People who rock the industry – Simon Andriesen

The series of interview conducted jointly with Marta Stelmaszak of Wantwords continues!

For this last interview of 2012, we interviewed Simon Andriesen, CEO of Medilingua and Board Member of Translators without Borders, major contributor to the TWB training center for translators in Kenya… and much more!

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Hi Simon! Tell us about about you. Who are you?

Hi Anne, I am Simon Andriesen, CEO of MediLingua, a medical translations firm based in the Netherlands, and Board Member of Translators without Borders (TWB).

Your background is quite interesting – how does one go from a masters degree in history to working for the Associated Press and then to medical translation?

Oh well, when I got my degree, journalism was one of the options, or rather: a way out to escape from teaching, which is what I knew I did not want to do. It was great fun for a while, but it was more translation that journalism, and after a while got fed up with it, and started a text bureau, together with Jaap van der Meer, whom I had been friends with since high school. The company (INK International) developed into the first software localization firm in Europe, and to cut a long story short, the company grew rapidly and in the early 90s we had a staff of 200 persons, half of them in our head office in Amsterdam, the rest in offices in 9 different countries across Europe. We then sold the business to RR Donnelley & Sons, the largest printing company in the world, who, just like us, worked for IBM, Microsoft, WordPerfect and so forth. The only thing they did not do, was what we did. To keep the story short, we sold the business to them, and I moved to the US for a few years, with my wife and daughter. After 2 years I came back to Europe and left the company to set up a similar firm, but then dedicated to medical. Donnelley eventually sold the translation division and it became rather well-known as Lionbridge. So you could say that INK, the baby Jaap and I had nurtured for a dozen years, is the core of what Lionbridge now is. But they are in a different league, of course. When we sold INK it was a company with $20 million revenue, and 200 people on the payroll; Lionbridge is by now well over $450 million today, with a few thousand people. MediLingua is focused on high-end medical translations. We provide 50 or so languages to 200 regular customers, with a staff of 15, who are managing around 500 different translators world-wide.

You are also a member of the Advisory Board of the Life Sciences Roundtable during the LocWorld conferences. What is your role there?

The Advisory Board is composed of 6 representatives from companies on the demand side of medical translation (Siemens, Medtronic, and  St Jude) and the supply side of medical translation (Lionbridge ForeignXchange, and MediLingua). The board prepares the Life Sciences preconference day-and-a-half before each Localization World conference. I have been involved with LocWorld since 2004 and enjoy supporting this great event and its 2 conference organizers, Donna Parrish of Multilingual, and Ulrich Henes of the Localization Institute, who are also fellow-directors in Translators without Borders. The Advisory Board puts together the program, invites speakers, moderates the sessions, and so forth. Basically, our aim is to come up with a great program twice a year.

You’re a Translators without Borders  Executive Board Member. How did it all start?

The founder of TWB, Lori Thicke, called me the day after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. TWB had received hundreds of test translations from translators who offered their help. Lori asked for MediLingua’s support in reviewing these translations, as most of these were medical. Several translators/editors started the same day with the reviews. And one thing led to the other. I was invited to join the Board and found myself focusing first on Operations, and when the TWB Translation Workspace, generously donated by ProZ, was up and running, I redirected my focus to Training. The Executive Board and Rebecca Petras, the TWB Program Director, meet every 2 weeks via Skype, and together we basically run the organization. It is a lot of work and every time I am amazed by the dedication of the directors, and by the amount of time that is put into it.

You’re currently working on a program to train translators in Kenya. Tell us about this program.

Within the Board, we decided to help create translation capacity for underserved languages. Our pilot language is Swahili, a language spoken by around 60-80 million people in East Africa. During the course, which is partly based on the MediLingua course Medical-Pharmaceutical Translation, participants get an introduction to translation, as well as basis medical know-how about 20 Africa-relevant health issues, such as pneumonia, diarrhea, my other types of infectious diseases. They do lots of exercises and Paul Warambo, our local course instructor, projects the translations on a screen and discusses the results. This works very well.

In 2012, we gave our short course (4 days) to over a hundred persons, and the longer, advanced course (6 weeks) to a few dozen people, all of them with strong language skills but no translation experience. We currently employ 13 of them, and they work in our translation center in Nairobi, Kenya. The team is specialized in healthcare information. This is crucial in any country with too many patients and not enough doctors, and also in Kenya, where health information is only available in English. Which is the wrong language for the vast majority of the population. We know of too many stories where people suffered or died for lack of information, rather than lack of medication. And for health information to be accessible, it has to be in the right language. During a recent conference in Tanzania, where I was invited to make my point about health information in the right language, I spoke a few sentences in my own language, Dutch, which I knew nobody would understand. I then asked them to imagine how they would feel if they had serious health problems and somebody providing help would talk to them in a language they did not understand…

You regularly go to Kenya – tell us about our Kenyan colleagues.

Yes, since late 2011 I have been in Kenya for a few weeks every few months. Our center is located on the campus of the Bible Translation and Literacy, who focus on Bible translations into ‘small’ African languages. Also on this campus is SIL, the developers of Ethnologue, the database that lists details of all 6,900 living languages. Together with our TWB health translation team this campus is the place in Africa with the most people involved in translation.

What other countries have similar needs for healthcare information in local languages? What can be done?

