Getting the most out of a conference

I am getting excited for American Translators Associations annual conference at the end of October and I hope to see some of you there. It is two months away but it is high time to start planning for it. Here are some tips on what to do to get the most out of a conference you are attending.



Before the conference:
- Make professional looking business cards so you can exchange them with all the people you meet.
- Polish up your resume and print out at least 50 ex to bring with you to the conference
- Contact the people you know and see if they will be attending so you can plan to meet
- Contact a few people that you would like to get to know better and suggest a meeting during the    conference
- Explore the conference schedule to see which sessions you cannot miss. Be selective and strategic about planning your schedule!
- Plan questions you would like to ask the people you want to get to know better, or potential clients
- For the ATA conference: see the insider tips provided by the Colorado Translators Association for great tips on exploring Denver and eating well.

At the conference:
- NETWORK!!! Engage others in conversation and ask for their business card
- Schedule time to meet with people you would like to speak to
- Take advantage of social events and breaks
- Attend valuable sessions and workshops (duh!)
- Distribute business cards and resumes to valuable colleagues and prospects
- Jot down a few descriptive points on the back of the business cards you receive to make it easier to follow up

After the conference:
- Review you notes and documents from the conference. Make a to do list to take action on valuable information from the conference, people to contact, business tips etc.
- Follow up with people within 1-2 weeks after the conference

Do you have any useful tips on how to make the most of a conference? Please share!

Linguistic quality assurance

The second of the four types of quality assurance for freelance translators is linguistic quality, which is the most important aspect for us linguists. The subject has been discussed in many venues and forms before but a refresher is always useful.


I summarized linguistic quality in my previous post as the following:
- Only accept projects that are within your expertise
- Have access to suitable, current reference material
- Use relevant tools that increase quality, for example translation memory and spell checking
- Proofread the end result carefully

Today I want to develop each of these points a bit further. Linguistic quality is the foundation for the “product” we deliver and the core of our knowledge. Many have tried to create “systems” for linguistic quality assurance. There are the ISO and BS systems, there is certification and accreditation, and there are quality assurance programs etc.


Are you feeling overwhelmed already? What can a translator do for quality assurance? Here are some tips:


1. Only accept jobs within your area of expertise/specialization and only translate into your native language.
2. Use CAT-tools to avoid omissions and eye mistakes and to keep the formatting.
3. Never hesitate to contact your customer for clarifications.
4. Find another translator to co-operate with for second proofreading when needed.
5. Always read the clients reference material and use their glossaries
6. Know the target audience for the final product and translate for this audience.
7. Understand the objective of the translation project; is it informative text, ad copy, brand identity…?
8. Use Translation Quality Assurance software if available. These are able to decrease the number of mistakes and improve the overall quality, even if they cannot detect everything, or detect too much/the wrong things.
9. Proofread carefully.


When you proofread there are even further tips to increase the quality:


1. Avoid rework by translating each phrase as if the translation were to be published immediately.
2. Keep a list of dangerous words that you often mistype, but that a spell checker cannot detect.
3. Run the spell and grammar checker. Before doing this though, select the entire document, set the language to your target language and make sure that the checker is fully active.
4. Learn study and comply with target-language typography and punctuation rules. I have noticed that this is one of the most common mistakes among newer translators. For example in US English you write $3,000.00, but in Swedish it is written USD 3 000,00.
5. Never use the “Replace all” command
6. Proofread by comparing with the source, but also by just reading the target text to check that it “flows”.
7. Check headers, footer, graphs and text boxes. These are easy to miss; even CAT-tools can miss them sometimes.


Last but not least, read in your target language often and take continuing education classes at conferences, universities, translation associations etc.


These are some of the tips I have collected. Do you have any you find valuable?
I will leave you with this rather long and heavy post for the month of July. I am off on a road trip to the Oregon coast for family reunions, parties and camping. Have a great summer!

Four types of quality assurance for translators

The other day I received a pamphlet about quality for translators from The Swedish Association for Professional Translators (sfoe.se).



One way to make the concept of quality easier to deal with for linguists, is to divide it up into four parts: administrative quality, linguistic quality, business quality and cultural quality. International quality standards focus mostly on administrative quality, since it is the easiest to measure. Linguistic quality is the most important for language professionals. Business quality is defined as the relation to the customer, and cultural quality is when a translation speaks to the end customer/reader. All four are important for linguists and warrant further investigation.


Administrative quality:
Routines for handling translation projects, inquiry, offer, order confirmation, translation, control/check, delivery, invoicing, follow up, archiving.


Linguistic quality can only be achieved if you:
- Only accept projects that are within your expertise
- Have access to suitable, current reference material
- Use relevant tools that increase quality, for example translation memory and spell checking
- Proofread the end result carefully

Business quality can only be achieved if you:
- In advance check with the customer what they want/what is needed
- Deliver a product that fulfill the terms agreed upon

Cultural quality can only be achieved if you:
- Are thoroughly familiar with the cultural context of the source text
- Translate the text based on the cultural environment of the target language so that the text will have the same meaning.


