Experts in the industry: Philippa Hammond, French, Spanish, Portuguese to English translator

Philippa Hammond is a French, Spanish and Portuguese to English freelance translator based in London. She has an MA in Translation and Linguistics from the University of Westminster and a BA(Hons) in French and Spanish from Cardiff University, and worked in-house for several years before going freelance. Philippa maintains a professional blog, is editor of the ITI French Network newsletter, and helps mentor newcomers to the industry as part of the ITI’s online training course, the PSG. On Sunday 17th May, Philippa will be speaking (with me!) on sustaining careers in T&I using social media.

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.

I’ll be talking about what the new generation of websites that have sprung up following the move from ‘web 1.0’ to ‘web 2.0’ can offer us as translators, and how they can help to sustain our careers within a wider community of translation professionals.

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

Like Iwan, ideally I’d like to install solar panels to generate energy, but in terms of productivity (and therefore a more sustainable working life for me!), what I could really do with is a personal assistant! Until then, it’ll just be me, my computer(s), my Blackberry and the internet.

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

Sorry to be a tad predictable, but I really can’t praise Barack Obama enough.

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

I am on the ITI French Network committee (I’m editor of the newsletter) and more recently the ITI PSG. These activities make it possible for me meet some real ‘heroes’ in the ITI and feel part of a wider community of like-minded professionals. It can feel a bit isolating to be freelance, but with a little help from technology this can be mitigated. I do feel that as a freelancer, the onus has to be on you to ‘reach out’ to your colleagues, but the benefits of doing so are endless.

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

Hmmm, just that I’m looking forward to the conference and the chance to finally meet so many people in person. Working alone, it’s easy to forget how much we can learn from our peers and conferences offer a perfect opportunity to do that.

Thanks for answering my questions, Philippa! “See” you at the conference.

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