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Professional Appearance and Prestige (Part II)

Aug 10th, 2009 by Graciela

The people we don’t know ‘know’ us – that is, they have a walking and talking impression of what a lawyer ought to be and what a lawyer really is….By and large, the public mind is influenced by what is seen on the surface – by what is gathered in glimpses, either first-hand or through newspapers, radio, etc. (Baird 1958: 643)

But what does the “average citizen” know about translators? That we can speak several languages? That’s about it!

When it comes to judging, both attorneys and physicians are judged by their accomplishments: how many convictions or acquittals they have won (whether as prosecutors or defense attorneys) or, in the case of the latter group, by how many lives they have helped save. Their standing among the public in general constitutes their professional prestige or symbolic capital. Prestige is the grand total of our educational capital, personal achievements and our cultural capital.

A translator’s performance is judged by our readers/customers. UIs (User Interface strings) and online help documentation are generated by multiple authors, which are later translated by many technical translators (in-house and freelancers in most cases) and then reviewed by in-country reviewers. It is true, though, that in many cases, court trials are won by teams of attorneys and patients are saved through the intervention of many medical specialists. Yet, defendants who are found not guilty will always remember their lead attorney and patients will remember their primary physician.

How do we examine the prestige of technical translators without some kind of ambivalence? When the user notices a translation problem in a localized software version they say: “How can they possibly translate this term or phrase like this?” If the localized software is poorly translated, we, the translators, surely take the blame for it, just as attorneys take the blame when they loose a case or physicians are blamed for a patient’s death. A poor translation job or loosing a client might affect our professional prestige. But our prestige is not as easily perceived as it is that of attorneys and physicians since we usually remain invisible to most readers/users.

Translators work behind the scenes in the shadows of a corporation. They are anonymous to the customers/readers, their names do not show up on the localized version credits. However, they are the link between cultures but they are an invisible link.

References:

Baird, Edward R. 1958. “Professional Prestige”. Virginia Law Review 44(4), May, 1958: 643-653.
Lawrence, Leah. 2009. The white coat – a universally recognized medical uniform. The History of Medicine in America: http://www.mnwelldir.org/docs/history/history01.htm. Accessed July 2009.

Questions: Do you think translators enjoy professional prestige? How is it shown?

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Making Translators more Visible

Jul 28th, 2009 by Graciela

Both in-house and freelance technical translators are key elements in the software localization and services industry. Software publishers can purchase expensive translation memory tools and even machine translation applications but without human translators, it will not be that easy for them to profit from the sale of their localized applications. So, why are translators so invisible? This is a question that haunts me every day.

Invisibility is a term that refers to the state of an object that cannot be seen. In-house and freelance translators seldom have the opportunity to talk directly with the software publisher’s customers. It is the sales people who are in direct contact with the customers. Eventually, when a customer files a Problem Report*, the “issue” is submitted to the software engineers and, later, sent over to the in-house translator to take care of it in the localized version. In-house translators are salaried employees and they drive or ride to their corporate offices every day. On the other hand, a large number of freelance translators contract with Language Service Providers (LSPs) to work remotely in a digital world where workers keep in touch through communication networks. This latter group then, is even farther removed from those customers/readers than in-house translators are, since: 1) most of them do not have any contact with their in-house counterparts due to strict company policies; and 2) generally, they do not have access to the software applications they are translating during the production stage.

A quick search in ProZ.com boasts over 250,000 registered users (translators, linguists and interpreters). This is a virtual global directory for the translation community. Hundreds of transactions take place through this Web site on a daily basis (a growing brokerage system that allows freelance and interpreters translators from all over the world to offer their professional services to translation agencies and corporations for a mutually agreed upon fee). Seldom do these translators have personal contact with the project managers or project coordinators of the agencies for whom they work. This digital and remote working capability has been enabled thanks to the functionality and efficiency of communications technology, the Internet, translation memory software and the computerization of translator’s activities.

