Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters


Corinne McKay

Copywriting for your business and for your clients: early registration ends Friday!

Greetings, readers! I promise that I have a few substantive posts waiting in the wings, but they’re on hold until I wrap up the March marketing challenge group (it’s been fun!) and some translation projects. In the meantime, just a reminder that the early registration rate for Madalena Sánchez Zampaulo’s online course (beginning April 29) Copywriting: for your clients and for your business ends Friday. Madalena–who has quickly gained a reputation for offering tips and techniques you can apply right away–will help you learn to “write like a copywriter,” write better marketing copy for your own business, and target translation clients who may need copywriting services.

This hands-on course with lots of individual attention is limited to 15 people, and we’ll do two live sessions a week, plus a weekly copywriting assignment that you’ll submit to Madalena for individual feedback. Early registration is $365 (goes up to $380 after Friday), and there are various discounts available on the course page. Once this session is full, I’ll start a wait list for a future session.

I’m excited about this course, and I hope to see some of you there!


Corinne McKay

Getting Started as a Freelance Translator: Two spots left

Update: this session is now sold out. Contact me at corinne@translatewrite.com if you’d like to be on the wait list for a future session.

 

 

There are two spots left in the April session of my online course Getting Started as a Freelance Translator. It’s a four-week class for beginning and aspiring translators in any language combination, and we combine self-paced videos, live sessions, and individual feedback on four homework assignments. As a past participant says,

“I was surprised and delighted at how practical this course was. Corinne is extremely generous in sharing her insights, suggestions and tips, and this was very important to me as a relatively novice translator. I always got the feeling I could ask any question, no matter what, and Corinne would provide a thoughtful and thorough answer. This course is a must for beginner translators.”

Registration is $365 and there are various discounts available (see the codes on the registration page). Once this session is full, I’ll start a wait list for a fall session. Hope to see some of you there!


Corinne McKay

Guest post: Non-binary and inclusive language in translation

This is a guest post by Ártemis López, a native of Spain and an ATA-certified translator (ES>EN) and CCHI-certified Spanish healthcare interpreter based in Washington, D.C. They have been interpreting and translating for D.C.’s queer, trans, and non-binary communities since 2011. At the 2018 American Translators Association conference, Ártemis presented a session on the challenges of “de-gendering” when we translate and interpret from or into languages with grammatical gender, and especially when we translate or interpret for LGBTQ clients. The presentation received rave reviews, which prompted me (Corinne) to request a guest post from Ártemis on this topic.

As translators and interpreters, most of us are familiar with the idea of binary inclusive language (i.e. using “he or she” to designate “any random person”). The difference between the binary (i.e., limited to men and women) approach to inclusive language and non-binary inclusive language can be best explained in the singular. Imagine an e-mail sent to all staff of a store. The email could read, “If a customer needs help, ask him or her what he or she needs.” We know the email isn’t referring to one singular person: although the email says “customer,” there must be many customers, some of whom are male and some of whom are female. It really means, “If one of our male customers needs help, ask him what he needs, and if one of our female customers needs help, ask her what she needs.” While this sentence is inclusive of women, it remains binary and ignores people who are not male or female.

A non-binary person (i.e., someone who doesn’t identify as solely male or solely female—perhaps the person identifies as a mix of the two, as neither, or as something else entirely) cannot be referred to as “he or she,” or by any other binary inclusive construction.* It could be argued that they are included in sentences that are grammatically singular but semantically plural–like the email in the paragraph above–but it would be both erroneous and dated to maintain that binary construction in regular speech: “I saw Alex at the store and he or she said that his or her advisor liked his or her dissertation!”

There are many reasons to care about truly inclusive language, the most important being that non-binary people exist and deserve to be acknowledged. For translators and interpreters, there’s another reason: we have a responsibility to honor the true meaning of the source. One of my go-to examples is a local organization’s bilingual (EN/ES) intake paperwork, which tries to be inclusive by asking for the person’s pronouns but gives these options: “he/él, she/ella, they/ellos/ellas, other/otro.” The translator simply didn’t understand the meaning of the source, and translated “they” as “plural he/plural she.” While Spanish doesn’t have a normative non-binary pronoun, both “elle” (/eʝe/) and “ellx” (/eʝeks/) are widely used by queer, trans, and non-binary Spanish speakers. This organization cares enough about gender identity to ask for people’s pronouns, and one can safely extrapolate that they would rather give a nonstandard pronoun option than adhere too closely to traditional binary grammar. This is where the intended meaning comes in: translating “they” as “ellos/ellas” is as unfaithful to the source as a translation could possibly get, although by traditional grammatical standards it is correct—perhaps more correct than “elle” or “ellx” could be. In case of doubt, or if we are concerned about using nonstandard language, we can always ask our client what their priorities are.

