Translation Blog

How to lose your job as an interpreter

2012-01-16T18:18:41+00:00

The story of a BBC sign language interpreter being sacked for her �creative� approach to interpreting (reporting, amongst other things, that radioactive zombies had been sighted near the nuclear reactor in Japan after the earthquake there) reminded me of an old post where I talk about being tempted to use my all-powerful position as an interpreter to turn a situation to my advantage.

Indeed, it can be really difficult to remain a neutral conversion hub and not get personally involved. During projects that I have worked on for some time, and which I know inside out, I am sometimes tempted just to give answers to questions instead of relaying first the question, then the answer, in order to save everyone time and effort and get the job done. I�m not the only one, as once, I worked with another interpreter at a one-day workshop, during which we had to work with small groups of French and English speakers who had to plan their workload for the afternoon session. To my horror, my colleague started to try and organise the participants, pointing out who was taking on too much and who was best placed to do such and such task. This was obviously inappropriate, but it can be very hard not to contribute when you think that you can see a solution to their dilemmas.

The BBC interpreter cited �personal difficulties � particularly a crushing professional boredom� to explain her actions. I hope she changes career and tries her hand at comedy, as I found her fondness for adding zombies to international events rather hilarious.

Brighton zombie picture by Heather Buckley

_____________________
UPDATE

OF COURSE this was a spoof! I knew that *cough*. However, my point remains, and interpreters have been sacked in the past for speaking their mind, in Ukraine, for example.
(Thanks May!)
_____________________
P.S.
Also, I've always wanted zombies on my blog.

_____________________
MORE!

____________________
C'EST PAS FINI

Le Plus, a Nouvel Obs community site, asked me to elaborate on the issue of interpreters and neutrality (in French).

Translators and business plans

2012-01-10T11:51:52+00:00

Jill made me smile with her post I don't have a plan and that's okay too. I completely understand where she�s coming from, even if I find it useful to take some time to reflect on how my work is going, and how I could improve it. For me, this is a way to focus and ensure that I do whatever I can to succeed in my work, like when I gave myself vague pointers in January 2010, which was useful. Some were good for me in terms of career progression (attending webinars and workshops, getting two more direct clients in the field of international development, keeping up to date with developments in the translation industry), others showed me paths I shouldn�t follow (giving presentations and webinars, which I�m not very good at, and business networking, which just doesn�t work for me).

This year however, I won�t be giving myself any pointers, even vague ones, as I seem to be plodding along quite nicely with the tools and strategies I�ve developed over the years. I have thought of offering other language pairs by outsourcing work to respected colleagues, but this would turn me into a project manager, and what I love is translating, full stop. This doesn�t mean that I�m forever stuck doing the same thing, in the same way: translation tools evolve, and with new clients come new challenges and new subjects to learn.

So what�s the plan for 2012? Carry on doing the best job I can for my existing clients, carry on using this website to market my English to French translation services (see what I�ve done there?) and hopefully make a few new interesting contacts. Happy new year everybody!

Compass photo by Walt Stoneburner.

Mox's illustrated guide to freelance translation

2011-12-07T12:57:04+00:00

Do you know a freelance translator? Are you struggling to think of a suitable Christmas present for them? Struggle no more! Mox's Illustrated Guide to Freelance Translation is now out, with the cartoons all translators know and love and even contributions from many translation bloggers. Can�t wait to receive mine.

Damp squib

2011-12-02T09:38:57+00:00

So it�s not �damp squid�, as I�d always thought. This is another one to put in my little box of misunderstood phrases (see �country pumpkin� in the comments of my post on accents). What led me to look into this expression, used by David Cameron to describe the biggest public sector strike since the 70s, was that I heard it translated as un p�tard mouill� (a damp banger) on the French radio. I was all pleased. Nothing like a lovely translation on the news to make me smile. In fact, this was an example of a French translation far surpassing the quality of the original English metaphor. Honestly, �damp squid�? Of course squids are damp, they live in the sea! Why should this describe an anticlimax?

