Lately I’ve been getting a lot of emails from people who are interested in becoming translators or people freshly out of translation school who don’t really know how to go about getting started. If you visit any random translation forum or professional online group, you’ll find tons of threads asking more experienced translators how they got started. The truth is everyone gets started in a very different way. Some people studied for years to become translators and then moved on to work in-house before deciding to go freelance. Some try to build their own business right off the bat. Others, like myself, just sort of land in the industry by accident and have to work extra hard to learn the ropes and make a good name for themselves. Regardless of how or why you chose a career in translation, getting started is hard.
If you’re sensitive to your surroundings, the first thing you’ll notice about the industry is just how many great, qualified people you’re going to have to compete with. This is particularly scary when you’re new. When you get to know other linguists, you realize everyone else has a lot to offer and this can make you seriously doubt your own qualifications, but it shouldn’t. The good news is, you probably have a lot to offer as well and if you’re not sure what that is a good way of finding out is by studying other professionals. Visit their profiles, see how the best market themselves, see what courses they take, what interests they have, even what books they read and try to follow suit. When I first started I picked a handful of particularly successful translators who I knew personally, and for whom I felt a great deal of admiration and respect, and tried to learn as much as I could from them. I signed up to every class they taught and read every book they published until I was ready to start experimenting on my own. Honestly, the experimenting and learning never really ended. I still try to learn as much as I can from my colleagues, but it’s a give and take process and if you want others to help you, you have to be ready to help others in return.
In my attempt to help, here’s what I think every newbie should consider when starting out.
1. Specialize
It is intellectually dishonest to claim to be able to translate everything. No one can handle every single topic out there accurately and efficiently. If you think about it, there is not a single profession that does not require a certain degree of specialization, doctors specialize, lawyers specialize, engineers specialize, and there’s a reason for that. If you plan on becoming a quality oriented professional, specializing might be a good idea. How to choose your specialization is a whole other story!
2. Don’t sell yourself short
Just because you’re new doesn’t mean you have to be extra cheap or sell yourself short. The only thing you accomplish by doing that is lowering the bar for everyone else in the industry. The more professionals willing to work for peanuts and let clients treat them like doormats, the harder it is for self-respecting professionals to get the rates and respect they deserve. You’re new and maybe a little young and/or inexperienced, but you’re a professional and you deserve to be treated as such. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
3. Stick to your mother tongue
There is a great deal of debate on whether or not translators should stick to their mother tongues only. Personally, I believe that in an ideal world linguists would pair up, a native speaker of the source language would provide insight on the source text while a native speaker of the target language would translate. But this is my personal view; overall the best of the best translate into their mother tongue. Can you have more than one mother tongue? Again, this is largely questioned in our industry. I believe you can, others believe you can’t. If you do have more than one mother tongue, find ways to prove it. Marketing yourself as a fully bilingual person is not easy and doing it right requires a lot of research.
4. Team up when you can
Two eyes are better than one. Most clients demand flawless work, to provide that, you may want to consider teaming up someone who is willing to edit your work before final delivery. As someone who does a lot of Quality Management for translation companies, I can really tell the difference when I’m looking at work that was reviewed before delivery, especially when it was reviewed by an objective third party. When you put your heart and soul into a translation, you can sometimes lose perspective. It’s almost like climbing a mountain, when you’re actually on the mountain you can’t see the whole thing. Sometimes you need distance to see things for what they really are. Another pair of eyes can help broaden your perspective and render better quality work.
5. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
I recently received an email from a linguist who spent years working as a freelancer for the same large translation company. The company is currently undergoing many internal changes and is not outsourcing as much as it used to, and these internal changes are now seriously affecting this person’s income. If you’re thinking of working as a freelancer, try to get as many good clients as you can. In my experience, great things always happen when I move out of my comfort zone and go in search of new horizons.
6. Get a support group
Freelancing is amazing, it gives you total freedom to work for whoever you want, whenever you want, from wherever you want. But this freedom comes with a price: isolation. Most freelancers work alone from home or offices and have very little interaction with other people, especially with other freelancers with whom they can vent after a long day’s work. When you start working on your own, there’s always a chance of getting sucked in by your work. To prevent that, don’t forget to interact with other people. Join groups, try to participate in forums, meet people who share the same interests as you. Handling the setbacks of the freelance translation life is a lot easier when you’re in contact with other people who really understand what you’re talking about. Not that your friends and family won’t, but they may not understand you as well as a fellow linguist.
I could probably keep writing about this all night, however, if I did, I seriously doubt that that anyone would keep reading. So, for now, I’m just going to close with this: There is no big secret to getting started, nothing experienced translators aren’t already sharing all over the internet, and nothing you probably can’t figure out on your own. So good luck getting started and thanks for reading!
To learn more about the author visit her professional profile on LinkedIn or Proz, and if you like what you read visit the author’s blog on Law and Language.
After a much awaited announcement from Proz.com regarding changes to the site, many translators yesterday felt we had won. Many people celebrated Henry’s changes and were ready to thank him for acknowledging our demands and taking the translator’s side in what the site now admits is a problem to which it contributed.
I have to admit, the phrasing behind these changes is great. I worked in sales for a while and I admire how Proz made their “efforts” look professional and serious. Henry’s heartfelt little video with his hair all undone as if he’d been working like a maniac and his facial expressions accompanying words of admiration and support for translator was lovely, really! Two thumbs up to Henry’s performance! I almost bought it myself. But then I decided to read, and I mean REALLY read the changes announced. Once I did that, I realized our only victory was to get the site to admit a rates decrease exists, and that Proz helped it happen. Everything else is like trying to close up an open heart wound with a band-aid. Here’s why:
Change number 1:
“1. The pricing field will be removed from the job posting form.
This change is consistent with the fact that the individual translator is in the best position to determine what he or she needs to charge to deliver the quality required on a particular job.”
This is exactly what we were asking for, in fact the phrasing is clearly inspired on Wendell’s proposal and if it were all true I’d be applauding Henry and sending him a thank you basket instead of writing this post… but then comes change number 2.
“2. When consistent with member preference, posters will be given an opportunity to specify a budget range (after having posted).
An option to enter budget information will appear, with a suitable explanation, when among those who meet the specified criteria there are one or more members who prefer to take budget information into consideration when deciding whether or not to quote.”
Which basically means outsourcers will still be able to set price ranges (for instance 0.01 to 0.015), but the only people that will be able to see that are the linguists who opted in to see pricing information, the rest will be blind to the abusive price range. Is it just me or is this starting to contradict change number 1? I’ll hand it to them, this one is ambiguous and could be interpreted differently, so just to make it clear that the site is not making any substantial changes, but simply adopting a “hear no evil, see no evil” policy change 3 tells us:
“ 3. Even when a client budget range has been specified, it will not be published by default.
Client budget ranges will be accessible only to members who (1) have expressed a preference to consider client budgets, and (2) meet the specified job criteria. (This eliminates the possibility for the job posting system to be used to "popularize" low rates.)”
The problem will still be there. Outsourcers will still be able to try to stick us with abusive, cut-throat rates; we can just choose not to see them! So the problem is not really solved, it’s just not visible anymore.
Then comes the really scary one, change number 4:
“4. More information -- supplied by the community -- will be made available concerning the price of professional translation.
In the void left by the decreased publication of poster positions on rates, guides entitled "Determining what service you need and what it will cost" and "Determining your rates and fees as a translator", will be introduced. These guides, linked to from the job posting and job quoting forms, are already being built by the ProZ.com community in the ProZ.com wiki. (Please consider contributing.)
Together with the guides, real-time data on rates charged by ProZ.com members will be made available for reference by job posters and those quoting. (This will be the topic of further notices in this site area.)”
I’m no economy expert, but I’m pretty sure COMPETETION is a determining factor in a market economy. Maybe I’m understanding this one wrong, but it seems to me Proz is somehow planning to gather information about rates from us, and give it to outsourcers to help guide them when SETTING RATES (change 2, see how they’re still able to set rates for us?). Needless, to say, the system relies on very sensitive information that could be used against translators in more ways than one.
