自由职业就低人一等吗？

Rita Pang wrote:

I think this has nothing to do with the job but the community/society in which you take part.

The Hong Kong mentality, for example, is such that everybody wants to study business/finance/medicine because being a doctor/insurance broker/financial dude is the go-to job instead of being, say, a writer. People will probably think you're on crack if you tell them you're a poet.

When literature and arts are deemed as something "only the crazies" will work/study for, it doesn't surprise me that a freelancing job is considered second class. Me, on the other hand, find it hard to go back to the corporate world. Don't get me wrong, I love the perks and the insurance coverage (!) that comes with a regular 9 to 5, but with what I am doing now, I set my own schedule, I am free to move around the whole world and most of all, I love it. I still prefer having a part-time job while working as a translator, but I love it too much and would not want a full-time job for fear that I won't have enough time to do what I love.

jim summer wrote:


“向钱看，向厚赚”是诸多当代中国人的最大追求。

"Best joke about prostitution ever done was by Bernard Shaw. He was at a party once and he told this woman that everyone would agree to do anything for money, if the price was high enough. `Surely not, she said.' `Oh yes,' he said. `Well, I wouldn't,' she said. `Oh yes you would,' he said. `For instance,' he said, `would you sleep with me for... for a million pounds?' `Well,' she said, `maybe for a million I would, yes.' `Would you do it for ten shillings?' said Bernard Shaw. `Certainly not!' said the woman `What do you take me for? A prostitute?' `We've established that already,' said Bernard Shaw. `We're just trying to fix your price now!' "

Translation is the grandest, most foolhardy enterprise that humans can engage in. Done right, it can also be a lucrative and intellectually satisfying career. Fire Ant & Worker Bee (Chris Durban and Eugene Seidel) have over five decades' combined experience in the translation business. They firmly believe that skilled translators benefit from adopting an entrepreneurial outlook, sharing insights and experiences, and investing in themselves.

Tech-Lee@China wrote:

做自由职业，是真正的靠本事吃饭。

试问那些有稳定工作的人（在某局工作，某国企工作的），一旦让他们自谋生路，他们是否有这个本领？

苏东坡说，流自己的汗，吃自己的饭，靠天靠地靠父母不是好汉。

咱们做自由翻译的，靠的是真正的翻译水平和职业素养来吃饭，确实值得尊敬。

勇敢的活出自己的风格吧，楼主！没有必要在意别人的评头论足。一个人只要决定了要往哪里走，全世界都会给他让路。如同李开复那本书的题目-《做最好的自己》

ysun wrote:

The Prosperous Translator
Advice from Fire Ant & Worker Bee
http://www.amazon.com/The-Prosperous-Translator-Chris-Durban/dp/0615404030/ref=pd_sim_b_3

Wilson Pon wrote:

我了解LZ的心情，因为我在这里—马来西亚，也同样遭遇与您一样的糗境。

在这里，身为一名自由职业者的定义=没有工作/失业。每每去同学聚会/喜宴，他们都是对我说教：“你都失业那么久，为啥不去考个公务员” 我听了，真是无言答对~

尽管有许多闲言闲语，我还是热爱这份工作，至少我不必像我的同学们，每天都被压力压到透不过气。俗语说：“一种米养百种人”嘴巴长在他人脸上，他们爱说啥，就随他们吧。只要保持自己的做人宗旨，活得开心自在就好了，呵呵。

The Army, NYPD and State Department can't get enough workers with this job skill. Neither can Fortune 500 companies, hospitals, local courts and schools.

What is it? Fluency in a foreign language.

Translators and interpreters are expected to be one of the 15 fastest growing occupations in the nation, according to the Department of Labor.

Roughly 25,000 jobs are expected to open up for interpreters (who focus on spoken language) and translators (who focus on written language), between 2010 and 2020, the Department of Labor estimates. That represents 42% growth for the field and does not include the military, which is also recruiting ferociously for more people.

In the last week alone, roughly 12,000 jobs posted on Indeed.com included the word "bilingual."

Amazon, for example, wants to hire a Brazilian Portuguese translator for its customer service team in Seattle. Apple is hiring technical translators who speak Korean, Mexican Spanish and Chinese.

A school district in Pasadena, Calif., is hiring Spanish, Korean, Armenian and Chinese interpreters to work part time for $40 an hour.

...

Most interpreters and translators work on a freelance basis, which can be both a blessing and a curse. The work schedule can be flexible, it can be unsteady and come without benefits.

"Since the majority of people in our field work as independent contractors and run their own business, the volume of work of course is subject to fluctuations," said Dorothee Racette, a German-English translator and president of the American Translators Association. "Compensation varies a lot based on language combination, years of experience, area of specialization, and the country or region where customers are located."

Interpreters tend to get paid by the hour, half-day or day, with a range of $300 to $1,000 per day. The highest caliber interpreters are often certified by the International Association of Conference Interpreters, and can command the largest wages, Stejskal said.

Translators, on the other hand, are usually paid by the word. The average rate for translating the 30 most commonly used languages on the web was 13 cents in 2012, according to market research firm Common Sense Advisory. Rarer languages command higher per-word rates but also tend to be lower in demand.

Speed is crucial to making the highest salary. For example, good translators who can do 2,500 to 3,000 words a day, would earn $325 to $390 a day, whereas a newbie to the field may be capable of far less.

Kari Carapella, a senior recruiter for staffing firm Adecco, is currently trying to fill a job for an engineering translator in Big Falls, NY. The ideal candidate must not only be fluent in Japanese, but also understand electrical and mechanical engineering blueprints and documents.

"It's especially tough to fill as both the technical and translation skills must be in place," she said.

Pay starts around $30 an hour, she added.

Lily Yang wrote:

与大家比起来，我还是个新手。我也遇到过类似的事件，觉得自由译者不是长久可以从事的职业，但我还是走上了这条路。希望大家今后多多给予关照啊。在这里拜托了。