Location Independent Work for Language and Cultural Experiences

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Monty
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Re: Location Independent Work for Language and Cultural Experiences

Postby Monty » Mon Nov 08, 2021 11:23 am

PeterMollenburg wrote:
So you're referring to a 'Diploma of Translation', I take it? How long is this Dip? Who are you doing it through? Online or on campus? What lead you to want to undertake the study? Why is it so tough?


Yes, that's the one, provided by CIOL in the UK. Three units, total seven hours, but you don't have to take them all together (I did). I took an online course through Suzanne James' Translator Training.

It's tough because you're not allowed to use any online resources. You can only use paper dictionary. And the level of the source language material is quite high. You really have to know your language at a formal / business / professional level.

Exams used to be at venues all over the world but now it's online.
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PeterMollenburg
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Re: Location Independent Work for Language and Cultural Experiences

Postby PeterMollenburg » Mon Nov 08, 2021 8:44 pm

Monty wrote:
PeterMollenburg wrote:
So you're referring to a 'Diploma of Translation', I take it? How long is this Dip? Who are you doing it through? Online or on campus? What lead you to want to undertake the study? Why is it so tough?


Yes, that's the one, provided by CIOL in the UK. Three units, total seven hours, but you don't have to take them all together (I did). I took an online course through Suzanne James' Translator Training.

It's tough because you're not allowed to use any online resources. You can only use paper dictionary. And the level of the source language material is quite high. You really have to know your language at a formal / business / professional level.

Exams used to be at venues all over the world but now it's online.


Thanks for sharing, Monty. That's much shorter in duration than what I was expecting.

I was looking at this programme, a much more dense course. Any comments from yourself or others on this programme are most welcome:
Master of Interpreting and Translation Studies - Monash University
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PeterMollenburg
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Re: Location Independent Work for Language and Cultural Experiences

Postby PeterMollenburg » Mon Nov 08, 2021 8:52 pm

rdearman wrote:My sister is a clinical research professional, she coordinates clinical trials for compliance with sponsor and regulatory requirements. She works from home and has done for a number of years. Although she works in the USA, I'm sure there is an equivalent system in Australia which would allow you to do remote work similar to this.

I would recommend something like this instead of translations. She earns fantastic money and there is very little competition as compared to translations. I think you'd be able to leverage your medical knowledge more than the language knowledge. You might have to bone up on EU medical regulations if you wanted to work in French for an EU country, but that could be a good stepping stone.

I suspect Big Pharma would be a better route to Europe than languages.


This is a good suggestion, I'll have to run it past my wife as she has done research herself in the past, perhaps she'll have more of a clue but just hadn't considered this sort of thing previously.

On another note I've been listening a lot lately to French Expat un podcast and I listen to loads of (in this case French) people living abroad and since it's always been something I've dreamed of and did on one occasion to a limited extent, my desire to want to do something similar that's always been hovering under the surface through my adult life comes to the forefront. IT jobs and engineering seem to be slightly more common themes, otherwise working for companies that offer possibilities abroad or just having a go at creating some kind of online business. Given I'm not in my 20s and I was too naïve then anyway, I need to tackle this from a different angle... but that angle has been something I've been trying to figure out for too many years now....
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Re: Location Independent Work for Language and Cultural Experiences

Postby Monty » Mon Nov 08, 2021 10:33 pm

PeterMollenburg wrote:
I was looking at this programme, a much more dense course. Any comments from yourself or others on this programme are most welcome:
Master of Interpreting and Translation Studies - Monash University


There is a never-ending debate among translators on what's better - a master's or a Dip Trans. I am of course somewhat biased here, but a master's is fine if you can keep yourself motivated through 2 years (I know I couldn't). Also I find translation theory about as interesting as eating broken glass, which is why I went the practical route.

Having said all that, I personally don't think translation is a career worth pursuing any more. Shark agencies, slave labour-level pay for the majority, long hours,... I'm just keeping it as an absolute last resort.

