Sarah's Archives

an archive of content from ≈ 2005 - 2015, relating to international business, translation, freelancing, and working online.

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The mixed blessing of regular gigs

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Translation jobs which repeat or need regular attention are a great source of regular income. Indeed for many translators, especially those establishing themselves as freelancers, they are the holy grail of translation jobs and something to aspire to. That’s all well and good, but more experienced translators might want to consider this advice getting sucked into a repeat-gig rut:

…if you’re not careful, you could be accepting a regular gig for the wrong reason—and create work that will do nothing for your freelance career.

The prospect of regular money is always very tempting, especially for freelancer who has nothing to fall back on. That makes it easy for freelancer to accept a regular gig only for the money. A contract worker trapped in such a situation will find himself going through the motions, finishing the work for the sake of getting things done.

There’s nothing wrong with meeting deadlines or working promptly through your pending items. But if you find yourself working solely for the paycheck, you’ll probably do some sub-standard (by your standards) work, for the sake of having something to submit. This does nothing for your freelance career, because you will not be pushing the limits of your creativity, while prospective clients who see what you’re doing will wonder if you have anything distinctive to offer.

Excellent advice from Rico over at Contract Worker. Of course, that also means that the sourcing-work roundabout never ends… 🙂

The value of professional organisations: Another view

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When it comes to freelancing it’s always worth considering a range of opinions, because each freelance experience is as different as the person who has it. So, as it’s basically the polar opposite to mine, I was really interested to read The Masked Translator’s advice to start-up translators regarding professional associations recently. We’ve clearly had very different experiences here and I don’t agree with all the views expressed in this post. In particular, the following point stood out for me:

If you’re just starting out and you want to be a translator, be sure you don’t take peoples’ advice too seriously without analyzing their motives in giving you the advice. [my emphasis]

Now, I’m all for assessing the value of advice and weighing things up to suit your own particular circumstances. And there’s no doubt that it would be pretty foolish to accept all claims made by vendors, for example, without digging a little deeper (caveat emptor applies to B2B too). However, I’m not (yet?) quite as cynical as the MT, so would probably modify this statement slightly: instead of getting hung up why someone is giving you advice, accept their advice and try to analyse the translation profession from their perspective instead – what is the reasoning behind their beliefs? Why might they feel the way they do? Taking this tack might mean you gain a better understanding of the industry overall and maybe even feel less bitter about it too.

For example, when I first started mixing with translators with a view to going freelance, at first it felt like a lot of translators I spoke to were trying to put me off. Many said there was little or no work due to globalisation and a flood of “bad” translators, that it was no longer possible to earn a decent living because of new translation technologies, or that you had to have many years of inhouse experience under your belt before going freelance. It would have been easy to draw a range of conclusions based on all of this – translation is a bad area to go into, translators are unsupportive, translators don’t want more translators in the profession, I won’t be able to earn an living, and so on.

But I didn’t really believe that any of these conclusions were true – partly because of my own sense of cynicism, but also partly because it just didn’t make sense to me. Surely globalisation would mean there were more opportunities for translators, not fewer? If there were so many “bad” translators out there, couldn’t I differentiate myself by being “good”? Couldn’t translation technologies benefit me as a translator too, as well as agencies and clients? and so on.

So I started to think about what must be happening to make them say and apparently genuinely believe these things, and this helped me get something from even the most negative of advice. Like this:

Yes, new technologies have meant a massive change in the way translators work on a daily basis – but as a newcomer to the profession, I don’t know how it was before, so I can more easily accept these changes. Yes, it used to be that the only route to freelancing was via many years of inhouse experience – but the world of work is changing and there are no traditional routes or roadmaps into anything anymore. And yes, globalisation is having an impact on how translators work and interact with clients – but I’m comfortable with this kind of change and believe I can make it work for me… etc. You get the idea.

Because whether we like to admit it or not, the chances are that any person who helps you has something to gain from it. And why shouldn’t they? Maybe it’s money, or an inflated sense of self-importance, or just a warm fuzzy feeling or a sense of having paid it forward. You might never know the reason, so why beat yourself up about it? Why not accept the advice that’s being offered and, instead of wondering why someone has tried to help you, put your mind to trying to understand *why* that person believes what they do instead.

