Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters

Freelancing


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.


Corinne McKay

When a client says, “Translate our website”

“We’re thinking about translating our website!”

Those words, “translate our website,” can strike both excitement and fear in the heart of a freelance translator. On the one hand:

  • Website translations are generally interesting, and often involve a lot of content. Clients generally care a lot about their online presence, so they’re willing to put time, care, and money into their website translation–it’s not just a boilerplate document that no one will ever look at again.
  • Website translations can be a logistical and technological rat’s nest. Clients often have the idea that they want to “translate their website” without having a clear idea of what that means. Translate the whole thing, or just parts? Translate the user interface, or just the content? Display the other language’s content on the same page as the original, or in a whole other version of the site? Let alone the translation process itself…things can rapidly become more complicated than they seemed at first.

Now is a good time to look for website translation work

I like translating websites, and just did a big website translation for one of my direct clients. Additionally, I think that a lot of clients may be thinking about translating their websites, now that in-person life is so constrained. Here are a few tips I gleaned, and I’d love to hear about other people’s experiences too.

Considerations when translating a website

  • Always ask at the outset, “What technical process are we going to be using?” My client–for various reasons, including but not limited to translation–wanted to work in Word files. They created all of the new content for the site in Word, then sent me the Word files for translation. For me, this meant that the translation process was very simple; I translated the files in Trados for consistency purposes, but I didn’t have to deal with any HTML files or other translation interfaces. However (big “however”) this meant that the client’s web design firm had to insert all of the French and English content into their page templates, then a staff person had to proofread every single French page, and I had to proofread every single English page. This was time-consuming, but there were minimal opportunities for things to break down, from the technical standpoint. I translated in Word files (simple), the designer pasted the text into the pages (laborious but simple), and I proofread the pages and sent back a table with the corrections (also simple).
  • This is a situation where you sort of have to “pick your poison.” If the website you’re translating is in WordPress (and I’d assume that Squarespace and other platforms have similar plugins), it can be really, really helpful if you can steer the client toward a plugin like TranslatePress. This allows you to translate in the front end of the website; you don’t have to deal with HTML code and no one has to paste text. This is probably the solution I’d pick if a client asked me. However, I think that translation plugins can cause some hassles: “we don’t want to add another technical layer to the project,” “our designer has never used this before and isn’t comfortable with it,” “we want all of the translated files in one place so that we can review them before they’re on the site,” etc. etc. I think the level of resistance you’ll encounter has to do with how tech-savvy the client is.
  • Always (like, always always always) bring up proofreading and QA at the outset of the project. Who’s doing the proofreading and QA, and is the cost included in your initial quote, or is it separate? It’s bad enough to have a typo in a document, but much more publicly embarrassing if there are typos on a client’s website for the whole world to see. The entire site must be proofread before it goes live. When I proofed my client’s English site, I used TextAloud, my favorite speech-to-text tool that I’m always raving about. It was an absolute lifesaver; so much better than visually proofreading web pages for 20 hours.
  • A place to add value: remind the client that a multilingual website is likely (let’s hope!) to generate inquiries from people reading the site in languages other than the original. What then? How will the client follow up on inquiries in other languages? This is particularly important for businesses that provide services or content that depend on language. If the client sells a physical product, maybe this isn’t much of a consideration; a multilingual ordering interface will simply allow people to place orders in their language that are then fulfilled like any other order. But let’s say the client is an Italian ski resort that wants an English website. Probably a good idea. But what happens when they start getting reservation inquiries in English? Will the English website create a demand for English-speaking staff, and can the client fill that demand? You can add a lot of value by flagging this up front, before the client goes crazy with a multilingual online presence.

Any other website translation tips out there?? Other technology tools that might be helpful?


Corinne McKay

Freelancing in the time of COVID: a few survival tips

I’d normally start this post with, “I hope you’re doing well,” but at the moment, how about, “I hope you’re holding on to a few threads of sanity.” It’s a crazy time for sure; and let’s start with the reminder that health (mental and physical) and family come first right now. If it’s taking all of your available energy to keep those balls in the air, just focus on that!

