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Blogging does not put us ahead of the pack

by Sarah Dillon

KYOTO, JAPAN - FEBRUARY 9: Ichimame, an 19-yea...

Are Gen Y committing the cardinal sin of believing our own hype? I’m afraid we might be. Blogging may be a great way to get noticed in our respective fields, but let’s not allow our mastery of fancy technology to lull us into thinking we’re achieving something we’re not.

In a radio interview  a few years back*, career advisor Penelope Trunk said something that made me think, “No, no, no, NO!”. She said:

The people who are blogging about their careers are the top performers, because it is so hard to blog. It’s so hard to be constantly thinking about your profession and to be gathering new ideas and putting out new ideas and having conversations about it, that only the best people, only the best employees are blogging and following blogs…

There are lots of things that make someone a top performer – hard work, talent, experience.  But blogging? I really don’t think so. It may be a common denominator among successful or highly motivated employees, but I bet it’s also common among employees who are bored, or disillusioned, or really, really ticked off too.

Penelope does a great job of giving a voice to a sub-culture and I really admire the time and effort she puts into helping young bloggers find their voices. But in this particular case, I think she’s in danger of mis-managing expectations. I think it’s dangerous to believe that just because someone blogs, they’re a top performer or the best kind of employee. And it’s especially dangerous for younger bloggers to believe this, as it plays into all the worst kind of stereotyping of Generation Y-ers.

There’s no doubt that it’s hard to be constantly thinking about your profession, and formulating ‘new’ ideas. But who’s to say we’re coming up with anything really new? An idea or concept might be new to me, but that doesn’t mean it’s new to everyone else in my field too. I’d be embarrassed if anyone thought I was under the illusion that I was contributing to my field in anything other than a general way. (And by general I mean that if someone learns from my mistakes, then all the better).

The main issue here is that we’re in danger of confusing style with substance. Blogging is just a tool we can choose to employ for any number of purposes. Personally, I blog to learn, not because I’m any kind of ‘expert’. Blogging is simply one way to consolidate all the information I come into contact with everyday. It doesn’t in itself make me any different to another professional translator who might choose to use a different set of tools to track their development.

Blogging with an authoritative voice is an accepted means of writing for the web, but let’s not fall into the trap of believing our own hype. That’s just setting ourselves up to look dumb when it turns out that we’re only learning what a lot of other people have already worked out for themselves – and in a much less painful and self-absorbed way. I’d heartily advocate using blogging as a means of developing professionally, but I’d also recommend being clear on how sure you are of your ideas, and at what stage you’re at in the opinion-formulating process. Anything else and we’re just giving blogging a bad name.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

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Sept 2012: This interview was with Peter Clayton on Total Picture Radio in the latter part of 2008 – no longer available online. 

Last updated: 2 September, 2008 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Marketing for language professionals, Professional development, Technology for translators Tagged With: blogging, Brazen Careerist, Generation Y, online presence, Professional development, web 2.0

List of 85 translator-related blogs

by Sarah Dillon

Thanks for dropping by. See my more recent, updated page listing these translation blogs and more at http://www.dillonslattery.com/translation-blogs – Sarah

—-

There’s been a huge increase in the number of translation blogs over the past year or so. When I started blogging (very sporadically) in 2006, it felt like there were very few of us out there – now there’s a vast community and it’s very exciting to be a part of it!

Here’s a list of translation blogs that I follow from my feed reader. Some of these are more active than others and there’s a definite bias towards my own language combinations of French, Spanish, German and English. But if they’re in my feed reader, it’s because I like reading them.

I normally prefer to synthesise this kind of information before posting it to my blog. So I normally only include certain blogs in my blogroll, for example, or I run occasional blog round-ups. But my list of blogs to write about has gotten so long that I don’t know where to start! So until I catch up, here’s the raw data – happy reading.

yndigo
Working Languages
What’s New – Language Translation
Versión Original
ÜberSetzerLogbuch
ÜBERSETZER IM INTERNET
transubstantiation
TransMUG
Translator’s Musings
TRANSLATOR’S BLOG
Translator Support
Translator Power
TranslationMaven
translationfound
Translation, Language, Culture
Translation rants
Translation Quality Blog
Translation Notes
Translation Journal Blog
Translation in the Trenches
Translation For Lawyers
Translating is an Art
Translate This!
Transblawg
Traduction technique, interprétariat et coaching en anglais
TraduBits
Tips4translators
Tips for Translators
Thoughts On Translation
There’s Something About Translation…
The translator’s cafe
the court interpreter
T4T blog
Switch Off And Let’s Go
Spanish Translation Blog
Sinoed
Sabela Cebro Barreiro Traductora profesional
Poetry for Vadney
Pasión por la traducción
Pandemonium
Oversetter
Open Brackets
Nouvelles News de Zesty Dormouse
Transblawg
Musings of the Mad Wordsmith (and other things)
Musings from an overworked translator
Masked Translator
Maremagnum
Mac For Translators
luke spear online
life in translation
Las palabras son pistolas cargadas
LA TRADUCCIÓN AL DESCUBIERTO
Jianjun’s Blog
Irma Ferran Teacher of Languages and Freelance Translator
Into Spanish Translation Blog
In Other Words
ICE Upcoming Events
How To IFL Freelancer’s Blog
HeidiLives&Learns
germantranslation
FIELD NOTES
Estudiantes de Traducción e Interpretación
Enigmatic Mermaid
En Translation
Elisabeth Hippe Heisler
eel in the air
DolmetschBlog
Dispatches from an environmental translator’s desk
De traducciones y otras rarezas lingüísticas
Christof’s Blog
Brave New Words
Boston Translation
Blogging Translator
Blog.MotsAndCo.com
Around the world in 80 Mays
ALTAlk Blog
Algo más que traducir
Ad Libs
About Translation
A World of Translation Work
A Translator’s Blog
“la parole exportée”
¿Se habla English? Life of a Translator

31.08.08 Update: thanks for all the link-backs and positive feedback to this post! I’ve added hyperlinks and tidied up the list ofr ease of use.

