Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters


Corinne McKay

Let's not kill all the translators…

…because even heads of state still desperately need us! Thanks to English>French translator Nelia Fahloun for mentioning this on Twitter!

Early this morning Paris time, French president François Hollande (himself a recent election winner) put pen to paper to congratulate Barack Obama on his re-election. Hollande’s letter, written in French, is warm and diplomatic. He offers Obama his own congratulations and those of the French people, and expresses his enthusiasm for working with the US on issues such as unemployment and the Middle East. Clearly wanting to finish with a personal touch, Hollande hand-wrote “Cher Barack” (Dear Barack) at the top of the letter, then decided to really make an impression by signing off in Obama’s own language. Hollande’s closing of choice? “Friendly,” (presumably Hollande’s own “translation” of the French closing “Amicalement”) followed by Hollande’s signature at the bottom of the letter. Here’s the original article in Le Nouvel Observateur, which elicited numerous mentions on the Elysée palace’s Facebook page and on Twitter. Tip to Hollande: we know you’re looking to cut spending, but don’t downsize the translation department just yet!


Corinne McKay

Where to find Trados Studio manuals

Thanks to everyone who commented on my previous post about software companies’ response to feedback from translators. I know that finding manuals for Trados Studio is only part of the issue, but I did want to give you a separate post with that information. At least two manuals for Trados Studio do exist:

  • SDL has a free quick start guide to translating and reviewing documents, which you can download as a PDF. As far as I know it’s available in English only, and the examples are for an English to German translation. However it is completely step-by-step and walks you through the basic process of translating or reviewing a document.
  • The full SDL Trados Studio manual, written by Mats Linder, is not free but gets excellent reviews. You can purchase it for US $45 from the SDL OpenExchange Application site or from Mats Linder’s website.

I’m planning to review Mats Linder’s manual on my blog in the near future; stay tuned! And if you’ve used either of these manuals, definitely contribute your feedback in the comments.


Corinne McKay

Next session of "Getting Started as a Freelance Translator" starts Wednesday

The next session of my online course Getting Started as a Freelance Translator starts on Wednesday, November 7 and I have three or four spots left (depending on who signs up today!). The last three sessions of the class have sold out, so I would recommend registering before the start date if you would like to participate.

Here’s a comment from a previous student who took this course:

Simply put, this is one of the finest resources for any translator. No matter what your specialization is, I guarantee you will take something away from Corinne’s online course. For those just starting, it will instruct and guide. For veterans, it can remind and reaffirm. In either case, you’ll definitely enjoy the experience!

The class lasts for four weeks and consists of four lessons that you complete at your own pace over the course of a week, then I provide every student with individual feedback on the assignment. You create your translation-targeted resume and cover letter, marketing plan, rates and billable hours spreadsheet and online networking tools, and we flesh out those assignments with four conference calls where you can ask whatever questions you’d like about freelancing and translation. If you can’t attend the live conference calls, I provide you with a recording afterward. Everyone in the class also gets a copy of my book, How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator, which we use as the text for the course.

The class is open to translators in any language combination, and I think that total beginners and experienced translators can all get a great deal out of it! Tuition is $275, with a $50 discount for American Translators Association members. If you’d like to read more information or join this session, visit my website.


Corinne McKay

The software companies respond!

Ahead of last week’s ATA conference, I asked readers what you would like to tell your translation tool vendor. And with 27 comments (although some of those were me!), the post generated a lot of activity and excellent feedback. I then compiled those comments into a three-page document and presented the results at an informal lunch that the ATA Translators and Computers committee held for the software companies who were exhibiting at the conference. After giving the vendors your comments to peruse, I asked them three questions:

  • Do you really not offer these features that people are asking for, or do people not realize what you offer, or both?
  • What are your thoughts on training? (i.e. many translators commenting “I pay for the software, then I have to pay to learn to use it too”)
  • Over to you: what do you want to tell the freelancers who buy and use your software?

So first, let me say that the software company reps who attended this lunch were incredibly, incredibly forthcoming and constructive. Part of the problem is that when we freelancers rant and curse about translation software issues while we’re alone in our offices, the software companies cannot hear us. They cannot hear us unless we tell them what is wrong. So I think that this discussion was a good step in that direction. Second, let me say that in my opinion, the software companies get it. They do not think “Well, we’ve got your money, now leave us alone.” They realize that it is not good for business if people can’t learn to use their programs. And they had lots of good feedback for us. Here it is in a nutshell, from the software vendors’ point of view.

  • There are lots of training materials out there, and most freelancers don’t use them. The SDL rep commented that even when people purchase (yes, pay in advance for) an SDL premium pack that includes training, only about 10% of them follow through with the training.
  • There are training videos out there, and most people don’t watch them. The SDL Trados YouTube channel has over 100 free training videos on it. Wordfast has a YouTube channel also, and memoQ has tons of free training materials on their website. The companies are frustrated that more of their customers don’t make use of what’s already there. A couple of the reps estimated that their marketing teams spend almost half of their time developing training, and that training goes largely unused even if it’s free.
  • People want something that’s cheap, feature-rich and requires no training to learn, and that’s hard to produce. One attendee gave the example that most professional photographers and graphic designers accept that they cannot work without Photoshop and/or InDesign. The list price of those programs is about $700 each and they aren’t programs that you master in 10 minutes. Translation environment tools are the same: if you want all of those features, the software is going to be expensive and it’s going to take time to learn to use.
  • When the software companies try to attract freelancers to in-person training events such as road shows, very few people attend even if the training sessions are free, and most comment that they can’t afford to take the time off work.
  • Interestingly, many of the tools vendors commented that translation agencies put too much of the technological burden on freelancers. They feel that agencies are sending out unprepared files, then expecting the translator to return a TM (sometimes in several different formats), a clean file and bilingual Word files, and generally “expect things that translators shouldn’t have to know how to do; if the agency is earning half the money on the job, it needs to take on some of these tasks.” Interesting!
  • Some tools (like Wordfast Pro) already offer a version that can run natively on Mac. But don’t hold your breath for many of the other big guys to produce a Mac version. They don’t have plans to do this because “the large user base isn’t there and it wouldn’t be profitable.”
  • Many attendees felt that freelancers should consider the option of hiring a “personal trainer” to help them learn the software. For the record, this is what I (Corinne) did when I bought Trados Studio 2011, and I felt it was a great investment. The vendors feel that it’s important to know your own capabilities and limitations; know whether you are someone who learns best from a manual, or from another person.
  • As far as interoperability, the software companies feel that they could use more “real-world perspective,” for example having some translators on the XLIFF committee, because apparently there are none right now.

