Angry, by Marco Veringa on Flickr

[edit 30 October 2009: Scroll to the end for an update]

There are many reasons why I have a blog, and gaining a good, strong Google ranking is just one of them. So I generally don’t mind being quoted anywhere (in fact, I positively encourage it) and I’m all for getting my work out through different channels. All in all, I’m a pretty reasonable person and I appreciate that copyright isn’t always straight-forward in an age of content sharing.

But I’ll admit that I was a bit taken aback when I saw a translation agency had copied an article of mine to their company blog last week, without so much as a credit or a by-your-leave. Or any kind of reference back to me or my blog, for that matter. I mean, I appreciated the sentiment of sharing “very educational” articles, but I couldn’t help but feel that their approach, combined with the spammy Google Adsense ads, detracted somewhat from this noble aim.

They *say* they give due credit - but I think a more polite approach would be to email authors for permission first. Taken from http://point-translations.blogspot.com on 29.10.09.

At first I just thought they must be naïve. I ran a quick check on the company, and they looked pretty bona fide in every other sense. Lacking an ethical compass, certainly, but maybe also just a little myopic in their over-eagerness to embrace social media. (Let’s face it, we can all get a little blinded by our own brilliance at times. Especially when we think we’re on to Something Special. Like a blog.)

So I thought maybe they were just too amateur an operation to fully appreciate copyright. Maybe they really thought they were doing me a favour by sharing my hard-won wisdom with their 26 subscribers*. Or maybe they genuinely believed I wouldn’t mind them making money off my content with their liberal sprinkling of Google Adsense ads. (Yes, that bit really hurt).

Either way, I figured they must be pretty misguided not to realise that Google blacklists sites with duplicate content. And whatever about my own ranking, surely there was no way they’d risk their own Google ranking too… right?

But because this last point is a deal-breaker for me, I took the time out of my day to email the agency in question, request that my content be removed and, while I was at it, offer them a few tips on how to properly syndicate content. I didn’t even bill them (because I’m good like that). The offending post was promptly removed and the oversight blamed on an errant employee. Fine – I was all set to move on. I like to pick my battles and frankly my life’s too short to worry about what other people are doing wrong.

But then, on Sunday, I see they’ve gone and done it again. This time, they’ve filched an article from Bab.la’s Lexiophiles. Not a single line of credit back to the source – no author name, no reference or link back to the original site, not even an article title. In fact, the article doesn’t even make sense here because it’s so out of context, it’s hard to figure out what it’s referring to until you’re half-way through.

Clip from the start of the offending article (taken 29.10.09):

Is this what you call "due credit'? Taken from http://point-translations.blogspot.com/2009/10/corporate-blog-of-elite-professional.html. Article originally appeared at http://www.lexiophiles.com/language-blog-toplist/top-100-language-blogs-2009-how-and-why

And from the end (taken 29.10.09):

More due credit of the uncredited variety. Taken from http://point-translations.blogspot.com/2009/10/corporate-blog-of-elite-professional.html. Article originally appeared at http://www.lexiophiles.com/language-blog-toplist/top-100-language-blogs-2009-how-and-why

The part where I address the culprits directly

Come on, guys – I was on your side. I was fair, and I gave you a chance. But how ’s a girl to keep her head stuck in the sand with this kind of carry on? The Lexiophiles team works hard to produce relevant, original content, and they deserve better than this.

It doesn’t matter how good the rest of your online brand appears now. I’m forced to view your entire blog as a completely unscrupulous attempt to drive as much traffic as possible back to your company website. Oh, and if you can make a quick buck off the backs of your fellow professionals in the process, then all the better. After all, your blog is hosted on a free blogspot platform and isn’t linked to your company domain. If your blog gets blacklisted by Google, you only need to open another free account somewhere else, right?

Not cool, guys. NOT cool.

Elite Bilingual Services claim to be Asia’s leading translation agency. And I’m sure they’re a nice bunch of people. Yet this kind of behaviour gives a bad name to all translation agencies, and further devalues the work of individual translators.

