Combining translation and interpreting

Greetings, Training for Translators readers! I hope that 2024 is off to a good start for all of you. Here’s the news from Training for Translators:

• I wrote an OT (off-topic) post about my family’s recent trip to Belize (we loved it!!)
• The T4T training year kicks off today, with a one-hour class on Using objective data to set your freelance rates. Registration ($50) includes the recording.
• Tomorrow, the four-week session of Getting started as a freelance translator or interpreter…in the age of AI kicks off. Registration is $190, and members of the American Translators Association can use coupon code ATA for $30 off

On to this week’s topic: Combining translation and interpreting in your freelance business. A couple of readers have suggested this topic (if you have a topic you’d like me to address in a future newsletter, just reply to this e-mail!).

For context, from 2002 (when I started freelancing) until 2019 (when I passed the Colorado state court interpreter exam), I was exclusively a French to English translator. From 2019 until 2021 (when I graduated from the Glendon College Master of Conference Interpreting program), my work volume was about 90% translation and 10% interpreting, particularly because court interpreting dropped to almost zero for the first few months of COVID, and I turned down most interpreting assignments during the year I was studying at Glendon.

When I finished the Glendon program, my goal was to be 50/50 translation and interpreting within a year and a half of finishing the program (meaning, by the end of 2022), and I thought that this was wildly optimistic, because I didn’t know much about the conference interpreting market, there’s very little in-person conference interpreting work where I live, and I assumed (incorrectly) that most conference interpreting work was going to go back to in-person once the acute phase of the pandemic was over. In reality, interpreting work is booming: in 2023 I earned US $65K from interpreting–12K from court interpreting and 53K from conference interpreting–and I did almost 200 days of interpreting (103 court assignments and 90 conference assignments). This was almost double the amount of interpreting I did in 2022, while my translation work stayed stable (32K in 2023 as compared to 33K in 2022). If you didn’t read my 2023 wrap-up post with the details, here it is.

In the past year and a half, I’ve come to a few realizations about combining translation and interpreting:

• Most importantly, I really enjoy doing both. One reader who suggested this topic observed (and I agree) that it’s relatively uncommon to really combine translation and interpreting: you’re more likely to encounter interpreters who occasionally translate at times of the year when interpreting work is slow, or translators who do a small amount of court interpreting, for example. I actually really enjoy doing real amounts of both translation and interpreting, and I hope to continue this!
• I find that interpreting makes me a better translator, and translating makes me a better interpreter. Interpreting has taught me a lot about focusing on meaning, rather than words; using shorter, simpler ways of expressing complicated concepts; knowing when to add a little flair and when to cut out the fluff. Translation has taught me a lot about finding precisely the right word; slowing down instead of rushing; making sure that the expression is exactly what I want. I feel like both skills have benefited each other.
• I’ve also come to appreciate the advantages of both translation and interpreting. When you finish an interpreting assignment, whether it went well or poorly, it’s over. Even if you were recorded (which allows you to go back and obsess over what you said!), there’s no way to change it. As one of my music teachers once told me, the reason not to obsess over music mistakes is that by the time you hear them, they’re already over. This is a beautiful thing about interpreting! The beautiful thing about translation is taking as long as you want (as long as you meet the deadline!) to pick just the right word. When you’re interpreting, you have about a quarter of a second to contemplate the difference between the words “maybe” and “perhaps,” or “careless” and “reckless.” At times it can feel like being fired out of a cannon, and I’ve come to really appreciate the luxury of time when I’m translating.
• It can also be challenging to combine the two, in terms of workflow. Because I (fortunately) have a good deal of interpreting work, I’m often too busy to take on last-minute, large translation projects. I’d like to find at least one new, steady translation client, but I really don’t want a “2,500 words for tomorrow” type of client, because I’m interpreting more days than not. Translation work that blends well with interpreting is definitely somewhat of a niche market.

Then, there are the business aspects of translation and interpreting. A few observations there:

• Interpreting, at least the flavors of interpreting that I do (mostly remote simultaneous, and court) is really in demand. It took me about the same amount of time (18 months) to really “launch” as translator in 2002 and as an interpreter in 2021, but marketing my interpreting services involved a lot less work.
• Interesting, well-paid interpreting work tends to find me, whereas I have to knock on a lot more doors to find interesting, well-paid translation work. I don’t feel, at all, that the translation profession is dying. Here’s a post I wrote about where I think the whole MT/AI push is headed. At the same time, there’s a much smaller pool of French conference/court interpreters than the pool of French to English translators. Clients might want to cut corners on interpreting, but you can’t really do simultaneous interpreting if you haven’t studied and practiced it extensively, and automated interpreting is way behind machine translation. I lose a lot of translation work because the client finds someone cheaper, and it’s pretty rare that that happens with interpreting.
• For reasons that I keep mulling over, without a clear answer, interpreting agency rates haven’t cratered in the way that translation agency rates have. I’d estimate that translation agency rates have dropped by about half in the 20+ years that I’ve been a translator, while I have several interpreting agency clients that voluntarily raised their rates in the past few years. I’m really not sure whether this is a case of increased translation automation, more freelance translators entering the market (giving an “anyone can do it” flavor to the profession), interpreters exerting pressure on other interpreters not to decrease their rates, fewer interpreters entering the market, interpreters who dropped out of the market during COVID or because they hate remote interpreting, all of these factors, none of these factors, or something else entirely.

Overall, I am very, very happy that I decided to pursue interpreting in addition to translation, and I’m happy with the mix of clients that I have right now. If you are also considering such a career pivot, I would encourage it, and I hope that these tips are helpful!

Corinne McKay (classes@trainingfortranslators.com) is the founder of Training for Translators, and has been a full-time freelancer since 2002. She holds a Master of Conference Interpreting from Glendon College, is an ATA-certified French to English translator, and is Colorado court-certified for French interpreting. If you enjoy her posts, consider joining the Training for Translators mailing list!