Carl Gene Fordham
Hi! My name’s Carl and I’m a freelance Chinese-English translator and English tutor residing in the cultural hub of Melbourne, Australia. In my spare time I enjoy getting involved in the community through language exchange and intercultural meetups, cooking and learning Korean.
I started learning Mandarin when I was ten years old, in a primary school in a small town in Queensland. At 13, I as lucky enough to get the opportunity to enrol in a Chinese Immersion Program where four of my high school subjects were taught in Mandarin. This greatly fuelled my passion for the language and culture, and here I am, ten years later, with an Arts degree (majoring in Chinese and English), a Master’s in Translation Studies (Chinese-into-English translation) and my own business which allows me to combine my two loves – Chinese and English – and assist people who want to communicate better.
This blog is an accumulation of my years of learning the language. My aim is to meet more people like me who are young “professional bilinguals” so I can learn more from them. I do also hope that my ramblings here might help be of some help to inspire others to enrich their understanding of the Chinese language and culture.
Hi Carl!
I was just researching on the net about careers in translation and interpreting, and managed to discover this wonderful site of yours!
I am actually very interested in languages, and have been ever since secondary school years but, have never thought of taking this career pathway. Instead, I have completed a degree in Accounting, and am now looking into doing an Advanced Diploma in Translation and Interpreting at RMIT.
I hope you don’t mind, but if I could ask you a for a few suggestions and opinions regarding your studies and career in the translation and interpreting industry, I would really, really appreciate it!
Would you consider this industry to be a rewarding career, and would it be possible to rely on this career full-time? When applying for jobs, do you know whether the different institutions that we have graduated from be taken part as the employers’ consideration (even if given that the courses are all NAATI approved)? Therefore, with your experience, would you consider RMIT to be good institution to attend the translation and interpreting courses?
Sorry, for asking too many questions, but I have to say that it is very exciting and happy to know that I have found someone so interested in the Chinese language and also in this professional industry.
Thank you for your time in reading this, good luck with your studies and your endeavor into this meaningful industry. You have said it right, hope you (and hopefully me too!)can assist many, many people to communicate better!!
Hi Qi Hui,
Thanks for reading. Of course translating is a rewarding career, but it certainly is tough starting out. You need to develop a steady clientele/portfolio, but it can be hard to secure clients that are willing to pay you professional rates without previous experiences, either as a freelancer or working for an agency. As for being able to rely on it full-time, it certainly is doable, but you need to be ruthlessly business-minded and driven in establishing steady work, especially if you want a decent salary. I have been fortunate that my freelance business combines my love for teaching with translating and proofreading. In the future I may specialise in just one area, but for now I am enjoying the diversity. In terms of institutions, I found RMIT’s Master course in translation studies very enjoyable, however it’s certainly not for everyone – its focus is mainly on professional development, ethics and theoretical approaches – if you’re after a course to develop your practical skills, you’re better off starting at the TAFE level.
Good luck with your future goals, and feel free to email me if you have any more questions.
Carl
Hi Carl, good on you! If only more people understand the importance of mastering other languages besides the English language. I am interested in how you manage to be proficient in Mandarin…I have a daughter who is 4 years old and she currently has a Mandarin vocabulary of about 600 characters. She goes to a Mandarin language school in Kuala Lumpur. In a year’s time, she will be doing Year 1 in Queensland and due to my husband’s work commitments, we will be living in central Queensland. I am at wits’ end trying to find a school that will teach Mandarin as a language (would be better if it is a Chinese immersion program) in Queensland. If you don’t mind, what is the name of the primary school you started your Mandarin course and which school offers the Chinese immersion program? Thanks very much for your help and all the best.
Cheers,
Kim Lumley
Hi Kim,
Unfortunately I heard that Chinese immersion program was discontinued a few years after I graduated. I know of no other ones in Australia, but you never know. As for primary schools, try enquiring at some of the local schools, I honestly have no idea which schools actually teach it nowadays. Good luck on your search!
Hi Carl,
好久不见！I was just trolling twitter and found you! Your sites look fantastic, it looks like you’re doing very well!
I’m currently teaching Chinese at a high school in Brisbane and thought I might be able to help with Kim’s enquiry. There is one Chinese Immersion program that is running at Varsity College on the Gold Coast. The teacher that started the Immersion program at our High School is also working on something at a school in Brisbane.
