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Moving to another country - Is it bad for business?
Thread poster: Claudio Machado Junior
gayd (X)
gayd (X)
I remain fluent in French May 4, 2017

because in Bulgaria, I say Merci all the time

 
philgoddard
philgoddard
United States
German to English
+ ...
My story May 4, 2017

Decades ago, I lived in north London and most of my clients were within a five-mile radius. This was before email, so I would either send my work by guaranteed next-day delivery, or by courier or taxi. Sometimes I'd get on my bike, deliver it in person, and have a coffee and a chat.

Then I moved to south London, which many north Londoners regard as another country. I was really worried that I'd lose my customers, but no, I gained more in south London.

Ten years ago, I
... See more
Decades ago, I lived in north London and most of my clients were within a five-mile radius. This was before email, so I would either send my work by guaranteed next-day delivery, or by courier or taxi. Sometimes I'd get on my bike, deliver it in person, and have a coffee and a chat.

Then I moved to south London, which many north Londoners regard as another country. I was really worried that I'd lose my customers, but no, I gained more in south London.

Ten years ago, I emigrated to the United States. All of my customers were in Europe, and I had the same concerns - but the timezone difference proved an asset rather than a liability. Most people stuck with me, and I gained more in the US and in places as far afield as Russia and Singapore.

This is a global business now, and we've never been more mobile as a profession. I understand your concerns because I've been through them myself, but I don't think you have anything to worry about.

[Edited at 2017-05-04 16:33 GMT]
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Vanda Nissen
Vanda Nissen  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 04:04
Member (2008)
English to Russian
+ ...
Indeed May 5, 2017

philgoddard wrote:

This is a global business now, and we've never been more mobile as a profession.


Indeed. Turn your concerns into advantages. We moved to Australia 7 years ago but I still keep my Danish and Swedish clients, so does my husband. They know that sometimes we can't reply straight away and prefer to wait. Of course, we also to play it fair.

I have also acquired more European and US clients because actually a different time zone can play for you.
Finally, about the first language skills, my Russian is still up to date. It would be hard to lose it when we have so many opportunities now - Internet, newspapers and magazines, Skype etc.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:04
Member (2008)
Italian to English
NAtive May 5, 2017

Claudio Machado Junior wrote:

....clients might consider that I'll lose my "native background", or the fluency of my current language.

Claudio


I think that is a legitimate concern. Being based in London, my fluency in English is 100% up to date.

Languages evolve very rapdily.

Sometimes I see others on Kudoz with English names, who say they are native in English, but who live in non-English-speaking countries and who seem to struggle to find the correct or the most up-to-date terminology for certain expressions, especially if they are colloquialisms.




[Edited at 2017-05-05 10:31 GMT]


 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 18:04
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
How seriously do they take their work? May 5, 2017

Tom in London wrote:
Languages evolve very rapdily.

Sometimes I see others on Kudoz with English names, who say they are native in English, but who live in non-English-speaking countries and who seem to struggle to find the correct or the most up-to-date terminology for certain expressions, especially if they are colloquialisms.

I lived out in the sticks in France for 15 years, and didn't have the internet for the first five (although I didn't start translating until after I got my dial-up connection). When I arrived in Fuerteventura with its massive English-speaking community I did find that I'd been left behind a bit in terms of slang (I remember "anal" being one term that was new to me), and there were a lot of references to celebrities and TV shows that went over my head. But none of that affected my ability to do my job. It was a bit like an American chatting with a Brit for a while - 95% fine with the odd raised eyebrow - but nowadays I find it just as easy as ever to chat with other English people.

However, I made sure that the English I needed for my job stayed bang up to date. I think that the ones you're referring to, Tom, probably don't take the trouble to do that. Surely you yourself weren't finding problems as an IT>EN translator during all those years you lived in Italy, were you?


