Google-eyed translator search – Shocked and uh-ed translation buyers

 

Freelancer marketing has never been a simple task just as finding any proper professional for the first time has always been a bit of a gamble. As an exercise, I “posed” as a translation buyer in my area of specialty – Hebrew-to-English official documents, a marriage certificate in this case – and searched for a service provider using both ChatGPT and Google. While the former provided a reasonable response, the options raised by Google illustrated the irrelevance of the search for translation purchasers and the need to focus marketing for translation providers.

In terms of methodology, I used free ChatGPT and posted the following prompt: “I am looking for a certified Hebrew-English translator to translate a marriage certificate for immigration purposes.” I then added, “I am looking for three freelancers”. Aside from some fairly accurate but somewhat vague background information, which is understandable since my prompt did not include all the relevant information, the AI engine initially provided three agencies and then, following the second prompt, three freelancers. The referred translation agencies and independent translators were all experienced professionals. Thus, GPT did provide an adequate starting point for a search for a translation professional.

By contrast, Google’s output to the same initial question was highly biased. The first page was almost entirely AI-based translation companies. I understand that people pay for top billing but I am not familiar with any government agency that will accept a certified translation of an official document produced by AI. The first human agencies were a few large, low-cost agencies. I am aware that some customers have a limited budget but it seems penny- wise and pound-foolish to skimp on the translation of a document that may make or break an important opportunity. Among the early entries (page 2) was a site for freelancers. It was shocking to see their average prices. Almost all of the more than 20 freelancers on the first two pages posted a rate of 5 USD a page, without defining what a page is. At that price, I would not trust the result as the rate is too good to be true. Thus, faced with a choice of AI, budget agencies and prostituting freelancers, the search was a non-starter.

It would seem that first-time translation buyers seeking a professional translator should take a much more directed approach. The best option may be national association search engines (such as the ATA in the US and ITA in Israel), which allow a full comparison of credentials and demonstrate some measure of professional approach. Service provider recommendation lists may also be relevant, albeit with a grain or two of salt. Of course, traditional personal recommendations are always relevant. Notices in relevant Facebook groups will provide several options. Finally, ChatGPT with more specifics is an ever more relevant path. Clearly, finding an appropriate translation will require some thinking and effort.

This situation should determine how translators market themselves. As AI seeks specifics that make one option more relevant than the others, translators need to include relevant details in as many locations as possible. These factors include languages, qualifications, experience, types of documents and skills. A website is an important but not the sole place to post such information. Furthermore, appearing on reputable translator lists, e.g., national associations and government bodies, enhances the probability that a search will produce one’s name. Of course, additional activities, including lectures, blogs and volunteer work, further enhance one’s presence. Ultimately, word-of-mouth, whether through customers or peers, is the best source of reference, requiring translators to produce quality results regardless of the rate. It is not enough for translators to prove and improve themselves. They need to market those attributes in multiple ways.

God helps those who help themselves. I am not sure that Google is a god even if it does seem to be omniscient and omnipresent. AI is far too naive to be a god but people increasingly treat it as one. Translation providers need to help purchasers find an appropriate option. Keeping on the astral plane, the devil is in the details. Purchasers need to make intelligent decisions while freelancers must provide the information they need to make those decisions. The result can be awe-inspiring, far superior to the uhs produced by simple Google searches and even ChatGPT.

On translation, fidelity and project choice

 

To non-linguists, translation seems a rather simple task, merely expressing the meaning of words in one language in another language. A solid knowledge of grammar and a comprehensive dictionary should suffice in faithfully rendering the content into a second language. However, in practice, the term “translation” encompasses a wide variety of text types, from the most technical to the most creative, and purposes, and from literal rendering to cultural equivalency. The significance is that the art of faithful translation involves a variety of approaches. For individual translators, these characteristics may define which projects they should accept.