Africa counts around 2,000 different languages. If health information is available in English, French or Portuguese, this is not helping people who do not or not sufficiently speak these languages. We as TWB can help by providing training and by supporting translators. The translation world can help TWB by helping us finance our work.  Our sponsor program is rather successful, with many LSPs listed as Silver sponsors, some Gold and a few Platinum!

Many young translators are considering specializing in medicine. Based on your experience, what would you recommend them to achieve this?

Young translators aspiring to go into medical need to build translation routine first, and at the same time invest in medical know-how. As a medical translator you must be able to understand what you translate, and you only get that by studying medical info, for example from med school books, or you can read all medical articles on Wikipedia. That way you become familiar with the medical language. It is a difficult mix, but in my experience it is less difficult for a talented translator to become a medical translator than for a doctor who has no feeling for language.

In your opinion, what is the current state of the medical translation market? And its future?

It seems that every Tom, Dick & Harry is now providing medical translations and not in all cases with acceptable results. As medical translation specialists we do a lot third-party review work, and far too often, we have to conclude that the quality is simply not good enough. Big companies hope they will get the best price-quality mix by organizing tenders and even auctions. We actually decline most of these invitations; it is a lot of work and as it seems that only the price is taken into account, and not the price/performance mix, we find it hard to win. Too often the focus is on the word rate. We know what it takes to generate safe, high-quality medical translations and we use that expertise for our calculations. Many others charge less. But what if the work is rejected by the authorities? What if a product has to be taken off the market due to poor patient information? What if a patient dies because it was not clear whether to take 4 tablets per hour or 1 tablet every 4 hours.

In your free time (do you have any? ;)), what do you do to take a break?

I spend whatever free time I have with my wife and with our daughter, when she is around. To take a real break from work I run a few times per week. My best accomplishment is the half marathon in 2 hours 12 minutes, but most of the time I do 10 km, which I usually complete within 55 minutes. I play the cello in our local symphony orchestra, and this takes me one evening plus a few hours per week.

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Previous interviews in the series:

- People who rock the industry – Aurora Humarán
- People who rock the industry – Kevin Lossner
- People who rock the industry – Geoffrey Buckingham
- People who rock the industry – Marta Stelmaszak

Do you know a colleague who deserves to be interviewed in this series, who made a contribution in any way – no matter how small or big – to our profession? Contact us!

New CSA report on critical issues affecting freelancers

New Research Report Sheds Light on the Critical Issues Affecting Freelancers in the Translation Industry

(Boston) – December 20, 2012 – Freelancers are at the very end of the translation supply chain, but their views play a significant role in the market, according to “Voices from the Freelance Translator Community,” a new report from independent market research firm Common Sense Advisory. The report, which was based on a survey of 3,165 freelance translators throughout the world, sheds new light on the role of freelancers in an industry that the firm estimates at being more than US$33 billion in 2012 and growing at an annual rate of more than 12 percent.

“Translation agencies that do not safeguard their reputations with freelancers can end up being blacklisted by the freelance translation community, which limits their ability to recruit the best professionals and deliver the best possible quality,” explains Nataly Kelly, lead author of the study.

The report also names translation agencies that were listed by freelancers as having reputations as poor payers, as well as those that had reputations either as high-quality or low-quality providers.  Companies mentioned in the report include ASET International Services LLC, CETRA Language Solutions, CLS Communications, Corporate Translations, Crimson Language Services (a division of TransPerfect / Translations.com), euroscript International S.A., Geotext Translations, Lingo24, Lionbridge Technologies, Moravia Worldwide, thebigword Group, RR Donnelley, SDL, and Translated.

“Voices from the Freelance Translator Community” details freelancers’ concerns and reviews critical issues affecting their work, including:

• On average, freelancers receive approximately two-thirds of their income from translation agencies, and about a third from direct clients.
• More than one third (34.7%) had been victims of a translation agency failing to pay them for work completed.
• A large number of freelancers (40.3%) had turned down jobs from a translation agency because other translators had warned them about the agency’s reputation.
• The vast majority of freelancers (81.0%) had turned down work because the agency’s rates were too low.

“Many translation companies go to great lengths to protect and promote their brand to their customers and prospects, but very few consider how important it is to develop good relationships with the hundreds of thousands of freelance translators actually performing the translation work,” Kelly points out. “Translation agencies that wish to seek an advantage in the marketplace should pay more attention to what freelance translators are saying.”

For more information about the firm’s research services, visit www.commonsenseadvisory.com.

About Common Sense Advisory
Common Sense Advisory is an independent market research company helping companies profitably grow their international businesses and gain access to new markets and new customers. Its focus is on assisting its clients to operationalize, benchmark, optimize, and innovate industry best practices in translation, localization, interpreting, globalization, and internationalization. For more information, visit www.commonsenseadvisory.com or www.twitter.com/CSA_Research

Source: Common Sense Advisory

People who rock the industry – Aurora Humarán

The series continues!
This week it was Marta’s turn to pick up and interview a “rocker” for the “People who rock the translation industry”, and she interviewed Aurora Humarán, Founder and President of the IAPTI (International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters – www.aipti.org).

The interview is now available here on Marta’s blog Wantwords.

The next interview will be posted here on the Stinging Nettle around the end of December – look forward to it! :)

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Previous interviews in the series:

- People who rock the industry – Kevin Lossner
- People who rock the industry – Geoffrey Buckingham
- People who rock the industry – Marta Stelmaszak

Do you know a colleague who deserves to be interviewed in this series, who made a contribution in any way – no matter how small or big – to our profession? Contact us!

