Translation profession and industry — Page 4

Are professional bodies worth the effort?

Most would-be translators find online translation communities such as Proz or Translators Café pretty early on in their career. They fill out the necessary forms, create the relevant profiles and spend hours lurking on the discussion boards.

But I’m always surprised at how few students and career starters join a proper association for professional translators, such as the American Translators Association, or the UK’s Institute of Translation and Interpreting. (See here for a lengthy list of options worldwide.)

I appreciate that the application process is decidedly offline compared to the online communities, and I know it’s not easy to contact colleagues for references. But really, nothing worth having is easy.

These associations are in a league of their own when it comes to honing your craft and engaging with the profession. They usually do a pretty good job of outlining the key benefits of membership for themselves (see examples here, here and here), but there are other benefits which are not quite as obvious. For example:

Being accepted for membership gives you a sense of validation. This is because professional bodies often (and quite rightly) have demanding membership requirements. When you meet them, it can give your confidence a well-deserved and very welcome boost. Also, while the extra letters after your name won’t necessarily impress your clients (see proviso below), they may give you a little extra kudos among family and friends who don’t really believe that working from home is real work at all.

Membership is valued by exactly the kind of clients you want – that is, those who are aware of what it means to be a translator, and are therefore more likely to be prepared to pay a fair rate for your services.

It’s a great way to build relationships with other translators. There’s a lot more value in this than you might think. After word of mouth, my second most important source of work has been other translators. It’s a welcome surprise to see how willing others are to pass work your way and give you a chance to prove yourself. Even more satisfying is the feeling you get when you are in a position to pay it back and do the same for other translators.

You have instant access to a vast body of experts. No matter what translation, business or freelance-related problem you are facing, chances are you have access to someone who has already been through it and is more than happy to offer advice. Even better, it is often country and/ or language specific – invaluable when it comes to sorting out your tax or banking issues, for example. And as membership is restricted, information shared is likely to be a lot more reliable and transparent than you might find in a public forum.

Professional bodies can be good for your social life. Freelance translation is a pretty solitary pursuit. If meeting people is a top priority for you, then joining a translation association probably isn’t the only thing you should do to help with this. You may have to travel long distances to attend events, some associations are more active than others, and each group is will be as different as the people in it. Saying that, I often see recently established translators quickly absorbed into the social scene of their local networks. Over time, these connections can be invaluable.

If you’re serious about being a translator, joining a proper professional association is a must.

It’s a jungle out there: negotiating the transition from translation student to freelance professional

by Sarah Dillon

Reflection is a key element of progression at any stage of a translator’s career. Evidence for this, if needed, can be seen in the continuing professional development (CPD) requirements for professional bodies such as the Chartered Institute of Linguists, which require evidence of not only attendance at events, but also of actual reflection on the process of learning. So I was very interested in a paper at the recent Portsmouth Translation Conference on how students can use self-reflection to negotiate their transition from translation students to professionals.

Janet Fraser, from the University of Westminster*, began by pointing out that, as a result of the diverse and changing role of the translator today, new translators need to think carefully about where they “fit in” to the profession and negotiate their entry accordingly.

How does one become a member of a profession, and what is a “professional”?
Based on prior studies carried out in this area, Fraser suggested that as a general rule, members of a profession tend to demonstrate a high degree of competence and expertise, but have substantial autonomy in how this is exercised. They are also characterised by freedom from supervision and a relatively high regard in society. Integrity is also a requirement within a profession, combined with a certain amount of peer regulation, often through professional bodies. Sound familiar? I’m sure I’m not the only freelance translator who thinks so.

In terms of education, professionalism also generally (although not always) implies someone with a BA or postgraduate degree. However, formal study really is just the tip of the iceberg within a profession, as true professional skills are acquired through long-term practice. Ultimately, professionalism requires a higher level of thinking skills than those developed through formal education. It requires individuals to continuously think about what they observe, to assess the shared body of knowledge, and to then apply this to themselves and their practice. So for those of you who thought graduation was the end, think again…

Another interesting point made by Fraser was that freelance translators are generally considered by labour researchers to be very successful examples of portfolio workers, not least because their careers tend to follow a process of personal development, as opposed to being a simple hierarchical series of jobs.

How can the student translator acquire these higher order thinking skills?
Fraser proposes self reflection as a means of developing the thinking skills that characterise a professional. She asserted that self-reflection doesn’t have to be new age or touchy-feely. It’s a well established process of making a public body of knowledge your own and ensuring that you don’t just have an experience, you also make sense of it and learn from it. Fraser also discussed some of the barriers to self-reflection, along with suggestions on how to overcome them. She also mentioned further useful references in this area, for example by Jennifer Moon.

All in all, in felt this was a very informative talk, relevant to both newcomers and more experienced translators alike.