Because, of course, it�s not �damp squid�, but �damp squib�. A squib is a miniature explosive, which looks a lot like a... p�tard (banger).

Thankfully, I�m not alone in mangling common expressions: see the top 10 misquoted phrases in Britain.

Squid photo by Queen of subtle.

Hey newbie translator!

2011-11-04T12:58:49+00:00

This post is for you. You�re probably here because you sent me an email asking for advice on starting a career in translation, and you�ve received a short email containing a link, which you clicked on. Don�t think that I don�t care, because I do, but my narrow vision of things wouldn�t necessarily help you, as I think it�s best to get info from different sources to work out what�s best for you. These links contain all the best advice and resources that I can think of. You�re welcome and good luck in your new fabulous career.

Posts (and their comments) on this blog

Translators� sites, which deal mainly with translation as a career:

Tips for translators - no-nonsense info
What makes a successful translator - listen to Rose and you�ll go far
Ma voisine Millionnaire - C�line gives lots of practical tips on how to succeed as a translator (in French)
Les recettes du traducteur - Excellent reflections from the kind of small French translation agency every translator would like to work with (in French)

Courses, webinars and books

Online course for translators
How to succeed as a freelance translator
Both of these are Corinne McKay�s work, and although I have not attended her course or read her book, I have every reason to believe that they�re both useful and enlightening.
eCPD webinars offer �high-quality webinars to help translators, interpreters and other professional linguists develop their careers and run their businesses efficiently and profitably�. I�ve attended a couple and they were very good.
Chris Durban�s The Prosperous Translator
Another book I haven�t read, but Chris is such a respected figure in the translation world that I can�t imagine that it�s anything but wonderful.
Judy and Dagmar Jenner�s The Entrepreneurial Linguist
Guess what� I haven�t read it! But the reviews have been excellent.

I must admit that I�ve been suffering from light social media fatigue the last few months, so I�m not necessarily very up to date with newer blogs and sites on translation as a career, so if you can think of any, please share them in the comments.

Astroturfing

2011-09-01T10:43:01+00:00

Are English speakers more creative in their use of language? I don't know, but some of the English terms that crop to designate new concepts and ideas sometimes are just perfect. "Astroturfing" is an excellent example, even if it's not so new, as its first use apparently goes back to 1985: if "grassroots" describes a movement anchored in the community, �astroturfing�, which comes from AstroTurf, the artificial grass widely used in sports fields and stadiums, is very clear: it is �made up grassroots�. It is a fake grassroots movement designed to give the impression that it is spontaneous and comes from the base. Its members are present in the media and on the web, where they �share� their experiences in order to generate a buzz around a product or an idea.

The Wikipedia entry on astroturfing is excellent, and the whole issue of astroturfing raises many questions, but I won�t go into them here since they have been discussed in detail elsewhere. What interests me as a French translator and language lover is what name this new concept will take in my mother tongue. Initial research suggests that it has been borrowed in its English form. Since the French equivalent of "grassroots" is not a figurative term (�grassroots mouvement� could be translated as mouvement citoyen, populaire, de base ou communautaire) it is difficult to play on the word by finding its "fake" equivalent i.e. "astroturf". The alternatives would be to use a description, like strat�gie de manipulation bas�e sur un mouvement citoyen d'apparence spontan�, mais en r�alit� orchestr� dans un but pr�cis, which, I agree, is a mouthful, or to borrow "astroturfing" and hope that the readers will be familiar with the concept.

To go back to my question in the first paragraph, there is actually a French neologism that I love, because it�s quite romantic, but also because it is incredibly handy when translating: internaute, built on the same model as �astronaut� and �cosmonaut� to designate someone who travels on the internet. �Web user� doesn�t quite have the same ring to it, does it?

