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yasselkharrazi
Community Member

How to create my Translation Portfolio ( Newbie Translator ).

Hello everyone.

I am new to UpWork, I am a newbie Arabic-English English-Arabic translator, and I do not have any professional experience (I just graduated), But I know I can do Great in this field. 
The problem is that I don't have a Portfolio and my Profile is pretty much empty, and I would like to create my own Professional Portfolio.. 

So, what should I do as a first step in the process of creating my portfolio ?
I am thinking of translating a whole book, is it a good idea ?
Should I write my own original text, and translate it ?


Any thoughts / advice ?

Thank You.

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
petra_r
Community Member

Welcome!

 

For your portfolio, go ahead and translate some documents, choose something from various types, such as one general article, one technical translation, one medical one etc.

 

Further I would respectfully suggest that you don't offer Arabic to English translations.

 

Translating is much more than knowing two languages, and ideally a translator should only translate into their native language or a language they have a native-equivalent grasp on. That is fairly rare and usually only happens when you have lived in the other country for many years. It's not just the language, it's the culture, the way things are expressed etc. A translation must never read like it was translated, but like it was written in the target language. That is (much to the surprise of many people who are not translators) hard enough when translating into your native language, and infinitely more difficult when the target language is not your native tongue.

 

Concentrate on gaining experience translating from English to Arabic, especially if you have no professional experience.

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20 REPLIES 20
petra_r
Community Member

Welcome!

 

For your portfolio, go ahead and translate some documents, choose something from various types, such as one general article, one technical translation, one medical one etc.

 

Further I would respectfully suggest that you don't offer Arabic to English translations.

 

Translating is much more than knowing two languages, and ideally a translator should only translate into their native language or a language they have a native-equivalent grasp on. That is fairly rare and usually only happens when you have lived in the other country for many years. It's not just the language, it's the culture, the way things are expressed etc. A translation must never read like it was translated, but like it was written in the target language. That is (much to the surprise of many people who are not translators) hard enough when translating into your native language, and infinitely more difficult when the target language is not your native tongue.

 

Concentrate on gaining experience translating from English to Arabic, especially if you have no professional experience.

Thank you so much Petra, for these precious advices..

 

Concerning the documents I'm going to translate.. Do I have to choose them randomly, and What should I take into consideration when choosing them ?
what about a book translation ?

Make sure that whatever you use does not have any copyright restrictions to it.

 

Translating a book just as a portfolio piece is excessive, plus someone (unless you translate something ancient) owns the copyright so you can't use it.

 

No client will read a whole book translation in your portfolio!

 

I'd suggest you use things you wrote yourself? That way you can showcase your writing and translation skills in one go.

Everything is clear for me now.. Thanks Petra, I really appreciate your advice.

Hello, Petra
Do i need to keep the text formatting from the original article or can i just write the translation down?
Thanks

stencil_media
Community Member

I'd rather see two very good portfolio peices than one really good one. That way you know the one portfolio item isn't a 'flash in the pan'. And unless you're going for a niche market, then people usually like to see a bit of a variety. 

 

I'd rather see one chapter translated from ten books than ten chapters translated from one book. A mix of fiction and non-fiction would be a good idea.  

"Welcome, humans. I'm ready for you!"
- Box, Logan's Run (1976)

I am not sure I'd want to see more than a couple of pages of one book in a portfolio. For starters he can't use any text that is copyrighted. That will restrict his translations to books witout copyright.

 

Then the majority of the clients here don't want books translated, they want their websites, their correspondence, their terms, their user guides, their medical reports, their contracts, their adverts, their apps, their software, their customer service responses, their presentations etc etc etc translated.

 

When book translations are indeed offered they are at such ridiculously low rates that it's just not worth it.

 

A couple of pages of one book (non copyrighted) is more than enough!

For variety, you can ask friends to produce documents that need to be translated. I would prefer to see you have some documents up in your portfolio in which the original English version of the document was not written by you, but was written by a native English speaker.

 

You can ask people for permission to use documents in your portfolio. For example, you can ask for permission to use press releases and articles. Lots of people will say yes.

Hi, I'm new here name horia not getting any orders, I have used all my connects now and used extra more but still nothing. Please can someone help me out here. Please review my profile and let me know if I am doing things right or not. 

Any useful tips & tricks for me ..

 

Thanks

Sure thing, I was just trying to move him away from the 'translating a whole book' idea!

"Welcome, humans. I'm ready for you!"
- Box, Logan's Run (1976)


@Scott E wrote:

Sure thing, I was just trying to move him away from the 'translating a whole book' idea!


 Yes.... Good idea 😉

yasselkharrazi
Community Member

Thank You so much, all of you.. Greatly appreciated Smiley Very Happy

I'm gonna to second what others have already told you: a translator only translates to their native language. It may be tempting, especially as a beginner, to think that you'll get more jobs and more revenue if you try to offer symmetric translation.

 

This is a very bad mistake. Your Arabic to English translation are gonna to be bad, and eventually you'll get poorly rated by a client for this.

 

If you're not a native speaker of English, you can't fake it.

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

The one time when I think it is valid for a translator to work on translating to a target language which is NOT their target language is if they are part of a two-person team that includes a final translator who is a native speaker of the target language.

Sorry, Preston, but no. I have edited far too many texts that have been translated to English by translators whose native language is not English. Even the best of those translations betray a lack of semantic knowledge that has to be edited. There is a huge difference between the real world and the excellent work of an A student in college or school.


@Preston H wrote:

The one time when I think it is valid for a translator to work on translating to a target language which is NOT their target language is if they are part of a two-person team that includes a final translator who is a native speaker of the target language.


I can't think of any case in which this would be true. If you translate X to Y, and your teammate does Y to X, there is no reason why you would do his job.

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless


@Rene K wrote:

@Preston H wrote:

The one time when I think it is valid for a translator to work on translating to a target language which is NOT their target language is if they are part of a two-person team that includes a final translator who is a native speaker of the target language.


I can't think of any case in which this would be true. If you translate X to Y, and your teammate does Y to X, there is no reason why you would do his job.


Well, actually, sometimes this is the way my partner and I work. If the native speaker of the target language has a large caseload when a great job comes in, the other one can do a basic translation and the native speaker can edit and proofread. Editing takes a lot less time than translating, and so can often be fitted into an otherwise too busy schedule.


@Preston H wrote:

The one time when I think it is valid for a translator to work on translating to a target language which is NOT their target language is if they are part of a two-person team that includes a final translator who is a native speaker of the target language.


 No.

 

ONLY if the native speaker is also hired by the client. Allowing anyone else to work on the client's project is a serious policy violation.

 

I have long wondered how and when you became fluent in Japanese, or a translator...

ateafac
Community Member

**Edited for community guidelines**

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Ateafac,

 

Just to confirm that Upwork does not work like this. For help getting started, check our Freelancer Guide. It covers everything from finding great projects that fit your skills to increasing your rate and getting stellar feedback.
Also be sure to check out our online course for information on how you can build a strong profile, win high-quality jobs, and start getting paid.

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork