Since the Apocalypse was canceled, here are two links to keep you occupied:
Dean Wesley Smith slays another sacred cow of publishing, namely the myth about killing one’s career.
There’s a profile of one of my translation clients in the local paper (in German).
sending...
Wow, what a cool company!
Yeah, they are. And conveniently located right opposite to my old school, too.
I actually did some translations for the mobile TÜV testing stations project.
How cool are YOU, too!
That’s one career I might have enjoyed as a complement to teaching: technical translator. But I investigated it much too late and I didn’t get a translation diploma “just” my 1st and 1nd Staatsexamen which entitles me to call myself Lehramtsassessor, an academic title no one knows.
Oh right, we just got a letter this month that told us that Realschullehrer were now entitled to call themselves Studienrat (RS) backdated to this January – even the ones that are only “im Kirchendienst” and not civil servants of the Bavarian state (I studied for grammar school, but I ended up in Realschule) – so now I’m Studienrätin (RS) i. K.
Isn’t that lovely XD ?
I sort of stumbled into translation as a student. My Dad sometimes asked me to translate some letters and faxes for him, because my English was better than his. Eventually, the texts became longer and when I spent hours translating something for a colleague and didn’t even get a thank you (from the colleague), I said, “Wait a minute. This is a whole lot of work and I’m not even getting paid for it.” So I ended up getting paid the Blohm + Voss Studententarif, which was the then exorbitant sum of 18 Marks per hour.
In time, I got more and more customers (and more money) and kept on translating after I got my degree, because the money was good and the job market wasn’t. I eventually took the “staatliche Übersetzerprüfung”, which you can take without having studied translation, if you’ve got sufficient job experience.
Congrats on the Studienrätin title BTW. This whole discrimination of teachers based on Schulzweig is outdated anyway. I work at a Kooperative Gesamtschule, i.e. separate Schulzweige but all under the same roof, and most teachers teach across the Schulzweige anyway. Never mind that a lot of teacher don’t end up teaching what they were trained for anyway. My cousin trained as a grammar school teacher and eventually ended up in an elementary school.
Thanks!
Nice way of getting a foot in there. I didn’t realise you could – if you are capable – go directly into the translator test. Kudos for being good enough to do so without formal training!
I didn’t know that either until a translator friend told me.
Luckily, I was able to take the test in Bremen. People with fairly rare language combinations (Chinese – German or Turkish – German) often have to travel to another city.