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However, you’ll also find that it frees up a lot of time for you to take care of other business like I do on this webpage.
Of course, a certain amount of this time must be spent looking after your usual class prepping, but you can use your other free time for either moonlighting or developing your “true” profession. It’s perfectly clear to me that for the moment I am first and foremost an English teacher, but I could just as easily believe that I’m really and truly a webmaster or a writer. It all depends on how you look at it.
The funny thing in Madrid is that you’ll find so many teachers
who do something else, for example: translators,
musicians, waiters, representatives, musicians, article
writers, artists, webmasters, teacher trainers, find-a-room
agents, EFL editor - writers, tourist
guides and photographers. And it’s easy to understand why: English
teaching is the perfect profession for wannabes of all types
as teachers are able to control their own schedules to a certain
extent, allowing them, if need be, to clear off time-slots that
compete with their complementary professions.
Company
Requires English Teachers
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Now, you might wonder if Spain is a good place for freelance
professionals (“autónomos” as they’re called here) to develop
their second careers and let me assure you that it is. In fact,
there are a higher percentage of freelancers in Spain than in
any other country in Europe. Though, in part, this may be because
many companies offer this type of employment so as not to have
to employ other more expensive and complicated contracts. But,
it’s also due to the fact that so many companies here in Madrid
offer so little in terms of quality service, which makes competing
with them a whole lot easier.
In any case, for whatever reasons, capitalism is alive and well at the grass roots level in Spain (even though it’s not without its problems) and you can find lots of opportunities and niches to exploit. When it comes to starting up a freelance business, the basic rule-of-thumb is to find a need and fill it. However, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist with loads of street smarts to find needs around Madrid as they’re multiple and glaring. This identification process will be easier for you if you’ve just come from a country where there’s a lot more entrepreneurial activity as the needs will be even more apparent.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to write about a few complementary professions that I think might be worthwhile, but like everything, they might not be very easy to either get into or develop. But, hey, if you’re an English teacher, you’ve always got something to fall back on, right? It’s not like it’s very difficult to get into English teaching, let me tell you.
Spanish to English Translator
It's the first complementary job everyone thinks of and if
you've got what it takes, you can do it too. I've seen lots
of people who could hardly speak the language doing translating,
so I don't think having a really good level in Spanish is
a requirement. However, doing the work itself can be an extreme
pain which will take a long time to do and the worse and slower
you translate, the less you'll get paid in terms of euros
per hour of work.
In general, expect to get offered something starting at a
super low 2 to 3 cents a word for simple general translations,
going up from there to little more than 6 or 7 cents a word
for specialized translations. Of course, if you're a real
pro at finding and processing work or if you have developed
a much needed specialty like legal translations and/or if
you become a sworn translator, for example, you can earn quite
a bit more. (Sworn translators or "traductores jurados"
have an official stamp which allows them to charge more, but
the stamp is awfully difficult to get, requiring loads of
studying and passing a State exam.)
Basically speaking, it's a meat market out here for beginning
translators and Spanish companies tend to think translations
should be almost free. Translation agencies and other companies
will have their favorite "dependables" and "reliables,"
however, and they will always call them first before they
call you even if they charge a bit more. (Until you become
one too, if you ever manage to.)
If you're interested in this type of work, the main thing
to do is to get your "cv" out there to all the agencies.
English academies and language agencies often get translations,
so it's a good idea to send it to them too. And, of course,
you would also do well to do some translation courses so that
they know that you're serious and can do the job.
For example, I did an "advanced" translation course
at an academy near "Retiro" a few years ago and
it was pretty expensive. Also, as is usual in all the academies
I've worked at and/or studied in here, the quality was variable.
There were two teachers: an English speaker for the Spanish
to English translation classes and a Spanish lady for the
English to Spanish translation classes. The Spaniard was incredibly
professional and the other was ill-prepared and obnoxious
to boot.
The main thing is that no matter what you do, if you're a
professional English teacher and you're not a total hermit-recluse,
you'll get offers to do translations from time-to-time. It's
just the nature of the beast because, for example, even an
agency's "dependables" will become unavailable during
the holidays and you'll perhaps get more offers then.
