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Breaking into sports translation - using regular translation samples
Thread poster: Adam, MA Trans
Angela Malik
Angela Malik  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:37
German to English
+ ...
A caution about "boutique" agencies Jul 22, 2016

Texte Style wrote:

There's even a name for it:
http://www.translatorsfamily.com/blog/for-clients/boutique-agencies.html


Careful though. Some agencies call themselves "boutique" when they're really just generalists. It's because some understand "boutique" to mean "small but of high quality". Even if they struggle to achieve high quality, or they don't have a wide enough view of the industry to understand what REALLY high quality there is out there so they believe they are achieving high quality already, they will call themselves "boutique" to appeal to clients that are more quality-oriented as opposed to price-conscious.


 
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Nikki Scott-Despaigne  Identity Verified
Local time: 16:37
French to English
Sports translation Jul 23, 2016

Hello Adam,

I've been doing translation in the field of sport since 1994 and it is one of my specialist areas, although I generally stick to sailing and other nautical sports. That covers construction, design and racing, but also negotiation, contract, intellectual property, intellectual property, organisation, communication, media, rules and regulations, and meteorology, for example. My original qualifications and treaining were in the law and the technical knowledge and experience
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Hello Adam,

I've been doing translation in the field of sport since 1994 and it is one of my specialist areas, although I generally stick to sailing and other nautical sports. That covers construction, design and racing, but also negotiation, contract, intellectual property, intellectual property, organisation, communication, media, rules and regulations, and meteorology, for example. My original qualifications and treaining were in the law and the technical knowledge and experience came later.

In the early days, the marketing departments of sponsor companies (in France's professional sailing circuit, at least) tended to deal directly with translators. Over the years, small one man and his dog specialist comm' agencies sprouted and sponsors tended to farm out work to these agents, who in turn, farm out the translation work to translators. This might seem advantageous, but it does not necessarily facilitate things for translators and may even complicate them. The addition of a middleman in the equation increases the time it takes to get paid as your client is not the sponsor but the agent. Agents, in my experience, are not too worried about paying rock-bottom fees, as they tend to like specialists. However, in reality, when it comes to paying your bill, they tend to be really slow. Hassling to get paid becomes part of your daily life and quite hoenstly, it's a pain. I've come round to dropping a couple of fairly reputable specialist comm' agencies as they push payment to and beyond the deadline, as a matter of course and I simply won't put up with that. I can't afford too. I suspect that what lies behind it is a little bit of shoddy management and cashflow problems. I've even one story where I ended up contacting the sponsor directly who provided me with a list of payment made over the previous weeks to the agent in question. It provided me with evidence that I was either being led down the garden path by the agent, or that he had simply already spent the sponsor's funds. He eventually went belly-up, so I suspect it was the latter, although I did get paid... within 48 hours.

Specialising is interesting as you tend to get to know the people you work with and feel part of a team. But as in any "milieu", beware of closed-circuit operations and make sure you do not restrict yourself to one type of work within the specialisation. And, try to work in as short a chain as possible. If you can work directly with the sponsor and reduce the middleman, then do so!
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Adam, MA Trans
Adam, MA Trans
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:37
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Voluntary work Jul 23, 2016

Hi Nikki and everybody who has replied to me.

I'm now currently in the process of procuring texts to translate, in order to build my portfolio and showcase my translation skills to agencies.

I was wondering if anybody knows of a sports translation agency who would be willing to let me translate for them voluntarily, with a view to eventually being on their books, after I have proved myself to be a good and reliable translator.

I would be very happy to do th
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Hi Nikki and everybody who has replied to me.

I'm now currently in the process of procuring texts to translate, in order to build my portfolio and showcase my translation skills to agencies.

I was wondering if anybody knows of a sports translation agency who would be willing to let me translate for them voluntarily, with a view to eventually being on their books, after I have proved myself to be a good and reliable translator.

I would be very happy to do this, even if the word count was only small, and could work evenings and weekends. It means I can create a body of work while increasing my chances of getting my foot in the door.