Fake grass photo by JPDaigle

Translation and ethics

2011-08-23T15:27:27+00:00

I�ve spent a lot of time thinking about the ethics of translation and my role and responsibilities as a professional translator, and thanks to the reactions on this blog, I think that I�m clearer now. Incidentally, it has shown me again the value of a blog, where thoughts and ideas can be developed fully and in one place, compared to Twitter, where immediacy and spontaneity go hand in hand with fragmentation and oversimplification.

I realised that there was an internal conflict between C�line, the peace-lover and C�line, the French translator. As a translator, my loyalty goes to my profession: I am here to facilitate the intercultural communications of my clients, without judgment, and as a translator, I have strictly no professional grounds to decide that a text, however controversial its content and provided it doesn�t break any law, should not be translated. I also feel a duty towards both my potential clients, the recipients of my translations, and for keeping C�line the peace-lover fed and clothed. As an individual, however, I have morals and independent opinions, which can make me very uncomfortable with a particular subject and lead to a schizophrenic conflict with my alter ego, the professional translator.

The act of translation, with the help of tools such as computers, glossaries and reference material, creates a distance between the translator and the content of a document: the arms manual becomes a useful tool for its user. Like every other document to translate, it is words on a page, that my client needs
analysed and transferred into French. Added to this the fact that I�m familiar with rifles, cartridges and the like, as hunting is a way to put food on the table for my parents� generations, it didn�t instantly repulse me, and my first reaction was to treat it like any other job.

Had the subject matter been dealing with issues I�ve already reflected on and have a clear moral position on, the individual might have been stirred from her work time slumber and barged the translator aside. For example, if I ever received a translation request from a racist organisation, I wouldn�t even look at the document before sending a polite and firm �No, thank you�. I don�t need to think about it to know that I don�t want to be associated with these people and ideas.

To go back to the original dilemma, what decision would I have made if it hadn�t been taken away from me? As a professional translator, I can see that these manuals need to be translated, and that more harm than good might come of them not being available in French, but I cannot be sure of that. As an individual, I can imagine that spending two or three months translating weapon manuals might drive me insane with guilt. In the fight between the professional translator and the moral individual, I think the latter should always win.

Translators and moral dilemmas

2011-07-28T10:28:01+00:00

On Tuesday, an arms manufacturer looking for English to French translation services found this website and contacted me to see if I was interested in a 160,000 word project (minimum). I hesitated. Did I want to be involved in an industry that directly causes the death of fellow human beings? Like most people, I have an aversion to war and its consequences.

This led me to question my own ethical stance in my professional role. Are there clients that I wouldn�t work with? Are there industries or organisations that are so repugnant to me that I would refuse to be associated with them?

Whether I agree with war or not, the gun has been produced and sold, and the client needs its user manual to be translated in French, so the people on the ground can operate their equipment as safely as possible. If all the French translators in the world decided that they want nothing to do with war, war wouldn�t stop, but the French speakers holding these weapons would have to guess how to use and maintain them. What if someone got hurt or died because the manual was not (or badly) translated? Besides, what if the weapon was sold to a state seeking to defend its population against violent extremists? Would it make the job more palatable? Ultimately, this type of issue is so complex that a business decision such as this can�t be made on a knee-jerk, potentially naive reaction alone.

As someone living in a peaceful society, it�s very easy for me to pretend that war is someone else�s problem and to refuse to have anything to do with it. However, it�s not. We live in a globalised society. My mobile contains coltan, which fuels conflict in Congo. My lifestyle produces disproportionate quantities of carbon dioxide, which contributes to climate change and death in other parts of the world. However distasteful it is, war has existed ever since humans managed to grab a stick, and if some of the wealth it creates ends up with peace-loving liberals like me (to quote the expression used by Judy in Tuesday's debate on Twitter), all the better. Or, as Luke puts it very nicely in Translation and ethics, face to face, a blog post he wrote after we briefly debated on the subject:

We also have a responsibility to our businesses, as separate entities, to ensure that they are as profitable as possible. If the price of spreading the ethically questionable text is high enough, we could offset our diminishing �integrity footprint� by planting opposing ideas elsewhere. This way we may soothe our souls and our sales.