As you progress in the profession, you might even get the
opportunity to work full-time as a translator for a big corporation
or a small to mid-sized company, but don't expect big corporations
to offer better pay just because they're big as the tendency
is actually in the other direction towards lower and lower
pay for longer and longer hours. (The worst thing you can
do, in my opinion, is get away from the clarity of pay-per-word
to the foggy nature of pay-per-hour as Spanish companies tend
to have gotten overly used to getting all sorts of free overtime
hours out of their employees. The biggest corporations, for
example, are real experts in getting all sorts of trainees,
etc. to work for free.)
To conclude, I should think that getting deep into the better-paying
translation business is every bit as complicated as doing
the same in the English teaching business. However, there
are plenty of opportunities for better paying work with better
working conditions and you can work your way into something
pretty nice despite the fact that the translating business
is far better developed in neighboring countries such as France,
for example. Some local translators are doing nearly all of
their business via the internet at 8 cents plus per word with
far better-paying companies in other countries, by the way,
and I've even had offers myself despite the fact that I've
posted that I'm not available at the moment for translations.
(I should point out that I'm usually only available for translations
during the low-season for English teaching in the summer.
The last time I translated, the job took me two and a half
months and I translated two books, proofread two books and
translated parts of four other books. I can also tell you
that I make more teaching, but not in the summer. Teaching
is also much more enjoyable as personally I can't stand translating
even though I do it well and conscientiously.)
Article writer.
At first glance, Madrid and Spain don’t seem to offer English-teacher
writer’s much in the way of easy money. It is a Spanish speaking
country after all. But, on the other hand, it’s a big world
out there and there are a lot of magazines and newspapers in
places like the U.S., U.K. and Australia that need articles
and websites world-wide that need content. Pay-per-word tends
to be on the low end for beginning authors doing odd-jobs for
magazines given that there are far too many authors out there
who’ll publish for free in order to get published at any cost.
And getting a steady supplier of well-paid work is probably
the most difficult thing to do of all as you do have to know
what you’re doing and you do have to prove it every time you
“query” a prospect for work. (You’ll have difficulties collecting
payment from only a few magazines.)
As far as I know, the local in-English press in Madrid usually
pay little or nothing (the “wannabe-syndrome” again – people
who are building up their résumés). They also
tend to employ trainees (becarios) from local and international
universities for next to nothing. If nothing else, they’ll likely
have one or two “mileurista” (people who work for 1,000 euros
a month) writers on staff. However, what’s no good for some
is an opportunity for others and you may wish to build up your
portfolio this way as well. However, if I were you, I would
limit publishing for free in any medium to just one article
as more than one simply wouldn’t improve your résumé
at all. Also, if you were going to try to publish in a local
paper, I think it would limit your article to the subject of
“tourism.”
As with every freelance profession, I think that it will take
a little time and a lot of hard work for an article writer to
build up a decent CV. I think that the best way to break into
this business is to find paying work from the very start via
resources like the “Writer’s Guide,” published yearly by http://www.writersdigest.com/
Writer’s Digest. This guide lists a lot of information on publishing
in magazines such as how much they pay and how to query the
publication. Writer’s Digest also publishes a lot of other books
on how to write and publish articles and novels. It’s excellent
all around.
Basically, start with a subject area you’re interested in publishing
in, like “tourism,” and look for magazines on that subject.
Then, study the magazine and its “Writer’s Guidelines” for ideas
on how to approach the article. “Transitions Abroad,” for example,
is a travel magazine, but they want something a bit deeper than
you would probably find in most magazines (something involving
a personal transformation due to your experience).
Finally, always behave like a “professional” who makes their
living off of writing and perhaps you’ll get paid better – perhaps
between 100 and 150 euros per article to start. If you act like
you’re new to the whole thing, you may find yourself getting
offered little or nothing for exactly the same article. This
is good advice for any profession, including English teaching,
by the way.
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