Conclusion
A long time ago when Proz very questionably created Turn-Key translations and clearly offered agency-like services many of us shared our concerns with Henry. Back then, I pointed out several ethical/legal issues that Henry never replied to, but which in complete violation of the nulla poena sine lege principle lead to a brand new rule on the site banning us from raising legal questions in forums in order to give the Thought Police yet another rule with which to justify their abusive use of censorship. Back then, the question Henry never answered was whether he was missing our point to avoid having to do the right thing or if he was missing it because he’s just not capable of understanding what we, as paying customers, are really asking Proz.com to do. I am once again left with the same question. Did Henry miss the point about NOT LETTING OUTSOURCERS DETERMINE RATES FOR US because it’s inconvenient for the site (on the count that they might possibly lose all those agencies as clients) or are they missing it because they just don’t get it? I’m inclined to the one where actually making a difference could affect Proz.com’s interests, how about you?
As some of you know, Proz.com is reviewing a proposal that was presented by several colleagues. The site opened a private forum to discuss the implementation of this proposal. I promised to give TEBP members regular updates of what’s being discussed. So this is my first update.
1) Background Information: First came the petition.
As many of you know, a little while ago some of our colleagues in Italy posted a petition aimed at Proz.com. Although the petition has been closed and no new signatures are being accepted, you can read it here: http://bit.ly/aXbj1o
Then came the proposal.
You can read the proposal here: http://bit.ly/cdmn34 our group discussed it here: http://bit.ly/cEd0ga
Now, the forum.
As a result, Proz invited those of us who cosponsored the petition (please note, I cosponsored as an individual and not on behalf of our entire group since that is clearly a personal decision) to participate in a private forum to discuss the implementation of the petition.
Although my updates will eventually cover every issue, this one focuses on a thread Henry opened under the name “Proposal related to barring outsourcers from offering rate at outset of job discussions.” Before posting my update, please not I specifically asked Henry if I could post these updates in one of the threads and he wrote: “But you don't have to consider anything here confidential, at least not in my opinion. So go ahead and discuss elsewhere, if you want.” For the purpose of this discussion, I will quote some parts of the forum.
The part of the proposal being discussed reads:
1. Job-Posting Form
a) Outsourcers should no longer be permitted to indicate the price they are offering or intend to pay for a given translation or interpreting project, and that portion of the job-posting form should be eliminated.
b) Outsourcers should not include pricing or rate information anywhere else in the body of their job posting. To that end, job postings should be monitored and removed, if necessary.
c) Outsourcers should be advised clearly of the reason for such changes on the form they use to post a job.
d) Pursuant to c), above, we propose that ProZ.com feature the following statement prominently on its job-posting form: “ProZ.com has removed pricing information from the job-posting form because we believe that translators, as professional service providers, are in the best position to determine their own rates, which vary according to type and format of the text involved, the subject matter, the level of urgency, and the technical expertise required, among other factors. ProZ.com is convinced that quality in translation is ensured not by seeking the lowest rate available but by choosing skilled, competent translators. In keeping with the years of commitment and training required to become qualified professionals, translators and interpreters deserve adequate compensation for their work.”
2. Emailing of job offers to individual translators/interpreters using ProZ mail
a) Because of the above policy—that outsourcers may not indicate pricing information or maximums in their offers to translators and interpreters—we propose that the same vigilance be extended to first-contact email messages initiated by outsourcers using the ProZ.com messaging systems. In initiating first contact with a translation professional via such messages for the sole purpose of soliciting candidates for a project, outsourcers may not indicate specific price ranges, limits, or maximums. ProZ.com already possesses the ability to monitor system messages for violations of ProZ.com policies (the profile message form itself states: “Messages may be subject to review or vetting by site staff”); thus, we propose that ProZ.com extend such monitoring to messages initiated by outsourcers for the sole purpose of soliciting services from one or more translation professionals.
b) In addition (or, if the above proposal is not accepted, in the alternative), we propose that ProZ modify the warning language (“Rules for sending profile messages”) that accompanies the email form to include: “Outsourcers initiating first contact with a translation professional for the purpose of soliciting services may not indicate specific pricing, price ranges, limits, or maximums in their messages.”
To this, in the very first page of the thread Henry: 1) Started by saying that he will not agree to implement the part about barring outsources from indicating any offering price.
2) He then quotes the parts of the petition that say "professional service providers are in the best position to determine their own rates,” etc. and agrees with the overall idea. He claims Proz isn’t happy with abusive offers either, but…
“Here is why we won't implement the proposal exactly as stated. The idea of barring outsourcers from indicating any offering price has been considered before, and was discarded, in part because the absence of information from the client related to payment (or "budgeting", if you will) is not necessarily considered to be in the best interest of translators. Among the scenarios that could be considered are the one in which the client has no intention (or ability) to pay a reasonable rate, in which case time will be saved in knowing that at the outset, and the one in which the client is prepared to offer more than some service providers might otherwise quote. (Though much less publicized than the other scenario, such postings are made on a daily basis. Related, one of the actions that has been planned coming out of the petition is that more data on rates be made available to the community.)
Those two scenarios are not the only reason not to ban offering prices, but other than mentioning ProZ.com's guiding principles, and in particular, point #9 at http://www.proz.com/about/cornerstones ("Member discretion is given precedence over administrator discretion"), I'll leave it at that.”
3) Instead he proposes a strategy he summarized as "recognize, contain and filter". Consisting of the following:
“rather than attempting to "ban" (or in truth, "delay") the broaching of rates negotiation by outsourcers, our plan is to provide a dedicated place for budgeting information to be entered, when the client wishes to enter it (with appropriate messaging, perhaps even messaging providing reasons not to enter rates information). With budgeting information having been identified, it would be confined to a dedicated field -- and that approach supported by a policy barring the mention of rates in the *text* of a posting or profile message -- it could then be "contained", with access to it "filtered", thereby eliminating the potential that ProZ.com would be used to propagandize on rates.
How would access be filtered? In a few ways. For one thing, a better job could be done of making sure that job postings below rates you work at do not appear to you, or get emailed to you. For those who do not specify rates in their profiles (or for those who are not logged in), the decision on whether or not to display a job on the home page could be based on the rates of the community. If the outsourcer's budget is lower than the rates charged by 2/3's of the community, for example, it would not appear by default on the home page.
Filtering would also be based on another preference: the option not to see budgeting information at all (even when it has been specified.) Those who prefer to review job postings, or receive profile messages with budgeting information displayed (when it has been supplied by the outsourcer), could set things up that way. Otherwise, by default, outsourcer budgeting information would not be displayed.
As for the messages -- that "professional service providers are in the best position to determine their own rates", "quality in translation is ensured not by seeking the lowest rate available but by choosing skilled, competent translators", "years of commitment and training are required to become qualified" and "translators and interpreters deserve adequate compensation for their work" -- I can imagine a site area dedicated to the topic of rates, linked to from the job posting and quoting forms, with the two "information sheets" proposed elsewhere (one for translators, one for clients, created in a wiki) made available, along with actual data on rates charged by professionals, as expressed in profiles / job posting filters. What such an approach could provide is very significant: a means by which translators can jointly determine (1) the message that goes out to outsourcers and quoters, and (2) the rate below which job postings will not appear by default. In other words, control over all of this would be in the hands of translators (where it is anyway.)”
Forum participants were not happy about this proposal, but despite many well-founded objections Henry said he was not going to budge on this. Since I do not have express permission from forum participants to discuss their posts elsewhere, I cannot provide a transcription of what was said throughout the thread. However, I think my reply to Henry on this may shed some light on what's being discussed:
[quote]The reason I accepted Jared’s invitation to participate in this thread is because I wanted to give Proz the benefit of the doubt. I must admit I was disappointed by Henry’s initial decision not to bar outsourcers from indicating any price offering, but I still read through the whole long thread hoping there was an acceptable, fact-based reason for this. Couldn’t find one yet. So based on the reasons expressed so far, I have some questions for Henry and I respectfully request that each of those questions is answered.
