Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters

Guest posts


Corinne McKay

Guest post: A review of LSP.expert

This is a guest post by Jo Rourke, a Spanish and Portuguese to English translator and copywriter based in the UK. When LSP.expert (a web-based tool for managing projects, clients, and finances) contacted me about running a review of their software, I asked them to contact someone who is an actual user of it (rather than me just clicking through the basic features), and Jo provided the following thorough review. This is not an affiliate deal, and I don’t have a financial relationship with LSP.expert. Over to Jo…

Productivity “hacks” make me roll my eyes . There. I said it. And yet….I still click on every single article that tells me it’ll take seconds(!) off my time spent admin-ing, managing or otherwise running my business.

I love the idea of being organized. The reality…not so much. That’s probably why I’m such an easy target for these grand statements about time-saving. I’ve got three kids, aged six and under, a husband aged…yeah, he wouldn’t appreciate me sharing that, and a business to run. Oh yes, and recently I’ve taken on the running of a fin-tech company. You know, because I wasn’t busy enough before.

So, despite my natural disorganized tendencies, I really do have to be organized. If you’ve read my posts and tweets about LSP.expert in the past, you’ll know I’m already a huge fan, but since I took on this exciting new role, I started out on a bit of a mission to discover ways it could help me even more (I didn’t actually think it was possible.)

Corinne asked me to share my newly-discovered tips and tricks with you all. After squealing with delight and excitement (and, not going to lie, being a little star-struck), I pulled together my 3 favourite LSP.expert features to up my productivity.

Feature 1: Linking to my Google Calendar

I think this may be my favorite LSP.expert update of all time (spoiler alert: I’ll probably say that about all of these.) I am all about maximizing my time, but I’ve also realized listening to the TED Radio Hour while I’m driving is about the height of my multitasking skills, so I’ve started blocking out time in my calendar, to allow me to focus on one task at a time.

The ability to sync my Google Calendar with LSP.expert has been a real game-changer. Not only can I now sync my deadlines so I have a clear idea on how I’m progressing, but it’s also an important planning and decision-making tool for me. I can’t be the only translator out there who says to themselves when contacted about a new project, “Hmmm, I’m not 100% sure of my availability next week, but I’m sure it’ll be fine…” Cue: It not being fine. This gives me a much more reliable picture of my capacity.

Feature 2: Tracking outsourcing expenses

Towards the end of last year I coordinated one of the biggest jobs (so far) in my career. It had many moving parts and a short deadline. Normally, that would seriously stress me out, especially figuring out everyone’s rates and ensuring prompt payment. I don’t know about you, but when I’m worrying about something like that, it really affects my productivity.

This time though, I used LSP.expert to create expenses for all my outsourced tasks, from the company I used to prepare and format the (complicated) file for translation, through to my assistant’s time for organizing it and, of course, including the costs of the translators and proofreaders.

My own productivity increased significantly…and my stress levels plummeted!

Feature 3: Storing reference material

Like most translators I know, I’m a sucker for reference material. Background research, terminology sites, podcasts, MOOC courses and previous versions of the translation form the basic, pre-translation list for me. I feel that this extra grounding in the topic speeds up the process as I’m not starting the research when I’m in the middle of translating.

You know what doesn’t speed it up though? Trying to find all this carefully researched material. Until recently it’s variously been bookmarked on my browser, saved in various files, printed off and kept in a “safe” place….you know the drill. For the past few months, though, I’ve been using LSP.expert to store all this information centrally for each job.

I upload from either Google Drive or my computer (though you can use Dropbox or OneDrive too) and it’s been so handy having them all in one place. Extra productivity points for clearing them off my own system once I’ve uploaded them!

I could end this blog post by posting a photo of me lounging by the pool relaxing, given all this extra time I’ve created for myself by being so productive. But 1. I don’t have a pool and 2. Let’s face it, we all find extra tasks to fill our time! That said, using LSP.expert with a focus on my productivity has given me considerable peace of mind on three issues that concern most great freelancers I know: availability, expenses and ensuring quality.

P.S. (Hmmm, does one include P.S. in a blog post? Oh well.) In case you were wondering, LSP.expert also lets you create invoices and quotes in just a few clicks and, for reporting geeks like me, there are also a ton of cool reports to give you insights into how efficiently (and profitably) your business is really running.” Happy geeking!


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

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!


Corinne McKay

Guest post: Client-side conferences as a marketing tool

This is a guest post by Michèle Hansen, a French to English translator specializing in medical, global health, and international development translations. Michèle took my direct client marketing course a while back, and has since capitalized on her love of continuing education (and travel!) to build her direct client business by attending client-side conferences and educational events.

Why attend client-side events?

