A foot on each side – a perspective on a freelance/salary job mix

 

Every entrepreneur has experienced the fear of leaving the gilded cage of a salary to enter the financial uncertainty of independence. Not only is that fear justified but, depending on the circumstances, the sudden dive into the deep water may not be a wise option. Consequently, many freelancers initially maintained a second job to reduce the feeling of insecurity and allow themselves to build their business and confidence. As in most decisions, it carries benefits and costs, some more obvious than others.

I can speak about the issue since I wear two hats. On the one hand, I am a full-time freelance translator. I invest my heart, money and energy in improving my skills and business. I identify myself as a Hebrew-English translator. Yet, I also teach English half-time at a local engineering college and have done so for more than 30 years. I teach some 8 hours a week, two hours a day in the afternoons. I retained this job as I built up my freelancing business and still retain it by choice. Thus, I have two language-related but quite different professions.

Clearly, a second job has financial benefits and, therefore,  provides emotional security,  especially in the early stages of a career as an independent. A second source of income means that a person will be able to pay the vital bills, such as mortgage/rent and electricity, even during slow months or a dry period. As a result, it makes it easier to demand higher rates and make wiser long-term decisions. It is known that the ability to walk away from a deal is one of the keys to success in negotiation. With a salary arriving every month in the bank account, it is possible to have some financial security.

A second job also provides a means of balancing job satisfaction. All professions tend to demand extraordinary effort in one direction or another, whether that is the ability to concentrate at a computer, deal with the public or any other requirement. Likewise, every job fails to involve elements that are vital for human happiness. For example, home-based professionals often suffer from social isolation. A second job offers the opportunity to create a balance. In my case, spending time with young adults with the future in front of them keeps me young and socially interacting, counteracting the hours staring at the screen. Second jobs can emotionally complement a main job.

However, they can also create great stress due to time demands. Many positions involve varying levels of investment. The factors affecting the required effort at any given time include seasons, special projects and annual deadlines. Freelancing generally cannot predict the quantity or scale of projects to come. Thus, when both the salaried job and independent career suddenly become time-intensive at the same time, it can lead to extraordinary pressure for a short period. Despite all the best efforts to manage this stress, such double-peak times are challenging.

A second cost of having two jobs is the ultimate necessity to make one secondary. In other words, one’s self-worth and effort tend to heavily focus on one job to the relative neglect of the second. Depending on the level of perfectionism of the individual, this compromise can be personally painful. On a wider level, colleagues in the second job may not “appreciate” your lack of total commitment even if they understand the reason. If they are totally dedicated to the “team”, they may disrespect the “slacker”, who may not be able to focus solely on the job. While nothing that the person can do will probably change this attitude, it is nonetheless unpleasant to be looked down on by colleagues. This status is a more subtle price of having two jobs.

In the long term, it may be simpler just to take the dive, become a freelancer and leave the old life behind. However, such a risk is not appropriate for every person and every situation. Clearly,  a schizophrenic work life can provide financial and emotional security. However, the potential workload can become overwhelming and create professional identity issues. A person’s choice to dive into the deep end or wade in from the shallows is a personal choice. No answer is wrong; merely a matter of choosing the consequences.

Gaby á Paris – A birthday remembrance

 

Today is my late mother’s birthday. She would have turned 98 today, but did live to 96. As birthdays are times to bring up happy memories, I will share the connection that was Paris and my mother.

 As a matter of background, she was born and spent her first 20 or so years in Paris, in the Marais, aside from a few years during the war in southern France. She immigrated to the United States in the early 1950s but made frequent visits to Paris to see her friends and family once she married and was financially able to do so. In fact, later in their lives, for many years, my parents owned an apartment in Paris, also in the Marais, where they spent a month or so twice a year. Thus, she and my father were regular visitors to Paris and felt at home there.

One of my mother’s “pilgrimages” in Paris was a champagne and caviar snack at the bar at one of the department stores (whose name I have forgotten). She truly relished both champagne and caviar. However, I believe that the greatest joy she experienced on these visits was the thrill of being able to afford it after growing up in a neighborhood and family that enjoyed an abundance of love but was rather limited in available funds. It was an “I did it” moment.

On a more familial note, she used to stop by the delicatessen of a dear friend for a good Jewish lunch. Her childhood friend ran an old-fashioned Jewish delicatessen. I myself spent much time there. You could get poppy pastries, not too sweet, tasty rye bread, delicious corn beef and tongue, and, of course, some schnapps. There were barrels of salted herring and other fish. It was a feast for the eyes, nose and tongue. During all the years it was open, my parents would stop by to say hello to Robert but also to her past with its rich memories. It was time travel of the best kind.

The connection between past and present expressed itself best in my mother’s feelings arriving and leaving Paris after a month. Upon arrival, she relished checking on the neighborhood, buying food and drinks for the apartment and catching up with her “bande”, those friends and family that had survived the war, as well as newer friends that happened to be in Paris at the time. My parents never went to bed before 1 or 2 in the morning in Paris, going out every night. During the day, they would listen to Bach at a church or see a museum, occasionally taking a train to somewhere outside of Paris if they wanted a break from the hustle and bustle of the city. However, towards the end of the visit, my mother, having drunk from her fountain of youth, was ready to leave the gray clouds and noise of Paris to return to the sun, sports (tennis and golf) and peacefulness of Los Angeles. My mother was as happy to leave as she was to arrive, knowing that she would be back in some six months to begin the cycle again. For my mother, Paris was who she was, but only a part of it.

