While travelling for a long period, you might need to get an extra income to make your life a bit easier. Just to be clear, translations from and to the main languages are not so remunerative in general. Competition (even desperate) is high and the margins of the intermediaries tight. Fares are generally set per page or word; but also for an entire project as a lower lump sum. Anyway, if you have spare time and limited budget in your trip, you may wish to give it a go.
Certainly if you know a less “mainstream” language different from Spanish, Italian, French or German, you could stand more chances to get a job in this area.
Being a traveller, you might happen to know several languages and have at least a bit of experience with translations.
Be mindful that it is not as easy as it might seem, as you need to be native, confirm and sometimes prove a minimum experience as well as know some professional CAT tools (Trados, Omega T, etc.).
Also, the drawback could be that you are only paid after weeks or months and are requested a translation test before starting the collaboration. Be careful because sometimes they may use this excuse to have pieces of translations from different people for free !!
Finally, bear in mind that translating is a very meticulous activity and may require a lot of time even during evenings or weekends, leaving aside the fact that not infrequently you might be asked to review and amend your work (which could be unpaid).
That being said, and not to discourage you more, find below the most renowned and professional portals to register to:
- PROZ.COM: Definitely the most famous and professional website out there. Lots of works but also many competitors and a bit of scams : )
- TRANSLATOR CAFÉ: another very good one with a huge database.
- TRANSLATOR TOWN: Big database for translation jobs in over 100 languages.
- TRANSLATION DIRECTORY: A minor portal for translators
Then you have International Translation Agencies offering temporary jobs to freelance, for example:
- GENGO: Funded in Japan in 2008, they offer translation services to well-known companies like Yahoo, Alibaba, Path, TripAdvisor. You will be requested a level test and you are in. They generally pay the 10th and 25th of each month and you may choose the jobs you prefer. Texts are normally quite simple and short.
- TOMEDES: They are wordlwide known and offer services (translations, proofreadings, quality checks, etc.) to many prestigious companies like universities, governamental institutions, public and private sector. They have offices everywhere.
- ONE HOUR TRANSLATION: They provide support to big, international groups like CNN, Fortune, IBM, Shell, Coca Cola, The Washington Post, Fox News, Tech Crunch, BBC, Wall street Journal. More than 57 langauges supported.
- SMARTLING: The leading translation management platform to localize your content across devices and platforms.
Other mixed, freelance options below:
The big advantage is that nowadays you do not need paper dictionaries any longer and you may find all the linguistic resources online from wherever you are placed, so this could be a great opportunity to increase your pocket money while sitting in a superb terrace in front of the sea !
