Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters


Corinne McKay

New and interesting on the web

If you’re looking for some coffee-break reading today, you might want to click on over to:

Masked Translator’s post Freaking out about the economy, which made me laugh out loud and is a nice complement to Get Rich Slowly’s The national economy versus your personal economy. These posts both drive home an important point (backed up in the comments on MT’s post as well): the world’s economy might be in free-fall, but if your work volume is holding steady, resist the urge to panic and keep running your business the way you always have. Kevin Lossner’s comment on MT’s post makes a great point: if anything, now is the time to cherry-pick your work and focus on clients who require high-quality translations.

Over at About Translation, Riccardo Schiaffino posted a link to a great resource, the E.U.’s “Summary of Legislation” site in 11 languages. It’s particularly appealing that when you switch the language selection, you get the same page in your newly selected language (rather than being redirected to that language’s home page), so looks like quite a useful site for translators.

Lastly (and admittedly OT), Get Rich Slowly featured a link to a fascinating article on Amish geeks and the Amish attitude toward technology in general. Make sure to read at least to the part where the Amish gentleman sums up the digital culture by saying “you got messages rather than conversations.”


Corinne McKay

Very part-time freelancing

Most beginning translators I talk to have similar goals for their nascent freelance businesses; they currently have a full-time job and they want to start freelancing part time, then gradually ramp up to full time freelancing as their work volume increases. Lately, I’ve come across a few beginning freelancers who have a different goal: they want to freelance very part time on a long-term basis. One of these individuals wants to freelance only in the summers (in combination with a teaching job), one wants to freelance only at night (in combination with being an at-home parent) and another wants to freelance only on the weekends. All of these people asked “is this possible?” and it would be interesting to get other translators’ takes on this too.

Here’s my take: I think that if you want to work on an “odd” schedule, you have to a) market to clients to whom this type of schedule would be an asset or a necessity and b) convince yourself that your unconventional schedule is a selling point, not a deficit. For example, it seems to me that many translation buyers (be they agencies or direct clients) struggle to find translators during the summer months, when many of their regulars are on vacation. Particularly in the month of August, when it can seem that every person who lives in or is originally from Europe is out on a beach chair somewhere, the translator pickings can be slim, which could open the door to a summer-only translator. However, I think that the challenge lies in reminding clients that you, the summer-only translator, exist between September and May so that come June, they’ll send you work. At a large agency, a significant portion of the project management staff could have turned over during this time, and even a small client will have handled reams of work during the winter months. So, I think that the summer-only translator has to keep up a steady flow of contact, even if he or she really only wants to work in June, July and August.

I think that people who work off-hours have it a little easier. For starters, these people can use time zones to their advantage and mount a “the end of your day is the beginning of mine” or “send me your documents on Friday afternoon and the translations will be in your in-box on Monday morning” marketing campaign. Translators who work off-hours might also do well, once they have some experience, to market themselves as “pinch hitters” for translators who work with direct clients. In my experience, translators are much more reluctant to turn down work from a regular direct client than from a regular agency client, because the direct client may find another option and stick with it. So, an off-hours translator could be a lifesaver when a translator needs some work done at the last minute; of course this involves a high degree of trust between the regular translator and the pinch hitter!

Any other ideas/experiences out there for translators who want to work while the rest of us are sleeping or playing?


Corinne McKay

A year of Thoughts on Translation

The first post on this blog appeared a year ago this week, not long after my social media mentor Beth Hayden convinced me to take the blogging plunge. Since then it’s been an exciting year of forcing myself to compose my thoughts about translation and the translation industry into 170 posts, which received a total of 58,729 views. Thoughts on Translation’s busiest day (by far!!) was Wednesday, July 2 when it received over 3,000 hits after being mentioned in the ProZ newsletter. A regular day is more like 250 views, and please know how much I appreciate everyone’s ideas and comments, whether you’ve posted them on the site or sent them to me directly. And if that many people want to read what I have to say, imagine how many more want to hear from you!