In more traditional US professions, like law and medicine, both attorneys and physicians have more direct contact with their clients or patients due to the nature of their work. As Baird states, “How we lawyers live, how we talk, what we look like, indeed what we seem to be, combine to generate an over-all impression in the public mind” (1958: 643). Technical translators, by comparison, would seem to be nearly invisible to their audience. Our readers/customers might have an occasional glimpse of how we do our jobs, but they certainly have not developed a mental image of who we are, what our names are, what we look like and what we seem to be, what formal education we have, or, for that matter, how we live.

Why are software translators kept invisible? Is translation turnover high in the corporate world? And if so, why is it high? Is software translation a temporary career for most its practitioners, in other words, is it a road to nowhere? Would we feel better if software applications included a list of the developers’ and translators’ names on their jackets or the publisher’s Web site? On the other hand, is it fair to lend our names to recycled translations, that is, localized strings that we never translated but are part of the overall software application we are in charge of?

In 1990 Lambert and Hermans conducted a study to analyze the translation job market in Belgium, focusing mainly on job satisfaction among business translators. They wanted to find out “why was job satisfaction among translators in business environments as low as it seems to be” (ibid.: 150). For this purpose they interviewed translators engaged in “technical or business translation” and working in local, international and multinational companies located in that country.

Regarding working conditions, the study found that (ibid.: 155):

  • In-house translators do not feel fully at home since they are considered “as lower-category employees” (ibid.: 156).
  • Translators have no clear legal status. No diploma or test is required to work.
  • Translation is still a black market. “Secretaries and friends of managers continue to produce business texts” (ibid.: 155). When managers need a translator, they would have their secretaries or friends do it, and pay them for the work, rather than hire a professional translator. Translation is not considered a serious business. Therefore, “outsiders can take care of it” (ibid.: 155).

Lambert and Herman’s conclusions regarding the translators’ attitudes towards their work are as follows (ibid.: 155):

  • Though their salaries might be descent, “translators are not really part of the overall management” (ibid.: 156).
  • Translation project deadlines are unreasonable or non-existent (Lambert 2006: 157).
  • Communication is unidirectional: little or no feedback before, during and after the project has been completed (ibid.: 157).
  • The speed and quality of the task is “mechanical”, which implies that even though the company has hired an expert, he or she cannot establish her own strategies or rules (ibid.: 157).

Below are Lambert and Herman’s conclusions as far as the translation process itself is concerned:

  • The translation process is planned without the intervention of any language expert (ibid.: 157).
  • The evaluation or feedback on the employer’s behalf is rare. It is generally initiated by an external complaint (customer).
  • Instruction sheets are more common but still exceptional in certain fields, like in television (ibid.: 157).
  • Feedback on the translation is rare between the commissioner and the translator (ibid.: 157).

Some in-house translators see translation as a stepping-stone to a more lucrative corporate position, for instance, project management. And some would put up with working for as many years as it takes to jump onto a management career that guarantees a move to a desk in a real office with a window, and, of course, more autonomy.

What other salaried positions in the US allows in-house translators the opportunity to use their language skills 8 hours a day, five days a week? What about bilingual assistants? They are generally in charge of planning, reporting, controlling, budgeting, forecasting and, yes, some translating.  In other words, translation is not their core responsibility.

Physicians, and attorneys, for instance, work in their capacities almost all their lives. Most of them have a passion for what they do and are proud of it. Some physicians might leave their general practice for a more specialized field, or in the case of attorneys, they might go from being a trial lawyer to being a judge. But they remain within their own field (medicine or law).

In all my years working as a translator I have met many colleagues who happened to be translators because they needed to make a living one way or another, and knowing two languages allowed them to fulfill their financial needs. Consequently, as soon as they were offered a better-paying job, involving other responsibilities and duties, they soon moved to the new position (I am not judging). So, is translation a real career or a secondary career that we can resort to whenever we need due to different circumstances?