My request

If you, dear reader, also object to copying and pasting work without at least asking for permission, then please consider emailing marketing@elitebilingual.com and let them know what you think about their editorial policy. Maybe this is a chance to harness social media to effect some small measure of positive change on behalf of our profession. And let me know how you got on. (Good luck leaving a comment on their blog, my comments disappeared into the ether.)

A big thank you to Prini and Andy for raising this and for advocating on my behalf. This post is me paying it forward.

* figure based on Google Reader statistics.

—-

UPDATE 30 October:

Shortly after this post appeared online, the company in question posted an apology on their blog. I’ve also received emails from 2 different employees, explaining the situation and apologising again.

Apology. Taken from Taken from http://point-translations.blogspot.com/2009/10/we-are-really-sorry.html on 30 October 2009. See link for rest of post.

I must say, I’m impressed with their response. Furthermore, I’m happy to give them the time they’ve requested to review past posts, and I’ll follow their progress as they revamp. Why? Because we all mess up. It’s how we get ourselves out of such a situation and move forward that shows people what we’re made of. And who knows, this incident might gain the company an even loyaler following of readers. Have a good weekend all, and thank you for your comments.

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Sarah Dillon: You have some very interesting areas of specialisation, for example marketing and advertising, the arts and music. Can you tell us a little about how you developed these?

Amy Williams: When I became a translator my love of music and the arts – both as a practising musician and a keen bystander – naturally spilled over into my work. If there were one area of my work in which I could say I feel truly comfortable it would be music, although every project is a reminder that there is still an enormous amount out there to be discovered. I came to music from the classical side but I listen mostly to jazz and rock, and support local bands and small independent setups. On my iPod at the moment I have tracks by Blur, Buena Vista Social Club, Bob Dylan, jazz great Charlie Parker, Mason Jennings, Ravi Shankar, and a recently re-formed Welsh band called Hurricane Joe.

Marketing was a similar story because it was a field that interested me and I was keen to channel my enthusiasm into my work. We market products and services so differently in different languages and cultures and I relish the creative challenge of producing copy that maintains the essence of the original but is written entirely for the target audience. It never fails to amaze me how a piece of marketing that would have buyers drooling over a product in one language would mean almost certain death for the product in another.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing, though. I’ve run up against a few staunch supporters of a more literal approach to translating marketing material, in which case a few examples of failed and successful marketing campaigns are usually enough to justify a fresher, less literal approach. Failing that, the client will doubtless be back when the literal approach fails to make sales – a great shame and a waste of time and money.

SD: What advice would you have for aspiring translators hoping to develop specialisms in these areas?

AW: You have to be enthusiastic about your work. Knowing your specialist areas like the back of your hand is fantastic but getting fired up about your fields will give you the edge. Also, the arts – and music in particular – is a broad field and an easy and frequent target for translators with little specialist knowledge, so make sure you know your stuff before you leap in.

SD: I understand you’re reading for an MSc in Psychology from the Open University. What inspired your return to study?

AW: My life has always been very arts-focused and I think it was time to feed the dormant scientist within me. My last encounter with science was a combined science GCSE at high school, so I found the initial learning curve in the MSc incredibly steep and put in a lot of extra hours churning out felt-tip sketches of neurons, neurotransmitters and goodness knows what else to get to the same level as my coursemates. The course has been fascinating. In our last module I worked on the benefits of the Mediterranean diet in combating oxidative damage in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease, which was incredibly interesting. I chose psychology in part because I’ve always been interested in the workings of the mind, in part because I’ve always wanted to do further study, and also to broaden my knowledge for my work.

SD: Any tips on marketing yourself to clients?

AW: I receive a lot of emails from translators offering their services. Most are poorly laid out and packed with spelling and formatting nasties. My top tips would be to be as professional about how you present yourself as you can, not to undersell yourself (an immediate turn-off), and to create a polished CV that gives a quick snapshot of your translation career. They’re old tips, but they work.

SD: What has been the single most useful tool or resource in your career as a translator to date?