People who rock the industry – Kevin Lossner

Last month, we announced a new series of interview of people who rock our profession, conducted jointly with Marta Stelmaszak from Wantwords. After Marta’s interview with Geoffrey Buckingham, it’s our turn again!

For this second and last interview of November 2012, we interviewed Kevin Lossner, a very respected colleague with extensive experience and insights on translation technologies, workflow optimization, resource reviews and marketing strategies – and “Controversies and other topics” as he himself points out ;). Kevin Lossner was a chemist, a medical device materials developer and consultant, a software developer and a technology sales and systems consultant. He now applies this past experience for the translation of scientific and technical communications, technical marketing documents, patents and contracts and related disciplines.  His biography is pretty impressive – read more here.

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Hi Kevin! So, who are you? What professional hats are you wearing?

Hard one to answer. I’ve been involved in so many things over the years that I’m lucky if I remember what I  did last week. It’s less important where one has been, I think, than where one is going. I’m an American expat living in Germany, with a lot of things regarding family, residence and culture subject to constant consideration and conflict. So I doubt I can even answer the part about where I’m going except to say I’ll get there.

What were the turning points in your career that got you where you are now?

The turning points? There are so many. I suppose one of the most important was the day in 1981 when I tried to find books on the Swabian dialect of German in Das Internationale Buch in Berlin. The attention that drew still affects my life and work. Or perhaps it was the realization one day at my corporate research job that I really did not want to work in a lab with an agenda set by someone else. I do as I like or try to.

You’re an influential translation blogger within the profession with your famous blog “Translation Tribulations“. Tell us a bit about the blog.

I started the blog in 2008 for two reasons. I grew tired of the deterioration of forum communication on ProZ and the emerging agenda of naked commercial interest and mediocrity over professionalism. Things reached a point where it was impossible to express an honest opinion without someone who barely understood English complaining about the use of metaphor and some puppet moderator with Stalinist sympathies making up RuleZ to justify strangling discussions. So I set up my own soapbox. It’s also a way to share information with clients and colleagues and avoid explaining the same solutions to recurring problems day after day to the point where sleep and work become rare luxuries.

I’m pretty low tech about the blog, though. The hosting with Google’s Blogger probably wasn’t the best choice, and the intricacies of RSS, mail subscriptions and many other things that other translation bloggers do are still mysteries to me. The time I spend is mostly writing, responding to comments and editing. A few hours a week maybe. Oh yes, and about 40 hours per week deleting Russian and Chinese spam comments.

Interoperability in translation – what are your views on it and how do you think it will develop over the next years?

I’ve seen a lot of improvement in the last decade for information exchange between tools. But we’re still not where the “real” world of IT was in many respects in the 1980s. The stubborn provincialism of many tool vendors does a lot of damage still and even limits those who hope to gain by it. Across is the worst offender I know of in this respect – their strategy of marketing incompatibility as a corporate asset disgusts me. Like the Hotel California of translation… arrival isn’t a problem, but checking out can be an issue. But I am encouraged by other developments I see among the serious providers on the market. I have high hopes for the Linport initiative (see linport.org), and I understand that SDL will adopt the Translation Interoperability Protocol Package (TIPP) – a package type for exchanging translation project data between tools – as soon as the specifications are finalized. I hope others follow suit. Some, such as Ontram, already appear to be there.

MT and crowdsourcing are two “hot” trends right now in our profession. What’s your take and opinion on each one of them?

I haven’t got much of an opinion on crowdsourcing, as it does not affect markets that interest me. It’s more of a tool for engaging customers in a market than a bludgeon to be used against translation professionals, and from the perspective of managing resources and quality, it’s probably more expensive than traditional commercial translation. But the payoff is involvement of the “user base”. I like to follow the Unprofessional Translation blog – it sometimes has interesting posts about crowdsourcing topics.

MT is the search for the linguistic Philosopher’s Stone and in many markets just as doomed. It’s the biggest scam since Y2K, based on shaky premises of a “content tsunami” from the hash pipe dreams of those hoping to make a buck off the suckers who engage with this profession every minute. It’s interesting to watch the incestuous circle of round robin quotation between the CSA, spawn of the CSA, TAUS and a select few pundits. The only tsunami here is one of disinformation and self-feeding propaganda. The few honest voices involved in MT discussions, who speak of the real value in limited domains, presenting honestly the risks and trade-offs – these are drowned out by the cries of carnival barkers yelling “Get on the MT boat or drown!” Don Wiggins may fancy himself a latter day Noah, but all he’s got in common with that venerable patriarch is a boat load of manure.

What’s your take on Social Media  from a professional/business standpoint?

Twitter is the new e-mail for me. More effective, takes less time and I deal with less spam. I’m deeply suspicious of Facebook and very close to pulling the plug on my profile and business page there because of ever-shifting policies, scams and data harvesting for phishing that is getting out of control. I avoid some the popular “business” platforms most of the time partly for lack of time, but in the case of XING also because I am tired of all the MLM spammers and networking for networking’s sake. If I spend the time to meet and chat with someone, it’s because I want to learn more about that person or his or her business, not because I want to collect damned business cards, real or virtual. Networks are for spiders. I prefer people.

You recently published a book about MemoQ 6 – and you are already working on its next version. Why MemoQ in particular and not another CAT-tool? 

