Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters

Languages


Corinne McKay

Tips for translators in small languages

There are languages like Spanish (tons of work, lots of translators), and languages like French and German (good amount of work, not a surplus of translators), and then there are languages like Tagalog, Nepali, Bulgarian, Amharic, Icelandic, and so on. What are some pathways to a viable freelance business if you do one of those languages of lesser diffusion?

  • Assess the demand. You only need enough work for one person, but in some languages, that may be a struggle. Consider adding additional services like interpreting, editing, voiceover, etc. You may have to be a little more open to offbeat jobs than someone who translates German or Japanese.
  • Expect to be asked to translate anything and everything in your language. You don’t have to say yes; never take on anything that’s outside your capabilities. But expect that clients will think of you as “the Haitian Creole translator,” not “the Haitian Creole pharmaceutical translator.”
  • If you want to work with agencies, blanket the field. Get a membership to Payment Practices (not an affiliate deal) and sort out the highly-rated agencies; for example those rated 4.0 or higher in the two factors that PP rates. Then start cranking out the applications; aim for three to five per day. Every agency that could potentially use you, anywhere in the world, should have your resume on file.
  • If you want to work with direct clients, look for trade ties between your non-English country and the US, the UK, or other English-speaking countries. Most countries have some sort of economic development authority, foreign direct investment authority, or similar entity. Look there for ideas, then contact companies related to those industries that might need you.
  • Consider translating into English with a native English-speaking proofreader. Normally I don’t recommend going anywhere near translations into your non-native language. But for small-diffusion languages into English, I think it can work, and sometimes it’s the only option. First, there just aren’t that many native English speakers who translate from Lingala or Khmer. Second, lots of these niche countries are fairly major tourist destinations for English speakers, very few of whom speak a word of the local language. So you might find work translating for, say, resorts in Indonesia or the Philippines or Thailand that want to attract English-speakers.

Readers, especially those of you who translate in these smaller-diffusion languages…any thoughts on this?


Corinne McKay

Which language is "the best"?

I am often asked this question, in various forms:

  • I want to become a translator/interpreter: which language should I study?
  • Which language is the most in-demand for translation and interpreting?
  • What is the best language for a translator or interpreter to know?

The answer, like the answer to many freelance-related questions, is a resounding it depends. I’ll give you my thoughts here, then please chime in with yours (so that I can use them to answer this question the next time it comes up!).

To me, “in-demand” and “best” are two different things. For example in the U.S., the most in-demand language in general terms is undoubtedly Spanish. It’s the second most commonly spoken language in the United States, after English (insert one of my favorite factoids, that the U.S. has no official language!). But when people ask about the “best” language, I usually assume that they’re talking about a balance between demand and income potential, even when they don’t phrase it that way. And in terms of income potential, Spanish translators face a lot of challenges, starting with heavy competition from in-country translators in Latin America whose cost of living is often much lower, and who are in the same time zone as U.S. clients. In addition, because there are so many Spanish speakers in the U.S., true professional translators and interpreters often come up against the “anyone can do it” mindset held by some would-be translators and interpreters and even some clients. So, despite the very high demand for Spanish in the U.S., it’s probably not the language that I would encourage someone to learn if they’re starting from scratch.

I think that every language has its pros and cons. For example I think that for U.S.-based translators, French and German are appealing because there’s a good balance between work volume and rates, and because U.S.-based translators have some financial advantages (generally lower cost of living, and the fact that we don’t charge VAT). Also, the U.S. time zone is an advantage, as European clients can send work at the end of the day their time, to be returned the next morning. However, the European business culture is very relationship-based, and it can be hard to find and retain direct clients in Europe unless you can go there with some frequency.

In terms of critical need, I think that Middle Eastern and Asian languages are certainly the winners. Also, I think that Japanese to English is one of the highest, if not the highest-paid language combination in most market surveys. But my sense is that for some of these language combinations, there is a lot of competition from translators who are not native speakers of English but who translate into English anyway, even if they shouldn’t. Also, these cultures are much less similar to American culture than European culture is, and it is probably more difficult for translators who grew up in the U.S. to “fit in” in China or Saudi Arabia than it is in Spain or Switzerland.

Then there’s personal affinity: I love the sound of Italian and Portuguese. I’m such a nerd that sometimes I listen to Italian or Portuguese news on the radio (via TuneIn) even though I can’t understand it at all. Biking through the Dolomites last summer was one of the best vacations of my life: I just love Italy! If I were going strictly for income potential, I’d probably go for Japanese, but I really struggle with character-based languages–for example when my husband and I traveled to Nepal, I had a relatively easy time with the spoken language but couldn’t read anything, while he was the opposite.

Anyway, enough rambling thoughts on the merits of various languages! Readers, what do you think? A high school student e-mails you and asks “What language should I study?” and you respond…


Corinne McKay

Torn between two cultures

I’m guessing that most people in the translation industry are used to this question: “Which do you like better…(insert the name of your native country) or (insert the name of your “adopted” country/ies)??” I often get asked “Which do you like better, the U.S. or Europe?” It’s not an easy question to answer, but having just spent the summer in Europe, I have a few thoughts. Mostly, I think that feeling torn between two cultures is a real joy in life: two choices of location, language, identity, you name it. But it has its complications too! Feel free to add your own ideas in the comments!

In general, I am really happy in the US and in Europe, for different reasons. In the US, I love the “anyone can do it” spirit, the wide open spaces (at least where I live in Colorado!), the multiculturalism, the comparative lack of class-consciousness and the pervasive culture of hard work and optimism. In Europe, I love the slower pace of life, the sense of history, the value placed on arts and culture, and the fact that in less time than it takes to drive across Colorado, you can take the train from Geneva to Paris. Here are a few specifics that spring to mind.

