Traveling post - ATA Law Division

 This week, I am posting on the ATA Law division:

https://www.ata-divisions.org/LawD/386-2/

Starting up the freelance business leanly

This week, I attended a short lecture and workshop given by Prof. Rami Gazit from the Braude College of Engineering.  The subject was the lean startup model, which was new to me.  In a few hours, he provided the background and main points of this business model.  As a freelancer translator for 15 years with a formal business background (MBA), I could not help but consider whether this knowledge would have helped me when I started and how much it is relevant now.  My conclusion is that while freelancing and startups are not identical situations, some of the basic concepts to which I was exposed would definitely apply to a startup and established freelance translator.

To begin with, I clearly see three important differences between technical startups and freelancing.  The first involves the environment in which the business begins. One of the definitions of a startup business provided us was an attempt to create a viable business model in an essentially uncertain world, i.e., to introduce a new product or service into the market.  By contrast, freelancing involves providing a known product or service in a relatively stable existing market, i.e. specific and complete business models already exist.  

Another important difference is the end goal of the activity.  Ultimately, the startup entrepreneur wants to succeed in creating a business that is sufficiently large and viable to sell for millions. By contrast, the more modest end goal of all freelancers is to make a living in the long term on their terms.  The money involved is in thousands, not millions. Granted, in the translation business, more and more successful freelance businesses are being bought in the recent of conglomeration.  Still, the vast majority of freelancers are in for the long term to make a living. Finally, new freelance translators, unlike a budding startup company, has nothing new to offer. Their service is superficially identical to that of countless others. The only changes in the service will be the product of outside technological change, such as machine translation, not any innovation they can bring.

That said, freelancers can learn from the lean startup model. First, in both, it is essential to focus on the customer, not on the product or service. This emphasis is vital both in the starting and later stages of the business. In the beginning, it is necessary to talk with companies and translation project managers to ascertain what they look for, i.e. the characteristics of a successful service provider. For example, in translation, on-time delivery and effective communication create the basis for a long-term customer.  As the business grows, these same customers can provide information regarding QA issues and other required services, i.e. areas to which the service provide can expand, such as transcreation or post-MT editing in the translation field today. Only after entrepreneurs understand their customers can they tailor their skills and knowledge to the market.

Proper scaling also applies to freelance businesses. Scaling applies to the speed of expansion of business activities.  The relevant key lesson from lean startup is that trial and error on a small scale is vital for long term success.  In other words, in the beginning, freelancers should focus on a single specialization within their repertoire of skills and knowledge. For example, translators should market one language pair in one direction in one specialization.  When translating or marketing errors occur, the lessons learned from this experience will significantly increase the efficiency in later stages. Not only that, a small controlled start will avoid burning customers for the later stages. Once the basic technical issues are clarified and resolved, it will be possible to expand to further niches (and higher income). Thus, while there is a tendency to throw out a wide net, a narrow focus in the beginning can better serve a new freelancer.

The third aspect is the need to be able to pivot, i.e. flexibility. Whether due to market changes or incorrect assumptions, some marketing ideas or potential niches do not produce results. After a certain point, it is pointless to invest more time and energy in them, at least for the meantime. A successful entrepreneur seeks another area in which the same set of skills and knowledge or an additional one will apply. For example, the knowledge of legal and financial accounting terminology is also a key in translating documents for international development marketing as I learned in a recent ATA webinar by Corinne Mckay. Since the business world is only relatively stable, the ability to pivot is relevant for the entire lifetime of a freelancing business. Change can be a curse or an opportunity. Flexibility is an important relative advantage of a successful freelancer.

I make no claim of being an expert of lean startup after a two-hour lecture/workshop.  Yet, I found many of its lessons relevant to both new and established freelancers, including but not limited to translators. The need to be customer focused by asking questions, walk before running and identify and react to changes applies to all businesses, freelancers, startups and even corporations. All entrepreneurs that start up a business can lean on these principles.

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Culinary couch potato or non-vicarious political living

In the last decade, the television screen has slowly turned into a giant kitchen. Food preparation programs are becoming more and more numerous.  They include cooking and baking and both.  They range from the sophisticated such as Professional Master Chef to the absurd, such Worst Cooks in America. Their approach can focus on the food, such as the French MasterChef, the people in the Israeli MasterChef or the culture in Les Carnets de Julie.  The competitive atmosphere can be high as in Iron Chef or bordering on cooperative as the Great British Bake Off.  They can emphasize team work as the Chef Games in Israel or single improvisational skills as in Chopped.  Regardless of the format, viewers sit on their fannies and watch other people prepare and eat food.  Admittedly, some actually learn from the shows, copying and applying the techniques and recipes.  Most people just find something to munch on and look forward to the next show or season. 