The use of the term faithful as it applies to translation naturally poses the question “to what”. In some rare cases, the translator must rigidly reflect the form and content in the source language into the target language, mistakes and all. For example, a translation of a court deposition must show the level of language and evasiveness of the source text as these elements may have legal significance. For documents submitted to a foreign court, the translated text must be written in line with the accepted writing norms of the foreign court while fully reflecting the content of the original document, no more and no less. Medical documents, due to their potentially significant role in any lawsuit, must strictly reflect the content of the original but yet must be understandable to a reader of the target language. Marketing documents, including travel-related documents, must speak to their target audience, i.e., flow well in the second language, at the expense of the form of the original text while referring to the same factual elements. Finally, literary translation involves the art of expressing the uniqueness of a writer’s style and message into a second language, which may sometimes involve radical changes of the syntax and even details. For example, Umberto Ecco wrote in one of his essays that one scene whose core element was swearing in a holy city took on many different forms in its translations into various European languages in terms of city and actual curse in order to communicate the extremity of the act. Thus, the translators’ obligation to be faithful is far from straightforward.

As a result, translators approach each type of text differently. On the most basic level, a word-by-word translation with little consideration of syntax, as typical of some machine translations, involves little translator input but not a small amount of resoluteness as the resulting text sounds awful . However, when translators must render the content of the original text into the form of the target language, they must apply their knowledge of these forms to produce a natural-sounding document. When the genre lacks any prescribed form, the translator’s linguistic skills come to the fore as it is necessary to produce a seamless text, one that does not sound like a translation. Finally, in a literary translation, the linguist must reproduce all the nuances of the writer’s style, often when there is no direct equivalent in the target language. This translation tests not only the ability of the translator to identify the overt and hidden elements of the original but the creativity to find their equivalents in the second language. In each case, the translator calls on a different toolkit of skills.

Consequently, the ability to effectively translate all or many document styles is far from obvious. Personal tendencies, training and practice hone certain skills while bypassing others. Some translators are perfectly at ease handling the most technical texts due to their knowledge of the content and form but may produce the most unremarkable marketing text imaginable. By contrast, a translator with the ability and experience to successfully render the effect produced by one language into another language when given full rein may fail when required to follow strict rules of syntax and vocabulary, a result of that same creativity. Experienced professional translators know when the document involves a genre too far.

Thus, translation goes far beyond the formal knowledge of grammar and vocabulary and involves a comprehensive understanding of how to translate specific types of documents. Each genre has its approaches and challenges. Yet, the basic goal remains the same, i.e., to produce a faithful rendition of the original document into another document, however that fidelity is expressed.

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.

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

Text-book perfection – in search of a QA panacea for revising long texts

 

Long translations pose special problems for translators. The intensive process involved in translating a long legal document or multipage text leaves little time and freshness for the no-less-crucial process of QA. Simply put, by the time the hard-pressed translator gets to the editing stage, the text is already embedded in the mind as basically acceptable, limiting the translator’s ability to identify syntactic errors. This problem is not new, with translators having long used a set of tools, some old and some new, to overcome it to varying effectiveness. I will discuss some traditional QA methods, some recently developed ones and my experience with Grammarly. Whatever the individual choice of tools, professional translators and writers must employ them to properly check their work.

To illuminate the problem, the act of translating a long text, whether a legal document, a set of technical instructions or personal journal, involves multiple hours and multiple readings. Working from first draft to non-QAed finalized version may require the linguist to read through the original and source four or more times. Aside from the time invested, the creation process creates a sound and vision in the mind, which become de facto acceptable. Professionals are aware that many areas for correction and improvement lurk in the text and strive to find them in the jungle of text. However, the longer the text, the more difficult it is to locate them. The moment of truth is when the customer or translation agency editor sends back a document riddled with red marks, a truly unpleasant and often embarrassing experience. The question that most translators and editors ask is “How did I miss that?”. It often was not from lack of effort but  due to the tools they used.

The tools of translators and other linguists at minimum include
Word “spellcheck” (F7), printing and reading and use of outside editors. The Spellcheck function in Word identifies the most basic of errors with the failure to use it bordering on professional incompetence. A more comprehensive manner of editing is to print and read a text. For some reason, a text appears differently on paper than on a screen and, thus, fresher to the eyes. I personally read the text backward, i.e., from the last paragraph to the first paragraph, in order to render the document even more different and prevent me from going into “read a story” mode. Ideally, all linguists would employ outside editors, a fresh pair of eyes, to review any resulting text. In practice, the time and cost factors limit this practice from becoming standard except in literary translation. Translation agencies employ editors, especially those applying the various ISO standards. As I wrote, it is unpleasant to receive red-dotted corrections even if such a result does not affect future work. As for direct customers, the linguist is solely responsible but most technical translators do not use outside editors as a standard practice.