Putting aside our differences of opinion around professional associations, I think The Masked Translator raises some other very good points in this post. So I’m going to finish with these words of advice, which are worth bearing in mind the next time you get advice:

Being a translator isn’t a one-size-fits-all sort of profession. Some freelance translators work only half time, some work way more than full time. Some work from home, some work from rented office space, some work from the beach or the café. Some only translate big projects like novels or 300 page technical manuals. Some only do small projects like diplomas and certificates. Some work in-house for companies or translation agencies. Some work on a contractual basis, doing documents for the government or a research institution. Some just dabble in translating poetry from languages they don’t even really speak. There are as many ways to be a translator as you can think of.

Here’s to being the same, but different!

The importance of priming yourself for answers

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I’ve hinted at my attempts to Get Organised using a (carefully edited) array of gadgets, both paper and virtual. Here’s a great perspective on this from the ever-lucid Communicatrix.

I wish—oh, how I wish—that there was one answer in one book, and that all I had to do was find that book. Instead, the maps to your map are in the books. Look at that person’s journey, and see what you can find in her struggles or his mishaps or their lightbulb moments that makes you tingly. The truth comes at us sideways, usually, and when we least expect it. Our job, I increasingly believe, is to prime ourselves for reception…and reflection…and synthesis.

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How to move countries, keep your freelance business running and live to tell the tale

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Six tips on keeping a business running while moving countries (and continents):

1. Remember that instant internet access is not an automatic right in every developed country. Even when you’re willing to pay handsomely for the privilege. Finding yourself unexpectedly “internet-less” can be a source of enormous stress when you’re trying to maintain a modicum of professionalism during a potentially turbulent period in your personal life (a clash we freelancers find ourselves grappling with far more frequently than we like to admit, I’m sure). And it’s easy to get caught up in the frustration, which doesn’t solve anything. You’ll know this is happening to you if you find yourself starting thoughts with, “It’s hardly the back of beyond. Surely, in this day and age, I’ll be able to just…?”. Surely nothing, my friend. The only way forward is to accept it, get over it, and get on with it. And make sure you plan for it the next time (bearing in mind point 2, below).

2. Be prepared to be totally unprepared. No matter how much you plan, the unexpected will still catch you out. Thankfully I learnt this lesson long before my move Down Under.

3. Forget fancy productivity tools and go back to basics. Pen, small notebook – it’s not pretty, but you’ll be glad of it when you find you’re still living out of rucksack two months after your move date. (Yes, you heard me. I lived out of a rucksack for two months 🙂 ).

4. Forget getting things done, because you won’t. If you’ve chosen to keep working while you move, then focus number one has to be work. You’ll be doing well to do much else beyond that. Even the most basic tasks take so much longer without the knowledge that comes from being familiar with your environs. Just get the basics sorted (internet, place to live… in that order) and don’t worry too much about the little things (beds, cups, curtains, blog posts, etc). There’ll be plenty of time to sort that out later.

5. They might speak your language, but it doesn’t mean you won’t find things “foreign”. Don’t let that scare you! And I mean this with all clichés and stereotypes aside. As an Irish woman, I thought I’d worked this out after 6 years in London. I had moved to the UK almost on a dare, with very little real knowledge of the country or its culture. (And it was very hard for a long time.) In contrast, I thought I knew what I was letting myself in for with my move to Australia. I’ve had close ties to a certain special Australian for ten years now, and have made several trips out here, including an eight-month working stint in 2001. But still, it surprises me how Australian society feels more foreign to me than any European country I’ve ever lived in. Language really is only the tip of the iceberg.

My advice? There’s nothing for it but to pack a set of open eyes, ears and mind, take a deep breath in and strap yourself in for the ride. Another blogger I know captures this with great wit and intelligence over here, where he blogs about his experience as a Brit on an MBA in the US.

