Personal Translator

If you are an excellent communicator who wants to work with foreign languages ​​and is ready to enter the industry with high competition, then working as a personal translator can be your ideal job. As a personal interpreter, you will convert conversational formulations from one language to another. You will need to listen, understand and remember the content in the source language, and then play it in the target language. Usually this is done only in one direction, usually in your own language, but you may need to interpret it on a bilateral basis.

You can work as a personal interpreter in the following cases:

business functions, such as meetings, conferences, exhibitions and product launches;

criminal justice, known as the interpretation of the civil service, including police and test services, court hearings, interviews with a lawyer, arbitration hearings and immigration tribunals;

activities and tasks in the education, health and social services sectors;

personal meetings, excursions.

Types of translators

You can carry out the transfer personally, by phone or through video conferencing and Internet technologies.

A personal translator, maybe both a synchronist and a consecutive interpreter. In case of simultaneous translation, you usually sit in a soundproofed cab and immediately convert what is said for your customer. There are also events where a personal interpreter sits next to one person whispers a translation.

Consecutive interpreting, more common in small meetings and discussions, the speaker will stop after each sentence or point and wait until you translate what is being said in the appropriate language.

Translation of a link is a type of two-way interpretation where you will translate every few sentences until the speaker stops. This is a common thing in a telephone transfer, as well as in legal and medical situations.

Translation of sign language: you transform spoken utterances into sign language and vice versa. Interpretation from one sign language to another is also an option. Interpretation of sign language is usually simultaneous with the translation of the main message.

As a personal translator you need:

quickly assimilate the speaker’s words, including jargon and acronyms;

have special lexical knowledge;

work on a professional code of ethics, covering confidentiality and impartiality.

Many personal translators are freelance, their fees vary depending on experience, location and level of demand for languages. There is a relatively small number of paid translation assignments, and as a result, the amount you can earn is extremely diverse. Working conditions and payment are much better in the private sector.

It may be difficult to maintain a stable income from interpretation if you are not employed by one organization as a personal interpreter for some employee or several agencies. Most personal translators have additional work, such as translation or training.

As a freelance translator, your working hours will be flexible. Business, usual medical and court orders are usually held during business hours, but evening and weekend work is not uncommon, especially for police interviews and emergency medical care. A large number of events, ends with an evening stand-up party, at which the presence of a personal interpreter is mandatory for representatives of foreign companies. As a rule, such services have a separate grid for calculating the cost of the services of a language specialist.

What to expect from work by a personal translator

You can stay in the conference center or work on the phone for a long time.

Probably, you will need to find work through network communication and registration in professional catalogs or language agencies. It may take time to create and increase a permanent customer base.

Employment opportunities can arise anywhere, especially for community tasks and telephone work, but the main centers of international conferences are Brussels, London, Geneva and Paris.

Usually you need a strict suit or a classic casual dress, because work by a personal translator requires certain rules of the dress code.

Such work requires a huge amount of concentration, which can be tedious.

You may need to stay away from home for a night or stay abroad for a long time, many are tired.