|
For my job, I regularly interview/hire English-to-Japanese translators.
1.
uwould it help my chance of getting hired if I tell the interviewers that I have experience translating manga?v
As a simple yes or no answer? Yes, it would help, if the job you're applying for involves using the Japanese language. Any and all experience is a plus.
Whether it would be a big enough help to earn you the job or not is another question (the answer will depend on the exact position you're applying for and the rest of your resume). But no company s going to say "Hmm, we were thinking about hiring you, but now that you've mentioned you translate manga as a hobby, no, we will not offer you a job."
2.
u I graduated university last year, with a major in Japanese and a minor in finance, but my actual skills are piss poor, so I am still trying to study on my own. I am studying N3. In order to not forget what I learned and to get some practice.v
This is going to be the bigger issue for you. If you're applying for a job as a translator, but your skills are "piss poor," then there's a pretty good chance the quality of your work is also going to be piss poor. Doesn't matter what kind of job you're applying for, if you can't do the primary work activity well, companies aren't going to be enthusiastic about hiring you.
At the risk of discouraging you, if you're studying for N3, that means you're at a sub-N3 level, so at most, you've got N4-level Japanese skills. From an employer's perspective, that's so far below professional level that it's going to be very hard to leverage that into any sort of job offer. You might be able to get some work out of it if you're in some situation where no one else speaks any Japanese and the quality demand isn't that high (like "Hey, you speak some Japanese, right? We have a visitor from Japan coming, so can you write a card saying 'Welcome, Mr. Takashi!' on it for when we pick him up at the airport?").
3.
uAnyway, would this help me stand out at all? It might be little, but at least I can tell them I have experience with translating stuff. I hope? For example, a company like Xseed requires applicants to be fluent in both Japanese and English, and preferably 1-2 years of experience. If I show them the manga I am translating, would they consider it actual experience?v
If you're applying for a job with a company like Xseed, whose primary business is translating English versions of Japanese anime-style video games, then saying you personal-use fan translated a manga probably isn't going to help you "stand out," since I'd be willing to bet it's something almost all of their applicants have done. A job like that is the nexus of "I know Japanese" and "I like anime/manga," so it's pretty par for the course.
As to whether or not they'd consider translating a manga for yourself "experience," in the sense of experience towards the 1-2 years they're talking about, probably not. When translation companies say they want experience, they're generally talking about professional experience, i.e. translation that someone paid you to do. Below that, unpaid translation for others (volunteer work, distributed translation) generally comes next in terms of attractiveness, with personal-use translation at the bottom. That's because as a professional translator, you'll be asked to prepare something other people can understand/enjoy, which is a bit of different skill set than just producing something for your own comprehension.
---
So yes, personal-use translating manga is, in itself, a smart move. Some experience is better than no experience, and if it's helping you improve your Japanese skills, that's also a good thing. However, if you're counting on those self-taught skills and personal-use manga translation being enough to earn you a job, that's probably not going to happen.
If you're looking to get a job as a translator, I'd recommend:
1. Taking Japanese classes. Again, I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but if you graduated with a major in Japanese, but have forgotten so much in just a year that you're at a sub-N3 level, you probably need someone guiding you so that the things you don't understand don't turn into bad habits/fundamental blind spots in understanding the language.
2. Study for and pass the test for at least N2-level proficiency. Honestly, if you don't have professional experience to bolster your resume, N1 would be best. But again, N3 is low enough that it's really not considered professional grade by most employers.
3. Try getting some volunteer work where you produce translations for other people.
The reasons for all this are related to how the work flow for professional translators work. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the process, but it usually goes something like this:
1. Employer gives assignment to translator
2. Translator produces translation.
3. Editor edits translation to prepare it for publication
When employers look at prospective translators, a major concern is how difficult Step 3 of that process is going to be. If a translation draft has errors that require the editor to rewrite large chunks of it, check the source-document word-by-word, and otherwise make a whole bunch of other revisions so that it's something the customers, not just the translator, can understand/enjoy, then the editor ends up doing the translator's job for them, and the company is essentially paying two people to do the same thing. So you want your resume to say "I know what I'm doing! I can turn in drafts that will be significantly close to ready for publication," and the more education and experience you have, the easier it'll be to convince companies of that.
|