Now that it’s clear that the COVID situation is a months, not weeks-long crisis, I thought I’d offer a few coping strategies if you need them:

1. First, I’d suggest this blog post by Madalena Sanchez Zampaulo, on taking care of your freelance business during the pandemic. Madalena offers tons of great ideas on how to stay mentally and financially afloat during this very stressful time.

2. Next, I’d suggest this podcast from Ed Gandia, where he interviews Carol Alexander, a homeschooling mom of six kids who’s been homeschooling for a total of 27 years. That’s approximately my worst nightmare, but she has some great (like, really great) suggestions for how to freelance from home while your kids are there, without completely losing your mind.

3. I’d offer the following tips:

Let yourself be sad about the sad things, even if they are not matters of life and death. A few examples on my end: after turning down all non-ATA travel and speaking invitations for the past seven years, I was all set to go to Germany for the BP conference and some vacation, and to Boston for the New England Translators Association conference: of course now cancelled. My daughter–a senior in high school–likely will not have a high school graduation, and will probably have to pick a college via video tour. My husband and I were hoping to do a big trip for our 20th anniversary in May, coinciding with meeting my daughter at a bike race in Europe (nope, and nope). Although these things are not life and death, they are hugely disappointing, and are not things that can simply be “made up” later. If you’re going through those kinds of emotions, do not sad-shame yourself. It’s OK to be sad about the loss of things that are important to you.

To whatever extent you can, try to create a “new normal” routine. At my house we don’t have a rigid schedule, but we try to keep a regular sleep and meal schedule, exercise at least one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon (it helps that we can still go outside for exercise with no restrictions, and the weather has been great), limit TV to one hour after dinner, limit news to quick checks a couple of times a day (if something catastrophic happens, we will find out anyway), and check in with a couple of friends every day to see how they are holding up. All of that is definitely helping.

Remember that not every business sector is going to stall out. In the past two days, I received inquiries from two agencies that are moving to seven day a week operations to keep up with medical translation requests from large clients. I don’t do medical translation, but it was interesting to see that happening.

If you have a business savings account, give yourself permission to tap into it if work slows down. If you don’t have one, this is your sign from the universe that you need one. I’m a huge proponent of the business savings account: two summers ago I tapped into mine, to take two “once in a lifetime trips” that were absolutely worth it. So far my own work volume is steady, but if it falls off a cliff, my plan is to start paying myself out of my business savings account while I write another book. If you don’t have a business savings account, vow (right now) that you’re going to establish one.

I’ve got two free offerings on tap if you haven’t seen them already: the April master class on “surviving to thriving,” taught by Jennifer Nielsen, and a free, MOOC-style session of Getting Started as a Freelance Translator, starting Monday.

I think the most important tip for all of us is this feels like the end of the world, and it’s an unprecedented upheaval, but it will not last forever. The people who say, “This too shall pass” are actually correct. The best thing you can do right now is to keep swimming, and set yourself up as well as possible for what comes next.


Corinne McKay

2019: the year in review!

Wrapping up the year and looking ahead

I think that we can now call the new year and the new decade well and truly started…finally! I took two weeks off over the holidays, then spent all of last week interpreting for a deposition and a trial, plus translated a set of press releases and some academic transcripts. All went well and I learned a lot, but I finished the week completely exhausted and even more behind on e-mail and administrative catch-up. Today I’m finally down to inbox 20 (not inbox zero, but better than inbox 197, which is where I started) and my head is a little clearer–so it’s time to take stock of 2019. I’ll give you my thoughts on the year, via some questions that you can use to do your own assessment if you’d like to.

A few questions for self-examination

What’s something you’d like to give yourself credit for?

Let’s start here. As freelancers, we’re often incredibly self-critical, to a point that just is not helpful in terms of moving forward. So let’s start with a positive: what’s something you did in 2019 that you worked really hard to achieve, or that you’d tried and failed at before, or that worked out even though you thought it might not?