So anyway, I decided not to take the job, not on moral grounds ultimately, but because it was far too technical for me and I didn�t feel confident I could deliver an excellent translation, and in my professional life, this criteria takes precedence over everything else. I�m still not exactly sure where I stand on the ethical side of things, and I expect I�ll carry on debating with myself for some time. My (somewhat surprising) next move will be the subject of my next post.

Peace crane by Dominic's pics

Freelancers and finder's fees

2011-07-25T10:10:55+00:00

A few weeks ago, a client had an interesting proposition for me. He has lots of contacts in an area that particularly interests me (economic and social development in Europe), and he asked whether I�d be willing to pay him an introduction fee if he put me in touch with organisations needing English to French translations.

I had actually gone through a similar process not so long ago. I get a lot of requests for translations in other language pairs and other specialisations, and after I put various clients in touch with other translators, I started wondering whether I should try and benefit from creating earning opportunities for others. I talked to a few freelancers, and particularly a friend who works in finance, an industry where this kind of practice is commonplace and where it is not unheard of for someone to ask for 25% of the sum to be invoiced as a finder�s fee.

After thinking about it carefully, I concluded that I could either act as a hub for people needing translators, and ask trusted colleagues for financial compensation in exchange for solid contacts, or I could use free, personal recommendations to create goodwill and build a solid network, which might benefit me at some point by enhancing my reputation and my visibility amongst colleagues.

I was far more comfortable with the latter option, and so that�s the path I chose to follow. I explained all this to my client, adding that I completely understood if he wanted to use a different tack and strike a deal with another translator for his future projects. As freelancers, we do need to explore all possible revenue streams, particularly at a time when squeezed budgets mean that translation is no longer a priority for a lot of companies.

Monopoly photo by Mark Strozier

Potiche

2011-06-20T08:51:18+00:00

I went to see Potiche last weekend. I immediately felt for the subtitler, whose troubles started right at the title, because in this particular sense, the word potiche, as far as I know, has no equivalent in English.

A potiche is a decorative vase, originally from China or Japan, but in its familiar sense, it refers to a person, man or woman, whose function is purely decorative, who has no power at all. So how would you say it in English? The poster says �trophy wife�, which isn�t exactly right, as the main characteristic of a trophy wife is to enhance the prestige of a man by her beauty, and most often her youth. Ironically, there is no direct equivalent in French for "trophy wife": femme troph�e is out there, but it is too close to the English to not be a borrowing, and I don't think it is in common use. As an aside, I think this tension is revealed in the fact that "trophy housewife" is used in the subtitles instead of "trophy wife". This is probably the subtitler's attempt to get closer to the truth of the character, who is a neglected homemaker, and on the poster, this expression sits rather uncomfortably, in my opinion, next to a photo of an older woman in a tracksuit.
To come back to my main point, "trophy house/wife" isn�t such a bad solution, as it is a similar concept of a woman with no real power. It does add an idea of prestige, which almost contradicts the concept of a potiche, but it does contain the idea of powerlessness. I particularly enjoyed the translation of the following line, said by the husband as he witnesses his wife win the local elections on the television:

C�est peut-�tre une potiche, mais c�est pas une cruche.
(potiche = decorative vase = powerless and cruche = jug = idiot)
She might be a trophy, but she�s not on the shelf.

Not bad, I think you�ll agree.