In short, my mother and Paris never parted even if she did leave the city. Happy birthday, Gaby, from le fils de Gaby.

On time and timelessness – the Historical Dictionary

 

This last week, the Israel Translators Association organized a fascinating online lecture on the historical dictionary in Israel. For those unfamiliar with the term, this type of dictionary documents the meaning, use and spelling of words throughout history, using both handwritten and printed texts. As the Hebrew language is one of the most ancient tongues, its history is especially rich and varied. From the points raised by Ayelet Harel, the presenter and a former researcher at the National Dictionary, it was clear that despite its historical focus, the work was intended for the present and future as evidenced by the choice of technology and its intended use. Furthermore, the results of this work clearly demonstrate that the opus will never end and its approach also applies to all languages.

It was quite remarkable that the organizing founders of the dictionary immediately considered the future. From the start in the 1950s, they have chose to use the most advanced digital methods available to record the texts intended to be analyzed in the future. These methods included, at various times, punch cards, and CDs and now involve direct online search. Keeping in mind the complex, costly, and time-consuming nature of advanced digital records at any time but especially in the past, the decision shows the importance placed on long-term thinking. In the same vein, current researchers, often two or more staff members, do not use AI so as to ensure that the final result accurately reflects the use of any term in the text.

Likewise, in its approach, the project took the long-term approach and began by creating a corpus of texts in Hebrew throughout the history of written Hebrew. Early texts, through the invention of the printing press, are often have illegible or unclear. The compilers took care to reflect and note this ambiguity in the material entered into the databank. It also chose to enter a wide variety of texts in order to provide a sufficient basis to identify the development of the Hebrew language over its history.  Researchers then carefully examined the meaning of and spelling of each Hebrew word in a given text, comparing it to the concordance. Today, a researcher or simply any curious person can go to the dictionary site and view the history of any given word from the Bible to today. The slow and steady approach has created a treasure of knowledge for future generations.

Given the nature of language, this tracking of language will always be relevant because language development is a never-ending process. Every generation selectively modifies the use and even spelling of the words. For example, in English, the “gay 90’s” referred to the optimistic time before the 20^th century (alas, not realized), not a trend in sexual relationships. In terms of spelling, people consider “shoppe” rather quaint while few people today get upset with “thru”. As languages are dynamic, tracking their changes will always be timely.

Clearly, the Hebrew historical dictionary is neither the only nor even first such project. Most languages have etymological sources and keep digital records of their language. While for some, the view of the past may seem a useless and merely an intellectual pursuit, like all history, language paints a picture of the world that was, elucidates the world that is and provides an indication of the world that will be. The historical dictionary is both of timely and timeless value.

Intuition in freelancing – Practical examples of listening to the inner voice

 

A vital but unquantifiable part of business success, whether small or large, is the use of intuition. It tells us to fight or flee, engage or avoid or seize or ignore. To be clear, intuition may sometimes feel similar to fear or enthusiasm. However, it transcends those temporary reactions and guides business people in deciding whether to work with a certain customer, take on a given project or invest time and money in a specific marketing initiative. While listening to intuition may not guarantee success, ignoring it can lead to disaster.

To define the term, intuition is the feeling that an individual experiences upon exposure to a new person, idea or proposal even before knowing any or all of the facts. The opportunity seems clearly “right” or “not right” without a person being able to put a finger on the reasons. Further analysis can confirm or cancel the feeling or merely confuse the issue but the initial intuition, like a first impression of a person, is generally correct. One of the difficulties in trusting intuition is its similarity to more fleeting sensations, notably fear and enthusiasm. In other words, people may be in an emotional state in which they want an idea to work even if all the indications are contrary or, by contrast, they refuse to believe in the success despite all the positive signs. Intuition is a deeper feeling and remains constant. In fact, one of the tests of intuition is to delay the decision for a short time and test whether the previous willingness or reluctance remains. It is amazing how often, in hindsight, we knew what to do from the start.

One of the major business decisions where intuition is vital is the choice to take on a given new customer. Even with due diligence, many entrepreneurs generally lack all the facts to objectively assess the benefits/risks of working with a given person or company. While the benefits of a new customer are evident, i.e., short-term and long-term revenue, the hidden risks can sometimes outweigh them. For example, some customers could be reluctant payers while others work in such an inefficient manner that it greatly increases the work required. As they say about friends, with customers like these, who needs rivals? In practice, the tone and content of the emails and spoken conversation often provide a window into the inner workings of the potential customer. Granted, if they are working in a foreign language or come from a different culture, an unpleasant tone or approach may merely indicate lack of fluency or cultural variance. However, in most cases, if a red light goes off in the brain when negotiating with a new customer, the freelancer needs to think twice. In many cases, avoiding the person or company is a good idea regardless of the lack of objective proof to the contrary.