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:04
Member (2008)
Italian to English
No problem May 5, 2017

Sheila Wilson wrote:

Surely you yourself weren't finding problems as an IT>EN translator during all those years you lived in Italy, were you?


During all those years I wasn't a translator. In fact I hardly ever spoke English to anyone, and on one occasion during a visit from a friend who lived in London I did discover, at that point, that the English language had moved on and left me standing.

Now I'm up to speed. On it.

[Edited at 2017-05-05 13:01 GMT]


 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 18:04
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Oh right May 5, 2017

Tom in London wrote:
Sheila Wilson wrote:

Surely you yourself weren't finding problems as an IT>EN translator during all those years you lived in Italy, were you?


During all those years I wasn't a translator.

Oh I see. I thought you'd only fairly recently moved back to the UK. My mistake.

I suppose I should say "My bad" but maybe my active English isn't quite up to date, even if my understanding of it is. Or maybe it's just an age thing .


 
Merab Dekano
Merab Dekano  Identity Verified
Spain
Member (2014)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Texts May 5, 2017

Sheila Wilson wrote:

Tom in London wrote:
Sheila Wilson wrote:

Surely you yourself weren't finding problems as an IT>EN translator during all those years you lived in Italy, were you?


During all those years I wasn't a translator.

Oh I see. I thought you'd only fairly recently moved back to the UK. My mistake.

I suppose I should say "My bad" but maybe my active English isn't quite up to date, even if my understanding of it is. Or maybe it's just an age thing .


I think we should factor in the nature of the texts each of us usually Works with. It’s not the same to work with video games (which evolve) as opposed to legal texts (which are predominately static).

On the other hand, if you live in another country, but watch TV in your language, speak to friends who speak your language, speak your language at home, read books and news in your language, I have hard time telling the two scenarios apart.


 
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:04
English to Spanish
+ ...
Conflating contexts May 6, 2017

Merab Dekano wrote:

Sheila Wilson wrote:

Tom in London wrote:
Sheila Wilson wrote:

Surely you yourself weren't finding problems as an IT>EN translator during all those years you lived in Italy, were you?


During all those years I wasn't a translator.

Oh I see. I thought you'd only fairly recently moved back to the UK. My mistake.

I suppose I should say "My bad" but maybe my active English isn't quite up to date, even if my understanding of it is. Or maybe it's just an age thing .


I think we should factor in the nature of the texts each of us usually Works with. It’s not the same to work with video games (which evolve) as opposed to legal texts (which are predominately static).

On the other hand, if you live in another country, but watch TV in your language, speak to friends who speak your language, speak your language at home, read books and news in your language, I have hard time telling the two scenarios apart.


Good point, Merab.

As translators, we seem to forget all too often that we work with texts. Living - and continuing to live- in a country where our Language A is spoken makes sense especially if one translates videogames, soap opera and film scripts, does video dubbing or subtitling into Language A. I don't see the same strict necessity to live in one's native country as a disqualification, as implied in some of the earlier posts.

A translator can be perfectly fluent in her language A (first native language) and yet be a mediocre translator.


 
gayd (X)
gayd (X)
spoken vs written language May 6, 2017

Spoken languages (for instance slang) evolve quickly but written languages don't.
Translators translate texts that are written in a language that is not the same
as the oral language you would use in your daily life. That's why it's most
silly to claim to be a native speaker just because you've spent a couple years
in a country. In everyday situations, you only use 5% of a language. As a translator,
if you start writing what you hear in your everyday life, you'll
... See more
Spoken languages (for instance slang) evolve quickly but written languages don't.
Translators translate texts that are written in a language that is not the same
as the oral language you would use in your daily life. That's why it's most
silly to claim to be a native speaker just because you've spent a couple years
in a country. In everyday situations, you only use 5% of a language. As a translator,
if you start writing what you hear in your everyday life, you'll be in big trouble...