Corinne McKay

Your local business news as a marketing tool

If you’re interested in building up your base of direct clients, keeping up with your local business news is an essential part of the equation. In this economy, I think it’s easy to cross the business news off your list as “all doom and gloom” and therefore not worth reading. However, as today’s post in The Wealthy Freelancer points out, freelancers who want to do well in a down economy have to become adept at finding clients that are doing well despite or even because of the slow economy. Although my own work volume has been quite high in the past few months, I’m making a concerted effort to market my services to more direct clients, so I’ve delved into the world of local business news media.

Wherever you live, you’re nearly guaranteed to find at least one publication devoted to local business news. Here in the Denver metro area we have three such publications: the Northern Colorado Business Report, the Boulder County Business Report and the Denver Business Journal. All of these publications have a variety of free content on their websites, and at least one even offers a free daily e-newsletter with local business headlines. In just a few weeks of browsing these news sources, I’ve seen a few items that piqued my curiosity. In some cases, the news briefs highlighted companies that may or may not need translators, but that clearly work in my areas of specialization and are thriving, i.e. “Law firm growing while others shed staff.” This seemed like a good opening for a “Congratulations on your success! Just wanted to pass along my contact information in case you have a need for French to English legal translation services”-type e-mail.

In other cases, the business news got me thinking about broader marketing possibilities. For example, a recent feature story chronicled a German solar power company’s selection of Fort Collins, CO as the new base of its U.S. operations. Although I don’t translate German, I thought that the solar company might be worth a contact anyway, if only to let them know that they can hire highly-skilled translators and interpreters right here in Colorado. But I was actually more interested in the story of how Fort Collins “rolled out the red carpet” (as described by the city’s CFO) to recruit this German company. It had never occurred to me to market translation services to city finance/business development people, but this article made me realize that when overseas companies think about branching out in the U.S., city government employees are often their major points of contact.

In other cases, I think that the local business news can reveal the little-known international affiliations of some seemingly local companies. I recently learned that a “local” company that manufactures turboprop aircraft is actually the North American branch of a Swiss company, so I put them on my list of potential contacts too. So, whether you live in a major metro area or a rural hamlet, take a look at your local business publications if you’re looking for some new prospective clients!


Corinne McKay

Thoughts on machine translation

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about machine translation, with translators and translation industry watchers either condemning machine translation as useless and damaging to the profession or touting it as the next big thing in the industry. ATA President Jiri Stejskal wrote his most recent column for the ATA Chronicle about MT, reader Polly-Vous Français  sent this link to a Financial Times blog about machine translation’s role in the blogosphere, and last evening the Colorado Translators Association sponsored an excellent presentation by Cris Silva of All in Portuguese, which focused on integrating machine translation into your existing suite of computer-assisted translation tools.

Cris’ presentation, which she also gave at the recent ATA conference with Giovanna Boselli as a co-presenter, was interesting in that she used the ATA certification exam grading scale to score the output from Google Translate. Out of three sample texts that Cris submitted to Google Translate, two would have failed the ATA certification exam and one would have passed (for what it’s worth, I think that 30% is a better passing rate than what is achieved by the humans who take the ATA exam!). So, what’s the outlook for MT? Friend? Foe? Colleague?

I’ll go on the record as saying that I think that most translators are much too paranoid about machine translation. MT technology has come a long way, and I think that we’re on the cusp of its being considered a standard productivity tool for translators, much as translation memory is today. However, I think it’s not worth losing sleep about machine translation sending human translators the way of the telegraph operator. For an industry leader’s outlook, check out 5 Questions with Renato Beninatto on Sarah Dillon’s blog “There’s Something About Translation.” In this interview, Renato makes the case that the translation industry is in a bind, with “good translators…scarce and becoming scarcer” and the demand for translation growing at 15-20% a year. Companies are turning to MT as an option because their volume of content demands it, not because they want to avoid human involvement in the process.

So, I decided to do my own unscientific test of what Google Translate is producing these days, using three different texts that are similar to what I might be translating on any given day: fluffy, dense and flowery. Let’s see how it did.

For the “fluffy” test, I pulled a tidbit from the French Wikipedia page about France’s first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Let’s read about her life pre-Nicolas!