I found these definitions very useful. It is easier to work on quality assurance if you can break it up into these aspects and follow them. What do you think? Do you have a system for quality assurance?

Training for Professional Translators - ProZ an untapped resource?

Nothing beats the quality of a live training event and the networking you can get from attending a professional conference on a national or local scale, but if you do not have the possibility to attend all of these, and if you want to learn more in between these occasions, then ProZ.com can be an good resource. There are on demand training and live sessions.


Here are some examples of what you can find there:

Translator business development - 35 courses available
Training to help translation professionals improve their business on topics including, personal branding, how to find new clients, increase rates, negotiation, etc.

Software, tools & computing - 130 courses available
Training to learn computer aided translation tools, software and to remain current and up to date on the tools used by translation professionals.

Translation skills development & client services - 36 courses availableTraining to help improve translator efficiency, develop and learn new skills.

Agency business development - 10 courses available
Training to help improve your agencies efficiency, gain certifications, implement processes, and more.

Linguistics, theory & pedagogy - 10 courses available
Training to help improve language skills, translation essentials and theory.

SDL Trados Training & Certification - 19 courses available

Now we just have to find the time to tap these resources too. Perhaps some time management tips can help. Do you have any good online training resources to share?

What a freelance translator can use from The 4-Hour Workweek

The latest book I read for my entrepreneurial pursuit was “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferriss. I can highly recommend it to all entrepreneurs, freelancers and business owners as an eye-opening and thought provoking reading experience.

The book in a nutshell: How to go from $40,000 per year and 80 hours per week to $40,000 per month and 4 hours per week, how to outsource your life and become an escape artist in travelling the world, how to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours and trade a lifelong career to short work periods and mini-retirements. The new version also includes more than 50 practical tips and case studies from readers and much more.

I was skeptical when picking up the book, and granted, not everything can be applied to freelance translating, but here is what I found useful:

1. Resetting my system, my goals and dreams and fulfilling them.
2. How to limit my work to the most important ones to shorten work time
3. How to decrease my information-diet
4. The option of using virtual assistants for web-research, website maintenance, SEO, maintaining and updating databases etc.
5. How to become an expert in 4 weeks
6. Understanding competition and analyzing your presence on the market
7. How to plan an affordable vacation, with family, for a long period of time, while still working some.
8. Tips for further reading material

Does it sound interesting? Pick it up if you have not read it. More info can be found at http://fourhourworkweek.com. What are your tips for working less and earning more?

The One Page Business Plan

I discovered the "MomBizCoach" on Twitter and love her audioblog "What Mom Entrepreneurs Need". One of the audio-seminars discussed the one page business plan, which seemed to be perfect for me. The one page business plan is a living document and seems made for all us entrepreneurs/solopreneurs working from home. I was one of those who thought that I did not really need a business plan, or that it would be incredibly hard and time consuming to create one. Now I know better. A business plan is something to bring focus to your business (yes freelance translators are also businesses), keep you on the right track and plan for the future. If you use "The one page business plan" it does not have to be very time consuming at all.

The one page business plan has five major areas:

1. Vision - What are you building?
2. Mission - Why does this business exist?
3. Objectives - What will you measure?
4. Strategies - What will make this business successful over time?
5. Action Plans - What is the work to be done?

More info, templates, coaching, work groups and books can be found at: www.onepagebusinessplan.com.
So now I have just eliminated all objections and hesitations for making a business plan for your freelance business (including freelance translators). Check it out, answer the questions, consult with a colleague or with an expert from this company and there you go. It’s time for me to do that in any case.

8 translator blogs I follow

It is time that I share some good blogs about freelance translation and translation as a business that I follow. I have probably not found all the great ones yet, so please share. Here are 8 blogs that I have found newsworthy:

http://www.aboutranslation.blogspot.com/ - A great blog about translation (duh!) with tips for beginning translators, blogs, tools, the translation market, and my favorite "business practices". The blogger is Riccardo Schiaffino.

http://www.%20philippahammond.net/ - Philippa Hammond runs a blog called "Blogging Translator" with business and marketing advice for freelance translators.

I am also following one of my business localization role models Eve Bodeux, who runs a sucessful localization company and blogs about localization, translation, business etc. at http://www.bodeuxinternational.com/

Jill Sommer has a blog called Musings from an overworked translator at http://www.translationmusings.com/. I truly love her musings, opinions and tips about the translation business.

Thoughts on Translations is another translator run blog by Corinne McKay, also the author of "How to succeed as a freelance translator". This one is one of the first blogs I started following. Corinne is a driven FR-EN freelance translator with great business ideas for freelance translators. Her blog can be found at http://thoughtsontranslation.com/.