AW: Networking. It’s better than Google, better than any dictionary, and beats any software program hands down. Networking has been crucial in my career, not just for assigning projects and marketing myself but for discussions over terminology with natives of the source and target languages, and for advice and support.

Thanks for the tips, advice and ideas Amy, and best of luck with the rest of your studies.

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• A series of short videos introducing Twitter.
• Some 5 minute videos on how I use LinkedIn, Wordpress, and Google Reader for professional purposes.
• A half-hour* presentation on social media for translators, which takes a more hands-on approach than my presentation today as it covers how to use Tweetdeck (co-presented with Philippa Hammond – check out her blog for a great guest post on search engine marketing too).
• If you still think Twitter is just noise, then read about how one translator used it to track what she was learning at a conference.
• Here’s some more thoughts on how I fit all these tools together as part of the bigger picture of my professional practice.
• Finally, a write-up on using Skype for business purposes.

Thanks again to everyone for tuning in and for their questions. I plan to pull together a summary of some to the key issues raised as part of my write-up, but in the meantime, feel free to post your questions  in the comment section below. I’m not promising I know the answer but I’ll certainly be able to point you in the right direction.

* 14 October: correction – it’s a half-hour presentation, not a one-hour one… Thanks Kimmo.

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Sarah Dillon: You have many years of experience in healthcare, and are in fact a Registered Nurse (RN). How difficult was it to make the conversion to being a medical translator? What preparation did you have to undertake to supplement your existing knowledge, and do you have any tips for aspiring medical translators who might not have this background? [Sorry, I know that's really 3 questions but I couldn't resist!]

Andrew Bell: Hi Sarah. This is an interesting question. Making the conversion was fairly straightforward for me, although it didn’t take place overnight – in fact it took about 3 years from my taking on my first project, to when I stopped nursing and became a full-time translator.

Without boring your readers with my life story, I’d lived and worked in a number of countries, including as an RN in the UK, Australia and Norway, and had even taken the U.S. NCLEX-RN (the American examination for entry into nursing for graduates of foreign schools of nursing) in Atlanta Georgia, and so I had a broad experience of different healthcare systems. At the time I started translating I’d been an ICU nurse for over 10 years and was ready for a career change. I’d been living in Norway with my (then) partner and I actually took an aptitude test at the local job centre (I wasn’t unemployed, I hasten to add) – and translation was at the top of the list. That’s when I had my “epiphany” and realised that the perfect career was actually staring me in the face.

In terms of making the transition, I spent 2-3 years where I juggled my ICU role with translation projects (often taking work with me on night duty). Fortunately, if you’re an agency ICU nurse you often end up with the long-term patient in a sideroom, which – though antisocial – was perfect for my needs.

To answer the second part of your question; in terms of preparation I had no “big plan”, but rather felt my way slowly from general translation into medical projects. It was obvious to me that I knew more about chronic obstructive airways disease than I did about Swedish backhoe loaders!

The first thing I did was join Proz – which was very useful for me as an entry point – and I used their hosting service (still do) to create a web presence, and that’s when the first projects came along. I’d also read Alexander Eames’ “How to Earn $80,000 a Year as a Freelance Translator” which, despite the cheesy title, was full of excellent tips in terms of creating a CV, marketing to clients etc. If any of your readers are looking for something a little more current, I’d recommend Corinne McKay’s “How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator”, Geoffrey Samuelsson Brown’s “A Practical Guide for Translators” or Morry Sofer’s “The Translator’s Handbook” – all these were helpful to me.

I joined the Institute of Translators and Interpreting (ITI) as soon as I met the entry criteria for associate membership. I knew I needed professional support and mentorship as well as access to a professional journal, CPD and e-groups. This was a smart move. As soon as I could I took the examination for full membership and then joined the American Translators Association (ATA) and the Australian Institute for Interpreters and Translators Inc. (AUSIT). One of the major benefits of joining the ITI was that I could become a member of ITI MedNet, the ITI network for pharmaceutical translators and interpreters. Nine years later I’m still a member.