When I’m in Europe, I miss:

  • Let’s start with an easy one: ice cubes. In Switzerland at least, there seems to be a national collective agreement that iced drinks are bad for one’s digestion, even if, or maybe especially if, it’s incredibly hot outside.
  • Small talk. I know this is classically American and kind of superficial, but I like a little idle chatter. It’s no coincidence that French doesn’t have a great expression for “How’s it going?” or the equivalent, and I kind of miss that. Particularly in Switzerland, it’s considered very invasive and inappropriate to strike up a conversation with a stranger, whereas  in Colorado, it’s almost considered rude *not* to make some kind of conversation with someone next to you on a bus, in a line, etc.
  • The non-smoking culture. The smoking situation in Europe has really improved since I first lived in France 20 years ago, but it’s still very different from the US. In general I think of Switzerland as being very health-conscious, but people smoke in lots of places that would be completely taboo in the US. For example when I was on a crowded platform in the Geneva train station (waiting for the TGV to Paris!), the person next to me lit up a cigarette and no one seemed to notice, much less say anything. We also saw people smoking in the non-smoking sections of cafes in Austria without being chastised by the staff. Compared to the almost nonexistent population of smokers here in Boulder, the smoking rate in Europe is very shocking.
  • American opening hours. I know, this is another lazy American thing, but it’s really hard to get into the mindset of planning the day around when the grocery store is open. In Switzerland, basically everything besides restaurants closes at 5 (including “essential” businesses like pharmacies and supermarkets) and in some of the parts of Italy we visited, the mid-day break lasted from noon to 4 PM with stores being open from about 8-12 and 4-7. Even in our city of 100,000 people in the US, there are at least three supermarkets that are open 24 hours a day. Not that I generally go grocery shopping at 3 in the morning, but having things open past 5 is very nice.

But then again, when I’m back in the US, I miss:

  • Being able to have an actual conversation with someone who’s not texting or e-mailing or answering their phone while we’re talking. While I was in Europe this summer I went to a financial translation conference in Paris. Financial translation; people who presumably care a lot and think a lot about money. And the conference was during the week, when the attendees would presumably have been getting calls and texts and e-mails from clients. But during the breaks, guess what most people did: go out in the mingling room and talk to each other. Seriously. Americans should give this a try sometime and see how it works.
  • That touch of European class. Coffee in a china cup, with a napkin and a little chocolate so that you don’t have coffee breath. Real food made with real ingredients, even if you’re in a hurry. Train attendants in pressed uniforms. Pastries wrapped up in fancy paper and sealed with a fancy sticker, even if you’re going to eat them right away. The absence of sweat pants and sneakers outside the gym. The absence of dollar stores.
  • Public transportation that goes everywhere. I know, the US is too vast for a European solution to this one. But it’s just such a huge difference. The town where we lived in Switzerland (clinging to the side of a mountain above Lake Geneva) would be considered un-servable by public transportation in the US. Here in Colorado, the equivalent mountain towns are lucky if a public minivan makes a run up there once a day. Of all the ski resorts in Colorado, only one is served by public transportation. But our Swiss town has had a cog railway for a hundred years, and it runs once an hour from 6 AM until 11 PM. Seriously. And we could get from that town to another small town halfway across Switzerland in two or three hours. Of all the things that bug me about the US when I come back from Europe, it’s the car culture that bugs me the most!

I’ve been formulating this post for a while and I know it’s a bit rambling, but I trust you translators and interpreters to get it. And please feel free to add your own “torn between two cultures” thoughts too!!


Corinne McKay

Word clouds of inaugural addresses

Thanks to reader Dierk Seeburg for sending the link to these word clouds that compare Obama’s inaugural speech to those of Bush, Clinton, Reagan and Lincoln. If you haven’t checked out Wordle, it’s a very cool language/art/geek tool that generates a word cloud that gives greater importance to frequently used words in your text. In the inaugural address word clouds, Obama’s most prominent words are “nation” and “new,” Bush’s standalone star word is “freedom,” Clinton’s are “new” and “century,” Reagan’s, by far, is “government,” and Lincoln’s two addresses highlighted “constitution,” “union,” “government,” “people” and “war.” These are worth a look on your coffee break!


Corinne McKay

Obama on bilingualism

The inauguration of our 44th president promises to bring many changes to the U.S., and there’s reason to hope that better foreign language education will be among them. The statistics on foreign language proficiency in the U.S. are downright dismal; in 2005, the National Association for Bilingual Education reported that half of the European Union’s citizens considered themselves fluent in at least two languages, and nearly 80% of EU high school and college students felt that they could hold a conversation in at least one foreign language. In some EU countries where multiple languages are in common use (for example in Luxembourg and Switzerland), upwards of 90% of citizens consider themselves conversant in at least two languages. By contrast, a mere 9% of Americans considered themselves fluent in a second language as of 2005.

As reported in the Salon.com article One nation, just not speaking English, Obama was asked to comment on high school dropout prevention as well as bilingual education. Obama first decried the misguided English only movement and went on to observe that “Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English…you should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.”

Without injecting too many of my own political views in here, I have to note that this is the first time I’ve ever seen a politician take the “why can’t everyone just speak English?” issue to the next level. Obama’s underlying question of how our own, largely monolingual children will measure up in an increasingly multicultural and multilingual world, is a huge one. Obama clearly has a number of tasks on his plate right now, but once he resolves the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, establishes a national health care system, fixes Medicare and Social Security and stops global climate change, here’s hoping that better foreign language education will get its moment in the spotlight!