The following downspiral of aspirations isn’t necessarily what any single translator might experience when learning to become a translator of Japanese, and numerous intermediate steps would be impossible for many to attempt. But the sequence is representative of the successively broken dreams of Japanese learners who start out learning Japanese with hopes of doing translation work quite unlike what they will face in the real world and then ultimately learn that even the mindnumbingly boring types of work will not be available.
- Making a living translating Japanese literature, getting to meet authors, and getting your name on the cover of a book
- Making a living translating anime, manga, and games
- Making a living translating things about Japanese culture
- Making a living creatively translating Japanese marketing content
- Making a living translating Japanese legal documents
- Making a living translating Japanese patents
- Making a living translating Japanese internal documents, emails, and the like, including things like agreements for the installation of solar panels and receipts from restaurants
- Making a living translating anything in Japanese just to, well, make a living
- Making a living doing something else