Douche �cossaise

2011-06-03T16:11:30+00:00

As I�m freshly back from a week�s holiday in Scotland, I was amused to come across �contrast shower�, which means to alternate cold and hot showers in order to speed up recovery after intense physical exercice. Indeed, the French translation is� douche �cossaise (Scottish shower). This is what Expressio has to say about this expression (simplified translation):

Since the middle of the 19th century, the Scottish shower is a shower which alternates cold and hot water to create a strong contrast.
By extension, since the middle of the two world wars, it refers to successions of strongly contrasted events, situations, actions, words� i.e. reversals of situations.

But why �Scottish�? It�s hard to find a detailed explanation of the origin of this expression, apart from an often repeated suggestion that it could come from a form of hydrotherapy used by the Scots.

The Isle of Skye was stupendously beautiful, by the way.

Translators and specialisation 2

2011-03-31T14:38:55+00:00

Wonderful, isn�t he? You will obviously have recognised Jay Cutler, current Olympia champion. Or maybe you haven't if you're not into bodybuilding. I wasn't particularly until I was offered a job translating bodybuilding articles. I was trained by a fantastic translator, for whom I have the greatest respect, and I can now be considered to be a specialist in this field.

I�ve already touched on the subject of translators and specialisation on this blog, and I'm just finishing a project which has reinforced my opinion: armed with the right research skills and a capacity to learn quickly, a good translator can undertake most projects, provided the language isn't too specific.

But then, what happens if you've been asked to translate documents in a subject that is so obscure that there is very little information available out there? In such a case, it is essential to work very closely with the client, and this is where, in my opinion, freelancers are in an ideal position to come up with the best possible translation.

I'm not a big fan of unpaid tests, but I did one for this particular project. Despite not sending the cheapest quote, I was picked because they found the quality of the translation promising (always a good start). We agreed that, the subject matter being ultra-specialised (public value theories), I would translate to the best of my ability, using whatever meager resources I could find, and that the client and I would review the translation together over the phone. This was an unusual arrangement for me, as I tend to work in areas that I know well. This turned out to be a very fruitful exercise: I brought my in-depth knowledge of English and my ability to transfer meaning into French, and the client was able to correct the French terms that weren't exactly the ones used by experts in the field.

This type of collaboration is ideal, in my eyes: we were able to combine our particular skills and strengths to get to the best possible translation. Some fields are so obscure that there is no chance of finding a translator who will have specialist knowledge in it, so when I get a request of that type, I ask myself two questions: 1) Is it likely that there is no translator out there who could do a better job than me? and 2) Will I get the support I need to produce the best possible translation? If the answers to both questions is �yes�, I take the job, otherwise, I decline and I help the client find another translator.

Umpire

2011-02-25T14:11:35+00:00

"Brilliant!", I thought, when a client told me I'd been chosen to translate the Laws of cricket into French. I love the game, and translating a document dealing with a subject that I care about doubles the fun I have.

In the end, it wasn't much fun. It was fascinating, difficult, frustrating, and eventually rewarding, but really not fun. I�ve just sent the translation, and after three weeks of constant research, hair-pulling and decision-making, I can�t wait to move on to simpler sports: watching France crush England at rugby will be such sweet relief. I'll write a post about all the challenges that were presented by this type of translation, but for now, I need to forget about cricket.

In the course of the translation, I found out the origin of umpire, which I didn't know:

c.1400, noumper, from O.Fr. nonper "odd number, not even," in reference to a third person to arbitrate between two, from non not + per "equal," from L. par. Initial -n- lost by mid-15c. due to faulty separation of "a noumpere", heard as "an oumpere". Originally legal, the gaming sense first recorded 1714 (in wrestling). The verb is first recorded c.1600, from the noun.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone. I can't wait to be there.

Cricket balls photo by Wallula Junction.

My application to the Institute of Translation and Interpreting

2011-01-28T09:17:56+00:00

Happy new year!

I�m late, I know. But better late than later!

I�m very well, thank you. Brighton is great, work is great, but I�d like to talk to you about my major professional disappointment of last year: my failed application to become a member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI), which, if you cast your mind back one year, was one of my goals for 2010.