My first medical translation, for which I was wholly unqualified in terms of experience, was an online medical dictionary. Before the project folded due to lack of funds I’d translated around 10,000 words and had struggled with many issues along the way.

ITI MedNet was a revelation: the e-group provided fantastic support and was/is populated by bright, funny, articulate and educated people – all of whom shared my passion for language. Not having come from the traditional University route into translation, this was the first time I’d shared space with people who talked the same “language” as me and it was a revelation.

Anyway, I’ve drifted about 10 kilometres away from your original question. For translators who are new to the profession but want to go into medical translation, I would suggest that it helps to get some general experience under your belt before you specialise. If you’re going to make mistakes, which all people do, then do this with general texts rather than medical or pharmaceutical documents: medical translation has potential for litigation, but if you adopt good standards for quality control then there’s no reason to go into it fearfully.

One of the first things I did after gaining some general experience was to actively market myself as a medical translator. I created a new, professional website (http://www.scandinaviantranslations.org/) and made sure that key words such as “medical translator” and “pharmaceutical” appeared in the body of text and the metatags – a good way of getting picked up by search engines. I also made sure my CV focused on my medical background and experience. Keep the CV focused; keep it short, and make sure it’s professionally edited or looked over by a colleague you can trust to be honest.

In terms of expanding my existing knowledge, I did this by attending CPD events, by reading extensively and by supplementing my library with specialist reference books (Dorland’s, Stedman’s, the Oxford Clinical Handbook series, Munksgaard’s medical Danish dictionary, Kunnskapsforlagets medical Norwegian dictionary, Cressy’s excellent Swedish<>English medical dictionary, the Merck Manual and others).

I maintain that medicine, and hospital-based medicine in particular, has its own language – and in many ways some of this can only be learned by experience (some academics would disagree with this view). If you’ve worked in medicine or nursing then you know it’s a “nasogastric tube” not a “stomach tube”, “scanty bowel sounds” not “faint gut noises”, an “i.v. giving set” not an “IV infusion line” and terms like “systolic murmur”, “rebound tenderness”, “PERLA”, “alert and oriented”, “i.v. cannula”, “indwelling catheter”, “residual urine” form part of your everyday working language. This “secret” language is really a dialect: medical notes have their own grammar (or lack of) and medicine definitely has its own vocabulary.

If you’re translating patient notes and you come across a term or expression you don’t know, try your hardest to get it right. Ask professional colleagues (ProZ Kudoz might be useful for some queries but some answers are, in my experience, way off), use your specialist e-groups, ask a trusted colleague. If you can’t find the right translation then be honest – leave an edit comment for the project manager or editor, or make a list of problem terms in a separate Word or Excel document.

Medical acronyms are a common sticking point for medical translators – I often use the Armenian Medical Network’s excellent Dictionary of Acronyms, which is a really useful tool, as is Acromine – a database of medical acronyms produced by Medline. Also, if you use Firefox as your browser you can download Speed-dial, which enables you to “preload” a number of blank frames and you can populate these with your most commonly used medical resources, dictionaries etc. This is a real timesaver when deadlines are tight.

I would suggest that if you’re planning to translate patient notes, medical records, surgical texts or journal articles then you might consider a course in medical writing/editing, read prolifically around the subject (“Medical Translation Step by Step” by Vicent Resurrecio and Maria Gonzalez Davies is excellent) or even consider working in a hospital on a paid or volunteer basis if you really want to get a handle on the language of medicine. Membership of professional e-groups such as ITI MedNet or the ATA Medical Division are both essentials in my book: you can’t “best guess” medical translation and having trusted, professional colleagues to turn to at times of need is essential.

If you’re just getting started as a medical translator then as well as following the advice above you might try finding a friendly co-translator to revise your translations. Make it worth their while too: if you pay them promptly (within 7 days) and at a decent rate then they’re more likely to drop everything to edit something for you at short notice. A “quid pro quo” relationship always works well too: I have a number of collaboration colleagues and we often cooperate on medical projects – I’ll revise their work or they mine and my experience is that second-translator review is always worth doing.