Freelancers work by projects but must apply intuition in choosing which project to take on. There is a concept in economics called “opportunity cost”. It means that one price of taking project A is the inability to take on project B. Moreover, customers never forget an improperly executed job even if they sometimes forgive it. The significance is that a freelancer or company should not take on a project that “feels” beyond its ability or below its interest. In the first case, the result cannot be ideal because it involves learning at the customer’s expense, never a great idea. Similarly, the lack of interest in a project generally negatively affects the level of execution. Poor work is one of the primary reasons businesses lose customers. Curiously, freelancers generally “know” whether or not to take on a given project. However, illusions of grandeur or desperation lead people to roll the dice. Just as the vast majority of gamblers lose in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, “wrong” projects too often go awry. By contrast, calculated risks taken with open eyes are often the keys to opening up doors of opportunity. Wisdom is hearing and following intuition.

Finally, intuition also plays a role in marketing decisions. Freelancers sometimes receive invitations to join various sites, conferences and events both in their industry and outside it. These opportunities require an investment of time and/or money. It is hard, if not impossible, to know which of these will pan out. A postponed decision too often becomes an unmade decision as other urgent matters arrive on the desk. Thus, it is worthwhile investing two minutes to investigate the opportunity in order to ascertain whether it has potential or not. Intuition is a key element in the decision as it is difficult to access all of the factors. Of course, mental fatigue and work pressure tend to make it easier to pass on them. However, this laziness may result in a lost opportunity. If a marketing lead feels relevant, it is often worthwhile to sign up immediately or, at least, put on an active “to do” list for further investigation. As Fleetwood Mac sang, nobody knows what tomorrow will bring.

Clearly, intuition is neither infallible nor clear. People find it difficult to distinguish it from their internal want or fear list or simply do not trust it. However, freelancers, without dedicated marketing and financial departments to conduct a full investigation, have to depend on it. Faced with the limitations of time and energy, a quick but careful decision in line with intuition leads to far greater success than one in opposition to it. Of course, it is always advisable to check the facts to look for traps. Yet, in a world where partial knowledge is the best we have, intuition is an important tool for every business person. Ignore your inner voice at your own peril.

Competing with translation agencies – a personal example

 

Freelancers can compete with agencies by making the effort and applying their advantages. This week, I received a request for a quote through an online specialized legal service site for a “certified” translation of four documents from two different languages into English for a US agency. While the customer is still waiting for the answers to several questions, I am in the running to get the project despite the fact that he received a quote from at least one translation agency. As I see it, it proves that directed long-term marketing works, personal service creates loyalty even in the early stages and fair freelance pricing can be competitive with agency rates. I am optimistic about receiving the order.

It is known that directed marketing creates the most effective exposure, if not necessarily the widest one. The site that directed the contact to me primarily focuses on attorney services. As a complementary service, it is an ideal place for a translator to be listed as legal matters involving multiple countries frequently require translation of documents. The initial cost was moderate and has long since justified itself. If I had not made the effort to have myself listed there, I would not have had the opportunity to provide a quote.

As the provider of most of the involved services, I created trust by clarifying matters and posing questions, even suggesting opitons to reduce costs. Based on my experience and dependent on confirmation by the US government agency in the matter, I specified the steps involved in “certifying a translation”. When the issue of notarization arose, I further explained that the attorney rate in Israel is per signature and clarified what exactly the attorney in Israel attests to. I also suggested ways to reduce the notarization cost. Thus, I shared my professional knowledge to ensure that the customer would receive a product that meets his needs, even before taking the order. That willingness to provide a complete and accurate answer to a question is a vital element in creating trust. In many cases, customers need to feel confident in both the service provider and the product they will receive.

As the customer told me the proposed cost provided by a translation agency he contacted, I had the rare privilege of being able to analyze the relevance of my pricing. It turns out that the agency bid was slightly higher than mine. That means that my bid both reflected the hourly rate I wish to earn and the discount for the customer, reflecting the lack of a third party in the transaction when working directly with the translator. Granted, I have to invest additional time to handle all the procedures but I included this factor in my calculation. Pricewise, at least on certain types of documents, freelancers can compete with agencies without cutting their rates.

The customer has yet to decide as he awaits the answers to his questions. However, I feel confident that he will select my services now or in the future. In my opinion, freelancers must be proactive, service-oriented and insist on their rates. In terms of business, you win some and you lose some. However, you make a living and respect yourself even when competing with agencies. Davids sometimes win. 

P.S. - I did receive the order.

When the going gets tough… - A call to translators and other freelancers to join associations

 

In November and December, many professional associations, including those of translators, begin their annual membership campaigns. In recent years, the results have been disheartening to one degree or another. At least among translators, fewer and fewer freelancers choose to join even their national association, let alone a foreign-based organization. The reasons for this decline are both technical, economic and social. Yet, joining a national professional association is, in fact, a way to address those economic and social issues as well as to maintain creativity in the long term. All freelancers should seek that connection for both their personal benefit and the collective good.

Membership in professional associations is declining in most fields due to changes in technology, economy and social structure. AI is the mammoth in the China shop, reshaping the entire landscape of how businesses, big and small, work. Clearly, most freelance translators do not have a high degree of certainty about their own future or the future of the profession in 5-10 years. At the same time, rates continue to decline or remain static while many translators are experiencing a decrease in volume, a deadly combination. Paying association fees seems an ill-justified luxury. On a more general scale, many younger professionals grew up with the Internet and consider it their community, convenient and undemanding. The time and energy demands of physical participation, even by Zoom, feel uncomfortable. It is far easier and often more than sufficient in the short term to use one’s Internet persona and make connections. Thus, many newer and even not-so-new translators choose to avoid professional membership.