Henry,
1) What would you say if I told you from now on I am only willing to pay $10 dollars a year for full Proz.com membership?
2) As we all know, rates are dropping. That’s why we’re having this discussion in the first place. That in mind, what would you say if I told you the reason I’m only going to pay $10 dollars a year is because I really can’t afford to pay more on the count of that decrease? (Following your logic that there is “nothing inherently wrong” with letting people who don’t have the “ability” to pay reasonable rates post unreasonable offers.)
Henry, you wrote
Now, who would see this posting? Herein lies the big difference between what the working group proposed and what I have called a better solution: In the approach I outlined, by default, no one would see this job! Not on the home page and not on the job listing page. What is more, notifications would not go out. Why? Because the rate would be known, and display and notifications could be filtered accordingly. This job would not be displayed or go to anyone, because it is a commercial job that pays less than 1 cent, and there is no one in the database that accepts less than one cent per word for commercial work. (Fractions of a cent are not recognized.)
You claim this is useful because…
The only way that people would be able to find this job would be to click "also show jobs below my rates." This is not likely to happen frequently, and if it does, at least the viewer will know what he/she is dealing with.
3) Can you provide empirical evidence of how this could help?
4) How exactly will this work? Would all users have to provide Proz with their rates? If so, would that information be public or private? Has Proz assessed the risk of people lowering the rates they input just to be able to see these offers and, therefore, starting a new cycle of low rates?
the situation is not as bad as it appears, one thread focused on that lately
5) Is this based on empirical evidence? If so, can you please name your sources for reference and for the sake of a founded discussion?
Petitioners are so sure that something has changed in the industry, even if it has not (yet) changed for them, that they are deciding to "put their money where their mouth is", and do something that is not in their own best commercial interest.
5) How is what we’re doing not in our best commercial interest? What are you founding this statement on?
I have kicked off a survey to get more insight into the opinions and priorities of ProZ.com members as they pertain to this proposal.
6) What objective criteria are you using for this survey? Was this statement meant to be as condescending as it sounds?
One of the best things about TEBP is the opportunity it has given me to meet wonderful new people all over the world. I have tremendously enjoyed working on this post with Yigit and hope you'll enjoy reading it too!
1) Turkey has a very rich political history. The predecessor of the current Turkish State, the Ottoman Empire, lasted from 1299 to 1922 when Turkey became an imperial monarchy and that monarchy was replaced in 1923 by the Republic of Turkey. Even though you are too young to have actually witnessed the change from one form of government to the other, you grew up in a country with a vast cultural heritage that goes back thousands of years, but that is very young as a de iure state. How would you describe the political scene in which you grew up?
I always remember the September morning in 1980 in which I woke up early with loud announcements made by the military forces in the street that a coup had been made. I did not immediately realize the situation. I was 10 years old. My mother and father explained to me that the military had taken power and a new political era had started in the country. In fact, this was the third military coup in Turkey. Every ten years, in 1960, 1970 and finally in 1980 we have seen coup’de etats. Certainly, you cannot blame people for expecting another one in 1990. But this did not happen. The military did not or could not intervene democracy again and we have been living an uninterrupted civil life for 29 years.
1980 was an important cornerstone for the country not only in the political but also in the economical sense. Liberalism and free foreign trade had started. Until then, the export and import of goods had been strictly limited, Turkish people were not able to reach foreign markets. But the first civil government after the 1980 coup led by Turgut Ozal changed the situation radically. Now there were plenty of European and American goods in the market and with foreign trade accelerated, many rich people arose in the cities. In the mean time, the political activists of the past were suffering in the prisons of the military, under very unfavourable conditions. The leftist groups in the country suffered a sharp blow but the ordinary citizens were content because the terror in the streets had ended. It was true that the streets were not safe before the intervention. I remember that my mother cautioned me at the time: in case I was questioned by people as to whether I had left or right wing views, I would say that I was only a child and did not know anything about these matters.
In the Turkey of the 80’s, ideals imposed on the younger generation were quite different from those of the 70’s. The revolutionary views and political action were out of fashion. We were supposed to study, get a good job and earn as much as we could. In this atmosphere I chose to study business administration, but it did not take long for me to understand that I was acting very wrongly. I never liked business school and my faith led me to very different paths.
2) In your bio you mentioned how much you loved Ankara, the capital of Turkey, when you were a child but you don’t seem to like it so much today. Why is that?
You know, early childhood is mostly remembered as the happiest period of our lives. In fact, this is a deceptive situation because childhood memories resident in our minds have previously been bent, filtered and distorted in the prism of a child’s brain. This must be the main reason why I used to love Ankara. In fact it was always a dry, tasteless city but I did not know that at the time. Ankara did not get any better. In many years, it completely lost its identity in the coarse hands of a hateful mayor.
3) You mentioned your parents were both intellectuals. Your mother was a radio producer and your father was an actor. You tried acting for a while, but then decided to go with radio production. What made you decide to do that and how did you get started in radio production?
From an existentialist point of view, our lives are determined by our choices. Yet, though I am not a religious person, I cannot help believing that our lives are predestined. Sometimes you cannot open a door, no matter how hard you push. Anyway, I think the wisest thing to say is that acting did not suit me. I did not have the talent. If I did, what would stand in my way? But radio, even though it was my mother’s profession, I never had in mind. I had worked with video for years and it was very distant to my mind to imagine a production without moving pictures. But as I said, I seems to me that I was destined to work in the radio. After a long procedure following my application to TRT, they appointed me to an open position in Trabzon Radio. For economical, psychological and professional reasons, I did not reject it. Trabzon was a small city and I would be away from my family. There was hardship waiting for me and hardship I received, for some time. But today, after 10 years in the radio, I am happy to be in the world of sounds and have no inner wish to make a shift towards television.
4) You’re somewhat of a self-taught English speaker and translator. Tell us a little about how you got started and your dream of reading certain books in English.
I started very young with simplified books. Then came the comics. I do not know why I began to translate my first Asterix in English. What I know is that I always liked the languages and at some point I wanted to have a good command of English. So I began to read and translate. At the beginning, translation was a tool to learn the language. And learning English was half play and half self-competition. I was young and I wished to learn a bit of everything. When one is young, the heavy pressure of time is not felt and life seems limitless. I had to be over 30 to understand that I could not learn about everything, and moreover, I did not need to.
Anyway, with my unfocused hunger I bought books in English, tried to read them and failed. In years, I retried several times and failed again and again. But there was no desperation on my side. I liked to be a learner and had a goal: I would read them some day.
Of course, besides the love of knowledge, I also hoped that learning English would help my professional career in the future. But it was not clear in my mind what career I wished to follow. And of course, I did not know that my future position in the radio would be very local and I would always feel sad that my English knowledge was being wasted.
In this sadness, I felt that I had improved my English to a certain point. My management did not care about this, so what else could I do? I decided to start another self-competition and so began my translation career. Staggering and tumbling, I translated my first book which was an academic compilation of articles. Then came another compilation: Jack London’s compiled writings not previously published in Turkish. After that, I completed a new translation of his “Martin Eden” which is due to be published in 2010. Right now, I am working on Pieter Spierenburg’s “A History of Murder”. I am sure others will follow.
5) How do you juggle translation and radio production?
Translation is both my hobby and my second profession now. It is also my passion. Most of the moments allowed from my work and my family, I commit to translation. This means I spend my night hours translating. I sleep a few hours less for the sake of translating a few pages more.
6) You mentioned in your bio that even though your hometown is small, your personal universe is very big. After reading about you, I got the impression this has a lot to do with your passion for learning. However, I could be wrong. Can you tell us a little bit about your world.
That seems to be quite correct. I live in a small city with limited cultural sources. Without books, writing and translation, the world would be dull. I can’t understand people who keep their profession as the centre of their world. Everyone needs -at least- a second thing to do. For me, that is translation now. Surely there are lots of things I would love to do –travelling, photography, biking, concerts etc. Yet, there is one obstacle: My little children. And do you know, they are the most beautiful obstacles! They make my life meaningful and complete my world. So the basic elements of my personal universe are as follows: The radio, translation, and most of all, my family.
