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.

AI and the translation industry – the 2026 Israel Translators Association Conference

 

[AI image]

“People out of my industry love to tell me how AI has eliminated my profession…” one lecturer said. Today, it seems that the most commonly known “fact” about being a translator is that it is no longer necessary. After three days of lectures at the 2026 ITA conference, it is possible to clarify that the reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated. Granted, AI is transforming the process and business of translation but that statement applies to numerous professions. For three days, the attendees gain a wide-angle perspective not only on the potential impact of AI but also how to use it for their own advantage. The quality of these lectures was exceptionally high but certain speakers stood out, in my opinion, in terms of the practicality of their approach. It should also be noted that the presentations as a group provided a roadmap or at least a guiding flashlight of how to proceed into the uncertain future.

While the topic, AI and translators, was narrow, the approach was all-encompassing. Some lecturers focused on the actual methods of using AI, showing prompts and approaches in various AI programs,  while others presented their method of using it in certain fields, including technical and creative writing. Two translation teachers detailed how they instruct their students how to use AI properly in order to attain the best possible translation. Another series of lectures dealt with the ethics and security problems posed by AI, an important factor for many translators. Many speakers discussed the need for translators to change their role from converters of languages to language/culture experts. Finally, a few, including myself, had the chutzpah to talk about non-AI translation matters, just to relieve the AI-created tension if you will. The conference provided a multi-perspective survey of the AI-translation scene.

Having attended many conferences, I can say that the quality of the lecturers and lectures was outstanding. Three presentations stand out, one for each day. Naomi Shenkar in her presentation entitled “ Prompt Engineering for Translation” was not only organized but provided a clear and simple approach to writing prompts and efficiently achieving the most relevant results. I plan to put her method to the test very soon. The star of the second day was Danny Verbov with this presentation “Your Greatest Marketing Tool is Right Under Your Nose!” Not only did he remind everybody that it is important to market yourself if you want business, regardless of your knowledge of AI, and how to do so efficiently and effectively, but he also had, in my estimation, the most effective and humorous PowerPoint slides. His pictures were worth a thousand words. They were pure added value to his well-executed lecture. Finally, on the last day, Orly Kyram gave a workshop on “Getting to know Gemini and NotebookLM In Depth”, a valuable hands-on experience for those lacking the courage and faith to learn by trial and error. As I said, the other lecturers were also quite effective and relevant. I am just presenting my personal three favorites.

It may be difficult to remember any specific points after three days of AI overdosing but three messages are clear. A translator that fails to apply AI where applicable will be replaced by one that does. That said, effective AI requires well-thought-out prompts and human editing. A simple command does not produce a professional translation. Finally, AI does not reduce the requirements of the profession. Translators still need to know how to transmit the message, linguistic and cultural, of the source language into the target language and convince customers that language makes a difference. AI, just like all previous machine translation technologies, is merely a tool, not a replacement for human thinking. Alas, it will take time before translation buyers realize that AI “good enough” is not good enough. In the meantime, translators are not in danger of extinction.

As a final point, many young professionals, including translators, do not see the value in professional organizations. The ITA once again organized and brought together a large and varied group of excellent professionals, who enriched the perspective of all the attendees. This event alone justified the membership cost. Add the energy and synergy of group interaction. I strongly recommend the benefits of joining professional associations. At a minimum, you can hear colleagues who are still alive and well in your profession and learn from them. Next year in Tel Aviv.

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.

The ITA 2025 Conference – a multi-perspective view of the translator/interpreter client challenge

 

Last week, the Israel Translators Association (ITA) held its 2025 conference in Tel Aviv with the theme being the customer challenge, or more specifically how find and retain customers in a changing market. The two-day event was packed with lectures, each offering a different point of view and series of suggestion on how to create and maintain a successful language provider business. The speakers ranged from experienced translators and interpreters in Israel and abroad to professional marketers. Of course, some, but far from all, of the presenters discussed the application of AI with an emphasis on using it for administrative and creative tasks. Overall, it was an enriching and enjoyable experience.