However, conversely, joining a professional association is an effective response to those issues. First, as nobody seems to understand exactly when and how to use AI, learning from the experience of others in the same position provides a wide-angle and more comprehensive picture of the situation at any given time. A word to the wise is sufficient. Furthermore, even more than ever, associations bring work. More and more buyers, struggling to identify worthy service suppliers in the chaos of the Internet, consult professional associations, seeking some kind of certification or recognition to help them in their choice of supplier. Personally, most of my new customers have found me on association lists. Furthermore, the official recognition allows freelancers to charge higher rates, increasing income. No less importantly, in the long term, the major challenge for any freelancer is to maintain enthusiasm and flexibility. Even if a participant at a conference technically learns nothing new, they leave the event with renewed energy, the result of being around so many talented people. Thus, professional associations actually help freelancers deal with technology, find customers and grow professionally.

Therefore, I believe that when the going gets tough, the tough get joining, gathering the strength, business and knowledge in uncertain times. There is strength and synergy in numbers.  I strongly recommend joining relevant associations at all levels, local, national and foreign, and physically participating in their events.

The 13th Annual Braude Industry-Academia Conference – a fascinating peek into uncertainty

 

Every year, the Braude College of Engineering, located in Karmiel in northern Israel, hosts a conference showcasing the research of its staff with emphasis on the application of technology in industry. As it involves many disciplines, each with its own approach and terminology, much of the audience, at best, only partially understands the lectures, notwithstanding the best efforts of the speakers. Yet, even that blurry glimpse is a worthwhile effort. The lectures provide hope for the future of humanity, demonstrate that cooperation is the key to success and enrich the listener.

The presentations ranged over a wide range of topics, generally of a narrow aspect.  Of particular interest for me was the lecture on the connection between oxygen in the atmosphere, which is found in many large Earth-like/small Jupiter planets in other galaxies around us. The lecturer discussed the conditions under which natural chemistry, not living beings, may create this oxygen. Another researcher broke down the benefits and challenges of using wastewater from the desalination process of underground water to grow certain types of fish in pools, including the potential use of the almost completely pure calcium produced as a byproduct. One biotechnologist is researching a process to temporarily block brain pathways created in children due to an infection of their mothers during pregnancy,  which can trigger anxiety and depression during adolescence. These are merely a drop in the ocean of the subjects discussed during the conference.

One of the common themes was the interdisciplinary nature of all the research. In other words, no one set of knowledge is sufficient to treat any question. All of the researchers reached out and work with experts in other fields, including chemistry, biology, physics and mathematics. This synergy led to alternative ways to solve problems and the ultimate success of the studies. No man is an island nor can any scientist succeed alone.

As for the listeners, sometimes hearing words but not understanding them and seeing formulas that mean almost nothing, it was a valuable experience. First, it created a ense of wonder,  just like a kid looking through a microscope for the first time. There is a feeling of discovery of something that had always been there but was unknown. It created hope, seeing that so many people are striving to solve the big and small problems of the world, each contributing his/her part. Finally, the realization of how much we don’t know creates humility, keeping us open to the new, an important part of staying young. As little as I understood much of the science, the conference greatly enriched me as a teacher of engineers that will carry on this search for a better world.

In Heisenberg’s uncertainty theory, the more observers focus on location, the less they can identify direction and vice versa. The Braude conference, as in every year, was a celebration of people focusing on small details and striving to fully grasp them with the hope that another person can use that information to enhance another aspect until a clear picture appears. This research may sooner or later change people’s lives and has already affected those who attended the conference.

My robotic friend? – My (belated) foray into Machine Translation POst Editing (MTPE)

 

As I wrote a few weeks ago, I have made the strategic decision to focus on my competitive advantage – Hebrew to English legal translation. The practical significance of that decision is that I must maximize its potential. Thus, this last week I took on a project involving editing machine translation of an insurance contract. I had previously avoided such projects due to their idiot-savant nature. The project confirmed many of my concerns but, in contrast, demonstrated the advantages of working on machine translation. I discovered that they could indeed be satisfying, both financially and emotionally.

In explanation of the term, machine translation does not necessarily refer to AI engines such as ChatGPT and may include older methods such as Google Translate. The term machine translation designates the initial use of a digital linguistic tool that translates the source text by applying similar patterns in a database, whether vetted and closed or open, Internet-based. Machine translation has existed for several decades, initially through translation memories developed by translators, agencies and companies and expanding to more sophisticated ones based on neural networks. The European Community has developed one of the most specific and sophisticated ones based on previous translations of all EU laws into all of the languages of the community. The open machine translations, notably Google Translate and AI, use statistical probability to choose the most probable translation available on the Internet. The quality of machine translation varies depending on the algorithm, language combinations and sources.

The resulting translation generally resembles one produced by an idiot-savant, which requires neither pure translation nor pure editing. To explain, if a human produces a poor text, it is far more economical in time and energy to retranslate from scratch. Simply put, the editor does not trust anything the original translator did. On the other hand, an editor, identifying an excellent translation, trusts the resulting text in terms of content and merely makes tweaks to improve the language. Furthermore, the editor learns to find a pattern of these mistakes and focus on them. In any case, two pairs of eyes are always better than one, regardless of the skill level. By contrast, machine translation, in my limited experience, produces highly uneven and unpredictable results. One sentence can be perfect, even better than one the editor could write. The next one can be a complete disaster and require complete rewriting. Even more difficult, a given translation may appear correct but closer analysis shows small but significant errors. It requires careful attention to identify those issues. Thus, machine translation is not consistent in quality nor are its mistakes predictable.

