There’s a great review of City University’s Legal Terminology for Translators course over at Elisabeth Hippe-Heisler’s blog. Worth a look if you’re considering CPD in this field.
Theory Vs Practice
It’s an age-old argument, and one which I hear voiced far too frequently among translators. But even so, I must admit to being left more than a little slack-jawed with shock at a letter in the most recent issue (as of May 2007) of the Chartered Institute of Linguist‘s journal, The Linguist.
The writer of this letter (who shall remain nameless) requested that fewer academic articles be included as “the majority of readers will not find them particularly relevant to their working or cultural lives”.
WHAT??!! I may not be a majority all on my own, but I certainly take umbrage with this guy claiming to speak on behalf of the majority of my colleagues.
I sincerely hope that this comment does not go unchallenged in the forthcoming issues of The Linguist. I just can’t believe that a profession which is fighting so hard to be recognised (recent chartered status, industry standards, CEN norms, etc) could allow this kind of ignorance to go unchallenged. Needless to say, the editor has already received my Strongly Worded Response 🙂
Translation theory has very relevant applications in translation practice, and it’s important for any practising translator interested in professional development to keep abreast of developments in academia. Whenever I hear someone claim otherwise, I immediately move them several places down my private “does-this-person-know-what-they-are-talking-about” scale. Granted, I may not immediately grasp of significance of a piece of research, or find a day-to-day application for a theory, but key findings do eventually filter through the layers of the profession and have a direct impact on my working life. So an intelligent but easily readable summary of developments in academia is the very least I would expect from a chartered association claiming to represent professionals.
At the recent ITI Conference in London, Dr Jean-Pierre Mailhac very rightly pointed out that this lack of interest in theory and new developments would be most concerning if demonstrated by practitioners in fields such as medicine or law. Do you feel you would get the best treatment from a doctor who didn’t see the connection between theory and practice? So why should translation be any different?
Do we want to be taken as serious language professionals, or don’t we?
Corpora: a new take on an old tool
I was pretty excited when I saw that one of the sessions at the recent ITI Conference was to look at how corpora can be used as a resource for translators (it’s true – I don’t get out very much). Corpus analysis has a special place in my heart ever since I did a small project on MonoConc in 1997 as part of my first language degree and I was looking forward to seeing how things had changed since then.
I must admit to being slightly put off at first by the session write-up in the ITI programme, where it claimed that corpora were “a new resource for translators”. Now, I don’t consider myself to be anything more than moderately technically aware, and even with my undergraduate experience aside, I knew that corpora had been freely available for use in the field of translation for a long time… Thankfully, the speakers quickly redeemed themselves with their experience and obvious enthusiasm for the tools they were speaking about.
Overall, I felt that not much has changed since my days as a MonoConc student. But small office and home PCs are obviously more powerful, which is probably why corpora are seeing a bit of a revival in the field of translation tools. Basically, any translator who has used Google to research a term, concept or subject area is already familiar with the ways in which a corpora can be useful. Dr Serge Sharoff and Dr Jeremy Munday demonstrated how corpus-based tools can offer the translator a more targeted take on the Google approach by enabling us to search within a carefully defined collection of texts. I think they may have intended this to be a more interactive session than it actually was, but given the unexpectedly large conference attendance and the fact that it is very difficult to “explain” software, I think they did admirably well. I’d like to have heard them speak a bit more about how this could apply to more experienced translators however. I thought Serge was quite an amusing speaker, and it was good to put a face to Jeremy Munday’s name – anyone who has studied translation in the past 15 years or so is probably well aware of him through his books on translation theory.
Dr Ana Julia Perrotti-Garcia suggested that translators could ensure even more reliable results by building their own customised corpora, and then analysing them using any of a number of free tools. She also outlined the steps involved in creating a customised corpora. There were some practical tips in this session, but again, it would have been good to hear her speak more about how she used her customised corpora to develop her skills in her area of specialisation, rather than just her English (second) language skills.
Overall, the message was clear: analytical tools such as MonoConc, WordSmith or AntConc are of particular interest to trainee translators and those who translate into a non-native language (yes, I know that’s against the ITI’s Code of Conduct, but it’s a reality for many translators due to the country in which they live). However, these tools also offer the more experienced translator a great way of further developing and improving their translation skills, and I’d love to see someone offer a session in this area in the future.