For more information on keeping a learning journal, start here, here and here.

* Full disclosure!

28.11.07: edited for clarity

Were you there? The Chartered Institute of Linguists' Members Day

by Sarah Dillon

There’s a great rundown on the recent Members Day of the Chartered Institute of Linguists here (ran to coincide with International Translators Day). I was due to attend but bowed out due to sniffles, so this report is the next best thing.

Top Ten Misconceptions about Translation and Translators

by Sarah Dillon

I’ve just found this great little piece on the website of NOTIS, a chapter of the American Translators Association (ATA). I don’t normally reproduce clips this long in full, but this one is worth it 🙂

Top Ten Misconceptions about Translation and Translators:
by Caitilin Walsh. Reprinted from the August 1994 ATA Chronicle.

10. Anybody with two years of high school language (or a foreign-tongued grandmother) can translate.
9. A good translator doesn’t need a dictionary.
8. There’s no difference between translation and interpretation.
7. Translators don’t mind working nights and weekends at no extra charge.
6. Translators don’t need to understand what they’re translating.
5. A good translator doesn’t need proofing or editing.
4. Becoming a translator is an easy way to get rich quick.
3. Translation is just typing in a foreign language.
2. A translator costs $49.95 at Radio Shack and runs on two ‘C’ batteries.

And the #1 misconception about translation and translators:

1. That marketing copy that took a team of 20 people two months to put together can be translated overnight by one person and still retain the same impact as the original.

Seems to me the image of translators hasn’t changed much since 1994… but I’d love to be contradicted. Does anyone disagree?

Incidentally, NOTIS has a page full of interesting articles and resources on client education – definitely worth a look.

Angelina Jolie in the Mystery of the Missing Apostrophe

by Sarah Dillon

The publishers of a new book called From Our Lips to your Ears are looking for true personal anecdotes reflecting the everyday life of interpreters, with the aim of giving the general public a better idea of how interpreters touch people’s lives. The deadline for submission is the 3 December.

I like their guidelines for writing – it sounds like the kind of book I’d really like to read. They say:

Ideally, your story should accomplish one or more of the following things:

Enable the reader to imagine the scene vividly

Engage one or more of the five senses

Evoke emotions

Help the reader feel more connected to others

Their promotional tour currently only involves the US, but it would be great to have some perspectives from this side of the pond too. So, what do you say, interpreters? Sounds like a great chance to come out from behind the booth/ speaker.

Of course, I’d really love to see a similar collection of stories by translators. Or even better, a movie. No matter what you thought of The Interpreter, there’s no doubt that Nicole Kidman has done wonders for the profession in the glamour stakes.

I’m sure us translators could club something together to rival it. I can see it now: the obvious star would be Scarlett Johannsson (channelling glamour, a strong air of intelligence, and an artsy almost bookish air). My outside-the-box vote would go to Angelina Jolie (channelling a strong interest in current affairs, a career/family juggler, a go-it-alone type). Now for the difficult part – a nail-biting plot… hmmm… 🙂

All About International Translation Day

by Sarah Dillon

30 September is the day translators, interpreters and language professionals around the world show solidarity and promote their profession.

Here is my rundown of interesting facts about International Translation Day (ITD).

International Translation Day

International Translation Day has been promoted since 1991 by the International Federation of Translators.

The federation chooses a different theme each year, and uses it as a springboard to lobby for recognition of the profession internationally.

Past themes are as follows:

1991: No official theme
1992: Translation – the vital link
1993: Translation: a pervasive presence
1994: The many facets of translation
1995: Translation, a key to development
1996: Translators and Copyright
1997: Translating in the Right Direction
1998: Good Translation Practices
1999: Translation – Transition
2000: Technology serving the needs of translation
2001: Translation and ethics
2002: Translators as agents of social change
2003: Translators’ rights
2004: Translation, underpinning multilingualism and cultural diversity
2005: Translation and Human Rights
2006: Many Languages – One Profession
2007: Don’t shoot the messenger!
2008: Terminology – Words matter
2009: Working Together
2010: Translation Quality for a Variety of Languages
2011: Translation: Bridging Cultures
2012: Translation as Intercultural Communication

According to the South African Translators’ Institute. (Link correct as of September 2012)

Elsewhere around the world, translation organisations usually organise a range of training and networking events at national and local level.

The day coincides with St Jerome’s Day, who is recognised by the Catholic Church as the patron saint of translators, scholars and editors, as well as libraries and librarians. (Sounds like a portfolio careerist to me.)

Here’s a little about St Jerome:

St Jerome

Saint Jerome and a skull, by Lucas van Leyden.

Saint Jerome and a skull (purportedly a late-paying client), by Lucas van Leyden.

