Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters


Corinne McKay

What I’ve learned from remote court interpreting

Since passing the Colorado French court interpreter certification exam almost exactly a year ago, I’ve been interpreting two to four times a week in the Colorado state courts. I love the work, and I’m not saying that just in case one of my managing interpreters reads this. At first, my goal was simply to pass the court interpreter certification exam to prove to myself that I could do it (hello, imposter syndrome). But lo and behold, I find court work both fascinating and fulfilling; I love learning about the legal system and feeling like I’m serving as a bridge between French-speakers and the legal system. I just love everything about it.

The last in-person interpreting job I did was on Monday, March 16: a fairly lengthy hearing in a little town out on the Colorado plains. Pandemic-wise, things were heating up. Everyone had to wash their hands before entering the courtroom, and the clerks were religiously bleach-wiping every surface in the room. Still, we either didn’t really know and didn’t really want to accept what was coming down the pike: I sat right between the defendant and the public defender, handing pens and papers back and forth and certainly not socially distancing. Since then, I’ve still done a couple of court interpreting assignments every week, but they have all been remote: either over the actual telephone, or using Webex. Most of these have been brief hearings, first appearances, or status conferences; the Colorado state courts have put all jury trials on hold, and even longer proceedings like motions hearings have mostly been postponed until September at the earliest.

Pre-pandemic, I had some questions about the Colorado courts’ emphasis on in-person interpreting. Court interpreters here are paid for travel time (at half rate) and mileage, and there are only three certified French court interpreters in the state, so in some cases I’m driving an hour or more each way, sometimes for an appearance that might last five minutes. I sometimes wondered, is this really necessary? Might some of this be better handled remotely?

In some cases, remote court interpreting has worked really well, and it certainly expedites things. The court staff work really hard to keep things running smoothly, and in most cases, the remote systems work well enough that the hearings can happen. It’s a far better option than delaying everything until it’s safe to go back to the courthouses in person. However, I’ve now become a much bigger fan of in-person interpreting–in fact I cannot wait to get back to in-person interpreting, for various reasons:

  • Simple things like not being able to hear someone become a huge issue. I’ve interpreted for people who were driving, sitting outside in public places, or in a house with a lot of background noise, making it incredibly hard to understand them.
  • People talking over each other is another huge issue. Especially when you’re on the phone with no video, there’s really no way to get someone to stop talking, other than to try to tell them to stop, or to start talking over them.
  • The remote process seems like it would expedite everything, but in some cases it doesn’t. An example is when people call in to a Webex conference on the telephone rather than from a computer, so their phone number appears instead of their name on the meeting ID. This then requires someone (usually a court clerk or the judge) to go through each phone number, read the number out loud, and ask the person to un-mute themselves and say who they are, i.e. “Calling from 333-333-3333, this is Jack Smith and I’m the father of the victim in the Jones case.”
  • Confidentiality: I’ve interpreted for a few family court hearings that clearly would have been confidential if they were happening in person. In one case, one of the parties’ children were clearly visible in the background of the video call while custody issues were being discussed, including details that the children really should not have been hearing. Children are prohibited from courtrooms, but I don’t see how it would be possible to require a party to a case to get child care in order to take a video call.
  • Appearances: Lots of people don’t show up to remote hearings; anecdotally, the no-show rate seems much higher to me than the no-show rate for in-person hearings. Which raises the question: If you don’t show up to a remote hearing because your phone battery died or you can’t figure out how to use Webex, should that constitute failure to appear? Neither option seems like a good one: if it does constitute failure to appear, is it really fair for someone to face an additional charge because their phone battery died? If it doesn’t constitute failure to appear, what prevents people from simply not showing up, and claiming that they couldn’t log on to the remote system?
  • Public participation and oversight: The fact that most court cases are public is a really important component of the US legal system. I spent hours sitting in court and taking notes when I was studying for the court interpreter exam, and you see all kinds of people (reporters, family members, law students, court reporting students, interpreting students) observing in court. Family court cases and some others are closed to the public, but in my experience it’s quite common to see people watching court proceedings just for their own interest or education. In a remote system, it’s not always clear how or if the public can participate.
  • The simple fact of people not being in the same room causes some hassles: On several occasions I’ve needed to sight-translate things like plea agreements. Those have to be sent by e-mail, sometimes through multiple people instead of being passed across a table. Then the defendants often have to sign the agreements via Docusign, which can be complicated since they’re often using a phone rather than a computer. In order to maintain the proper flow of information (defendant-interpreter-district attorney-interpreter-defendant), the interpreter has to interpret all of those technical questions (“I don’t see where I have to sign,” “There’s no yellow box,” “The submit button isn’t working”) rather than someone helping the person right there.