Over the two days, many experienced linguists shared their wisdom on how to seek new customers in a market in which some niches are shrinking. One important theme was the necessity for active steps to remain relevant. Hadassah Levy noted in her presentation “Marketing Your Translation Business in 10 Minutes a Day” that creating content and then automating their publication renders digital marketing much more time-efficient in the long term and creates a vital effective online presence. Helen Baker discussed a weekly time investment in business networking groups as a means of building productive business connections. Finally, Tess Whitty discussed the attaining additional skills, in her case SEO, to add value to her services and income to her business. Other relevant lectures include Chiara Vecchi on her effective reaction to reduced business volume, Miriam Blum on the importance of the ITA “Recognized Translation” and Mikhal Heffer on working with agencies. I contributed a presentation on how to prepare a professional presentation to clients and colleagues. Overall, the lectures provided a bounty of ideas.

The conference also featured presentations by professional marketers. Dotan Grably provided a strong theoretical and practical approach to the general principle of how to attract customers. He focused on two concepts and explained how to apply them in practice. Yarden Lerer went into great detail on content creation and its effect use for marketing. Both of these presenters provided great food for thought.

Of course, as in any professional conference today, AI was on the agenda. Aliza Berger showed and compared translation of a short legal title using various AI engines as well as human translation. Uriel Shuraki discussed the characteristics of several AI applications. Beyond the use of AI as a translation tool, Alfonso González Bartolessis and Dominique Bohbot related AI to business management and its benefits in increasing efficiency.  These and other lectures helped reduce the “flight or fight” reaction to AI in many of the attendees.

To those presenters whose name I failed to mention or whose content I did not do justice, I apologize and remark that both space on this post and in my brain’s memory is limited. The two days were truly packed with information and ideas, the recipe for an ideal conference. Chapeau to the organizers, who organised the event. I strongly recommend any translator or interpreter that is feeling nervous about the market to attend such events. The meeting of minds and people opens up great opportunities because it provides a multi-perspective view of what is and what can be. I am looking forward to further events on the same subject as well as the conference next year.

The shortest distance to the customer – The Israel Translators Association Town Hall meeting

[right triange]

The business world is dynamic. If, in the past customers, almost always purchased from middle party, whether a store or an agency, today consumers, whether business or private, more and more frequently choose to work directly with the provider of the good or service. Thus, the opportunity, albeit challenge, for many freelancers is to reach these customers. Translators have experienced this transformation to one degree or another for over a decade. On December, 3, the Israel Translators Association (ITA) hosted an online open Town Meeting on the subject of direct customers. The participants, members of the ITA, suggested several ways to find non-agency customers, notably linking with complementary services, contacting previous customers and getting listed on the sites of national associations. These methods, among others, are tools to help translators as well as other service providers reach their customers directly.

The translation business has fundamentally changed in 20 years in terms of structure and method.  A few decades ago, the vast majority of translation jobs flowed through an agency, which served an intermediary. Translators would connect with these agencies, many of them small and local, which would then refer  work to them. Furthermore, humans did all translation, great and small, with the sole help of translation-memory based tools. Today, in terms of volume, the vast majority of translation volume passes through large international agencies, some of them public companies, referred to LSPs, language service providers. As occurs in most conglomerated industries, the per-word unit price has decreased significantly, which translators experience as pressure to lower rates if they want work. Moreover, AI and simple machine translation allow many customers to avoid paying a translator or, at worst, send to an agency at a reduced rate, which uses machine translation or AI to produce a basic draft to be edited at a lower cost by a linguist. Thus, depending on their niche, many translators find themselves with less business at lower rates, which is a depressing situation.

The ITA Town Hall brought together experienced translators to share ideas how to find the direct clients and escape the difficult agency situation. One of the key ideas was to connect with services and business that offer complementary products. For examples, graphic artists, PR campaign managers, business planner, financial product experts and attorneys often need translation services. The connection can be virtual or physical. LinkedIn and relevant  Facebook forums provide an ideal place for freelancers to make themselves known. It is even more effective to physically meet other businesspeople especially in business networking organization such as BNI and Rotary as well as at professional conferences. Emphasizing and nurturing the symbiotic relations can bring in customers directly and indirectly.

It is also important to use the hidden resource every established business has, namely its previous customers. When business is slow, some established translators contact previous customers that have not used them in a long time. The content could be a holiday greeting or a simple statement such as “I am between projects and am available for any translation you may need”. If the provider did a proper job in the past, the email may result in a new order or a reference to another potential customer as people often forget with whom they worked several years in the past. This action is simple to undertake and can yield positive results.

