Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters


Corinne McKay

Planning a successful event for translators

Over the weekend, the Colorado Translators Association held our annual “holiday” party (which we always have in January, hence the quotation marks). We’re an association of about 100 members and we typically have about 40 attendees at this party, which seems to prove either that translators really need to get out of the house, or that we plan fun events,  or maybe both! I’m the current CTA President and our Vice President Eve Bodeux did the lion’s share of the planning for this event.

One of the first steps to a successful event is a good venue: in years past we’ve had our party in the private dining rooms of various local restaurants. The 2009 party (which Eve also planned and which was praised as  “best ever” by our longtime members) was at Rodizio Grill and I highly recommend their excellent food, fun atmosphere (never say the Brazilians don’t know how to throw a party!) and incredibly helpful staff. This year we decided to break the mold and hold our party in the art gallery of the Alliance Française of Denver with food by Jules Gourmet Catering and live music by Peace & Love & Jigs & Reels, featuring local Dutch to English translator Cynthia Jaffé on flute.  Following are a few tips we’ve gleaned over the years to help us plan fun and successful events for our members.

The venue: if you have more than 10-15 people, you’re best off with a restaurant that has a private dining room or a rented space where you have the whole area for your group. With more than a small group, it’s hard to have a fun party in a restaurant with other people all around you, because it’s loud, hard to talk, hard to make any type of introductions or presentations, etc. The nice thing about a rented space is that you’re a little more autonomous as far as how you set things up and when you arrive and leave, but you will probably do more work in terms of setup and cleanup. For reference, we paid about the same amount of money per person for our 2009 and 2010 parties and we were very happy with the quality of the food at both of them.

The food and drink: Do not scrimp on good food and drinks for translators. Some professional groups might be content with rubber chicken, canned green beans and instant coffee but a group of translators will not be. Make sure to have a vegetarian option; buffets are always good because then you don’t have to keep everyone’s order straight and people can choose whatever they want to eat. In our experience, translators are enthusiastic wine and fancy soda drinkers, not so much beer and Coke. And don’t forget that to most Europeans and Latin Americans, decaf coffee is an abomination even at 11 PM; ask your caterer/restaurant to have both regular and decaf available.

The entertainment and activities: One year we tried having a joint party with the local interpreters association, featuring salsa dancing lessons and then an open dance floor. Unfortunately, the dance portion went over like a lead balloon with most of the translators, who wanted to hang out in a quiet but festive atmosphere, drink some wine and talk. However, this year the live music that we had for the cocktail hour earned rave reviews (just don’t ask translators to dance in public!). Door prizes are always a hit. This year our door prize coordinator, German to English translator Karen Williams, had the innovative idea of having CTA members donate door prizes related to their hobbies or professional interests. For example one of our members collects antique maps, another has a sideline business making honey, another member’s brother wrote a book of math puzzles, another member’s wife is a jeweler, etc. This made for hot competition for the one-of-a-kind items and was a fantastic personal touch to the evening.

The little touches: Make place cards so that people can put their card down where they want to sit and then circulate, or people can set up a whole table for their group of friends. Offer complimentary tickets to your key volunteers to thank them for their work over the course of the year. If you use a caterer, look for one that will let you supply your own drinks. And remember, don’t make translators dance!

Any other tips for good translation-industry events?


Corinne McKay

Some links to round out the week

Thoughts on Translation has been finishing up a few deadlines this week and prepping for the Colorado Translators Association‘s holiday party, so we’ll let some other bloggers do the talking. Here are some posts that caught my eye this week:

  • About Translation on making a dual monitor out of your laptop and one desktop monitor. Very cool! I have side-by-side widescreen monitors, but this trick would be really useful when I’m working remotely and the remote location (for example, my in-laws’ guest room…) only has one monitor.
  • Translation Tribulations on simulating the Trados look and feel in DVX. Kevin has a solution for translators who want a vertical view rather than the two-column layout (but he makes a good case for why the two-column layout is faster to work in!).
  • The Wealthy Freelancer on Twitter versus Facebook. I also feel “meh” (as the post’s title says) about Facebook’s usefulness for business purposes, and although I joined Twitter with great reluctance, it really works.
  • OpenOffice.org Training, Tips and Ideas on GNU Image Manipulation Program, or “free Photoshop”. I’m not much of a graphics person, but GIMP has really saved me on a number of occasions!
  • Global Watchtower on Language Line’s decision to offer face-to-face interpreting services. Yes, that’s the company that’s spent years “touting the benefits of remote interpreting services,” so it’s an interesting move!

