The Epiphany
Okay, I've now delayed talking about this significant, important, life-altering epiphany on LJ for long enough that I feel very silly about it. Like, oh geez, why didn't I just mention it the day it happened? I know that I was busy and I'd already written a huge entry...but, still. Now it's like, er, yeah, I had this epiphany several days ago. Er. Yeah.
In a nutshell, it is the determination to stop trying, and yet begin trying very hard. *zen moment* No, seriously. I realized that what had happened was this mindset that I'd been forced to adopt in Florida where I needed to find A JOB. Any job. Just get a job. A job. Job Job Job. It just has to pay money. MONEY.
And I've been so focused on getting this Job, the kind that I can get with my little resume of jobs in the past, that I've completely lost sight of what I've really wanted to do. Oh, I've been studying. Really, even when I put it off because of massive anxiety, I still tuck studying in there somewhere, even if it's no more than following the links on my Yahoo homepage that has Kanji Practice.
But, I've forgotten that I don't HAVE to wait until I get a degree to start making headway in translation. Will it open doors that right now are going to be shut? Absolutely. But, there's no harm in me trying to start already getting those things started. So, instead of all this effort that I've been directing into a bottomless pit of FIND A JOB, I've decided I need to change my gameplan, and I need to evaluate things differently.
So, the first thing I did was do some online browsing. I found SEVERAL awards (as in PRIZE MONEY) for First Time Translations. I also looked around for different associations that are centered around translation, and looked into what it takes to be a member (what kinds of dues, qualifications, and experience they require). I also looked into advice to breaking into the industry, and what kind of things that help my chances. And of course, this means that I encountered the advice of "TRANSLATE SOMETHING." Hahaha, well, duh. I mean. Wait. DUH. Says my brain.
My goal is now locate at least one thing in both my proferred "source" languages (source is the language you're going from and "target" is the language you want it to turn into, so from French to English means that French is the "source" and English the "target") that I can conceivably get ahold of permission to translate (French copyright laws are more lax than ours, so if I can find a work by an author who's been dead for about, oh, 20 years, means I can pretty much take it and get the permission by just calling them up and saying, "Yeah, Me Wanna Translate. This okay?" and get, "Eh. Ouais." Japanese is going to be trickier, but not impossible), so that I can submit it to places. My goal is to have at least one mostly done by next October, and the other mostly done by next November. So, about a year. That means I'll be able to submit them to some of the awards, as well as present them as an example of my work (good for say, getting accepted into a program about Foreign Literature).
It feels a little like, "Haha, I'm gonna shirk my duties." It really does. But, I know that if I'm going to do this, I need to get started like NOW. And I'm going to really need to push studying for the JLPT. But, at least, right now, some of my anxiety has subsided. I have another back up plan. I have something I can DO. And it'll mean that when I'm choosing courses to take if I fail the JLPT and need to then have someone else sign off that I'm proficient, I'm going to see if I can find Translation Courses as well, and open with, "I'm working on my first translation, and while I'm already half-way done, I'd like to become increasingly familiar with the practices/options available to me." I'm also going to be purchasing at least three different texts on translation (the business, not "how to translate Japanese into English" things), so that I can do some self-teaching in the field as well.
Because, the bottom line comes down to the fact that I just can't expect that I'm going to magically get a job, especially since the longer I don't have a job, the worse my resume looks. And since these people don't want me because I don't have 8+ years of experience in their fields, then I'm not going to keep hitting my head against their wall. If I can't get a crap job, then I'm just going to have to dive into my career job. It's like what I told Brian when we were looking for jobs and I said, "Look, I can't just dive into mine right now, but you can. So, I'll cover the Crap Job ground, and you stay focused on getting a job related to your chosen career field." Now, I've forgotten that I've spent more than a year doing this. It's not going to change magically. No magic. I'm going to have to try a different tactic. And I've told myself this before, but I've still kept thinking of it in terms of "but, if I don't have money, what am I supposed to do?"
Therefore, my first goal is to get to the JLPT. From there, I'm going to divide my time to French and Japanese. I'm going to start setting hours for myself, like an 8-hour job. I'll take breaks and a lunch break, but I'll work. I will work on translating things, simple things at first (like news articles and such). I already read an interview in French the other day, and found that I was capable of easily translating the entire thing in my head as I was going along. The ENTIRE thing. There wasn't a single unfamiliar vocabulary word. I need to take that kind of thing and run with it. Build up my vocab. Strengthen my understanding of verbs and conjugations. And I'll start with the simple, and work my way towards increasingly difficult tasks. And come next Summer, I'm going to start working on getting into Grad School while still working my "job." And I'm going to eventually have something concrete to show for this, and I'm going to submit it, and I'm going to try and become a translator, or at least involved in translation as an assistant, WHILE I'm taking classes to get a Master's in Foreign Literature and Linguistics for French and Japanese.
