I do about 4000 words in a nominal working day, and by the standards of the industry I am hell on wheels, to the point that when I need backup on a job because of scheduling difficulties I can't find it because I literally don't know anybody else in the world that works as fast as I do.
2000 words a day is not lounging, and it's not 5.5 hours of work; that would be 363 words an hour, a pace most people can't sustain. For most translators, 2000 words is a hard day's work.
This is because translation is harder than just typing whatever comes into your head; in case you haven't understood this point, the idea is to take text that's already been written in another language, and express it in yours. And ideally, you have to express it well, as though it had already been written in your language to start with. Since you are doubtlessly monolingual, I will just note here that this is a hell of a lot harder than it sounds. I translate well over a million words a year, and I still sometimes come out with unbelievable Germanisms.
I do about 4000 words in a nominal working day, and by the standards of the industry I am hell on wheels, to the point that when I need backup on a job because of scheduling difficulties I can't find it because I literally don't know anybody else in the world that works as fast as I do.
2000 words a day is not lounging, and it's not 5.5 hours of work; that would be 363 words an hour, a pace most people can't sustain. For most translators, 2000 words is a hard day's work.
This is because translation is harder than just typing whatever comes into your head; in case you haven't understood this point, the idea is to take text that's already been written in another language, and express it in yours. And ideally, you have to express it well, as though it had already been written in your language to start with. Since you are doubtlessly monolingual, I will just note here that this is a hell of a lot harder than it sounds. I translate well over a million words a year, and I still sometimes come out with unbelievable Germanisms.