A doctor recently mentioned on Twitter that she translated medical text using Google Translate. Many companies are using Google Translate to solve their urgent needs for translation -- such as a letter, enquiry, etc. Of course, those with International business have professional translators or translation agencies helping them to translate their documents.

Most of us know our mother tongue very well. Many of us learn in English, Hindi or Marathi medium. So our exposure to the language for several years makes us native speakers of that language.

While translating there is a source language and a target language. I mainly translate from French (source) to English (target). Nowadays, I am translating medical documents. Earlier I used to translate computer manuals. 

Ideally, you should be good with both the source and the target language to do translations. 

In addition, you need to have domain knowledge. The type of translation jobs available are in several domains, medical, banking, IT, computers, telecommunications, etc. The last job I did was on Air Conditioners.  Rules in Morocco on Air Conditioning.  Thanks to my technical knowledge (and willingness to learn), I managed to do the job. 

Contracts, legal, financial documents are a plenty.  You will thus need to know about contracts, law, finance and so on.

There are several sites on the Internet. Translator's Cafe ang Proz are the most popular. 

You can register on Proz.com for free and check out the jobs available and also find out about rates, terminologies, glossaries, and discussions on translation. To apply for a job, you need to be a member. The membership fee is around USD100 (Rs.6000 or so). I was a member for about 20 years.  So I must have paid about USD 2000 in all.  But each year I made at least Rs.2,00,000 (for the Rs.5000 I paid). 

There are many groups on FaceBook too. But I am not sure whether they are realilable. 

When I started translating from French to English, I was paid USD 0.10 cents per word in 2000. Today, 2022, I get paid USD 0.06 per word.  I mainly work for foreign translation agencies.

You can get French, German and other foreign language jobs from Indian translation agencies. They typically pay from Rs.1-2 per word.

Indian language rates are even lower. It is difficult to get even Rs.1 per word.  

Payment is typically 30 days from invoice.

In case of foreign payments, you get paid mainly through PayPal, a bank on the Internet. 

Local payments are directly credited to your account.

Many agencies do not pay well or do not pay on time. Proz has a rating system from 1-5. If an agency has 5 rating from  20-200 members, it means it is reliable. Many Indian agencies have rating of 2-3-4 and many complaints of non-payment.  Do take care before you take projects from such companies. 

Typically, you get the source document in Word. You need to translate and return the document in the same format, Word. The formatting should match the original as much as possible. 

Nowadays, you get the source document as a PDF file.  You need to return the translation in Word.

You may also get jobs to translate in Excel, PPT, etc.

Translation software like Trados Studio 2022, Memo Source are available to make translations easier.  Many times the file needs to be translated using Trados. Trados software costs Rs.20,000. So it is meant for experienced translators.

If you search on Google, you will get a lot of answers to your queries on Translation. Proz.com is an excellent site to explore. Facebook has several translation groups, best being the Proz group. You will find many answers to your many questions. I used to be active and have answered several questions. 

You are welcome to ask me questions on Twitter (er, those that are NOT answered in this blog or information that you could not easily find on Google!) @KamathGurudutt.

So, welcome to translations and translating. Good luck.

• Translate the meaning in the text and not the words. 
• Use Google extensively. You will find terminologies for most domains (medical, IT, banking, finance, etc.)

You should approach a professional translator or a professional translation agency to carry out your business translations. You can find them via Google and even better via Proz.com. 

If you have an assignment (called "job") for a translator, you can put up a post on Proz.com for FREE. You will get lots of responses. You can then choose and then contact them and get your job done.