I admit that I belong to the last category. My personal reason for relishing cooking and baking shows is the current state of politics. Simply put, it stinks. I will be fair: it stinks in Israel, the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China, Turkey, Germany, Italy and the Palestinian Authority, to name just a few.  I heard that the situation in Monaco or Luxemburg and maybe Singapore may be okay but I lack sufficient knowledge to know nor do these good apples really improve the barrel. The situation is and has been so bad that I have stopped watching the news or listening to news radio.  I do care but lack the emotional strength to deal with the scope of the disaster even if I know I personally will be affected by it sooner or later. Call it cowardice or weakness but I simply cannot take politics right now.

So, instead, in the two hours or so of free time I have in the evening, I watch people prepare food and even jokingly, mostly, ask why they did not offer me a slice or taste of it.  From time to time, my wife prepares a dish based on one of the recipes, which I enjoy.  Theoretically, I myself could print the recipe and make it myself as I know how to cook.  However, there is almost no chance that I would ever do so.

They say that troubles cause people to either gain or lose weight, depending on their reaction.  Although I try to eat healthier snacks during my escapism sessions, I have to admit that I have not lost weight.  I cannot speak for the viewers of the program but the reason that I enjoy such programs is that I find it much cheerful to listen to a discussion of a beautiful profiterole than one on the profits of all Trumps and Bibi’s friends.  To paraphrase the maligned Marie Antoinette, let us eat cake, at least vicariously.

Intuit

I have been a freelancer for some 15 years now.  I began my translating career knowing next to nothing about translation and very little in practice about running my own business. To explain, my MBA did provide me with some macro understanding but very little guidance on how to run a one-person business. My tools were trial and error, analysis and, most importantly, intuition.

To be clear, I have made plenty of mistakes and still do occasionally.  After every “disaster”, I analyze what went wrong and how to avoid a repeat incident.  In this manner, I have managed to learn what my business education did not teach me: how to run a translation business. Aside from countless small technical tricks, my main conclusion of all my analysis is that the key for me on both a macro and micro level is not accounting or vision, which have their place, but but instead intution, 

Intuition is the “gut feeling” before any decision, big or small, that it feels right.  It is not necessarily rational and logical within the framework of the facts known at the time. Nor does it emotionally reflect our desires and/or fears. Intuition often leads us to take actions that have negative short term consequence or arouse fear.  In fact, our intuition both encompasses these elements and surpasses them in understanding. It is the feeling that a given plan of action is correct regardless of whether the brain or heart endorses it. Of course, it should not be confused with wishful thinking, a dangerous cousin, infamous for causing impulsive and foolish actions. The difference between them is similar to that between happy and contented, with the former describing the state of mind at any given time, subject to immediate change, while the latter describing a general state of mind regardless of immediate events. In fact, the key in known what a potential decision is intuitive or wishful is if it still feels correct after some time has passed.

I can say that I could have avoided close to 95% of my mistakes if I had noticed and heeded my intuition. On a macro level, I would have avoided several scammers since I sensed that something was wrong but did not investigate.  I would have avoided certain texts that were beyond my understanding and ability, which I immediately knew deep down. I would have pursued certain marketing media much earlier because I understood that they had good potential. On a micro level,  I would have insisted on longer deadlines since I had a strong feeling that the document was more complicated than it seemed at first glance but I did not insist. I would have rechecked and reedited phrases that lit up a red light before the client had to read it. In other words, as a translator, I “knew” what I needed to do but did not follow my intuition.

On a positive note, my intuitive decision to break out of the gilded cage of a salary and become independent has transformed my life and thinking.  I cannot imagine my life only as a teacher. Armed with intuition, I have found a long-term niche, developed practical operating procedures and pursued effective marketing strategies not only relying on my rational analysis but also my intuitive feeling. I have had almost no payment issues in a situation where most of my customers are far away. Without being an expert on any specific country, I have been able to communicate with people from a wide variety of cultures and expectations. In an uncertain future, I can rely on my intuition, with guidance from others as required, to overcome challenges.

To clarify, every business person, large and small, must be keep track and be aware of the key numbers: income, expenses, change, etc. Not only that, a vision of the business in five years is vital for long term planning. However, these two tools are not sufficient to guarantee success. At least for freelancers, intuition is an important key.

