Translation as a Profession (Benjamins Translation Library)

Chapter 4. The translating profession 89Many technicians affected by ruthless downsizing and cost-cutting are particularlyattracted by the prospect of being their own boss for once. Given that mosthave some linguistic competence, translation may at first sight seem to be thegolden opportunity. Finally, salaried employment in the translation industry tendsto focus more and more on such activities as project management and languageengineering, which seem to some men more challenging than run-of-the-mill‘translation’. The growth of the localisation segment of the industry – with itsdemands for technical abilities and skills – has had much the same effect.1.3 Translators work in language pairsThe most important thing about translators is the combination of workinglanguages that they can offer and the direction of translating. An ‘English-Frenchtranslator’, for instance, is someone who translates from English into French.The translator’s mother tongue/native language is known as his ‘A’ language(the language into which he can translate without hesitation and limitation). Hisfirst foreign language is known as his ‘B’ language, and his second foreign languageas ‘C’. B is said to be an ‘active foreign language’ since it is a language the translatorcan read and understand almost like a native, and C is said to be a ‘passive foreignlanguage’ since the translator can read and understand like a native speaker but notspeak so well. Some translators have two ‘B’ languages and additional languages arean asset, particularly if they are ‘rare’ languages with added market value.As regards the language combinations offering the best employment opportunities,the ideal profile would seem to be any combination of English (no wonder!)with another major language (Chinese, Arabic, German, Spanish, etc.) and withone less widely known language – meaning a language that only few translatorsoffer though it generates significant flows of economic and cultural exchanges andvolumes of translations.It is a well-known fact that payment levels for a given language combinationare in reverse proportion to the number of translators working with that combination.Hence the premium commanded, for instance, by those European translatorswho can work from and into languages used in highly developed or rapidly developingeconomies such as Japan or China or who can work from and into thelanguages of the EU new candidate countries.Translation graduates are expected to be able to translate from two foreignlanguages into their mother tongue, the idea being that graduates cannot assumethey will be able to specialise very early in a single language combination and/orin any one particular field. It is in fact the markets that determine what is practicalor economically viable for each translator. A young translator may wish to offerseveral language combinations while still building up business whereas manyexperienced salaried or freelance translators earn a good living working with a