In the text I did, the translation engine, DeepL, produced a mixed bag. On the one hand, there were very few content mistakes, i.e., a reader could correctly understand the meaning of the vast majority of the provisions, albeit with a bit of effort and a few terminology errors. On the other hand, it was clear that a human translator had not produced the text. Here is a partial list of the error types:

1.     Articles (he vs. it)

2.    Modals (misuse of “shall” to indicate future instead of legal obligation)

3.    Literal translation of phrases (has the right to instead of may)

4.    Inconsistent capitalization (company and Company)

5.    Translation of the name of the Company

6.    Keeping sentence in the passive (The premium will be paid… vs the Policyholder must pay……

7.    Misplaced adjective (the benefits retained vs the retained benefits)

Thus, the machine translation, while accurate, was not correct.

Upon completion of the project, I decided that I would take on more such projects. Granted, it required great attention, with many breaks, to catch the issues and improve the text. However, the original text was better in some ways than that produced by far too many human translators. Moreover, as I knew that no human was responsible for it, I did not get annoyed. Since I had priced the project by projected time after viewing the translation beforehand (which turned out to be fairly accurate) and offered two different quotes, light and heavy editing, the compensation was more than acceptable. Most importantly, the final text read well, always a satisfying result. Thus, I will now take on more such projects. Maybe robots could be our friends.

Med veg vettings or curious cases of vegetable nomenclatures

 

Mediterranean cuisine is known for its use of vegetables. Curiously, many of the most typical vegetables in the cuisine are not native to the area, meaning they were imported and had to be named. As any player in a telephone game knows, fascinating versions of the original can arise, which can now be seen today in green grocer’s sign in any given country. As an example, the history of the naming of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants shows some of the methods of the madness of naming.

Tomatoes are a staple of Italian and most southern European cooking. They originated in South America. The Aztecs referred to them as tomatl, a name that the Spanish brought back to Europe and is reflected in English and French, among others. However, the Italians received the yellow version of the fruit. As with all exotic foods, marketing is key. Therefore, it was called a  “golden apple”, i.e., pomo d’oro, which became pomodore in one word. The Hebrew story is even more wild. In the late 19^th century when Eliezer Ben Yehuda and others were re-establishing Hebrew as a daily language and inventing words for modern terms, Eliezer Ben Yehuda decided on the word עגבניה [agvania], which is derived from the root for passion or great pleasure. As in most matters in Israel, many people disagreed but eventually agvania became the known and accepted term of this omnipresent vegetable. Marketing and accidents of import had an impact.

Peppers, another South American immigrant to European kitchens, also took a curious path. Europeans had used pepper corns, an imported nut, to spice their food for a long time. With the arrival of peppers, both hot and sweet, the Europeans added an element and confused the matter. Specifically, the word pepper refers both to the plant and spice. See paprika in Hungarian and peperoni in Italian, which also designate the plant. In English, the easy solution was the addition of bell or the color to the vegetable name, e.g., green or bell peppers. However, in Israel, agriculture is a passion. Local agronomists have always sought to improve variants, e.g., the cherry tomato. For example, Israel stores always carry a light green bell papper, ideal for stuffing. It is known as a Nahariya pepper because it was developed near Nahariya, a small town on the coast near the Lebanese border. Israelis are also major consumers of gombot, a red bell pepper. The name derives from an Italian variant, a gamba, and now refers to most large red bell peppers in Israel. Of course, each country has countless variants of this pepper, which is far more than a spice.

Last but not least is the royal eggplant. Probably originally from South Asia, it traveled via Persia, North Africa and Catalonia to reach European kitchens. The word origin is the Sanskrit vātiga-gama, which means “the plant that cures the wind”, and Arabic al-bādhinjān. That last version explains the French “aubergine” (with the Arabic “the”, al, being absorbed as a root). As for the English eggplant , it appears that initially the English in India were rather fond of a white skinned variant, hence the eggplant. As usual, Hebrew presents the most confusing story. Based on a post on the subject, חציל [hatzil] is a new Hebrew word invented in the late 19th century based on a rare Arabic word, حَيْصَل, [haizal]. As usual, many others suggested alternatives. The eggplant does enjoy a wide variety of calling cards.

It is hard to imagine Mediterranean cooking or any other kitchen without these basic vegetables. Yet, they came as immigrants and experienced the same name confusion as many human immigrants have experienced. A rose is a rose is a rose but it may have a local name, which is all the fun. Nomenclature is a product of both intention and accident also in Mediterranean vegetables.

All pictures from Pixabay

Rebranding or nostalgia ain’t what it used to be

 

This last week, linguists celebrated International Translation Day. Many translator organizations and sites marked the occasion, notably Proz.com, which featured two days of lectures and discussions on the state of the profession. Of course, the speakers mentioned AI numerous times, often in the context of how it impacts the profession. Most importantly, the various speakers analyzed the different ways that translators can continue to make a living given an uncertain future that will definitely include AI. One sentence struck a strong chord: whatever you do, do what you love because your passion affects the quality, which is the most important advantage human translators can have over AI. Furthermore, one lecturer noted there will always be a need for expert translators in specialist fields even with improved AI. In that light, I understand that I need to react to the changes in the market in my over 22 years of translation before it is too late. Unfortunately, I do not receive much pleasure when editing or using AI. Thus, I have decided to embrace my experience, drop my other areas of translation and specialize in one field, specifically Hebrew to English legal translation, as it provides the base for my future in all respects.

