Archives for May 2007

Are you a Grindhopper?

Laura Vanderkam’s Grindhopping: Building A Rewarding Vareer Without Paying Your Dues is an interesting read if you’re considering moving into a freelance career to create the role that no one seems prepared to offer you.

Laura defines a grindhopper as someone who uses self-employment as way to bypass the years of slogwork that is often required to climb even a step up the ladder of many careers. She uses real life case studies, anecdotes, and labour statistics to turns the traditional school of thought upside down – the one that says you should put your time in when you’re young and wait until you’re established before striking out on your own. Most of these examples relate to more entrepreneurial style start-ups, but they contain many valuable lessons for anyone considering whether they should start out on their own as a freelance translator regardless of how many years of work experience you have behind you.

I guess what makes this different from any other book on entrepreneurs or self-employment is that it starts with the assumption that you have relatively few years of work experience under your belt. It also assumes that you are prepared to work hard for not very much money, and that like most Millenials, you’re looking for a bit more than a cubicle career and so are not setting out to conquer the world.

But the key distinguishing feature is that grindhoppers do not chose a route of self-employment simply for the sake of it. In fact, many of them re-enter the corporate world once they’ve spent a few years working in postions of their own creation. And as a result of working in a role with plenty of autonomy and real chances to stretch themselves, they usually re-enter at a higher level than if they’d stuck to the grind.

I was pretty relieved to read this as I’ve often wondered whether going freelance too young would spoil me forever, and I’d love to have read a bit more about how these grindhoppers cope with re-entering a workplace of someone else’s creation.

The book also offers some refreshing and genuinely useful advice on things like:

creating alternative revenue streams (i.e. moonlighting with panache)
networking (i.e what to do when you don’t have a mass of established business contacts)
minimising risk (i.e. how not to miss your rent/morgage payments)
keeping up your motivation levels (i.e. how to stay sane)

Most of all, I like the assertion that you need to be prepared to be judged 100% on results and how you deliver them. I subscribe to the idea that by allowing yourself to be distinguished in this way, you’ll never need to worry about being outsourced as you know you can deliver something no-one else can.

Of course, there are bits I don’t agree with too. For example, Vanderkam’s assertion that you should think about what you love so much that you’d do it for free, and then turn that into a career. Hmm. Maybe I’m revealing too much about myself when I say this, but there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING that I love so much I’d do it for free, every day of the week, 365 days of the year. So I’m not sure where that piece of advice leaves people like me.

There are also areas where I think she borders on the naïve. For example, her claims that the internet has abolished “all barriers” to self-employment just seem silly, and there is no discussion of the challenges created by this new, free-for-all style work culture, e.g. more competition, less face to face contact, etc.

But all in all, this is a great book. It makes an exciting and informative read for grindhoppers of all ages, or anyone interested in the motivations behind this new wave of freelancers.

The Great TM Debate

by Sarah Dillon

“Which TM should I use?” It’s a question I often hear translators ask. But we’d be much better served if we asked ourselves what we needed a translation tool to do, and then worked backwards from there. That way, we know we are getting a tool that we’ll actually use and not leave sitting on our virtual shelf gathering cyberdust. Jeffrey Treem over at Inside the Cubicle put it nicely when he says:

… communicators need to be channel/tool agnostic – Stop getting hung up on names and technology and start with business goals and work backwards. Do not paint yourself into a corner where you need to fit the tools you are comfortable with into your work environment.

Hear, hear. (Of course, he was speaking about how companies are using social media as part of their communications strategy, but I reckon it’s relevant to technology adoption in any field.)

Thanks Jeffrey.

Something to celebrate… (and a little shameless self-promotion)

by Sarah Dillon

Today I finally received the paper copies of my recently published article Translators and TM: An investigation of translators’ perceptions of translation memory adoption. It seems much more real to have the paper copies in my hand, even if it does mean its old news already 🙂 The article was based on research I carried out for my masters thesis in 2004, and preparing it for publication over several months in 2005/2006 with the help of my supervisor was a really fantastic experience. The whole peer-review process involved in academic publishing was a big eye-opener too!

You might spot me in this month’s ITI Bulletin too, if you’re really eagle-eyed!

Best blogs round-up: for translators

by Sarah Dillon

Here’s a couple more to add to the pot. It’s a bit of a mixed bag this time (much like my metaphors). There are lots of great sites out there, but the exciting things about blogs is that they’re immediate and personal. They’re also a lot more interesting than static websites as they have the potential to become dialogues as you can chip in with a comment and add your tuppence worth.