Wishing everybody a lovely weekend,
Adam
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Angela Malik
Angela Malik  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:37
German to English
+ ...
Mentorship suggestion Jul 23, 2016

Hey Adam,

I love that you are committed and you seem to have a real passion. You really want to get to work and prove yourself, and you seem open to hearing from those with experience and taking their advice on board. Those are great qualities! I think you would be the perfect candidate for a mentorship. Most translation associations have mentoring schemes, and I would highly recommend going for one as you would almost certainly make the most of it, if your attitude here is anything
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Hey Adam,

I love that you are committed and you seem to have a real passion. You really want to get to work and prove yourself, and you seem open to hearing from those with experience and taking their advice on board. Those are great qualities! I think you would be the perfect candidate for a mentorship. Most translation associations have mentoring schemes, and I would highly recommend going for one as you would almost certainly make the most of it, if your attitude here is anything to go by.

The ITI has a mentoring scheme and may be a good place to start since you are based in the UK.
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Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 15:37
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Please don't! Jul 23, 2016

Adam-MSCR wrote:
I was wondering if anybody knows of a sports translation agency who would be willing to let me translate for them voluntarily, with a view to eventually being on their books, after I have proved myself to be a good and reliable translator.

I would be very happy to do this, even if the word count was only small, and could work evenings and weekends. It means I can create a body of work while increasing my chances of getting my foot in the door.

Meanwhile, qualified professional translators are missing out on work, the agency is making money out of your labour, your tax authorities will be highly suspicious of this irregular activity, and you're adding to the idea that we're all happy to do it "for fun". You won't make any friends among your peers with that attitude.

Work for charitable concerns if they'll have you (many want at least two years' experience), translate personal blogs and associations' web sites that wouldn't otherwise be translated, etc - fine. Do an unpaid test (I prefer to call it a sample of my work) of not more than 250-300 words for each potential client if you like - i.e. invest an hour of your time. But not more.

There are mentors here on ProZ.com too.


 
Adam, MA Trans
Adam, MA Trans
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:37
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks for your help Aug 26, 2016

Hi Sheila,

You are right, I didn't see it like that. Because I remember it being so difficult to get work I half forgot that it's actually a very skilled profession and giving away labour is not a smart move.

What I will do instead is unpaid work for a charity and also source texts that otherwise wouldn't be translated.

I'll build a portfolio with the work.

Thanks everybody for all of your help.


 
MK2010
MK2010  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:37
French to English
+ ...
Sports tutorials translation job posted on ProZ Aug 31, 2016

I assume you saw this posting, but in you case you didn't, this could be a great opportunity to get some experience in the field.

URL: http://www.proz.com/job/1209404


 
polyglot45
polyglot45
English to French
+ ...
You may be interested to know Aug 31, 2016

That the French translators' association (SFT) publishes a twice-yearly journal and that the most recent issue (June 2016) is precisely on the subject of translating in the world of sport ("La traduction: un sport de haut niveau").

The journal is not free of charge, at least for the first two years, but it can be bought for a small sum from www.sft.fr. You may have to open an account but that's all. Look
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That the French translators' association (SFT) publishes a twice-yearly journal and that the most recent issue (June 2016) is precisely on the subject of translating in the world of sport ("La traduction: un sport de haut niveau").

The journal is not free of charge, at least for the first two years, but it can be bought for a small sum from www.sft.fr. You may have to open an account but that's all. Look under "Publications" and "Revue Traduire".

This could give you some helpful tips
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Adam, MA Trans
Adam, MA Trans
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:37
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you MK Sep 1, 2016

Thank you very much MK for posting the link. I really appreciate you going out of your way to help me.

I have applied for the position. Fingers crossed!


 
Adam, MA Trans
Adam, MA Trans
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:37
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Sports translation journal Sep 2, 2016

Polyglot45 - Thank you for this recommendation. I will sign up to the website now and look at buying the journal.

I'm glad that the specialisation has got some coverage. Since using this website, comments on this forum have really opened my eyes about a possibility of working in sports translations, and inspired me too.


 
Felix Clutson
Felix Clutson
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:37
German to English
+ ...
Late to the.... game. May 11, 2020

Hey Adam-MSCR,

Even four years on, this is still one of the top results when you google freelance sports translation. I appreciate it's s been a long time but if you did happen to continue along this avenue, could you by any chance share which were the most useful parts of your journey and which were not?
I hope it's going well in any case.


 
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Breaking into sports translation - using regular translation samples







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