Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters


Corinne McKay

Building relationships with potential clients, versus just pitching your services

It’s a great time of the year to do some marketing, when clients have returned from their summer break but before things get really crazy around the winter holidays. Here’s an important question to ask yourself before you start marketing: are you more interested in building relationships, or in just pitching your services?

Here’s what that looks like in practice:
-If you’re trying to build relationships with potential clients, you want to find multiple ways to connect with them, without necessarily offering your services. Maybe you follow them on LinkedIn and/or Twitter, you Like and/or comment on their posts, you put a Google Alert on their name so that you know what’s going on with them. Maybe you try to meet them at a conference, or attend an event that they might be attending. Your purpose is mostly to get on their radar screen and create a connection with them, rather than directly offering your translation or interpreting services.

-It’s also totally fine to just pitch your services. The most basic example of this would be to send an e-mail to a client who seems to need your services. “Hello Melissa, I hope you’re doing well. I recently came across your website while researching immigration law firms in the Boston area. I am an English to Spanish translator specializing in legal and official document translations. Would you be the correct person to speak with about offering my freelance services?”

Either of these methods can be effective; the problem arises when you’re not really sure which strategy you’re pursuing. You’re following clients on social media, but you’re never really interacting with them. Or you’re connecting with potential clients on LinkedIn, but you’re never directly asking if they need your services. The key is to pick one strategy and really pursue it.

Corinne McKay (classes@trainingfortranslators.com) is the founder of Training for Translators, and has been a full-time freelancer since 2002. An ATA-certified French to English translator and Colorado court-certified interpreter, she also holds a Master of Conference Interpreting from Glendon College. For more tips and insights, join the Training for Translators mailing list!


Corinne McKay

Getting started as a freelance translator starts today!

The September/October session of my four-week online course, Getting started as a freelance translator, starts today, and you can still sign up. We have a good group already, and there’s room for you! Registration is $190 and the course is completely self-paced, with six months of access to the video lessons and weekly question and answer sessions.

You’ll complete the course with an understanding of how the translation industry works, and what you need to do to be successful as a freelance translator.

-Week one: An overview of the translation industry, types of clients, income potential, and how to decide if you’re ready to enter the market; choosing specializations

-Week two: Creating a translation-targeted resume and cover letter/e-mail, and/or one-page profile; deciding how much to charge and getting paid

-Week three: Developing and implementing a marketing plan for agencies and direct clients

-Week four: Creating an online presence: website, LinkedIn, association profiles, etc. Find out why past participants have described this class as, “an excellent introductory course for anyone who is starting and doesn’t have a clue about translation.” Even if you do have a clue about translation, you’ll learn how to launch and run a successful freelance business. Hop on over to the Training for Translators website to read the full description or to register.

Thanks to everyone who attended our September master class on marketing to direct clients! It was a fun time with a lot of great questions, and October’s master class, Breaking into the book translation market, is coming up on October 20.

Corinne McKay (classes@trainingfortranslators.com) is the founder of Training for Translators, and has been a full-time freelancer since 2002. An ATA-certified French to English translator and Colorado court-certified interpreter, she also holds a Master of Conference Interpreting from Glendon College. For more tips and insights, join the Training for Translators mailing list!


Corinne McKay

How to certify a translation

A couple of readers have asked me lately how to certify a translation, so that’s today’s topic. This applies to translations certified for U.S. purposes: to be used in the U.S. or by U.S entities such as diplomatic facilities.

Some freelance translators want nothing to do with certified translations, and that’s totally fine. If you hate working with individuals, just don’t do it. Personally, I find certified translations easy and lucrative; I work on a per-page rate (usually US $75 per page) and I don’t do the translation until the client pays by credit card. I handle that through QuickBooks Online invoicing; until a few months ago I used PayPal, but since switching to QBO, I prefer that. It’s much cleaner in my accounting records, the fee is about the same as PayPal, and I think that the invoices look more professional. So far this year, I’ve earned $6,200 doing certified translations for individuals: about half of what I’ve earned from translating for direct clients or interpreting for agencies, but definitely enough to make it worthwhile.