Anyone interested in checking out more information about corpora, I’d recommended starting with this excellent site, which also contains an up-to-date list of free and low cost tools. There will also be a more detailed write-up of this session in the next ITI Bulletin.
A chance to prove yourself
The soon-to-be-updated National Occupational Standards* in translation look pretty exciting (in a way that only a standard can be) and a great opportunity to prove your worth as a newcomer to the industry.
At a session at the recent ITI Conference, Gill Musk from CILT explained that these standards have been developed by professional translators for professional translators, and are designed to describe two levels of expertise. In this way, they meet the needs of both end users and translators themselves in establishing clarity and transparency on the skills required by a good translator.
This will be helpful in a range of situations and can only serve to increase visibility of the profession. Those considering careers in translation can establish a realistic idea of the skills required before embarking on studies. Employers of translators can appraise staff, write job descriptions, assess candidates and create development plans. Providers of translator training can map their courses to an approved set of criteria. Finally, because they define competence, are a distillation of best practice and are updated on a regular basis, translation professionals can ensure their skills remain sharp.
So how do I plan to use these standards once they’re released? I’ll use them to:
- identify my strengths and weaknesses (eek! always scary – but necessary :))
- highlight opportunities and priorities for my CPD
- reflect and develop skills by assessing my own work
- get a clear understanding of current best practice
Bring it on!!
(BTW, Gill also mentioned that there is such a severe shortage of native English speaking Spanish interpreters, that EU bodies are forced to cancel conferences and meetings on a daily basis. Encouraging for anyone considering a career as an interpreter then! 🙂 )
*(Not to be confused with the CEN standards for translation, which focus more on procedures and procurement practices)
ITI Conference – Coming of Age!
I had a great time at the ITI Conference in London over the weekend. Not only was it jam-packed with interesting contributors, but the interesting mix of participants was worth the cost of attending on its own. I’ve been to a couple of these now, and this has definitely been the best. Saturday night’s drinks reception on the terrace of the Houses of Parliament, followed by dinner in the private members’ dining room wasn’t so bad either 😉
Watch this space for notes on the sessions I attended over the next few days.
Throw your career plan out the window
I was offered a set of passes to attend this event way back in March, and writing it up in my CPD booklet the other day reminded me of how inspiring it was. I’d never been to a networking event of this sort before, let alone one for International Women’s Day, and I really wasn’t quite sure what I would make of it. But wow! The speakers were just fantastic and I don’t think there was a single man or woman who didn’t leave feeling excited and energised about their career, regardless of the field they worked in.
I found Susan Hooper, a Managing Director with Royal Caribbean Cruises, especially inspiring. I loved how she advocated the importance of doing what you truly enjoy, even when that leads you off a more traditional or safe career path. She also said that NOT having a career plan was the best thing she’s ever done as it’s left her free to seize new opportunities that she’d otherwise never have considered. That gave me great food for thought as it’s contrary to received wisdom, and gave me confidence in the choices I’ve made.
So what has this got to do with translation? Well, most freelance translators will probably tell you that there is no such thing as a traditional career path into translation. I happen to disagree. Yes, there are plenty of translators in the UK from a range of backgrounds who have turned to freelance translation as a second career. But for every one of these, there is also a translator, either freelance or inhouse, who has slowly and steadily worked their way up the industry ladder (again, I’m referring to the UK here. A native English-speaking translator living in say, Germany, would have a very different set of options available to them). First, an inhouse position as a proofreader, checker or production assistant. Then, a promotion to project manager. Eventually, after several years, they may get some translation work. Finally, the time is right to go freelance.
Of course there is so much to be gained from this path – not only do you take the big leap to freelance with the benefit of several years’ worth of industry experience and contacts behind you, you also probably have a guarantee of work from your former employers. But attractive as it sounded, I just didn’t feel this was right for me.
I spent a lot of time speaking to those already established in the industry and even successfully interviewed for a few really great companies. But I never really felt any of these roles enabled me to make full use of my transferable skills and experience. What’s more, I just couldn’t see a way of creating just such a role inhouse either. I knew I’d be bored and I knew the excitement and buzz of working for myself was just what I needed. But this went against the advice of everyone I spoke to. So, wary of putting my long-suffering hsuband through yet another financially unstable couple of years, I chickened out after graduating from an MA in Specialised and Technical Translation and took a corporate job for a while. The plan was to work hard and gather a tidy little nest egg, before turning my attentions back to freelance translation.