If you would like to contact Yigit, please write to info@tebp.org so we can forward him your request.
If you would like to sign our petition, just follow the link at the end of this post.
Petition Statement:
For the past few months, professional translators and interpreters all over the world have been expressing their concerns over the ethical problems posed by crowdsourcing and how this practice negatively impacts an already suffering industry, but our concerns have not been heard and more unethical practices have arisen as a result of crowdsourcing. The reasons why we are against crowdsourcing are the following:
1. Professional translation requires years of training, extensive general culture, and excellent command of both the target and source languages. The job of translators and interpreters is not simply to translate words, but rather to convey meaning and concepts as well as to provide cultural localization. This is why being “bilingual” or “knowing another language” is not enough to be a translator. We train, we study, and then we train some more... and for all that hard work we, as any other professional, feel we deserve fair rates and recognition. Crowdsourcing bases itself on non-professional translation provided either by people who are not qualified to translate in the first place (which shows utmost disregard for language and language professionals) or by people who, as a result of other unethical practices, are desperate to find ways of promoting their services and hope this form of exploitation will later translate into paid work.
2. We are users of the sites that resort to crowdsourcing and we feel insulted that the sites we are supporting show such disrespect for our line of work. We don’t see sites like Twitter and Facebook asking doctors who use their sites to provide free online medical services. We don’t see Twitter and Facebook asking lawyers who use their site to provide free online legal services. So we wonder, why do we see Twitter and Facebook asking professional translators who use their sites to provide free online services?
3. For years, universities and professional associations have been providing certification to translators as a way of raising industry standards and homogenizing linguist quality. We ask, what ethical and professional criteria (if any) do sites like Twitter and Facebook use to provide “awards” and “recognitions” to their “best” translators? Where exactly did these sites get the authority to do so?
Translation and interpretation are not hobbies or pastimes, they are professions. As users and supporters of the sites that are resorting to crowdsourcing we ask that these practices stop, that they leave translation to the pros, that they pay translators fair rates for their work, and that they show respect not only for language and culture, but also for their users. This petition was created by the group Translators for Ethical Business Practices, but we feel we speak on behalf of all translators and interpreters and invite all our colleagues (including non-members) to sign this petition and make their voices heard.
I have nothing against Proz.com. Quite the contrary, I’m overall happy with most site features and recommend the site to anyone looking to make great new clients and meeting interesting translation professionals. I’ve had the chance to meet many site staff members in person, and know they work really hard to try to provide a great service to site users.
However, what I do have a serious problem with is censorship. Although I’ve been told the site had resorted to censorship many times in the past, as far as I know, the main problem began when the site’s new service (turn-key translations) raised serious ethical questions, which have yet to be answered. As far as I can tell, after the turn-key translations thread was censored and some very valuable members were either kicked out of or left the site, Proz moderators have been systematically resorting to censorship any time they are unable to effectively handle a discussion.
I have no problem with site moderators either, I’m sure despite the questionable way in which they go about censoring people, they mean no harm. I’m guessing they are either simply following orders, or just are really unaware of the bad customer service and negative impact censorship is having on the site’s overall image.
A new thread, questioning whether such a harsh level of moderation/intervention was necessary, was opened, censored, closed and removed from the site yesterday. I guess the philosophy behind it is what the eyes don’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve. As a paying member, I would have loved to be able to participate and have a chance to voice my opinion on an issue that is seriously making me wonder whether or not I’ll be renewing my membership, but the Thought Police beat me to it. Now instead of engaging in a productive conversation on the site with fellow site members, I am left with no choice but to discuss it elsewhere on my blog or Facebook group.
As a Law student, I obviously have a problem with censorship: it violates basic human rights and breaks international law. Every time a Proz moderator resorts to censorship they let you know the reason they are doing it is because something in the thread broke a site rule. Yes, the site does reserve the right to impose its own rules in its user agreement. Yes, our user agreement is a legally binding contract that creates rights and obligations for both parties. Yes, the principle of autonomy of the individual will is a guiding principle in most contracts, but no, the principle does not constitute a green light for violating the right to freedom of speech.
What does all this mean? It means Proz has the right to pretty much stick anything they want in the site rules, as long as it does not conflict with superior interests. The site rules are part of a contract, and that contract is subject to a principle by which that contract becomes “law of the parties” (i.e. only applicable to the parties in the contract) but that principle has a limit: the law (i.e. general laws that apply to everyone). They can write whatever they want in their rules, and enforce these rules however they deem fit, provided neither the rules nor the measures they take to enforce them violate the laws by which the agreement is bound. As I have mentioned before in certain censored threads, our user agreements are subject to “all applicable local, state, national and international laws and regulations.” This of course includes article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that ensures that “everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference” and by “without interference” they mean censorship, moderation, intervention, etc. So, are the actions of the Thought Police simply bad customer service? No, they are not just bad for business, they are also violations of members’ rights to express themselves on the site –and this is very serious.
After turn-key translations I was sure that given the negative image said censorship was creating for Proz, the number of people that were thinking of canceling their memberships, the way site moderators were mocked online, etc. site authorities would smarten up and find more productive ways of handling customer dissatisfaction (after all, let’s be honest, censored threads all happen to be the ones in which users complain about something). I was wrong. Like dictators on power trips, site moderators and authorities have been abusing the rights they reserved in our user agreements and have turned the site into Big Brother’s wet dream.
What does that say about Proz? To me, it reads insecurity. In the words of Potter Steward, “Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.” A lesson I honestly hope Proz learns in time is that “censorship always defeats its own purpose.” Much smarter people than Proz staff and moderators learned a long time ago that censorship will turn on you: they wrote constitutions around that lesson and drew out international laws protecting freedom of speech. Let’s hope H et al. learn their lesson while there are still members left on the site.
Crowdsourcing, machine translation, bottom feeding… we all know what these are: threats to professional translators. What we don’t know is just how serious these threats are and what, if any, impact they’ve already had on our industry. On October 8, Tech Crunch published a post called Twitter Needs you to Translate its FIGS. This post tells us about the difficulties Twitter is facing when trying to “expand to the global community” and it describes how other social networking tools like Yahoo Meme have tried to “fill the gap” by offering Twitter-like services in Spanish and Portuguese. Twitter, apparently, is in danger. But do not despair, Twitter plans to “roll out support for FIGS: French, Italian, German, and Spanish […] and while Twitter is going to be doing some of the translations in-house, they are mostly trying to crowdsource translations, which is a strategy that Facebook has used in the past.” Twitter, like Facebook, has found a way to save thousands of dollars on translation. Kudoz to Twitter!
Just for the record, I love Twitter and Facebook. Thanks to these two great social utility tools I was able to reconnect with long lost childhood friends, stay in touch with my relatives, and meet amazing new people. I fully support their efforts to expand to the global community, and as someone who is half-American and half-Argentinean, I know just how much my loved ones in Argentina benefit from having these services in Spanish. What I am uncomfortable with are the ethical implications of crowdsourcing, particularly with Twitter’s added new twist.
What is crowdsourcing?
Crowdousourcing is a system that social utility tools have been using lately to get their interfaces translated for free. It’s based on user-suggested translations. Volunteer users suggest a translation for a particular sentence or phrase which is posted somewhere on the site, and other users vote for the best translation. The most ironic part of crowdsourcing is that implementing it is not fully free; the site has to spend money developing the features that enable crowdsourcing to work. So it’s not that they are not willing to invest to have their sites translated, they just don’t want to pay actual translators when they have thousands of multilingual users willing to help for free.
What was Twitter’s new twist?
Volunteer “translators” on Twitter will be given a level which will be added to their profiles and, according to Tech Crunch, the more their translations are used, the higher their level. Kind of like a game.
Why are professional translators unhappy about this?
