I need a $20,000 grant to translate a bunch of foreign magazines

[Flaxbee]

into English...

Anyone know where I might start looking for grant money for translating stuff? The languages to be translated are primarily Slavic.

I've never applied for grant money before and really don't know where to start for a subject like language assistance.

[Jamastiene]

1. I want to get involved. I love languages and working on translations.

I primarily know French, although I am rusty. I admit that. I would like to know if you find out about getting grant money. I'm looking for some myself. My primary interest is studying accents in America, which sort of sounds similar to your idea.

[Flaxbee]

2. I do e-publishing and found a treasure trove of terrific

magazines; I'm working on getting the rights but then would need to have them translated. B/c of the Slavic language connection, I'm going to investigate Soros' organization but that's all I've been able to think of at this point.

Have you researched any linguistics sites or checked out universities with good linguistics programs? If you're interested in accents, linguistics programs might be a good place to start.

How did you learn French? I have studied French and Italian but am fluent in neither and would love to be fluent in at least one other language ...

[Jamastiene]

3. I took French in high school. I wouldn't say I am good at

speaking it, but when I read it, I can translate enough to understand what is being said. I'd like to learn Spanish as well. I would love to become a translator for Spanish speaking people.

[Flaxbee]

4. kick

for the saturday evening folks... anyone?

[Flaxbee]

5. another pathetic kick...

anyone on Sunday have any ideas?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. Why do you need these magazines translated?

That's the first question. That's always the first question a translator should ask when considering a job: Who is the intended audience? (Note: For those who don't know, I make my living translating Japanese into English.)

Are you personally researching an Eastern European topic? Then it might cost less to learn a couple of the principal languages and read the magazines yourself.

Is it for commercial purposes? Do you plan to prepare English-language versions of these magazines? If so, contact a publisher who already publishes in the subject area that these magazines cover.

Are you doing market research for a company that wants to sell its products in Eastern Europe? Then they'd damn well better pay for their own translations, and it won't be cheap.

Frankly, I can't imagine any other reason why you'd want a bunch of Eastern European magazines translated. In fact, I'm having trouble figuring out why anyone would want magazines translated in their entirety.

By the way, many people underestimate the level of language ability you need to be a successful translator. Jamastiene's high school French won't cut it.

Translators are paid either by the word or by the job. In either case, you have to work fairly fast in order to make enough money to live on. In practical terms, you're not ready to become a translator until you can read take a magazine written for adults (the local equivalent of Time or Newsweek) and read it without a dictionary except for maybe a couple of words per page. Otherwise, you will spend too much time looking up words and you'll be down below minimum wage in no time.

You need to have a total command of grammar, a broad vocabulary, and experience living in a country where the language is spoken.

[Flaxbee]

7. I'm pretty sure I can get the rights to the material...

it is an entire series of magazines with great illustrations and the text is of an esoteric/metaphysical "ancient wisdom" nature... I do some e-publishing of similar stuff and this is lovely, interesting material - not UFOs and LochNess, but more location-specific stories and lore. I'll have the same illustrations, I just need the text in English.

The authors themselves would do the translating, but I'd need to pay them upfront (or at least per issue) and I don't have that kind of cash sitting around to invest only in translations, and they won't be interested in their entire fee being from royalties.

It isn't feasible for me to do it, or even try ... I have at least 24 issues that I'd like to get online soon. Because of the nature of the material, it needs to be translated by someone with an excellent command of the native language as well as English -- I can do some grammar clean-up if need be, but certainly not the substantive work.

So. I guess I just need to do a friends-and-family kind of $$ raising effort, at least for the first few issues.