So there you have it. I found this discussion to be incredibly educational and productive. Feel free to comment further, and hopefully we can find a way to keep the discussion going! Thanks to everyone who commented on my original post as well.


Corinne McKay

ATA conference wrapup

After a fantastic week in San Diego at the 53rd annual conference of the American Translators Association, I’m back at my desk, catching up on backlogged e-mail and work. I know, I’m by nature a positive person and I say this every year, but this conference was really wonderful. The location (the San Diego Bayfront Hilton) could not have been better, the weather was perfect, and several people commented that this was the best conference of the past few, in terms of sessions. Huge thanks to conference organizer Caitilin Walsh and the ATA staff for all of their efforts! Here is a summary of what I saw and did during the conference.

On Wednesday, I presented a preconference seminar, “Beyond the Basics of Freelancing” in the morning, then attended Chris Durban‘s seminar “Working the Room” in the afternoon. Overall I was pleased with how my seminar went; I had about 35 attendees which is a nice size for a 3-hour session, and there was a good mix of beginners, more advanced people, various language combinations, etc. Chris’ seminar was, as always, outstanding. She focused on in-person networking with premium-market direct clients, and offered great tips on how to select client events to attend, what to talk about, what to bring, and even what to wear (“no flowing robes at an investment banking conference”)! I love Chris’ sessions because she is incredibly straightforward, isn’t afraid to challenge the conventional wisdom about our profession, and hey, is in favor of making tons of money while enjoying your job. So that was a day well spent. And the opening reception for the conference was truly stunning: outside on the hotel lawn, about 50 feet from the water, with the sun setting over Coronado Island. If you’re already drooling, make your plans now to attend next year’s ATA conference: November 6-9 in San Antonio, Texas! Another plus to presenting a preconference seminar: the conference hasn’t even started and you’re already done presenting, which decreases the stress level quite a bit!

On Thursday, I was honored to join five other highly qualified candidates (seriously…this was a powerful group of women!!) running for the ATA Board of Directors. And even more honored to be elected! I’m looking forward to the upcoming three years of hard work and contributing to ATA’s programs and events, and I really appreciate the support of everyone who encouraged me to run. More on that later, but thank you for your votes!

After the opening session and election, I attended “Lightning Talks: The Future of Translation and Interpreting,” a Ted/Ignite-style panel moderated by Karen Tkaczyk. This featured various well-known T&I people who work in a particular niche (interpreting, high-end translation, translation standards, webcast interpreting etc.) giving four-minute talks about the future of their corner of the market. The format was a real departure from the traditional ATA session format and I really enjoyed it! After the talks, everyone at the conference was invited to submit their own thoughts on the future of the industry, then vote on two topics to be debated during the final session on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully this format will continue next year, because I heard very positive feedback about it.

I then attended Tuomas Kostiainen‘s session, “Tools for Quality Assurance and Translation Memory Maintenance.” Tuomas is an excellent speaker who gets straight to the point, and this session was packed full of tips on using the QA features of your current TM tool, then using standalone tools to go beyond those features if you need to. Tuomas also demonstrated tools for working directly in your TMs if you want/need to. The general takeaway from this session is that most people use only a tiny fraction of the QA features of the software that they already own…so learn those first, then see what else you need.

On Friday, I attended the ATA annual meeting, which is always a fun opportunity to see the various awards that ATA and AFTI (ATA’s charitable arm) present. Special congratulations to fellow Translate in the Catskills alumna Lisa Carter, who won the Alicia Gordon memorial prize for word artistry in translation! I then moved on to Percy Balemans’ presentation “Transcreation: Recreating a Text for the Target Audience.” Percy is a very natural and engaging presenter, and she drew a large audience for this hot topic! I don’t presently do transcreation, but this session really piqued my curiosity, especially since my translation style is very “non-literal,” and transcreation is a good market for translators who live in their target language country (according to Percy!).

Over lunch on Friday, I facilitated a roundtable discussion for the various translation software vendors who were exhibiting at the conference. This was the motivation for my information-gathering post before the conference. And I have to tell you, the discussion was great. It deserves its own post because once the tool vendors got talking, they had a lot to say, and it was incredibly constructive.

The rest of Friday and Saturday were taken up with Board-related meetings and with my family, who came out to San Diego for the weekend. And of course, intermingled with all of these sessions and meetings, it was really wonderful to get together with my long-time translator friends, long-distance translator friends who I had never met in person before, and of course clients! It’s just not possible to overstate the networking and outreach benefits of the ATA conference, even for those of us who are established in the profession. As usual, I left the conference both exhausted and energized, with lots of new ideas on how to tweak and improve my own business. More posts upcoming! And feel free to share your own impressions of the conference too; I would love to hear them!