I wanted to become a member for several reasons: I love my profession and felt that I wanted to be more involved, a lot of my Twitter buddies are members and speak very highly of it (you know who you are), and I thought it would be good for my career.

The application process was quite long and painful. There were lots of forms to download and fill in and documents to provide: a full CV, three professional references, proof of a minimum amount of 750,000 translated words, proof of continuing professional development, copies of all relevant qualifications, code of conduct, application form, plus an application fee of �54.

Once that hurdle was cleared, I was invited to submit two translations to be assessed. The guidelines were that I should �send two pieces of continuous text of approximately 1000 words each, in the same source language, dealing with different aspects of a single subject area.� I chose translations on sports science, because that�s my speciality and a bit of a geeky passion of mine. One was on sports nutrition, the other on exercise. I sent them (both had been approved and published by that point, so I felt pretty confident), along with a cheque for �235.

So I thought I�d done quite well with my application. How wrong I was. Unfortunately, the admissions committee was unable to admit me as a qualified member at this time, but I was encouraged to order an assessor�s report for just �58.75 (it would take at least four weeks to receive the report).

I was both surprised and disappointed that after paying over �300 pounds and spending a couple of days gathering the required documents, I was turned down without a single explanation and that I would have to pay extra money for feedback. In my mind, feedback should be a basic part of any assessment. How am I meant to learn if my mistakes aren�t pointed out? I complained about this to the (very nice, but seemingly powerless) admissions officer, and this is the feedback I received:

The two texts chosen are too similar and do not reflect the translator�s range.

I was absolutely bemused to be refused membership on the basis that my texts were �too similar�. The guidelines that the ITI gives are quite vague, and I felt like I followed them as closely as I could. I explained this to the admissions officer, but it was obvious that she wasn�t in a position to question the admissions process. She encouraged me to resit the assessment (for another �235) in six months, but I no longer trust a process that is based on vague guidelines and that doesn�t provide automatic feedback.

All in all, I�m sad that I won�t be part of an organisation that is central to the professional translation landscape in the UK. However, I feel unable to apply again to an organisation whose assessment process lacks transparency and a commitment to providing feedback to candidates.

What about my goals for this year? More Spanish, more clients, more blogging. I�m keeping the lid on my ambitions for 2011!

Translation techniques: compensation

2010-12-06T12:01:38+00:00

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen the following tweet:

This was a reference to the following passage:

Gluteus maximus weakness causes poor biomechanics and can contribute to knee injuries. In other words: If your ass is weak, you�ll pay with your knees.

I wasn�t comfortable with a literal translation of �ass�, which could have been cul, and before you wonder, it�s not because I�m a prude. I just think that cul is slightly more coarse than the more innocuous �ass�, and I didn�t think it was appropriate in the context of the magazine. I�ve been translating similar article magazines for four years, and it really didn�t work for me. Sometimes, a translator has to follow her instinct. So I rejected cul, but I still needed to account for the �we�re guys talking to guys about training in the gym� tone of the sentence, which �ass� conveyed so well.

Thankfully, there is a translation technique called compensation. It allows the beleaguered translation professional to transfer a stylistic difficulty into another section of the text. So I upped the language register and expanded my translation of �ass� a notch (muscles du post�rieur). This translation is much more technical, which is fine, as the article is aimed at fitness fanatics and contains a lot of detailed information, but it lost all its slangy flavour. I really wanted to keep it, so I transferred to the end of the sentence. I translated �you�ll pay with your kness� with ce sont vos genoux qui trinquent, literally �to drink to something�, but which, in its familiar slant, means �to pay the price�. This way, I hope to keep the familiarity and jocularity of the original. This is the translation I came to:

Une faiblesse au niveau du grand fessier peut causer des probl�mes biom�caniques et contribuer aux blessures du genou. Autrement dit, quand les muscles du post�rieur sont faibles, ce sont les genoux qui trinquent.