In my experience, one of the most effective methods is to join and be listed on the site of national organizations. For instance, translator organizations, including the ATA in the United States and ITA in Israel, have a list of translators and their specializations on their sites  that is accessible to the general public. Potential translator buyers, looking for some kind of assurance of professional quality, seek and appreciate membership as it shows a level of seriousness and professional investment. Furthermore, through cooperating with colleagues in these organizations, it is possible to send and receive referrals, another source of direct customers. Being part of a professional body provides many opportunities to find direct customers.

To make it clear, the translation buyer also benefits. Many agencies, especially public ones, emphasize the bottom line, profits often at the expense of quality. By contrast, freelancers succeed or fail on the quality and timeliness of their service. Their clear interest is to provide the best quality product that circumstances allow. As there is no additional cost for the intermediary, the agreed price is often less than those charged by an agency, an important factor in many buying decisions. Thus, direct connections are of mutual benefit.

In many niches in translation, it has become necessary to bypass the agencies and work directly with customers. In this manner, translators can attain the price and volume of work they desire. The ITA Town Meeting suggested several methods of finding the shortest route to professional rates, the hypotenuse if you will, from the service provider to the translation buyer without an intermediary. It takes some effort but the direct way is the most efficient.

Certified madness – what is an official translation

 

[official stamp*]

In translation, one of those simple questions that requires a long answer is “can you provide a certified translation”? The reasons why no simple response is possible are that no single set of criteria apply to a certified translation or no uniform nomenclature exists. Having just profited from an excellent and well-organized ATA (American Translators Association) webinar by Robert Sette on certification in the US market as well as having immersed myself in the intricacies of the French system this summer at the SFT (Société française des traducteurs) conference and being familiar with the Hebrew-English market, I would like to present a short overview of the certification situation for the benefit of both translators and translation buyers. As I see it, the main cause of the confusion is the confusing use of the terms certified translation, certified translator, notarized translation and apostille.

When a person needs and requests a certified translation, the first and most important requirement is to ascertain the requirements of the demanding agency. In the United States, each court establishes its own regulations while, in Europe, national regulations set the criteria (as Gomer Pyle often said, “surprise, surprise”). Some embassies even insist that only their official translators do it for it to be official, including Austria (See Gomer Pyle above). Government agencies worldwide set their own rules and are not always very specific. Universities can be even less precise. On the other extreme, Israel, the land of administrative organized chaos, the issue is often rather vague except for financial matters such as wills and estates. So, it is necessary to confirm the actual requirements of the party requiring certification.

A far more complex issue is who exactly is a certified translator, or, in some jurisdictions, a sworn translator or other official title. This question is essentially a national issue. In the United States, it is person that has passed the specific ATA certification test and maintained his/her status or a person authorized by a court. Alas, the ATA does have not tests in many language combinations, including Hebrew-English, meaning that any person claiming fluency in those language combinations can certify the translation. In most parts of Europe, only translators that have been recognized by the State, usually through the regional courts, can claim that title. In Israel, the only official translation qualification is a certificate of Recognized Translator, issued by the ITA (Israel Translators Organization). Interestingly enough, the existing structures allow such translators to certify documents translated into their foreign language, i.e., they do not limit the direction of the certification. For example, certified court translators in Europe or the United States can certify a translation from English to Spanish even if they cannot actually produce a proper Spanish document because their native language is English.

As Mr. Sette explained, the key for a valid certification is the phrasing of the certifying document. The qualifications and actions of the translator must be accurate and clear. For example, it is only acceptable for a translator  to use the statement a certified translator translated the document if the person actually has such documentation and actually produced the document. It would be perjury to claim either if the person merely is fluent in both languages and/or only checked an existing translation.  On the other hand, it is possible to specify general language knowledge and state that the document is an accurate translation. The devil is the details here.

Notarized translation is a bit of misnomer. Public notaries in the United States merely confirm the accuracy of signatures. They can certify that the signature on the translator statement of accurateness is real, no more than that. Clearly, translators in the US cannot notarize their own signature. By contrast, notaries in Europe have much wider powers and roles. They can in some cases both translate and notarize translation, with the government so empowering them or even given them a monopoly in certain circumstances.

Apostilles are actually the simplest. Established by the Hague Convention (Convention de la Haye du 5 october 1961), it creates a manner for governments to recognize official documents issued by foreign governments. In practice, it is possible to submit any official document with a signature of a public figure to the entity and receive an apostille of its genuineness. To paraphrase that song by Lou BegoVO, “a little bureaucracy in my life”.

