Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters


Corinne McKay

Treadmill desks hit prime time

The treadmill desk seems to be getting a lot of media time lately, and none other than the New York Times featured an article on treadmill desks (entitled “I Put In 5 Miles at the Office”) in its “Well” column.

I’ve been using a treadmill desk for about four months, and I think that the NYT article gives a very balanced view of the topic. For me, the bottom line is that I enjoy walking a lot more than I enjoy sitting at a desk, and I find that I can do most of my translation work while on the treadmill; while typing this I’m walking 0.9 miles per hour. In the past few months I have also had people of varying athletic levels try the desk, and they have all commented on how easy it was to get used to reading and typing while walking.

My sense is that if you are very overweight or inactive to start out with, you can probably lose a lot of weight by using a treadmill desk; one of the Mutual of Omaha employees interviewed for the NYT article lost 16 pounds in two months after gaining 75 pounds in the previous two years. If you’re reasonably active to start out with, I think that the major advantages of a treadmill desk are decreased desk-related pain (I now notice that if I work sitting down for a day, my back, wrists and neck really bother me), better alertness (because you’re moving instead of slouching) and increased satisfaction with your work environment. I also like taking fast-walking breaks on my treadmill, where I shut off the monitors, put on my mp3 player and walk at about 3mph for 10 or 20 minutes.

Also, I am still quite happy with the walking desk that I put together for under $200, centered around a Proform Crosswalk treadmill that I purchased for $150 on Craigslist. The Crosswalk works well at low speeds and its hand rails are at exactly the right height for a keyboard tray. If your employer is paying for it, I think that a $4,000 Walkstation is probably a nice option, but it’s definitely possible to put your own walking desk together for a fraction of that amount.


Corinne McKay

If you want to feel good about your job

…click on over to Ryan Ginstrom’s post entitled “Seven things I love about being a freelance translator.” Bravo to Ryan for this excellent post. Like any job, being a freelance translator has its annoyances, and it’s often fun to vent and commiserate about them. At the same time, I think that it’s important to maintain some perspective on the benefits of freelancing. In my case, freelancing allowed me to stay home with my daughter until she started school, and like Ryan, I would have a hard time replacing my current income with an in-house job that offered a similar level of hours and flexibility. International Translation Day is coming up, so it’s a good time to talk about everything we enjoy about our jobs!


Corinne McKay

New in the translation blogosphere

There are some new blogs and good posts on the translation scene this week, here are a few that I noticed:

Identical twin translators (no, really!) Judy and Dagy Jenner, whose business (Twin Translations) I profiled a while ago have started a blog. It’s called Translation Times and is a great new addition to the translator’s feed reader!

Over at Musings from an Overworked Translator, Jill Sommer has a great post on The top 10 rules for working from home, which is a really helpful list of ways to stay productive in the home office. Make sure to read the comments, where other translators rate themselves on their compliance with the “top 10” rules.

This blog isn’t so new, but I’ve also been enjoying reading Abigail Dahlberg’s Dispatches from an environmental translator’s desk. Abigail has a true niche specialization (focusing on recycling and waste management) and also gives interesting insights into the life of a non-US citizen freelancer working in the US.

Happy reading!


Corinne McKay

Methods for backing up your computer data

Years ago, I was visiting friends of friends in Denmark and the inhabitants of the house happened to be very serious geeks. On the dining room wall, they had a sort of shadow box frame, and in it was a computer disk (this was back in the day of five-inch floppies) spray painted gold, with the caption “BACKUP COPY.” As a teenager I remember being horrified by their choice of home decor, but over the years I’ve actually thought of making my own similar display for my office. If you’re not backing up at least once a day, you’re playing Russian roulette with your business.

As a freelance translator, a functioning computer is absolutely critical to your business. Some day, your computer will fail or you will accidentally erase some critical files or your office will flood or your computer will get stolen, or maybe more than one of these things will happen. The point is that at some point, a bad thing will happen to your computer and you will need to restore some data.

At the micro level, I think it’s good to periodically e-mail yourself the current version of a project in progress so that you don’t lose the time that you’ve put into it. At a minimum, I do this at the end of every day, by sending those files to my Gmail account. That way, if I have an issue before the project is done, I simply go to the Gmail account and download the file I need onto another computer, and no time is lost. This point was driven home to me when my primary computer’s video card failed. It wasn’t a catastrophic failure, but the computer was unusable until I got a new video card. This is one reason why I think that an entire backup computer (laptop or desktop) is a good idea. If you have a backup computer, you won’t be stuck waiting for a new primary computer to arrive if your primary computer dies.

At the macro level, you need a way to back up large numbers of files or even your entire computer system, so you have to look at larger solutions. Some possibilities are:

External media: This could involve backing up your files onto a flash drive, CD/DVD or external hard drive. A few considerations: flash drives are hard to label and easy to lose, but as I understand it they are not damaged by contact with magnets or magnetic fields, which is a plus. CDs and DVDs can hold a lot of data (maybe up to 8.5 gig for a DVD) but their lifetime can vary by the burning method and the brand of disk. External hard drives are easy to use and the price for them has fallen, but my understanding is that they can also be susceptible to malware attacks if your primary hard drive is affected.