I am using the concept of invisibility in two different layers. First, the translator is seen as an intermediary between the source text and the target text.  As Robinson notes “the translator is a ‘medium’ or mediator who channels the ‘spirit’ or voice or meaning or intention of the source author across linguistic and cultural and temporal barriers to a new audience that could not have understood that source author without such mediation” (2007: 2). It seems that when readers do not realize that they are reading a translation, the translator has fulfilled his/her mission: the message has been clearly conveyed, and therefore, the performer of the translational act remains invisible. Readers focus more on the finished product, the translated document or application software. Most of them think of translation as a mechanical act, just like closing the garage door, or turning on the oven, something we do without much thinking. “Translation remains an invisible activity perceived as a form of mechanical code-switching” (Koskinen 2008: 67).

Physicians, and attorneys, for instance, work in their chosen fields almost all their working lives. Most of them have a passion for what they do and are proud of it. Generally speaking, they remain in their jobs for their entire career. Bronte (1993) classified the variety of career experiences into three categories. The first category, the ‘homesteaders’, includes those individuals who are faithful to their jobs, that is, who remain in the same job for their entire career. Some physicians might opt to leave general practice and enter more specialized fields, like cardiology, rheumatology, etc.  But basically, they do not change careers, they move once or twice from one field to another but they remain within the medical profession. In the case of attorneys, one might go from working as a trial lawyer to becoming a judge. Or, in a few cases, the other way around, some judges retire from the bench to become advocates in private practice. But they remain within their own field, one way or another. Many professionals are ‘homesteaders’, they are engaged to their careers.

The second category mentioned by Bronte is that of the ‘transformers”, that is, workers who make one or two significant changes during the course of their careers. And the third group is composed of the ‘explorers”, those individuals who wade in and out of careers not being sure, perhaps, what they are after.

The second layer in the meaning of the term invisibility refers to the flexible nature of this language career. Some of us tend to work in this field only occasionally. “Interpreters and translators held about 41,000 jobs in 2006 (in the US). However, the actual number of interpreters and translators is probably significantly higher because many work in the occupation only sporadically” (US Bureau of Labor Statistics). Consequently, the focus on the product rather than the doer and the sporadic nature of our careers are contributing factors to our invisibility.

References:

Koskinen, Kaisa. 2008. Translating Institutions: AN Ethnographic Study of EU Translation. Manchester and New York: St. Jerome Publishing.

Lambert, José. 2006. Functional Approaches to Culture and Translation: Selected Papers. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Robinson, Doug. 2007. The Invisible Hands that Control Translation. http://www.fti.uab.es/sgolden/colloquium/invisible.html. Visited September 2009.

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Word Count and Productivity

Jul 28th, 2009 by Graciela

To be productive, technical in-house translators are required to translate a certain number of words within a set time period so that the software publisher can simultaneously release both the English version and the localized versions, otherwise known as simultaneous shipment or ‘simship’. “The [software] product must be released on time even it is has a few flaws [bugs]” (Milton in Koskinen 2003: 22). Most software publishers generally release both the English version and the localized versions once they pass 95% of the Quality Assurance Process (QAP).

Project managers determine the word count of a translation project in order to set deadlines for their in-house translators and/or for the language service providers they contract out with based on the following:

1. “Total number of words in the source files

2. Internal repetitions

3. Leverage percentage (translation re-use), including fuzzy matches” (Esselink 2000: 418).

In 2003 the yearly output of the Directorate-General for Translation (DGT) was one and a half million pages (Koskinen 2008:  69). Supposing an average of 500 words per page, the total number of words translated in one year would be 75,000,000. Software publishers also translate millions of words per year. Gouadec states that “the volumes for translation have been massified”, that is, software translation has become industrialized (2007: 297). This so-called ‘massified’ word volume is the result of the constant demand for translation all over the world, and reflects two main causes for the growth: increase in job size and the number of language combinations. As Gouadec states “documents are now frequently translated into 10 or 20 languages” (2007: 298). WordPoint is a PC dictionary that provides instant translation in 18 languages. Each dictionary contains approximately 500,000 words and expressions.

There has been a significant increase in the word count of translation projects due to the global demand for software applications localized in multiple languages. According to the official Google blog, its machine translation program offers automatic translations among 41 languages (1,640 language pairs), that is, between languages read by 98% of Internet users.