Regardless of where you are in your career, you need to be thinking about finding new clients or keeping existing ones. I’ve taken a couple of Corinne’s marketing courses and found them helpful, and I want to share how one strategy—attending client-side conferences—has proven to be a successful way to find and retain clients while learning about the sectors you translate for.

I used to exclusively attend events about translating, editing, and writing. These were a great source of information and contacts within our industry, and continue to energize and educate me even after some 25 years in the business. Most of my agency clients came through direct or indirect connections made at ATA conferences. However, by limiting myself to “insider” meetings I was not connecting with potential direct clients in any meaningful way. Attending events not aimed at language professionals has opened my eyes to such clients’ expectations and misperceptions and helped position me as a solution to their problems rather than as a barrier.

Inside and out

My translation work is divided between medical and pharmaceutical projects on the one hand, and global health and development projects on the other. While the latter clients are more attuned to multilingual communication, I’ve still encountered a surprising amount of misinformation about what we do. Meeting people face-to-face is a terrific way of educating them about what professional translators and interpreters offer. I’ve used dozens of conversations at coffee breaks to explain our industry, often to people who will never have a need for my own services. I view that as “client outreach” for our community generally, and hey, you never know if they might pass my card along to someone else!

People like to complain, especially among colleagues who they trust will understand their problems. When you are seated at a lunch table or standing around the exhibit hall, you hear a lot about insider issues and can strategize about how to be part of the solution. Of course, you might realize instead that you will never be a good fit for their organization. Either way, that is valuable information.

Think outside the box

It wasn’t until I began attending client events that I realized how truly broad the international development sector is. I knew about the big international and inter-governmental organizations, donors, NGOs, and so forth, which already constitute a large pool of potential clients. However in many ways these are all grouped under the same umbrella. A whole other umbrella is the world of academia. Many industry and development organizations have affiliations with universities, and academic researchers publish a significant body of work. Academics writing in a non-native language sometimes require editing more than translation per se, so you can market yourself as a target language specialist familiar with the field rather than just as a translator.

Another potential client base I learned about through conferences is private-sector companies. You’ve all heard about public-private partnerships or enterprise-led development. Corporate social responsibility is a similar idea that has led many large companies to set up internal divisions dedicated to developing or partnering with development programs. For example, Chevron and Conoco are involved in such projects in Nigeria. They need a local workforce that is educated and healthy, and their profits depend on a strong government that can enforce property laws. Therefore they have invested in a variety of projects, most not directly related to their core businesses of oil and gas: developing fisheries, empowering women, increasing civic involvement, etc. And did you know that Land O’Lakes has been involved in international development for 37 years and has donated nearly $2 million towards philanthropy programs? I sure didn’t! Since I work in the health sector I had never thought to reach out to companies in other fields, but now I do. So even if you don’t know anything about a particular industry, you might be a good match to translate their social enterprise materials.

Honing Your skills

Conferences are a perfect opportunity to keep up with ever-changing terminology and cultivate subject matter expertise. They are also a perfect opportunity to ask dumb questions! Odds are nobody there knows you, and you aren’t approaching them to ask for business (yet), so you can dare to show your ignorance. Exhibitors and presenters, especially, are there to showcase their expertise, and will likely be glad to enlighten you. On the other hand, if you’re already knowledgeable about a topic, you can engage them in a discussion about their specific activities or recent advances in the field, and come off as a peer rather than a vendor.

Meet on their turf, prove your worth

Most attendees at an industry event work in that industry. When a translator or interpreter shows up, you are automatically interesting to them. They are impressed, because they know that you have taken the time and paid the fees to be there. Your presence alone indicates that you don’t live in an echo chamber, you invest in your business, and you are committed to staying up-to-date on that sector’s issues.

Of course, if you’re there to sell yourself you need to do your homework first. Subscribe to newsletters to stay abreast of industry news throughout the year. Look at the lists of sponsors, exhibitors, presenters, and attendees on the conference website. You need to show that you understand their business even as you represent an outside view.

Finite resources

Time and money are the major reasons many people do not attend conferences, and those are valid concerns. This marketing strategy requires careful planning and prioritizing. I live in the Chicago area, so I scour the various newsletters and industry websites for local events that won’t involve travel costs. As a French to English translator, I like to attend a meeting in a francophone country if I can, and combine that with a family vacation. I look for other synergies: Do I know anyone in the conference city I can stay with? Can I combine the event with an in-person meeting with a local client?

Still, there is no getting around the fact that conferences cost money. However, I have found that my upfront investment has paid off. In the past 18 months, I spent about $7K in registration fees, hotels, and travel, but earned nearly $15K from new clients. I hope and expect that these clients will continue to send me work in the future, without any additional investment on my part.