When I first started translation in 2004, I knew little of my skills or the translation world and chose to cast a wide net. I started my journey by preparing an inventory of my knowledge, specifically four languages, specifically English, Hebrew, French and Russian, and two areas of knowledge, law and finance. Small translation agencies dominated the market at the time. Thus, it seemed logical to create a multilingual brand with several specializations to catch the most fish. I did not know enough to identify any specific target markets and thus created, in effect, a more general brand.

The market had changed radically since then, primarily due to technology and conglomeration. AI and machine translation of all types have eliminated many market niches, including email and personal translation. At the same time, the same technology has created a strong demand for machine translation post editing (MTPE). On an organizational level, large international corporations have gobbled up one small agency after another, creating large volume, low-cost translation venues at the expense of translator rates. At the same time, it should be noted that many well-paying niches not only exist but are thriving, notably legal, medical, marketing and transcreation, which provide ample opportunity for qualified linguists.

As I considered my future (Yom Kippur is an ideal day for doing that), I finally understood that my initial approach, however relevant it was at the time, is no longer effective. I am now choosing to formally embrace the field I enjoy the most, work most efficiently and am most proficient at [Winston Churchill said it was proper to end a sentence with a preposition]. I will solely focus on Hebrew- to-English legal translation, which is mainly what I have been doing for some 10 years now. I have studied legal writing, especially Plain English. Moreover, I am not only quite efficient in translating and editing legal translation but am more proficient at them than many other translators. Thus, as far as anybody can foresee the future, I feel my career has a solid basis.

Giving up the past is never easy. For that reason, people hold on to objects that no longer have any practical value. I still enjoy reading and speaking French. As for Russian, it is quite a useful language in Israel. I may choose to take on a small appropriate task in those languages. However, there is no feeling like doing a task very well especially if it is something that you enjoy. As for the price of rebranding, it requires redoing my marketing approach but better late than never. It may be fun to look back from time to time but success requires forward-looking.

AI and the future of freelance translating – a perspective

 

Freelance translators, like many other professionals, see dark clouds. The media feeds stories on the ever-improving ability of AI to translate. Strangers innocently ask why anybody needs translators anymore. Customers and income decrease month to month. It is all quite depressing but not necessarily a full or accurate picture in the long term. On the contrary, paid translation needs are actually expanding. Moreover, the market niches that AI is destroying have been in decline for over a decade due to technological changes. In practice, AI changes the translation business but not only does it not eliminate freelance business but can even provide an opportunity to expand. It is reasonable to be cautiously optimistic despite all the apparent omens.

In terms of current trends for language service providers, which includes both agencies and freelancers, the future seems quite optimistic. Based on the total volume of the worldwide agencies, demand for linguistic services continues to increase steadily. Experts predict that the value of these services will increase approximately 28% from 2024 to 2027 to around 90 billion USD. World trade and the needs of international commerce will continue to feed the demand. To be fair, international agencies are taking a lion’s share of business with freelancers struggling with downward pressure on their rates. B2B business, without agencies, requires more marketing effort, skill and confidence, which many freelancers lack. Yet, in practice, there is a steady demand for translators.

It is important to note that translation technology, which includes but is not limited to AI, shapes which niches will remain and even expand and which ones will decline and disappear. For ten years, machine translation of all types has automated the translation process. Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) and translation memory began defining the work process over 15 years ago. Machine translation, most notably Google Translation, has made simple translation accessible and free to the average person for almost 20 years. More specialized translation memories, in particular neural translation in recent years, make it possible to effectively translate large masses of specialized legal and other material in a short time. There is less and less work available for a general translator because of the plethora of no-cost and sufficiently effective alternatives. By contrast, these machine translations, including AI, struggle to produce effective results when the message goes beyond mere understanding but requires precision or a human touch.  Some fields suffering from a lack of proficient human translators include medical, marketing, legal and technical translation. Furthermore, the need for official certification of government documents for court and bureaucratic purposes creates a steady market for certified translators of all types. Specialists can find lucrative niches.

The various language technologies have changed the whole panorama of translation in terms of methods and tasks. The use of CAT tools is a requirement for many projects and has significantly increased productivity and shaped its rates. Machine translation serves as a basis for many initial drafts, either in terms of suggestions or complete translation. AI can instantly produce a large-scale translation, albeit of highly uneven quality. Thus, the translator’s work may involve editing machine translation, actual translation or both. Clearly, not every freelancer wishes to be involved in editing but those that accept it and do it efficiently and effectively are in demand. By contrast, those freelancers that completely reject technology find their market shrinking. The name of the game is constant adaptation.

Thus, it is clear that translation is not only not a dying profession but instead one with a future. Technology will shape its future, as it has done in its past and present. Specialized and flexible translators can find an opportunity to make a living. The most difficult period is the transition during which the advantages and limitations of each new digital tool emerge and define the market. AI is not the end of human translators just as Google Translate and its cousins were not. They merely shaped the profession. It is most probable that for the foreseeable future human translators will continue to handle those tasks where it is important to fully convey the meaning of one language in another language and where approximation is not sufficient as well as ensure that machine translation does not create unnecessary or even dangerous mistranslations. Many current AI uses will return to human translation as issues arise from AI translation.  I am cautiously optimistic about the future of translation despite AI.