6. Have fun! Moving countries and starting again from scratch is an invaluable albeit extreme way to gain perspective on all aspects of your personal and professional life. Keeping your freelance business running while you relocate may seem stressful, but it’s well worth it. It creates a starting point in your new life, which adds structure, opens doors and acts as an anchor to what it was you liked about the “old you”. Best of all, you’ll remember what you like about your job, and why you wanted it to be part of your new life. You may even find you enjoy working more than you have for a long time. So don’t be in too much of a hurry to get straight back into the same set-up you had before you moved, either in work or in play. Instead, make the time to stop and smell the frangipanis.

Take it all in. Make the effort to capture your experiences, impressions and feelings whatever way you can. You’ll be glad you did when you have time to make sense of it some day, maybe from your rocking chair on the verandah.

Aim to be an expert performer, not just an expert

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A lot of people are impressed by experts: people who somehow seem to know everything about something in particular.

But I remember my mom nurturing a cynical streak in me from an early age when, in response to my over-awed reaction to a confident young classmate, she told me to remember that “anyone who says they know everything really knows nothing. Because EVERYONE knows that no-one knows everything”. Now this may not be the catchiest nugget of wisdom ever, but it introduced me to two key ideas at an early age:

  1. Perhaps the real clever clogs aren’t necessarily those who proclaim their expertise.
  2. If you want to know a lot about something, there’s probably a lot you have to not know about something else. (Bear with me – it gets more concrete.)

There was a great article by John Cloud in Time Magazine last week which reminded me in a roundabout way of the wisdom of my Irish mammy. The writer argued convincingly that experience is not a predictor of performance. Gen Y proponents may well see this as fuel for the fire burning in their bellies, but I think there’s a lot more that can be pulled from of the ideas in this article. [Read more…]

Australian English

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I’ve noticed a few peculiarities to Australian English since I’ve arrived (colourful slang aside, of course). For example, on the train up the coast the other day, we heard “… Passengers for Caloundra, please detrain here.” Detrain??! As in, disembark or alight?!

Detrain doesn’t get too many Google references (most of them are French, “…de train”, etc). And it’s not just me who finds it strange, either. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News had a reader write in and complain about it here, and had the following to say about its origins:

The Macquarie lists “detrain” as meaning “to alight from a railway train” – and says it[‘s] chiefly military slang. Although it’s not listed in either D.H. Dowling’s Digger Dialects or in Amanda Laugersen’s Diggerspeak – so it’s not Aussie military slang. The opposite (getting on board) is covered by another military word “entrain”… And similar words are used in the military of aircraft: if you get on board you “enplane” and if you get off you “deplane”.

It even gets a mention in the online Urban Dictionary, but with very specific Australian (and even more specifically, Brisbane) references:

A newspeak-esque term QRail train conductors use to describe the act of getting off a train.

Train conductor: Passengers for the Ipswich, Beenleigh and Gold Coast lines, please detrain at Central. Make sure you collect all of your belongings before detraining. Thank you.

Passenger: WTF!?!?

The whole misuse of English debate is often levelled at terms like this, but I don’t buy it. (I’m sure being native to a country with a “non-standard” form of English plays a part in my opinion too.) Here we have an example of a word with valid origins being used as management jargon by Queensland Rail. That’s not misuse, it’s re-use. So pretty standard language behaviour, then.

Mind you, I’ve yet to hear the average Joe use it, but given it’s short, snappy and does the job, it seems to fit the requirements of Australian English just nicely!

To test translate or not to test translate?

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There’s a very interesting post on test translations over here. I have my doubts about them myself, so was very interested to read this.

For the record, while I’ve not done as many test translations as Mr. Gerasimov, I have done my fair share and my experience has been pretty much in line with his, i.e. agencies inform me I am on their “freelance list” but I never hear from them again, or I get contacted with jobs well below my usual rates. Generally, I’m left wondering why I ever bothered. And then there was the agency who insisted on contacting me at 4.30pm every Friday for a period of about 6 months with a series of 5,000 – 6,000 word jobs due in for 9am the following Monday, even when I had told them that I didn’t work weekends… given I was usually working to my own COB deadlines on Fridays, I eventually decided I didn’t need the hassle and politely asked them to remove me from their database.

