Hungry Asian Seeks Freelance Chinese to English Translation Work

April 5, 2020 11:32 PM

My small business is temporarily shut due to Covid-19 and I am looking for freelance Chinese to English Translation work to feed myself over this period.

With my business shut, I have lost my only source of income. I am unable to leave the house because the Asian city I am residing in is under lockdown. Hence I am looking for work I can perform from home. I have enough savings for this month but I am worried about how I am going to feed myself from next month onwards. I don't have any specialized skills and companies are not hiring for regular jobs right now due to the virus/lockdown but I happen to be trilingual.

I am ethnic Chinese but born and raised overseas. Currently residing in another Asian country. While my Chinese is not quite native speaker level, it is much better than your average non-Chinese learner (barring Chinese Studies academics). I have a degree in English as well as a liberal arts graduate degree.

I have never done professional Chinese to English translation before and have no idea how to get work. I am particularly interested in literary (including web novels) and academic translation. I understand there is more demand for STEM academic translation but my background is more towards the liberal arts and social sciences. I am fine with commercial translation unless the content is overly technical e.g. legal contracts.

I don't intend to do this permanently but the local economy and logistics network are badly affected due to the virus for the near future so it's unlikely I can reopen. Even if the virus is under control, there will be dampened consumer demand for my non-essential products in the future due to job losses and tightened wallets for the next two years or so.

I am just hoping I can feed myself doing translation work until the situation improves so I can go back to doing work that is closer to my real interests. I know people have asked this question before but the last question was some time back and I happen to be in Asia so there are some location-related issues.

I am aware that most mefites are in North America but I am fine with doing work for foreign employers as long as they can accept the fact that I am in Asia (Beijing time) and the work can be done remotely.

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (9 answers total)

I am not a professional translator, but my mother is, so I know some of this stuff secondhand. Based on how much work my mother typically gets translating English to Spanish and Portuguese, I think you're going to have a difficult time finding serious freelance jobs with no experience, credentials, or specialization. If you're lucky, the Chinese -> English market may be more active and open to beginners, and you won't have any trouble, but you should have a backup plan in case you can't get any work starting out.

If you're really serious about it, check out the forums on ProZ.com for an idea of what the industry and the professional community is like. While you're preparing for professional work, you can also do jobs on Gengo, which is basically Uber for translation. From my experience doing a few Japanese -> English jobs about five years ago, the pay is not great, but it's at least one way to make a little money and improve your skills.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 1:25 AM on April 6, 2020 [4 favorites]

Oh, one more thing: this business is rife with scammers who will take your work and not pay you a dime. As you will be a new translator in the midst of a global crisis, you will unfortunately fit the profile for an easy target. Be especially on your guard for jobs that seem too good to be true, vet prospective clients thoroughly, and make sure that whatever agreements you make get you paid in the end.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 1:33 AM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

My experience as someone who is bilingual and has done translation work (Danish to English) is that this is far from enough for most situations these days. I've given up on it because of lacking formal translation qualifications in a field that's become increasingly professionalised and credential-requiring over the last decade or two. It is hard to find anyone willing to take me seriously (despite a reasonable portfolio of prior work) and the pay when I did was not fantastic, exactly.

Chinese being a much bigger market, you might have more luck than me, but you might also have more competition. I hope it works out for you!
posted by Dysk at 1:52 AM on April 6, 2020

I'd do a few things simultaneously:
- Advertise or otherwise get the word out in the academic community: students, professors, researchers all need to write texts in good English. Chinese students and academics currently abroad might also be happy to work with you (and pay you local rates rather than, say, American ones). Offer proofreading and style editing as well as translation. Do watch out for students who'll want you to actually write the papers for them.
- Look for local translation firms. You said you wanted freelance work, but it might make sense to take whatever you can get, at least for now.
- Sign up for whatever freelance sites are big these days (I don't remember offhand. Upwork?)
- See if there's a local translators' association and if it's worth joining.
- Look into related freelance work, like teaching English online. You could go through an existing online school or advertise locally yourself, stressing different advantages you can offer (business-focused English, preparing candidates for job interviews, your English degrees, etc.)

I think there's a mefite who is/was an English/Chinese translator. They might be able to offer some tips.
posted by trig at 2:29 AM on April 6, 2020

I’m not a translator, but I’ve been having some success with UpWork for freelancing work in the time of Covid. The application process is tricky and I had to apply twice. MeMail me if you want help!
posted by likethenight at 9:20 AM on April 6, 2020

Seconding Proz.com. I used to do Chinese-English translation, and once you sign up, there are jobs to be had.
posted by bearette at 11:50 AM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've worked as a Chinese->English translator off and on for more than 10 years in both China and the US. Your location won't really matter, as long as you can accept wire transfers or PayPal. My impression is that rates for non-specialized (ie not legal, medical, etc) work are really low right now -- less than US$0.05 per character -- and many companies are extremely wary of non-native English speakers and non-fluent Chinese speakers who just copy/paste stuff into google translate.

That being said, if you write up a decent CV and apply for every available job on ProZ, you're bound to get at least a few responses. There should be enough small jobs that you won't need Trados or other specialized software initially. Oh, and I personally won't work for any of the agencies that want multiple hours of work as a "test," but I will translate a sample paragraph if they ask.
posted by bradf at 8:54 PM on April 6, 2020

I used to do Chinese to English freelance translation & English copyediting on the side, and mainly got jobs through a combination of applying on ProZ, gumtree, indeed etc., applying to specialised academic translation agencies that target university careers services and through my friend network (I did a PhD and had lots of researcher and academic friends). Once I had a few assignments I managed to build up some regular clients, but never earned enough for it to be my primary income.

Try looking on your university careers website (you may still have access as an alumnus) as academic translation agencies often post there to attract postdocs, plus they offer better rates than generic translation. From my experience there's definitely more STEM-related work since there are many China-based researchers who are looking for someone to help with translating/copyediting manuscripts to submit to journals.

If you're trilingual, maybe you can find a translation niche that is less competitive? (I know there are more opportunities for Kor/Jap-Chinese-Eng translators for example, e.g. translating instruction manuals.)

Edit: Also, location never mattered for me. I was translating for UK/Asia clients while I was in Europe or North America. A Transferwise or Paypal account is all you need.
posted by monocot at 12:17 PM on April 7, 2020

Forgot to add - I didn't have any formal qualifications in translation, but having an advanced degree/field of expertise helped to attract attention from the academic translation agencies.
posted by monocot at 12:25 PM on April 7, 2020