My new business friend and business consultant Judy Jenner runs a great blog and translation business with her twin sister Dagmar Jenner at Translation Times - the entrepreneurial linguists and translating twins blog about the business of translation from Las Vegas and Vienna. All this useful information can be found at http://translationtimes.blogspot.com/.

Translation Tribulations is run by Kevin Lossner and is about "an exploration of translation technologies, marketing strategies, workflow optimization, resource reviews, controversies and other topics of interest to translators, language service providers and language service consumers. http://www.translationtribulations.com/.

For more translator's business secrets, go to http://translators-biz-secret.com/, run by Joy Mo, a very successful online business woman and translator.

I hope you find these as useful as I do. Did I miss some important ones? I hope you all have a great day!

How to be a wealthy freelancer - book review

I just finished the book “The Wealthy Freelancer” by Steve Slaunwhite, Pete Savage and Ed Gandia and I am glad I did. This book applies to anyone trying to make a good living as a freelancer, translators included. It contains 12 “secrets”, starting with changing your attitude and then proceeding to give you practical steps in how to attract clients, creating a sales pitch, or buzz piece, taking care of your existing clients, maintain good pricing for your services, bringing focus to your business, boosting productivity, achieving a good balance between work and the rest of your life, including a good letter to those around you to make them better understand and thrive with you in your freelancing efforts. As if that was not enough, the book also takes up alternative sources of income to add to your freelancing business, how to handle social media to your advantage and what to do when you get negative feedback.

One of the best insights the book provided me was about positioning yourself in your market. It goes as follow:

“When you’ve identified the market you’ll serve, the next step is to position yourself as the go-to resource in that market. Now before you begin to panic, allow me to tell you something, which I hope will have you breathing an enormous sigh of relief: You don’t have to be the best. All you need to do is to take the value you bring and articulate it in a way that positions you favorably in the eyes of your target prospects.” (Pete Savage, The Wealthy Freelancer)

I found the book very useful for my freelance translator business and will for sure use many of the tips in it. If you go to http://www.thewealthyfreelancer.com/, you can download three chapters for free and see for yourself.

What to look for in a professional translator

Based on the previous blog you are hopefully convinced that to hire a professional translator for a translation job is the right way to go. But how can you tell whether you have found a professional translator or not? Here are some details to pay attention to.

A professional translator is:
- Educated in both source and target languages
- Translating only into his/her native language and is proficient/bilingual in the source language
- Specialized in a few specific subject areas, that usually are closely related to the translator’s background
- Someone with several years of experience in transferring messages from one language to another, either through education and/or work experience
- A good writer
- Experienced in both cultures of the target and source languages
- Passionate about his/her profession and loves to convey the content and intent of the text as exactly as possible to the target language, with appropriate style and terminology.
- Giving attention to detail
- Courteous, reliable, respectful, honest, responsible and competent.

Did I forget something? Do you agree? Please share!

Why you should hire a professional translator

This subject has been discussed in many different forums, but deserves repeating, especially these days when machine translation is a very popular subject.

Machine translations can work for some projects, but most translations require a real linguist in order to get the sentence structure, subject matter, cultural aspects, and above all, grammar correct. Many linguists also refuse to proofread or edit a machine translation, simply because it is easier to just retranslate the whole thing.

But perhaps you have a bilingual working in your company and you think that you could use this person to translate your documents? Is bilingual enough? No, in most cases not.

In order to get your message across to your target audience you need to hire a professional translator. Here are the reasons why:

Being bilingual is not enough
Someone may speak two languages well enough to communicate with native speakers, but the skills demanded of translators go beyond effective communication.

It's not only words
Translators must bridge linguistic and cultural gaps between two groups that cannot speak the same language. This means translating concepts, instead of providing a literal word-for-word version. If it is required to translate documents or to carry on negotiations with a foreign partner, then an incorrect translation (accidentally or due to lack of knowledge) can threaten the business venture with failure.

Language is a living being
Professional linguists must continuously study their working languages, because the body of spoken and written words used by native speakers is constantly evolving.

Computers can read it, but they just don't get it
Regardless of advances in technology, computers cannot replace translators. Obviously, computers are capable of compiling extremely large databases and providing a translation for a given word or expression within a split second and that is a lot faster than a human brain. However, computers cannot read between the lines and interpret the shades of meaning.

It takes a lot of research
A single word may mean different things according to the context. Love may be many wonderful things in a romantic way, but it represents a score of zero in a tennis match. Knowledge comes with experience and being familiar with the given field is of utmost importance. Translators with a strong background in one or more areas, as either professionals or enthusiasts, can provide a better version for an original material dedicated to that specific segment.

Speaking to a real audience
Translators are not only committed to providing their clients with the best services they can provide. They must also have the target audience in mind, for readers will be the end users of their product.

Many of these points have been well described by Word Awareness (www.wordawareness.com). Do you have any other reasons that are not on this list? Please share! Next time I will discuss what constitutes a professional translator more in detail.