In summary, if a person needs a “certified translator”, the steps are to ascertain what the actual requirements are; identify a translator with the corresponding credentials; phrase the certifying statement in a precise and accurate method; and,  if required, have the signature of the statement of faithfulness notarized. Simple, isn't it?

* Picture captions help the blind fully access the Internet.

Picture credit

Interview with Uri Bruck

 

The following is an interview with Uri Bruck, who just stepped down as the chair of the Israel Translation Association. His perspective is different and may be relevant to all translators, especially in regards to technology and translators.

 

[cup of tea on books&]

First, thanks for inviting me to do this interview. Having mulled over these questions a bit, I made myself a nice, fresh, hot cup of tea and sat down to answer them

 

1.       You have a wide variety of skills not limited to translation. What is your background?

 

There is some background information, and a few links here: https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%90%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%99_%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%A7

 

I can expand on that a bit. I was born in Haifa, Israel. I spend some of my formative years in English speaking countries. After my military service I went to study in the Technion in the applied math faculty and eventually earned a BSc. That discipline also included some comp sci courses. That was also the time I started translating, at that time mostly for other students. After graduating, I got my first job at Actcom, the first commercial ISP in Israel. I bean inn tech support, advanced to a programmer and eventually became head of software dept. At Actcom, I also took on some documentation roles, both internal and external. This documentation included installation instructions, solving common problems and the company’s support site.

Actcom supported the open-source community in Israel and open-source tools.

During that same period, I continued doing small translation job and also participated in some of the online translator communities. At that time, it was mostly mailing lists. Then Dr. Hannah Amit-Kochavi came across one of my translations about an art exhibition and suggested that I might enjoy studying translation. I enrolled in the Beit Berl translation program. My then employers at Actcom were very supportive and accommodating.

Translation studies marked for me the difference between being someone who translated and being a translator.

I continued developing in both translation and programming. I became a freelancer, both as a translator and as programmer, and continued developing my skills in both. I added more tech skills and roles over time.  I worked in a few startups along the way. Including as  dev lead, or CTO, which turns out this doesn’t stand for Chess and Tea Overlord. I’m rather fond of both.

After graduating the Beit Berl translation program, I joined the ITA or rather stormed into it. That was back in 2002.

I suppose both translation and the various tech jobs were natural paths for me. 

Of course, it’s not all work. Among my hobbies are photography and has been ever since my grandfather, who was also a translator, let me use his camera on holiday. I’m an amateur musician (I always add “amateur” because my sister is a professional musician who teachers, performs, and has produced and organized concerts and international festivals). A few years ago, I studied electro-acoustics, which combines technology and music. More recently I took up painting and drawing.

I’m also into board games, especially chess variants, both playing and designing.  I like learning something new every few years.

 

 

2.      In your 5 years as the head of Israel Translators Association (ITA), what do you consider to be your successes? What major challenges does the new chairperson face?

 

One of the issues many organizations have – any type of organizations  - is lack of communication between administrators and technology. Some organizations have technical communicators – people who learn to speak to both administrators and tech people. I leveraged my knowledge and experience of web technology to answer a question, one that is very significant to our on-going recruitment efforts. The question being “Why join the ITA?”. There are quite a few answers on the ITA site. One answer I gave was: because you’ll have the best bloody professional online profile, which can serve as a digital business card and as part of your overall web presence, all that at a fraction of the price if you were to do it yourself. Of course, there are lots of other reasons to join, including networking, conferences and CPD. But networking is somewhat abstract for lots of people. Good online visibility is something I can point at and say: “You’re getting this!”

 

Another thing I’m happy with is events and conferences. I promoted diversifying the kind of events and the type of content in conferences. I also ended up organizing conferences and managed to fill them up with good professional content. This was not something I originally planned on doing. In fact, if someone had told me five years ago that I’d be organizing conferences, I would have probably told them  that he is crazy, but it needed to be done. So, I went ahead and did it. The first second one I organized was just before the Covid lockdowns. Then we all had to adapt. We had to take the lectures and conferences online. One of the perks of organizing lectures and conferences is I get to pick the celebrity speakers. Actually, it’s the only perk. Moreover, following some of these events, we have been invited, as an organization, to participate in other translator organizations online/hybrid events and, more recently, in FIT projects.

