Becoming a translator with educated proficiency/Geld verdienen als Übersetzer

I am gearing up to start blogging properly again, but meanwhile some reading from a website on running a small business from home. Someone tweeted it this morning, I hope as a joke but perhaps not. The site gives advice on how you can earn money as a 'verbal translator' (this seems to mean an interpreter) or a 'text-based translator' (apparently a translator). This opportunity is open to you even if you do not have the ideal qualification of having grown up bilingual: Most organizations who are looking to hire a verbal translator will prefer to find translators that grew up speaking both languages. Fully bilingual, these translators have been speaking both languages since their childhood and this can help bring a fluid mastery that many other translators will not have. These translators will often understand the rhythm and cadence of a particular region which many students of language cannot master. I have always had the impression that 'true bilinguals' are not typically ideal translators, but apparently I was wrong. Looking at my day's work today, I must admit that fluid mastery is not the first description that occurs to me. Another important point made, if I interpret it correctly, is that whereas interpreters can just babble away, we translators need to know grammar. That's good, because I've spent quite a few years teaching grammar. The students didn't seem keen, but I always knew it would be useful some day. While a verbal translator needs to be able to efficiently handle the ever changing dynamics of a language, text based translators often need to have a better hold on grammatical structure of a language. Both types of translators should certainly be able to both speak and write the language, although text translators should know the speci…