In many situations, I think that remote court interpreting falls into the “better than no interpreting” category. If everyone is patient and the technical side works out, things can go pretty well. Using a purpose-built RSI platform, which at least some court systems are looking into, would make things even better. Still, I’m now more convinced of the merits of bringing an interpreter from an hour away to interpret for even short appearances, and I’m looking forward to getting back to that at some point in the perhaps-distant but hopefully possible future!


Corinne McKay

Upcoming master class: Registering a domain and setting up domain name e-mail

If you’ve been meaning to get off Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or Hotmail, or if you’d like to set up an e-mail address for a special project or product, the next Training for Translators master class on registering a domain and setting up domain name e-mail is for you! We all know that yourname@yourdomain.com looks a lot more professional than a free webmail address, but many of us never get around to setting that up!

All-star website and SEO instructor Madalena Sanchez Zampaulo will teach the live session starting at 12 noon New York time on Thursday, July 30 (recording provided if you can’t attend live). The cost is only $75 and the session is limited to 30 people, so that all of your questions can get answered!

This master class will address a few different use cases for domain name e-mail:
-You already own a domain name, but never got around to setting up domain name e-mail
-You don’t yet own a domain name and you’re not sure how to choose one, or how to set up domain name e-mail
-You want to set up domain name e-mail without a website, for a specific project. Let’s say you’re planning on writing a book or teaching an online course, and you’d like an e-mail address just for that purpose.

In this step-by-step master class, you’ll learn how to:
-select a domain name that is appropriate for your business and determine whether it is available for purchase
-purchase a domain name once you’ve selected one
-determine what add-ons you may want to add (or avoid) for your domain name
-how to set up domain name e-mail using GSuite; the instructor will also give general instructions on how to use other e-mail services with your domain

I hope to see some of you there!


Corinne McKay

How to handle a sudden downturn in work

When things fall apart

Since the pandemic began, I’ve heard from a number of translators and interpreters who’ve had a sudden downturn in their work volume. In some cases–such as conference interpreting–their work volume went literally to zero overnight. What’s the best way to handle this very stressful situation? I have a few ideas, and I’d love to hear yours in the comments.

As I’ve mentioned before, my work volume during the pandemic has followed this pattern:

  • Translation work from direct clients never dropped off, and is stable so far (just signed a new book translation contract!)
  • Translation work from agencies has dropped off completely, and two agencies I worked for sporadically have told me that my rates (not raised in years) are too high for them (so I’m not working for them anymore). I’m essentially down to zero regular agency clients at this point.
  • Interpreting work has slowed to a trickle (mostly minimum charge phone interpreting assignments for the Colorado courts). This isn’t a financial disaster because interpreting was about 15% of my income before the pandemic, but it’s disappointing since I love interpreting and was hoping to expand that side of my business this year.
  • Online course registrations are booming

First: Don’t try to create demand where there is none

This is basic but really important. If there’s no demand for in-person interpreting where you live, lowering your rates isn’t going to help. If you translate for hotels, you probably need to target another specialization, not do more marketing. In the current economic climate, it’s important to make sure that the possibility of work exists before you start chasing after it.

If your clients’ own business has taken a huge hit, and here I’m thinking of sectors like travel and tourism, hotels and restaurants, live entertainment, brick and mortar retail, etc., don’t try to get blood from a stone. It’s time to move on to some new sectors or specializations.

Second, if you can afford it, invest in your business

Lower work volume isn’t always a crisis. How many projects (updating your website, learning a new piece of software, taking an online course, attending a client-side conference…) have you put on the back burner due to lack of time? Well, when you don’t have a lot of work, you have something else: time. And if you had a decent business savings account before the pandemic, then you can use that time to put some of those projects on the front burner.