The system seems fair and fun enough: participants volunteer so the site isn’t actually forcing anyone to translate for free, and there are many other professions in which people offer their services pro bono. Technically Twitter is not hurting anyone –except pro bono work is usually done for a cause, and I hardly think filling Twitter’s pockets is a worthy cause. Meanwhile, there is much more to it than that. First, translation is not a trade or a hobby; it is a profession that requires training, skills, and constant development. People actually study to become translators because it’s not enough with just being bilingual. Meanwhile, Twitter’s twist to crowdsourcing actually “certifies” a person’s level as a translator (they even use the word “translator”) simply based on popularity and votes by other eager, non-professional translators whose language skills may be great, but might be far from “translator level”. After all, where does Twitter get the authority to “certify” translators? They seem to follow no criteria, other than popularity, for choosing the most suitable translation or assigning levels. It’s almost like certifying a layman’s legal or medical skills based on how well the person is able to answer legal and medical trivia. Would we accept this kind of certification in any other profession? If you were sick, would you hire someone to treat you because they read and understood a couple of medical articles online? If you were on trial, would you hire an eloquent actor as your lawyer to represent you in court? If we respect other professions because of the level of skill and knowledge they entail, why not show the same respect to translation?
Second, the more non-professional translators are willing to translate their profit-earning, social utility tools for free, the more they are affecting overall freelance translation prices. Why would clients pay to have their texts and sites translated by professional translators when they can just hire agencies that use crowdsourcing or Google translator and have a pro “edit” it at half the price? Translation is becoming cheap, not because it’s not a serious profession, but simply because so many people are willing to work in exchange for nothing but online recognition from other users. But is online recognition from other users really enough to make anyone a translator?
However, companies that have the means to pay for their translation services finding ways to get their translations done pro bono is only part of the problem. Although it is true that social utility tools, for the most part, offer their services for free, it is also true that they profit from people using their sites. The more traffic their sites receive, the more their advertising spots are worth or additional products and services they are able to sell, which is where they make their profit. So when they “let” you use the site for free, they are not really giving you any more than what you are giving them. You are in a win-win situation. You get the perks, they get the cash. But when you start saving them thousands of dollars by working for free, where is the reciprocity in your relationship with your social utility tool?
What can we do?
As far as crowdsourcing, a lot of people seem to think there’s not much we can do. It’s here, it works, and it’s profitable. In fact, in the time it took me to write this post, Twitter has already been released in one of its FIGS: Spanish. But what if they’re wrong? What if there is something we can do? In my opinion, there’s still a lot that can be done to prevent practices like crowdsourcing from spreading.
First, as professional translators we can simply not take part in them. Second, we can try to create awareness outside the translation community of the impact and ethical implications of crowdsourcing. Not so long ago, when LinkedIn got enough negative international media coverage for trying to get its site translated using similar methods, it had to succumb to public pressure and cancel the project altogether. Finally, one of the best things we can do to fight unethical practices like crowdsourcing is, as Andrew Bell (author of the blog Running to Work: Thoughts on Translation and Language) would put it, we can be proactive instead of reactive.
Now that Facebook has changed its layout our original group description is too long for the new space provided. So we’re adjusting. We’re keeping our original mission statement in a discussion thread on our Facbeook site and on our blog (just for keeps sake).
This group was inspired by a recent experience. As a professional translator and paying member of an online site supposedly aimed at helping me expand my business by connecting me to prospective clients, I have recently seen what really resembles unethical business practices that could potentially be detrimental to my business and the translation industry in general. When many paying members of this site opened a forum to discuss the issue and encourage site staff to address our concerns accordingly, our forum was closed. When we opened a second forum, asking why we had been censured, that forum was also closed. Their explanation was that we had violated site rules that state that threads can be closed by site staff when they feel the positive, result oriented environment of a forum has been lost (translation: site staff can unilaterally decide to close a forum when they can’t take the heat!). The only thing of which we were guilty was defending our rights as paying clients to be provided with clear, transparent information about a matter that affects legitimate legal concerns.
Fortunately, under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, we are all granted freedom of speech. Their rules and guidelines are subject to laws. Translation sites, agencies, and even clients can’t get away with doing whatever they want and then shutting us up!
This experience made me aware of how unprotected we sometimes are (or at least feel) from harmful, abusive, and/or unethical, unilateral decisions made by agencies, clients, and even companies that provide services to translators. That is why I decided to open this group.
This group has two main purposes: 1. To provide a place where translators who feel they have been affected by unethical business practices to get in touch with other translators who might have gone through similar experiences and can provide advice on how to deal with these situations.
Everyone is invited to join and express themselves, but please be respectful. Let’s try to focus on the issues and not use this group to bash sites, agencies, or fellow colleagues with whom we might have a problem. Remember, the intention is to defend our rights, not to violate the rights of others.
It was John Locke who wrote, “The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it… that all being equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in life, health, liberty, or possessions…" (in Second Treatise of Government). Beautiful words indeed, but often taken ever so lightly. There are many kinds of harm: intentional, unintentional, accidental, cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and the list goes on. I myself am no stranger to unintentional harm, something I’m sure I share with many of my readers. Harm is something that is easy to cause and difficult to amend. The harm we cause can often go unnoticed for years, but have lasting effects for generations to come.
John Locke spoke of natural law, a theory which may not be vividly supported in modern law, but which inspired Constitutions, Bills of Rights, and many of the other legal frameworks that represent the foundation of Human Rights as we know them. Moral philosophers like John Lock, among many many others, asked themselves what rights we needed to grant each other and what obligations we needed to assume in order to build healthy and prosperous societies. Life, health, liberty, and possessions came to be the main building blocks in modern social designs.
This is why when speaking of perpetual poverty, unhealthy living conditions, genocide, and torture, among others, we can speak of violations to “basic” or “fundamental” Human Rights. Hundreds of countries all over the world have signed international treaties that obligate their governments to respect and ensure these rights. Human Rights treaties obligate governments to uphold ethical principles that foster dignity and prosperity. It is understood that when a person is deprived of their health, their liberty, and their possessions that person is deprived all things that can ensure their life. And life is at the top of the rights our legal frameworks are designed to protect.
Life: the cornerstone of all rights. Once life is lost all other rights simply wither away, for there is no sense in ensuring health, liberty, and possessions to the dead. Life gives rights themselves their meaning. Life can be protected in many ways. Most governments have criminal laws that make their citizens feel their lives are “protected” –but we all know criminal law is mostly corrective. Attempts against life are usually “punished” and not “prevented” with criminal law, what ensures life is not simply punishing attempts against it, but providing the necessary social, economic, and educational conditions for life to be sustainable.
Today, almost ten thousand bloggers around the world are participating in an international effort to sustain life: Blog Action Day. It is an effort to provide the social, economic, and educational conditions necessary to promote health, liberty, and life. Today humanity is facing a challenge. Indiscriminate use of natural resources coupled with massive pollution has lead to consequences that threaten life as we know it. Life, the moral value we have sworn to uphold in our legal frameworks and constitutions. The moral value we placed at the top of our treaties. The moral value protected in almost all our religious books, regardless of our religions. Our inaction, our failure to draw out effective legal frameworks, our violations to the Kyoto protocol, our inability to find ways to promote economic growth while protecting our planet is threatening the health of those who live in the areas that are most highly affected by the main consequence of our actions: climate change.
At the most critical point in time, our world leaders have decided to revaluate our priorities. Life is being threatened, the legal frameworks based on our moral and ethical principles have proven insufficient. Our world leaders have realized the commitment we made to uphold life in our treaties and constitutions entails more than just creating laws that “punish” crimes against life. They have realized that our disregard for the environment will, in the long run, constitute a crime against life, but it will be one we can neither punish nor correct, only endure. They have realized that just as certain social, economic, and educational standards are required for a healthy and prosperous society, certain environmentally-friendly social, economic, and educational standards are necessary to sustain life. Because of that, a new legal framework will be drawn out in Copenhagen this year: one which needs to be far more ambitious than the Kyoto protocol, one that contemplates economic growth in ways that do not harm our environment, one which ensures sustainable development while protecting basic human rights. Our world leaders have realized the ethical commitment we, as societies, have made to protecting life entails an ethical commitment to protecting the environment that makes life physically possible, thus turning our ethical obligation to the environment into an ethical obligation to ourselves.
