Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters


Corinne McKay

Subtitling master class on Tuesday

Next Tuesday (December 7, 2021), Spanish to English translator and subtitler Molly Yurick will teach a two-hour master class on Breaking into the subtitling market. The live class runs from 10AM – 12 noon New York Time, recording provided afterward, and registration is $75. A past participant calls this class, “Everything I needed to know to find work as a subtitler.”

Molly’s information is based on her own experience retraining as a subtitler when her primary specialization (translating for destination wedding planners) took a nosedive with the onset of COVID. The class includes all the information you need to train for subtitling work and look for clients! Grab your spot today!


Corinne McKay

Travel: A week on the Navajo Nation

Off topic, but perhaps of interest to readers of this blog, since you’re all language and culture nerds!

Last month, I had opportunity to travel to the Navajo Nation (the largest Indian reservation in the US) with RezDawg Rescue, the organization that my family and I foster cats (and occasionally dogs!) for. We’ve fostered 50 animals in the past 22 months for RezDawg, and the bulk of them have been stray or surrendered animals from the Navajo Nation and the Four Corners area in general (for those outside the US, the Four Corners is where the four “square” states in the West — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona– meet). I’ve never been to that area, so I was excited when RezDawg decided to sponsor a volunteer-staffed vaccination clinic on the Navajo Nation. I’m not a medical person at all, but “civilian” volunteers were needed to do paperwork and take payments, so I signed up.

Sunset over the eastern Navajo Nation, seen from the Becenti Chapter House

One aspect of this that’s not off-topic: I knew that we were likely to encounter a lot of Navajo speakers on the trip, so I (kind of/sort of) prepared by taking the Duolingo basic Navajo course. Not surprisingly, Navajo (perhaps best-known in the US as the language used by code talkers in World War II) is a really, really hard language for an adult native English speaker to learn. However I managed to learn hello, goodbye, thank you, cat, and dog, which came in very handy!

Our group of volunteers (including three civilians, one veterinarian, and one vet tech) headed from Colorado to Grants, New Mexico. Grants is about a nine hour drive from where we live, and is one of the two “border towns” (the other being Gallup) for the eastern portion of the Navajo Nation. We were there for a week, and it was a truly amazing experience in all kinds of ways.

Each day, we set up the drive-up vaccination clinic at what’s called a chapter house, basically a small community center. On three of the days, I worked the intake station, taking down the age and health information of the animals, and on two days, I worked at the exit station, taking payments and distributing dewormer and flea/tick treatment. We vaccinated around 500 dogs and 50 cats, and brought back around 20 strays and surrenders (including four pregnant mom dogs and a litter of kittens) to find new homes in Colorado.

Most people drove to the clinic in pickup trucks, with their outdoor/herding/guard dogs in the back, and smaller dogs (lots of chihuahas!) in the cab, and sometimes cats on the dashboard or in carriers or pillow cases in the back. Note for cat people: a pillow case actually makes a pretty great improvised cat carrier! We vaccinated animals for 6-8 hours a day, so the days were more like 8-10 hours with setup and cleanup; a lot of work, but the people who came to the clinics were very grateful for the free and low-cost service, since there is not much access to vet services on the reservation. We also gave out hundreds of bags of donated food, collars, leashes, collapsible water bowls, toys, and other items that can be difficult or expensive to find in such a remote area.

I was (honestly/naively) shocked by the living conditions on the Navajo Nation. In the words of one of the local volunteers I worked with, the Navajo Nation is essentially, “A third world country trapped inside the US.” Here’s some of what I learned: 300,000 people live on the Navajo Nation. Almost half are unemployed, about half live below the federal poverty line, about half don’t finish high school, 7% have a college degree, about a third live without piped running water (we saw this everywhere we went; people have enormous water tanks that go in the bed of a pickup truck, and they come fill them up at the chapter house water distribution points), and about a third live without electricity.