This is the exact situation I’m in. Due to the loss of most of my interpreting income, my overall income will probably be down a bit this year over last year. But at the same time, I’m spending a lot less money. My total “meals out” spending since March 15 totals $13, and that was only because my husband and I went on a camping trip and an animal stole our food bag overnight, so we bought coffee and muffins on the way home. Other than that, I’ve eaten every single meal and snack at home or at my parents’ house for four months. I’ve also put my co-working office membership on pause; a significant savings at $500+ a month (although truth be told, I get much less done while working from home and can’t wait to go back). For those reasons, I’m not doing a ton of marketing, but rather using the extra time to have a new website designed for Training for Translators, and to do a two-week conference interpreting course in August. It’s actually nice to have some wiggle room to do those things without dipping into my sleep or free time, and it’s a strategy I recommend to other freelancers as well.

Next, nudge

Nudging dormant clients (again, if there’s the potential that they have work for you) is probably one of the most effective and least-used marketing techniques. Why don’t we do more of it? I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s because everyone loves new beginnings rather than reviving something old. Perhaps it’s not sexy. But every year in my March Marketing Madness challenge group, I’m consistently surprised by how much work people can bring in, simply by checking in with every client they’ve worked for in the past two years but haven’t heard from in at least three months (for example).

Here’s a blog post I wrote about it; and Madalena Sanchez Zampaulo wrote a great article about how to do this during the pandemic, in a way that is sensitive to your clients’ situations.

Think about what thrives in a pandemic

Back in November, I wrote a blog post about preparing your freelance business for a recession. That post, in turn, was inspired by a podcast about preparing for a recession. And the truth is that some things thrive in a recession. And even in a pandemic. Things like:

  • Videoconferencing software: For example, Zoom’s stock price has gone from about $68 in January to a close of $248 yesterday. And they’re not alone in the sector that serves the now-here-to-stay armada of home-based workers. The Zoom interface is currently available in 10 languages other than English.
  • Virtual event platforms. Here in the US at least, I think we’re looking at a looooong time until in-person conferences rebound to 2019 levels. My guess is that we’ll see few to no large-group gatherings until at least mid-2021. And people are starting to expect a full-scale virtual event, not a bunch of webinars patched together with a chat room. I’m guessing many of these virtual event platforms are, or should be, looking to go multilingual.
  • Medical supply companies that make COVID-related items. For example, the leading manufacturer of the swabs used to take samples for COVID testing is Copan Diagnostics, whose parent company Copan Italia is headquartered in Brescia, Italy. US-based companies that make PPE and other medical supplies are probably expanding the range of countries that they sell to. Same with companies that make things like sanitizing wipes, disinfectants, plexiglass shields, and so on.
  • Online sales of any type. By any metric, there’s been a “drastic increase” in online shopping. Statistics on this vary, but I looked at numerous articles saying that for the first time, online shopping has accounted for more than half of all non-essential purchases. Like online conferencing, I’m guessing this trend is here to stay, and all of these online outlets would probably love to capture customers in multiple languages.
  • Online learning. Whether their students are professionals improving their skills, or K-12 students trapped at home, online learning companies are also scrambling to keep up. Even within the US, I’m guessing there could be a demand for online learning interfaces in at least Spanish, and perhaps other languages.

Right now, don’t be afraid to aim high

A final thought. The pandemic really is a unique situation, in that we’re all in the same boat. People who would never have the time or inclination to talk to a translator might have that time and/or inclination now, because they’re home, and bored, and either really lonely if they live alone, or really sick of their families, just like the rest of us (as much as I adore my family…). So take a chance: send a high-ranking person a LinkedIn message, or offer a webinar and invite your dream clients, or anything else bold that you might not do in the in-person world. The other day I was talking to a consulting client about an online conference they were thinking of attending, and the associated fear of online networking, especially one-to-one, and I said, “Look, if it gets weird, just pretend to be having connection problems (“you’re breaking up a little!”) and log off. No one but you will ever know what really happened.

And on that note, I’d love to hear your ideas about looking for work if your work has dropped off, or what industries might be thriving right now.


Corinne McKay

How’s the pandemic going for you?

Here in the US, it’s now been almost four months since the covid-related shutdowns began, and it seemed like a good time to take stock of how things are going. I’ll give you a snapshot of life in my office, and then I’d love to hear your own thoughts in the comments.

