7/13/2017

Low rates even in Germany ...

Yesterday or so I received via one of the many translator sites an "job offer" from Germany.
It is about (urgent) translation work in the English-German language pair.
The company offers 0.04 Euro per Word.
(The company itself "naturally" makes a mistake, noting the rate as 0.04 cents - which would be approximately 0.0004 USD!)
It does not specify, whether these source or target words.

Maybe it is only me, but I dare doubt, that people living in Europe can make a "living" on those rates.
The 0.0004 USD/word rate totally out of the question.

It always seems to me, that the internet serves due to its lack of adjustments and regulations to match different conditions as a sort of parasite, eating away the basis for sound living.

7/11/2017

Oriental medicine - translation

A patient of mine - who also tries to establish himself as a writer - wrote an article about me and somehow convinced an editor at the Japan Times to publish it. For people interested .. here the link to the electronic form.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2017/07/05/our-lives/unorthodox-acupuncturists-point-make-sure-never-come-back/#.WV2kJelpzcF

Most of it refers to my work as an acupuncturist. However, I am also working as a freelance translator. And if it comes to the translation of materials related to oriental medicine, or acupuncture in particular, just being a "native speaker" is not a sufficient qualification for the job. MUCH of the terminology used in this field is VERY unusual and often NOT understood without some additional explanation. Many attempts at a "standardization", or even the creation of glossaries, still have many problems to solve.

As a practicing acupuncturist with over 30 years of clinical experience I believe, I may be better "qualified" to handle this kind of material than many native speakers.

Personally, I would love to translate whole books and just articles for magazines. I presume, it would be much more gratifying than just articles. AND .. there are many very good Japanese books about acupuncture (or oriental medicine in general).
But the West has no access to this information, because the Chinese are deliberately trying to dominate the market - and to my dismay the West allows the Chinese to convince them, that they are the ONLY ones with any "authorative, genuine" knowledge about oriental medicine. I pity the people, who voluntarily choose to a "tunnel vision" perspective of the world.
 
Please feel free to contact me, if you do need/want to translate anything in this field.

Thomas Blasejewicz