Needless to say, it was a mistake and I very quickly realised it just wasn’t for me. In a way, that forced my hand and with a big gulp and very little savings I struck out on my own. And the rest, as they say, is history. That’s not to say it has been easy, or that I haven’t made mistakes (oh! the mistakes!), but going against the grain and throwing my career path out the window was the best thing I could have ever done.
By the way, the other speakers were Mary McPhail from WAGGGS, Minister Margaret Hodge, John Rendall from HSBC Business Banking and Jo Salter, Britain’s first female fast jet pilot. If you ever get a chance to hear any of them speak, I’d recommend it (er… except for maybe the Minister, who arrived late, rushed her speech then left as soon as she finished… happy International Women’s Day indeed!)
So where am I going with this blog?
I’ve been pretty busy with work these past few days (and battling a cold, boo hoo!), but have been giving quite a bit of thought to this blog.
It’s been a pretty big leap for me to start posting on a regular basis. Although I’d had this blog set up for a while, I felt crippled by what I didn’t want it to be. What if I messed it up, insulted key opinion leaders in the profession or irritated every buyer of translation in the world?? How would I ever leave the house again?!
From a technical point of view, I knew it would be pretty painless. As a typical twentysomething, I’m already connected in my personal life through my profiles on sites like Bebo, Flickr and del.icio.us. But I didn’t see how I could translate that to my professional life in a way I was comfortable with. After much thought, I eventually decided to suck it and see, to give it a bash, to just do it.
And it’s been great! I’m surprised at how much I’ve enjoyed being able to comment on a range of things relevant to my everyday working life. I’ve been pretty chuffed with the responses too, reflected in the emails, comments and ever-addictive Google stats I’ve received.
So it’s still not perfect, and I’m still not sure I’ve truly found my “professional voice”. But I’m armed with bags of enthusiasm and a couple of ideas to help steer things in the right direction. Which is to produce something I feel proud enough to put my name to.
10 questions on translation as a career – Part 2 of 2
Continued from this post…
6. What do you find challenging about your job?
Keeping to a relatively “normal” routine. I love owning my own business and working from home, but it can be very, very hard to just switch off. I joke about lolling around in my pjs and watching daytime TV, but the reality is that I work very hard, and much longer hours than most people I know. Plus, I’m naturally a night owl and could easily work all night, every night, but then I have trouble sleeping during the day. So I have to be strict with myself and try to keep a relatively “normal” work routine, or else I’d find myself getting very isolated from the rest of the world!
7. Have there ever been times you wish you¹d picked a more “conventional” job? Or not a freelance one?
Yes! Usually when I have a lot of non-work things to do but I’m also busy with my actual “paying” work. I sometimes think, “If I worked for someone else, I could easily do my photocopying/printing, book my holiday, surf the internet, email my friends etc. on the sly, and no one would be the wiser!”. But when I’m my own boss and I get paid for the work I produce instead of the number of hours I’m sat at my desk, I see the direct effects of these kinds of non-work tasks on my bottom line and it hurts.
It’s also frustrating when friends and family think that just because I work at home, I don’t really work, and expect me to be constantly available to do these kinds of tasks!
And my office Christmas party is usually pretty dull 🙂
8. What’s the best advice you’ ve ever been given?
Do your best, then don’t worry about it – you can’t do any more than that. My mom always used to say that to me when I was fretting over something as a child!
9. Is there anything you’ve learned during your career that you’d want to share with others?
Practical work experience is the best way to figure out what you want do and do not want in a job, try and get lots of it. If you want to do something badly enough, then go for it, no matter how far out of your reach it seems. Take advice from those who’ve gone before you, but make your own mind up – there will always be naysayers and critics. Formal education is not the only way into most careers, but it often helps. Finally, never worry about not being able to find the right job, I guarantee it’s out there somewhere – but you need to know what you’re looking for before you can find it!
10. Plans for the future/ultimate goals?
I’d like to run my own language services business in the future, but on my terms – small enough to still be flexible but big enough to allow me to try my hand at managing other people.
10 questions on translation as a career – Part 1 of 2
I was interviewed for a magazine yesterday and thought it might be interesting to post an edited version of some of my responses (link to follow when published). The target audience is teenagers/young people considering careers in different areas, which I think (hope?!) explains why I come across as being some kind of wise old owl who has already “made it” to the pinnacle of my profession 🙂 (I’m on my way, certainly, but not quite there yet 😉 ) It gives a bit more of a glimpse into how I got into translation and the challenges of being a freelancer, so links in nicely to the issues discussed here.