Kim, I found Education Queensland documents that may be helpful [education.qld.gov.au/schools/statistics/docs/prim-chinese.pdf] and [education.qld.gov.au/schools/statistics/docs/sec-chinese.pdf]. You may need to copy and paste these. Many Brisbane schools are beginning to teach Chinese, although it does not look too promising in Central QLD, sorry!
Carl, I’d love to catch up somehow and see how you’re going! My colleague and I have recently started up a blog of our own [www.ChineseTeachersBlog.com.au] and are trying to get it up and running. We’ve got a lot of feedback from Chinese learners from around the world, it’d be great if you could check it out and let us know what you think. I like the posts you’ve written about translation challenges and different expressions. My senior students devour this kind of stuff!
Good luck for the future, I look forward to catching up!
Caitlin
Hi Carl,
just found your site, and it looks really nice and good links, Im sure to be back for advice every once in a while! I Love languages myself and have been studying about 8 myself; however, Chinese is one of my weak ones, despite many years of (perhaps not so focused) studies… =S ) – so i was just wondering if you have time to answer direct questions here concerning mandarin, or do you have any suggestions on pages to consult where a personal answer is offered? Thank you!!
Hi 瑞典人,
I’d be happy to answer any specific questions you have by email – INFO at CARLGENE dot com. I also recommend you check out http://www.chinese-forums.com – the members on that forum are extremely helpful. Cheers.
Carl,
I stumbled upon your website when a friend of mine at the shanghaiist sent me a link. I think what you are doing is fantastic. I have been living in China for almost 3 years and been relying on websites and my co-workers for “Chinese Lessons.” I actually printed out your Comprehensive Guide to English Transliterations. Being a nerd, this is the kind of linguistic minutia that thouroughly engages me!
Anyways, I work for ShanghaiExpat.com, possibly the most popular English language website in based in China (not including government News sites). Our site is often the first thing foreigners ever see when thinking about moving to Shanghai, a Gateway Site if you will! I have tried several times to write good “learning” articles on our site, but my Chinese is not nearly as advanced as yours. For example:
http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/article/other-chinese-traditional-characters-and-wade-giles-10280.html
We are a pretty small company and rely on site partnerships and volunteer articles.
I would be honored if we could have a site partnership. That means we could run your articles (blogs) on our site. Of course, we would include a logo and/or link directly to your site from the reprinted article. I think it would benefit your presence as an aspiring professional and the content would fill a much needed void for us.
What are your thoughts?
Dennis Ming Nichols
Editor of ShanghaiExpat.com
Hi Dennis,
At the moment I am not interested in any kind of site partnership but thank you for reading and for your kind words.
Carl
this website is wonderful. glad to see someone so interested in chinese. good luck on becoming a professional translator. we are a charity based in china serving the aids orphans. if you want to take a break and teach english to children in rural china (we have 16 reading rooms there), please let us know.
Woops, I didn’t see this comment (posted Feburary this year) until now, sorry about that! At the moment I am content where I am in the world, teaching and learning, but I’m happy to leave your comment here for others to learn more about your foundation. Good luck!
hi,Carl, I want to know if there are any website that teaches chinese via video and audio, the kind of long distance learning with live native chinese teachers? thanks
Hi Spring, I’m sorry I’m not very familiar with websites teaching Chinese with private teachers. A Google search will give you plenty of results. If you want more opinions I recommend you check out the very useful Chinese-Forums.com. Cheers, Carl.
您好，卡日了 :p
This might be a long post but it will be interesting. I have been learning chinese starting from middle school, and from the beginning have found it interesting. I raised my hand too many times, didn’t goof off, and was passionate in my studies. In Freshmen year I was in Chinese 2 and got A’s, Sophomore year I did Chinese 3 and 4 in the same year and got A’s, Junior year I skipped Chinese 5 and went to IB Chinese and still got A’s, Senior year I took IB Chinese and got an A- and I took the IB test. from the talks between my teacher and I my score for the test will be at least a 5 to at most a 7. I have also attended Concordia Language Villages Sen Lin Hu, a chinese language immersion summer camp for two different times for 4 weeks at a time, as a kitchen assistant, and last year and this summer as a junior counselor and have found it, and I can’t stress it anymore then I can, EXTREMELY SOOPERDEEDOOPER HELPFUL to my chinese speaking skills. I am attending Concondia College in Moorhead MN this fall and am worried, because I have already studied the textbooks and workbooks the more advanced chinese classes (I want to take) are going to use. I am also not sure of what major to couple with my chinese major. Business? Translation? Education? I want to use my knowledge of Chinese to better my chances of being able to find an average to above average job in the market for Chinese-English Bilinguals. I would extremely like your feedback on my situation because I can see that your blog posts are fairly recent. Please email me ASAP please because you are such a nice person :]
谢谢好多了，
傅春晓
No worries, sending you an email now.