To certify a translation for U.S. purposes, you should:

  1. First, put the responsibility for determining the certification requirements on the client, not on yourself. Individual clients will ask you all kinds of things:Will the Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles accept your translation? Will the U.S. Embassy in Luxembourg accept your translation? There is no possible way for you to know all of these requirements, and you don’t want to be responsible if your translation is rejected. So you want to say something to the client such as, “I am certified by the American Translators Association for German to English translation. Please verify with the entity to which you’re submitting the translation whether that certification is acceptable for their purposes, or send me their certification requirements and I will review them.”
  2. This relates to another issue, whether you have to be ATA-certified in order to certify a translation for U.S. purposes. Yes, no, maybe. That’s the honest answer. Many entities, most notably USCIS, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, do not require any credentials as a translator in order to certify a translation. The translator simply has to sign a certificate of accuracy saying that they are competent to translate the document, and that the translation is true and accurate. However, I feel that it is a distinct advantage to be ATA-certified if you want to translate official documents. Many entities do require it, and the vast majority of entities that require some sort of translator credential are going to require ATA certification.
  3. Use a certificate of accuracy. Entities such as the American Translators Association have sample certificates of accuracy available for free on their websites. If you are certified, put your Certified Translator seal on the certificate of accuracy. If you are not ATA-certified, just sign the certificate of accuracy. I no longer offer paper copies of the certificate of accuracy unless the client requests them: otherwise I just electronically sign the PDF version of the certificate in Adobe, and tell the client that they can print it out if needed.
  4. Make a policy about notarized certifications. Realistically, notarized certifications mean nothing (literally, nothing) about the quality of the translation. I’ve honestly never had a document notarized by a notary who even understood French, much less could assess the quality of the translation. All a notarized certification means is that the translator is who they say they are. And yet, people love notarized certifications because they look official. I strongly discourage notarized certifications because they are time-consuming and annoying to obtain; I nearly always have to explain to the notary that the purpose is only to notarize my signature, nothing to do with the translation. It can also be a challenge to find a place (typically, a bank branch) to get things notarized. Typically, I will tell clients that I recommend against a notarized certification only if the entity to which they are submitting the translation absolutely will not accept the translation without a notary’s stamp. I’ve also used an online notary through Notarize.com a couple of times, with good results. The only caveat is that the notary will be certified in a state that allows virtual notary services (typically, Nevada) rather than in the translator’s home state.

If you have other questions about how to certify a translation, just pop them in the chat, and I’ll try to help you!

Corinne McKay (classes@trainingfortranslators.com) is the founder of Training for Translators, and has been a full-time freelancer since 2002. An ATA-certified French to English translator and Colorado court-certified interpreter, she also holds a Master of Conference Interpreting from Glendon College. For more tips and insights, join the Training for Translators mailing list!


Corinne McKay

Marketing follow-ups: now is the time!

This time of year is one of the best occasions to follow up with potential clients who expressed an interest in working with you, but never sent you any work. Summer is winding down, and the busy fall season is coming up, so it’s a great time to nudge those clients who might have some work in the pipeline for you. Here’s a simple system that can help:

-When a potential client expresses an interest but doesn’t offer an assignment, save their e-mail in a folder called something like, “Follow up on these marketing contacts.”
-At an appropriate time (such as now!), send a quick followup e-mail. Here’s an example of one that I just sent: “Hello (name), I hope that you’re doing well and that you had/are having a great summer! I’m writing to follow up on the e-mails we exchanged in June, about some potential French/English conference interpreting assignments for the fall. I wondered if you’re looking to confirm any of those; if not, I hope that we can work together on another assignment in the future!” This isn’t perfect, but it’s simple, and to the point, and doesn’t create weird tension if the client doesn’t want to work with you.
-Move that e-mail to a new folder, called something like, “Followed up once.”
-The chances are at least 50/50 that the client will respond; I just sent out a few of these e-mails, and more than half responded within an hour or so. However, bonus points if you then go through your “Followed up once” folder, following up again with anyone who didn’t respond, and moving those e-mails to a “Followed up twice” folder.

Having a simple, relatively painless system really helps me follow through with following up. I don’t love following up and nudging dormant clients, but it’s the easiest, most effective marketing strategy that most people completely ignore! Hopefully this system helps you as well.