St Jerome is known for translating the Bible from Aramaic and Hebrew into Latin.

You can find a good rundown of his life in the church and an interesting consideration of the translation challenges he faced here.

It certainly sounds like St Jerome was not a typical shy and retiring translator.

He was known for his ferocious temper and vitriolic pen, and for being an unoriginal thinker (ouch).

There is even some debate about the degree to which he translated the Bible himself.

His trusty research assistants and benefactors, the mother-daughter team St Paula and Eustochium, have been credited with doing much of the work.

In a very Da Vinci Code kind-of twist, there exist some fascinating claims that their names were removed from the annals of history because they were female.

That’s not to say St Jerome’s life was all work and no play.

He was, according to Butler’s Lives of the Saints, “no admirer of moderation, whether in virtue or against evil.”

He even gets a mention in the film Ghostbusters:

Dr. Peter Venkman: Have you, or any member of your family, ever been diagnosed schizophrenic . . . mentally incompetent?
Alice the Librarian: My uncle thought he was St. Jerome.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I’d call that a big yes.

There are plenty of pictures batting about too, if you fancy wallpapering your workspace or photoshopping up a card or two (paying due attention to copyright, of course [ahem]).

ITD, St Jerome and Kumarajiva

Finally, many translators seem to confuse International Translation Day and St Jerome’s Day, but of course, the whole point of an international day is to open celebrations to all faiths and creeds around the world.

In that vein, Kumarajiva also warrants a mention. A Buddhist scholar and translator, he’s not a saint (for obvious reasons) and has no day to call his own, but is still someone many translators identify strongly with.

Regardless of who you are or where you are from, Happy International Translation Day!

Originally posted in September 2007. Last updated September 2012.

ATC Conference: Meeting the translation market challenges

by Sarah Dillon

The annual conference of the Association of Translation Companies (ATC) is taking place this Thursday in London. I attended last year’s conference and found it was a really useful way to get another view on what was happening in the industry – and from the perspective of a range of translation buyers too, which made it even more valuable.

There were some really excellent speakers and it was exciting to put faces to the names of the real movers and shakers of the translation world. As I was one of a very small number of translators there, the buyers I spoke to seemed to really appreciate the fact that I had made the effort to attend. They were also genuinely interested in hearing about the kind of work I did. All in all, I felt I learnt more from that one day than from several ITI sessions put together.

On the face of it, an ATC conference seems like a pricey option, given it’s only one day and is not even really aimed at translators. But I came away with a notebook full of ideas and a bag full of business cards, from people I had actually met and spoken to.

So give it a thought when planning your CPD sessions for next year!

Responses to "So, what do you do?"

by Sarah Dillon

According to journalist Kathy Foley, there’s a group on Facebook where journalists post the top responses they get in social situations when they announce “I’m a journalist”. So here are the top four responses I get when I say I’m a translator:

Scenario 1: a typical “European” response

– So what language do you speak?
insert my answer
– [Pause] Oh… I know a guy speaks 7/10/17 languages fluently! He’s amazing… launches into the life story of this other amazing person I’ve never met

Scenario 2: a typical English response

– So what language do you speak?
insert my answer
– I took some French/German at school. Didn’t learn a thing, and the teacher had it in for me… launches into a story about how they’re “not able” to learn languages

Scenario 3: a typical Irish response

– So what language do you speak?
insert my answer
– Ah, so you travel all the time for work then?
I do my best to explain that it is possible to have a language job that doesn’t involve call centres or working for the EU

Scenario 4: a typical Australian response

– Ah, yes. My friend’s wife is [German/French/Japanese, etc.]. She does some translation too, you know, in the evenings every now and then – when the kids have gone to bed, of course…
I just smile and nod, about all that is usually expected of me at this point

And then there’s what I’d love to hear people say:

So how did you progress from speaking those languages to actually translating professionally?!
Any advice for learning languages as an adult?
Wow, intelligent AND beautiful! Here’s a cheque for 1 million pounds, just for making my evening.

What are the typical responses you get when you say you’re a translator?

Harry Potter in Translation

by Sarah Dillon

The Harry Potter series of fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling have become some of the most widely read works of children’s literature in history. There are official translations from the original English into at least 67 languages, including “localised” versions for the US market from the original British English, for both the Portuguese and Brazilian markets, and into both ancient and modern Greek (unofficial versions number many more).

This means that, of the 325 million Harry Potter books sold around the world at the time of writing (2007), some 100 million copies don’t contain a single line of JK Rowling’s prose according to The Guardian. Instead, it is the job of a translator to set the tone, create suspense and humour, and give the characters their distinctive voices and accents.