This isn’t just a matter of hypothetical people insisting on nonstandard language. The community has anecdotally known about this issue for years, if not decades, but now it has become clear to anyone who is paying attention that the refusal to use inclusive language is putting people at risk. For example, it’s now documented that in Canada, non-binary and trans people are opting for medical care in their non-native language (or skipping care altogether) because their doctors won’t honor their identity through their language.

Each language has a different degree of adaptability to non-binary expression, but we must learn how to use it and how to recognize it in all our working languages. In English, “he or she” can become singular “they” (“Alex missed their bus”) in almost every case, most gendered words can also become neutral (“husband” into “spouse”), and sometimes gendered words can be omitted entirely: “excuse me” can replace “sir” or “ma’am” to politely get someone’s attention. Newly constructed non-binary alternatives to language are gaining traction: Merriam-Webster added the gender-neutral honorific “Mx.” to its unabridged dictionary in 2017;  the word “nibling”–a gender-neutral term for “niece or nephew”–is under consideration by the Collins Dictionary, and Facebook famously added 51 gender options to its platform in 2014 (all defined here) and has since added more.

Interjection from Corinne: If you struggle to accept the singular use of “they” for a specific person–as in Ártemis’ bio–rest assured that even the venerable Chicago Manual of Style now allows this even in formal writing, and states that “a person’s stated preference for a specific pronoun should be respected.” It’s also worth noting that many of these emerging terms may be viewed with the same level of skepticism that once greeted the now-common title “Ms.,” as recently as the 1980s. (End of interjection!)

My favorite approach to non-binary language is to reframe the sentence. Conventional Spanish rules would say that words ending in “o” can be both male and neutral. I recently saw a Twitter post by a linguist that read, “¿Ya estás suscrito?” (“Are you subscribed yet?”) I couldn’t help but wonder why they didn’t say “¿Te has suscrito ya?” (“Have you subscribed yet?”) instead. Their version uses an adjective in the masculine form and, therefore, genders the reader as male. Using a participle instead would be one character longer, but it would take gender out of the equation altogether without the need for nonstandard language.

The absolute best way to familiarize yourself with non-binary language is to interact with your local non-binary community. The second best would be to interact with the community online, such as through Twitter or Tumblr. I find Twitter particularly useful as a language search engine, as you can easily see how and when people are using specific language.

As the field of queer translation is in its nascent stages, there are very few works that analyze it critically (so far). However, some voices stand out from the crowd. Translating for Sexual Equality (2017, ed. José Santaemilia) and Re-Engendering Translation (2011, ed. Christopher Larkosh) are two great introductory cross sections of voices on queer and feminist translation. Depending on your language pair, it may be easier to find authors by searching for the programs of conferences such as Lavender Languages and searching for presenters’ other works.

The English non-binary language introduction par excellence comes from Teen Vogue. For Spanish, the Universidad del País Vasco has a beginner’s guide to inclusive language, and Asamblea no Binarie put out a shorter but more specific guide. There may be guides for your language(s) written by the community, but it’s also possible that there are none yet; in either case, as I mentioned, it’s best to search for examples of people using language rather than to stick to what a guide says. Language can change rapidly and guides can only present information that is current at the time they are published.

There is no single approach for translating non-binary language, particularly when translating or interpreting across languages with very different grammatical gender (as is the case between Germanic and Romance languages, for example), but that’s the “it depends” reality of our field. All we can do is continue adding tools to our toolbox and learn how to use them to our advantage.

* As is often true in our profession, some of the terms in this article depend on context. Some non-binary people do use “he” and/or “she.” Some people don’t care about pronouns, or use them interchangeably.

Readers, over to you! Especially if you’ve encountered these issues in your own work, we’d love to hear how you handled them!


