Expat programmer rewrites career in China

Computer programmer Joshua Dyer has built a career in China helping the country's online and mobile game companies translate their products into English. Feng Yongbin/ China Daily

It's a small world

Story of facekinis' inventor

China is already a key player in the video game market, with 490 million users and earnings of $13.7 billion last year, figures released in the 2013 China Games Annual Conference show. Domestically developed games grew by 29.5 percent to $7.9 billion between 2012 and 2013.

On his big translation projects, which involve hundreds of thousands of Chinese characters divided among several translators, Dyer says the work is "intense". While chasing tight deadlines, he usually spends six days a week pounding the computer keyboard for up to 12 hours a day. This goes on for two to three weeks at a time.

Fluency in Chinese alone isn't enough to get the job. Clients look for translators who also understand the world of crafting video games.

"In translation, people want to believe in your language skills. But that's just 50 percent," Dyer says while sipping a cup of coffee. "They also want to believe in your knowledge of their industry. That's what is going to allow you to really get what they're trying to say, the subtleties of it."

His career took off quickly, he says, because it's rare to find a translator who has also worked at a video game company. Plus, he was trained in computer and information science in college and holds a master's degree in East Asian languages and cultural studies.

Column: My Chinese Dream