The hard part is, what’s the solution? Unlike many reservations, the Navajo Nation is actually on the Navajo ancestral land, and many people live in extended families. Despite the rough conditions, many people don’t want to leave. There is no individual land ownership (the tribes communally own the land), so there is almost no asset capital or transfer of wealth from one generation to another. Basically: it’s complicated; after the admittedly limited experience of spending a week there, I don’t know what the answer is. Donating to reputable non-profits that work there is definitely helpful, and going there and volunteering is definitely helpful, and honestly I think that in order for things to change in any major way, it will take a huge push for awareness in the political and legal systems.

Before going to the Navajo Nation, I naively wondered why more educated Native Americans don’t work to at least demand enforcement of what the US government already agreed to and isn’t doing? Like the US government agreed to give the Sioux jurisdiction over the Black Hills “in perpetuity,” but in reality that meant “until we find gold there.” Why not at least demand enforcement of that? Again, complicated: Native Americans form about 2% of the US population, but only about 0.2% of attorneys and 0.4% of doctors are Native American. The whole horrible history of Indian boarding schools, some of which were active into the 2000s, means that there’s a lot of distrust of the educational system off the Rez (another thing I learned: everyone calls it the Rez, it’s not disrespectful) and very few tribal colleges have graduate or professional schools, so “get an education and work to change things” isn’t a simple solution either. Honestly I think the best thing is to go there and see it with your own eyes and talk to people, and at least admit that our country does this. Our country allows the people whose land we invaded to live like this, in a place where the rest of us are the immigrants. For me, it was a truly amazing experience and I’m hoping to go back.


Corinne McKay

Reader question: improving your interpreting skills

A reader asks: I recently took a test for doing over-the-phone interpreting. Unfortunately, I stumbled a bit and things didn’t go quite as planned. What are some good resources for improving interpreting skills?

A lot of people have this type of question about interpreting, so let’s take a look. Before I answer, I should say that:

-I am still a relatively new interpreter myself. I passed the Colorado French court interpreter exam in 2019, and I passed the exit exams for my Master of Conference Interpreting in 2021.

-However, I’ve taken two high-stakes interpreting exams and passed both on the first try, so in that sense I have some ideas for this reader, and for anyone else looking to pass an interpreting test.

Improving your interpreting skills in general

This is the subject of many books by people with a lot more experience than me, but my top tips are:

-Most importantly, interpreting is like playing a musical instrument: you use the skills, or you lose them. I have a personal rule that I have to interpret or work on my French skills an hour a day on weekdays. If it’s a day when I’m not interpreting for work, then I practice for an hour, every single weekday, no matter what. When I studied for the court interpreter exam, I practiced about an hour a day for a year and a half, and in the three months before my MCI exit exams, I practiced two hours a day. For me, consistency really is the most important thing.

-You have to know your weaknesses, because improving means working on your weaknesses. I think the best way to zero in on your weaknesses is to work with an interpreting coach, preferably someone whose A (native) language is your B (non-native from/into) language.

-You need to identify one goal, or maybe two goals, for each practice session, and they need to be really specific. “Improve my into-B interpreting” isn’t going to get you anywhere. You need to do a practice session where you say, I’m specifically working on eliminating “uhhh” and “ummm,” and on never starting a sentence with “Because.” Or, I’m working on not sticking too closely to the original so that I never start a sentence without knowing how to finish it.

-If you’re a native English speaker and mostly learned your non-English languages in school, you probably need to work on your B language(s) skills in general. That’s not true for everyone, but honestly, it is for most people; it is for me. In my MCI program, I spent tons of time just working on my French: accent, pronunciation, speaking speed (I speak too slowly because I’m pronouncing everything extra-clearly), cultural knowledge, ability to pronounce proper names correctly, and so on.

-Transcripts are your friend. You really want to look for podcasts and videos with transcripts, so that you can record yourself and compare your interpretation to the transcript. YouTube auto-captions can help; transcripts are better because you can mark them up.

-So here’s what I’d suggest: devote some time to just improving your B language skills. Shadow YouTube videos (slow down to .75 speed if needed; I had to do that at the start). Flood your brain with that language: listen to podcasts and news shows in that language as much as you can. My go-to for French is France Culture. When I was in my MCI program, I listened to France Culture up to three hours a day: when I was exercising, driving, cleaning, eating, really any time I could. I’m a big fan of flashcards: to this day, I keep a ring of flashcards on my desk, and whenever I have a spare moment, I flip through three or four of them to test myself.