 

I think I worked both on improving both technological and administrative infrastructure.

 

As for the challenges the new Chair will face – one big challenge is getting more translators to join the ITA, i.e., finding creative ways to get to more translators to join the ITA. We need to get more translators to see the ITA as the professional organization they want to be a part of. Also fostering cooperation with more organizations, both in Israel and abroad is important.

3.      What is your impression of the future of freelance translation?

It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. On the one hand, we’re living in a time where there seem lots of changes in both in the tools we use for translating and in the tools we use for communicating about ourselves. On the other hand, I still hear translators wary of CAT tools, which have been around for a long time, saying things such that’s only for technical stuff, with lots of repetitions.

On my very infrequent blog, I wrote about this https://bruck.translation.org.il/word-processor-not-a-translators-tool/  

 

One of the issues I have with translators and technology is that even the many translators that embrace technology don’t drive the technology advances but at best accept them. That’s still better than being dragged kicking and screaming. That’s really an issue I have not just with translation tech, but also with a lot of technology. Operating systems and application, including lots of online applications are still built more for the convenience of engineers than for the convenience of users. Users need to learn a lot of things that make no sense just to write simple documents. The systems we use are based on concepts that have been part of commercial systems for at least three decades. There have a lot of good ideas in HCI research but users are just content with nicer looking and faster implementations of half-baked ideas.

Following up on the above linked blog post, the next stage of CAT tools is domain specific CAT tools. e.g. - CAT tools specific for literary translators, or tools specifically for technical translators. If anyone is already on that, kudos to them. Still, the people  that should pushing for that, what specifically they need, are the translators specializing in those domains – the practitioners. They should be working with the developers. There might even be some overlap there.

           

 

I don’t have any insights about marketing, except for re-iterating that it’s all about communications  However, it’s possible to do everything right and still not get the results you want. While some translators will manage to get repeat business from direct clients, most will get all or most their work through agencies. So freelance translation will depend a lot on finding the good agencies, as well as  maintaining good working relationships with them. That also requires solid interpersonal and communications skills. AI tools have the potential to enhance our work and our CAT tools. That’s the proper way to use them, not as competition, but as better tools. Unfortunately, one of the current trends is to marginalize the translators and get them to do lots of MTPE. Those are not the better agencies. One of the next steps for AI in translation is likely to be measuring translation quality. Some QA is already automated. Some translators are not happy with agency reviewers today. For translators working mostly with agencies, the next challenge might be dealing with AI reviewers. AI reviewers might also be used to attempt to detect machine translation.

4.      In your view, what are the roles of translator associations in promoting the profession?

The most brilliant marketing person I ever met told me: There is no such thing as marketing – it’s all communications.
Promoting something is done by showing, not telling. For translators associations that means creating increasing visibility of both the associations and its members by showing that these are clever, skilled, interesting people. And they have interesting things to say about what they do. The more one hears people say something interesting about this profession and why they do it, the more one sees them as people and less as stereotypes. Consequently, you benefit them and their profession. Some of what translators do is very useful and often essential to other people. This can be done through media, such as blogs, podcasts, videos and social media posts. Show, don’t tell.

 

Furthermore, organization can promote their own members as presenters outside translator conferences and thus reach a larger audience. This reflects well both on the individual members and the organization. Highlight the everyday benefits of translation and interpretation.

5.      What did you personally gain from your experience as head of the ITA?

 

It’s a position that gets exposure. I’m not very good at networking. That’s one of the reasons I started lecturing at conferences. When you’re the one presenting, then people come to you to talk to you. They already sort of know a bit about you. You receive the benefits of networking, but you don’t need to initiate as much. Of course, you can take it from there. As the ITA Chair, I got a lot more exposure. To organize a successful conference, and cooperation I did need to initiate a lot more contacts, but it’s easier when there’s a title to go with it. With exposure, one gains new contacts.

 

I have significant project management experience and some middle management experience. I’m also told that I’m pretty good at organizing a vacation. However, as I wrote in my reply to (2), organizing conferences was new to me - at least it was five years ago. I think I managed to leverage my organizational skills and  put together several conferences with quality content while keeping the costs relatively low even for the pre-Covid in-person conferences and the more recent hybrid events. The conferences, even when drawing initially on what I’ve seen previously as a participant and later on my own growing experience, were all different. Constraints encouraged us to be creative. Keeping costs was one constraint. Then Covid came and brought a whole new set of constraints and some interesting opportunities as well. Now everyone is doing hybrid conferences and online events. I also learned that one really shouldn’t be both the organizer and the tech support for an event, let alone an entire conference.

