Experts in the Industry: Paul Appleyard, French to English translator

Paul Appleyard is a French to English translator and Director of Manzana Business Solutions Limited, a translation company specialising in work between English and French. He has worked in a range of roles within the industry since finishing his studies in translation over 20 years ago, including Software Support Engineer, Computational Linguist, Terminologist, Translator, and Translation Manager. He is Coordinator of the ITI French Network and will be sharing his experience in a panel discussion called Where to draw the line? on Sunday 17th May.

Check out the rest of the ITI Conference programme here.

1. In two sentences, please describe what you’ll be talking about at the conference, and what translation and interpreting (T&I) professionals will gain from hearing it.

One of the challenges in our business is to ensure that we don’t feel we are invisible. By going to a conference such as this one, we can meet with our peers and remember that we are all members of a profession, with the same goals and aims as any other.

2. If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing to make your workplace more sustainable, what would you do?

Actually, I think my workplace is fairly sustainable anyway. The only factor which could make it more so would be a guarantee of work until the cows come home, but that is the one thing over which we have no direct control, other than to continue marketing ourselves…

3. Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?

The anonymous one somewhere who shuts up and gets on with the job, rather then posturing about the crisis du jour.

4. To what degree do you feel involved in and supported by your professional community, and why?

I feel involved with my professional community via the networks of which I am member (seeing and sharing messages of mutual interest), and by attending events such as the ITI conference (discussing the same).

5. Freeform – here’s where you are free to riff on anyone or anything, good or bad, or just share a pearl of wisdom.

Can you seriously imagine working in an office again?

Thanks Paul, and enjoy the conference!

This is the sixth in a series of short interviews run in the lead-up to the ITI International Conference on 16th – 17th May.