Back when this all began

Here in Colorado, schools shut down on March 15, and my husband’s work–a government research lab–also announced that anyone who wanted to could work from home indefinitely, then quickly changed that to “must work from home.” My coworking office initially stayed open, but I decided to stop going in as soon as other things started closing, because my husband has some health issues that may or may not be autoimmune, and my parents–who are in their late 70s–live near us and we see them frequently, so the office just didn’t seem worth the risk.

Looking back on it, one of the funniest/saddest parts of this whole situation is how quickly we all assumed it would be over. My daughter’s high school initially announced two weeks of Spring break instead of one–then, classes would resume as normal. Odder yet, I recently walked by a still-shuttered restaurant near our house that had a notice posted on the door, to the effect of, “We’re closing down until early April, when hopefully all of this will be behind us. Can’t wait to see you then!!” (if only…).

How things look now

It took about three or four weeks for me to accept/admit that covid was not going away anytime soon. By mid-April, I put my coworking office desk on hold indefinitely and finally succumbed to setting up a desk in our living room since I no longer have a home office (the curse/blessing of coworking!). My daughter’s school announced that online learning would continue until the end of the year–and she’s a senior in high school, so that was the end!–and my husband’s work announced that no one could come in to the building until further notice. My daughter “graduated” (stood in front of the school in her cap and gown, and there was a car parade that was actually really fun), I’m still working from the living room, and my husband is still working from the kitchen table.

For the aforementioned reasons–and because we’re still holding out some hope that my daughter will be able to head to college/university in another two months–we’re very cautious about the covid situation. We do lots of stuff outside and do some socially-distanced get-togethers with friends, but only one of us (me) goes grocery shopping or to retail stores, we don’t go to any restaurants, cafes, hairdresser, gym, and we’re not planning on doing any overnight trips until after my daughter leaves for college (assuming that happens).

On the work front

Executive summary: translation work is stable so far, online courses are booming, and interpreting has dropped to almost nothing. I’m also enjoying the expanded range of online training opportunities that are available right now.

More detail:
-When the pandemic hit, I was fortunate to have two major translation projects for direct clients already in the works–one NGO project of 100,000+ words that I work on every year at this time, and a massive website overhaul for one of my European university clients. Both of those went ahead, and kept me busy–almost too busy, but it worked out since there was very little else to do–from mid-March until about a week ago. Now I sense a bit of a slowdown, but it’s actually welcome since I worked like crazy for the last two months.

-When I wrote a post back in November about how to prepare your freelance business for a recession, I definitely wasn’t envisioning a pandemic. But a lot of what I wrote about in that post–inspired by an episode of the podcast The Freelancers Show–applies to what we’re living through now. In particular, the fact that training and professional development offerings tend to thrive in a recession. People have time if they’re not working as much, they think about back-burner projects (like, “I always meant to start working with direct clients”), and they want to position themselves as well as possible for the work that’s out there. All of this has proven true in my online course business: every class I’ve offered since the pandemic started has sold out. My classes usually get a good amount of registrations, but “all sold out” is a first.

-My main interpreting client is the Colorado Judicial Branch, and work from them has slowed to a trickle. Pre-pandemic, I was working in the courts two to three times a week, and I wasn’t even taking everything they offered. Now–with all trials postponed and most other matters being handled via short hearings over the phone or Zoom–I’ve earned just a few hundred dollars total from interpreting since mid-March. I haven’t actively looked for remote interpreting work because I don’t enjoy it that much, but I’m not actively opposed to taking on more remote work if it pops up.

-One of my own back-burner projects–modernizing the Training for Translators website–is now on the front burner, and my web designer is working away at it. The site functionality will still be the same, but with some graphical updates.

-A silver lining of the pandemic is that so many more people and entities are offering online training right now. I’m going to do a two-week conference interpreting course in August, and I’ve done three or four all-day interpreting trainings so far, mostly offered by trainers who don’t usually teach online.