-Then work on your interpreting skills, but in a targeted way. Thankfully these days there are tons of resources: Speechpool, the EU Speech Repository, and the zillions of videos on YouTube. If you’re studying for an interpreting test, it’s almost certain you can find samples to practice with on YouTube. In just a cursory search, I found this YouTube channel that has practice videos for immigration court, this one that has practice videos for medical interpreters, this one on phone interpreting, and I’m sure there are more.

-I think that sight translation is an often-overlooked practice technique. Athena Matilsky (who I studied with for the court interpreter exam) called it “simultaneous with training wheels,” and I agree. If you force yourself to do sight translation at a pretty good speed and without pausing (treat it like simul: if you really don’t know a word, come up with a synonym, reformulate, or skip it; never allow yourself to pause or backtrack), it’s a good approximation of the skills involved in simul. In my MCI program, this is how we moved up to interpreting high-level diplomatic speeches: first we sight-translated them from transcripts.

-Consider joining an interpreter practice group. I joined Amerivox and I’ve gotten a lot out of it; highly recommended! Joining a practice group also gives you the opportunity to work as an interpreter for other interpreters; I volunteered as both a relay and bilingual interpreter for Amerivox and got a lot out of it. Like playing music for other musicians, it forces you to be on your A-game because you know that the other interpreters are hearing every single mistake.

-If you can, do a formal interpreter training program. It really does make a difference, and I’m incredibly glad that I did the Glendon MCI. Finding ways to practice interpreting on your own isn’t hard, but evaluating your own interpreting is really, really hard, and without that feedback it’s tough to tell if you’re improving, or just reinforcing the same mistakes. If it’s not realistic for you to do a full Master’s program, at least try to do some sort courses where you’re getting feedback from instructors in your language combination.

How to pass an interpreting test

Passing an interpreting test is another question altogether. I would recommend that you:

-First, get as many details about the test as you can. This reader mentions taking a test for an OPI (over-the-phone interpreting) job and it not going well. Ahead of any interpreting test, I would definitely try to find out: how long is the test, consecutive or simultaneous, in which direction(s)? If it’s consecutive or includes a consecutive component, how long are the segments in terms of time or number of words? If it’s simultaneous, how fast (in terms of words per minute) is it?

-For some exams, such as court interpreter certification exams, you’ll be able to get exact details on all of these pieces of information. For exams administered by agencies, the information you receive is at the agency’s discretion. You also want to try to find out as much as you can about how the exam is scored. Some exams use scoring units, where certain words are designated as being scored, while other exams may use a holistic assessment tool. Some tests may put a lot of emphasis on accent and delivery, others almost none.

-Most importantly, remember that when you are taking a test, your goal is to pass the test. That sounds ridiculously obvious, but here’s what I mean: every type of test assesses certain types of skills, so those skills are what you need to demonstrate. For a court interpreting test, it’s more important to be complete, accurate, and fast, than it is to have flowing delivery. For a conference interpreting test, delivery and focusing on the message rather than the words might be your goal. For my MCI exam, I had a post-it note on my desk that said, “Breathe. Smile. Cut the fluff.” Additionally, do not stress out (right now) about any real or perceived differences between what the test requires and what you feel will be required in a real-life setting: first you have to pass the test. Here’s what I mean by that: the simultaneous passages on many court interpreting exams are recorded at about 125 words per minute. In real life, very few people speak at 125 wpm in any kind of setting; in most settings 140-180 is probably more realistic, and in court where people are often nervous and rushing, speeds up to 200 words per minute aren’t out of the question. But right now you don’t worry about that: you worry about passing the 125 wpm passage.