Two more modern and comprehensive methods are text-to-speech and AI. The text-to-speech function in Word is a simple manner of reviewing a document using a completely different method. Instead of having the eyes read a given sentence for the umpteenth time, the ears filter the sentence. Thus, poor-sounding phrases and structure immediately hit the linguistic warning bells and cause the translator or editor to reconsider the wording. It is a tool that I may try in the future. Another trendier tool is AI editing. Using one of many applications, it is possible to have AI analyze a document, identify possible errors and suggest solutions within seconds. On the surface level, it sounds quite magical, even ideal. My serious issues with this method are the lack of confidentiality, the actual process and results. First, as of today, in most cases, once a text, even without any identifying names, is posted to AI, it enters the public realm, which may be a breach of the confidentiality conditions. Some writers may be risking their copyright privilege if they use AI. Furthermore, I personally find the process of writing prompts to define and limit the range of errors as well as desired style I seek to be overcomplicated. Even when a person overcomes that difficulty, the suggested changes represent some collective image of the ideal such text, much of which is not relevant objectively and/or subjectively. In other words, the benefits, i.e., AI’s comprehensive and standardized approach, do not justify the risks, i.e., the loss of confidentiality and hassle of writing prompts. Thus, I do not use text-to-speech or AI.

However, recently faced with specific challenges, I applied Grammarly to two especially long and complicated texts and found the results positive on the balance. One text was a 20,000-word personal journal while the other was a 5000-word contract. As time and energy were short, I sought a tool that would identify phrasing errors and improve my translation in my text without risking confidentiality. I used Grammarly, an application that does involve a user fee. The process was simple, merely uploading or dragging the text into the editing box. I then selected the type of text, e.g. informal or formal. The result was a long list of possible errors and suggestions for improvement. To give a perspective, the program created 500 comments for a 5,000-word text. The vast majority, around 80%, were false positive either because of context or personal choice. For example, the program was not familiar with legal language and questioned many acceptable terms. In terms of subjective choices, I personally do not apply the Oxford comma, the comma before the word and, nor place a comma before the word but. Thus, I ignored those comments. On the positive side, it did identify many passive sentences that I could render in the active voice. This comment was of great value in the personal document but less so in the legal document even if I  try to limit use of passive structure in legal documents. Grammarly also identified sentences that could be joined or split, suggestions that I adopted several times. Overall, review of these long texts using the program involved several hours but produced better results in less time as compared to rereading.

It is clear that linguists, especially translators, must provide high quality products, meaning documents as clean of errors as possible, especially in the light of AI-created documents. The longer the document, the more difficulty that task is. Thus, translators and writers must use a wide variety of tools to achieve the required quality. I intend to use Grammarly on longer texts where a lack of time and freshness may harm the quality of revisions. While linguists can choose their preferred tools, it is clear that no specific method is a complete panacea.

Is 2025 a good time to become a translator – an auguring tale

 

[ruins of Greek temple]

Many linguists, young and old, are considering whether it is a good time to begin a translating career in 2025 with AI shaking the foundations of the linguistic world, among others. It is clear that nobody can see the future but in ancient Greece, there was a special group of priests, augurs, whose task was to answer vital questions about the future. The responses were often vague and sometimes not encouraging. For example,  the parents of Oedipus asked and didn’t enjoy the answer, i.e., that he would kill his father and marry his mother. (Apparently, they did occasionally get it right.) It is said that these priests would take these questions and go into a deep cave and then breath in radon gas or take a hallucinogen to sharpen their vision. As modern methods for predicting the future are no more effective than the old way, let’s imagine the answers a hesitant linguist would receive if s/he would ask the augurs whether to start a career in translating in 2025.