To learn more about climate change, the new framework being discussed in Copenhagen, the effects of climate change on poverty, or any other issue related to global warming, please visit: the WWF, 350.org, and the UN Climate Change Conference Blog.
Sometimes our actions have consequences, both negative and positive, that extend far beyond anything we can imagine. Sometimes our actions generate crises and those crises bring new opportunities to learn and grow. TEBP has recently undergone a “crises” which I am hoping will soon turn into an opportunity for growth and expansion. It is no secret that TEBP recently cleared up a misunderstanding with AIPTI regarding an apparent overlap between our groups. Fortunately, this misunderstanding was quickly resolved and I do not wish to go back on that in this post, I do invite any members of either AIPTI or TEBP who wish to voice any opinions, express concerns, or ask any questions about this issue to visit our relevant discussion thread on our group site.
This misunderstanding did, however, bring to light a series of internal issues TEBP now needs to address. It has lead to some members leaving TEBP. Although it is always sad to lose a member, as I have stated in our discussion thread, TEBP’s focus is quality and not quantity and the kind of members we are looking for are people who are willing to do much more than just click join, refrain from participating, and then leave the group the second they don’t agree with something we are doing. We need people who are active and willing to express their opinions. We cannot build a community around silence and passiveness. That’s not what this group is about.
An issue that was raised in our discussion thread is an apparent “division” among people who are members of TEBP alone and people who are members of both TEBP and AIPTI. Some TEBP members feel there’s something behind the silence of people who happen to be members of both groups. At this point, I respectfully disagree. As I shared on our group site, and after some interactions with certain members on NdeT, I think the overall silence in our group is related to one thing only: our group isn’t taken seriously enough because it’s on Facebook – a “social” media site. I would love to hear from group members on this, but I get the feeling that being a FB group makes some members feel we’re really just a social group. If my perception is correct, this is something we need to work on because TEBP was not created to be just a social group (no offense to social groups though).
Another issue that has been raised repeatedly, which is intricately related to what I wrote above, is the detrimental effect of silence. This silence is generating an overall feeling of mistrust among members and can ultimately divide TEBP into two distinct groups. This is unproductive and unnecessary and we need to turn this situation around before it has negative consequences among our members. It’s the sort of thing that can kill our efforts before we even get started and given the time and effort that certain members continuously put into this group, it would be a shame for that to happen.
The idea behind TEBP from day one was to build a community, to exchange best practices, resources, and ideas, to work together to beat isolation and abuse, and to defend our basic rights and liberties. All of these goals require dedication and commitment, something a lot of members benefitted from behind the scenes, but very few members actually seem willing to give in return. Now we have reached a crossroads, and it’s time to change that. The road ahead will require commitment and dedication. The road ahead will require change and introspection. The road ahead will require vision and cooperation.
All of the questions raised in the above mentioned thread lead me to think it is time for a serious change. In that thread I quoted Martin Luther King and I would like to quote him again here, “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.” It is time to make changes to our group. We need to figure out what kind of group we want to be, are we going to be one of those groups you just join and forget about or are we actually going to carry out our mission and work towards Ethical Business Practices?
It is time to design the future of our group. Between free machine translation services like Google Translator, crowdsourcing on Twitter and Facebook, the newly approved US budget for improving machine translation, undercutting, unethical agencies, uneducated clients, etc. our industry is facing a challenge. Some translators feel we are on the brink of extinction, although I don’t think humans can be eliminated from the translation process altogether, I do feel change in our industry is imminent and we need to work together to be prepared to face it. TEBP has always been about finding ethical ways of dealing with these issues. What we need to figure out now is what we’re going to do about it and how.
As someone pointed out to me recently, there are hundreds of translation groups on Facebook and several hundred translator’s association in the world and very few of them are really doing anything other than talk and charge membership fees. This group was never intended to be a member-packed, low-impact Facebook group, nor do we intend to become an association: we’re somewhere in between and we need to define that somewhere. Since the day of its creation our group was intended to be different and make a difference. With that in mind, I would like to invite all members of TEBP to take a few minutes to question why they are members of this group in the first place, what they expect from the group, and what they are willing to contribute to the group, and once that introspection is done, I would like to invite all members to share their conclusions and ideas with us in our new discussion thread: the Road Ahead . For those who do not wish to make their contributions public, please feel free to submit them by email by filling out our blog contact form (asking you to fill out the form is tedious, but we’re trying to avoid spammers).
Today I published a post requesting clarification from AIPTI and Nota del Traductor as to what seemed to be an overlap in time and aims between TEBP and AIPTI. This post resulted in everything from angry messages to someone leaving TEBP (and something tells me more people will probably follow). However, it was not all negative; it also resulted in what turned out to be a very productive conversation with the president of AIPTI.
My initial post raised questions on several issues surrounding the creation of AIPTI, which included what appeared to be inconsistencies in the public statements made by AIPTI creators as to when exactly their project came to be and why if the association had been in the making for years it was not yet constituted as a not-for-profit organization. During our conversation, the president of AIPTI volunteered information and evidence that an association has been in the making at least since 2007. I must refrain from providing details as to what information I was given because I promised confidentiality. But I do now believe beyond any reasonable doubt they have been organizing this association for a very long time.
In my post I had also raised a question regarding someone who left our group only three days before AIPTI purchased its domain. My question surrounded the time line, the fact that this person expressed a “difference of opinions” but had never voiced their opinions, etc. After my conversation with the president of AIPTI, some light has been shed on this person’s odd behavior and I don’t think it has anything to do with AIPTI.
I also questioned why no one thought to include TEBP when AIPTI was launched. During our conversation I explained to the president of the association that if TEBP would have known about their project, upon reviewing their mission statement we would probably have given them our full support. I was then told that because AIPTI supports TEBP’s mission, they had decided the president would be sending me the info personally. In fact, she had actually sent me (and several other people) a copy of their press release through LinkedIn the day before the association was launched to the public. Unfortunately, I never saw that information, and I believe that may have contributed in part to the misunderstanding.
What in my view made this conversation productive was that, despite the unfortunate circumstances surrounding it, I had the chance to exchange opinions with the president regarding some of the issues translators face today and I have found that we share a great deal of common views. I also got the chance to further understand AIPTI’s mission and I feel that it differs a bit from that of TEBP, but aside from a couple of things I would like to further discuss with her if I get a chance, overall I think what they are trying to do is quite respectable and I sincerely hope they are able to carry their mission out.
On a personal note, I wish the circumstances surrounding how I got to talk to the president were different. After our conversation I felt I was talking to someone who genuinely cares about our industry and who is willing to work (and fight) very hard to improve working conditions for us all. Although that’s just my personal impression, I think it’s worth sharing.
As far as members of TEBP who are using materials from TEBP on other forums, I would again like to kindly ask them to let me know next time. Under the series of events that led to this misunderstanding, that didn’t help.
Finally, there are two things I would like to clarify with this post, just for the record:
My intention when publishing my first post was not to discredit or harm AIPTI or any of its members in any way. All of the information I had is verifiable and true to the best of my knowledge at the time, unfortunately there was some information I lacked because it was not intended for the general public in the first place.
Although I was requested and advised from several sources to delete my previous post, I have decided not to do that at this time. The reason is simple: what I published was published in good faith. I know in general there are going to be a lot of mixed feelings regarding my post for while, but all the information I had before today made me feel things needed to be clarified. I could not bring myself to letting something that seemed odd and fishy just sit there. I will not apologize for defending my beliefs or for trying to clear up a misunderstanding. I cannot apologize for speaking my mind or fighting for what I think is right. If I ever did that, I would have to drop out of Law School. I will, however, apologize if I have caused any real harm, as it was never my intention to do so and I will NOT condone or support any misuse of my previous post, particularly if it is used with the intention of harming AIPTI or any of its members in any way.