I’d absolutely recommend that you gain a thorough working knowledge of some of the industry standards, i.e. the EMEA templates for summaries of product characteristics (SPCs) and package leaflets (PILs) – standard templates for descriptions of pharmaceutical preparations produce by the European Medicines Agency. Not only do SPCs and PILs  follow standard headings and sub-headings but the register and style are highly specialised. I’d also recommend that would-be medical translators become familiar with the ICD (International Classification of Diseases) codes produced by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as these are commonly used in medical notes.

Finally, I’d say that one of the best qualities a medical translator can have is tenacity: you should stop at nothing and use all possible resources, including e-groups and peers; until you’re convinced you have the right term or expression. My experience is that project managers, and clients generally, appreciate this highly and this will help you achieve repeat business.

SD: As part of your CPD, you’re studying for a Diploma in Publishing (Book Editing, Proofreading and Publishing). In practical day-to-day terms, how do you feel this is contributing to your ability as a translator? Would you recommend it?

AB: Absolutely! I didn’t follow the traditional route into translation so I invested in an extensive library of editing reference books and started a distance diploma in copy editing and proofreading for publishing (run by the Australian College QED in New South Wales), which I’m halfway through. I also studied linguistics and German at the University of Western Australia which was extremely useful to me as an autodidact, particularly in terms of learning about prescriptive grammar and the components of written language.

I’d recommend writing regularly for pleasure to enhance your writing skills. I think there’s some truth in the statement that constant exposure to your source languages, particularly for those of us who write regularly in our source language(s), can impact negatively on your ability to write “well” in your native tongue. In her book “French Lessons” the author, Alice Kaplan, wrote on her writing ability:

Dan read my drafts right away. At first he was grouchy—I was sloppy, I couldn’t spell, my English was awkward from reading too much French…

I think she has a real point here. I’ve always read prolifically, but I now try and stretch myself in terms of choosing writers with different styles and also read a bit of fiction too – which has paid off, I think, in terms of my work. I’ve found it helpful to put your work through a “quaintness test” before sending it to the client. Michael Frayn, discussing his translation of Chekhov’s novels in the ITI Bulletin (Jan-Feb. 2003), wrote:

I really do believe the characters have to express themselves in absolute English otherwise it’s not really a translation. The point is that the original doesn’t sound quaint and odd and foreign to Russians, so it shouldn’t sound quaint and odd to English people.

Keeping this in mind has paid real dividends in the quality of my own work and I recommend it to others. Lastly, I’d recommend printing your translations out (with double line-spacing, large font) and editing them in hard copy. It’s not very smart in terms of your carbon footprint but it is an excellent way of picking up errors you don’t see on a monitor. If you really can’t compromise your green principles then consider printing your Word document to PDF, which is a pretty good alternative to hard-copy editing as it removes a lot of the background “noise” you get in a Word document.

SD: You’re a member of the ITI, AUSIT and also the ATA, and I understand you’ve attended conferences run by all three associations too. I’d be interested to hear about any specific or unique traits you might have noticed in each. Do you find they support you in different ways, for example? Is the membership process very different?

AB: Interesting question. I think they have different approaches to the industry, which largely reflect the cultural differences between the two countries.

The ITI is very CPD- and education focused and has extremely active divisions and regional networks.

The ATA divisions are independent, self-governing entities, which I think results from the sheer size of the United States. The ATA is also a much larger organisation and its conferences are very well marketed and attractively packaged. The ATA conference material is also made available to members and non-members on DVD and contains all sessions in audio format, plus PDF notes and PowerPoint slideshow. These are reasonably priced and a great resource. Both the ITI and the ATA have professional journals and the ATA Chronicle is also available to members in archive form via the ATA website (going back to 2002).