Mine: Two things–successfully transitioning off the ATA Board, and passing the state court interpreter exam. The first one might sound weird–my term on the ATA Board was ending, so I really had no choice but to leave, right? But here’s what I mean: I had some fears that I would either a) struggle to let go (after seven years!)/immediately take on a million ATA responsibilities to make up for no longer being president, etc., or b) sit at my desk–bored, lonely, and alone, wondering what to do with the 10-20 hours of my week that ATA had consumed.

Enter positive development #2, passing the state court interpreter exam. I’ve already talked your ears off about this (in this blog post and this podcast episode), so I won’t say a ton more about it here, but it’s proven to be a) very fulfilling, and b) a great way to absorb the time I had been spending on the ATA Board. And after 400+ hours of preparation, I was gratified to have passed…definitely the biggest professional development project I’ve pursued in a while.

Are you satisfied with how much money you earned, and how hard you worked to earn it?

After giving yourself credit for something, I think it’s time to look at a quantifiable element of your business: how much money did you make, and did you work just hard enough, or too hard, for that money?

In the early years of my freelance business, I was definitely in column B: not dissatisfied overall with how much money I was earning, but feeling that I had worked way too hard for that amount of money. This year I earned about the same as in previous years; to clarify, I give details about my income because I think it’s something that anyone who gives business development advice to other translators should do. I mean this information in no way to insinuate that this is what other translators can earn, should be earning, should aspire to earn, etc. etc. That being said, this year I earned almost exactly $100,000 from translation, interpreting and online courses (that’s money I earned directly; my company earns more than that because I pay instructors for a lot of my online courses). Overall, I’m satisfied with that amount. To be honest, the first three quarters of 2019 felt frantic–too little sleep and too many balls in the air, because the ATA Board took an increasing amount of my time as my term got closer to ending. The last quarter of 2019 was much more sane, and showed me that I could successfully add interpreting jobs to the mix without losing my mind.

Are there any process changes that you want to make to your business in 2020?

Many of us pay too little attention to the internal workings of our businesses, and whether we have the tools we need to do a good job. I regularly hear from freelancers who balk at paying less than $100 a year for services like a PDF converter, an editing tool, etc., and I think that’s very short-sighted and can degrade your business in the long run. To boot, that mindset (“I can’t afford anything because I’m a starving artist”) isn’t helpful if you want to run an actual business. The more you can streamline and automate your non-translation tasks so that you can spend as much time as possible doing what you actually enjoy doing and are good at, the better.

I’ll answer this one: I really need to modernize my accounting system this year, and I think I’ve picked a tool to do that. Right now–don’t laugh, because my accountant is the one who told me this system was OK–I use a completely manual system of Excel sheets and PDFs. When I invoice a client, I create a PDF invoice (it’s nice-looking, don’t worry!), manually enter that in my Outstanding Invoices spreadsheet, then e-mail it to the client. When they pay, I manually enter the payment in my Income and Expenses spreadsheet, and manually remove it from my Outstanding Invoices spreadsheet. Then I have a lot of PayPal payments that I have to manually enter into the income spreadsheet as well. It’s clunky, and a lot of work, and there’s a lot of room for human error when I’m rushed or stressed (not that that ever happens…haha!). One thing I’ve decided for 2020 is that this must end: I have to convert to an integrated online tool where my bank account and PayPal are automatically fed in, and where I can invoice clients from one location and log their payments right there. I’ll keep you updated on this one!

Finally: how are you feeling about your freelance business in general?

Of course this is not an objective metric, but I think it’s important. Are you excited about your work? Bored? Ready to change careers? Interested in exploring a different facet of the language professions? Make sure to take the pulse of your enthusiasm for freelancing, not least of all so that you can plan for the future–are you planning on working more, less, about the same, in the same specializations or different ones, etc. etc.?

In this category, I’ll say that I feel quite enthusiastic about my freelance business in general. I loved my work on the ATA Board while it lasted, and I was ready to move on when it was over. My translation work is still fulfilling, and I landed two new large NGO clients this year. Interpreting is proving really enjoyable and in-demand, and I’m happy with how much money I’m earning. I like my co-working office and have decided to stay there even though it’s expensive. Things at my world headquarters look good.

Readers, over to you! Your thoughts on 2019 and what lies ahead??