Online conference success – a perfect small package

 

Last week, I participated in an online conference presented by ILETA (International Legal English Trainers’ Academy) and organized by Sofia Parastatidou. Curiously, it was the best online conference I have ever attended precisely because it was organized so differently from an in-person conference. The factors that contributed to its success were the limited but highly coherent content, the small number of participants and its short but flexible schedule. In practice, the conference left the impression of having physically attended without all the logistics.

In general, online conferences, however economical and convenient they may be, suffer from issues of downtime, lack of intimacy and mental fatigue. As most online conferences have only one track and try to reach the largest potential audience, many of the lectures are irrelevant to a certain percentage of the participants. In a physical conference, this dead time is ideal for networking but online conferences do not offer such opportunities. A more serious issue is that the audience in larger remote conferences is literally a sea of faces. It is very clumsy to interact with other participants during the conference. As many cultures consider efficiency and timeliness virtues, the host keeps the schedule moving more or less on time, leaving very little time for open discussions while everybody is present. The consequence is a large quantity of intellectual material but very few connections.

In this conference, the lectures related to a narrow topic, specifically legal language, and, most importantly, complemented and supplemented each other. Each lecturer went into depth on an aspect mentioned by a previous presenter, thus creating a complete picture. For example, I spoke about the rules of Plain English in legal writing while Anna Sobota and Anna Setkowicz-Ryszka, respectively, analysed its actual implementation using statistical methods and showed how the difference between how attorneys and linguists view proper legal language. The presentations built on each other.

This online conference highlighted the strength of distance learning. It would have been completely impractical to bring together all of the participants as each of us lived in a different country. Thus, Zoom allowed all of us to participate. More importantly, given the relatively small number of persons involved, everybody could easily see each other's faces, ask questions, make comments and have their say. There was more than enough airtime for everybody. Clearly, less is more in online events.

The strangest aspect, surprisingly positive, was the lack of a firm time structure. The host ran it on Italian time, meaning she let discussions continue until they died a natural death. Thus, we had the opportunity to discuss issues raised in the presentation before going on to the next segment. The “price” was that there were only a limited number of lectures in the day-and-a-half long conference. However, the benefit is that it is far easier to retain the content. As an analogy, seeing one museum in a day is memorable while visiting three museums in a day creates a muddled picture.  Again, less was more.

In summary, the ILETA conference virtually felt like an in-person conference. It provided both content and interaction, feeling like a conversation in a cozy salon rather than a distant event. The keys were highly focused content, similarly engaged persons and flexibility. It was a perfect day, showcasing the potential of a properly organized online conference.

Selective non-genius – Differentiating the art from the person

 

Last week, I attended a lecture by the journalist Uri Misgav on the subject of the songs of Mati Caspi, an Israeli musician, singer, arranger, and producer responsible for over 1000 songs over several decades. I am familiar with his songs as are most people in Israel but was less than enthusiastic about this lecture because I find his performances unexciting at best because of his persona on stage. Specifically, he looks and acts like a dead fish. In his case, I find it difficult to ignore the person and fully appreciate his work. However, in many art forms, fans can and do ignore the person beyond the work. They are able to relate to the art form and ignore the character of the artist behind it even when the character is particularly loathsome in some ways.

Many gifted writers were unpleasant people. Dostoevsky was a virulent anti-antisemite and misanthrope in general. While those characteristics may have had a positive role in creating his literary characters, I would not have wanted to meet him (nor the other way around, I assume). Leo (not Alexei) Tolstoy, for all his literary and philosophical heights, abandoned his wife and eight children so he could consider more mystic thoughts. George Simenon, the creator of amazing Jules Maigret detective stories, told his wife in the middle of the German occupation that if she did not like him sleeping with the maid, she could go to the Germans and complain. How charming and sensitive! Many Académie française writers, notably Louis-Ferdinand Céline, were fervent Nazis and virulent antisemites. In the UK, Rudyard Kipling was an unapologetic supporter of colonialism long after its warts had begun to show. Yet, it is possible to read the books of these writers with undiminished pleasure and ignore their political views, possibly because we do not actually see the person.

Artists in other media have also shown a mean streak. Among the musicians with a spoiled reputation (at least among some people) is Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame due to his anti-Israel and antisemitic calls and political action. In Israel, a certain famous singer is infamous for alleged aggression against women and those critics that dare raise those allegations in public. Some actors also exceed the bounds of acceptable behavior. Many French are not thrilled by Gérard Depardieu leaving France for Russia to avoid French tax, not to mention his alleged sexual offenses. In the United States, Charlton Heston may have starred in some famous movies but he was also president of the National Rifle Association, whose agenda is not exactly mainstream. Personally, I find it difficult to separate the person from the art in these cases, again possibly due to the artist's actual presence on a stage.

The saying is that the way to hell is paved with good intentions. Maybe the way to heaven is filled with sharp pebbles. Depending on the level of clash between the audience and the artist as well as the genre of art, many people can overlook the unpleasant aspects of a creator and focus on the result itself. In other cases, the leakage or linkage is too strong to ignore, significantly reducing the greatness of that artist in some way. Ultimately, each person chooses to focus narrowly on the genius or include the whole character.

