Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters

Guest posts


Corinne McKay

Guest post: Living and working on the road

This is a guest post by Jonathan Hine, an Italian to English translator who, since 2013, has been living on his bicycle while continuing to work as a freelancer. Now based in Italy, Jonathan first experimented with living and working on the road while riding through the southern US, then the Canadian Maritime Provinces (and on to the ATA conference in Chicago!), and then through Italy, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. Jonathan’s perspective is a unique one, because his bicycle journey is not a sabbatical: he has configured his office to fit in his bike bags, and he works while on the road. This post originally appeared on his blog, The Freewheeling Freelancer.

In a previous post, I answered the question “why do I ride?”

On that subject, I have to admit that I am not all that impressive as a cyclist. This week, the Freewheeling Freelancer was added to the open Facebook group, Bicycle Touring Websites. I already knew that there were many cyclists who ride more than I do. I was amazed at how many cyclists of all ages were riding around the world like cancer patient Walter Judson Moore, or toting their young families from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, like the Sathre-Vogel family (www.familyonbikes.org). Granted, most are touring (going out and coming home, with work or school suspended), but there are hundreds of cyclists out there who are living on the road, with small children, spouses, pets, etc. And some of them have been out there for years.

Some of them are following this blog, which I find very humbling.

Returning to the theme of why, let’s ask, “Why should anyone else?” Only I am not looking at just the question, “why ride a bicycle?” but the subject of this blog, “why live and work on the road?”

First of all, if you love to travel, then this life may well be for you. I mean traveling, not just being somewhere else. You have to be the kind of person who delights in the journey itself, with its setbacks and awesome moments of beauty. It helps if you don’t mind slipping the whole plan to stay someplace that has surprised you, or even change your destination. You don’t need to stay in a place that does not suit you, and you can tarry where you are welcome.

Second, you might want to live on the road if the job you love requires it. You could be a musician, a travel writer, a lineman working for the power companies, a freelance oil engineer, a merchant seaman, or a yachting pro. I hope to introduce you to some of these people in this blog, but we will have to see whose paths we cross, won’t we? Not many of these people ride bicycles, except for the travel writers and photographers who write for the cycling magazines. But they travel light, and many don’t “go home” between gigs, cruises, jobs, or missions.

Others, like schoolteachers and missionaries, choose to live abroad, tied to one place for one or more years, but always moving on, and traveling during their free time. Some have a place called “home” back where they came from; some do not.

Third, you might have a hobby or a sport that requires that you travel to compete at the highest levels. Olympic and professional cyclists or other athletes come to mind, but so do randonneurs who seek to complete the full range of brevets in a year (visit http://rusa.org/ to learn about them). Such people are almost living on the road already, they see so little of their home bases. It’s not a great leap to organize one’s life to stay on the road, and not bother rushing “home” in between. Of course, there are a lot of variables in there, but you get the idea.

Fourth, if you have often thought seriously of selling your house, or giving it to your children, and getting out of the suburbs or the city, or wherever you feel stuck, you might want to look into living on the road. Mind you, this is not something to be done suddenly and rashly. It helps if you have already taken very long vacations or tours and enjoyed being on the road, perhaps even felt wistful about coming home. It is a big step to leave “home” behind. But there are ways short of selling your house to test out this idea.

Personally, I have not burned my bridges behind me, yet. My son lives in the house, and he wants to keep my car as a backup vehicle. My apartment downstairs is a guest flat when I am gone, so he can host professional musicians who come to our city for concerts. This week I just finished converting it from a one-person flat with home office, into a three-bed bunkroom, with a drop-down secretary for a visitor’s laptop and two empty sets of drawers. With this arrangement, I could stay away indefinitely, without losing the use of my flat if and when I return.

If you are in career transition, this might be a good time to test living on the road. For example, someone recently coming out of the military or “retiring” after a career with a company could work abroad as an independent contractor for a year. There are many term employment jobs of three months or more in a wide variety of locations. Many of them should pay well enough to allow you to accumulate the necessary cash reserves to support a transition to life on the road after your assignment, especially if you train yourself to travel light. If you don’t like where you are working, you can use the time to figure out whether it is homesickness or a genuine dislike of your current location that is the problem. If culture shock and homesickness are not issues for you, you might enjoy living on the road.

Finally, living on the road involves meeting many different and interesting people. You will not always like them all, but if you like meeting new people and getting to see a new point of view, I cannot think of a better way to do it. Wisdom and peace can come of such experience.

Please feel free to comment and to share your thoughts about the subject of living and working on the road.

Smooth roads and tailwinds,

Jonathan

Postscript from Corinne: Although nowhere near as ambitious as Jonathan’s rides, if you’re interested in bicycling in Europe you might check out my posts Lake Geneva to Salzburg by bike and Planning your own bike trip in Italy.