I answer the following:
- How did you get into the job you’re doing? (training, job experience etc)
- What led you to it/what excited you about this profession?
- Tell me about your day to day work.
- What’s the best things about your job?
- What’s your daily motivation?
- What do you find challenging about your job?
- Have there ever been times you wish you¹d picked a more “conventional” job? Or not a freelance one?
- What’s the best advice you’ ve ever been given?
- Is there anything you’ve learned during your career that you’d want to share with others?
- Plans for the future/ultimate goals?
It was a very interesting exercise for me. It made me take a step back and think about what I do day to day, and measure it up against what I thought I would be doing when I set out to go freelance almost 5 years ago. I think there are two kinds of people who might benefit from thinking about how they might answer these questions – those considering making a career out of freelance translation, and those who have been at it for a while but are getting dangerously close to forgetting why they ever thought it would be a good idea! As a freelance translator, you really do have a lot of control over the work you do and the way you spend your working day, sothere’s really no excuse for poor job satisfaction!
PS – I’ve broken the interview down into 2 posts to make it a bit more user friendly and would appreciate hearing what you think – does that make it easier to read??
1. How did you get into the job you’re doing? (training, job experience etc).
I did a 4 year BA in languages and was lucky enough to spend almost 3 full years of that time living and working in each of France, Germany and Spain, so I had already had some great international experience (and adventures!) by the time I’d graduated. I travelled and worked in a couple of different jobs for a few years after that, but it was an MA in translation that really set me up for becoming a fully-fledged freelance translator. It was excellent, very hands-on with practical work placements modules, and also gave me access to practicing translators already working in the industry. These contacts proved invaluable when it came to setting out on my own.
They say the ideal career path for a translator is to get a degree in something completely unrelated to languages, say medicine or engineering, work for 15 years in this area while becoming fluent in another language, then marry someone who speaks your second language and go live and work in that country for another 10 years or so. Finally, you need to move back to the country of your source language… and you are you are ready to become a freelance translator!
Needless to say I didn’t follow this path (I’m didn’t have the patience… or the non-English speaking boyfriend!). It’s true that many translators tend to get into it via a career change in their later years, but it’s certainly not the only way in. Many people start off working as an in-house translator for a few years, but there’s a real shortage of good translators who have the business skills to manage themselves as freelancers. I guess the most important things are a thorough understanding of your target language(s) gained through in-country experience, combined with competence in a field other than languages – after all, languages are only useful if you have something to say.
Also, many people don’t realise this, but professional translators work only into their mother tongue, no matter how fluent they are in their other languages, so your written English has to be top notch too!
2. What led you to it/what excited you about this profession?
Despite doing a first degree in languages, translation wasn’t something I was at all interested in initially. I was more interested in interpreting actually, as I thought it seemed a lot more glamorous (translation is working with the written word, interpreting the spoken word). But I have some friends who worked for big institutions like the UN and the Council of Ministers at the EU, and I could see that it wasn’t for me. I always knew I wanted to work for myself, and so after graduating from my first degree I spent quite a lot of time thinking about how I could have the kind of flexibility and work-life balance that I wanted, while also doing a satisfying job. Once I’d decided on freelance translation, I went about finding the best training course I could, and the rest is history. I suppose I went about it in a very analytical way, but that doesn’t make me any less excited by it!
The fantastic thing about translation is that you really never stop learning. It’s such a diverse profession – you can work with anything from scientific research, to reports on human rights abuses to automotive manuals… and it’s your job to convince the reader of each documents that you are the author, the expert in that particular field and not just someone who speaks a foreign language.
It’s essential to specialise if you want to make a living from translation these days. Sometimes I find myself reading something in French, German or Spanish that I wouldn’t even understand in English, say the details of how an engine part works, or complex information about market shares and stocks for example. So I have to go away and make sure I have a full understanding of it (in English!) before I can even begin to think about translating it. And unlike interpreting, where the spoken words often go in one ear and out the other, your words are there in black and white for everyone to see, so they have to be exactly right – no waffling when you’re not sure of a meaning! Every day there’s a new word, phrase or concept that you have to carefully research and then quickly master, as dictionaries don’t have the answers you need at this level. And as a freelancer you can really steer your career too, and work in the areas that genuinely interest you.