The first augur would enter the cave and become quite euphoric. He sees a future filled with work booked in advance for two weeks and a large positive balance in the bank account. His/her answer might be:

a.   I see endless growth in the language service sector.

b.   I see the world becoming more and more connected.

c.    I see masses of disappointed AI users seeking you.

In short, our augur with pink glasses would say: go study translation and start a business.

 

The second augur is a dourer type and had a bad morning. Upon entering the cave of seeing, his/her visions becomes dark, stating:

a.   I see AI taking over each and every sphere of translation.

b.   I see masses of translators slaving over machine-translation versions trying to justify their existence.

c.   I see translators joining the ranks of blacksmiths on the extinction list of professions in six years.

This bringer of dark omens would say: he who approaches the island of the Sirens [possibly the island of Capri] should not be surprised if his ship crashes into the rocks.

The third augur takes some natural version of Ritalin instead of the usual mushrooms and tries to analyze all of the facts. After a while (no computers at the time), a confusing set of statements would emerge:

a.   I see that AI is fundamentally shaking up the language service market, which was already being transformed by neural translation and other forms of machine translation.

b.   I cannot predict the long-term viability of AI translation, i.e., to quote a certain translator, whether people will learn to accept lower quality in exchange for lower price or return to human translators.

c.   I see that translators with the appropriate skills will find fruitful islands in the technological storm.

In short, this non-committal augur paints a foggy picture and tells the linguist: beware of the storm but listen to your heart. Prepare for but do not fear the future.

As an experienced translator and not a fortune teller, my “reading” is that the world will continue to need translators but their role and skills are changing, just as they it has in the past. What is constant is the need to attain skills beyond linguistic ones. These additional anchors include deep familiarity with a specific field of knowledge such as law or medicine, solid computer skills (including but not limited to AI), digital marketing experience and knowledge of business management. We all learn some of these skills “on the job” but just knowing two languages is not sufficient, especially now. The more skills a person has before starting, the greater chance of success there is.

As I look at the grounds of my Turkish coffee (as there are no augurs in my neck of the woods), I see a future with many shades of grey, with some intense black where the coffee grounds are thicker and off-white where the bottom of the cup  is visible. I imagine the augurs would give a similar answer with equal confidence. The one certainty is uncertainty. Physics even has a law for that. Thus, I would advise uncertain translators to follow their ambition if their heart says to become a translator but also their head by gaining expertise in some if not all of the required skills. Time will tell what will happen even if the augurs generally did not. Whatever the result, I hope the decisions of the these future translators augur well.

Customer satisfaction – an adapted/adaptable survey questionnaire

 

[4 people with things to say]

In such a volatile market for freelancers, including translators, and large businesses alike, it is vital to retain existing customers and learn why customers do not return. The BBC TV program, Four in a Bed, which features four different B&B operators checking each other’s place out, asks a specific set of questions to sound out, for better or worse, the customer experience, rating them with a score ranging from one to ten. The participants do not always agree with or appreciate the feedback, both written and oral, but clearly learn from the experience in terms of improving their product. The same set of questions, with appropriate changes, could also be useful for other service providers. I will relate the original questions to the translation business but most providers can adapt them.

4 in the Bed question: How were the hosts?

Translator customer question: How was the communication with the translator?

Explanation: People prefer to do business with people that are pleasant and professional and tend not to return to those that are indifferent or amateurish. In translation, most of the communication is written, i.e., customers and service providers don’t physically meet or even talk to each other. Thus, the tone, content and timeliness of the email or WhatsApp chats create the relationship. Think before you press send.

 

4 in the Bed question: How clean was the room?

Translator customer question: How accurate in terms of errors was the translation?

Explanation: Translation buyers expect translators to pay attention to detail. A clean translation should have no spelling, name or number errors and visually resemble the original document. Multiple post-delivery correspondence is a bad omen for future business with the buyer. Clearly, “critical” error is a subjective matter and may, in some cases, involve mistaken judgment by the buyer. The lesson for the translator is allow and take the time to do proper QA.

 

4 in the Bed question: How were the facilities?

Translator customer question: Could the translator provide all the required services?