As an in-house translator I have translated application user interfaces containing up to 1,150,000 English words. And documentation for each application is also humongous, sometimes up to 800,000 English words. Some very technical software applications are made up of several modules, which further increase the word count. Every version the software engineers and technical writers add new buttons, features and functionality that also contribute to the increase in word count.

References:

Esselink, Bert. 2000. A Practical Guide to Localization. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Koskinen, Kaisa. 2008. Translating Institutions. An Ethnographic Study of EU Translation. Manchester, UK and Kinderhook (NY), USA: St. Jerome Publishing.

Questions: 1. How would you describe your workflow management? 2. How many translation or proofreading assignments do you get per day? 3. How would you describe your deadlines?

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The Making of Corporate Culture

Jul 28th, 2009 by Graciela

“Shaking GM’s long-criticized corporate culture will be a key issue as the 100 year-old automaker seeks to relaunch itself”, observed General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson during a July 10, 2009 press conference as the company exited bankruptcy. (www.workforce.com)

Corporate culture is one of the most important concepts in studying any organization. It is both a gateway to its customers and a way of life for its employees.

“In an organization the term ‘corporate (or organization) culture’ refers to the dominant values at work in the organization. These are variously referred to as ‘the company ethos’, the ‘organization culture’ or ‘our values’. The corporate culture usually includes the dominant management style active in the organization. The values embodied in an organization’s culture usually focus on its relationships with customers, the community, and employees as well as defining its attitude towards quality, safety and ethical issues. Some of these values may be written down and others implied in behaviour” (Cole 2003: 102).

As per the above definition, corporate culture is the sum of the philosophy adopted and promoted by the organization main executives, and the attitudes of the employees towards those beliefs at two levels: how they interact within the organization and in their interaction with their customers and the community.

The company I work for has a strong sense of commitment and involvement with the community: it sponsors blood drives twice a year, donates funds to non-profit organizations, and millions of dollars in engineering software to universities’ research programs every year. It also encourages its employees to organize clothing and food donations. This is a great way to help the community where it is located and to allow its employees to participate in those events. As far as the work environment of my company, it resembles that of a library. Though most of translators work in cubicles, everybody works in a quiet manner, trying not to disrupt someone else’s attention with a loud voice that is distracting.

Reference:

Cole, Gerald A. 2003. Strategic Management: Theory and Practice. London: Thompson Learning.

Questions: 1. Is there room for professional growth for in-house translators in your organization? 2. What is the turnover rate of translators? 3. What is the dress code of your organization? 4. What are the values in your organization? 5. What is the leadership style of your boss?

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Teaming up with In-Country-Reviewers (ICRs)

Jul 16th, 2009 by Graciela

In-Country Reviewers (ICRs) perform an essential role in the localization process. They help with the editing and testing of all software applications in a specific locale. Quite frequently ICRs are involved with sales and are in direct contact with customers. Some ICRs are software engineers, country managers or software distributors. Some are paid for the extra time they put in while reviewing and testing the applications while some others are not. Fees and work arrangements between the publisher and the staff in the target country will definitely vary from company to company.

In-country reviewers review the UI strings, technical documentation, online help, and courseware previously translated by localizers. Once ICRs and in-house translators have established a work scheme, it is important to update the glossaries for each application in conjunction.

“In-country reviewers must focus on technical consistency, completeness, and adherence to agreed terminology and language standards” (Esselink 2002: 15). In an ideal world ICRs should have product knowledge, linguistic background and review experience. Their feedback to translators is important to the success of the localized version.

Some software publishers rely heavily on in-country reviewers, who work in their local offices, to perform reviewing and testing of localized versions of their applications software before the release date (Esselink 2002: 15). This step in the Quality Assurance process is significant to comply with higher-industry standards in the final product. Some localization translators team up with in-country reviewers for the final review and testing of the software products.

Localization is teamwork among a group of professionals who combine different set of skills to produce software applications in a given time and in different locales: software developers + software engineers + technical writers + technical translators (localizers) + service language providers (in most business models) + in-country reviewers + project managers + localization engineers as well as Quality Assurance engineers-. This special translation genre is different from literary translation, where, generally, there is only one translator in charge of translating a whole book. There are exceptions though, like when a book involves different dialects of the same language. In localization, there is a plurality of authors, UI strings are developed and written by several software engineers, sometimes they are even created by the publisher´s customers, and translations are done by a team of translators (in-house and freelancers).

