怎么成为一个好的译员（有关自由译员的18条谣言与真相）
怎么成为一个好的译员（有关自由译员的18条谣言与真相）真相：在美国的语言服务市场，大多数工作都是外语译入到母语。Truth: In the U.S. the market is heavily geared toward translators who translate into their native language only.真相：对译员来说，至少掌握一门外语是必须的，但却不够。译员必须要熟练掌握译入语写作技巧，并且充分了解所译领域的专业术语。对自由译者来说，还得应付不同客户，分配时间不错过DDL，操心翻译的大小事。2. Myth: Translators translate in both “directions” of their language pair.谣言2：译者要能两种语言互译。
有关自由译员的传言有很多，不在这个行业的人更是弄不清楚。今天就通过美国译协前主席Corinne McKay 在 How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator这本书里的内容，一起聊聊关于自由译员的“谣言与真相”。
1. Myth: Anyone who is bilingual can be a translator.
谣言1：只要是懂两种语言的都能做翻译。
Truth: Knowing at least one foreign language is definitely a crucial skill for a translator but it isn’t enough. Translators have to be excellent writers in their target language and they have to know the specific terminology of the specializations that they translate in. Freelancers also have to be able to juggle multiple clients and deadlines and manage the business aspects of their work.
真相：对译员来说，至少掌握一门外语是必须的，但却不够。译员必须要熟练掌握译入语写作技巧，并且充分了解所译领域的专业术语。对自由译者来说，还得应付不同客户，分配时间不错过DDL，操心翻译的大小事。
2. Myth: Translators translate in both “directions” of their language pair.
谣言2：译者要能两种语言互译。
Truth: In the U.S. the market is heavily geared toward translators who translate into their native language only.
真相：在美国的语言服务市场，大多数工作都是外语译入到母语。
注：国内很多译员是英中、中英都做，但大部分的市场主要是外语到母语的翻译，这个情况主要是因为国外中文好的译员不够多。
3. Myth: Most translators do both translation (written language work) and interpreting (spoken language work).
谣言3：多数自由译者口笔译都能做。
Truth: some freelancers do both translation and interpreting but most concentrate on one or the other.
真相：有些译员口笔译都能做，但大部分只做笔译或者口译。
4. Myth: Most freelance translators are starving artists.
谣言4：多数译者表面风光，其实收入不高。
Truth: The average full-time freelancer in the American Translators Association makes a little over $60 000 per year. Six-figure income (or the part-time equivalent) is becoming increasingly common among translators who work with at least some direct clients or who work fairly long hours.
真相：在美国译协，专职自由译员的年平均收入在6万美金左右（本书2016年出版）。对于有一些直客的译者，或者工作时间较长的译者，达到六位数（美金）收入的情况更为普遍。
5. Myth: Human translators will soon be replaced by machine translation and will be obsolete.
谣言5：机器翻译会逐渐取代并最终淘汰人类译员。
Truth: Machine translation is becoming more sophisticated all the time but machine translation and human translators are good at very different tasks. Machine translation is great at “getting the gist” of a document or translating a huge volume of documents when speed is more important than quality. Human translators are crucial to conveying cultural nuances and producing high-quality translations of complex documents.
真相：机器翻译一直在发展进步，但人类译员和机器翻译各有所长。如果只需要翻译文章要点，或者翻译大量文件，这个时候对速度的要求大于质量，机器翻译就比较合适。但要翻译文化相关的，或者有高质量要求的文档，就需要人类译员。
6. Myth: Translators have to be certified.
谣言6：译员一定要有证。
Truth: If certification is available for your language pair (in the U.S. check the website of the American Translators Association atanet. org) it is definitely a plus if you are certified. Some clients may require certification for certain projects but there are generally no legal or regulatory obstacles to working as a translator if you are not certified.
真相：如果你工作的语言对有认证（ATA网站查询），那拿到证就是加分项。有些直客可能会需要认证译员，但就算你没有证也不影响你做翻译。
注：国内的CATTI其实就算是中国译协认证，但在海外认可度不够。
7. Myth: If you send out five or 10 resumes you will probably have enough work to be translating full-time.
谣言7：投了5封、10封以上的简历，就能找到足够的翻译工作养活自己了。
Truth: For the first six months to a year that you are in business expect to spend most of your time looking for work.
真相: 如果你想做自由译者，估计第一年的前六个月都要去投简历找工作。
8. Myth: Most translators can translate 7 000-10 000 words per day.
谣言8：多数笔译员每天能翻七千到一万字。
Truth: Speed and output vary but most translators can produce 2 000-3 000 finished words per day. Some translators work much more slowly translating as few as 250 words an hour.