Explanation: Translation often involves more than production of a document and may include certification, notarization, delivery or even translation into other languages. The question is whether the translator managed the whole process or dropped the bag on the customer. People are willing to pay for convenience.

 

4 in the Bed question: How did you sleep?

Translator customer question: Did the translated document meet your needs?

Explanation: Excellence is not always required. Translation buyers choose to hire translators because of a specific need. If the person used the document without any issues, the translation was successful. If not, the purchase was a waste of money. It may be that customer did not know or failed to provide the actual requirements but such explanations only identify the source of the problem and do not eliminate the issue. Translators must attain the actual requirements before starting.

 

4 in the Bed question: How was the breakfast?

Translator question: Did the translator meet my special needs?

Explanation: From the program, it is clear that many Brits are rather particular about the runniness of their poached eggs and/or the quality and cooking of their sausages. Similarly, translation buyers can be rather particular about delivery format, paging, color issues, phrasing and terminology, among other factors. A translator cannot please all customers but at least should try to ascertain these special demands and attempt to satisfy them.

 

4 in the Bed question: Would you stay here again?

Translator question: Would you use my services again and/or recommend me to a friend?

Explanation: Many people are quite critical by nature but that does not mean that they don’t appreciate good service. Service providers create customer loyally through the manner in which they handle issues. Regardless of any problems that arose, the essential issue is whether that buyer would use your services again and/or recommend your services to a friend or colleague. On the other side, every dissatisfied customer is a double loss for the same reason. Clearly, in situations where, for whatever reason, the buyer chose an inappropriate service provider, a negative answer is not necessarily an indictment of the translator. However, a consistent positive answer to this question is the key to long-term success.

 

4 in the Bed question: How much would you pay for the room?

Translator question: Did you receive fair value for your money?

Explanation: At first glance, this question seems irrelevant and even dangerous for translators. After all, many customers neither know nor can attain competing rates nor does the translator generally wish them to find out. On the other hand, the likelihood of a translator retaining a new customer is highly linked to the sense of value. Regardless of the objective reality, a sense of a reasonable price creates satisfaction while a feeling of overpaying leads to dissatisfaction. On a positive note, responses to this question can provide an objective basis for a translator to raise or lower rates or make other changes.

This series of questions can help all freelancers discover the strengths and weaknesses of their business. It takes courage to pose the questions and strength to accept the answers but these responses may surprise us in a positive way and inspire us to improve. I hope you can adeptly adapt and adopt the basic questionnaire and grow your business.

The more, the merrier? – the mult-presenter experience

 

[3 perfomers]

In my final year at UC Santa Cruz more than 40 years ago, I took a senior seminar entitled “History of Socialism”. What was remarkable and memorable about this course, aside from the amount of work and information involved, was the presence of two teachers, each an expert in a different aspect of the topic. Seeing two experts openly disagreeing on the interpretation of various events gave us students the feelings of awe and freedom, significantly enhancing the course. Last week, I was part of a group of three lecturers giving an ATA (American Translator Association) webinar on preparing a professional website, a topic that I had previously presented to the Israel Translators Association in collaboration with Uri Bruck. I and my colleagues, Dmitry Beschetny and Ben Karl, discussed the rational and manner of preparing a profession translator/interpreter website. I found the experience enriching, challenging and worthwhile.

This combination of expertise provided a texture to the course in that each person contributed his knowledge, style and voice. In the case of the course, we covered three aspects of website construction, specifically the rationale, approach to third party providers and doing it yourself, each of us sharing his experience and point of view. As expected, the presentation styles differed in terms of organization and terminology. More importantly, the voice differed as every individual has a unique presence, ranging in formality and technical vocabulary. The webinar had three noticeable separate parts.

Clearly, this cooperation demanded extra effort, compromise and vision. Specifically, as there was a need to create unity among three parts, the planning involved many emails and several Zoom conversations to ensure that everybody was on the same page. In such cases, it also involved a certain loss of individual preference in order to create a unity of not only of theme but spirit. To make and accept this compromise, the parties must create a single overall vision and identify how each element contributes to it without insisting on a single path. This whole process involves far more time and effort than solo presenting.