-Here’s a great one from Andrew Clifford, the director of the Glendon MCI program that I did. Rather than focusing on giving a world-class, once-in-a-lifetime performance on the day of the exam, focus on using the weeks/months before the test to improve the overall level of your interpreting. Instead of aiming for a 99% performance on test day, aim to improve your interpreting enough that 80% of your best is good enough to pass, because exam-day nerves are going to degrade your performance. This helped me a lot. Our MCI exit exams consisted of four tests (consec and simul in both directions), given on two different days. Instead of telling myself on test day, “This is it…the biggest day of your fledgling interpreting career…better not mess it up,” I told myself, “All you have to do is what you’ve already done hundreds of times in the booth: do a solid job with no major mistakes.”

-Try not to fall victim to “snowball syndrome.” Of the people I’ve talked to who’ve failed an interpreting test that they expected to pass, many of them stumbled on something early in the test, got rattled, and things went downhill from there. To prevent this, I would highly recommend practicing on passages that you know are really hard and where you’re likely to miss something or be unable to keep up. Put YouTube videos on 1.25 speed, or practice with the “Advanced/Test-type” speeches on the EU Speech Repository (they are realllllly hard!). That helps you train your reflexes for when you miss or can’t figure out how to interpret a major term, like if the speaker says “Our topic today is the banded archer fish,” you just say “the fish we’re discussing.” Or when the speaker rattles off a long list of names and you got none of them, you say, “Our esteemed guests.” It’s not perfect, but it’s better than losing the entire next sentence because you’re flipping out about the banded archer fish.

-Practice on the most realistic material that you can. For the court interpreter exam, I practiced with as much actual court audio footage as I could get my hands on. For my MCI exams, I practiced every French and every English speech in the Glendon speech repository, along with tons of speeches from Speechpool and the EU Speech Repository. Again, you’re practicing a specific skill for a specific purpose, so align your practice materials as closely as possible to that.

Readers, other thoughts on this topic??


Corinne McKay

Upcoming online courses

We’d love to see you in an upcoming Training for Translators course! Here’s what’s on tap:

Editing and Proofreading for Into-English Translators, taught by Karen Tkaczyk, starts on November 10 and there are three spots left (US $405). Whether you want to get better at editing your own translations, other people’s translations, or native English writing, this course will get you there. Create systems and processes that will get you off the endless revision treadmill!

Translating for the International Development Sector, taught by Meghan Konkol and Corinne McKay, ($365 until November 5, $405 thereafter) starts on November 15. This course is for translators in any language combination who want to learn more about the thriving translation market in the international development sector, how to develop specialized expertise, and how to find and market to NGOs, private charitable foundations, and other potential clients.

It’s not too early to register for December’s master classes: Breaking into the subtitling market, taught by Molly Yurick. Live on December 7 with a recording provided ($75), and Interpreting, for translators, taught by Corinne McKay. Live on December 14 with a recording provided ($75).


Corinne McKay

ATA62: the return to in-person conferences

I recently returned from ATA62, the 62nd annual conference of the American Translators Association. Executive summary: it was fantastic, and I highly recommend attending in-person conferences if they are in your COVID comfort zone. The details:

Deciding whether to attend in person

We’re at a phase of the pandemic where people have different levels of comfort with in-person contact. I am pretty COVID-cautious in general, but as soon as I got vaccinated, I went back to interpreting in person in court and then in prison. I felt that if that was within my comfort zone, it didn’t make sense to miss out on the ATA conference. Additionally, I felt that the conference’s COVID protocols were robust. Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test was required (and this was actually checked and recorded at registration). Masks were encouraged for everyone and required for those not vaccinated, and green/yellow/red wristbands to indicate your social proximity comfort level were provided.

I feel like all of these precautions worked well. Additionally, ATA offered a full virtual conference with all 120 sessions livestreamed and recorded. This meant that anyone who didn’t want to attend in person didn’t miss out on anything. Additionally, in-person attendees could watch the livestreamed sessions. I talked to several people who were tired, not feeling well, etc. and really appreciated being able to watch a session from their hotel room.

Is the dual format sustainable?

Lots of people wondered whether this dual format is sustainable. Typically, only a small number of sessions are recorded, and none are livestreamed. This year’s format required a full time a/v tech in every session room, for the entire day. At the ATA annual meeting, the ATA leadership’s consensus seemed to be that this year’s format was both expensive and necessary. The COVID situation is just too uncertain to yank the virtual option, and the in-person conference (around 400 people) was significantly smaller than a typical ATA conference, even for a smaller city like Minneapolis.

