Late last night I got an email that boggled my mind, in a good way.

It came from a young man named Kazuki Kinoshita. Kazuki is currently living amidst the devastation in Japan after the earthquake last Friday. I’ve heard the stories and watched the videos, but one thing I didn’t consider was that many of the businesses were wiped out as well.

That means people don’t have jobs or any way to make money.

Kazuki mentioned in his email that all they have are their mobile phones and internet is limited. They need to make money quickly so they don’t have time to learn new skills. Then he asked, “How will you make money if you are in the same situation as them?”

So this morning I asked my Facebook friends what they would do, and I think we have some solid ideas for how the Japanese can make money today. Kazuki, I hope this at least gets your gears turning.

What you can’t do…

Whenever someone asks me how they can make quick cash, I tell them to provide a service for someone they know. But that’s not really an option for you or anyone else in Japan. I imagine the government and foreign aid programs are paying people for cleanup, but I’m sure those jobs are in high-demand.

So, a simple service isn’t the best idea for your situation.

You also asked about somehow documenting your experiences (photos, videos, eBook) and selling that, but that’s a fair amount of work and there’s no guarantee that you’d get paid. There are so many reporters and journalists there now that global media isn’t starved for content. Then taking the time to write an eBook without knowing exactly how to sell it is risky.

There’s a chance it could spread across the internet, but it’s a small chance.

What you should do…

Providing a service is still the best way to make guaranteed money quickly. With that said, my friends Kerwin McKenzie and Allen Duck both recommended offering Japanese translation services.

Really, any service that you can provide digitally to someone abroad is the way to go. That might be transcription, graphic design, web development, data entry, or even small tasks like clearing someone’s email for them (as King Sidharth suggested).

Here’s how to do it…

You’ll find plenty of freelance and odd-ball jobs on sites like Elance, oDesk, Freelancer, and maybe even Fiverr or Cashcrate.

• Elance - It’s the biggest freelance job posting site in the world. When I searched, “Japanese Translation” I found 11 active jobs.
• oDesk – oDesk is a growing site for outsourcing jobs. Here I found 50 active jobs for “Japanese Translation.”
• Freelancer - I found 8 more active jobs here.
• Fiverr and Cashcrate - Both of these sites pay you small amounts of money to do small things. But my friend Eddys Velasquez said it takes 3-4 weeks before you get paid.

In addition to the translation jobs, you’ll find over 50,000 other jobs that people have posted right now.

I’m not sure about how long it takes to get paid from those sites. If you find that it’s too long, find another service that you can provide to someone who has money to pay you today.

Let us know how we can help…

This may not be the answer you were looking for or even something that possible considering you’re situation. But I hope we at least opened some doors for you or inspired you to think about entrepreneurship in a new light.

Kazuki, thank you for reaching out to me and I hope this helps. I’m honored to have an opportunity to make a small impact on what’s going on in Japan.

If you guys have any other ideas for what they can do, leave them in the comments below. Kazuki is going to spread this post to other people in Japan who are desperate for your ideas. Thanks!

Photo by: Stuck in Customs

In November 2002, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Federal Wire Act prohibited the electronic transmission of information for sports betting across telecommunications lines.

Thus, gambling laws in the States were tightened, which not only spelt bad news for the many millions of casino-loving people that were unlucky enough to live nowhere near Las Vegas, but credit card companies lost a lot of revenue too – while online casinos had to shut up shop…or start looking elsewhere to generate income, given that almost 50% of their profits were from American gamblers.

Of course, where there are losers, there are normally winners too – the translation industry did exceptionally well in this case, as online casinos started looking to non-English speaking countries to make up the shortfall the US ruling had created.

And a similar situation has arisen with the credit crunch too. With a number of economies entering into recession, businesses from across many industry-sectors have been forced to look for opportunities elsewhere, where things perhaps aren’t quite so bad. Or, even, where thing are actually going rather well.

Indeed, the fact that the global economy has reached a somewhat stagnant state of late doesn’t mean that businesses’ growth initiatives have stuttered to a standstill too. And this is why many companies have been investing in translation services as they seek to build business relationships in new and emerging markets.

Language barriers

German is the most commonly spoken language in the European Union (EU) with 18% of people speaking it as a mother tongue, followed by English and Italian with 13% speaking it natively. But if we take second languages into account, then English is spoken to some degree by over half the EU.

English is currently the dominant language of the internet in terms of content, but over fifty percent of all Google searches are in languages other than English. This figure is likely to rise as online populations grow far quicker in foreign language-speaking emerging markets such as China and Russia, than in the west.

Furthermore, over 70% of the world’s population don’t speak English to any degree. In the open-all-hours age of the internet, language is one of the last remaining barriers left in creating a true global village. As such, translation is certainly one of the safer professions to be in.

How much to charge as a translator

What a translator earns depends on many factors. As with any profession, their experience will dictate how much they can charge. But their subject-specific experience will also dictate how much they will earn.

For highly technical texts such as pharmaceutical or medical documents, a translator must have in-depth knowledge of this field. Indeed, often a translator will have an additional qualification in a particular subject area, meaning they are fully in tune with the relevant terminology.

Furthermore, the language they are translating from will dictate their fees. If it’s a rare language combination, such as Swahili to German, then this will command a lot more than English to German, simply because there are far fewer translators with this skill-set.

Most translators charge per 1,000 words and the fee they command can differ greatly depending on the above factors. A rough ballpark figure would be anywhere between $60 and $90 per 1,000 words, though it can be more or less than this.

Subsequently, how much a translator earns in a year will vary greatly. Many linguists work part-time, flexible hours; some work twelve hours a day. For dedicated linguists at the top of their game, it may be possible to earn well in excess of $70,000 per year, whilst those who are simply looking for some extra spending money will be happy with a fraction of that.

How to become a translator

So how does one become a professional translator? Well, assuming you’ve studied another language and are ‘fluent’ in a foreign tongue, you are in a fairly strong starting position.

But contrary to what many people think this – in itself – isn’t enough.  To provide convincing translations, you need in-depth, first-hand knowledge of the culture of the source language which is why any translator, English or otherwise, should only ever translate INTO their native language from a language in which they are fluent.

Language fluency is a necessary but not sufficient condition for successful employment as a translator.  There are a number of courses available for those who wish to become qualified translators and most countries will have their own professional bodies offering a similar level of certification. It’s worth contacting the ATA in the US for further information, which is the American Translators Association.

The life of a translator

Having done all the hard work, and passed your exams, you need to know what to expect from a career as a professional translator.

Given the fluctuating demands for language combinations, most translation companies only have a handful of in-house translators covering the most common language combinations, which means that the vast majority of translators work on a freelance basis.

From a lifestyle point of view, this is great as you have the freedom to work where you want, when you want and for whom you want. All you really need is a networked computer, email address and you’re good to go.

More than half of Lingo24’s translators earn income from sources other than translation – some are teachers, writers or accountants, others are secretaries, IT consultants or lawyers. Many are full-time parents too, and translation offers the perfect, flexible part-time position to fit in with their other commitments.

So if you like being your own boss and having the freedom to pick and choose who you work for, how much work you do and how often, then freelance translation is the way to go. And as far as job security is concerned, there are few safer professions.