3. Tell me about your day to day work.
It’s such a cliché, but every day really is as different as the job I’m working on. My jobs tend t
o last an average of two weeks, but a reasonably typical working day involves getting up about 8.30am, wandering into my little home office and responding to a few emails while I wait for the kettle to boil. I’ll have a quick breakfast, then return to my email where I’ll invariably get sucked into something for another hour or so. I’m lucky in that I’m always booked up for work about 6 weeks ahead at any time, but it’s important that I keep on top of my admin – chasing overdue payments, keeping my accounts up to date, issuing invoices, paying bills, responding to queries from potential and existing clients, and so on. Plus, the reality is that I never know if the work will stop coming in, so I have to have a contingency plan for if that ever happens.
About 11am I’ll take a break for a couple of hours and go to the gym, take a walk, do some shopping or watch some trashy daytime TV (if I’m feeling really lazy!). Then I’ll work solidly on whatever translation I’m working on until from about 1pm until 7pm, when my husband comes home. I try to have weekends off, but I usually end up spending at least 6 – 7 hours either catching up on my never-ending admin, or attending training events. It’s really important that I stay up-to-date with developments in the industry and training tends to be organised at weekends to prevent us losing out on earnings.
4. What’s the best things about your job?
Being able to do my shopping and go to the gym when it’s nice and quiet, no Saturday or 5.30pm queues for me! I also love that I never clock watch. My days fly by so fast but if I’m not feeling productive, I don’t have to try and look busy for the benefit of my boss. I can go out and do something else, I know what my deadlines are and I’ll get the work done when I need to.
I also love the mix of pure translation work and the completely different job of running a business. I get to do a little bit of everything – admin, sales, accounting, IT and so on (not forgetting office cleaning!)
5. What’s your daily motivation?
Being able to pay my bills without having to work hours that suit somebody else! I love translation, but let’s just say I wouldn’t hesitate to throw it all in and travel the world if I won the lotto 🙂
Websites for Translators
I recently attended two training sessions run by the West Midlands Group of the ITI – one by Nick Rosenthal from Salford Translations on Sustainable Customer Relationships, and the other by Vernon Blackmore from Ambit New Media on Websites for Translators. Excellent stuff, even if I did miss a very exciting rugby match on Saturday when my radio couldn’t get reception on the train home…
Vernon gave us an excellent run down on what exactly is involved in getting a website up and running. As the second session of the day, I didn’t envy Vernon his task – it was already clear that we were a bit of a motley crew of participants with varying degrees of internet knowledge, from those who had already established professional websites to those who hadn’t yet mastered the features of a Google search. However, he really managed to hit the nail on the head.
Vernon offered practical advice and useful tips, stressing, for example, the importance of retaining control of content on your site so you can still use the text and images if you ever decide to host it somewhere else. He also touched on how to get your hands on good quality, royalty-free images and outlined the pros and cons of buying a CMS outright vs licensing it. Vernon was refreshingly upfront about cost on all the options he discussed, and despite being in the business of web design himself, his advice was admirably impartial, not at all salesy and very valuable as a result.
I especially liked the way Vernon described a “spectrum” of options available to freelance translators interested in establishing their web presence. He explained that where you stand on this spectrum depends on the resources you are willing and/or able to commit (i.e. time, money and knowledge of web design). This was such a realistic assessment of the differing circumstances that us freelancers find ourselves in, and each person in that room could have had a professional website up and running by Monday as a result. (In fact, WMG are thinking of running a follow up session for participants to discuss the progress they’ve made following the day, testimony to the power of both speakers)
Vernon reenforced Nick’s message when he reminded us that the aim of a website should not be to bring in new business, but to authenticate your other marketing efforts. Like Nick, he also thought it valuable to use images of yourself on your site, to add “warmth” and to help your clients visualise the person behind the HTML. Now, while I agree that clients are attracted by a relationship and not just a service, the jury is still out on the value of personal pics as far as I’m concerned. I think I’ve been scarred by hearing the amount of ridicule that was heaped onto translators who dared show their face on their marketing material. (It wasn’t unheard of to have those pictures attached to the office notice board for an impromptu game of darts or pin the moustache on the translator…)
Knowledge is power, but only if we can see a way to apply it in our daily lives. Many techies pitch training sessions to impress rather than to enable, maybe with the notion that this will spur us on to research the area a bit more (or give up and call in the professionals). I’ve left many sessions more painfully aware of what I don’t know rather than what I do, but not this one. Now if that’s not a great way to build client loyalty, I don’t know what is!
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