Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters

Marketing


Corinne McKay

Colo rats d'eau? Allons-y!

Yesterday, ever-observant EN>FR translator Marianne Reiner sent me a link to an article about my hometown, Boulder CO, in the online French publication Courrier International. In addition to being just plain amusing (I think I’ll start referring to Boulder as “a mini-Copenhagen with a view” as the author does!), this article struck me as illustrative of a few good lessons for translators.

  • It’s interesting to get a “client’s-eye view” of your own environment, because it helps you understand the client’s perspective. For me, it’s an everyday occurrence to see someone delivering pizzas in a Prius or to get passed on a running trail by someone who’s training for the Olympics, but it’s fascinating to see what a French person thinks of those phenomena. Takeaway: keep up with news about your country/city/political situation that’s written by speakers of your non-English languages in order to understand their perspective.
  • It’s fun and useful to keep up with neo-terms that are specific to your location/interests, etc. In this article I learned some new expressions for Boulderesque concepts such as “zero-waste policy” “bohemian lifestyle” “carbon fiber” “solar-powered heating system” and more.
  • As Marianne perceptively suggested to me, this could have an interesting business angle. A few ideas popped into my head; many of these don’t apply to what I do, but could work well for other translators: visit the businesses that are profiled in this article and suggest that since French tourists are already visiting their establishments and more (armed with this article and their extra-strength euros) will surely be coming, shouldn’t their menu/brochure/advertisement/guided tour be translated into French? Ditto with the local chamber of commerce: the U.S. is a euro-earner’s oyster, so let’s invite the French to (as the article suggests!) come bike, hike, eat organic food and meditate in Boulder. How about a French-speaking guided tour of downtown hotspots? A linguistic entrepreneur could also contact the publication where this article appeared and/or the writer, and let them know that when the French come to Boulder, we’re all set with French-language materials and services to welcome them.

Obviously, these tips have to be customized depending on the situation, but it struck me as a good moment to think about both outside-the-box marketing and ways to capitalize on new trends in the global economy.


Corinne McKay

Vetting prospective clients and job offers

One of the most frequent questions that I see from beginning translators is how to decide if a new client or a job offer is legitimate. It’s a delicate process, and it’s not an exact science. Sometimes even experienced translators get scammed, and sometimes a client that seems a little shady during the first contact turns out to be quite trustworthy. Following are a few tips on this issue.

First, always (always!) use a translation industry client rating list to see if the prospective client has been rated there. About Translation has an excellent post on this very topic, and it’s well worth a read. I belong to and swear by Payment Practices and I check it immediately when a new client contacts me. In my experience, known non-payers have generally been rated on Payment Practices or a similar list, so these services are an invaluable resource.

I also think it’s completely acceptable to ask a prospective client for references from other translators as long as you as the translator offer the same in return. Ask if the client is a member of a professional association for translators or translation companies. This is not an absolute guarantee of legitimacy, but it indicates that the client is at least willing to invest the time and money in joining such an association. In addition, never work for a client without getting full contact information including physical address, telephone number, and the name and contact information for the person who handles accounts payable.

Asking for advance payment is also an option, especially if you are not in dire need of the work that the client is offering. This type of arrangement might involve full advance payment, partial advance payment, or a partial advance payment and then another installment once you’ve submitted part of the translation. Some clients will agree to this type of payment plan and some will not, since the client then runs the risk that a translator who has already been paid either does not return the translation or returns an unacceptable translation. In my case, I ask all clients who are not established businesses to pay in advance, since (don’t ask me how I learned this!) it’s actually not very hard for an individual to disappear after receiving the translation, for example by moving without a forwarding address or phone number.

Part of the vetting process is not quantifiable, but rather involves using your intuition about a client. I’ve found that just the process of politely asking a client about some of the issues above can go a long way toward avoiding a non-payment situation before it starts. When a less than solvent client knows that they’ve landed on a translator who checks industry rating lists, asks for references from current translators and clarifies the payment terms and methods up front, they’re likely to seek another, less savvy translator.


Corinne McKay

Some thoughts on social networking tools

Like many independent professionals these days, I’ve started using a few social networking tools such as Facebook, Ning, LinkedIn and MySpace. My experience with them is fairly limited, but I’ve been thinking about some of the positives and negatives of using these websites for networking and marketing.

To me, the primary advantage of social networking sites is that they make it very easy for someone to find and contact you, especially if you don’t have a very visible website for your business. Rather than having to have your e-mail address, or searching for your website and then finding your contact information, the person who’s looking for you can simply type your name into the social networking site’s search box and contact you right from your page. In addition, social networking sites make it easy to find “friends of friends” who you might want to contact or work with, and you can also easily search for people who share a certain characteristic with you, like your alma mater, profession, home town, etc. Social networking sites also eliminate the need to keep an updated e-mail address book for people who you contact infrequently, since you can just contact them via the site.

Social networking sites are also a good way to cross-promote your blog if you have one. Facebook and Ning both allow you to feed your blog directly onto your page on their site (other social networking sites may offer this feature too, I just haven’t tried it!).

Of the sites listed above, LinkedIn is, to me, the most “professional” and also the most controllable. There is almost no room to include personal information, and other people can’t post anything to your page without your approval; for example if someone writes a recommendation about you, it doesn’t appear on your page until you approve it. On Facebook, you have to adjust your privacy settings quite carefully if you don’t want all of your “friends” to be able to see photos, comments, etc. that people have posted of and about you. Even if the most sordid moments of your life are far from tabloid fodder, you might not necessarily want your clients to see photos of you with 80’s hair or comments from your friends asking for your lasagna recipe, so this is something to consider when setting up your profile.