Hi, I was actually google-ing on interpreting & translation courses in Australia and I found your blog. And we have very similar language combination. My main working languages are English and Chinese, and Korean as my passive working language. I was wondering if you know which university in Australia provides the best Master course in this field? I am currently looking at UNSW, Monash and Macquarie. Thank you
I’m not sure I can answer your question. I only have experience with the RMIT’s Master program in Translating and Interpreting and I highly recommend it. I found it a good mix of theory and practice, as well as ethical and research-oriented units. I’m afraid you’d have to contact the other unis themselves to get more information.
Lovely to hear someone else who works with the same three languages – they’re fascinating, aren’t they?
Thanks for reading.
Carl
Hi,
I really liked your post about Chinese Homophones. I was wondering if I may use it as a post on my blog? With due credit to you, of course, and a plug with links to your site.
Thanks!
Myra
Sure, no worries. Thanks for asking for my permission, I do appreciate that. All my posts are for the benefit of the language-learning and translation community so I don’t mind them being shared around, as long as people credit me and link back to the blog. Cheers.
Hi Carl! I’m thrilled that I discovered an advanced Chinese learner and professional translator through Jeremy Webb’s blog post: http://www.angryeditor.com/2010/12/05/switch-around_words/
If you’re interested, please visit my Sina Microblog for the Chinese jokes and witty remarks I translate on a day-to-day basis:
http://www.weibo.com/2600880772/profile?topnav=1&wvr=4
And the Chinese pop songs that I translate on a weekly basis:
http://inmymelody.wordpress.com/
or http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/2600880772
Do you have an account on http://www.weibo.com?
Hey Rensi, thanks for reading. I don’t use Weibo, but I do use Twitter – feel free to check out my two accounts: http://twitter.com/#!/carlfordham and http://twitter.com/#!/chinesesentence. Cheers.
Hi Carl,
谢谢你教我用Nespresso…咖啡不错。 你的博客很棒， 不过让我心虚– 看来要考资格证书，我得不吃不睡苦读三年。Well, 一步一个脚印，可否麻烦你发几个翻译练习的links? 多谢！
li
嘿李！我已經發給你電子郵件了。你去查一下吧。卡爾
Hi Carl,
You have a great blog, extremely useful!!!
I am also a foreign languages lover and I’m so excited to find your amazing blog! For me as a beginner (about 6 months of studying Chinese + going to China this year) it is a pearl! =)
I have just one question: where is the “Subscribe” button? Haven’t found it, but I am eager to follow all your posts!
Thanks very much and keep up with great work!!!
Hi Margarita. Glad to know you’ve enjoyed my posts. About the “Subscribe” button – I have no idea. It’s a WordPress blog though so subscribing via RSS should be easy. Or you can follow me on Twitter (@carlfordham) – I post all updates on there. Cheers, Carl.
Hi Carl,
I am a graduate student learning C-E translation and interpreting in China. Your blog is a great help. Thanks for sharing!
Nick.
Hello,
The Top 100 Language Lovers 2012 competition hosted by the bab.la language portal and the Lexiophiles language blog has started and your blog has been nominated in the category professional language blogs. Congratulations! The nomination period goes until May 13th. Feel free to spread the word among other bloggers writing about languages or to suggest one blog yourself.
Please email me so I have your contact details (stefanie [at] bab [dot] la) and send you information about the status of the competition and the badge.
For further information on the Top 100 Language Lovers 2011 competition, visit http://www.lexiophiles.com/english/top-100-language-lovers-2012-nominate-your-favourite-now
Best wishes,
Stefanie for the bab.la and Lexiophiles team