Why memoQ? Well, this book project started out in 2006, perhaps before then, as one on interoperability between Trados and Déjà Vu, which were my main working tools at the time. But since 2000 I had become increasingly involved in challenges of collaboration between many different platforms, and the difficulties many users experience with complex tools for assisting their translation work increasingly became a burden on me. When I first encountered memoQ, I dismissed it rudely and continued to do so for nearly two years. I even dumped a high volume customer of mine because the guy kept begging me to use memoQ. But Kilgray has had one of the most rapid, effective arcs of tool development I’ve seen in four decades of experience with IT. memoQ is one of the most effective tools for collaboration between platforms that I’ve seen, and the learning curve is usually reasonable compared to the alternatives. Often other tools will do some useful thing that memoQ cannot – or do it better – but today memoQ is probably the most balanced tool I know. But often other software is needed for effective work, and a lot of my book is about that: working together with other tools like SDL Trados Studio, WordFast, OmegaT, etc.

What made you write this book?

The book is written as a series of short tutorials, most of them only 150 words or less plus screenshots. Many of the modules were written to answer questions from colleagues I support or direct clients and agencies for whom I consult. Some of it was published in one version or another on the blog, but a lot of material has never made it to publication before (and quite a bit remains that didn’t fit in the book). It’s all been “field tested” answering real, sometimes desperate questions and solving real problems. I used part of it again this morning about XLIFF exchange between memoQ  versions to sort out problems for a colleague working with an agency that bought memoQ but still doesn’t grasp how to use it best for outsourcing. Most of the time you just need a few words to sort things out and get people thinking, not long-winded chapters detailing features that are seldom relevant.

Now, what piece of advice would you give to someone starting in the industry?

Come back in 20 years when you’ve learned something and knock ‘em dead ;). Make sure you understand a subject or two you hope to translate, really understand them. Master them. Don’t think a “knowledge of languages” will get you very far these days, because mostly it won’t. You need business savvy and a lot of real subject expertise. You don’t get that in a translation studies program. Go be an engineer for a decade or two. Sell insurance. Practice a health care profession. Travel. Learn the real language of the people whose stuff you might have to translate some day. Guess what? That automotive engineer who writes the parts manual probably got a barely passing grade in German and mixes in a lot of dialect. Good luck with that if your background is Kent State translation studies and perhaps a junior year abroad. Then about the time you get tired of your chosen career or it just doesn’t go where you want to, experience some of the better parts of it again as a translator. Quereinsteiger as we call them in Germany. Most of the best are.

In your opinion, how does the future of our profession look like?

 What does the future of the profession look like? It depends on the lens you choose to view it through. That was the main topic of this year’s Translation Management conference in Warsaw. There were many futures presented there and rightly so. This profession will take you where you lead it if you’ve got a good professional foundation. If you look forward to a future of MT post-editing in Satanic mills lit by a monitor’s glow, it’s your right to immolate your brain in that way or any other that tickles your fancy. I think the real future will be decided by the training and opportunities for the next generation, and we really must stop gazing at our own navels and take that more seriously, not leave the field to Pied Pipers like the CSA and TAUS who will lead future linguists off into brown fields and drag them down into dullness.

Last but not least, what do you do in your free time to get away from the computer?

Free time? What’s that? I’m not sure where the line is between work and play. I enjoy my work, and my play is work usually. I’m out with the dogs, training them or doing a bit of hunting, tending my birds in the hen yard or dovecote or the tending the garden, cooking fruit preserves or… sleeping.

 Thanks a lot for your time, Kevin – and good luck with all your projects!

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Previous interviews in the series:

- People who rock the industry – Geoffrey Buckingham
- People who rock the industry – Marta Stelmaszak

Do you know a colleague who deserves to be interviewed in this series, who made a contribution in any way – no matter how small or big – to our profession? Contact us!

10 steps for promoting your translation services in a skills portfolio

Our new guest post this week comes from France!  Wilfried is a French teacher for French natives and foreign students. He has dedicated his career to literature, semiotics, communication and serious game teaching in France and in China. Since 2008, as the Deputy Director and Communications Officer of ESTRI, School of Translation and International Relations, he has specialized in quality management and (viral) marketing, specifically by providing personal branding tips to help students define their place in the job market. In 2012, he also created www.paroledescoop.com, a consulting business for editing great Web content and finding solutions for optimizing organic results on search engines. When he is not trying to detox from his geek addictions, Wilfried is on the road, abroad, with the wind of cross-cultural differences whipping at his face.

Today he’s sharing 10 tips and steps on how to promote your translation services using a skills portfolio.

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Interested in developing your business and in promoting your expertise with personal branding tips? You are probably aware of Skills Portfolio: a communication tool allowing you to publish/share samples of your work and to provide your clients with evidence of your high-quality translations. If not, it might be time to reconsider your strategy with the 10 Ps of the marketing mix.

In order to create an efficient skills portfolio and to focus on the specifics of your business, here are 10 questions you must ask yourself before you continue. The answers to these questions will help you define the relevant message. You will then be able to choose the right tool and the proper media to communicate this message.

Priorities: Which translation texts do I want to select and promote? Which ones most efficiently represent my expertise? Which ones can I select while still respecting my client’s confidentiality? Which samples are catchier?

Product: Which specifics of my translation services do I need to sell? Which services should I focus on?

Place: What is my place in the translation industry market? What are my competitors focusing on? How do they communicate their expertise? How can I make the difference by selecting my background information and my own work? What will be the specific aspect of my service, my message? What do I want my clients to think, say and do?