The advice is deceivingly simple. The voice of our intuition is much quieter than that of our desires, fear and cold logic.  Not only that, outside voices, both family and colleagues, can impact our decisions, many times but not always for the best. Consequently, it is important to consult people that truly understand, not primarily want to control. Ultimately, the success of freelancer is in the hands of the freelancer. You don’t need an MBA to succeed but it is vital to listen to the quiet but wise voice of intuition.

Anna Chronistic terms

I am a freelancer. This term is almost universally understood, even in languages other than English.  Yet, at the same term, the word refers to a no longer existing profession wiped out by changes in technology.  Specifically, in Europe for some three hundred years, through the 17^th century, more or less, a group of men that were armed and skilled in fighting with a lance wandered around Europe searching for paying clients and generally found them.  The mass production of simple powder weapons that took much less strength and training to master ended the value of their services.  Still, any person not receiving a salary that is searching physical or virtual space for paying clients is a freelancer, not matter which service s/he is offering.

Changes in written communication technology have also bypassed some vocabulary.  For example, if a person is penciled in to work on a given day, the chance that the name is written in pencil is small.  Today, computer technology is our book and keyboards are pencils. Likewise, it is common practice with emails to cc a person or persons if they should be informed of its content.  Curiously, carbon copies, made by putting a carbon sheet between sheets of paper in typewriters have gone the way of those typewriters, i.e. disappeared except as a quaint period piece. Still, we cc in emails.

The revolution in long distance communication has also left behind victims.  While we still refer to the process of starting a telephone conversation as dialing, people actually press buttons today. In fact, most of those under the age of 40 have no idea what to do with a real dial telephone.  In the world of banking, money using wire transfers, which were once upon a time notices by telegraph or similar direct line means.  In 2019, modern and even not so modern banks use the Internet htlml messages to communicate money transfers. Yet, they are still “wired” in language.

In terms of the order of matters, language is also lagging a bit behind reality. It is unwise to put the cart before the horse for obvious reasons, but except on Aran Island in Ireland and few isolated places, people travel by car and motorcycle, not horse and carriage.  Likewise, a person jumping the gun leaves too quickly.  Yet, at all track events I have seen in the past few years, the started is an electronic beep, not a person firing a gun.  Still, the expression remains.

You could conclude, to paraphrase Tolstoy in Anna Karenina, that all long-lasting expressions are alike: they transfer the meaning and moment of the term, even if that term is no longer in the moment, unlike most short-lived slang, which fails to get anchored in the language for many different reasons. These outdated but ever effective terms have the horsepower, strength, to retain their places in our thoughts.

Babeled do re me

Translating lyrics is an art. It requires skill well beyond any other form of translation since it also involves respecting time, rhyme and sometimes even lip movements. Most songs are not translated as the actual meaning of the words is not as important as the sound.  By contrast, the audience demands to know what the message is. For example,  Disney  translates its songs and does a fine job at it.  Another interesting example where lyric translation was required was the well-known tune from The Sound of Music, do re me. It was necessary since the words connecting the sound must make sense in the language of the listener. The specific choices of word connections to the sound are rather interesting. I have chosen the lyrics from five languages I understand. 

Do

The original English referenced a doe, a female dear, not exactly a standard English vocabulary element. The French used dos, a back in English. Russian referred to дом [dom], a house. Hebrew took the word דוב [dov], a bear. Finally, Italian used the first-person singular form of the verb dare, to give.

Re

Both the original and French version connected the sound to the sun. The Russian lyricist strangely chose регби [regbi], rugby in English. The Hebrew version uses a more standard word ריח [re’ach], meaning smell. Italian uses the word re, meaning a king in English.

Mi

English and Italian took the first-person pronoun route, i.e. me. The French went half way, referring to mi, meaning half. The Russian referenced миска [miska], a bowl (for the cat). Hebrew took its meaning for the sound mi, which means who or whoever.

Fa

This note was very localized. The original English version adds the letter R at the end and turns it into far. French stretches the fa to facile, easy in meaning, literally. Likewise, the Russian translator used фазан [fazan], a pheasant. By contrast, the Hebrew adds the sound sa to the beginning and gets שפה [safa], meaning language. The Italian writer must have been tired as all s/he wrote was la nota dopo il Mi, the note after mi! I am almost sure that there is some Italian word with the sound fa.