[Modifié le 2017-05-06 14:18 GMT]

[Modifié le 2017-05-06 14:21 GMT]
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Vanda Nissen
Vanda Nissen  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 04:04
Member (2008)
English to Russian
+ ...
Even spoken does not evolve that quickly May 7, 2017

Even spoken languages do not evolve that quickly. I often interpret for Russians who have never even been to Russia (born in China and then moved to Australia), and we understand each other very well. No miscommunication issues at all (they do not need modern Russian slang to understand what doctors are saying, neither do I (although I know it very well).

 
Matthew Duff
Matthew Duff
Germany
Local time: 19:04
German to English
+ ...
Moving from EU to US, dealing with time difference Jun 1, 2017

Ah! I was just about to open a thread on this topic.

In the next year I'm going to have to move from Germany to the US for family reasons and am terrified of losing business, which is doing quite well here. At the moment I only work for agencies based in Central Europe.

Does anyone else have any experience in moving from Europe to America and dealing with the subsequent time difference? Or somewhere else with a similar time difference? Moving to Asia or Australia, for e
... See more
Ah! I was just about to open a thread on this topic.

In the next year I'm going to have to move from Germany to the US for family reasons and am terrified of losing business, which is doing quite well here. At the moment I only work for agencies based in Central Europe.

Does anyone else have any experience in moving from Europe to America and dealing with the subsequent time difference? Or somewhere else with a similar time difference? Moving to Asia or Australia, for example, would put you ahead of European time, which I think would make contact easier.

Matthew
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Kevin Fulton
Kevin Fulton  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 14:04
German to English
Some advantages Jun 2, 2017

Matthew Duff wrote:

Does anyone else have any experience in moving from Europe to America and dealing with the subsequent time difference? Or somewhere else with a similar time difference? Moving to Asia or Australia, for example, would put you ahead of European time, which I think would make contact easier.

Matthew


More than half my clientele is located in Europe, balanced between agencies and direct customers. When jobs come into the agencies late in the day, in my experience they tend to look to translators in the US, as much of their local talent is booked up by 18:00. Basically I have to stay in the office until 11:00 or noon if I have no other projects, as many of the agency jobs come in by then. The projects from direct clients are usually waiting for me when I read my e-mail at the start of the day.

There is a disadvantage to the US-based translator, however. A job due at 9:00 Central European Time really needs to be delivered the evening before.

The real problem has to do with banking. I might suggest hanging on to your German account, as it will make receiving payments easier. In the US, you may have to find a bank that's accustomed to handling international transactions. Although I'm a strong believer in credit unions, based on my experience, they're not very good at handling international payments.


 
philgoddard
philgoddard
United States
German to English
+ ...
Matthew Jun 2, 2017

I mentioned that in my post.

 
Matthew Duff
Matthew Duff
Germany
Local time: 19:04
German to English
+ ...
Thanks Jun 4, 2017

Kevin Fulton wrote:

Matthew Duff wrote:

Does anyone else have any experience in moving from Europe to America and dealing with the subsequent time difference? Or somewhere else with a similar time difference? Moving to Asia or Australia, for example, would put you ahead of European time, which I think would make contact easier.

Matthew


More than half my clientele is located in Europe, balanced between agencies and direct customers. When jobs come into the agencies late in the day, in my experience they tend to look to translators in the US, as much of their local talent is booked up by 18:00. Basically I have to stay in the office until 11:00 or noon if I have no other projects, as many of the agency jobs come in by then. The projects from direct clients are usually waiting for me when I read my e-mail at the start of the day.

There is a disadvantage to the US-based translator, however. A job due at 9:00 Central European Time really needs to be delivered the evening before.

The real problem has to do with banking. I might suggest hanging on to your German account, as it will make receiving payments easier. In the US, you may have to find a bank that's accustomed to handling international transactions. Although I'm a strong believer in credit unions, based on my experience, they're not very good at handling international payments.


philgoddard wrote:

I mentioned that in my post.


Thanks for the advice!


 
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