The Masked Translator: fairly new as only started in February 2007, but is already looking to cut a dash through the translation blogosphere. I usually prefer to keep an eye on new blogs for a while before recommending them, but The Masked Translator has already covered lots of interesting topics that I haven’t seen addressed elsewhere. Let’s hope it can keep tapping into those rarely discussed issues in an non-bitchy way, and without letting its masked status go to its head.

Language Realm blog*: a blog devoted to language, translation, interpreting, language learning and linguistics. So far so the same, but what makes this blog especially interesting is that Roger Chriss discusses the kind of day-to-day things that happen around and about the day of a translator but that still have an impact on our working lives (check out his Language Realm website for more static but still extremely informative info). So for example, there are posts in there about multi-language keyboards, about newly coined terms and best of all, about language learning for advanced learners. Something for everyone, but especially if you have Japanese or Chinese as a source language.

Lingua Franca: this is kind of a cheat as it’s actually a blog for a podcast which you can also listen to via your browser. Published every Saturday, this show runs for approx. 15 minutes and looks at all aspects of language through interviews and prepared talks with various experts who analyse a single topic of interest. The show is run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation so has an obvious bias to people and issues Down Under, but the topics discussed are relevent to anyone with an interest in the popular culture of English speaking countries.

Freelance Writing for Nonprofits: OK, another sideball but bear with me. Billed as a blog with tips and ideas on publications, marketing and PR, I reckon this baby has plenty of gems for the freelance translator too. Check it out and let me know what you think.

* UPDATE 08/09/07: My link to the Language Realm blog was actually incorrect (oops) and when I went back to doublecheck it, I found it’s been shut down. There does seem to be a new blog which can be linked to via the Language Realm website however, so I’ll keep my eye on that and may review that in my next blog round-up.

Naked Translations (aka The Naked Truth)

by Sarah Dillon

This post was written in early 2007. There’s a postscript at the end:

So there’s a website called Naked Translations, and I’ve known it’s been there for, oh, several weeks now. That’s a long time in cyberspace. I first came upon it about a month after I changed my blogging handle to nakedtranslator. So what did I do? I ignored it. Tried to sweep it under the carpet, pretend like I’d never stumbled across it. Not exactly something to be proud of, and not at all professional, but there you have it.

You see, I was so delighted with myself when I came up with (what I thought was) the very original and witty nakedtranslator handle. I initially worried it might attract the kind of readership this particular blogger is not interested in attracting, but mostly I thought it summed up perfectly how I felt at the time. I’d just decided to give blogging a proper blast and I felt exposed, vulnerable and not quite sure why it had ever seemed like a good idea… but also kind of thrilled and liberated. So I hoped if I just ignored this more original contender then I wouldn’t ever have to face the fact that my original idea wasn’t so original after all.

But time and time again I find myself back at Naked Translations. Not deliberately, but via links in other people’s sites or discussion groups, or searches on translation-related topics that I find especially interesting. So not only has it obviously been around a lot longer than There’s Something About Translation (located at www.dillonslattery.com, and written by yours truly, the nakedtranslator), but it also makes for a fascinating read. So much so, that 2 months down the blogline, I just had to subscribe to its feed.

All in all though, I was pretty gutted. I’m uncreative in a lot of ways, and I just know I’ll never find another handle that sums me up in quite the same way. So I spent a lot of time thinking about it, and speaking to other people about it, and eventually decided that nakedtranslator was still different enough to hang on to without being unfair to the original (and excellent) Naked Translations.

All a bit long-winded, but I guess what I mean to say is check out Céline’s website. It’s great 🙂

Post script: May 2010: In the end, my conscience couldn’t let me do it. Despite my breezy assertions of how different nakedtranslator was to Naked Translations (really, what was I thinking?) I gradually phased out the nakedtranslator handle, although it did rear it’s ugly head again in early 2009 (mainly in initial form) as I tried on the hat of interviewer extraordinaire. Thank you Céline, for being so patient in the face of my embarrassing shortcomings as I’ve stumbled my way through building a brand online over the years. And for anybody who ever wondered why I trade under my own name instead of a business one, it’s because I’m too darn unoriginal to come up with anything better 🙂

Theory Vs Practice

by Sarah Dillon

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

by Sarah Dillon

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.