Nowadays, I demonstrate my abilities to potential clients in other ways, e.g. with references, extracts from prior translations (suitably sanitised), etc. and so far, all my clients have been happy with this. But overall, the advice I suggested in this post last year still stands, especially when it comes to doing test translations.

Finally, I don’t like plain old them-against-us posts, and it’s only fair to say that I can understand why agencies feel they need to ask for test translations. But there are loads of other ways to demonstrate your competence, and experience has taught me that nine-and-a-half times out of ten, test translations are a complete waste of time.

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Notes from a professional translator on language learning…

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While I’m mostly enjoying the switch from being an into-English translator to being an active language learner, I’d forgotten just how exhausting it can be 🙂 And how slow and steady a process it is to move knowledge from the passive to the active part of the brain! Evidence indeed, if any more were needed, of the entirely different skill sets we use as linguists, as opposed to as professional translators.

Overall, I’m surprised and really pleased about how much progress I feel I have made in polishing and refining my knowledge of Spanish over the past two weeks. I don’t think this is simply because I am here in Spain, although we all know that when push comes to shove, absorption is the way to go. I’ve had other absorption experiences which were not this successful. I think my success is down to a combination of things which seem to be really working for me:

  • the school has some excellent language teachers who are clearly experienced in teaching ELE (Spanish as a foreign language) to advanced level and/or experienced language learners. I’ve noticed this before too – at this stage of the game, the average language school or language class is simply not going to cut it when it comes to helping me maintain and/or further master my working languages.
  • I’m really focussed on purely language skills. No trips to flamenco shows, concerts, sightseeing or other “cultural” events this time – I’ve had plenty of chances for all that 🙂
  • I’ve enrolled to sit the DELE exam, and the fear of showing myself up by getting a bad mark is the best motivation ever! Now interestingly, there’s a couple of reasons why this shouldn’t make a difference to my motivation levels. Firstly, in theory it shouldn’t be much of a stretch for me given my background. Secondly, I don’t even need to tell anybody I’m doing it – so what if I do badly? Thirdly, my performance is no reflection of my abilities as a translator as plenty of professionals do a good job of working from their passive or C languages without ever learning to speak or write them. But for some reason, as a matter of personal pride, I just don’t feel I can afford myself these excuses… whatever works, eh?!

  • I’m not sure why, but I’ve been very aware of what works for me as a language learner during my stay. Now, I’ve always considered myself to be an active language learner as I’m constantly striving to perfect and indeed maintain my second-language skills in various ways. But I’m not usually so hyper-aware of my learning processes, and especially not in relation to other learners in the class, e.g. the areas in which I am different from and/or the same as them, the things I know I’ll need to go away and work on myself because no amount of explaining will make clear even as everyone else in the class is nodding their heads in agreement, etc. I feel more in control of my learning than I have ever been and it’s a nice feeling, even if it takes a little getting used to. Maybe this is part of growing up 🙂
  • My expectations have been pretty realistic in terms of what I want to achieve. I used to get very frustrated thinking about how much more Spanish I felt I “knew” when I lived here years and years ago, and the sense of grief would almost overwhelm me. But it’s not bothering me anymore. I can clearly see how what I knew then is quite different from what I need, and want, to know now. I think it helps to be studying with a small group of other learners who are all at different stages of life and who have very different reasons for studying Spanish. I can almost see the ghosts of my past, present and future language-learning selves in that one small room and it’s funny how that clarifies how I’m looking at things!
  • It’s all about timing! While I know three weeks is nowhere near ideal, I firmly believe you can make a LOT of progress with your language skills within this relatively short period of time. My model of two weeks of classes and just under one week of self-study and consolidation is just right for the way I learn, but I’d also consider taking classes over three weeks but on a less intensive basis to really give things a chance to bed in (although this depends on what the school is offering too, of course). However regardless of your learning style, based on the discussions I’ve had with other students it seems that one week of classes is simply not worth it – your brain has scarcely even registered that you are in intensive language-learning mode by the time you’ve finished. If you really are limited to only one week of classes either due to financial and/or time constraints, I’d recommend thinking long and hard before enrolling in a language school.

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