Corinne McKay

Guest post: Getting beyond feast or famine

This is a guest post by Dorothee Racette; Dorothee is a past president of the American Translators Association. Based on over 20 years of experience as a successful freelance writer and translator, she trains small business owners in time management and productivity. In her blog, she shares her insights in making the most of her time. She invites you follow her on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, or to like her Facebook page for more practical time management advice.

Getting beyond Feast or Famine – Planning for 2016

As independent contractors and freelancers, we often make the mistake of passively accepting whatever workload comes our way. We tell ourselves that “feast or famine” is part of the experience, perpetuating the myth that there is little we can do to plan ahead or manage the flow of our business. Such myths often put us at a disadvantage when it comes to optimizing our own working conditions.

Early January is a perfect time to plan your business capacity for the coming year to make targeted decisions about the work you want to accept and solicit. While there will undoubtedly be some fluctuation in the demand for your services, here are some planning steps you can take at the beginning of the year to make the most of your freelance business.

Look at past years for patterns

Your business statistics of past years (e.g. in the report function of your accounting software) probably show certain patterns. For instance, business may be slower in July and August when clients are on vacation, followed by an uptick in September. Knowing the cyclical properties of your workload makes it easier to schedule breaks, predict cash flow, and plan specific marketing activities.

The order history of past years is also a good indicator for your true daily output. It is not uncommon to overestimate the daily hours we can work without disruptions and in full concentration. (I had to learn that lesson the hard way one year when I accepted a job without looking at the calendar and had to work on a major holiday). Taking into consideration steps such as reviewing and finalizing high-quality work along with invoicing and client correspondence, your output may be smaller than you think. It is helpful to base your sustainable capacity–the volume you can reliably produce every day–on a conservative average.

Plan ahead for the year:

Armed with a better understanding of your business cycle and daily output, you can now set informed goals. Where would you like to be in financial, technical, and professional terms by the end of the year?

In many ways, time and financial planning is the easiest of these tasks. When you look back on 2016 a year from now, you will probably want to have positive memories of vacations and quality time spent away from your desk. Because you may feel compelled to work with few breaks, mark your annual vacation and other days off in your calendar now. Blocking certain weeks and dates at the start of the year will be particularly helpful in situations when you have to decline urgent projects from key clients. In addition, knowing in advance how much time you want to take off makes your income projections more realistic. Industry-specific calculators such as US Calpro can help define how much you can expect to earn.

Unless your business is still in the start-up phase, your freelance activities should yield enough income to save for retirement and other financial goals. That should also include funds to pay for professional memberships and to attend local, regional or national industry events.

With scheduling and financial cornerstones in place, you can now take a good look at the technical side of your work. Technical proficiency not only offers an important competitive edge in fields with high price pressure, but can also save significant time. Outdated hardware and software may put you at a disadvantage when it comes to working efficiently and reliably. For example, if your CAT tool version does not have an autosuggest function, you may be spending unnecessary time and effort typing the same text over and over. Similarly, the failure of your old computer that “still works” could cause major headaches in a tight deadline situation.

Learning about your equipment should not be limited to Googling an error message (“X has encountered a fatal error. Details saved to crash.txt”). Define specific steps you will take to learn more about your equipment. Are there functions you haven’t had a chance to explore? Did you hear about new apps from colleagues, but haven’t looked at them? The time invested in getting a better understanding of your work software easily pays off in higher productivity.

Professional goals are the third and most important aspect of planning ahead for the year. Without professional growth, your business is likely to remain stagnant. Since freelancers work in relative isolation, staying at the cutting edge of your field requires a special effort. If you don’t have a specialty area yet, pick the most interesting or challenging project of the past year. What do you need to learn/change to acquire more projects of the same kind? If you already have a niche or specialization, plan specific ways to advance it further, through groups, online courses or reading. Although social media can offer a lot of useful information, nothing beats face-to-face networking. Make it a point to schedule and attend local networking events, both with other freelancers and with representatives of the industries that use your services.

In addition to expanding your expertise in your chosen field, make plans now to sharpen your business skills in 2016. Freelancers who understand the principles of marketing, networking, and cost calculation are in a much better position to find good clients and make a steady income. To plan realistically, keep in mind that professional advancement requires continuous investments of time and money.

Whether you want to make new networking connections, send applications to interesting clients, share ideas at events, or write about your work practice, you will need to dedicate a portion of your working time to these goals. The good news is that the daily practice of continuous improvement is the best way to end the feast or famine cycle. Here’s to you!


Corinne McKay

Guest post: The case against blogging

This is a guest post by my colleague and friend,  French to English translator Karen Tkaczyk. Thanks to Karen for submitting it, and she’ll be looking forward to your comments.