My work on the ITA site, the accompanying mobile app and other extensions of the ITA’s online presence were based in part on my experience in project management. I also described it above as partly a technical communicator job, but, since I was one of the administrators to communicate with, in practice I also filled the role of Product Manager. While this was not my job description in any previous job, I believe I did well. So, I learned that I can do that as well. Another line for the resume.

I learned a lot about the inner workings of a non-profit organization in Israel. It expanded my knowledge that I didn’t need previously as a freelancer but might some in useful in the future in some other job or role.

 

PS

I ended up writing this in two sessions, each with a cup of tea. The tea for the first season was the mix inspired by Sir Patrick Stewart – half Earl Grey, half English Breakfast. It sounded odd when I first heard of it, but once I’ve tried it, it became one of my favored choices. For the second session, I made the classic Wissotzky. It’s often perceived as more common, but I think it’s underrated. It’s a comfortable choice.

Thank you for the questions. It was certainly interesting to dive into them. I hope you find this useful or, at least, interesting.

 

 

 

 

* Picture captions help the blind fully utilize the Internet.

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Giant steps – Head in the clouds and feet on the ground – the 2021 Online Conference of the Israel Translators Association (ITA)

 

[Winston Churchill*]

One of the purposes of any professional conference is to get people to dream while showing them how to make the dream a reality. In that sense, the 2021 ITA conference was a great success. Spread over three days from March 1-3, the attendees profited from the variety of visions in regards to translation and its significance as well as practical steps for success in these challenging times. When the lecturers speak with enthusiasm and authenticity, it is the icing on the cake. I would like to present my personal highlights (with apologies to those speakers I do not mention).

Starting with Yves Champollion, we were taken to the start of the modern translation, the process of the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone, which exemplifies the required skills and challenges of today. Later that day, Douglass Hofstader discussed the relative merits of transposing contextual language, whether description or dialogue, from one culture to another, citing the translations of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and David Grossman’s A Horse Walks into a Bar, among others.  He discussed the degree to which the readers’ culture should be reflected in the choice of words. The next day, Prof. Yehuda Shenhav-Shahraban spoke about the problem with translating from a language without solid knowledge of its culture and how working in groups, i.e., through dialogue, can overcome this limitation. Later that day, David Chrystal took us on a rapid and fascinating trip through the history of linguistics, a challenge in itself, and enlightened us on its latest focus, pragmatics, crystallizing (pun intended) our intuitive knowledge that context is almost everything in determining the actual meaning.  Fabienne Bergmann and Eliezer Nowodworsky discussed the problem of censorship even when the translation is clear, using the Little Prince as an example. These lectures brought out the extasy of translating a word.

No less importantly, other lectures provided guidance for business success in the changing world translation. Regardless of your current specialization or future area of growth, lecturers provided a gold mine of information. Nina Sattler-Hovdar broke down the ins and outs of transcreation while Joseph Kovalov demystified machine translation. Michel Norman shared his wealth of knowledge on financial translation, which I personally profited from, while Maria Victoria Tuya provided a detailed presentation on medical translation. Paige Dygert gave excellent advice on why and how to find legal clients while the challenges of remote interpretation were addressed by several speakers, including Francesco Saina as well as Myriam Nahon and Gisèle Abazon of the AIIC. I personally led a discussion on communicating with customers when problems occur for the purpose of both limiting damage and building customer loyalty. The conference provided plentiful practical tips.

Maybe the most valuable  contribution of this conference was the inspiration and hope it gave after this last difficult year. Anna Lewoc presented the why and how to achieve the proper balance between work and happiness, an art that especially tends to be lost in tough times. Armenise Guiseppe Alessio spoke with enthusiasm and specific about how he succeeded in starting a freelance translator business in the middle of the Corona crisis. Finally, and most inspiring, Marguerite Strom showed how us how she reinvented her business in that period, overcoming all the psychological barriers, including being non-native to technology and uncomfortable with marketing, and is thriving. She especially cheered up those generalists, who have been feeling underappreciated  in  recent years. Whether we are new or established, their messages rang a bell.