However, this investment was worthwhile for both the learners and lecturers. The attendees received far more information and advice than would have received from any single lecturer. Furthermore, the lack of complete consensus among the lecturers reinforced the message that many roads lead to Rome. Thus, the issue become which method is more appropriate, not one size does or does not fit all. The division into three sections and three voices also made it easier to concentrate for two hours, an important benefit. For me as a lecturer, I enjoyed hearing the experience of my colleagues and will benefit from it when I redo my site at some time. All the participants gained.

In teaching and presenting as well as other areas of life, synergy can have important benefits, adding knowledge, texture, perspective and variety. Of course, it involves more time investment but the results can justify it. More may not always be merrier but it is almost always richer.

Focus – how large business do and entrepreneurs can stand out above the crowd

 

[pencil]

Businesses large and small struggle to distinguish their products and services As a rule, a multitude of enterprises strive to sell similar products and services, making it difficult for customers to identify and remember the best option. Larger corporations, having the budget to hire branding experts, are often proficient in creating an identity for a product, generic or not. The result is successful advertising campaigns. By contrast, entrepreneurs, often working alone with little knowledge of the market and marketing, generally create muddled messages. Regardless of actual work experience, it is advisable for freelancers and small businesses to hone their message as the larger corporations do in order attract more customers.

It is fascinating to observe how certain companies brand their products in highly competitive markets. Proctor & Gamble, the owner of head and shoulders shampoo brand, does not emphasize esoteric chemicals or exotic ingredients but instead hammers the message that the product eliminates dandruff, employing an attractive actor in various action segments whose only line is “I don’t” in response to the statement “I didn’t know you have dandruff”. In this manner, the brand is identified with elimination of dandruff. Likewise, Mark Jacobs reinforces the name of the perfume “Daisy” with advertisements filled with models surrounded by daisies, creating an impression of the scent, true or not. In the UK, McCain advertises its frozen French fries (chips in UK English) as the old friend of the family, a part of past and current memories. In practice, they probably taste the same as their competitors but the TV adverts emphasize how one can depend on this brand for a familiar taste. Instead of trying to be all things to all people, these companies focus on one aspect that supposedly sets their products apart from their competition.

Translators, as do many other freelancers, tend to aim wide and, consequently, miss their mark. Many translators have a long statement on how many languages they work to and from, sometimes as many as five languages, with several areas of specialization. Even colleagues ultimately do not remember the exact combinations, not even one sometimes, in the presence of so many details. Potential customers, those that may one day need their services, will almost certainly not recall the message. Almost all translators (mea culpa) tend to list all their combinations and skills on their marketing sites, including their CV’s and websites, on the hope that they will attract more customers. In practice, most translators earn most of their income from one language combination with the other options barely impacting their business. Thus, the wide net approach actually is counterproductive.

Instead, based on the successful campaigns of large companies, freelancer translators  should identify their main service and emphasize it in every manner possible. They can mention other combinations and services but in a form that does not distract from the main message. The goal is identification between the service provider and the service, e.g. Jane Doe, certified Spanish to English medical translator.

Thus, focus is the key for product and service branding. I personally intend to apply this approach on my next website (whenever that is) as well as on any other current or future marketing efforts. In practice, I am a recognized Hebrew to English legal translator, period and want my potential customers to remember it. If the message is clear, the next time potential customers need such a service, they may remember the name. To stand out, being the sharpest pencil in the box is the key.

On misfeasance, browsewrap and exhaustion or the fruits of summer school

 

[Exhausted man in office*]

For many non-retail businesses, August is a sleepy month, to put it mildly. In Israel, it even used to be called the “season of cucumbers”, the equivalent of the English "silly season",  due to its lack of relevant news. For me, this August is no different. Thus, I have directed some my spare time to reading the law digests I receive every week and don’t read. After all, continuing education is an essential task for any professional, legal translators included. Not being an attorney, I discovered some new terms, specifically misfeasance trading, browsewrap and horizontal and vertical exhaustion. I may or may not encounter them in the future but, in the meantime, it is fun to learn new terms.

