Beyond language – the extraordinary skill set of a professional translator

 

[quarterback*]

There is a common misperception that a professional translator only requires certain, easily attainable language abilities. These include thorough knowledge of the target language, which is shared by any person raised and educated in a country whose official language is the one required; and a reasonable knowledge of a foreign language learnable through a couple of years of high school study or a few months of Internet effort. Add a bit of machine translation or AI magic. Voila, you too can become a professional translator in a few months.

Reality is quite different. Clearly, the above-mentioned qualifications do not guarantee any language proficiency. Furthermore, professional translators require subject-matter knowledge so they can understand the material and use the correct terminology. However, beyond the required language and subject matter proficiency, professional translators must also be adept in the following technical skills:

Word – The visual aspect is an essential part of a professionally translated document. Therefore, translators must know how to fully format documents, including charts, margins, fonts, paging, borders and colors. As they must do their work efficiently, they must be familiar with the short cuts and professional tricks of using Word. If you think you really know Word, try taking any serious Word proficiency test. In practice, most casual users are aware of only a small percentage of the program’s abilities.

PDF – A significant percentage of original documents received by professional translators are in PDF or jpg. It is often necessary to process these documents to ascertain the number of words, categorize the documents as convertible or not and convert the documents into a useable Word document if possible. Experience is vital.

CAT tools – Just as you would not expect a professional carpenter to tighteen each screw manually, whenever possible, most professional translators use computer aided translation software (CAT) tools, often MemoQ or Trados, to efficiently and effectively translate texts. These programs cost money and require time to learn. The failure to use them often leads to a lack of consistency and avoidable errors, not to mention a large waste of time.

QA – Just as there is no such thing as good writing but only good rewriting, there is no submittable first draft, only a final document that underwent directed and thorough rereading and checking. Therefore, an essential part of the translation process, sometimes taking 50% of the time, is the quality assurance. Programs such as spellcheck, Xbench and Grammarly provide effective ways to review large amounts of texts. Customers should be aware that  AI can be a problem as the quality of its suggestions depends on the prompts it receives. Furthermore and more importantly, use of AI can create a serious breach of security since the material generally enters public domain. Most customers insist on confidentiality.

Social Media – Translators work to make a living. Therefore, they require customers. One methods of attracting customers is the correct use of social media in all its forms. Using this application for business purposes is actually quite complex and requires expertise. By contrast, using them improperly is a waste of time. Depending on their area of specialty, professional translators must gain some proficiency in branding and marketing.

LinkedIn – For legal, financial and other business-oriented fields, LinkedIn is the most focused of all social media and is effective for B2B contacts. However, it takes skill and knowledge of the system to actually benefit from this platform.

Scheduling – Professional translators often work on many projects simultaneously. Being a professional means that the person delivers on time. Thus, serious freelancers take advantage of software that helps them prevent “forgetting”.

Billing – Customers and tax authorities alike require proper billing. Freelancers also need to keep track of payments if they wish to stay in business. So, professional translators must know how to use accounting programs.

For professional translators, this skill set involves constant learning. First, nobody is naturally proficient and/or even open to all skills. Even if a freelancer has background or knowledge, technology is constantly evolving. The modern dynamic business world forces professionals of all types to never stop developing their primary and secondary skills. The cost of the failure to do so is irrelevance.

For translation buyers, it should be clear that a professional translator has for more than basic language skills. Accordingly, such professional deserve to be paid. As this is the start of the American football season, I will compare translators to quarterbacks. It would be foolish for a professional NFL team to use a high school quarterback, no matter how skillful that person is, as they are simply not up to the task. Using a rookie or a low-cost option may be effective in certain situations but won’t get the team to the Superbowl. Paying a top player appropriate money is a major factor in raising the trophy at the end of the season. Translation buyers interested in creating an effective document in terms of content and impact should go with a pro, a person with many talents and skills.

* Picture captions help the blind fully access the Internet.

Picture credit - Pixabay

Oh, say can you see – the search for the “ideal client”

 

[man with VR goggles*]

Can you describe your ideal client? Virginia Katsimpiri in a webinar on LinkedIn marketing made the following comment: “If you market to everybody, you market to no one”. In other words, all marketing activity must be directed to some ideal-type individual or group in order to be effective. I have no issue with the logic of that statement but have a personal difficulty applying that advice. Although I have been a freelance translator since 2004 or maybe because of it, I cannot define the characteristics of my target customers beyond their need for my translating and editing services and willingness and ability to pay my rates, which are not very useful in themselves in terms of marketing. In explanation, I will present my situation as a freelance translator, specifically of legal and financial material as well as official documents from Hebrew, French and Russian to English as well as an English editor, which may or may not resemble your own. I should be able to create a picture of my preferred customer but I am not.

To begin, one major purchaser of translation services from freelancers are LSP’s, a fancy acronym for “Language Service Providers”, which used to be referred to as translation agencies. Their role in the industry in rapidly changing as large conglomerates are buying up local agencies worldwide and earning money for their shareholders at the expense of their translators. In other words, to make a proper living off work from these large corporations, a translator must be technologically efficient and live in a country with low prices. Alas, I do not fit that bill and thus do not seek more work from them. I do continue to work with their subsidiaries at the previously agreed rates but I have no particular motivation to market to these megafirms.

By contrast, with the demand for language services growing, notwithstanding machine translation, small agencies specializing in legal and financial, my areas of expertise, are ideal customers. The issue is that these ‘boutique” agencies can be located anywhere in the world from Hong Kong to Prague via San Francisco. Moreover, their size and volume may range from a one-person home-based business to a company with scores of employees working in company offices. Their decision maker can  just as easily have the title of CEO or President or no title at all. In terms of education, the founders of such agencies may have summa cum laude attached to their framed degree or “some come lauded” on their LinkedIn profile if they are highly reliable. There is no country with proportionally more of such ideal agencies than any other country. I do not see a way to target them.