Another major selling point in terms of freelance translators is that membership of both the ITI and ATA will give you access to the corporate membership database. I’d say that around 50% of my work comes from American clients now, and marketing to corporate members of your T & I [translation and interpreting] organisation is always going have a greater chance of succeeding if you’re also a member of the organisation. Both the ITI and the ATA are represented on LinkedIn too – although the ATA seems to have gone cold on the former since it advocated using crowdsourcing to have its content translated.

SD: Finally, what tends to be your approach to finding new clients? Do you actively seek them out, or rely on word-of-mouth?

AB: Actively marketing to corporate members of my of my professional organisations has been one of the most successful methods for me, but I do seem to get a lot of word-of-mouth work too. I think one of the traps people fall into easily is stopping marketing once they start getting a regular supply of work, but if 80% of your work comes from 10% of your clients then you’re in a potentially precarious situation. You only have to lose 2 or 3 clients (through natural attrition) to lose a large part of your regular work.

I try and do some marketing every week and I keep a strict record of these activities, including the agencies I approach, the method used, when the marketing took place and any follow up. I also re-contact agencies if I haven’t heard from them in a while. Project managers come and go and it may simply be that the new PM doesn’t know you exist, or that you are highly-experienced with pharmaceutical texts, so a simple “catch-up” email can be a real winner. Google Open Directory and LinkedIn are both good tools for marketing too.

SD: What is the best and worst thing about freelancing? Any tips on countering the downsides?

AB: Best and worst thing? The best thing about freelancing is freedom: the freedom to work when I want and to adjust my workload according to other stuff going on my life; the freedom to go to the gym in the morning, to work from a coffee shop, to take a day off mid-week and catch up on the weekend and the ability to work from home. All plusses for me.

Downside? Tax returns and cash flow would have to be up there, although employing a decent accountant and working on your negotiation skills and project management can effectively negate these. The isolation isn’t always good, but I try and meet a friend for coffee and a chat at least once a week, I’m in a number of professional e-groups, I run a networking blog for translators called Watercooler (http://www.translationandlanguage.ning.com) and I insist on going to at least one or more conferences a year – just to stop me turning into a dribbling, socially-inept hermit!

I should point out that I’m a home parent, a father of three school-age kids and we also have two dogs – so the likelihood of my suffering from isolation is pretty slim. I think the key is to be disciplined in your work, focus on your deadlines and the project at hand, take regular breaks and make sure you take care of your physical and mental health.

Translation, for me, is still the most intellectually stimulating and enjoyable profession I’ve been in and I’m passionate about it. Working from home, despite some of the drawbacks, is still infinitely more attractive to me than returning to the corporate yoke. I think that as long as we stay socially-engaged, remain connected to our professional community, keep a sense of humour and—most of all—keep enjoying our work, then this really is the best job in the world.

Thank you Andrew,  for all these great sources and tips and for your patience in answering my many-more-than-five questions!

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Sarah Dillon: You came to translation after many years in the business world. What unique benefits do you think this experience brought to bear on your translation career, particularly in terms of perspective, approach, etc.?

Karen Stokes: I started my career as a buyer in the food industry: as a result I find I look at my business from the buyer’s perspective – what does my client need, how can I meet that need and what added value do I offer? One of the mantras during my time in the industry was that a product justified its development by being ‘better, cheaper or different’ – arguably translators don’t want to position their services as cheaper but better or different is still worth aiming for! The other main lesson I learned was that everything’s a negotiation. It’s not magic but you do need to prepare thoroughly, know what you’re prepared to accept and stick to it – even if it means agreeing to disagree and turning down a job. Time spent getting cross about terrible clients who pay lousy rates is time wasted – if you can’t come to an agreement you’re both happy with then you simply move on.

SD: I’m very interested in how translators learn (and maintain) our second languages. Once you decided to go into translation, how did get your French to a level where you were comfortable enough to count it as a working language? What is your preferred way of keeping it in good working order?

