A call for a small action – Freelancers of the nation, unite!

 

It has been some 100 years since the heyday of unions. Today, the sad truth is fewer and fewer workers, both freelance and salaried, feel the need to join an association. Many, if not most, professional associations are experiencing declining membership numbers and energy and increasing average member age, including translator associations worldwide. Yet, despite the massive changes in the world since the beginning of the 20^th century, the need for collective associations remains as valid as ever: market forces are as unbalanced as in the late 19^th century; banding together strengthens individuals; and associations foster satisfying human connections. Thus, I encourage every freelancer, regardless of his/her profession or country, to join and contribute to a professional association.

The rise of the trade unions did not occur in a vacuum. The industrial barons of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries enjoyed full freedom to make any decision they wanted, almost unfettered by government rules or issues of social justice. The unions challenged their privileges, including the ability to set wages, hours and working conditions unilaterally. 21st-century labor markets are not so different. For example, the conglomeration of the translation agencies has reduced competition and rates to new lows as well as significantly reduced translator choice in rates and technology. Any translator that chooses not to agree to those rates or, increasingly, to use AI suffers. As for autonomy, as Henry Ford and his colleagues had no problem replacing any “problem” worker with a more flexible one, the modern axiom “the customer is always right” seems to justify patently incorrect translation and punishing linguists that insist on quality. Finally, one of the most important benefits of trade unions was to provide opportunities to socialize and be a human being, not a human machine. Especially before the advent of television, going to the union hall was as much an act of social expression as worker action. There, you were a human being, not just an employee. Today, too many freelancers spend the vast majority of their time alone in front of the computer and may even have forgotten how to have a conversation and its benefits. Meeting and talking make you feel like a human being, just like then.

Therefore, I call on every freelancer, including translators, to join an association. The annual cost is minimal and tax-deductible as a business expense. In return, one receives emotional and organizational strength, i.e., the knowledge that you are not alone. Moreover, being a member allows access to an incredible amount of professional knowledge. For example, the ITA (Israel) and ATA (US) each have an incredible library of webinars available to their member on any subject. This library can shave years off the learning curve. Often, being a member brings direct financial benefits, e.g., buyers seek members of the association and even post job requests in its networks. Likewise, getting to know colleagues often leads to referrals and recommendations. Making some contribution, whether time or knowledge, multiplies that benefit as colleagues learn more about your unique traits. Mutual support creates amazing synergy, often in unexpected ways, all for a small investment of time and energy.

As a personal testament, my father helped organize the reporters of the AP news organization into a union at a time when that organization treated them only slightly better than slaves. He paid a professional price for that but was proud of it to his last day. I am a member of three translator associations (Israel, France and the US) and participate, when possible, in their meetings. I regularly receive job offers from buyers that see my name on their sites, direct notices from the association and referrals from colleagues that have met me. Maybe just as important, I feel that I am part of a larger community, which professionally strengthens me just as my contributions strengthen that community. Although I lack the "organizational" mind to run an organization, I sit on the ITA Audit Committee and contribute ideas when relevant. I give what I have to give. I have gained far more than I have contributed.

In summary, if you are new to a profession, join an association. The knowledge that you can access can save years of errors and wasted effort. If you are established, the association can provide you with the tools and knowledge to adapt to a rapidly changing market. Yesterday’s business model is increasingly irrelevant; the association can help you quickly adapt. If you find yourself complaining about rates, conditions, AI, your colleagues or lack thereof, joining an association is one positive act. In unity, there is strength for everybody. We get by with a little help from your friends.

The linguist’s tale – A personal confession of native language interference

 

The sad truth is the 99% of humanity will never sound like a native speaker when they speak a foreign language. We may have a great ear, solid knowledge of grammar and well-developed vocabulary. Yet, some strange turn of the tongue gives us away. The culprit is interference from our native language, tendencies that are so ingrained that they affect every other language we speak. It is similar to those habits learnt from our parents, which we swore we wouldn’t continue when we became adults, but which we have to ultimately accept. I will demonstrate by recounting my misdoings when I speak Russian, French and Hebrew, habits that I wish I could eliminate but never will. All that is left is accepting imperfection.

Russian involves a completely different form of thinking and construction. I have managed to grasp most of its peculiarities. Case declensions are a matter of memorization and practice. Putting a noun in the singular after any number that ends in the number 1, including 1,000,001, has its peculiar logic but still carries a rational rationale. Practice helps hone the differences between the imperfective and perfective verb forms, which reflect, as a rule, incomplete and complete actions, respectively. However, placing adjectival phrases before the noun they describe is beyond the ability of my brain to apply. To demonstrate, the English sentence “The dog sitting on the table enjoys vegetables roasted in the fire.” comes out in Russian “The sitting on the table dog enjoys roasted in the fire vegetables. This structure is too alien for me to apply consistently. Thus, I will always sound like an alien, a foreigner, when speaking Russian.