And that's how I'm going to do it.
In a nutshell, it is the determination to stop trying, and yet begin trying very hard. *zen moment* No, seriously. I realized that what had happened was this mindset that I'd been forced to adopt in Florida where I needed to find A JOB. Any job. Just get a job. A job. Job Job Job. It just has to pay money. MONEY.
And I've been so focused on getting this Job, the kind that I can get with my little resume of jobs in the past, that I've completely lost sight of what I've really wanted to do. Oh, I've been studying. Really, even when I put it off because of massive anxiety, I still tuck studying in there somewhere, even if it's no more than following the links on my Yahoo homepage that has Kanji Practice.
But, I've forgotten that I don't HAVE to wait until I get a degree to start making headway in translation. Will it open doors that right now are going to be shut? Absolutely. But, there's no harm in me trying to start already getting those things started. So, instead of all this effort that I've been directing into a bottomless pit of FIND A JOB, I've decided I need to change my gameplan, and I need to evaluate things differently.
So, the first thing I did was do some online browsing. I found SEVERAL awards (as in PRIZE MONEY) for First Time Translations. I also looked around for different associations that are centered around translation, and looked into what it takes to be a member (what kinds of dues, qualifications, and experience they require). I also looked into advice to breaking into the industry, and what kind of things that help my chances. And of course, this means that I encountered the advice of "TRANSLATE SOMETHING." Hahaha, well, duh. I mean. Wait. DUH. Says my brain.
My goal is now locate at least one thing in both my proferred "source" languages (source is the language you're going from and "target" is the language you want it to turn into, so from French to English means that French is the "source" and English the "target") that I can conceivably get ahold of permission to translate (French copyright laws are more lax than ours, so if I can find a work by an author who's been dead for about, oh, 20 years, means I can pretty much take it and get the permission by just calling them up and saying, "Yeah, Me Wanna Translate. This okay?" and get, "Eh. Ouais." Japanese is going to be trickier, but not impossible), so that I can submit it to places. My goal is to have at least one mostly done by next October, and the other mostly done by next November. So, about a year. That means I'll be able to submit them to some of the awards, as well as present them as an example of my work (good for say, getting accepted into a program about Foreign Literature).
It feels a little like, "Haha, I'm gonna shirk my duties." It really does. But, I know that if I'm going to do this, I need to get started like NOW. And I'm going to really need to push studying for the JLPT. But, at least, right now, some of my anxiety has subsided. I have another back up plan. I have something I can DO. And it'll mean that when I'm choosing courses to take if I fail the JLPT and need to then have someone else sign off that I'm proficient, I'm going to see if I can find Translation Courses as well, and open with, "I'm working on my first translation, and while I'm already half-way done, I'd like to become increasingly familiar with the practices/options available to me." I'm also going to be purchasing at least three different texts on translation (the business, not "how to translate Japanese into English" things), so that I can do some self-teaching in the field as well.
Because, the bottom line comes down to the fact that I just can't expect that I'm going to magically get a job, especially since the longer I don't have a job, the worse my resume looks. And since these people don't want me because I don't have 8+ years of experience in their fields, then I'm not going to keep hitting my head against their wall. If I can't get a crap job, then I'm just going to have to dive into my career job. It's like what I told Brian when we were looking for jobs and I said, "Look, I can't just dive into mine right now, but you can. So, I'll cover the Crap Job ground, and you stay focused on getting a job related to your chosen career field." Now, I've forgotten that I've spent more than a year doing this. It's not going to change magically. No magic. I'm going to have to try a different tactic. And I've told myself this before, but I've still kept thinking of it in terms of "but, if I don't have money, what am I supposed to do?"
Therefore, my first goal is to get to the JLPT. From there, I'm going to divide my time to French and Japanese. I'm going to start setting hours for myself, like an 8-hour job. I'll take breaks and a lunch break, but I'll work. I will work on translating things, simple things at first (like news articles and such). I already read an interview in French the other day, and found that I was capable of easily translating the entire thing in my head as I was going along. The ENTIRE thing. There wasn't a single unfamiliar vocabulary word. I need to take that kind of thing and run with it. Build up my vocab. Strengthen my understanding of verbs and conjugations. And I'll start with the simple, and work my way towards increasingly difficult tasks. And come next Summer, I'm going to start working on getting into Grad School while still working my "job." And I'm going to eventually have something concrete to show for this, and I'm going to submit it, and I'm going to try and become a translator, or at least involved in translation as an assistant, WHILE I'm taking classes to get a Master's in Foreign Literature and Linguistics for French and Japanese.
And that's how I'm going to do it.