Hi Ingrid. Carl here. I would say HSK5 is be a good base level for the study of translation. Perhaps not interpreting, but you could work on your speaking and listening skills during the program if needed. Feel free to contact me directly if you need more clarification.

Hi olle,
Yes, I have asked 2 different institutions but they don’t give a clear definition of what they regard as ‘advanced Chinese proficiency ‘. They have both said that I will need to sit a test to determine my level. I was just trying to figure out if HSK5 is considered advanced or not.

I’m not Carl, but wouldn’t it be more prudent to ask the institution directly? Carl probably knows the answer from when he was admitted, but was a long time ago, and things might have changed a lot. You might have already asked, of course, and if Carl knows, that’s great, I just thought I’d chime in in the meantime. I receive occasional questions about my masters program, but I enrolled a decade ago now (wow, time really does fly), so I rarely know the answers!

Hi Olle,

Glad to hear from you. Yes, the pay for Chinese-English translation is unfortunately rather dismal compared to other language pairs. I think a major factor is also the technicality or difficulty of the content. To be honest, I don’t even accept translation jobs that are outside of the game industry, because it’s simply not worth my time to do the research for how to translate a sociology thesis or business contracts (even though that would be the best way to expand my knowledge of Chinese).

In saying that, I do know of a few people who make quite decent money translating in specialized fields, such as law and sciences. I suspect that the key is to spend enough time translating in one field that you A. become highly efficient and B. establish a regular base of clients.

By the way, I’d also like to say thank you so much for setting up this website, Olle. Many of your articles were a big help to me when I studying Chinese, especially in understanding things that are explained poorly in textbooks.
I hope everything is going well for you in academia, and may your resources continue to help many more students of Chinese in future!

Best,

Michael

Hi Michael,

Thank you so much for your comment! It’s very interesting to read what it’s like in different areas of the industry, something which is almost impossible to know without talking to someone who actually works in these areas. I’m sure other people will find it interesting as well!

I have personally only professionally translated software, and only once for a fairly large project, mostly because I was already involved in it. I’ve been asked to do translations occasionally in academic situations, but the pay has always been dismal (I mean, really really bad), so the few times I’ve done it, it’s been for language practice, not money.

Best wishes,

Olle

I work as a Chinese to English freelance translator mainly for Mainland Chinese agencies in the mobile game industry. Reading about the competitiveness and scarcity of work in the other translation fields, I’ve come to the conclusion that translation is not actually a single industry but a cluster of industries that operate almost by entirely different rules.

Videogame translation is a niche field in which native English speakers who can competently translate from Chinese are in exceptionally high demand. This is because games that are poorly translated into English do not perform well in Western markets, so there is a direct profit-linked incentive for game developers to find good translators.

As games often contain hundreds of thousands of words of dialogue and story (especially online games which are constantly updated with new content), this means a lot of work for established translators in the field.

Getting working also doesn’t really require much “networking”. Reach out to any agency and they will send you a short test. Pass the test, and pretty soon they’ll start sending you jobs. It’s very meritocratic. Of course, building a relationship with the project managers is a good idea, as it means that you will get more regular work with the same clients.

The only downside I would say about game translation is that, as the average pay rate offered by Chinese agencies is lower than those in Western countries, you must work faster if you want to earn a decent living. While using tools that provide translation memories and term bases definitely helps (particularly in maintaining consistency), I find that after a long time of doing this I have slipped into the poor habit of aiming for the quickest translation I can produce that will pass the bare minimum threshold of acceptability in order to get the content done quicker.

This is compounded by the fact that I rarely receive meaningful feedback about the quality of my feedback and that I work alone. The result is that I feel like my Chinese has plateaued and I’m not really challenging myself as much anymore.

Ultimately, I think game translation is a good field to work in when you consider the benefits (lots of work available, decent earnings for experienced and fast translators, and total independence), but I would definitely like to move into something more meaningful in the future. Translating Chinese novels would be a real joy and a fulfilling challenge, but it seems that most Chinese these days prefer reading novels translated from English over those by Chinese authors (at least that’s the case here in Taiwan). Perhaps the market is changing in Mainland China, though, with more original creative content being produced.

Anyway, this has turned out to be longer-winded than I thought. If anyone reading this is thinking going into game translation, I certainly recommend giving it a shot. Even if it’s not your cup of tea, you can never go wrong with diversification in your Chinese journey. Plus it’s a good bit of side income for whatever else you’re doing in life!

Hm well, I was afraid that it is not that lucrative…but I have a quite laid back job so I plan to do the translations during my normal work time (and get double paid, so to say heheheh).
Thanks for your reply btw