Confidence in Translation

Being a freelance translator has its advantages and disadvantages.  As a freelancer I can work from home, so I don't have to commute to an office.  This is good, because a full-time office job in Japan is not only a serious time commitment, it is a surrender of the spirit.  An office job would likely put me at the mercy of anyone who wants his golf club manual translated into English.  Plus, I would probably have to wear stockings.  I hate stockings.  I threw all my pairs in the trash- along with my nu-bra fake boobs- after I quit hostessing. I haven't worn any since.

The biggest drawbacks of my stocking-free existence however, are the deadlines.  Aside from the cartoon series I get to work on, the Japanese companies usually contact the freelance translators only when they're in a bind.  Perhaps their in-house translator is on vacation, and they need a document translated from Japanese to English for a meeting that will take place at 12pm.  And it's 11am now.  That's when they call my agency, who in turn calls me.

The stress of tight deadlines often gives me trouble with self-confidence, so it's always difficult to decide whether to take on a project.

It's happened twice already this week.  I get an email from my agency which is sometimes in Japanese, sometimes in English, or usually in both.  The request contains a possible amount of Yen, a tight deadline and an attached file.  When I open the document and stare at the file, there is always a voice in my head that says: "I can't do this! Who am I fooling??"  No matter how much I study, Japanese will always be an immensely intimidating language to encounter in it's written form. 

That is, until I get my shit together.  Only when I quit doubting myself, can I stop staring blankly at the page and actually start reading it.  And line by line, I know what the document says.

So twice this week, I've taken on tight-deadline projects, one line at a time.

Comments

[Peter]

Tight deadlines are a fact of life for translators . . . I get them too, and I'm dumb enough to also have a full-time day job taking up most of the hours I need to work on them. Lots of late nights.

It's my first time commenting here; I added your feed to my reader and will be looking at your posts from time to time. Cheers and happy holidays (if you get 'em).