Corinne McKay (classes@trainingfortranslators.com) is the founder of Training for Translators, and has been a full-time freelancer since 2002. An ATA-certified French to English translator and Colorado court-certified interpreter, she also holds a Master of Conference Interpreting from Glendon College. For more tips and insights, join the Training for Translators mailing list!


Corinne McKay

A week at the CoLab conference interpreting workshop

As I recently wrote about, I recently marked the one-year anniversary of graduating from the Glendon College Master of Conference Interpreting program. Personally, I find that conference interpreting is a lot like playing a musical instrument: there’s always more to learn, and consistent practice and feedback is really, really important. To that end, I participated in the August 15-19, 2022 of the CoLab conference interpreting intensive, held at…Glendon College in Toronto, Canada! This was a uniquely COVID-era experience, because the workshop was held at the school I graduated from but had never been to, and four of the other participants were people I attended the Glendon program with, but had never met in person. This edition of CoLab was coordinated by Laura Holcomb and Lauren Michaels, with Gillian Misener on logistics, and they were all fantastic!

Executive summary: I really enjoyed CoLab, and would highly recommend it to other conference interpreters at all levels. It was well organized, well run, included a ton of interpreting practice and other activities, and it’s one of the rare opportunities to attend a week-long conference interpreting workshop in North America. CoLab is a very supportive environment in which to practice, and it’s very affordably priced. CoLab is based on peer feedback. If you’re looking for feedback from expert instructors rather than peers (for example, to prepare for a high-level certification exam), you might want to look at the Cambridge Conference Interpreting Course (which I attended in 2020), but I think CoLab is an excellent opportunity for almost any conference interpreter.

The logistics of CoLab

As mentioned above, this edition of CoLab was held in person, in the interpreting lab at Glendon College (the bilingual campus of York University, in Toronto, Canada). The Glendon campus is beautiful, and the interpreting lab is very well-equipped with really nice interpreting booths and a “soft console” Zoom-based system, the hard console system having died from lack of use during the pandemic.

The registration fee for CoLab is very inexpensive, less than US $500 for the whole week. Participants secure their own housing and figure out most of their own meals (Glendon has a completely decent cafeteria for lunch, and Toronto doesn’t lack for food options for dinner). I shared an AirBnB with two classmates from the Glendon MCI program; we were about a 30 minute walk from Glendon, so we typically had breakfast at our apartment (and I hit the nearby Tim Horton’s to caffeinate!), then walked together up to the campus.

I found a reasonably priced flight into Toronto, and the city is easy to navigate. There’s a train to the city center from the main airport (Pearson) and Ubers/Lyfts/cabs are also plentiful.

What happens at CoLab?

CoLab uses a peer feedback model; there aren’t “instructors” per se, which is a big difference from the Cambridge Conference Interpreting Course. This session of CoLab had about 20 interpreters participating; I’d say most were mid-career interpreters, with a few new/aspiring interpreters and a few people who’ve been at it for many decades. It was a very dynamic group, and many people in the group were French A or B, so I had a lot of people to choose from as listeners and listenees.

Everyone at CoLab signs up in advance to give a 20-minute simultaneous speech, and you can also sign up to give a five to seven minute consecutive speech, but the consec speech is optional. All of the speeches are live. The topics for the simul speeches ranged from SCUBA diving, to molecular biology, to neurodiversity, to recycling, and everything in between. I gave a consec speech on the environmental benefits of being a vegetarian, and a simul speech on mountaineering and the world’s 8,000-meter peaks. I had fun with both of them!

For each round of two speeches, you sign up to interpret one and give feedback to someone else on the other. Most days have either three or four rounds of speeches (six or eight speeches total), so it’s a lot of interpreting and feedbacking. After each round, there’s 30 minutes for peer feedback, then a break, or lunch, or it’s the end of the day.

