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How can I make a lot of money being multilingual?
Organichu
poopspeesRegistered User regular
poopspeesRegistered User regular
I'm still floundering in terms of what I'd like to do with my life, but I'm at the stage where I'm looking for a bit of a catalyst for at least the next couple of years. One thing I've considered is that there has to be some sort of job I can get for my language skills. I am no savant but I grew up in several countries and I kept up my study of each language throughout.
I speak English, two Semitic languages, one Romance language, and one Germanic language. In four of the five I am absolutely, 100% fluent (I don't think it'd be hyperbole to use the phrase "native"), and in the other I am proficient and am on my way to mastery. Are there positions for people like me in the government (with excellent benefits) or in private agencies (with high salaries) who have good, varied language skills at a young age but no other special skills? I can type ~100 wpm, and I think I have good communication skills and am personable in each language I speak, but other than that I can't think of much. I don't have a degree, I don't have a lot of administrative experience, I don't know any trades or anything of the sort.
I'd considered military communication or intelligence but I am physically unable (partial blindness). Any insight you guys could offer would be great.
I speak English, two Semitic languages, one Romance language, and one Germanic language. In four of the five I am absolutely, 100% fluent (I don't think it'd be hyperbole to use the phrase "native"), and in the other I am proficient and am on my way to mastery. Are there positions for people like me in the government (with excellent benefits) or in private agencies (with high salaries) who have good, varied language skills at a young age but no other special skills? I can type ~100 wpm, and I think I have good communication skills and am personable in each language I speak, but other than that I can't think of much. I don't have a degree, I don't have a lot of administrative experience, I don't know any trades or anything of the sort.
I'd considered military communication or intelligence but I am physically unable (partial blindness). Any insight you guys could offer would be great.
Organichu on
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Qualifications are going to vary immensely, but so long as you can interpret quickly, and accurately, that is going to be what they're most interested in.
DeShadowC: I think so. I've never done drugs, I've never been brought before a judge, I have above average credit, so on. I don't think there's anything objectionable about my profile. The only thing is that I'm a dual citizen (of a strong, strong ally to the US) and so I might be forced to renounce my alternative citizenship.
Of course with such a sensitive matter there are no certainties, but there definitely aren't 'red flags' that I know of that would disqualify me.
And I doubt Israeli citizenship would be an issue to a background check.
Arabic and Hebrew.
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Improvolone: I guess mostly the latter. If I could somehow magically get flown out to DC or Kuwait and get a comp'ed apartment to start a new job... tomorrow... that'd be great. I know that's unrealistic though so I'm really just inquiring about what opportunities are out there, the things I need to do before I pursue them, setting my affairs in order if a job in this vein would require relocation, etc.
*To Iraq.
If you're willing to go to Iraq for a year, you can make some serious money.
Corporate interpretation is going to be a little less intense, but if two parties are having a face to face conference, they're not going to be happy with an interpreter who can't keep up, and keeps hemming, hawing, and asking people to repeat themselves.
The government uses exams to measure language proficiency. I don't know if you can take them but that would be good start. There's actually different levels of fluency, so you want to see where you are at (I know that at least for Arabic, you can be fluent in the informal dialect but not be able to say shit in the formal dialect--or maybe I'm confused).
Whatever, bottom line is the world is your oyster, as long as you're OK working for the government (contrary to popular belief the goverment actually does good things too).
Might be worth talking to a publishing house, if that floats your boat.
interpreter? with the right experience and through contacts you can earn a lot and do some pretty high profile stuff. maybe train at simultaneous interpretation? (the english overdubs you hear when foreign leaders give speeches)
you could do intelligence too, but i imagine it would involve listening to wiretaps and translating.
i dont know how you'd break into either field though. but not that many people can do it, right?
i hear it's a bit of a hardship post
Currently you have two options. Translation and Interpretation.
Translation -
This obviously has to do with writing. You'd be translating documents, software, anything written, etc... Generally you translate into your native language. For you it would be English so you could translate from Arabic, Hebrew, or other langauges into English.
Within translation there's technical translation and literary translation. Technical translators translate "technical" material. This could be user's guides, flyers, software, government documents, etc... Technical translators normally specialize in one specific area because the technical nature of the translation means that they are going to have to learn a lot of specialized vocabulary. For example, you may be fluent in Arabic but would you be able to translate a medical textbook from Arabic into english without learning a bunch of new vocabulary? There are "general" technical translators but on average they make less than specialized ones.
I'd think that the going rate for Arabic - English or Hebrew - English technical translation is between 15 - 20 cents per word. General translation will get the lower end of that range.
Literary translation involves the translation of literary works and requires a bit of creative license. I don't know much about it...
Interpretation -
Spoken language stuff. There's a lot of work out there for interpreters in both the private and public sector. They are needed in hospitals, court rooms, and in private business. Generally, you'll need to be certified to do any sort of medical or legal interpretation. This requires studying and taking a test but from what I've been told it isn't that hard.