A new translator’s association was launched on September 30, 2009. This association’s aim, as stated in their motto, is to foster ethical “professional” practices in the translation industry. As a group that has already been aiming at fostering ethical “business” practices (as expressed in our motto) in the translation industry since July 21, 2009 we welcome this new initiative and wish them the best. However, we can’t help feeling there might be a bit of overlap with our group in terms of aims and after analyzing the following timeline, we would like to respectfully request clarification from AIPTI and Nota del Traductor on this series of events.
July 21, 2009: Translators for Ethical Business Practices was created on Facebook. Our mission statement (which has not been changed since) included bringing translators and interpreters together to brainstorm ways of raising industry standards, to discuss issues pertaining to payment and outsourcing, among others (which are currently having a serious impact on our industry), and to figure out a way to fight these problems and raise the bar so that clients can get better service and translators and interpreters can get better payment.
On the first week of August, we got a new member who wrote to me saying they had become interested in our group because our idea was being discussed on another site (Nota del Traductor), a site that belongs to one of the founding members of AIPTI. I looked into this and found 2 references to Translators for Ethical Business Practices on Nota del Traductor: 1) one on July 21, 2009 (same day TEBP was created) in a forum discussing turn-key translations and 2) on July 23, 2009 in another forum in which the president of AIPTI posted links and descriptions of translation-related groups on Facebook, except TEBP was the only group that was not limited to a mere link and description, the president of AIPTI actually copied our mission statement in full on the forum thread.
August 5: One of the very first members of TEBP, founding member of AIPTI, and someone who has a very close relationship to the president of AIPTI, left our group and felt compelled to post that they were leaving on our wall, although no explanation was provided as to the reasons for leaving the group. I contacted this person about it, asking if anything had happened in our group that they were not comfortable with, and they said they were leaving simply because there were differences of opinions. However this person had never actually voiced their opinions in any of our discussions, replied to any of my messages, nor participated on our blog or fan page.
On August 8, 2009: (only 3 days later) The president of AIPTI purchased the domain for AIPTI (you can verify this information on www.whois.net). The site was not launched to the general public until September 30, so this information was not known to me at the time.
In mid August, I tried to create a LinkedIn group to reflect our Facebook group. I was unable to use the name Translators for Ethical Business Practices because it had already been taken by a private group, i.e. someone else had gone and created Translators for Ethical Business Practices on LinkedIn. I asked members of TEBP about this and no one knew anything about it.
September 30, 2009: AIPTI was launched with a very similar mission to that of TEBP, 20 members of TEBP are active (and some even founding or honorary members of AIPTI) only one member of both groups thought to email me about AIPTI. Not a single one of these 20 members shared information about AIPTI on TEBP inviting fellow members to join. How is it that members of an association dedicated to promoting ethics and “stimulating the creation of institutional bonds with other associations and public entities, both foreign and domestic in the defense of the Translating and Interpreting profession” didn’t think to include a group dedicated to fostering ethics in its opening ceremony or dinner celebration considering one of the missions of the association is to promote cooperation between professionals? I even ran into two of its founding members in person that same week and neither one of them mentioned this to me.
In their press release, AIPTI states it has been in the making for two years, which would indicate that the overlap is just a coincidence. Yet on September 30, 2009 in her own forum, the president of AIPTI wrote that they have been working on this initiative for “months” (not years), and she later clarifies that they’ve had the idea of doing something like this for years. There are several other comments on several other forums (including Translator’s Cafe) indicating the hard work they have been putting into this association for months (not years). I don’t doubt, from the seriousness and size of the association, that it took a while to put together. The only thing I am questioning is the overlap in aims and time.
This association also claims to currently be processing their legal status as an NGO. There is no public record of this on the IGJ registry (Inspección General de Justicia, the organ in charge of supervising the constitution of commercial and not-for-profit organizations in Argentina), which is consistent with the statement on their site claiming they’re awaiting approval. However, given that IGJ registration only takes a few months, and the president of this association has insisted on claiming it has been in the making for years, why isn’t the issue of their legal status settled yet?
The overlap between the creation of Translators for Ethical Business Practices and that of AIPTI is something I think needs clarification. Another point that needs clarification is why, despite the fact that the creators of AIPTI were aware of the existence of TEBP, they still chose to make their slogan in English so similar to that of TEBP: if you add the word “working” to ours and change “business” to “professional” you get the AIPTI slogan.
On another note, I have also noticed that some members of TEBP who are also members of AIPTI have copied materials I’ve sent to TEBP members by email (or published on our site for discussion on our forum) and published it on Nota del Traductor for discussion there. Although the information I send members of TEBP is not copyright material, my goal when addressing members of TEBP is for that material to be used on our forum. There is no law against using it anywhere else, but I do find this practice to be a bit disrespectful: when I take the time to look for information for TEBP, I intend for it to be used on TEBP. If I wanted to look for information for members of Nota del Traductor or any other forum, I would post it there. What makes this worse, is that the members who took materials from TEBP to other forums didn’t even bother to participate in our discussion forums (or even confirm receipt of these materials).
With that in mind, I would also like to ask members of TEBP who happen to be members of AIPTI or Nota del Traductor, to please let me know if you are planning to use materials for TEBP on other sites so that I can let the other members of TEBP know in case they too are interested in joining the discussion. TEBP was never intended to be a private club or closed group. We have been open to the general public from day one because we believe that raising the bar in our industry includes effective and inclusive communication. Closing ourselves to private forums fosters secrecy and the kind of clique-like behavior that can ultimately lead to further division in our industry.
Because we don’t believe in “every man for himself” (or every group for itself, for that matter) we would like to clarify these apparent indiscrepancies with AIPTI and Nota del Traductor and hope our groups, forums, and associations can cooperate with each other in the future.
International Translators Day is celebrated every year on September 30 on the feast of St. Jerome. Saint Jerome’s greatest life work was to translate the bible into Latin, thus rendering him the patron saint of translators.
Today, International Translators Day is not just celebrated by Christians, but by translators and interpreters all over the world and from very diverse creeds and backgrounds. So on this special day, Translators for Ethical Business Practices would like to wish translators and interpreters everywhere a very happy translators day!
You have a very diverse educational background. You studied systems engineering, graphic design, and you have a degree in English. How do you put it all to use in your professional life?
Well, I have always been a curious person. If I could, I would go back to college, learn so many things... But you can learn a lot on your own, even in your daily work; and I have often had to learn to do something to complete a design project; the same is true for translation. Sometimes you even have to do some research to be able to provide a quotation for a specific task.
Now, my background and knowledge allowed me to work in different areas: I have worked as a teacher (and continue to do so), graphic designer, web developer, interpreter and translator. To my partners at Globulart, the design studio where I work, I am a “problem solver”; they even used to call me Mr. Wolf, after the character played by Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction; it can be an advantage but also very tiresome, as people tend to rely on your abilities rather than learning to do something themselves. Lately I have focused my efforts in the field of translation, although design continues to be a big part of my everyday work.
How did you get started as a translator and graphic designer? What skills are required for the services you provide? What do you like about each one?
When I was a kid I loved drawing, I was happy with a notepad and a ballpen; we had a Commodore 64 with an optic pen and I spent hours drawing on the TV, that was something magical to me as a child. In the late 80s I discovered 3D animation and it got me increasingly interested; years later I started learning to use a program called 3D Studio on my own and, while I studied at the university, I created a 3D animation as an intro for a TV show on astronomy a group of friends and I had started at a local TV station; that was back in 1995, the animation took hundreds of hours to render but it was worth the effort. Flash forward to 1999, I began studying graphic design at the AlmerÃa School of Art; those were the best, most interesting two years of my life as a student. I hadn’t even earned my degree—it would have to wait another year for me to deliver the final project—when I started working at a company called Visual Chart Group as a designer, web developer and, eventually, translator.
My translation work began at that company; I had to translate parts of the corporate website as well as marketing materials, and, being the only one in the company who could really speak English at the time, I was the one to call when the bosses needed to contact a foreign provider or client. Another flash forward to 2006, when I started collaborating with the TV & radio news show “Democracy Now!”, translating their daily headlines and the weekly opinion column by the host, Amy Goodman.