The best testimony of this conference is that I was able to sit on my sofa for three days without suffering, an abnormal act if I  am healthy. The combination of relevant topics and effective speakers made it easy to do nothing but listen and learn. The ITA chairperson, Uri Bruck, deserves a whole haberdashery of chapeaux for the organization of the conference and keeping it on schedule. Churchill said that if you are going through hell, keep on going. This conference was a giant step to better times.

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Professional conferences and reinventing the wheel

Once again, I had the pleasure of participating at the Israel Translators Association (ITA) Conference, this year in Tel Aviv. It was a two-day event offering lectures on a wide variety of subjects. In many ways, it answered the basic question asked by many translators: Why should I join and actively participate in a professional association? The answer is because it will help your business but not necessarily in the way that people assume. To be clear, direct contacts and even job offers often result from these events. Not only that, meeting people in person has a far greater impact than virtual contacts and create opportunities for various types of collaboration. Yet, the most important and, in a certain way the most surprising, aspect of professional conferences is the willingness, even pleasure, that veteran (not old) translators have in sharing their knowledge and professional wisdom with any and all, without expecting any compensation.

At the ITA Conference, many of the most experienced translators in Israel showed anybody that was interested how to improve their business. For example, Moshe Devere, a pioneer and trainer in CAT (Computer Aided Translation) tools guided beginners through MemoQ. Alan Clayman, a longtime translator, explained advanced financial terminology. Yael Segal and I provided tips on reaching customers. Yifat Vered opened the eyes of the attendees to the intricacies of communication with the Japanese. Ruth Ludlam and Avi Staiman talked about academic publishing and editing, respectively. Translations issues involving other languages were touched on, including Arabic by Dolly Baruch and Italian by Shirly Finzi Loew. These are just a few of the lectures available to the attendees of this conference. For a full program, see https://ita.org.il/?page_id=900&lang=en.

The encouraging aspect of this and any other such conference is the opportunity to learn from the experience of others in order to grow much faster than would be possible in isolation. Granted, not all techniques and tips are relevant while many need to be adopted for the specific circumstances.  Still, two or three ways of improving efficiency or reaching new markets can make the difference between surviving and thriving. Not only that, the lecturers were happy to answer individual questions after the presentations to help hone their message. They did not view the interest as a threat to the income but as a hope for the profession.

The long and short of it is that professional organizations and conferences shorten the learning cycle. It may be possible to learn a language or even gain insights on a culture through courses but learning how to succeed in a business, including translation, is a matter of experience.  It is possible to reduce the length of this apprenticeship at a very minimum price, i.e., the cost of belonging to an association and attending conferences. Expressed in different terms, it is inefficient to reinvent the wheel. Thus, joining and attending professional associations is worthwhile and does result in higher income.

Beyond words

There is a perception that translation and interpretation are matters of word knowledge, i.e., the person must have a rich vocabulary. While that is true, what is no less required is the understanding of context. Regardless of how many meanings of a word translators may know, unless they identify and apply the correct context, their work is poor.

This message was reinforced by the lectures given at the Lecture Day organized by the Israel Translators Association this week in Kfar Hamaccabiah in Tel Aviv. The lecturers, including myself, discussed a wide variety of issues but all emphasized the importance of grasping the context and applying it to the word choice. (https://ita.org.il/?page_id=2718&lang=en)

For example, the opening speaker, Dr. Gabriel Birnbaum, recounted the history of the Language Academy’s Historical Dictionary and noted that the first some 30 years were dedicated solely to collecting and entering source material so that all of the uses of a word could be defined.  Not only that, this collection process is still continuing and now involves more recent material from the 19^th and 20^th century.

Likewise, Ms. Shira Schmidt raised the difficult question of how to translate words linked to a very specific culture such that anybody could understand it. The context was the subtitles to a movie on an ultraorthodox marriage that mentioned words such as rogolach, tchulent and muselman. A non-Jew would have no idea what they meant.  She stressed that the main consideration is the depth of understanding that is required to understand the film. In other words, you can fudge the meaning if it really makes no difference and use a general term even if it is not specific enough.

Ms. Yael Valier, an experienced translator of children’s books from Hebrew to English, brought into the focus the requirement to ask questions about the targeted market before beginning the translation.  Specifically, the person has to know whether the publishers wants a modern style a book, a “vintage” look or an activity book, to name a few types. Regardless of how good the translation, if it does not match the purpose, it will not be accepted.