Reference:

Esselink, Bert. 2000. A Practical Guide to Localization. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Question: What is your experience working with In-Country Reviewers? 

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Translation Strategies and Translation Policies

Jul 14th, 2009 by Graciela

Among the daily challenges faced by a technical translator are to create work that is faithful to and consistent with the source, even when the source context is absent or not clear at all, and to not exceed the length constraints of user interface strings (menus, commands, messages, prompts, dialog boxes, buttons and titles).

For languages that are spoken in diverse countries (e.g., Spanish), the localizer must be also aware of the different cultural nuances for certain terms or expressions. In other words, he or she must have knowledge of the cultural conventions, what words to avoid because they might offend a reader in Spain or Mexico but not in Peru or the US. The localizer have to have a feel for what is socially and culturally correct. This is true especially when software publishers localize versions for many diverse countries under a so-called “standard Spanish”.

The use of newly coined words and the huge difference in total words in the English language (about 1,000,000 as explained in one millionth word) compared to many others, also present struggles for localizers.

The aim of software localization is to create a version that is equivalent to the English version. It has to be user-friendly. When translating English UI strings into our native tongues, we need to make sure that the reader understands what we are talking about and that we are consistent in our translations. Changing the name of a button all the time is detrimental to the user experience.

The textual changes a translator makes in the target text — how do we go from Point A (source text) to Point B (target text) — rely upon a set of translation strategies, the means we use to cross this cultural bridge. Professor Chesterman organizes translation strategies into three main groups:

Syntactic strategies: literal translation, loanwords, calques, transposition, unit change, structural change, cohesion and rhetorical change

Semantic strategies: use of synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, hyperonyms, condensing, expanding and modulation.

Pragmatic strategies: addition, omission, explicitation, implicitation, domestication, foreignization, formality change.

Of all the translation strategies indicated above I would like to focus on literal translation (syntactic strategy group) and domestication versus foreignization (pragmatic strategy group).

Literal translation is word-for-word translation, almost copying the grammar and syntax of the source text into the target text. Foreignization is a translation approach that leaves elements or traces of the source text in the target text while domestication is just the opposite.

Questions: 1. Which translation strategies do you use the most? 2. Do you choose domestication over foreignization or the other way around? 3. How neutral are we when we translate?

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Professional Appearance and Prestige (Part I)

Jun 17th, 2009 by Graciela

How do outsiders see translators as a group? A young student working away at a laptop while listening to an iPod? Or a thirty-something intellectual type wearing an old pair of blue-jeans, a second-hand scarf and driving a dilapidated car? Or an executive in an Armani suit tossing his BMW’s keys to a parking valet? Or a fortish-woman hurriedly putting down her groceries bags to answer a customer’s call on her cell phone? What is the image we project onto our readers? Are translators stereotyped, like attorneys or physicians often are? Can our profession be a bridge to the same kind of social status and financial freedom that doctors and lawyers enjoy in the US?

Let’s take a quick look at some changes in medicine that helped shape the current image we have of physicians in the US. In colonial days it was very difficult to distinguish a physician from a barber or the other way around. If you needed a member cut, either would do it. Medical practice was focused more on healing than science. Among the therapies used were: bleeding, purging, and blistering. The most frequently- used drug was a kind of mercury (see references). As a matter of fact, medicine was more of a philosophy than a science. But as physicians incorporated more science into their ‘profession’, the public increasingly began to regard them as scientists and their image took a dramatic change for the better. Nineteenth century advances in chemistry, bacteriology, cellular pathology, and virology (as well as the administration of vaccinations) made the public more trustful of physicians. It was the addition of scientific techniques that enhanced their reputation among the general public. The adoption of the white “uniform” also contributed to improving a physician’s image among their patients and the society at large.