In celebration of translators’ mind-boggling contribution to this global literary phenomenon, here’s my little round up of interesting facts on Harry Potter in translation:

JK Rowling is notoriously tight-lipped about plot developments and went to great lengths to ensure that “spoilers” were not released prior to the book’s English language publication date. She wouldn’t even make information about future plot twists available in advance to her translators, which resulted in some interesting quirks in the various language versions given the clues that are sprinkled throughout the series. See this article for a discussion of some of these.
In some countries such as Italy, the first book was revised by the publishers and re-issued in an updated edition in response to feedback from readers.
Translations sometimes became an interactive affair – a German fan site was set up to start work on collaboratively translating the books as soon as they were released in English, and the Polish translator ran an online competition to find a snappy translation for Ripper, the name of Aunt Marge’s vicious hound.
Food played a key role throughout the series, and Rowling herself cited this to be a strong element of her scene setting. Translators employed a range of techniques to reflect this. For example, cornflakes earned a footnote in the Chinese translation to indicate that they are eaten immersed in milk for breakfast. A former classmate of mine thought there was enough material like this to write her masters thesis on the translation of food in the Russian language Harry Potter. (Although she didn’t write it in the end – shame 🙂 )
Spanish readers will find most names and invented words unchanged, whereas those in Brazil will find themselves closer to the Harry Potter spirit if not the name, as the translator Lia Wyler set herself the task of coining over 400 new words (I guess she was paid by the hour 🙂 )
The spells and incantations also posed a particular challenge. Many of these were invented by Rowling and are based on Latin, so they have a certain resonance with English speakers. To create a similar effect in the Hindu version, Sanskrit was used, but translators were often forced to invent words or use transliteration.
The environment of an English boarding school also proved difficult to translate across cultures. In the Ukrainian version, for example, the translator chose to evoke the atmosphere of an orphanage for poor children instead. The Hebrew translator however decided an Israeli audience would accept the English boarding school setting as it was, part and parcel of Harry’s fantasy world.
Anagrams also played a key role in the novels but were not always successfully captured in other languages. Here’s an extract from Wikipedia explaining how translators dealt with the name of one of the main characters, who cropped up in several books under different guises:

Anagrams such as that of Tom Riddle’s name that appears in the second book also do not make the transition easily into other languages. Translators have sometimes altered the names in the book in order to make the anagram work in that language. Sometimes translators manage to alter only one part of the name: Tom Riddle’s middle name of Marvolo was changed to “Vandrolo” in the Hebrew edition, to “Marvoldo” in Turkish, to “Sorvolo” in Spanish, to “Marvoloso” in Slovak and to “Orvoloson” in Italian. In other languages, translators replaced the name entirely for the sake of preserving the anagram: in French, Riddle’s full name becomes “Tom Elvis Jedusor” an anagram of “Je suis Voldemort”; Dutch his name becomes “Marten Asmodom Vilijn”, an anagram of “Mijn naam is Voldemort” (My name is Voldemort); in Czech, his name is “Tom Rojvol Raddle”, an anagram of “Já, Lord Voldemort” (I, Lord Voldemort); in Icelandic his name becomes Trevor Delgome; in Swedish the name becomes “Tom Gus Mervolo Dolder”, an anagram of “Ego sum Lord Voldemort”, where “ego sum” is Latin, not Swedish, for “I am”. In Finnish his name is Tom Lomen Valedro (Ma olen Voldemort), in Hungarian the name is “Tom Rowle Denem”, which is the anagram of “Nevem Voldemort” – the ‘w’ in the name becomes two ‘v’s. These changes to the name created problems in later books: Tom Riddle should share his first name with Tom the Bartender, but this is not the case in all translations. (Accessed: 2010)

And finally, here’s where to start if you’re looking for more detailed information:

Wikipedia has a great entry on Harry Potter in translation, including a good discussion of many of the translation issues across a range of languages. This is a good starting point on the subject.
An excellent piece originally appeared in the journal of the Northern California Translators Association, and dealt with linguistic and cultural issues, choices faced by translators, procedural and marketing aspects, special challenges surrounding the translations, and so on. Read it here: Part 1 and Part 2.
This site provides what appears to be a detailed comparison of Harry Potter in Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese translation, looking at the way chapter titles, fictitious book titles, and proper names have been translated, passages of verse and prose, and of course, the “inevitable” translation bloopers.
Here’s an FT article where the Ukrainian, Hebrew and Danish translators speak about the impact of Pottermania on their lives.
Interesting little Guardian article by Daniel Hahn, a noted translator himself, on some of the translation challenges posed by the Harry Potter series. I’d love to see more articles like this out there – he does a fantastic job of putting the work of the translator firmly into perspective for the layman.
ITI’s Bulletin reproduced a particularly difficult passage from the fourth book in 13 different languages in its March – April 2003 issue, if you’re interested in carrying out a comparison yourself.

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?