Simple marketing methods for reluctant freelancers

 

Most freelancers enjoy their craft but are less enthusiastic about what they need to do to make a living from it. One of these necessary evils is marketing. As in most chores, nobody argues the necessity of doing it in theory but everybody hopes that it will get done without their intervention. The reality is that it is impossible to have a successful freelance business without some type of marketing. Here are five simple marketing techniques that involve little effort, time and personal exposure. In other words, it is possible to mark a check on this item in the to-do list without great personal investment and see some results.

1.       Let your friends and, more importantly, the service people you use know what your profession is and the type of projects you do. Your accountant, insurance agent and hairdresser/barber, to name just a few, are your best marketing partners. They are constantly meeting people and provide great referrals.

2.      Set up a website or a LinkedIn profile. The first may require a small investment of time and money but the latter is simple and free and takes minutes. Make it easy for potential customers to glean more information about you and find your contact information. Most people are not willing to make any great effort to find you. Don’t lose business by playing hard to get.

3.      Set up a business page on Facebook or other media. You can and should keep your personal life out of it. Instead, showcase your business in terms of skill and achievement. Enlist your children to help you if they are the appropriate age. It is a great bonding exercise.

4.      Sign up for any relevant list or application for selling your services or goods. Define a relevant geographical range and join. If participation involves some payment, it is often worth it for a year as they tend not to remove your name after you stop paying.

5.      Whenever possible, participate in discussions involving issues within your expertise, written or oral, whichever you are more comfortable with. You don’t have to and often should not “sell” your business. Instead, publicize your expertise by suggesting practical solutions. You are branding yourself.

None of these actions requires standing up in front of people and talking about how wonderful you are. Aside from a website, none of them involves serious costs, if any. They don’t have to be perfect in the beginning as it is simple to change the content and language. There is no need to consult a tech expert. As the advert for the Lake Wobegon’s celebrated Powder Milk Biscuits said, keeping it simple can “give shy persons the strength to get up and do what needs to be done.”

FinTech gleamings

 

Profiting from the traditional August business slowdown, I participated in a two-hour webinar presented by Silvana Debonis entitled “Securitization to Tokenization: What FinTech Translators Need to Know” under the auspices of the American Translation Association (ATA). Although I am a financial translator, I found myself completely ignorant of FinTech partially because it did not exist when I studied for my MBA several decades ago. Thus, I had the opportunity to remedy, at least partially, my ignorance. I wish to share a few of my understandings gained through this webinar with anybody that is also bewildered by this alien terminology. My take was that traditional financial concepts and processes have met Buck Rogers in the 21^st century and were not only renamed but also reshaped. I have to admit that some of the actual and potential applications do excite me.

The key concept in FinTech and the initial challenge is the term blockchain. In practice, it is an old procedure given a new nomenclature and method. To explain, in the 19^th century, if a person bought a piece of land or any tangible asset, the sale became official once an official made a ledger entry in an official book. The 21^st-century equivalent, the blockchain, represents the same process but takes advantage of digital technology. The ledger entry has now become a block, a digital record. However, today, any recognized source, a node, can simultaneously upload the block to millions of computers, a chain, making it impossible to erase and rendering that information immediately accessible to any interested party. Blockchain is a bit like title keeping on steroids.

To sell the asset, tokenization is necessary. To explain that term, imagine the world before governments stopped maintaining a “gold standard”. Before the mid-19^th century, money was a weight of precious metal, e.g., a pound, a lira, a piece of eight. During the American Civil War in the 1860’s, it was necessary to produce more money than metal reserves allowed. As a result, the U.S. government produced dollar bills, greenbacks, which theoretically could be exchanged for the equivalent of gold or silver, i.e., tokens for the actual metal. Eventually, these tokens became valuable in themselves as the US government no longer maintained a gold standard. In the stock market, stock certificates are the token for ownership of a share of a company and are as valuable as the asset the paper represents. In the 20^th century, banks and other financial institutions bunched assets and created large asset pools, e.g., mortgages and loans, which they sold to an external organization, referred to as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). The latter marketed these assets in a traditional way, i.e., through brokers of all types. Today, tokenization of assets is a digital block containing both a verbal prospectus for humans to understand and programming for computers to process, almost without intermediaries. It is no longer necessary to have physical tokens.

The current and potential uses of blockchain technology are quite exciting. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are the chicken and egg of FinTech as neither would exist without each other. However, many people will never trade in these assets. Of great potential in the future for the average person is Smart Contracts, which are digitalized conditional agreements. For example, if a person has hurricane insurance and an insurance event occurs, it is currently necessary to contact an agent, provide proof and wait for compensation. With Smart Contracts, the insurance automatically goes into effect once a recognized source, an oracle, such as the national weather service, reports the landing of a hurricane in a given area. The insurance policy holder could, in theory, receive the funds within hours of the incident. Smart Contracts eliminate human intermediaries.

Therefore, FinTech is not shark-tagging technology and far less frightening than that animal. All knowledge is useful if not always as a translator but always in the never-ending struggle to understand this world. I strongly recommend taking advantage of ATA webinars, available to both members and non-members, that provide fill that need and expand the mind. Those that attended the session came out more knowledgeable from whatever they gleamed from the webinar.

All images via Pixabay