CoLab also includes some non-interpreting activities like CoLab Conversations, a time block at the end of the day where we went to an off-site coffee shop and had roundtable discussions about various topics (finding clients, the role of into-B interpreting, etc.); there was also a trampoline jumping night (it sounded fun, but I’m more of a yoga girl and didn’t attend) followed by a group dinner (which I did attend: lots of fun and great food!). There are also a few “interlude” activities such as the B-booster exercise, where you have one minute to give an impromptu speech to the group on a specific topic: Where were you when the COVID lockdown started? What’s the best vacation you ever took? What’s the most memorable date you ever went on? This activity was a big hit and forced all of us to practice speaking off the cuff in our B language. There’s also some flexibility with the activities: for example, one of my Glendon MCI buddies and I decided to interpret one of the consecutive speeches without notes, which was a lot of fun!

How did it go?

To sum up, it was great, and I really enjoyed it. The feedback I received on my into-French and into-English interpreting was very helpful, as was the opportunity to interpret a lot of speeches on topics I don’t usually work with. In total, we had the opportunity to interpret almost 20 speeches (simul and consec). I also find that listening to other people’s interpreting is hugely instructive for me, and I like giving feedback. So, I really enjoyed the CoLab peer support model. It was also amazing to have the opportunity to go to Toronto and experience in 3D what I experienced on Zoom for a year. I give this CoLab experience two thumbs up, and I would definitely attend again.

A few caveats (I already gave Laura and Lauren this feedback on the participant survey, so I’m not talking behind their backs!):

  • If you’re looking to improve the overall quality of your interpreting and break out of your comfort zone, you’ll love the CoLab peer feedback model. But if you have a very specific goal, particularly at a high level (you want to pass the UN Language Competitive Exam, you want to upgrade a C language to a B language, etc.), you want to think about whether peer feedback is going to get the job done, or whether you might want to do the Cambridge Course, where most of the feedback is from expert instructors who are senior-level interpreters or interpreter trainers.
  • CoLab involves a lot of interpreting time, and there’s not really an option not to participate, because if you skip a speech, someone doesn’t get feedback. Personally, especially given the enthusiasm with which our group participated in the CoLab Conversations, I would cut one round of interpreting from each day and have an alternative activity in its place. It was fantastic to have the opportunity to do so much interpreting, and the days when we interpreted four speeches and gave feedback on four speeches felt like a lot!
  • If you do a less common language, you might want to do some recruitment before you sign up for CoLab. Probably half of the people in the group had French in their combination, so I was never at a loss for someone to listen to, or to listen to me. But if you do a less common language, you might want to sign up with a couple of colleagues so that you have more than one person to get feedback from.

Logistical tips, if you go

Toronto is really a pretty easy city to navigate, even if you’ve never been there. Many people from within Canada took the train, and I was easily able to find a nonstop flight from Denver to Pearson airport. The area around Glendon is a pretty upscale residential neighborhood, so look for lodging as soon as you book your CoLab spot, particularly if you’d like to find a place within walking distance. Two colleagues and I were able to find a nice, two-bedroom AirBnB at a reasonable cost, but we booked fairly early. Be warned that the walk down Bayview Avenue (the main drag to the Glendon campus) has a good sidewalk, but it’s a pretty busy road, and there aren’t a lot of alternatives unless you allow a lot of extra time.

I’m a fan of public transportation and wanted to take the train from Pearson airport into the city, then I took a cab to the AirBnB from Union Station. However, in the end, this didn’t save a ton of money and an Uber all the way to the airport for my return flight was only around CAD $40.

I found the Glendon cafeteria totally adequate for lunch and snacks (I’m a vegetarian and they had plenty of veg options). Just be aware that there are not really any restaurants within close walking distance of the campus, so your choices are the Glendon cafeteria or bringing your own lunch, unless you have a car.

A random thing, but specific to this conference: the lined, top-bound steno pads that many interpreters use for consecutive note-taking are not widely available in Canada. Definitely bring your own if you’re coming from a country where they’re sold!

Along those same lines, in the current setup of the Glendon lab, you must use a USB headset, not a headset with an audio jack. It’s possible to buy a USB adapter for an audio jack plug, but make sure you do that before you head to Toronto.

Huge thanks to the CoLab organizers and participants for such a great week!

Corinne McKay (classes@trainingfortranslators.com) is the founder of Training for Translators, and has been a full-time freelancer since 2002. An ATA-certified French to English translator and Colorado court-certified interpreter, she also holds a Master of Conference Interpreting from Glendon College. For more tips and insights, join the Training for Translators mailing list!