As a result of the market changes and expanding consumer use of the Internet in all its forms to purchase services, many translators have become active seekers of end clients. It would seem reasonable to see some pattern of my customers in the last few years. In fact, I made a list of which I will share a part of and, to quote Tom Lehrer in the song Lobachevsky, ah then begins the fun:

·         Foreign students wishing to study in Israel

·         Israeli students wishing to study abroad

·         Academic institutions

·         Freelancers

·         Startups

·         Small companies

·         Corporations

·         Charitable institutions

·         People seeking to get married in Cyprus

·         People seeking to get divorced in Cyprus

·         People trying to avoid giving a divorce and living abroad

·         Online gambling sites (only once – against my principles)

·         People in tax trouble abroad

·         People in criminal trouble abroad

·         Insurance companies

·         Medical research companies

·         People seeking mortgages

·         Employees suing employers

·         Employers firing employees

·         Restaurants targeting tourists

As I said, the only element I see in common was that they were willing and able to pay me. However, I may be missing something here.

There is one group that I would like to focus on but have yet to figure out how. As I specialize in legal and financial, I would like to work with legal firms in Israel or abroad. Working from three languages to English should give me some advantage. However, that nut is harder to crack than the shell of a macadamia nut (300 psi) without a huge budget to participate in conferences. I welcome any ideas. It is still on my “to do” marketing list but marked TBA.

The American national anthem begins and ends in a question. Likewise, I will end this confession of an aspiring marketer with a question. At least so far, I am unable to create a picture of my ideal customer. As for your ideal customer, oh, say can you see?

* Picture captions allow the blind to fully access the Internet.

Picture credit

Being there – the importance of writing it as they read it

 

[Karmiel storefront*]

One of most important pieces of advice I received when I opened my business as a translator, which I regret I was slow to take, was the need to be where my customers are. In simple terms, it is impossible to attain customers if they don’t know you exist. This obvious fact is applicable to both freelancers and retailers for both services and goods. Potential customers need to be able to gather information about a business, taking into account, especially today, a short attention time. In the current market, this communication occurs far less through physical presence and speaking but instead mainly in online forums in written language.

It is specifically that mode of communication that poses a hidden challenge to businesses. It is true that there over one billion people that speak English as a first or second language. However, by contrast, only around 40% of those write and read English as a first language, with most of those concentrated in a few countries. This discrepancy implies that while English may be the lingua franca of international speech, the reality is far different when it comes to written texts for the general public. It is important to keep in mind that first language reading skills significantly reduce the effort required to read, scan, decipher and identify text. By contrast, for the vast majority, reading is second language demands far more concentration with much less success, especially in quickly navigating websites. Given the people prefer to work less hard, readers will almost always prefer text in their native language unless the translation is of noticeably poor quality. Thus, when it comes creating a successful presence, having text written in the local language, not English, is vital.

One domain of ever-increasing importance is websites. As commerce becomes more global and business reach out to customers worldwide, it is vital to make sure that at minimum the vital sections of an informational or sales website  are available in the language of the intended audience. Businesses strive to streamline purchase processes to reduce the number of uncompleted sales. Since reading a foreign language significantly lower comprehension speed, having localized sites increases sales and creates a competitive advantage over monolingual sites. While customer use of Google Translate can help bridge this gap, it tends to add additional time and often creates a lack of clarity and, even worse, expensive misunderstandings.

In many countries, store signs should reflect the linguistic variety of the potential customers. For example, in the picture at the head of the post, the seamstress describes her services in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and English, ensuring that all the by passers can quickly identify her services and make a note of them for immediate or future use. Where tourists represent an important part of the customer base, it is vital to label items in several languages, especially when the local alphabet is not Latin based. Likewise, restaurants in non-English speaking countries should cater to potential foreign diners by having the menu translated into at least one relevant foreign language. This convenience, maybe even respect, provide that business with a competitive advantage.

On a business-to-business level, as I learned from an excellent webinar by Miriam Burley, LinkedIn allows and facilitates multilingual profiles. With a click of a button, it is possible to add a profile in several other languages (not Hebrew, unfortunately). Moreover, it is possible to only have specific sections in the additional languages, with the other sections imported from the primary language. Thus, the account holder can manage the translation process gradually and incrementally. Clearly, non-native English readers can and will find it much easier and faster to scan a profile in their native language and with far greater accuracy. Utilizing this feature can increase the effectiveness of LinkedIn activity.

Of course, there is a proviso to the expansion to other languages. As my late father used to say, anything worth doing is worth doing well. While easily available and time efficient, Google Translate and similar applications are not the correct tools for producing business text of any kind. The resulting inaccuracy and inappropriateness far outweigh their advantages of speed and convenience. Natives are almost always protective, read judgmental, of their mother tongue. They find it absurd and disrespectful for a business to publish text with linguistic and stylistic errors. This negligence somehow stains the reputation of a business. How many times have you laughed at poorly translated menus? Thus, it is highly recommended to have the foreign text written by an educated native or translated by a professional translator and then checked by a native speaker. While this process may add expense, the failure to do so may render a business infamous, not famous.

So, if the goal is to reach potential customers where they are present, which is quite often the Internet today, it is important to remember that most communication is through text today. As a result, their ease in speaking English has no relevance to their ability to efficiently read English. To overcome this difficulty, text in their native tongue is much more effective and adds to the brand image. Write it as they read it.

* Picture captions allow the blind to fully access the Internet.