Ning is interesting in that it allows you to create your own social network for a group of people. Recently, the all-women freelancers group I’m in, Boulder Media Women set up a Ning site, and I also joined Office Walkers, a Ning group for people who use treadmill desks.

Overall, LinkedIn is my favorite of these networking sites; I don’t have to wade through a news feed about who’s playing online Scrabble or deal with flashing ads for weight loss products, and LinkedIn allows me to easily browse for people who I’d like to add to my network. So far, I’ve gotten many more business contacts through my blog than through LinkedIn or Facebook, but I think that these sites are worth joining in order to make yourself more visible on the Web.


Corinne McKay

Translation-targeted resumes: pitfalls and best practices

What with the U.S. economy on a downward slide and the euro continuing its climb above U.S. $1.50, many translators are marketing these days. Following are some tips on writing a translation-targeted résumé that will pass muster with potential clients.

  • Let’s start with the obvious but often overlooked: prominently state your language pair(s). It sounds crazy, but I’ve read many a translator’s résumé that buried this most basic information deep within the body of the document. My advice: put your language pair(s) right below your name at the head of the résumé, like “Melissa Thomas, Italian to English Translator.” I would avoid using the generic “Italian Translator;” if you are truly qualified to translate in both directions, put “Italian <> English Translator” or something equivalent.
  • Include some sort of geographical information, at least your city. Although I don’t have a P.O. box myself, I think that a P.O. box is a good option for your work address since it avoids having to give out your home address.
  • Use a professional e-mail address. This is one of my top five pet peeves when it comes to translator résumés. Anything @hotmail.com or an address such as “beachbabe2008,” “kittykat” or “soccergod” (and I’m barely exaggerating here!) doesn’t belong on a professional résumé and is also likely to be caught by a client’s spam filter. My advice: if you want a free e-mail address or prefer webmail, use Gmail, I think it’s the most “legitimate” of the freebies. I think that the best e-mail address is one that’s associated with a domain name that you own, so that you never have to change it if you change ISPs.
  • Double and triple-check your contact information. Make sure it’s a) correct and b) information that is “durable;” don’t include a cell phone number that you might be getting rid of.
  • Give specific examples of your translation work without violating client confidentiality. “Extensive experience in patent translation” is much less impressive than “Translated 100+ patents: topics include automotive components, household appliance components and packaging.”
  • If you’ve been translating for a substantial amount of time (I would say three to five years, others might go longer or shorter), eliminate all non-translation work experience that isn’t relevant to what you do. If you worked as an engineer and now translate engineering documents, it’s worth leaving that information in. But if you switched careers completely, say from managing a restaurant to doing translation, I wouldn’t include it.
  • Include something about your computer setup. If nothing else, this tells the client that you are reasonably technology-savvy. You can also inspire confidence by including “with daily backups,” “dedicated backup computer,” etc. If you use translation environment/CAT tools, you can also include them here, or not, depending on whether you want clients to know that you have them.
  • I’ll admit to being a traditionalist when it comes to résumés, and I find fancy graphics, catchy slogans and “creative” formatting to be a turn-off. Also, I think that a photograph, which is common to include on a European-format résumé, is inappropriate on a U.S. one.
  • Some features I’ve seen and liked on other people’s résumés: the date when the résumé was updated (makes it clear that the document is up to date); information about recent professional development such as conferences and courses; a few very brief testimonials from past clients.
  • Remember that you are applying for language work. Although poor grammar, typos and incorrect punctuation have become commonplace in business documents, be the exception. Show your potential clients that you are worthy of their language work by making your own work error-free.
  • Lastly, keep it brief. For use in the U.S., one page is best, two pages is an absolute maximum. Put the most important information first. Remember when your high school guidance counselor broke the news that after you had sweated and cried over your college applications for six months, the average admissions counselor would spend twelve minutes reading them? Have the same attitude toward your résumé and you’re on the right track!


Corinne McKay

Translation memory discounts: yes, no, maybe?

The issue of translation memory discounts, whereby a translator charges a lower rate for words that appear as repetitions or fuzzy matches in a translation environment/CAT/TM tool, is a contentious one. On the one hand, a client might reasonably argue that changing “press the green button” to “press the red button” doesn’t involve translating four words, but rather one word. On the other hand, a translator might reasonably argue that reading that sentence, finding the difference and changing it takes about as much time or maybe even longer than just typing the translation from scratch.

Translators and clients have a few options to choose from: no TM discount at all; a TM discount only for high level matches such as 100% matches and repetitions; or a graduated pricing structure where fuzzy matches down to a certain percentage, say 75% or even 50%, are priced at a certain percentage of the translator’s per word rate.

At a past ATA conference, I heard a translator argue that there are two translation markets out there: the TM market and the non-TM market, and you have to decide which one you’re going to compete in. While I’m not sure that the choice is as binary as that, I think there’s some truth to the idea. Many legal and financial translators I know are rarely if ever asked to give discounts for repetitions, and use a TM tool mostly for their own consistency and productivity. On the other hand, many technical translators I know would be out of business if they didn’t use TM and give discounts for repetitions.

For some projects, such as product manuals that are regularly updated, it seems to me to border on ridiculous not to give TM discounts since the majority of the text will be recycled. However, I understand translators’ frustrations with clients who nickel and dime over every repeated word simply out of a desire to pay as little as possible for the translation. Your thoughts?