Here’s what happened last month: This year’s ATA conference was immediately followed by a tropical medicine conference that was not only also in New Orleans, but in the same hotel! That was too convenient to pass up. I paid the extra hotel nights and the (hefty) conference fee, but received a 6,000-word translation project from a new client that same week. The day after I got home I received an email from someone else I chatted with asking for my CV and rate sheet to share with their colleagues, and four others connected with me on LinkedIn. I met with an existing (but fairly new) client for coffee, who was pleasantly surprised to find me there, and ended up hearing about their 2019 project pipeline and where I could fit in. Granted, I don’t always get this much interest at every event I attend, but the balance sheet has thus far been in my favor. I’m confident this strategy will be successful for others who enjoy live networking, are willing to do their homework, and can afford to be patient while the conference seeds germinate.


Corinne McKay

Guest post: The importance of translating into your native language

This is a guest post by by Ann Marie Boulanger, M.A., Certified Translator (FR-EN). Ann Marie is a Quebec-based French to English translator.

Seen any unicorns lately? Me neither!

Extremely rare is the translator who can translate back and forth seamlessly in the same language combination, producing texts that audiences in either language would never suspect had been translated. Unicorn-rare, I’d venture to say. Conversely, translators who actually do so and claim to produce work of equal quality in both languages are a dime a dozen.

Unicorns aside—because, really, has anyone ever proven they don’t exist?—I’m going to make the bold and probably controversial statement that a translator should only translate into their native language.

Among the bidirectional translators I’ve encountered over the years, the number-one argument I hear in support of their translation practice is that they’re fluently bilingual. Yet, we’re all familiar with the eye‑roller of the “bilingual secretary” whom clients constantly cite as their go-to translator, right? So, let’s state the obvious: Being bilingual doesn’t make you a translator. But, here’s something a little less obvious: Being a translator doesn’t qualify you to translate from language A to language B, and from language B to language A.

The role of culture in translation

Too often overlooked in the translation equation is the element of culture. In Translation Studies, Fourth Edition, translation theorist Susan Bassnett makes this elegant analogy: “In the same way that the surgeon, operating on the heart, cannot neglect the body that surrounds it, so the translator treats the text in isolation from the culture at his or her peril” (2014, 25). This means that the translator must not only have absolute mastery of the language of their target audience, but also an intimate understanding of the culture of that audience. For this to occur, the prevailing wisdom is that a translator should ideally have been born and raised in the target language and culture, or at the very least, almost completely immersed in it from birth.

I offer myself up as a prime example. I was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, to an Anglophone mother and a Francophone father, making me fluently bilingual—enough to succeed at being a translator, anyways. However, English is my mother tongue (they don’t call it that for nothing!), and I was raised in an American‑influenced, Anglo‑Quebec cultural context. That means that all of my media consumption (television, radio, movies, books, newspapers, magazines) has always been predominantly in English. And while I’ve spent my whole life straddling the province’s linguistic divide and have always been aware of Francophone Québécois cultural phenomena playing out in the background of my everyday life, I remain firmly planted in the English-speaking world. I am somewhat embarrassed to say that Québec’s star système of celebrities, and its cultural scene in general, is a virtual mystery to me, and to many of my Anglophone peers, for that matter.

What I’m not embarrassed to say is that, even though I may speak, read and understand French at a high level, I do not write impeccably in French. I mean, I’m okay. Better than average, actually, and better even than many native Francophones in Quebec. But, would I ever attempt to translate into French? Jamais! Number one, I do not—and will never—write like a native speaker who grew up immersed in the French language, with all the elegance and refinement that implies. And number two, I am lacking the Franco-Québécois cultural background that would give my translations credibility and authenticity. Point final.

When the client asks…

It’s fine for a translator to say they have native-level proficiency in their second language, and, hey, they just might. There’s not a lot that can’t be learned and perfected. However, translating into a language in the absence of a solid grounding in the culture of that language is like walking a tightrope without a safety net. You can string the words together in grammatically perfect form, as eloquently as can be, but if you fail to correctly render a cultural reference from your source text, your translation is going to land on your target audience with a sickening thud.

Many clients also mistakenly assume that all translators are capable of translating in both directions. And translators who do so often get away with it precisely because their clients don’t know any better and often aren’t strong enough in the target language themselves to spot the inevitable errors. These errors may be glaring or tiny, and grammatical or cultural in nature, but a native speaker will always pick them out. And so, some translators who really should abstain continue to translate into their non‑native language because their clueless clients (who often speak the same native language as the translator) continue to accept their less-than-perfect work.

Let’s stick to honing our craft in our target languages and leave the other side of the coin to the true experts: the native speakers. There’s more than enough work to go around without attempting to translate in both directions of our language pairs. And that goes for all translators—unicorns notwithstanding, of course.