真相: 每个人的翻译速度和产出都不一样，但多数译者每天能完成两三千字译文。有些译员速度可能更慢，一个小时能翻250字。
注：相对很多国内译者，这个速度确实不算快，但慢工出细活，提升速度的时候还要注重质量。
9. Myth: Most translators charge by the hour.
谣言9：多数笔译译者按照小时计价。
Truth: Most translators charge by the word for translation and by the hour for editing and proofreading.
真相：大多数笔译译者还是以词计价，编辑或校对一般按时薪。
10. Myth: You have to have a degree in translation to work as a translator.
谣言10：要做译员必须有翻译相关学历背景。
Truth: In the U.S. there are so few university-level programs in translation that most translators do not have a degree in translation. However it’s definitely an asset if you do have a translation-specific undergraduate or graduate degree.
真相：美国有翻译专业的大学不多，所以大部分译员都没有相关学位。但如果你有翻译相关的学历背景，肯定是加分项。
注：中国遍地是BTI和MTI，但其实真正做翻译的，可能不是科班出身。
11. Myth: Translators do not need to have good computer skills.
谣言11：笔译员不需要掌握电脑技术。
Truth: Translators do nearly all of their work on the computer. In order to be successful as a freelance translator it really helps to be a fast typist and to be comfortable using office software and possibly a translation memory tool.
真相：笔译员的工作现在都需要电脑。要想做好自由译者，打字要快，要掌握office软件，最好也会用翻译记忆工具。
注：其实译者要掌握的电脑软件和网络工具太多了，这是现代译者的必修课。
12. Myth: Most freelance translators work in a large number of language pairs.
谣言12：多数译员会从事多种语言对。
Truth: In the U.S. most translators work in one or two language pairs. Outside of the U.S. where foreign languages are more widely taught in school translators sometimes work in more language pairs.
真相：美国市场上的译员，基本只做1-2个语言对。其他国家可能学的外语更多，有可能会从事多语言对翻译。
13. Myth: The source (original) and target (translated) documents normally have the same word count.
谣言13：源语言文档和目标语文档的字数差不多。
Truth: Different languages have radically different word counts. For example most Romance languages use about 30% more words than English for the same text. For this reason always establish whether you are charging your client for the source or target word count.
真相：不同语言之间字数差距很大。同一个内容的文本，罗曼语系（法语、意大利语、西班牙语）和英语之间可能差30%。 所以报价的时候一定要确定是源语还是目的语。
14. Myth: There is no way to find out if a translation agency is reliable to work with.
谣言：没办法知道翻译公司是不是靠谱。
Truth: There are several online rating services where you can read what other translators have to say about an agency. Among them are Payment Practices paymentpractices.net or the ProZ Blue Board proz.com.
真相：市场上有一些翻译机构评级网站，比如Payment Practices和ProZ Blue Board
15. Myth: Freelancers’ clients deduct taxes from what the freelancer earns.
谣言：客户直接从译者收入中扣税。
Truth: As a freelancer you are responsible for paying all of your own taxes unless a client hires you as an employee. If the client pays you more than $600 in a calendar year they must send you an IRS form 1099-MISC stating the total amount that they paid you.
真相：在美国，自由译者并非正式雇员，只能自己去交税。
注：中国的自由译者现在也需要交税，一般来说是签劳务合同，有的公司会打款的时候会代为扣税，这个比例很高，后续年度个税清缴的时候可以按照个税退税。
16. Myth: Most freelance translators work for one or two clients.
谣言：大多数自由译者只为一两个直客工作。
Truth: A good way to ensure a steady volume of work is to diversify your client base. It’s a good idea to have at least four to six regular clients who send you work.
真相：要想有稳定的翻译工作量，就要让你的客户群体更多元化。最好要有4-6个常合作的直客。
17. Myth: You can easily fit freelance work into your spare time.
谣言：空闲时间很容易开启自由译者工作。
Truth: Freelance translation is a profession not a hobby. If you want to translate just a couple of hours a week or only when you feel like working you are probably better off volunteering your services rather than starting a freelance business.
真相：自由翻译是一项职业，并不是一个爱好。如果你每个星期只能工作几个小时，或者想工作的时候才去接活，那最好别去开始自由翻译工作，做点志愿翻译就行了。
18. Myth: Put up a website and clients will come.
谣言：建个网站，顾客就来了。
Truth: A website can be a great marketing tool for a freelancer but it’s certainly not enough. Surprisingly many freelance translators do not have a website at all so you are ahead of the game if you have a well-done professional website. Just don’t depend on your website to do your marketing for you!
真相：网站是一个很不错的个人营销工具，但还不够。而且还有许多译者没有自己的网站。但如果你要是能做个不错的网站，肯定会更吸引客户，但网站本身不能帮你做营销。
注：个人译者网站可以做起来，其实不难，也不贵。做完网站还要学一学SEO。
