If you can afford it, there is no question what the best method is; come to Japan to study in an intensive Japanese language course. There are Japanese language schools in all major cities of Japan, and they are regulated by the Ministry of Education, so they are very serious schools. You will have to attend class for 4 hours a day, Monday to Friday. Most programs are two years, and at the end of the two years you should be able to take the entrance exam for Japanese university. If you can stay for the full two years you will definitely pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 2, and you may be able to pass Level 1 (the highest level).
Once you reach that level of Japanese, you won't be limited to only translation work. If you have a college degree in another field, such as Finance or some sort of IT related work, there are many high paying jobs you can get.
The truth is, translation work is not really very high paying. If you can really master Japanese, you can do a lot of other things, as well.Where can i learn Japanese Language and become a translator? ?
My suggestion is that you learn just basic spoken Japanese from one of the language learning agencies and then go to Japan to complete your degree in Japanese. You will learn faster when you are immersed in the language (everyone around is speaking it) than you will in your own country.
Rosetta Stone is one such agency
http://www.rosettastone.com/personal/buy鈥?/a>
There are a number of programs designed to teach your Japanese at this site:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url鈥?/a>
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Where can i learn Japanese Language and become a translator? ?
I would recommend first learning at least basic Japanese in your own country before deciding to come to Japan. That should save you quite a lot of time and money. It is not impossible to learn enough japanese overseas to become a translator, but I strongly believe it would be good to live in japan a few years to master the nuances of the language and have first hand experience of the culture. (Too much false and mistaken rumors about the country and culture going around...even guide books can be mistaken). If you have enough finances, you might want to enter a japanese university.
I have been living in Japan for 9 years now and the amount of japanese speaking foreigners has tremendously increased, therefore in the end taking a Japanese proficiency test(level 2= proficient enough to translate or 1=native level)may become a must.
Depending on what you wish to translate, pay may be very low (translating manga is, from what I heard, the lowest paid) creating subtitles for movies and TV pays quite well....but hard hours.
If you wish to make translation a career, I would suggest you also try interpretation. Working in both written and spoken translation is a good career.
Once your language skills is good enough, you could translate a few pages of a novel or whatever department you wish to work (for example translating instruction booklets) or subtitle 15-20 minutes of a movie, and send with your references to companies.
Passing the Japanese language prficiency test will probably be your best reference.
If you wish to translate novels, first make sure the novel has never been translated, buy yourself a copy, translate it fully and bring the book and your transltion to publishing companies and directly appeal to them on why they should publish this book.
Good luck!
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