KS: I didn’t use my languages for quite a while after I left Oxford, but picked them up again at a later stage in my career, doing some teaching in further education and a lot of language training for business clients, which definitely brought my French up to date: more business jargon and less 19th century literature! Once I decided I wanted to translate I sat the IoL Diploma in Translation, which gave me the confidence to get started. As far as keeping it up is concerned, obviously there’s the day-to-day business of translating, but I’m also in the midst of an MA in legal translation, so I’m focusing a lot on terminology in that area at the moment.

SD: You were one of first translators to be awarded Chartered Linguist (Translator) status. Do you have any advice or tips on the application process, particularly on gathering evidence or preparing for the interview?

KS: Good record-keeping is essential: if you’re applying as a translator you need to provide evidence of both your volume of work and your continuing professional development (CPD) activities. Keeping records of your assignments seems to me good business practice too – it certainly makes it easier to see which parts of your business are most profitable. Preparing thoroughly for the interview is important – perhaps by doing a run-through with someone else – particularly if you’re likely to feel a bit nervous. The rules for Chartered Linguist applications give a detailed breakdown of the structure of the interview so applicants have a very good idea of the sort of questions they’ll be asked. It’s definitely worth making notes and taking them in with you so you don’t forget anything important you wanted to say, and reminding yourself of what you said in your supporting statement too. In the end I actually enjoyed my interview – the interviewers were really supportive and we got into a great discussion about ethics!

SD: How do you approach finding clients? Do you tend to focus on word of mouth or direct marketing?

KS: I don’t do a great deal of active marketing – clients tend to find me on the web or I get referrals from colleagues, which is always nice. Most of my work comes from established clients, to be honest, many of whom I’ve been working with for years.

SD: Finally, what has been the best advice that anyone has ever given you about translation? (Or that you wish someone had given you?)

KS: Without doubt the best thing I ever did was to join the CIoL and ITI, partly because they’re both a great way of learning about the industry and meeting colleagues, and partly because I’ve got a lot out of being involved in them myself. I’m also hugely grateful to the friend I once asked for advice on how often to run a back-up. His answer was “How much work do you want to redo?” – which definitely focuses the mind!

Thanks for sharing your insights, Karen!

You can see a video of Karen’s great talk on Career Development for Translators and Interpreters here – well worth a look if you’re wondering how best to approach your professional development.

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This video first appeared on Andrew Bell’s Watercooler: Tips, Tricks and Networking for Translators – thanks for the inspiration Andrew.

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PRE-CONFERENCE

1. Make a list. I always make a list of a couple of things I’d like to discover at the conference or event. Treating it like a fact-finding mission puts me in an open frame of mind. The list also helps me get back on track when things get crazy, or when I get tired and wonder why I ever thought leaving the house was a good idea.

2. Search Twitter and blogs for mentions of the event. Follow people who mention the event or add them to your feedreader. If you’re feeling brave, why not strike up a conversation in advance of the event – you already know you’ve got a lot in common. If things go well, you can arrange to meet for a coffee at the event itself. If things don’t go well, at least you know to avoid them.

3. Search LinkedIn for speakers or attendees you might like to meet. What else do you have in common? Maybe you went to the same uni, or worked for the same employer. Check their connections, you might know the same people. Remember, LinkedIn’s real power is in its second or even third degree networks. (If you find nothing, you know they’re not into new technologies. That tells you something in itself). I find this kind of research makes it much easier to walk into a room full of people I don’t know.

4. List the event on LinkedIn, if it’s not there already, and indicate that you’ll be attending. This is a great opening for other less shy people to contact you. You could probably do this on other social networking sites too, but I like LinkedIn because the network is large, professionally oriented and not just for translators.

5. Don’t forget the people you know already. Who else do you know in the same location as the event? Take some of your online relationships offline and arrange to meet someone for a coffee. Let co-workers, colleagues, suppliers or even clients know you’ll be attending, especially if they’re not all on LinkedIn. This ticks two boxes: it lets people know you invest in professional development, and gives them an opportunity to let you know if they’re attending themselves or if know others who are.