You can back up to external media either manually (copying over the files that you want to back up) or by using software that runs the backups for you automatically, such as Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost. If you use backup software, just make sure that you know how to restore your data from the backed up version, since the software may not store the data in a format that you are used to using.

External storage media have a few main pros and cons. On the plus side, you’re in control of the backups, and your data is in your hands. You don’t need to worry about confidentiality of your data or about the reliability of a third party business. On the con side, external media can get lost, stolen or mislabeled, and the drives and disks are also subject to the same risks as your primary computer in the event of a fire or flood. If you use external storage media and keep them in the same physical location as your primary computer, make sure that you have some sort of off-site backup. For example you might scan your tax records, burn them onto a DVD and keep them at a (trusted!) friend’s house.

Online methods: As server space has gotten cheaper, various businesses have sprung up, offering to store your files online for you at an attractive price. Two services that seem to get good reviews are Mozy (operated by EMC) and Carbonite. Mozy offers “unlimited backup for your home computer” for $4.95 per month, and Mozy Pro is priced per month (starting at $3.95 plus 50 cents per gig) but has more features and can be automated. Carbonite costs $49.95 per year for unlimited space and promises that it is “completely automatic.”

If you use an online storage method, you have the advantage of being able to access your data from anywhere, and an obvious advantage is that online methods aren’t subject to risks like loss, theft, fire or flood. Some issues with them are confidentiality and control. For example, it seems to me that there is some risk that a) the backup company’s servers could be hacked or stolen and your confidential data could be lost and b) there might be some issues with complying with client confidentiality agreements if you use an online storage service, for example if the client asks you to “permanently delete” certain files from your computer.

Yet another option (and the one that I use for on-site backups) is a RAID disk setup in your primary computer. RAID is not exactly a backup method but more of a redundancy method (it stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) where your computer data is written to both disks simultaneously. RAID can be used with various numbers of disks; I have two hard drives in my primary computer’s box. In this way, one of the disks can operate without the other one, and since they contain the same data, you’re OK with just one of the disks. The advantage is that this method is totally automatic and disks are cheap, plus with both of the disks inside the computer case there’s nothing to lose; the disadvantage is that both of the disks are still in the same machine, so if that pipe bursts above your desk, you’re still out of luck.

The most important aspect of backups is doing them. For most home-based translators, it’s possible to get away with a basic method of backups as long as you run the backup every day without fail.


Corinne McKay

Getting the names straight

One of the great things about our industry is the variety of people we get to work with; people from all different countries, cultures and ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. The other side of this coin is that we have a lot of clients and colleagues who aren’t named Bob or Janet, which brings up a few issues that we need to pay attention to:

  • Get the spelling right. Take this from someone who receives e-mail addressed to Corrine, Corrinne and even “Hey Connie!” (from someone I’ve never met). If someone has an uncommon name, copy their name from the e-mail that they sent you so that you get it right. When it comes to first impressions, there really is no bigger turnoff than being addressed by the wrong name.
  • Call people what they ask to be called. In some cases, people want to be called by a name that isn’t their given name, and really that’s their prerogative. I learned this lesson when I kept insisting to an Asian acquaintance that I wanted to try using her Chinese name, rather than Veronica, the name she used in English. Finally she explained that it pained her to hear English speakers butcher her Chinese name, and she’d really (really) rather be called Veronica. Another Asian friend told me that he (emphasis on “he”) asked to be called Scott rather than his Chinese name, Hoa, because he was “tired of getting rejection letters addressed to ‘Dear Ms. Ly’.” So, use the name that your client or colleague asks you to use.
  • Use titles wisely. Similar to French’s use of “tu” and “vous,” it’s sometimes hard to know when to use a title and when to use someone’s first name. In general if you’re contacting a prospective client, a title is a safe bet. In English, always use “Ms.” for women even if you know that the person is married. Again, take this from someone who receives e-mail to “Dear Mrs. McKay,” which is actually my mother, since I don’t use my husband’s last name. The place where I think it’s good to omit a title is when you want to put someone at ease; when someone is contacting you as the employer/authority/job reference, etc. and you want to let them know that you’re really not that scary, I think it’s good to respond to the “Dear Mr. Warren” e-mail with “Dear Celeste, thanks for your message and feel free to call me Paul.”
  • Gender. This is a hard one. If you have a name that is used for both genders (Chris, Alex, Terry, etc.) or a name for which the gender is not obvious to English speakers, you may or may not want to clarify your gender. It’s easy to do with a simple “Ms. Alex Thomas” or “Mr. Fouad El Tawil” in your e-mail signature file, but of course it’s up to you whether or not you want to do this.