Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters

translation


Corinne McKay

Does it make sense to translate into your non-native language?

Does it make sense to translate into your non-native language? Someone asked this on my monthly alumni call in October, and I think it’s an interesting topic, so let’s take a look.

The short answer

The TLDR version of this is: for most professional translators, it does not make sense to translate into your non-native language, but there are exceptions. Reasons for sticking to your native language include:

  • most importantly, translation quality
  • also, translation income, particularly if you get paid by the word, and you work more slowly into your non-native language
  • industry conventions

But interpreters do this all the time…

Right. Here’s the big exception. I would never, in a million years, translate into French, other than something short, informal, and informational. Once in a while, a US-based client will ask something like, “Can you write an e-mail in French, asking when the Senegalese consultant will have the final version of the report?” Sure. But otherwise, I never ever translate into French, because I’m not a native speaker.

However, pretty much every single time I interpret, I interpret in both directions, because it’s unwieldy and expensive to have two interpreters for every court appearance, attorney-client conference, etc. Nearly every interpreter in the US works in both directions, all the time. In Europe, it’s more common for interpreters to have only one active language (their native language), and then work from multiple passive languages, but in the US, things don’t really work that way. So the big exception to the “only into your native language” rule is that interpreters are expected to, and do do this all the time.

My take: the key here is that interpreters are trained (at least in all the training I’ve done so far) to use specific techniques when interpreting into their B language. For the non-interpreters, a B language is one that you interpret from and into, but it’s not your native language. Into-B techniques include using the simplest phrasing that is accurate; using concise phrasing even when the speaker is very wordy; using voice expression to convey meaning; “when in doubt, leave it out” if you can do that without compromising meaning; using phrases like, “the interpreter will paraphrase,” when you know that you don’t know the equivalent of a quote, idiom, or proverb in your B language, etc. And you can’t really use those techniques when you’re translating.

Why stick to your native language?

As stated above, there are many reasons to translate into your native language only. The most important is translation quality. Even if you have near-native fluency in your source language(s), you’re still not a native speaker. It’s likely that all of us know people who are really, really, fluent in a language, but still say things that, while they make complete sense, aren’t something a native speaker would say, or the tone is completely wrong. Like asking someone, “What’s wrong?” (empathetic) versus, “What’s your problem?” (rude). My husband and I went to Nepal on our honeymoon, and I took a picture of the sign outside a trekking lodge that proudly proclaimed, “We will welcome you so warmly, you will feel like going home.” That’s the kind of thing a fluent non-native speaker might say or write, without realizing that it means the opposite of what it’s supposed to mean.

The whole point of a good translation is to convey more than word-for-word meaning, and that’s really hard to do in your non-native language.

Additionally, most translators are going to work more slowly into their non-native language(s), which will drag down your income if you’re getting paid by the word.

A final risk is looking unprofessional. In the US, where the vast majority of translators work into their native language, it can look unprofessional to even offer translation services in the opposite direction.

But of course, there are exceptions

Exceptions to the native language rule include:

  • Translators whose dominant professional language is not their native language. If you came to the US from Italy when you were 18, then went to college and grad school here and have lived and worked in English for 25 years, your dominant professional language may no longer be Italian.
  • Translators who work with small-diffusion languages. If you need a translation from Tagalog, or Bulgarian, or Amharic into English, chances are it’s going to be hard to find a native English speaker to do that. You’ll probably have better luck with a native speaker of the non-English language, and then a native English proofreader.

I think that the native language convention is also at least partially cultural. Anecdotally, it seems that the US market has a strong preference for translators who work into their native language only, while the European and Asian markets are a bit more tolerant of non-native speaker translators.

Readers, over to you; any thoughts on this?


Corinne McKay

To break out of the low-rate market, change these three things

Stop me if this sounds familiar:
I really needed work, so I decided to take whatever came through the door. I decided that applying to mega-agencies/advertising on Fiverr/racing to the bottom on translation job boards was the fastest way to get full-time freelance work. But now I’m stuck; I have to translate 10-12 hours a day to earn a decent living at these rates. I can’t ever take a day off. If I get sick, I’m in danger of not being able to pay my rent, and I have no money to spend on better equipment or professional development. Low-rate work feels like a treadmill that I’ll never get off. HELP.
[Read more…] about To break out of the low-rate market, change these three things


Corinne McKay

Video: translating for individual clients

I do a pretty brisk business translating for individual clients (anything from birth certificates through self-published books). It’s a niche that many agencies and freelancers avoid, so it can be a good niche to address if you’re interested. In this six-minute video, I give you some thoughts on what’s appealing about the individual-client market and how to dive in if you’d like to.


Corinne McKay

Reader question: following the money

A student in my online class asks: how do you know who the “big payers” are in a given industry, and how do you find them or help them find you?

That could be a whole course in and of itself; but here are my thoughts in a nutshell:

Every industry or sector has “big payers.” For example, when I tell people that I do mostly international development translation, they often say “But isn’t it all small NGOs run out of someone’s garage on a shoestring budget?” And yes, there are *tons* of those small “garage” NGOs out there that always need pro bono translators. But the real “big payers” in the development sector are companies that get huge contracts from USAID and other entities like that. For those clients, a contract of $50 million would be considered medium-sized. A big grant from an entity like the Gates Foundation would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars; so these clients are much more concerned with quality, consistency and confidentiality than with saving a few cents per word.

Here’s another example: another student in the class is interested in art-related translation, and I suggested looking at art law. Like my example above, you’re going to find tons of small players in the art sector who have little to no money, and might be a good target for pro bono translation. But envision if a large museum in the US is doing a major exhibit on, let’s say, Frida Kahlo, and they’re going to borrow a bunch of paintings from museums in Mexico. Again, here, we’re talking huge amounts of money: paintings that are insured for millions of dollars and have to travel under certain conditions and with an attendant from the “home” museum at all times; and they have to be displayed only under certain conditions, and hung a certain way. And they have to be evaluated by a curator before they leave the home museum to check for damage and all of that stuff, but all of that stuff is in Spanish. Same with the books and brochures associated with a traveling exhibit; they probably already exist, but in Spanish. So again, there would be a lot of translation work there, with an enormous cost of failure for the museum.

So, how do you land those kinds of clients? A few tips: first, you make sure that if they are just blindly looking for someone online, they find you. You are on LinkedIn and you have a website that clearly describes your services. Also, you have a large network of other translators who refer work to you because you are ultra-trustworthy and never let down the clients who someone refers to you. Also, you hang out in places where your target clientele hangs out; you are a member of their professional associations, and you go to their conferences and things like that. But, you also do not wait for them to find you; let’s say that you see a notice in the local press that a museum in your city is doing that big Frida Kahlo exhibit; they just signed the contract! So you fire off an e-mail that’s low-key but well written, and say something like this to the person who’s listed as the contact: “Dear Ms. Simpson: I just read the news in the local paper about your upcoming Frida Kahlo exhibit. How exciting, and what a great cultural opportunity for the art community in town. I’m a professional Spanish-English translator specializing in fine arts, and I can envision that you might need someone to help with translations related to this exhibit. If so, feel free to keep my contact information on file. In any case, thank you so much for bringing this incredible event to our city, and I’ll definitely be looking forward to the exhibition!”

So, that’s very brief, but there’s the basic concept of how the “high payer” world works, in my experience. Readers, other thoughts?