In Wright vs Chappell, the court found the directors guilty of misfeasance trading as compared to wrongful trading. The former implies that directors breached their duties, including in regard to compensation, conflict of interest, due diligence and creditors. The former refers to actual trading when the directors know a company is not solvent. Clearly, both offenses refer to illegal acts, but the malfeasance is easier to prove.

Of a wider impact was the California Appeal Court decision regarding browsewrap, which refers to the “I agree” clicks on websites. The decision affirmed, among other arguments, that a clause stipulating arbitration was not enforceable if a “prudent user” would not have noticed it. This line of thought reminded me of the various “plain English” laws for consumer contracts that require key elements to be visually highlighted. To be clear, it did not say that these Internet agreements were non-valid but only that the site must present them properly.

I was quite fascinated by the discussion of horizontal and vertical exhaustion. These terms do not refer to the effects of training for the decathlon but instead to the conditions for applying for secondary insurance benefits. In many insurance policies, it is impossible to initiate a claim under a secondary insurance policy until the full payout, exhaustion, of all primary policies. That is horizontal exhaustion. By contrast, if an insured party has reached the limits of one of many primary policies, it may receive the benefits from a secondary policy under that same exhausted policy whether or not it has completely collected the benefits from the other primary policies, i.e., vertical exhaustion. Even if that sounds tiring to understand, the knowledge may be useful in the future.

For those busy in August or, even better, on vacation. I wish you happy days. For those waiting for the phone to ring physically or virtually, even if you know everybody else on too busy working or playing to need your services, August is a great time to gather “useless” knowledge. Nobody knows when you may need it, especially translators.

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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?

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Synergy – on the advantages of being a freelancing couple

 

[A rainy tinny celebration]

There is a power in being a couple not just in dealing with life’s crises but also as working as a freelancer. My wife and I just celebrated our 10^th wedding anniversary. We are both freelance translators, even having met at a translator conference, albeit in different but complementary language combinations (Hebrew – English for me; the opposite for her, in different specialization areas). We can both see how much our individual business have benefited by sharing a profession. These advantages are reflected in the technical, emotional and financial stability.

Giving that not only is no man (or woman) is an island but also no person can be proficient in all areas of business, partners can complement each other’s skills. My wife enjoys technology (and house repairs) and views any hardware or software problem that arises as  an interesting challenge. She eagerly checks out the new features of any new program or upgrade. I, on the other hand, prefer the language aspect of this business. Finding the ideal phrasing for a delicate email  in English to a project manager is a fascinating intellectual exercise for which my American background has prepared me. Furthermore, as we work from opposite source languages, we help each other hone the exact meaning of any word in question and discuss which word or phrase in the target language would best express that sense. Occasionally, we agree to disagree. Having an in-office expert is a great asset.

Clearly, no less important is the emotional support we provide for each other. Freelancing, especially translating sometimes is a lonely, frustrating and unpredictable life style. The nature of the job is  to spend many hours sitting in front of a computer interacting with text whether in the form of a document or email. While written words are far less annoying than most people, it is also far less human by definition. The actual business aspect can be frustrating as, despite our best efforts to avoid them, misunderstandings occur with clients. Even worse, quite often  a job that the translator perceived as a short easy task turns into a translation from hell due to a technical issue or simple misjudgment. Of course, unnecessary and sometimes even incorrect feedback from editors is the bane of all translators. All this friction creates a tension, even anger. In terms of work pace, freelancing in general tends to be feast or famine, i.e., not enough or too much work, with occasional an unpleasant surprise on Friday night or other inconvenient time. Sometimes, there is no choice but to work too many hours, which is ultimately beneficial for the bank account but not enjoyable at the moment. As a couple, we can empathize with these feelings and provide the human element, understanding and logistical support (cups of tea and making dinner) required to ride through these crises. In simple words, you are not alone.

As for income, two freelance incomes are more stable and higher than one. Translator monthly income tends to vary significantly by field and month. For example, financial translators tend to have very busy first quarters of the year due to tax reporting requirements while certain offices push projects in November and December to take advantage of remaining budget to avoid future cuts. Moreover, technical changes, notably neural machine translation and ChatGPT, as well as new laws, such as in regards to translation or certification requirements, have varying effects of the landscape of the language industry. Spreading our income over a wider area helps protects us from “slings and arrows of outragious fortune”. On a more spiritual level, the technical and emotional support we get for each other creates positive vibes, which leads to better productivity and clearer thinking about all aspect of our business. This synergy leads to more business.