“Finally, the white coat was a representation of cleanliness and the idea of causing patients no harm. It was a professional barrier between the physician and the patient. This barrier cloaked the physician with a sense of authority but also reminded physicians of their professional responsibilities to the patient” (Lawrence 2009:1).

I have asked several coworkers to describe the image they have of translators in general. To some, translators are indistinguishable from other office workers; though others think we look like attorneys, or professors, or students.

Technical translators who work in the US come from different parts of the world and have a variety of educational backgrounds. Not all of us have attended any kind of “translation school”. And those who have completed undergraduate or graduate translation programs will find out that the curricula at these educational institutions vary from country to country. Therefore, it is very likely that technical translators form a more heterogeneous group than other professionals. Still, in spite of the different external images we project, there is some interdependence among translators with diverse backgrounds and educational levels who are working to bring people and cultures together.

There might be another reason why there is no single public image of translators. The public at large identifies attorneys and physicians more easily than they do translators because they have a closer contact with them. Therefore, they know “how we (attorneys) live, how we talk, what we look like and what we seem to be” (Baird 1958: 643). There is also a close relationship between the surface appearance, what one looks like, the image one projects, and the perceived prestige associated with a particular profession. (continued in Part II).

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Your Adopted Country – The USA

Jun 17th, 2009 by Graciela

“Ten years ago the novelist Isabel Allende became a US citizen. Her passport identified her as an American, and she lived in California. But at heart, she said recently, she continued to be a Latin American from Chile, where her family’s roots were and where she lived on and off for a third of her 60 years. Then came September 11. And as she watched the World Trade Centre burning on her television screen, she said, her feelings about her identity changed. “Watching the towers burn, I didn’t feel a distance at all,” she said. “I mourned with everyone in (the US)” (Ojito, 2003).

A great majority of technical translators were born outside the US and came to this country at different stages in our lives and for various reasons. Some of us were accompanied by family members and friends. Some came by ourselves.

And most of us experienced a cultural shock at some level. A sense of surprise, anxiety, awe, fascination took over as soon as we arrived in the US. Some of us had to get used to speaking a different language most of the time, learning and using different social rules, eating different food and drinking different beverages, and interacting within a new community. Little by little we adapted to our new cultural environment. Some of us went to school, others started working right away. And here we are now, working as technical translators, whether as in-house or freelancers. Each of us has our own likes and dislikes about our common situation.

As for me, I have endured the following for many years now:

Most Americans cannot pronounce my first name, which I have had to Anglicize to avoid frustration.

A surprising number of Americans do not know what language is spoken in my old country, Argentina. Many think we speak Portuguese.

Some Americans cannot place Argentina on the map.

I had to change the way I write the numbers 1 and 7 to avoid confusing the “natives”.

Most Americans think that “no problemo” is the correct Spanish translation for “no problem”.

In spite of the above, I consider myself very fortunate, I still adore living in the US. Its language, culture, its body of institutional rules and knowledge and its people have completely enriched my life.

Reference:

Ojito, Mirta. 2003. My Adopted Country. FairfaxDigital.

Please describe briefly what you like and what you do not like about working in the US.

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The Translation/Localization Profession in the US

Jun 16th, 2009 by Graciela

The growth of Translation Studies as an academic discipline, coupled with the expansion of localization programs worldwide, mirrors the boom in the language industry in the last decade. A recent search on the Internet, however, found only around 25 US universities that offer any kind of general translator training programs (one program for every two states in a nation of 307 million population). These range from certificate to graduate programs (master’s and doctorate) involving a wider set of languages than the traditional English-Spanish combination. When compared to more traditional academic disciplines, the number of translation programs in the US is certainly low.

Yet, the need for qualified language professionals is rising with the globalization of the economy and the information age. Singh explains that multinational companies are having a hard time finding experienced language professionals (or localizers as they are known in the IT industry) to localize their software applications and Web sites (2009: 1). As an explanation for this scarcity of language professionals, professor Singh points to the lack of academic localization training, the “knowledge gap” and the “business education gap”, as the causes generating this situation (2009: 2).