Sol

For this sound, the two dominant techniques were homonyms and adding letters The English plays with the homonym sew, French with sol, ground, and Hebrew with סול [sol], the fish. The Italian version has the word sole, with the pronounced e, meaning sun. The Russian adds the grammatical ending to the sounds and comes up with Соль-ю [sol-yu], salt or spices.

La

Here, Oscar Hammerstein pulled an Italian trick. The original version says “the note to follow So”. The French and Italian lyricists went the direct route since la in both languages means there. The Russian translator added a consonant in the beginning and another syllable at the end and came up with лямка [lyamka], strap (of a bag). The Hebrew writer couldn’t apparently think of any word but was willing to come up with something witty, connecting the sound la to songs without words.

Se

For the last sound, each lyricist went with the sound. English pronounces the sounds as te, which leads to the typical English drink. The Italians say se, which sounds like si, yes.  The Hebrew word שיא [si] is the peak, literally. The Russian and French translator had to add something to the sound to make it work, сироп [sirup], as in the thick liquid, and siffler, to whistle, respectively.

So, while the song may be known worldwide, it is a classic example of localization and a tribute the talent and skill of those who translated it.

P.S. Based on comments, it appears that many languages have multiple translations.  Let me know if so.  I may write a follow up post on the such comparison. 

Non-violent language

Words create images in our minds.  Some may be beautiful and pleasing, such as meadow or chocolate sundae, while others trigger negative emotions and frightening thoughts.  The latter group would include stabbing or humiliation. However, it should be noted that, in some cases, heavily laden words are used to describe perfectly innocuous concepts, far from their violent roots.

The oil source rapeseed is a prime example.  Rape is an act of dreaded act of violence and not a pleasant thought.  However, rapeseed oil is available in most supermarkets and is no less acceptable than its cousins, corn or palm oil. It comes from a plant group that includes mustard and, according to the Wikipedia, is the second most important source of protein in the world. While not exactly romantic, this rape is at least beneficial.

On a larger scale, riots are scary since they involve random, irrational and mass violence.  People only riot when matters have become truly bad economically or politically. The exact result is unpredictable but always destructive. Curiously, people refer to an amusing scene or set of events as a riot, meaning funny from beginning to end and worthy of telling to others. In most cases, the greatest damage involved is a bit of harm to a person’s ego. This riot is much milder than that of the source word.

Anybody that has the experience of walking in poor part of a city has feared being mugged, i.e. beaten and robbed.  It is a traumatic experience both physically and psychologically.  Yet, if the weather is muggy, it does not attack you physically.  Granted, the hot, wet air does not move, causing a person to sweat profusely and take many showers.  Still, such weather conditions are annoying, not threatening. All that a person loses is water.

Boys in elementary schools are not known for their social skills (and, in many cases, do not

significantly improve with age).  They tend to resolve issues directly, by punching.  A fist in the face leaves a mark, above and below the surface. For many adults, seeing a video of children fighting brings back unpleasant memories. However, both children and adults enjoy drinking punch, a cold spiced fruit drink, a rather different story.  In fact, the word punch in this case comes from Sanskrit and means “five”, referring to the five elements in it. Visually, this liquid punch is much more positive.

Torture is a scary thought, a torture in itself. Even if few have had to experience it, it is the stuff of nightmares. Strangely, tortuous, a similar sounding but differently spelled word, carries its stigma.  Alas, the latter word means very curvy, as in a road.  For most people, the way up to the mountain cabin may tortuous but does not strike great fear in them.

In a similar vein, in Anglo-Saxon society, cursing is disrespectful and unacceptable behavior.

This attitude does not mean that people do not do it but it is looked down upon, often selectively as George Carlin expressed so well in his routine The seven words you can’t say on TV.  Interestingly, the word cursor, with an “o”, produced almost 100 million results on Google. There is no shame in writing that word because it refers to the marker of the current position on the screen.  However, when people can’t find it, they have been known to become cursers, especially when their children are not in the room.

There is a strange dichotomy in the word accessory. In a criminal court, being an accessory to a murder or robbery is not much better than actually doing the deed. For example, the driver of a getaway car in a robbery is equally guilty in many legal systems. So, it is a word that many people in jail do not want to hear.  By contrast, women of all ages seem to enjoy buying an accessory to their wardrobe, which includes a scarf, belt, hat or any other object that will enhance it.  In contrast with their jail cousins, mainly male, most women smile when the thought of an accessory comes up.

So, words do have a direct impact on our mind through the images they create.  Some words carry highly negative connotations. Yet, like people, a few can reform and do good deeds, improving if not erasing their negative record. Once violent, these words do not have to remain violent.

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