Admittedly, working with a spouse requires certain ground rules. First, what happens outside the office does not enter the office. Secondly, it is acceptable to discuss but each person reserves the right to make the final decision for his/her task. Finally, it is necessary to accept that each person approaches business differently, not better or worse. We do the best with what we have at any given moment.

There is a song in Hebrew “yoter tov beshnayim”, or, loosely translated, two are better than one. As we celebrate our tin anniversary (tinny does not ring very pleasant to my ears), we are aware that we have profted not only in our private but also in our business lives. I am looking forward to many such years.

Chutes and ladders -Thoughts about 2023

 

[tree with clouds in background*]

2023 has not been a simple year, including for the residents of the Middle East and translators. To be blunt, it has been a year of earthquakes of the existential type. Collecting my thoughts, the two must powerful forces have been artificial intelligence and, for too many of us, the Gaza War. They have tested the faith in the future but I have also seen a much quieter but no less powerful force: the ability of the human mind to focus on a problem and improve reality.

ChatGPT in its many forms has hit the world like a sledgehammer. I will not even claim that I fully understand the techniques and manner of using it but I do have some, if limited, comprehension of the effect. The capacity to allow an algorithm to create a reality according to custom-made requirements is an amazing tool. Millions of people, including professionals, use it as an active tool. However, as a translator, I do not feel threatened because, while it creates a virtual reality, a verisimilitude, its outcomes may have nothing to do with reality. I suggest asking an IA engine of your choice to provide details of your life. You will discover some amazing facts. To be fair, fantasy is a powerful engine for creating reality. Think about how many gadgets on the Star Trek series have become everyday products, including cell phones and universal translators. However, this year too many people forgot how it is not human. Think about how often people accept doctored pictures as proof. In the courts, almost amusingly, Michael Cohen invented some legal cases sympathetic to his case using AI and sent them to his lawyer, who cited them. The judge was not amused. Even in translations, it is sad to say that a few so-called translators believe that unedited machine translation is actually how people write. My wife just spent seven hours rewriting a Google-translate text that should have required some 2 hours to edit if the translator had actually done the work. Children understand that Wile E. Coyote cannot actually survive having a rock fall on him. Their parents should be aware that artificial intelligence is just that, artificial.

On a more tragic note, the Gaza War, or whatever name it will receive in the history books, has created an enormous human tragedy and still is at the time of writing. The number of dead, wounded and traumatized  victims in Israel and, yes, Gaza, Syria and Lebanon is heartbreaking. The economic damage will have an impact for a decade. On an even sadder note for me, the intensity of pure, unbridled hatred that the war has unleased has shaken the belief in the essential goodness of human beings. It is, again, okay to wish the death of anybody that disagrees with you. This wave of hate goes far beyond the borders of the Middle East and is impacting most of the world. It makes it appear that human beings have made no progress and maybe regressed over the centuries. I find that destructive urge, whether in words or acts, extremely distressing.

On the other side, through conferences I have attended, I have encountered, physically and virtually, so many people that dedicate their lives to solving small problems and find beautiful solutions. There are countless academics delving in the intricacies of fascinating processes not because of the money but because they want to enrich their mind and the world, although they do not reject money, of course. I have seen the work of so many translators who invest disproportional time to find the absolute translation not because it matters to the customer but because they believe that translation is an art and, thus, is worthy of the effort to reach people and perfection. It is this ability to ignore the macro and focus on the micro that gives me hope for a better world as complicated situations are solved one step at a time.

With a bit of a heavy heart, I try to look optimistically to the future. Artificial intelligence will not disappear but people hopefully will learn how to apply its usefulness and recognize its limitations. The Gaza war will end at some time, one way or another. People will rebuild their lives, albeit as different people than they were before the war. What will not change is that the silent majority will continue to find solutions to small problems and, knowingly or unknowingly, make the world a better place. In short, let’s hope for a gentler 2024.

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