French is much more similar to English but also has its intricacies. A little practice helps a student master the subjunctive. Furthermore, my plus que parfait is almost better than perfect. After an insightful webinar by Grace Shalhoub, I even feel confident when I need to adjust the past participle to agree with the gender and number of the preceding direct object, not as simple as it may sound. However, regarding gender, here I fail. I cannot and have never been able to remember the rules for knowing whether the noun is masculine or feminine. Aside from the “tion” class of nouns, which are all feminine, I can find no rhyme or reason. Thus, I have always double-checked every noun to be sure. I do not trust my intuition or my ear, only the dictionary. It is my cross to bear in French.

Hebrew is my daily language. I enjoy a rich vocabulary and an intuitive sense of how to choose the proper verb category from the root. Thus, I can read awful Hebrew legalese and can apply the rules to form the right verb from a root even if I don’t formally grasp the rule. My downfall is cultural. In Hebrew, the verb form changes depending on whether the grammatical subject is male or female (as well as singular and plural). This manipulation occurs in 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd persons. In simple words, the verb takes on a different form when a woman talks is or is talked about. As I have spent most of my life surrounded by females, e.g., spouse, daughter and colleagues, I tend to use the feminine form at all times, especially when I am tired and my brain is dragging. It sounds quite strange to refer to a male using the feminine form. In my defense, many foreigners make the same error. I understand that the cause of this error is the lack of such distinction in English. People forgive me because I am a foreigner but I am almost as embarrassed as my wife is when I make this error. I will continue to strive to reduce the error but it is impossible to eliminate.

This is my slightly tragic but mostly humorous tale about sounding like a foreigner. I know that I am not alone. The vast majority of people drag some feature of their native language into their adopted language. It is not a sin. However, as Tevye sang in Fiddler on the Roof, it is no great honor either. As humans are no more perfect in other parts of their lives, we have to accept our linguistic warts just as we need to come to peace with our other imperfections. To paraphrase Shakespeare, it is better to have spoken and erred than never have spoken at all.

Cancelling the experience/skill equation and what it means for translation purchasers and buyers

 

In many service areas, buyers assume that experience and skill are correlated, i.e., the greater the experience, the higher the level of performance. While this may be true for some professions, this does not necessarily apply to translation. Granted, experience hones certain areas of knowledge, but it does not necessarily attest to professional knowledge of the translation field. Thus, translation purchasers should not avoid newer professionals while the latter should not discount themselves.

Translation buyers, specifically because they are buying a service blindly the first time, seek indications that the individual is proficient. One of these indicators is experience. Experienced freelancers are likely more skilled at the complementary tasks. These processes include QA, customer communication and time assessment. Experienced translators have learned their typical errors they make in their first drafts and the cost of not catching them before delivery, the need to ask questions and the actual time required to complete the translation. Beginning translators often lack this knowledge and, thus, often misjudge deadlines and are less efficient in their time use. In practice, these issues will most likely be invisible to the translation buyer.

By contrast, since translation quality is highly correlated with the knowledge of the subject area, new translators may suffer from no actual disadvantage as compared to experienced ones. If a new translator has years of experience in the subject area, e.g., having worked previously as a broker, doctor or lawyer, the resulting translation will sound professional. In a certain sense, translation is merely an evolution in the use of that knowledge. On the other hand, some translators with years of experience in a given specialty not only do not improve but actually become convinced that their erroneous phrasing and terminology are correct and relevant. The fact that “no customer has ever complained” is irrelevant. Thus, it is impossible to accurately assess the extent of experience by only looking at the actual translation .

For translation purchasers, this means that actual experience should not be the only deciding factor in choosing the freelancer. While it is true that survival in a field indicates a certain level of competency, it does not imply excellence. A newbie with sufficient background and a professional approach may provide an equal or better result. Furthermore, as most newcomers are younger and have fewer customers, they often are more capable of meeting tighter deadlines. Therefore, those seeking a professional translator should also consider other factors beyond experience.

Translators with little or no experience need to put their personal (and natural) insecurity aside and approach the business in a professional manner. These newcomers should take on any project for which they are competent with outward confidence and charge professional rates. It is important to remember the difficulty of raising rates once they are established. That approach is key to success in translation. Nobody trusts doubt and discounts. At the same time, they should take into account a lack of experience by avoiding tight schedules and even seeking outside help in the QA process. Later projects from these customers will more than compensate for any initial income loss. If you make an error, remember that experienced translators also make them and learn from them. Furthermore, the manner in which you relate to and fix the error can create customer loyalty. Clients can be quite forgiving. New translators should pick their project carefully but hit a home run with their results.