The Case Against Blogging
I don’t blog. I don’t aspire to, and I don’t think most of you reading should either. I hear all the time that we should be blogging to build our brand. I disagree. We should only be blogging if it will actually build our brand. Please don’t start yet another mediocre blog with infrequent postings on topics covered by many other people. I speak from the point of view of a freelance translator, but most of these points are equally applicable to interpreters, translation companies and those who provide services to our industry.

My complaint
Not being first to your niche is a problem. If you would love to have a blog, but your ideal blog would imitate one of the successful T&I blogs, then I suggest you don’t bother. Let’s assume I think the ‘business practices for freelance translators’ market for blogs written in English is saturated (I do). Therefore your new successful blog needs to be narrower.

If you blog just because you find it personally satisfying and you don’t care whether anyone reads it, then fair enough. Someone may discover you one day, like other great artists, and laud you in the future. You may bring our profession glory. I salute you. But the goal of most of the translators and interpreters I know when they start blogs is to bring in business through networking. Many even start blogs hoping that it will bring in customers. Personally, my customers are not reading about translation. They read about their subject and want me to handle the translation so that they don’t have to think about it.

In defense
I should answer some of the arguments people give for blogging. First the strongest one for translators: the argument that translators are writers and should show off their writing skills. I say write anyway. Write for the numerous chapter, affiliate and division newsletters and blogs. Offer guest posts to bloggers you admire. Write for The Chronicle or T&I association publications in other countries. Editors usually need good content and often actively seek new authors. Some publications even pay for articles.

Another factor arises for the content of a blog showing off how good a translator you may be. I am a technical translator. The technical writing I use for almost all of my translation work is very different than the style required for a blog. There is no persuasive writing, wit or gentle humor in technical translation. That’s all dry, clear instructions and analysis. So in my case, producing well-written blog articles would be practicing a style of writing that differs from the one I need every day, the one I take pride in as I work.

One substantial advantage to writing ad hoc for many newsletters or online outlets is that you don’t have to stick to one topic. Taking detours into fascinating ideas that crop up occasionally may not be in the best interest of your blog’s niche. However, it may well be ideal content for a regional association newsletter or someone else’s blog. Think broadly and opportunities open up. However, if you prefer to think narrowly, then maybe a highly specialized blog is for you and you will be the first in your field. If you’re the first, and you can have twenty posts drafted, then I wish you well. If you are not first, and you would essentially be trying to creep into a market that is already well served, then I think there are more effective ways to improve your visibility.

For the record
I have considered the bigger picture. Should I discourage people from blogging at all, as posting articles in the ether that build up our profession may raise awareness and respect? Indeed, this is a strong point. If you’re in it for the greater good, may you thrive.
The observant among readers will have spotted that I said bloggers should have twenty posts written before they start. It seems to me that if you can produce and edit that much material, arrange it into an appealing order, and post regularly over a few months, then you may be set for success. I find that blogs with infrequent posts or that appear to have died slowly make the authors look disorganized or to have failed in their goals. It would have been better not to raise expectations.

In conclusion
Please take piece this in the spirit that it is intended, to help us make the most of the time we have as we run our businesses. I’m not trying to be a stick-in-the-mud, just a realist. Not all of us can be that blogger we aspire to be.

The verdict
A successful blog will be:

  • Uncommon (be the first in its field)
  • Regular (have a predictable posting pattern)
  • Novel (give me something new)
  • Entertaining or Instructive (make me laugh or teach me)


Corinne McKay

Guest post on Intralingo

I’m excited to announce that my guest post on Lisa Carter’s blog Intralingo is up! It’s about self-publishing options for translators, and draws on my experience publishing two editions of my book How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator through Lulu, a print-on-demand service. I’m flattered that Lisa asked me to write this post, and I love her blog too! Great tips for translators of all flavors, especially anyone interested in literary translation and good writing.


Corinne McKay

Out and about on the web

I know that Thoughts on Translation has been a little quiet lately, but I’ve been trying to implement some of my own advice (isn’t that always the hardest thing to do!) and write for other people’s sites as well. The ever-dynamic Jost Zetzsche invited me to write a guest article for his online newsletter The Tool Kit, and I decided to repurpose my presentation from April’s ATA Translation Company Division mid-year conference on 10 ways to raise your profile in the translation industry. Thanks to Jost for this awesome opportunity, and let me know if you have any feedback on the article!

Tomorrow (Wednesday 8/31) morning, my guest post on self-publishing for translators will run on Lisa Carter’s blog Intralingo: a culture of language and thought. I’ll post the permalink to the article as soon as it’s up! Thanks to Lisa for asking me to write about a topic that I haven’t covered much on my own blog; it was a good chance to distill my thoughts on the world of self-publishing and how translators can make better use of it.