Will this format be repeated? Right now, no one really knows, because no one can predict what the COVID situation will be in another year. One ATA leader even commented that if the actual costs were reflected, the fully livestreamed option would cost more than attending in person, which I’m sure is true. I’m glad ATA offered that option this year, and I think it’s totally understandable if it’s not offered or has to be priced higher in the future.

The venue

The conference was held at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis, right on the Nicollet Mall in the city center. I stayed at the conference hotel and enjoyed it very much. ATA really tried hard to offer the same level of food and beverage service as usual, in a COVID-safe environment, and I was impressed with how this worked out. There were no buffets, all food was individually served by the hotel staff from behind plexiglass partitions, and the food was excellent. It was really quite impressive to see how the hotel had adapted to the “new normal.”

Most people wore masks, and people did seem to notice when someone else was wearing a red wristband (no contact). Personally I felt quite safe at the conference and I felt like there was a good mix of in-person interaction while respecting the personal space of people who didn’t want to shake hands, hug, etc. Lots of restaurants in Minneapolis seem to have permanently closed due to the pandemic, but the places I ate were really good, and service was sufficient considering how hard it is to hire waitstaff right now.

Sessions

Sessions are the heart of the conference, and every session I attended was excellent. Conference organizer Madalena Sanchez Zampaulo gets a huge shout-out for basically organizing two conferences (in person and online), selecting excellent sessions, dealing with a lot of cancellations, and displaying an amazing level of adaptability. Some of these more “nimble” adaptations should, in my opinion, be maintained for future years. Gone is the glossy conference program (beautiful but wasteful), replaced with a one-page handout covering two days’ worth of sessions plus the special events schedule. I didn’t really miss the program at all, and I appreciated having just the one page to refer to.

I attended sessions on a variety of topics, with a focus on interpreting. I’m still translating just as much as ever, but I’m focusing most of my marketing and professional development on interpreting right now.

On Wednesday I taught an AST session on direct client marketing and I think it went well. Thursday I attended Eve Bodeux and Emily Safrin’s session on proofreading, and Athena Matilsky’s session on resources for interpreters in languages other than Spanish. Both of these were really well-prepared and packed with information. I find that the conference is often a good reminder of things I keep meaning to do but haven’t gotten around to. Eve and Emily talked a lot about PerfectIt, an editing tool I already own but don’t use enough, and Athena reminded me that I want to pair up with a French A interpreter to create some new resources that we could both use.

Friday I attended Judy Jenner’s session on interpreting price quotes for the new normal, then I skipped a couple of session blocks (doing what I tell everyone else not to do: working while at the conference!), and attended Ingrid Holm’s session on Google Ads. These were both very eye-opening because they’re topics I know a little bit about, but definitely not enough. Judy’s session got me thinking about items I want to add to my interpreting services agreements, and Ingrid’s session gave me some good ideas not only about online advertising, but about reworking some of the text-heavy pages on my website.

Saturday I’m proud to say that I attended a session in every single block: Jessie Liu and Rony Gao’s session on trilateral consecutive interpreting practice methods, Abigail Dahlberg’s session on translating sustainability reports, Céline Colvin’s session on interpreting for the U.S. Department of State, Ray Valido’s session on the vocabulary of diversity, and rounded it out with a session on remote simultaneous interpreting, by Ernest Nino-Murcia, Aimee Benavides, and Tamber Hilton. All of these were really interesting, and the presenters were so well-prepared. I really don’t think there were any lackluster sessions this year, plus there was the “wow” factor of seeing everyone in person again which added to the excitement.

Wrapping up

I personally cannot wait for COVID to truly be in the rear-view mirror, and I think it’s understandable that many people don’t yet want to attend a large, in-person event. I’m hoping that things will be more stable by the time of ATA63 in Los Angeles next October. All the same, it was wonderful to see so many dear colleagues and friends in person, and huge thanks and congratulations to the organizing team for the conference!