From a training point of view software localization draws on a range of disciplines: translation, linguistics, computer science, cultural studies, business strategies and management. Although localization has become a very important field of study worldwide, in the US only three universities (California State University (Chico), Monterey Institute of International Studies and Kent State University) offer localization related programs (Singh 2008: 30). 

There is perhaps a double irony in the limited number of localization training programs offered in the US: on the one hand, it’s a nation that (usually) boasts of its cultural diversity; and, on the other, it’s the birthplace of the computer and software industry.

Why is it that translation is regarded as more of an occupation than a profession in the US? Why is it that the US is not a leader in translator training programs compared to European or Latin American countries?

It is worth mentioning that US immigration policies generate an automatic pool of bilingual individuals who are then recruited by non-profit organizations and corporations to fill their translation and interpretation needs. Some of these immigrant workers/students have earned their translation degrees abroad. This fact also reinforces Lindberg Hammond’s statement about where the US obtains its translators: “the US could rely on its immigrant population to do much of its translating” (1992: 142). Might this explain why few US universities offer translation programs in comparison to other countries.

Could this also help explain why translation is not always seen as a true profession in the US?

References:

Lindberg Hammond, Deanna.1992. “The Translation Profession in the United States Today”. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 511, Foreign Language in the Workplace (Sep., 1990): 132-144. 

Singh, Nitish. 2009. The Importance of the Localization Education: Goals of the Localization Certification Program. GALA. 

—— 2008. The Importance of Localization Education. TC World. 

Questions: Is translation a profession or an occupation in the US? Do translators enjoy appropriate social prestige in the US? Is there a relationship between lack of formal training and public perception of the translation profession? When asked the question “What do you do for a living?” do you answer, “I work as a translator” or do you say “I am a translator”? Do physicians say “I work as a physician” or “I am a physician”?

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A Day in the Life of a Freelance Translator

Jun 15th, 2009 by Graciela

It is wintertime, another cold Monday in January in the northern parts of the US. I wake up early in the morning feeling happy I can work from home instead of having to drive some ten or twenty miles in the snow to get to work. Still, I have to get up since one of my cats is used to an early breakfast (and can get very impatient if I ignore his wishes). I take a shower, make coffee, feed my cats, and rush to my computer to read emails while enjoying drinking a cup of coffee with milk. I browse my emails to see if there are new messages from the translation agencies I have been working for during the last four years. (They call themselves “Language Service providers” or “Localization Companies” now.) I also check my phone for work related messages. 

Bingo! A new translation assignment just arrived. After accepting the brief, and signing and returning the agreement, I download the files and start reading the English text. Word count for the project: around 10,000 total words, 1200 ICE matches, 900 fuzzy matches, 400 repetitions. Deadline: four days. Well, I feel elated since I have work for a day or two. 

Twenty-minutes into my new assignment I receive another translation request from a second client. Job requirements (deadline, work agreements, electronic signature, unexpected emails and phone calls), and the day starts getting really complex. 
Thirty minutes into reading the English assignment and oops! There they are: new unknown terms, typos, phrases that are very hard to understand, some sentences poorly composed, etc., but this is usual. We expect that, so on we go. Searching online dictionaries, Google, glossaries on my computer, printout dictionaries. Still cannot find the right word for my translation. Email the agency with some of my queries. Go on translating. Take a coffee-break, the bell rings, the UPS guy with a delivery (a book). Play with my cats and go back to translating. 

Every half an hour I have to stop working and Yahoo away, just to sharpen my saw. 
Three hours later it is lunchtime, I take a very short lunch break, enough to keep me going. Go back to my home office. Wake up my computer. Open my email. 

Good! A response from the translation agency saying they will get in touch with me as soon as they hear back from their customer. Nothing new. But I have to go back to work. Translate, translate and translate. By five o’clock, I feel satisfied with what I have accomplished but start worrying about the workload for the next day. I visit some translation marketplaces just to see what they are offering. I remember I have to complete and email some invoices, do some transactions on Paypal and call it a day. Not bad, what can happen tomorrow is always a mystery.

Please tell briefly what your typical day is like. Is it more chaotic, more pleasant, more interesting or more boring.

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