OK, you know, it’s a bit frustrating. Those who’ve been following this blog over the past two years (just about) will no doubt be curious about our apparent lack of measurable progress.
But if I could get there any quicker, believe me, I would. There’s nothing I’d like more. But I feel trapped in a funk and I’m currently trying to ease my way out of it. It’s a bit like quicksand, I’d say: the more you struggle, the deeper into it you sink. I need to slowly get myself to the surface of this predicament and carefully remove myself from it.
Here it is: My language pair would be GER>ENG but I live in Japan and am losing my fluency in German as each year passes, and along with it, my confidence in my ability to do a stand-up job translating in my language pair. Now, I have been studying Japanese, it’s true, but it’ll take a couple more years before I’d be proficient enough to work with that language.
So, I’m caught in a difficult place here. I feel that to regain my skills and confidence in German, I need to spend some more time in Germany (Oh, how I would love that!). But I don’t have a mobile career to take with me, should I move to Germany again. I do editing/proofreading work here in Tokyo, but it is essentially tied to this location.
I could really use some advice from anyone out there.
This is where my thoughts are leading me now: Intensify my Japanese studies to speed up the process of becoming proficient in the language. That way I can take another language pair with me when I move to Germany. In the meantime, however, I can’t let my German go, and I need to start translating soon.
So, I’m thinking I should take some specialized DAF classes (German as a Foreign Language) at the Goethe Institute here in Tokyo! It could be fun. Caroline has expressed an interest in upping her level, especially if we are planning to relocate to Deutschland in the not-too-distant future. This could be the boost I need. There are translation courses, too, which are unfortunately only offered in Japanese and involve the JAP>GER pair.
Any comments, ideas? I want to bring it all together and make a real go of it. I honestly do. Sometimes it’s hard to get to where you need to be without a bit of guidance and support.
If you’re wondering about Caroline, well, she’s busy with a full-time job (which, in Japan, especially in Tokyo, means very, very busy). Luckily, her work involves making use of her three operable languages and even includes some specialized translation work. But for the time being, I’m the only one who can keep pushing towards getting the freelance business up and running.
I just keep thinking how great this whole project will seem someday, from the perspective of having finally achieved our goal. That keeps me going.
Right now, though, I could use a boost.
1 response so far ↓
Corinne McKay // September 4, 2009 at 12:28 am |
Good to hear from you again! One thing that I think is really important is to let go of the roadblocks and negatives of your situation and force yourself to take concrete action on the positives. Honestly, lots of translators live in countries where neither their source or target language is the country’s dominant language. In addition, don’t forget that although your active German skills might be fading, translating DE>EN is more dependent on your German reading comprehension and excellent writing skills in English. How about making a marketing trip to Germany for a week or two? Also if you’re worried about your active German skills, what about doing one-on-one courses with a native speaker? In a city the size of Tokyo there have to be some native German speakers who would be interested.
Mostly, I think it’s important to ask yourself how much you want a career as a freelancer. When I started freelancing and my daughter was an infant, it was sometimes really, really hard to deal with the sleep deprivation, endless cold-contacting, etc. But I told myself that if I didn’t make a go of it as a freelancer, I would have to put my daughter in day care and go back to an office job, neither of which I wanted to do. So, I think you have to find your own motivation and use that to break through the startup phase.