Promotion: Which tool will be more appropriate for communicating my references and samples of work? Depending on my goals, should I promote my translation services online or offline, in an e-portfolio or in a brochure? If online, should I publish my skills publically on my website or privately on Google Drive for instance?

Price: Will my communication strategy add a lot of value to my work? What value does my portfolio add to my work: cheap, expensive or fairly priced?

Physical evidence: What proof can I provide my client with to allow him/her to make the right choice between several providers? Will I come across as providing proficient services? Which work will provide evidence of my proficiency? Can my former clients recommend my work? Should I provide information on the machine translation tools that I master? Which labels could enhance my business communication?

People: Does my portfolio content make mention of my team and group working skills? Does it say something about my collaboration history and success in achieving my client’s goals and requirements?

Partnership: Does my portfolio include my partners? Are my partners in contact with or indirectly related to my prospective partners?

Permission marketing: Will excerpts of my portfolio be published on social media such as my professional Facebook page, my Linkedin profile, my Twitter account? Will these excerpts prompt my clients to recommend my work? Will they encourage prospective clients to ‘like’ my page, to share my content, to follow my activity, or to contact me?

Purple Cow: Are my portfolio and personal branding strategy unique?

People who rock the industry – Marta Stelmaszak

We’re delighted to announce a new series: “People who rock the translation industry!”, in which we will be interviewing people who have made a positive contribution, no matter how small or large, to the translation industry – at the international, national or local level.

The obvious choice for the first installment in this series would be an interview of colleague Marta Stelmaszak, who is a true rock star when it comes to helping freelance translators embrace their business skills and abilities. An added bonus is that Marta is also taking part in this series as an interviewer – we will both be interviewing amazing people and colleagues, and the interviews will be shared between this blog and hers (Wantwords) at the rate of two per month – one monthly on each blog. Here on the Stinging Nettle, all interviews will be under the newly created “Rocking the industry!” category, under “Articles in English”.

If you know someone who rocks the industry, contact us!

Enough chit chat. I will now leave you to enjoy Marta’s interview, the first in the series, and find out all about the amazing job she’s doing!

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Hi Marta! Tell us about you. Who are you?

Most of the time I’m a translator and I translate between Polish and English law, IT, marketing and business. Quite often I’m an interpreter and then I interpret legal and business matters. Sometimes I’m also a communication consultant, and then I work on intercultural aspects of doing business. From time to time I present and give talks (most often on using the Internet in the languages industry), or even write articles and publications (on social media or effective CVs – links). In addition, on some occasions I’m a business consultant in the industry – I’m a qualified business mentor and a member of the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs.
When I’m not doing these things, I’m active as member of the Management Committee of the Interpreting Division at the Chartered Institute of Linguists and a co-head of the UK Chapter of the International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters. I’ve been voted a Top 17 Twitterer (@mstelmaszak) and Top 20 Facebook Fan Page (WantWords) in Language Lovers 2012. I run the Business School for Translators and I’m sharing the spirit of freelancing and having a successful business.

At the same time, I’m trying to polish my Norwegian and I’m saving for a wooden house by a fjord.

Tell us a bit about your background and career so far.

I grew up in a monolingual family, but I started learning English when I was about 7. I always wanted to do something with languages, and communication was my passion. I started a degree in Warsaw , but it wasn’t the right time for idealists, so I decided to leave it and move abroad. I went to Norway and only there did I realise that I could fulfil all of my dreams, even those that I thought would never come true. I started transforming these dreams into plans, and I finally moved to London to do my degree in translation. And that’s how it all started. I’ve been a translator and interpreter since I can remember, and I had only short periods of working for others. Everything I do makes me believe that having my own business, whether as a freelancer or a small company, is the best choice for me.

You founded your famous “Business School for Translators”. What is it exactly?

Careers in translation or interpreting most often involve regular academic training. We have to spend a few years studying translation theory, honing our skills, or practicing in a booth. It is of course essential to master the theory and the practical skills. But when we graduate and get our diploma, we don’t always know how to start using our skills in the real, professional life. We hardly ever possess any business knowledge of the industry, and scarcely anyone knows how to earn money doing what we love and have been taught.

Over the years, I learnt a lot about the industry by myself, and I also developed my background in business and entrepreneurship. At one point of my career I decided that I wanted to share this knowledge and experience with other translators and interpreters. The Business School represents the idea that we’re all small businesses and entrepreneurs and it’s the way of spreading this notion amongst colleagues in translation and interpreting.  In other words, everything I do under the heading of the Business School for Translators is to encourage my colleagues to think business and to help them develop as mini entrepreneurs. I write a blog, I share publications, I’m active on Facebook, Twitter, and I organise Google+ Hangouts.

Where did the idea of the business school come from?

There are some bits of business training that our universities never give us and they turn out to be essential in becoming a successful, money-making translator. A few lessons on the practical knowledge of the industry would help, just to know how it is doing, where it is going and what are the areas worth looking at. Basic tax and legal knowledge, whilst certainly outside of the translator training scope, could be at least mentioned and some resources could be identified. Basics of marketing definitely should be a part of the curriculum. And where’s the module on financial management? We are also not taught that there is a wholly different pool of skills we will need out there: communication, pro-activeness, responsiveness, stress management, self-discipline, and negotiation… these areas are essential to working in translation or interpreting!

I used to rock from the early years!

You’re also part of the Websites for Translators team. What do you guys do?