In 2008 I definitely started pursuing translation as a career, and during the last year I have translated two books on design, several articles for magazines specializing in design and art, TV ads, essays on marketing, etc... with a short incursion working as a court interpreter. True story: the name of the first person I had to assist as an interpreter at the court was “Innocent”.
I believe creativity is a strong plus in both professions, design and translation. As a designer you have to think about what the client actually needs, and fight your inner desires to do this or that; you have to be analytical, do a fair amount of research and draw conclusions from it and from the interview with your client. Having great drawing or painting skills is not an absolute must to create a good logo, for instance, but you need to understand composition, how to lay out the elements, and I believe you have to love typography; it is a great part of a designer’s work, and one has to appreciate it and learn how to use it.
I love design, and I love translation. I believe this is so because I am a creative person, and both activities “tickle” my brain the proper way. Both challenge me, help me learn new things, and in part that’s what life is about. And, as geeky as it may seem, computer games had a big part in my learning English. See, during the 80s and part of the 90s, games were seldom translated; I loved graphic adventures (the likes of LOOM, Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest, etc) and interactive fiction games, and I had to improve my English if I wanted to know what was going on in the game, so I played with a dictionary next to the mouse. It may seem silly, but that’s how I learned to love the English language. An early start also helped, as I started learning English at school when I was 7; I am thankful for that.
Translation can be quite a competitive industry. Yet your blog displays many beautiful logos that you designed for other translators and which are clearly intended to help your colleagues improve their professional image and promote their own services more effectively. What inspired you to provide design services to translators?
At first it was the other way around; a translator from the UK contacted me via twitter and asked me if I could redesign her website. I saw she needed a proper visual identity before a website could be created, and she gave me the green light for a new logo and business cards, which you can see in my corporate blog at Globulart.
A month after that, another fellow translator contacted me with a similar proposal, and after designing her logo, CV and business cards I am finishing her website.
What I could see is that many translators and agencies have no visual identity, or the one they have leaves a lot to be desired, looks like a template, or just needs more work. A client makes assumptions about you when he or she sees your website, your logo, you business card, your photograph, and so on... so, a good visual identity is a real asset and it can make you stand out from the competition. I am planning to be more active promoting design services to translators (may this serve as a token of my offering these services).
When creating a design, what are your sources of inspiration? How do you make designs that are creative, but at the same time limited to your clients needs? How do you approach designing?
The client is the main source of inspiration; I usually do an interview and try to gather as much information as possible about the target audience, the product or service, the functioning of the company or professional... Add to that a good amount of research on the business of the client and his/her competition, visual style, language, etc... Once you have absorbed all that information it is so much easier to create something that is right for the client in question. Creativity is the X factor, I have to say that I have been surprised by some of the designs I created, and it is hard to tell where this or that touch came from.
I always try to go through those steps; following them is time consuming but extremely important. When I feel I know enough I start doing some rough sketches, with pencil and paper or directly in the computer; when I find a promising concept, then iterate, iterate, iterate... to just get it right; some of my designs, especially logos, can look simple and easy to create, but you would have to see the Illustrator files... lots and lots of versions to come up with the right one; it pays off to take all that time polishing a design, that way it will be much more robust and usable.
Where do you see yourself and your business in the next few years?
I would like to say that I will become a successful translator, which is my goal now and I am working hard to accomplish it. So yes, I have faith in my possibilities, I believe it will pay off. If I start to fantasize, I would have loved to do the Spanish subtitling for the documentary “Helvetica”, or the upcoming “Objectified”, both by Gary Hustwit. I tried to contact the director but got no reply, perhaps some other time.
I don’t think I will stop doing design work; I offer DTP services and that has brought work from time to time. What I would like when it comes to design is to do more creative work—I feel there is still too much technical stuff in my everyday work.
Aside from graphic design and translation you are also a musician. Tell us a little bit about that. How did you get started? Why? What kind of music do you make?
I would say it was at school that I started loving to play music; I remember we had a great music teacher; he challenged us, taught us how incredibly interesting and beautiful music is. We learned to play the recorder, and I remember I was quite good at it (I have a small collection of tinwhistles and I still enjoy playing them). At the age of 12, I convinced my grandmother to get me a keyboard for my birthday; it was a polyphonic keyboard... God, I’ve spent hundreds of hours on it, learning how to play. I could read a musical score, so I bought several music books and slowly learned to play, also playing many songs by ear, mostly by Jean Michel Jarre and Vangelis; that helped a lot to improve my skills.
The biggest thrill probably was when I first played a song using both hands. It may seem trivial, but at the time I was blown away, and I have to tell you it feels GREAT when you are inspired and play with the heart; and it’s a very weird and special sensation when each hand moves independently. So, I was about 15 years old when I started making small compositions; Steven, my best friend at the time, also played the keyboard, and had a Roland synthesizer (D10) as well as a Yamaha MIDI sax (WT-11 & WX-11); I wrote and recorded a couple of interesting songs with those pieces of equipment. Me, I was struggling to save money to buy my own synthesizer, something my father didn’t like; that was a cause of confrontation and, long story short, it took me almost 5 years to get the money, and even when I bought it, the synth was kept away for some time, so I had to wait until 1997 to actually have my hard-earned synth, my faithful Alesis Quadrasynth, in my hands. Most of my songs available at Soundcloud were composed during that time, from 1997 to 1998.
Why doing it? Music is a great way to express yourself, writing it is stimulating and rewarding; of course I’d love to make a living creating soundtracks for videogames or movies, but you know, I really think it doesn’t matter all that much. I am happy if a bunch of people listen to my music and it actually makes them feel something. But there was an instance in which I got paid for my music: back in 1999 I composed two 10-second jingles for a local TV station from Granada.
I suppose I could label my music as “New Age”. Everything I have composed is instrumental; many of my songs are evocative, with dream-like passages of strings and tinkles. I say: listen to it, you tell me what you would call it.
Do you feel language, design, and music share common characteristics? Why or why not?
They are all creative processes, and they all have their own rules and structure... Music is mathematics, and so is design; math is everywhere: in the tempo, the beats, the chords, the silences and the repetitions... and also in the shape, colour, proportion, balance, etc. The same happens with language, it has its own rules and there is rhythm in it.
As to why this is so, I’m not completely sure, but my guess is that contrast is the key. The human brain likes contrast; when you hear a song, the changes in chord are what stimulates you the most, what uplifts you or makes you feel melancholic. In design, the right contrast between colors or shapes is what catches your eye; with language it may be more subtle, but I think the same thing happens.
Have you always been interested in the arts and language? Do you have any other interests you would like to share with us?
I have! And I remember how, as a child, I thought a lot, and I mean A LOT about words and how they were made, how you could transform one word into another just by exchanging letters or syllables... I played with words in my mind. And I still do, actually.
My other interests include photography, art and film. I collect old computer animations; I have a nice collection of computer animation clips from the 70s, 80s and 90s. I love science-fiction; currently I am reading “Neuromancer”, by William Gibson; I especially like the first sentence in that book: “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
I have always liked photography; lately I’ve photographed a lot of fireworks, though portraits are usually much more rewarding. During my studies at the school of art, we learned traditional photography techniques... you know, dark room, red lights, developing liquids, etc. I enjoyed that so much, I loved every minute of it. You can see some of my photos here.
I enjoy writing; I have written a couple of short sci-fi stories, one of which was chosen by a popular radio show here in Spain, called “La Rosa de los Vientos”. They recorded and aired a dramatization of that story in May 2005. You can listen to it (in Spanish) here (it will soon be available in my Soundcloud page).
Finally, my translation work for Democracy Now! has made me aware of many things that happen in our world, it is a great source of news. But it hasn’t really changed dramatically my view; if anything, now I have a stronger political conscience.
I would like to thank you for your interest in my opinion, and hope some of your readers find my responses a good read. Regards from Spain!
To learn more about Angel you can view his professional profile on Proz or LinkedIn. You can also see his pictures on Flickr and enjoy his music on Soundcloud.
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