The faster you're able to interpret the more money you'll make. If you can do simultaneous (i.e. you hear something in one language and can instantly spit it out in another) you'll make bank. Ever see film of UN meetings where people are wearing headphones? On the other end of those headphones there's an interpreter speaking in real time.
Depending on your accent and your voice there's also a market for voice over work...
Honestly, given your skills your best bet for interpretation will probably be the US government or a defense contractor. However, there's a big demand for court and medical interpreters as well.
Interpreters are generally paid by the hour or by the job. I'm not sure about the rates.
Finally, the translation and interpretation industry is run on the backs of freelancers. That's where the real money is. However, you need to gain experience so I'd start out by looking for jobs in the public or private sector. You can always move to freelance work once you get some experience under your belt.
Check out the American Translator's Association for more info.
Also, if you are interested in seeing examples of the types of documents I handle or if you want some "practice" translations send me a PM and I'll try to hook you up. Who knows, depending on your skill I may even be able to use you myself. I often need people to look over DTP work to make sure the hebrew and arabic displays properly.
I definitely don't mind working for the government (after all, my first hope was to go military).
My native language isn't English, it's Hebrew.
In terms of mastery, I'd say:
Hebrew
English
Spanish
German
Arabic
In the first four I consider myself completely fluent (to the extent where I could read and understand literary devices, pick up on popular vernacular, am familiar with even esoteric grammar modes, etc.), but in Arabic I am slightly less so. I can read intensely difficult stuff (including the Holy texts) and I can hold a conversation easily, but it will take a couple more years of study (and hopefully some immersion this winter) before I could, say, fluidly interpret a heated soliloquy using anachronisms and idioms and such.
Everything you guys have mentioned sounds incredibly interesting. I especially like the idea of translating literature and of being an interpreter for an important establishment (such as the UN).
Hebrew as your first language makes things interesting. Especially being able to translate from English, Spanish, & German into Hebrew. I suspect that you'd be able to find a TON of work translating.
A woman named Rina Ne'eman is the queen of Hebrew translation in the US. Seriously, most translation companies go through her company for their Hebrew translation. She's also incredibly nice so you might want to contact her for some specific advice.
Also, if you're serious about translation start learning how to use Translation Memory software now. It's a HUGE asset. Being a good translator will get you a lot of work. Being a good translator who can use translation memory without screwing up documents will get you more work than you can handle. SDL/TRADOS is the industry standard (think of them as the Microsoft of the Translation Memory world). Look into the software and contact me if you have any questions.
In a sane world, yes. But since we can't even reliably catch all spies of our OWN citizenship, like hell anyone's going to push for clearances for a dual-citizenship individual. Unfortunately, the dual citizenship will be a bigger issue than the other things the OP mentioned. As I see it, you have several options:
A.) Keep your citizenship, and work for the State Department. I'll be surprised if they ask you to renounce Israeli citizenship if you're not working with secure information. I wanted to confirm this but a brief search didn't yield what I was looking for.
B.) Keep your citizenship, go private. This will be harder without some sort of degree. However, if you submit a resume pushing your huge language skills and some background on why/how you acquired them, you might get some progress. And once your foot is in the door work experience will do as well as school.
C.) Lose your citizenship and go for clearance positions with some of the places mentioned above. This is fairly non-negotiable, even if you're Israeli. The conflict of interest is simply too severe. The higher up you go, the more of an issue this will be (translator for FBI will not be as difficult as, say, NSA). If government is really where you want to go, people will LOVE you for the Arabic, but you'll most likely be giving up your other citizenship. And for the TS-SCI stuff you'll still get extra attention, especially if you have family and friends that still hold foreign citizenships. If you go this route, open any conversation about foreign connections with your complete willingness to renounce citizenship, and hope for the best.
Links on this subject:
http://community.federalsoup.com/4/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=4944011921&f=2024011031&m=8471020951
http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/generalinfo/a/security2.htm
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/security/blforeignpref.htm
PSN: TheScrublet
Also I want to make clear that renouncing my citizenship is not something that I am 'avoiding at all costs' or anything. I like to travel to Israel as regularly as finances allow, and I like the convenience of being a citizen while there, but it's something I'd be willing to forfeit in order to have an exciting, well paying job that helps America (the country I've come to see as home).
Also to put things in perspective right now I make less than $11/hr, so I'm sure any professional job in these industries would skyrocket me in compensation. I guess the biggest priority, then, is to find something that interests me.
Do be careful if you choose to go somewhere like this, its a hot zone obviously. But be sure to have your things in order, my life insurance company notified me that my policy is void inside Iraq, Afghanistan, etc and should I go to such a place I should call them and cancel my pilicy alltogether.
Do you want to stay in the US or are you up for relocation? You may have answered this and I jsut missed it.
If I go governmental I'd rather work for an American agency.
I'm willing to relocate, yes, out of state or even out of country as long as the conditions are ok.