay, but I probably should've said I dont know crap in japanese. Since you said its far below what I should know . If you read below my name, it actually says "Bad at japanese", so there you go.

No kidding I dont know enough to be a translator yet, but I still got about 63 years of my life left to learn.

In fact, Luthien Rogue (a member here) seemed to become basically fluent it seemed like in reading kanji in 4 months, then told me to go f off and promtply blocked me.

 

[bentenmusume]

Thanks jt.

By the way, I said my japanese was okay, but I probably should've said I dont know crap in japanese. Since you said its far below what I should know . If you read below my name, it actually says "Bad at japanese", so there you go.

One thing I think you should do is drop the self-defeatist attitude. You may be "bad" at Japanese now, but people are only "bad" at a foreign language because they haven't studied enough, or because they aren't studying the right way. (Many times it's a combination of both)

No kidding I dont know enough to be a translator yet, but I still got about 63 years of my life left to learn.

Well, I was working under the impression that you want to start your translation career before your 80th birthday.

 

[Glenn]

I was once thinking of doing translation work, but then I read that you need knowledge of a subject area to be able to do translation in that field. For instance, if you're doing law translations you need to know about law. I've read that patent translations are where the money's at, but that's something I have absolutely no knowledge about. Seeing as how the only thing aside from Japanese that I know well is music, I doubt I could find much work doing translations. As far as video game translations are concerned, I seem to recall that they have in-house translators doing the work, and those guys don't get paid as much as freelancers. It's probably the same for movies, too. You'll probably want to do some research on that, though. It was a while ago that I was looking at this stuff.

This thread relates to the topic of the other thread about Japanese majors. That is, just knowledge of Japanese isn't enough to really get you anywhere; you also need to be knowledgeable about or have skills in another field. In my case, it's unfortunate that the things I'm most interested in have the least bearing on the real world. The only thing I can think of to get around that is to go into a scientific field of study as a career (Japanese linguistics, in this case).

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

In other words, getting a degree in Japanese does not guarantee you that you will attain the level of proficiency that you're looking for.

Amen!

(You're actually younger than I was when I started studying Japanese -- I was 19 and in my second year of university -- and I know people who started even later. There's no reason why you can't do what we've done.)

I was 21 and on my 3rd year of college.

You may find your "love" for Japan changing form as you come to learn more of the language and experience more of the culture, but in the end I think it will evolve into something deeper than what you have at this point. The important point is to keep an open mind.

All I'll say about this is that if you ever actually live in Japan, it will be an eye-opener. It is probably VERY different from whatever you're imagining now.

2) writing better English; no matter how well you understand the original Japanese, if you can't render what you've read into grammatical, natural-sounding English, then you're not going to make it very far as a translator. And no, being a native speaker doesn't give you a free pass on this one. I'd suggest supplementing your Japanese studies with a healthy dose of English composition/creative-writing classes. Oh, and don't forget to read a lot (in both languages.)

Amen!

I would recommend majoring in something else and taking Japanese on the side. As epigene said, Japanese couldn't care less whether you have a degree in Japanese or not, but they do care about the Japanese Proficiency Test and other tests and certification for translating. If you do translating for the government, you'll be surprised at how little leeway you have, because once something gets translated once, it gets codified. A friend of mine used to do such work.

I don't know whether it's technically necessary or not to have technical expertise in another field to do translation, but there is absolutely NO doubt in my head that it would help. You know what I would strive to do if I was absolutely serious about translating in some specific field? This might sound nuts, but I would the same degree twice. Once from an American University (since you're in America), and another in the same field from a Japanese University. Think about it.

I would also recommend doing a study abroad for a year while you're doing your coursework at the American Uni., perhaps as part of an exchange programme. You might be able to take some classes in your field in Japan in Japanese this way. Even if you don't try to get a second degree from Japan later on, just the vocabulary you'll pick up from these classes will help enormously.

Good luck! I'll end here to keep it short.

 

[GoldCoinLover]

Can someone please translate this??

どの事が戯言なのか？

 

[Damicci]

どのことがたわごとなのか？
What kind of thing is nonsense or silly.

maybe senseless or sillyness

 

[Glenn]

Not "what kind," but "which thing." Otherwise you nailed it.

 

[Damicci]

Damn i seem to get those confused still!

 

[Mike Cash]

For what very little it is worth....

I flunked my first Japanese course. It was when I was in the Navy and we had a college professor onboard my ship who taught the course. Taking the long view of things, though, I would guess that I have gone on to learn more Japanese and make more use of it than anybody who actually got a good grade in that particular course way back when. As you know, my work environment is 100% Japanese only, and my children are Japanese monolingual.

You should keep in mind that proficiency in a language and aptitude for being a translator are two entirely different things. Of course, being a professional translator does require proficiency in another language, but that alone is not enough to ensure that one would be a good translator....or that one would even enjoy doing translations professionally.

I once translated an entire Japanese novel, just for the hell of it, to see if I could do it. I did manage to do it, and in the process learned that translation is not something I would care to do to put food on the table.

 

[Duo]

good to see you back and about mikecash

 

[GoldCoinLover]

For what very little it is worth....

I flunked my first Japanese course. It was when I was in the Navy and we had a college professor onboard my ship who taught the course. Taking the long view of things, though, I would guess that I have gone on to learn more Japanese and make more use of it than anybody who actually got a good grade in that particular course way back when. As you know, my work environment is 100% Japanese only, and my children are Japanese monolingual.

You should keep in mind that proficiency in a language and aptitude for being a translator are two entirely different things. Of course, being a professional translator does require proficiency in another language, but that alone is not enough to ensure that one would be a good translator....or that one would even enjoy doing translations professionally.

I once translated an entire Japanese novel, just for the hell of it, to see if I could do it. I did manage to do it, and in the process learned that translation is not something I would care to do to put food on the table.

Wow, what a nice and caring post. THank you mikecash. I'll keep that in mind.