Alors qu’elle vit avec l’éditeur littéraire Jean-Paul Enthoven, elle entame une liaison avec le fils de celui-ci, Raphaël Enthoven, qui était alors marié avec Justine Lévy. En 2001, elle a un fils, Aurélien, avec Raphaël Enthoven[19]. En 2004, elle est l’un des personnages du premier best-seller de Justine Lévy Rien de grave. L’auteur, fille de Bernard-Henri Lévy (dont l’éditeur historique et meilleur ami n’est autre que le père de Raphaël Enthoven), y expose son important passage à vide et sa période de reconstruction à la suite de son divorce avec Raphaël Enthoven, parti avec Carla Bruni.

And the result from Google Translate:

While she lives with the literary editor Jean-Paul Enthoven, she began an affair with the son of the latter, Raphaël Enthoven, who was then married to Justine Lévy. In 2001, she has a son, Aurélien, with Raphael Enthoven [19]. In 2004, she is one of the first bestseller by Justine Lévy Nothing serious. The author, daughter of Bernard-Henri Lévy (including historical editor and best friend is none other than the father of Raphael Enthoven), sets out its important transition to vacuum and its period of reconstruction following his divorce from Raphaël Enthoven, who with Carla Bruni.

At first, with the exception of its confusion over the use of the present tense in French (which sometimes drives me crazy too!), things are looking good. Then, Mme. Bruni-Sarkozy herself becomes a bestseller, rather than a character in one. Finally, the “transition to vacuum” following “his” divorce is a complete disaster. This passage  highlights some of the areas in which MT really struggles, for example confusion over the fact that French does not have separate words for “her” and “his.” The key question: is this editable, or could I have translated it from scratch in less time? I’d pick to redo this one entirely.

Next, let’s move on to something dense. Here’s an excerpt from the Quebec department of labor’s information about its purpose:

Emploi-Québec agit à la fois comme producteur, utilisateur et diffuseur d’information nationale et régionale sur le marché du travail.

  • Son rôle de producteur de données lui permet d’offrir une information de qualité, fiable et à jour.
  • Utilisant ces données dans sa prestation de services, Emploi-Québec occupe une position privilégiée pour bien cerner les besoins d’information des personnes et des entreprises.

Google Translate tells us that:

Emploi-Québec acts both as a producer, user and disseminator of information on national and regional labor market.

* His role as a producer of data allows it to provide quality information, reliable and current.
* Using these data in its services, Emploi-Québec occupies a privileged position to identify the information needs of individuals and businesses.

Here, I’d say that with the exception of some misplaced modifiers and the pesky problem of French referring to all nouns as “he” or “she,” we’re moving closer to something that’s editable, more along the lines of what one would expect from a non-expert human translator.

Now how about something flowery. Here’s a passage from a project I worked on last year, a promotional document for an arts festival in Senegal.

Faut-il s’étonner que, portés par cette lame de fond, les responsables africains aient, à leur tour, pris la décision historique de transformer l’Organisation de l’Unité Africaine (O.U.A.) en Union Africaine (U.A.) ? En reprenant à son compte la vision prospective de Kwame Nkrumah, la nouvelle Union Africaine a donné à l’Afrique de nouvelles ambitions.

And the result:

Is it any wonder that, carried by the slide background, African leaders have, in turn, took the historic decision to transform the Organization of African Unity (OAU) African Union (AU)? Showing in his account of the vision of Kwame Nkrumah, the new African Union has given to Africa for new ambitions. Complete their destiny.

Wow. To quote that immortal line from Cool Hand Luke, “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” Even someone who doesn’t speak French can appreciate the exuberant incomprehensibility of this passage. Slide background? His account of the vision? And the OAU and the AU are now the same thing? We’ll just let Google Translate complete its destiny on passages such as this.

So, my unscientific observation would be that for straightforward texts, this type of MT is almost at the point where it could be a useful add-on to a translator’s tool suite.  Many translation environment tools now incorporate some time of MT module, and on a text such as the second example, I would probably be willing to try this feature. For more nuanced texts, I think that the human touch is still critical