Corinne McKay

March Marketing Madness registration closes Sunday night

My March Marketing Madness challenge group starts Monday morning, and registration closes Sunday night at midnight NYC time. The challenge group is for anyone who wants to spend 30 minutes a day on business development for 20 consecutive business days. You’ll receive a daily e-mail from me with that day’s tasks, there’s a Slack group (optional) for motivation and accountability purposes, and we’ll do a weekly question and answer session. Registration is $75 and there is no limit on the number of people who can participate.

Today (Friday, March 1) is the last day to register at the early bird rate for the April session of Getting Started as a Freelance Translator; registration goes from $365 to $380 after that. This is a four-week online course for beginning and aspiring translators in any language combination, who want to launch and run a successful freelance business. Right now there are five spots left!

I hope to see some of you there!


Corinne McKay

Guest post: Get up, stand up…for your health!

This is a guest post by Eva Stabenow, CT (EN‹›DE), PMA-CPT®. Eva is an ATA-certified English/German translator based in Nashville, TN. She specializes in translating and culturally adapting health, medical and skincare content with a focus on consumer education, marketing and app localization. She had been an extremely happy freelancer-by-choice since the day she completed her MA in conference interpreting in 1995, when too many hours working at the job she loved began to take their toll in the early 2000s. It was then Eva began build on her lifelong love of movement (and a long-buried childhood dream of becoming a physical therapist) by learning and teaching the skill of healthy movement for a resilient body. Eva is a certified yoga teacher, holds a comprehensive 500-hour “rehab/prehab” Polestar Pilates certification and is fully certified by the Pilates Method Alliance. In addition to her translation work at wordplay-translations.com, Eva teaches Pilates and healthy, functional movement patterns at sunroompilates.com, where she especially loves teaching desk workers, instrumentalists and athletes how to heal their bodies through movement.

Get up, stand up! Standing desks and how to use them

Unless you’ve been on a full media blackout for the past few years, you’ve probably heard the phrase “sitting is the new smoking.” We all know why smoking is a really bad idea. But sitting? Why would that be bad? Isn’t it a huge improvement for us to be able to earn a living from our desks instead of eking out a living doing manual labor or working on a farm? Surprisingly, it turns out today’s sedentary lifestyle has some drawbacks that are hard to ignore.

Why is sitting all day so bad?
Sitting is something we do all day, every day in the Western world, both at work and when we relax. The typical office worker today spends a whopping 15 hours a day sitting down. Studies have shown that the most sedentary people had a 22-49% higher risk of early death than their peers. Sedentary behavior is linked to a staggering number of conditions including heart disease, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), high blood pressure, high cholesterol, dementia, cancer and a shortened lifespan. And let’s not forget about back pain, tension headaches and varicose veins. As we get older, excessive sitting can also weaken our bones. Finally, the risk of dying associated with sitting for more than 8 hours a day with no physical activity is similar to the risks posed by obesity and smoking.

The bad news…
But, you might argue, I work hard – but I also work out hard! Surely that offsets the long hours at my desk! Alas, the news is not as good as we’d like it to be: Nearly 50 studies found that prolonged sitting was strongly linked to negative health outcomes, regardless of exercise levels According to the American Heart Association, even working out 7 hours a week (that’s one hour a day, significantly more than the 2-3 hours per week frequently recommended as a baseline!) is not enough to offset sitting for 7 hours or more at a time.

…and the good
Thankfully, exercising – moving – in smaller chunks throughout the day is much more beneficial than trying to fit it all in at once. Translation: You’re better off getting up every 30 minutes or so and moving around some than turning into the quintessential weekend warrior. (Which is not to say that vigorous exercise does not have its benefits!)

So what’s a translator to do?
The goal, then, needs to be to sit less and take more breaks throughout the day. But as translators, we know how easy it is to get lost in a project, especially when we’re on a tight deadline. Suddenly, you look up and realize hours have passed and you haven’t moved a muscle.

