Dec

9

Join the translation neighbourhood watch

Filed under CPD, lessons from the wordface, starting up in translation, working habits 

When I first started freelancing, it took me a long time before I felt like I was a Proper Translator. This was not because I lacked the confidence, or even the workload, to use the title (I was lucky enough to have a full book of well paid, satisfying work after about 3 months). It was because I just wasn’t doing the kind of work I thought I *should* be doing.

Looking back, I honestly think that my expectations were as realistic as they could have been at that point. I had spent two years carefully preparing for my freelance career. I had spoken to lots of supportive professionals, completed work placements in two different translation companies and dabbled in a reasonable number of small, paid translation jobs. I certainly didn’t have a pie-in-the-sky ideal of sitting around sucking on the end of a quill, or dashing through the corridors of the UN à la a translator-version of the film The Interpreter. So where were the translation jobs I had expected? Where were the texts, the documents, the written words awaiting my careful rendering?

I quickly learned that the translation world doesn’t work like that anymore. A whole raft of ancillary work has sprung up around the field of translation. Hugh Morgan summed it up perfectly at the recent Portsmouth Conference* when he referred to these “other” kinds of work as near-neighbours of translation - neighbours that often and very unfairly get looked down upon. Proofreading, editing and revising are the usual suspects, but there’s so much more out there, including summary writing, semantic audits, analyses and a whole raft of other things that I haven’t even heard of yet.

So here’s my list of top 5 things I think all new translators should know about Near Neighbours Of Translation (or NNOTrans):

1. By looking down at NNOTrans, you are cutting off your nose to spite your face:
Too many translators think that anything less than pure translation is a waste of their skills, and NNOTrans don’t get the air time they deserve as a result. As an eager newcomer to the profession, I found this difficult to get my head around at first. I was embarrassed, and I didn’t know if I could still call myself a translator when I didn’t do much of what most people seem to call translation. I’m glad I got over myself and got on with it, and I’d advise other newcomers to do the same. If you like what you do and you’re drawing on your translation skills, no matter how remotely, where’s the problem? Instead, feel excited about being at the forefront of industry changes.

2. NNOTrans are the way to go for career longevity: I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t want to spend my career looking over my shoulder, afraid of being replaced by a machine or another professional working in a country where the cost of living is lower than the UK (that would be most countries, then). Two ways to avoid this are be fussy about the kind of work you take on, and specialise. Translators are skilled at pulling together different threads of communication from a range of specialist fields, and that’s even before they bring a second language into the picture. There aren’t many professionals who can say that, so let’s use it to our advantage.

3. NNOTrans pay better than per-word translation: Hugh put it beautifully when he said they offer a more generous margin. I say, unless you’re highly specialised and/or lucky enough to have a portfolio of top-dollar direct clients, you will earn more per hour on most kinds of NNOTrans compared to traditional source-word in, target-word out work. That’s not to say you need only do NNOTrans, of course - you went freelance for the job satisfaction, after all. Just think about how these other sources of work can give you the breathing space you need in those heady first days of freelancing, to enable you to hold out for the kind of translation work you really want to spend your time on.

4. NNOTrans can be more more enjoyable than translation:
When I first started out, I saw NNOTrans as a good way to pay my bills, while also getting my foot in the door with work providers. I thought once the real translation work started rolling in, I’d drop them and move on to greener pastures. The real translation work did start coming in, but in the meantime I’d found my NNOTrans had evolved. My professional expertise was being requested on a range of projects, I was booked well in advance so my time was respected and I was well compensated. What’s not to love about that? If you find your NNOTrans have become more long-lost buddies than near neighbours however, read anything at all by this woman and feel inspired.

5. Use NNOTrans to make you a better translator:
NNOTrans can be a great way to cross-fertilise and gain new skills. Sure, you may be bored to death of proofing and transcription, but that’s not an excuse - look around for other forms of NNOTrans. Why not use them as a way to meet your CPD requirements? I still enjoy jobs which involve near-neighbours of translation. It can be a juggle to get the balance right, but I figure that’s not too bad at all, as complaints go.

So check out those neighbours - you may surprise yourself and find you make friends for life.

* yes, I’m still getting mileage out of that. Now that’s what I call an investment.

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