I helped with setting up the company and with initial development. Then Meg took over, and she’s now delivering great websites, logos and business cards to translators and interpreters all over the world. The team believes that every freelancer is in fact a small business, and that’s why investing in marketing and promotion is essential. Websites for Translators aims to empower translators and interpreters to uphold the professional standards, find more clients and never have to lower the rates.

If you do have free time (do you?!), what do you enjoy doing?

At the moment, I’m studying and researching forensic linguistics. I’m particularly interested in guilt lost in translation, but I’m also quite into researching the language of social media. Do we write or talk on Facebook? Is Twitter more similar to written or spoken language? How does the character limit influence our syntax? These are some of the questions I’m trying to deal with while not working. I’m also thinking of taking up martial arts and organising a TEDx on languages and translation.

What do you think the future of the translation industry looks like?

Exactly the way we will make it. I don’t believe in these menaces of post-editing or machine translation replacing human translators. I don’t believe in Google Translate becoming equally accurate as humans. I don’t believe that huge companies will create translation memories able to automatically translate all documents. I believe in us, real translators. We have enough strength, dignity and courage to take a stand and fight for the profession. We’re also crazy enough to rock the industry.

Translators Without Borders Newsletter III

Freshly baked!

Click on the image to display and open the newsletter

Guest post: Translating with and without medical background – a retrospective study

Medical Translation: A Retrospective Study on the Quality of Medical Translation Produced by Translators With and Without a Medical Background

Newest guest post on the Stinging Nettle! Yana Onikiychuk (MD and freelance medical translator and interpreter from Limassol, Cyprus), Ekaterina Chashnikova (freelance medical translator and editor from Moscow, Russia) and Artem Karateev (specialist on social research, PhD, Moscow State University in Moscow, Russia) conducted a study on medical translation by medical professionals vs. background translators. They give here very detailed results of the study – a fascinating read! We are very proud to have been allowed to publish it here as a guest post – many thanks to the authors for conducting the survey and this excellent article, but also for allowing us to publish it on our blog as well!

Abstract

During the last century, the volume of investigations and scientific knowledge in the field of medicine has grown exponentially. At the same time, the exchange of  information among medical professionals has increased to enormous amounts, becoming a fundamental aspect of the development of medical science. However, this exchange would not be possible if people were not speaking the same language. We can see that English is becoming a main language of science in the world scientific arena, as a vast majority of publications and reports are done in this particular language. Yet, some linguistic barriers to effective communication still exist.. Medical translation is a highly specialized field, dealing both with translation of medical-related written information and with interpreting of medical events. Healthcare interpreting is of particular interest because of its role in establishing communication bridges between healthcare practitioners and their non-native language patients. This report elucidates the role of medical translation and interpreting in modern society and in promoting medical and related sciences. We also bring out preliminary results on a new study in the field of medical translation, in which we compare medical translators with and without a medical background and the types of mistakes they tend to make more often when translating medical documents. According to the preliminary statistics, translators with a linguistic background are more prone to terminological and logical mistakes, while translators with a medical background are more prone to grammatical and stylistic mistakes. With an increase in years of experience, this difference becomes insignificant, and translators start to make fewer mistakes overall.

Introduction

For the last centuries, we have seen a burst of development and innovation in the field of medicine. New information arises everyday on diseases, therapy and patient management. And this new information has to be transformed into other languages and cultures to ensure its global use. The field of medical translation and interpreting serves this purpose. Medical interpreting plays a vital role in the exchange of oral information at medical meetings, conferences, workshops or even at the hospital unit between doctor and patient (so-called healthcare interpreting). Medical translation deals with all variety of medical documentation, from scientific articles to patient information leaflets for drugs or marketing materials for medical devices. These documents vary significantly in terms of style and terminology, but they have one thing in common: the price of a mistake during translation is enormously high and equals the health and life of a patient. What kind of professionals are involved in medical translation? We can divide alltranslators and interpreters working with medical information into two big groups. The first group is comprised of professionals with a linguistic background specialized in the translation/interpreting of medical content. They acquired such specialization with specific training or just with practice, frequently dealing with medical documents/events. The second group consists of professionals with a medical background. This could be medical/nursing school, or an education in biomedicine or pharmaceutical science. Such professionals usually have a good command in their native language and one or two foreign languages, which they learn at university or at different language courses. Some of them, but not all receive dedicated training on the translation of medical documents, which is included on the curriculum in many medical and pharmaceutical schools. Very few professionals from this group obtain additional education in translation and linguistics, and this is usually offered in a truncated curriculum. Medical translators/interpreters with a medical or relevant degree are not common within the translation industry, especially in Western Europe and the US, as the cost of obtaining a medical education and going into the medical profession is extremely high in those countries. However, in Russia and Eastern Europe (e.g. Poland, Hungary) there are some translators of this kind in the market. The reason for this is that specialized medical translators are in high demand in these countries, and the moderate income level of medical professionals forces them to find an additional part-time or even full-time translation job. These two groups of medical translators/interpreters have some significant differences in product quality when they work with medical information.
In our study, we reviewed test samples from medical translators with and without a medical background and assessed the differences in the types of mistakes they are prone to make while translating medical documents.