One obvious and frequently-touted solution would be to use a standing desk. Maybe you’ve thought of making the switch and are on the fence, so let’s look at some of the more common options from most to least expensive:

– Sit-stand height-adjustable desks: An actual desk you can adjust up or down for sitting or standing, either electronically or manually.
– Sit-stand desktop converters: You’ve seen the ads in airline and business magazines: These units are placed on top of an existing desk and can then be adjusted up or down.
– Fixed-height standing desks: The “original” standing desks, think a regular, non-adjustable desk, just taller.
– Desktop risers: The simpler version of the desktop converter. Here, you put a non-adjustable elevated surface on top of your existing desk.

They all have two things in common: They work, and they come with a more or less hefty price tag.

If you’re ready to take the plunge, that can certainly be a worthwhile investment. But the good news is that you don’t need all that fancy gear to stand up at work. Working in a different body position takes a bit of getting used to, so it’s also good idea to try before you buy (or commit to a homemade solution).

Try this: Place your laptop on a tall kitchen counter or breakfast bar. If you don’t have one, see if your local coffee shop has a high counter and try working there for a while. (This is not ideal in the long run due to the position of your hands and especially the “neck hinge,” but it’s a good introduction.) With a traditional desktop computer, things are a little more involved, but you can simply set a small stool or stack up a few of those unused dictionaries we all have on your desk and elevate your monitor (higher) and your keyboard (a little lower). Maybe you even have a lectern available to you. How does it feel? Were you able to get some work done?

How to use a standing desk
Now that you know what it feels like to work standing up, maybe you’re ready to go all-in with a store bought desk or a homemade workaround. Great!!!

This is the time to tackle one of the biggest misconceptions about “standing desks”: The name itself implies that you should use them standing up the entire time. But guess what: Standing up all the time isn’t very healthy, either! It can lead to low back pain, swollen ankles and varicose veins, none of which make us happy, healthy or productive.

So what’s a translator to do? It’s simple, really: You need to mix it up.

Try to alternate between sitting and standing at your desk. You could do this by using an actual height-adjustable desk or a desktop converter. Other options include moving from one spot to another, say, a desk to a tall kitchen counter or a breakfast bar, which is easier if you’re working on a laptop. Or, you could do what I do and use a fixed-height standing desk with a couple of dictionaries to support the monitor and put a bar stool in front of it. Voilà! The possibilities are endless – go ahead and get creative!

Now that we’ve got that solved, let’s circle back to the concept of moving repeatedly throughout the day – preferably not just from sitting to standing. Remember the concept (whether you agree with it or not) that you should eat smaller portions throughout the day? Think of movement like that: Lots of “movement snacks” are better than one huge “movement meal”. In the long run, getting up and moving around at regular intervals throughout the workday is going to be much better for your health than those heavy-duty workouts our society seems to have fallen in love with. Sure, we’d all love to have the six-pack abs, the beach body and yes, even the “buns of steel” – but I’ll take living a longer, healthier life and being able to enjoy my work day without pain or negative health effects over that any day.

What exactly constitutes “movement”?
Whatever you want it to be, really. You could choose a structured activity such as going for a walk or run, practicing yoga or going to the gym, although these all take a certain amount of time. Alternately, you could just bop around to your favorite song for 5 minutes, take the dog around the block (bonus: your pet will stop pestering you to get outdoors), go do the laundry or get down on the floor to play with your kids. Of course, even these shorter options cut into your productive time. Maybe choose one or two of them for longer breaks, and stick to smaller, simpler “movement snacks” for the rest. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

– Break out your favorite yoga pose.
– Sit down and get up in quick succession. Repeat 10-15 times.
– Stand up and imagine you’re climbing a rope – reach long through each arm to grip as high as possible, stretching out your ribs on both sides.
– Lift your right knee and balance on your left foot. Switch legs after 15 seconds.
– March in place for 1 minute. Exaggerate the motion of the arms and legs.
– Clasp your elbows and draw a large circle with them. Reverse directions.
– Do 10 jumping jacks.
– Stand up. When you sit back down, hover an inch above your seat to the count of 10.
– Get up. Shake out your arms and your legs. Circle your head and neck in one direction. Repeat in the other direction.

Be as creative as you like – one attendee at a presentation even told me he’d started to learn to juggle!

Now, all you need to do is set a set a timer for yourself (on your phone or desktop will do) and you’re good to go! See, that was easy!

Implementing just these small changes had made a huge difference in my work day, my productivity and my quality of life. I can’t wait to hear how it goes for you!