Last updated: 14 August, 2008 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Marketing for language professionals Tagged With: blogging, online presence, real translators

Map of Online Communities

by Sarah Dillon

For anyone who has ever found themselves lost in the tangle of Web 2.0…


Source: http://xkcd.com/256/

Last updated: 19 April, 2008 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Marketing for language professionals, Technology for translators Tagged With: online presence

An outtage doesn't have to leave you down and out

by Sarah Dillon

I love thinking of different ways to be more mobile (or “location independent“) as a translator. One of the ways I do this is by trialling different web-based applications to see which best suit my needs. For example, I’m currently using Backpack, an organiser with a calendar, to do lists, notes, etc. to help me stay on top of both work and personal tasks.

So you can imagine how I felt last Friday when I logged in see to this (read from the bottom up):

Photobucket

Thankfully, I hadn’t been left high and dry. I’ve been using Backpack with PackRat, an application which works with Backpack, but which stores all your information on your computer like any other application. This meant I was able to access my information as usual, with no excuse not to get cracking on my to-do list. Phew.

So why is this remotely blog-worthy? This experience probably confirms the worst fears of a whole lot of people, but it hasn’t put me off using web-based tools and I’m convinced that it shouldn’t deter anyone else either.

Even before Friday, I was never seriously worried about my data being irretrievably lost. I’ve carried out my due diligence and I figure that the makers of Backpack are no more likely to lose my data than I am (and even less likely than the UK government, by all accounts). Nor am I excessively concerned about my personal data being “held” and potentially used for sinister commercial reasons – I don’t particularly like the idea, but I don’t buy the misinformed conspiracy theories either. I view it the same way I do my accounts with eBay, Amazon, Hotmail, or any other wonder of the internet age. Anything that important, or that confidential, is backed up and/or not uploaded in the first place. (I’m not using Backpack to store translations or client documents, for example.)

Most of all, there really is no excuse for not backing up regularly, especially as a professional with responsibility to your clients. Backpack’s outtage just emphazises that moving data server-side doesn’t relieve us of this responsibility. We can’t control when the technology is going to fail, we only know that it will; so shame on us if we’re caught out. It’s an oldie, but a goodie.

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Last updated: 23 January, 2008 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Marketing for language professionals, Working habits Tagged With: online presence

Key phrases

by Sarah Dillon

In a nod to (read: shameless hack of) the excellent Lauren Squires over at Polyglot Conspiracy, here are some of the search phrases that people have used to find me here at There’s Something About Translation… Why is this interesting? Well, if you’re working on building up your web presence, maybe you’ll get some ideas on keywords for your metatags. And if you already have a blog or website, maybe it will give you something interesting to compare your own stats with. Go on, post your analysis – I dare you 😉

freelance translat english to portuguese blog
grindhopper
naked translator
harry potter translations
translation careers
blog of freelance translator
books on translation invented words
naked translator blogspot
the naked translator
translating harry potter
translation jobs london 2012
translators for blogs
“running a translation business”
“tom riddle” copywriter
“translation coffee”
“worked for” transperfect
ate shot and left
best translation lessons
but there’s something about that name
cat translation courses
crew wanted and there cv 2007
female entrepreneur, translation
freelance translation earnings
get naked in spanish translation
grindhopper website
harry potter book differences countries chapter title
highest salary for freelance translators
hindu translator for mobile windows
how to get harry potter translated in to portugese
hungarian name anagram
im translatior
importance of invented words in harry potter
invented by ukrainian
is it a good idea to specialise in translation
is there a market for slovak translators
legal translation blog
naked blogspot freelance translator
naked in other languages
naked translator blog
naked translators
olympic games
out of office notice
poor translation spanish “harry potter”
role of proper names in books for children
something interesting about translation
spanish translation for i love you and i put it in spanish for the nosey people p.s continue to let people know that you are taken
starting out, translation rates
tax rate “freelance translator”
theory versus practice translation
there’s something about that name key of d
there’s something about translation… blog
thesis about the technique translation of horry potter from english to spanish
translate happy birthday in ukranian
translate my anagrams
translating labels in london
translation opportunities overseas
vietnamese translation of sara
voldemort anagram language
when is translation useful
work like translate harry potter in portuguese

OK, so some of these are completely random. And my Harry Potter in Translation post seemed to pull in plenty of random googlers too!

Last updated: 8 September, 2007 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Marketing for language professionals Tagged With: keywords, online presence, website

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 🙂

Last updated: 9 May, 2007 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Marketing for language professionals, Moi, Real-life translators (5 Qs) Tagged With: Celine Graciet, Naked Translations

So where am I going with this blog?

by Sarah Dillon

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.

Last updated: 3 April, 2007 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Marketing for language professionals, Moi, Professional development Tagged With: blogging, Moi

If you think translation is expensive…

by Sarah Dillon

I love this quote, which I found over at Rowan Manahan’s Fortify your Oasis:

“If you think competence is expensive, try incompetence.”
(From a training brochure)



I can see myself paraphrasing this to clients in future – something like, “If you think translation is expensive, try a bad translation…” 🙂 Very in line with the kind of client education stuff that Chris Durban preaches.

Last updated: 25 March, 2007 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Business of translation, Marketing for language professionals Tagged With: Client relationships, Marketing for language professionals

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