On the non-work front

-I try to force myself to focus on the positive: no one I love has gotten sick, my husband and I still have jobs, and my family is getting along well despite spending 24/7 together. We’re very fortunate to live in a beautiful place where we have never been restricted from exercising outside, and we can do all-day hikes or bike rides right out our front door, which is a big sanity boost. We also have lots of friends who live within walking distance, so even when things were really locked down, we could walk over to a friend’s house and at least talk through the windows. Although we’ve missed out on a lot of things that can’t really be made up for later–my daughter’s high school graduation, my husband’s and my planned 20th anniversary trip to Europe, etc., in the grand scheme of things we are fine.

-I think the shock of the quarantine hit particularly hard at the outset, because this is typically a time of year when we’re running in a million directions between my daughter’s bike races–last year she went to California twice and Quebec twice between March and August, and there was rarely a time when we were home for two weekends in a row–and our own work and travel commitments. This year I was scheduled to speak at the BP conference in Nuremberg, then at the New England Translators Association conference in Boston, and then we were thinking of spending a month in Europe for an anniversary trip and to watch my daughter in some bike races. I also normally play a few lute gigs at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, ride a lot with my bike club team, and we were hoping for a bike trip in British Columbia as a sendoff before my daughter leaves for college. I know…rolling on the floor laughing, right?? Clearly all of that has been scrapped, and it really was kind of a “60 to zero” situation at our house, which took some getting used to. I still use a paper date book, and for a while I’d turn to the next week, only to see something like “Flight to Munich, 2 PM,” like a relic of a bygone era when people used to do things like leave the house.

-A small thing, but my lute duet partner figured out a way for us to continue playing remote duets together. We meet on Zoom, and take turns muting ourselves (playing along with the other person) and it actually works pretty well. Not the same as playing together in person, but from the technical standpoint, it’s very doable and keeps both of us motivated to continue practicing.

Where I’m at right now

-About 80% of the time, I can take an “it is what it is” attitude toward the pandemic. Like, really the only thing you can do is take it one day at a time and do your part. We’re healthy, we still have jobs, and we live in one of the most beautiful places in the US. We get along. We have lots of friends right in our neighborhood. It’s been great to have the extra time with my daughter before she leaves for college, and I feel more prepared for her to leave since we will have had more than five uninterrupted months together at that point.

Then the other 20% of the time, I alternate between “When will I ever be able to…again” (hug my parents, go to a concert, eat in a restaurant, go to a conference, interpret in live court, fly on an airplane…are those things really so much to ask??) and “What’s the point??” (thinking about all the effort I’ve put into music, bike racing, interpreting, etc. etc. and not knowing when I’ll ever do those things in the real world again). I say that not to complain, but to say that no one can be expected to look on the bright side of a pandemic 100% of the time. If you also have days here and there where you feel down about the situation, it’s not just you.

Readers, over to you! How’s everything going in your various corners of the world?


Corinne McKay

Tips for diversifying your freelance business

One thing that I’ve been hearing from a lot of freelance translators–and that has proven true in my own business as well–is that freelancers with diverse businesses have been faring better during these strange economic times. For example in my own business, my translation work has been stable so far but I feel a summer dropoff coming on, while online courses have been selling out as fast as I can get the registrations open. Other freelancers have made the same observation about editing work, voiceover work, etc. Often when one thing is down, another is up. Some of us–such as conference interpreters–may be diversifying out of necessity, while others may just see it as a prudent, risk-spreading move.

I thought I’d point you to three resources about diversifying your freelance business. I hope you find these helpful!

-Dating back to 2017, Karen Tkaczyk’s article, “A lucrative sideline: editing for non-native speakers” is still one of the most popular posts on my blog. This is a service that most freelance translators could consider offering, especially with some training (as luck would have it, Karen is offering a session of her twice sold-out online course Editing and proofreading for into-English translators in September). It doesn’t require any business setup that you don’t have already, and if you have direct translation clients, they might also be interested. For example some of my international development clients have staff whose English is good enough that they don’t need a translator, but they do need an editor.

-In February of this year, Eve Bodeux, Madalena Sanchez Zampaulo and I recorded a Speaking of Translation podcast episode on diversifying your income stream. We discussed topics such as why to diversify, what business lines to consider adding to your freelance business, and some pitfalls of diversification.

-During the post-2008 recession (which tells you I’ve been blogging for way too long!), I wrote a blog post on diversifying your income stream. Much of the advice in there still holds true, so it’s probably worth a read as well.