Thus, translation experience is only one factor among many in determining the skill of a potential service provider. Subject knowledge and professional approach are equally important. Purchasers should not avoid relative newcomers to the profession nor should new translators sell themselves short. In practice, experience does not necessarily equal skill.

Intuitive vs logical – complementary and necessary grammar approaches

 

Mastering the grammar of any language involves both intuition and rules. Clearly, every language user relies more heavily on one approach but neither by itself is foolproof. Both students and teachers require reinforcement of the weaker sense in order to hone their knowledge of a language. For example, ESL students benefit from grammar teaching that strengthens both approaches. Likewise, ESL teachers, whether native or non-native speakers cannot depend on intuition or knowledge of rules alone to master grammar and must invest in complementing their knowledge. I can attest to that process as I view my career as an ESL teacher.

Clearly, a good ear and an analytical mind both aid in learning in English grammar. Due to the quantity of English language material available worldwide, both audio and written, students can and do access English material from an early age and develop an instinctive grasp of “what sounds good”, sometimes almost to the level of those living in an English-speaking country. However, the grammar, vocabulary and register of much of this material are often very low, e.g., rap songs and TikTok videos. Thus, the learner may normalize a very low level or even incorrect sentence structure. By contrast, the formal grammar rules provide a certain scaffolding for correct grammar use. However, they also add an additional layer of processing before producing the sentence, which reduces fluency and confidence. Furthermore, formal rules may lead to artificial speech, i.e., structure that does not actually reflect actual language use. For example, it is possible to ask the question “With whom am I speaking” but the vast majority of English speakers say “Who am I speaking with”. Thus, overly rule-based speakers sound rather unnatural in terms of fluency and structure. Thus, it is not advisable to rely on only one approach.

Consequently, ESL students benefit from grammar teaching that creates both confidence and formal structure. For those students that hesitate to express themselves because they lack confidence in their knowledge or feel a need to be perfect, it is important that ESL teachers encourage spontaneous speech based on intuition. The solution is to emphasize that the listener will most probably fully understand the meaning even if there are grammatical errors. Moreover, the formal error may actually be the far more common form. For example, Americans tend to use past simple instead of present perfect in situations describing current consequences to past actions. Compare UK “I have eaten lunch.” (and am not hungry) to US “I ate lunch.” For “natural” speakers, learning the rules helps them identify and rectify improper use and interference from their native language. For example, in formal language like means "similar to", not "such as", as it is used in conversational speech. To err is not only human but actually better for communication in terms of fluency and natural language while a little knowledge of the rules can help them reduce grammar errors that create interference with meaning.

This issue also affects ESL teachers and their mastery of the material. On the one hand, native-language English teachers may have a highly-developed “ear” for the correct form. However, they often lack a formal knowledge of the rules as English classes in the US and UK generally do not teach grammar rules. For such teachers, it is vital to actively study the formal rules and, just as importantly, their similarities and differences with the first language(s) of the students. The former is required in order to properly explain while the latter is necessary to “hook” that information into the minds of the students. On the other hand, many non-native speakers develop an excellent understanding of the former rules as they have learned them in ESL classes. Unfortunately, many teachers, especially from those countries where governments have limited travel to English-speaking countries, have far less developed awareness of how people actually speak. Furthermore, they often are unaware of the nuances of grammar, i.e., the unspoken meaning that a native speaker would naturally pick up. When a parent asks a 15-year-old American girl what she was doing at 3:00 in the morning, the issue goes far beyond her physical location at the time. Thus, a complete teacher not only knows the rules but also the practice.

My journey as an ESL teacher reflects this dual need. Having educated parents and being a reader, my English was quite proficient. Yet, I failed standardized English tests because, having dyslexia, I read sentences instead of words. I applied my intuitive skills, including predictive reading, to become a highly effective reader but a poor analyzer of sentences. When I became an ESL teacher, I invested significant time and effort to understand how to teach grammar. I first grasped the rules and then sought (and seek) ways to transmit this information to my students not only to help them understand the concepts but also intuitively apply them in their use of English. After more than 30 years of English, my fellow staff members consider me an expert on grammar, which I find quite amusing. I even view it as a revenge on my 11^th grade English teacher, who gave me a “D” in her class. Learning how to teach English is an ongoing process.

In summary, language knowledge is a mélange of intuitive and formal knowledge of grammar and structure. Either one by itself is not sufficient to produce high-level language. Every language learner begins the journey with different levels of competency in the two aspects. However, to create the best language, both have to work in concert. It takes two to tango.