Methodology

Our study has a retrospective design and consists of two phases. In phase 1 we evaluated test translations from freelance medical translators. Translation was performed from English into Russian on medical text. This assessment was performed by two independent reviewers in a blinded fashion. Every sample was assessed for stylistic, grammatical and spelling mistakes, adequate translation of source terms and medical concepts. We also assessed the formatting and layout of the target text. After this assessment, the blinding was broken and results were matched with CVs from the translators who preformed those tests. Statistical analysis was performed by an independent expert in social studies and statistics. Primary information processing was performed with statistical grouping. The sample was divided into 3 cohorts: translators with a linguistic background (L), translators with a medical background (MD), and translators with a combined medical and linguistic background (MDL). Every subject was assessed by 2 endpoints: number of stylistic (St) and grammatical (Gr) mistakes and number of terminological (Tm) and logical (Lg) mistakes.Our initial hypothesis was that medical translation professionals with a linguistic background tend to make more ‘terminological’ mistakes, while professionals with a medical or relevant background make more ‘stylistic’ mistakes. With years of experience, the total number of mistakes decreases, and the difference between these two groups becomes insignificant. For phase 2 we developed a questionnaire for experts in medical translation to evaluate their opinion on training for medical translators/interpreters, the importance of a medical background for translating medical content, and potential problems with medical translation by professionals with and without a medical background.

Results

The study is still ongoing. At this moment, we have enrolled 60 sample translations. Four samples were excluded as non-evaluable. The enrollment plan is 2000 samples to provide statistical power for the study. Test samples were divided into 3 cohorts: translators with a linguistic background (L), translators with a medical background (MD), and translators with a combined medical and linguistic background (MDL). Primary endpoints were (1) number of mistakes per sample, (2) correlation between the number of mistakes and background and/or years of experience, and (3) quality of translation from MDLs. The following mistakes were assessed: terminological (Tm), logical (Lg), stylistic (St) and grammatical (Gr). For statistical analysis, Tm mistakes were combined with Lg mistakes, while St mistakes were assessed in combination with Gr mistakes. Preliminary results on sample distribution are shown on Figure 1.

According to the preliminary results, we can divide all translation samples into 3 groups: best-performing group (BPG) with the lowest number of mistakes, moderately performing group (MPG) with an acceptable number of mistakes, and poor performing group (PPG) with a high number of mistakes. BPG includes 8 professionals (2 Ls, 4 MDs and 2 MDLs), MPG includes the highest number of samples (37 professionals 18 Ls, 16 MDs and 3 MDLs), and PPG includes 11 professionals (3 MDs and 8 Ls). The method of averages confirms that MDs and MDLs make fewer Tm and Lg mistakes than Ls. MDLs also make fewer St and Gr mistakes than Ls and MDs. Surprisingly, MDs make fewer St and Gr mistakes than Ls. This result doesn’t correspond to the initial hypothesis, but more samples are needed to consider this difference significant. The yellow line in the plot separates the group of translators with a tolerable number of mistakes, and most of those professionals were hired by the translation agencies providing test samples for this research.

Discussion

The majority of mistakes from all three cohorts were done by Ls. Perhaps a better understanding of the source text makes a translator produce better target text in Russian. Working out on Tm and Lg mistakes improves St and Gr mistakes, as we don’t see subjects behind the blue line. The number and type of mistakes in L cohort was characterized by significant variability. This could be explained by differences in background, specialization and years of experience. MDs and MDLs make fewer Tm and Lg mistakes than Ls. MDLs also make fewer St and Gr mistakes than Ls and MDs. Surprisingly, MDs make fewer St and Gr mistakes than Ls. This result doesn’t correspond to the initial hypothesis, but more samples are needed to consider this difference significant. With these additional samples, we plan to analyze the type of distribution and the density of distribution, and also to reveal any correlation between years of experience and number of mistakes for all 3 cohorts.

References

Samoilov D. (2011) “On Medical Translation”. Publication on-line at http://www.practica.ru/Articles/medical.htm (in Russian)
Shahova N. (2012) “Discovering the Russian Translation Market.” in SlavFile. vol. 21(1), No. 1
Garbovskiy N. (2004). Translation Theory. Moscow: Moscow University Publishing House (in Russian)
Komissarov V. (1990). Translation Theory. Moscow: Vysshaya Shkola (in Russian)
Komissarov V. (2001). Modern Translation Science. Moscow: Vysshaya Shkola (in Russian)
Latyshev L. (2001). Translation Technology. Moscow: NVI-Tesaurus (in Russian)
Lvovskaya Z. (1985). Theoretical Issues in Translation Process. Moscow: Vysshaya Shkola (in Russian)
Alekseeva I. (2004). Introduction to Translation Science. Saint-Petersburg: Academia Publishing House (in Russian)
Buzadzhi D. (2009). New Approach to Classification of Mistakes in Translation. Moscow: Vserossiyskiy Center Perevodov (in Russian)
Kunilovskaya M. (2008). “Mistakes in Translation: Types and Classification”. Publication on-line at http://tc.utmn.ru/node/76 (in Russian)

Download the article as pdf here on Yana Onikiychuk’s website

Internet Marketing for Translators: Introduction

Welcome to this newest series of articles on Internet marketing for translators!

This one is long overdue , and I apologize for that. It seems it is high time to refresh our memories when it comes to all the definitions of social media marketing/Internet marketing, with all of the “marketing bla bla (words that sound awesome and make you sound like an intellectual genius, while meaning nothing at the same time)” going around, all these concepts can seem confusing. Over the past few months, I’ve spoken with a lot of translators who were feeling a bit lost when it comes to all these concepts, so I’ll try in this new series to help you gain a better understanding of the terms.