On the same theme, Ms. Tzviya Macleod broke down the US children’s book market and strongly emphasized that it is formally segmented with strict requirements, unlike the Israeli one. Thus, books that rhyme and those that fail to meet word count and style requirements have almost no chance of being accepted.

The last lecturer was Mr. Dory Manor, who “ruminated” on translating poetry. With a wealth of experience in the field, he illustrated how subjective the term “good translation” is in regards to poems and more importantly, how subjective the readers’ knowledge of symbols and precedents is. Thus, with great trepidation, in some cases he would substitute Jewish symbols for Christian and even Greek mythological ones to allow his reader to understand the meaning of the poem. When in Rome, translate for the Romans, as they say.

If in physics, as Einstein said, all is relative, so it is translation. The choice of words is strongly related to the context of the phrase, raising the profession from a science to an art. Like any writer, the translator or interpreter must go beyond words. 

On closer thought

Once a year, some (but not all) Israeli translators leave their Internet caves and mingle at the ITA conference.  While part of the pleasure is networking, the formal activity is three consecutive days of lectures on a whole plethora of topics, some immediately relevant to the person’s work and others completely outside the usual sphere of activity.  Curiously enough, I find the latter much more interesting and ultimately more satisfying. 

This year, we technical translators could learn about Donald Duck in Holland, Hebrew detective books, translating Brazilian-Jewish culture into German and the joys of Jane Austin, to name a few.  Of course, we can also hear practical advice about medical translation, French legal terms, site building, Wikipedia translation tools and the tricks of LinkedIn.  Due to fact that three different lectures were going on any time, I and the other attendees had to make cruel choices.

At first glance, the reason for my preference for the “irrelevant” is my fascination or envy of the challenges my colleagues face.  I do not have to find a parallel structure or alliteration to express the language of Jane Austin.  I don’t have to express the language register of the American detective Sam Spade when he talks with his secretary. I don’t even have to ask which kind of jacket the hero wears.  However, on second thought, I do have to choose my words, albeit different ones, carefully. I have to remember that a French “sentence” is the judgment, not the punishment, when to use the Hebrew as compared to the English name of a disease and thoroughly check my documents for spelling errors.  My range of freedom for translating a sentence may be less but my requirements are no less exacting.

In short, all translators, as communicators, are smiths.  In olden times, physical smiths may have worked with iron, gold or silver, but they all used the same tools, heat and hammer, granted of varying temperatures and size.  Like, we word smiths may treat different materials and vary in out finish, but we share the same tools, specifically words and creativity.  We all belong to the same guild.

Conventional Relevance

I just returned from my 5^th Israeli Translators Convention.  Attending such an event requires a significant investment of money, time and energy.  Many people, translators and non-translators alike, ask what the return on this investment is.

The most obvious benefit is knowledge, whether immediately practical or not.  Dubbing, subtitling and faction translation are not even a marginal part of most translators business, all of which were explained in a wonderful clear manner, Yet, I feel somehow richer understanding the requirements and challenges of those fields since it expands my vision.

Of course, there were numerous technical workshops on various translation tools, including the MemoQ and SDL CAT tools (Computer Aided Translation), Abbyy Fine Reader and Word.  The concentrated and immediate access to experts is invaluable and really only available at conferences.

Of course, there were countless niche-specific presentations.  For those involved in the specific niche, the lecture provided priceless information. 

Finally, the conference was blessed by fascinating speeches from non-translators, ranging from Simcha Jacobici (the Naked Archaeologist), journalist Eetta Prince-Gibson, a Jerusalem based reporter, and Israeli writer Dorit Rabiniyan. 

Other areas of presentations included business, literary and cloud based translation.  Sometimes, it felt very frustrating only to be able to attend one lecture at a time.

The other major benefit, one that personally reinforces my energy and desire to do the best job possible, is the added proof, if one were necessary, that translation matters.  It affects how people understand the news, interpret the Bible, learn about other cultures through foreign fiction, cook a dish, understand a disease and defend their rights in court, to name just a few.  This often invisible part of the document production cycle is in fact no less important than the writing of the document itself.  In other words, even in some translators feel isolated and even neglected in their modern computer-equipped caves, we do indeed make the world better. 

So, it is back to work with a renewed understanding of why I read the small print of insurance contracts and articles of association.  We are relevant.  That confidence by itself is more than adequate compensation for the price of the conference.