become a translator!

Have started in May 09, very busy over the summer, some in September. Still need to find more business.

I CAN DO IT!!!!!!!!

My husband is from Mexico and I feel for the immigrants that come here. I’ve been to Mexico and I’ve seen first hand how hard it is there. It’s sad that the only way they can live is to sneak across the border in order to give thier families a better life. Does anyone of you know how hard it is to get a visa to be here legal? I do, if a business does not want to be a sponser, it is very hard to get a visa and only those who are rich can get one easily. Those who are not rich are required to have at least 5 thousand dollars in the bank. That is hard even for most of us, and just last year my brother-in-law and his sister both lost thier houses in the hurricane that hit sounthern Mexico. They lost everything, most of us have had a tragedy happen that has taken all of our savings. My husband lost his job two weeks ago and we are on our last 40 bucks from our savings. We haven’t found jobs either, we have two children. We may have to move to another state but without money I don’t know how we will go anywhere or take care of our two children. We have a car payment and other bills to pay that we haven’t paid for this week. I have decided to use my talents with computers and my spanish speaking gifts to help those that I can. All of the other internet crap I have tried has failed or is failing. Becoming a translator has to work, at least I know what I am doing.

I am an assistant to the Director of Operations in a well known Dental company. But I want to change careers. How and where do I begin the path to becoming a translator. I am fluent in English and Spanish. I live in Long Island New York.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I have been working as a professional medical/technical translator now for about 18 years. I had originally wanted to be a veterinarian, so my focus was on math and science, but I always had an ease with language, and took English, French, German, Spanish, Latin, etc. in high school just for fun. When I was not accepted into Veterinary College (very few places available, and my high average was not quite high enough), I was not sure what to do. I was fortunate to meet a scientific translator. I had thought of translation only in terms of literature, and did not realize that there was this whole other world. So I did two degrees in translation, as well as courses in my areas of specialization (medicine, biochemistry, computer science, etc.), and have not looked back since. I make a good living, I am constantly learning something new, and I love my job 97% of the time. Granted, I put an awful lot of hard work to be where I am today… and I have never stopped. I keep going back to school to gain knowledge in order to be more credible in certain areas of translation. This is a career and profession… not just a job.

I can help you translating any document fron english/spanish or spanish/english.

I took the exam before, and failed by three points. Will start courses (French) in May and I hope to take the program’s entrance exam next Winter. I’m taking it part-time evenings, but I’ve always loved languages, and there are a lot of opportunities where I live (Montreal). Would love to hear from others in translation programs!