In a way this is also actually the article I promised here.

Today, we’ll cover the introductory aspect of the series by focusing on the big question: what is Internet marketing?

Enjoy the series and feel free to give feedback if you feel that I’ve missed something, or for any questions you may have.

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What is Internet marketing (a.k.a Web or online marketing)?

It may be defined in many different ways but in simple terms, it is basically the art of using the Internet and any of its related tools to promote oneself and/or one’s products or services. These tools include platforms, email, etc. Internet marketing is the whole, if you like, and the methods involved are various and broad. I like to call these methods “subcategories” or “types of marketing”. Traditionally and typically, they are as follows

• Social Media marketing
• Inbound marketing
• Search Engine marketing
• Affiliate marketing
• Referral marketing
• E-mail marketing
• Display advertising
• I’m also adding Social Networking to this list.

In this series, we will try to translate these into down-to-earth and intelligible words that we, normal human beings, can understand.

Many of these are often tied together – social networking for example also goes hand in hand with referral marketing or social media marketing. Inbound marketing needs social media marketing to achieve search engine marketing. And so on. There are only a few terms on the list above that are “independent” and may be used as an “isolated” marketing strategy, namely email marketing and display advertising.

Following each category, you’ll find a hitlist of basic goals that can be achieved with that specific marketing category, to help you see at a glance what each can and can’t do for you. These goals obviously are related to business – what you do on your personal Internet pages is by definition personal and therefore irrelevant as long as these personal pages are not interfering in a negative way with your professional online presence (see some of my previous articles on this topic: here, here and here).

Last but not least, I will also give you my opinion on the relevance of each marketing type for our industry and when applicable, links to resources for those who do not fall under my skills/area of expertise category. This is obviously open to suggestions, ideas and experience-sharing from all of you!

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Internet Marketing for Translators – Part 1: Websites, blogs, profiles

Translators: 5 tips to make your Google+ Page a bit more SEO-friendly

Here are five basic tips that are easy to implement to help make your G+ Profile or Business Page more search engine-friendly.

1 . Use keywords

Keywords are king when it comes to SEO. You’ll need to identify or decide what yours are: think about what keywords a potential client would use to search for you and find you. An SEO-friendly profile is filled with your keywords (translator/interpreter/localizer, languages, specialty, etc.). Basically, the more you repeat a keyword, the higher your search engine ranking. Remember that the goal is to be found in a Google search, that is to say, being listed at least on page 1 of the search, preferably among the top three results, so be sure to enter all your keywords in your Google+ profile. So, what are your keywords? Well, first of all, everything that sets you apart from the competition is one. Each translator is unique – you are not just a “freelance translator”: your languages, background, field of expertise, specialty, etc. define you and are keywords. Clients rarely do a Google Search “freelance translator”, but they search “English to Italian legal translator”, for example. The language pair and the specialty are already two keywords. Then of course, any concept, type of document, etc. linked to your specialty field should be in there as well. Let’s stick with the previous example. Let’s say the same client may actually need the translation of a text on labor rights (which is exactly one of your top domains) and refine his search by entering “English to Italian translator specialized in labor rights”. How will he ever find you if haven’t entered anywhere in your online profiles and pages that you actually specialize in labor rights and laws? So, take the time to imagine as many potential Google searches as possible that should lead to you and that can be performed; these are your keywords.

2. Make sure your Profile/Page is public

Obvious, right? If you want to use Google+ to help boost your Google ranking, then your page needs to be public, otherwise it won’t work. You can check and edit this setting under “Profile discovery”.

3. Use meta description fields

These are your best friends when it comes to boosting your SEO, so use them! Enter your main keywords (ex. “translator”, “interpreter” language pairs, specialty fields). Again, think about which keywords a potential client would type into a Google Search to find you and use these keywords.

4. Use as many links as possible

Each link directing visitors to your website (or ProZ.com profile for example) is a so-called backlink. These are little helpers for optimizing your website’s ranking. To simplify to the extreme: the more backlinks a given page or website has, the better it is. The “Introduction” field in the Google+ profile updater is prime real estate for both keywords and backlinks, so do not hesitate to integrate links in your text (for example : “Click here to see clients’ feedback” and integrate a link to your website’s clients referrals page, and so on) . Within your “Introduction” field, you can put as many links to different pages of your website as you want – backlinks.

5. Make (relevant) posts public

Google+ has an awesome feature: Circles. They allow you to mix it up completely in terms of contacts in your one account (business, personal and complete strangers) and choose precisely and extremely easily who sees what, plus the option of making posts “Public” – public posts being indexed by Google, obviously, which is not the case with “Limited” posts (that is, any other posts visible to only one or more of your Circles – if you make a post visible to your G+ business contacts Circle, only people in that Circle can see it and the post is marked as “Limited” and is by no means public and thus not indexed by Google). This means that you have to pay attention to the visibility audience of each new piece of content you’re posting, and if material destined for public consumption, make sure to mark it as “Public”. By “public material”, I mean any content that you can use for marketing and online reputation purposes: if you’re a financial translator and have written an article for a financial magazine for example, this is definitely something you’d want potential clients to see. The same applies to content you’re sharing. If you’re specialized in, for example, automotive, any piece of news from the automotive industry that you share on your G+ should be public: a Google search will associate your name with these contents, which is precisely what you want – to come across as an expert in your specialty field.