Have a great weekend!


Corinne McKay

Reader survey: the best and worst things about your CAT tools

In preparation for the  second edition of How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator, I’m revising the chapter on translation technology. I’d like to include some “best and worst” observations from translators who use various translation environment tools, so if you are interested in having your comments included (anonymously) in this chapter, please submit them. They can be short: for example I would say:
Wordfast: Best: Excellent documentation, fast, friendly support, love the three years of unlimited upgrades. Overall, I find Wordfast Classic very intuitive to use, and the two-toned interface is easy on the eyes. Worst: I waited years (sounds dramatic but it’s true!) for their new platform-independent version so that I could finally run Wordfast on an all open source system, only to find out that Wordfast Pro does not recognize Microsoft Office-format files that were created in or have ever been opened in OpenOffice. I just don’t get it: a Linux-specific version of a program that requires Microsoft Word (and doesn’t say that up front)?
OmegaT: Best: Free! Simple! Fast! And a great user community. I love OmegaT. Worst: Can’t produce Trados-style uncleaned files without a lot of tinkering. And the tags inside the segments… I know, the tags are there for a reason, but when I’m translating a file that’s been created using OCR software and is thus full of formatting tags, they’re annoying.

Anyone else?


Corinne McKay

The five minute task list

Most of us who work from home feel guilty about wasting time in large increments, but the same isn’t always true of small increments. If I finish work early or a project is canceled and I have a few “found” hours of time, I nearly always switch to another productive task such as working on my blog or website, contacting prospective clients, etc. However I find that the same isn’t true when I have five or ten minutes; if I have a conference call at 11:00 and I finish my morning’s work at 10:50, I’m more likely to read celebrity gossip websites (shameful but true) or look at friends’ photos on Facebook.

The real problem is that these small increments of time add up. To combat this issue, I started what I call a “Five minute task list” that I post over my desk. As a side note, I still do all of my planning and scheduling (other than finances) on paper because then I’m forced to look at it, whereas if it’s on my computer I tend to forget that it’s there. At any rate, I made a list of tasks that really do take only five or ten minutes:

  • Enter receipts into accounting software
  • Shred confidential documents
  • Send one e-mail to a prospective client or a client I haven’t heard from lately
  • Add one contact on LinkedIn or Viadeo
  • Send one marketing postcard to a prospective client
  • Back up my blog
  • Back up in-progress projects to Gmail
  • Review business bank account for irregularities
  • Delete unneeded files from hard drive

I find that this technique has really helped me make those small increments of time more productive, and in addition, some of these tasks (shredding, entering receipts, etc.) are so tedious that I can’t stand to do them for longer than a few minutes anyway. Feel free to add your own suggestions as well!


Corinne McKay

How the media is covering the Haitian earthquake

I’m an unabashed NPR junkie, and like many people I have been glued to the radio this week while listening to news of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. I wish that I could speak or read Haitian Kreyol, but like many other FR<>EN translators I did take the step of applying to Translators Without Borders.

While browsing freelance journalist and editor Michelle Rafter’s blog WordCount: Freelancing in the digital age, I came across her fascinating post called The story behind the story, about how media outlets, including NPR,  are covering the Haitian earthquake.  I then clicked through to this fascinating blog post by NPR’s ombudsman Alicia Shephard, who gives a timeline of what happened at NPR from the moment the quake struck, an hour into NPR’s flagship evening news program. It’s especially interesting to read how news outlets are using new media tools like Twitter to distribute and receive information when phone communications break down.

While listening to the earliest reports from the NPR reporters who arrived in Haiti soon after the earthquake, I was struck by the fact that I had never (even after events like 9/11) heard seasoned reporters break down in tears during live coverage; I couldn’t fathom what the scene on the ground must be like if these people, whose careers consist largely of covering war zones, murders, natural disasters and terrorist attacks were overwhelmed by the tragedy they were seeing. Very interesting reading, and if anyone knows of ways for translators to help smaller organizations that might be less overwhelmed with volunteers, please post them in the comments!