There's a saying, and it's very true: "You can make big money in translation... as long as you're not the one translating".
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Re: Location Independent Work for Language and Cultural Experiences

Postby Aloyse » Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:37 pm

It's an exam for professional translators. Edit: to clarify that 7hrs is the duration of the exam, not of a course.
Some preparatory courses might exist but are not required afaik
https://www.ciol.org.uk/diptrans
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PeterMollenburg
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Re: Location Independent Work for Language and Cultural Experiences

Postby PeterMollenburg » Wed Nov 10, 2021 7:05 am

Aloyse wrote:It's an exam for professional translators. Edit: to clarify that 7hrs is the duration of the exam, not of a course.
Some preparatory courses might exist but are not required afaik
https://www.ciol.org.uk/diptrans


Thanks for the link and clarifying ;) Aloyse
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Re: Location Independent Work for Language and Cultural Experiences

Postby garyb » Fri Nov 12, 2021 1:09 pm

Firstly, I can truly relate to parts of your post as I've also always had the dream of living abroad for a lot of my life but I've never done it, apart from a 5-month digital-nomad trip in Spain and Italy, but I'll get to that. I've daydreamed about it since my early twenties, and I'm in the right career for it (Web software), but I've always just had reasons not to do it: mental health, fear, not knowing where to start with finding opportunities and deciding on a place, commitments here like work and playing in bands, and being discouraged by friends and family.

On reflection, most of these reasons didn't have much validity: I could've dealt with the fear and the unknowns by informing myself better (I've found Reddit to be excellent for discussions about the practicalities of moving abroad and which places are good to pursue various careers etc.), my job was nothing special, my bands were clearly never going to go anywhere beyond jamming and small local gigs (for lack of seriousness more than lack of talent), and I should've had more confidence in my own interests and desires. The mental health one is more reasonable, and I probably would've crashed and burned if I had taken the plunge at the times when I was most seriously considering it due to blaming my problems on my location, but then it might've also made me grow stronger faster or at least get on the right track more quickly after the crash and burn. But that's the benefit of hindsight... And now Brexit has made things a bit more complicated.

Then just over two years ago I was looking for a new job and considering opportunities abroad as well as here, and the chance was even handed to me on a silver plate: a decent job offer in Berlin. In the end I decided against it, again for various reasons of questionable validity, although I now believe I did make the better choice career-wise and I dodged the bullet of ending up stuck in a foreign country during the pandemic although of course I could never have predicted that. But I think in a case like this you have to think hard about what you value most at the time, and I chose career progression over experiences and growth in other areas of life. There's never one right or wrong answer to these things, so it's just a case of accepting that by prioritising one area you're likely sacrificing another so weighing up what is more important at that point.

Now in my mid-thirties there's still a big part of me that wants to make a move like that but also a part of me that wants to settle and have a longer-term plan sooner or later, and thanks to my wanderlust I'm still resisting long-term commitments like buying a property and getting into a relationship. But who knows...

As for my 5-month trip... I'd never do it again, and I now don't think the digital nomad thing is for me. I'd rather just move somewhere properly and work there, with other people living in that place, and even in my field I believe that restricting yourself to location-independent work is limiting. But of course it's one option and all options are worth consideration, and I definitely did the digital nomad thing wrong. Partly by trying to make my trip into too many things, and partly because the company messed me around and, in spite of promising to give me non-urgent work that I could do in my own time, mostly made me do 9-to-5 support work which I had to plan at least a few days in advance.

My main advice for being a digital nomad would just be to be realistic about the expectations and the purpose of your travels, and not try to go to too many places. Better to spend longer periods in fewer destinations. Finding accommodation (especially suitable for online working) and organising travel, not to mention the travel itself, consume much time and mental energy, and being in one place for longer is better for social life and by extension language and cultural immersion. Then you can always do weekend trips from that base. But if you just want to visit lots of places and sightsee, just save up some cash then take a few months off and forget about work and go backpacking, if it's an option. I wish I had travelled for two months without working rather than five months with working. I also ended up quite lonely and depressed by the end of that time, between the constant movement and the length of it.

Anyway I'm not sure how useful this post is; it's become more advice to my younger self (and anyone who might be considering doing what I did) than to you and your situation is clearly quite different.

As for my field of work, it's certainly a good one for location-independent work and I'd expect some of the developments of the last few years like digital nomad visas and less restrictive taxation agreements to become more common in future. However it's becoming a very saturated field on the lower end, with lots of people graduating from university or coding bootcamps competing for jobs, and I'd say it would take a good few years to establish yourself in your career to the point where working remotely is realistic and won't hold you back too much. Which isn't to put you off - I still think it's one of the best fields to be in these days and I wouldn't want to be doing anything else - but just to give a fair picture.
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