6. Search Google Images and Flickr for attendees, speakers or anyone else you might like to meet. This is good if a name sounds familiar, for example, but you’re not sure if you’ve met them before. Now there will definitely be a few ‘familiar’ faces in the crowd. (I used to think this was a bit stalker-ish. Now I don’t care. If someone has put their picture online, why not make use of it? Basic research, really.)

7. Be aware of industry news and hot topics. Read association journals, but do an online search of the web and blogosphere too. Formulate some ideas, opinions or questions of your own – you’ll learn a lot more and will have a ready source of conversation openers for those awkward moments over the buffet. You could also use LinkedIn’s Answers feature to ask questions raised in the speaker abstracts. Not only are you engaging in key ideas, but you’re also doing the speakers and other experts a favour by giving them an opportunity to chime in, if they want.

8. Read up on the event exhibitors or sponsors. Don’t assume they’re to be avoided just because they’re more explicit about their marketing efforts than you are. Exhibitors can be a great source of industry information and may be potential employers or clients in their own right. Best of all, if things get really bad you can engage them in conversation, safe in the knowledge that they have to be nice to you – they’re selling something

9. Make it easy for other people to find you. If you write a blog, take the time to post some great content coming up to the event. Chances are everyone else at the event will be checking you out too, and you might as well give them something good to talk to you about. Use the event’s hash tag (if it has one) and the location where the event is held, so people poking around on Twitter Search can find you.

10. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Think up conversation starters and graceful conversation closers. Have a few lines ready on things you’re involved with. If you’re looking for a job or new clients, be clear on how you’re going to talk about this. Be concise and to the point – it makes it easier for people to give you an answer. Finally, be enthusiastic. Save your tales of woe for another time.

11. Prepare to be sociable. Look up some recommended restaurants either close to the event or near a transport hub so people can get home easily afterwards. There are lots of sites that can help with this, for example Top Table for UK cities or Eat and Drink for Australia. Keep the number and address handy. If you meet a bunch of people you like, you have a good suggestion of where to meet or can share a cab there at the end of a long day. If everyone is nasty, go there by yourself as a consolation prize.

DURING THE CONFERENCE

12. Make time for wind-down activities – especially if the conference runs over a few days. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to be on full throttle 100% of the time, or the event will be a waste. Take 30 minutes to read the paper, enjoy a cuppa, or head to a gym or swimming pool. Being stuck indoors all day, eating and drinking differently than usual, combined with meeting lots of new people, can really take its toll. Working out what you need to do to wind down will help prevent burn-out, shorten your recovery time post-conference and ensure you feel a lot better heading into the event each day.

13. Never wear new shoes. I hear childbirth is bad, but I suspect the pain of wearing new shoes to a conference comes a close second.

POST-CONFERENCE

14. Take the time to follow up with people you spoke to, or wish you had spoken to. Otherwise how is it any different from just following a bunch of people online, and then wondering why nothing has come of it? Connect with these people on LinkedIn or Xing. Subscribe to their blog or follow them on Twitter. (This is just one of many ways to integrate your real-life and virtual networks.) Even better, send an email to thank someone for their advice, to send them information you might have promised them or to arrange to catch up again after the conference.

15. Lie back and light a cigarette. A pat on the back works too.

* Image by the Travelin’ Librarian on Flickr

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If you know a bigger, better or just plain different way of managing your RSS feeds, I’d love to know. Why not leave a comment with your own top tips, post a blog response or even better again, upload your own video.

This video was first posted on Andrew Bell’s Watercooler: Tips, Tricks and Networking for Translators – thanks for the inspiration Andrew.

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If you know a bigger, better or plain different way of maximising your LinkedIn profile, I’d love to know. Why not leave a comment with your own top tips, post a blog response or even better again, upload your own video.

This video was first posted on Andrew Bell’s Watercooler: Tips, Tricks and Networking for Translators – thanks for the inspiration Andrew.

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Starting tomorrow, I’m planning to post a series of screencasts to demonstrate how I use various web 2.0 and social media tools. They’ll be no more than 5 minutes each, aimed at fellow language professionals, and pretty rough and ready in format (suffice it to say you won’t find it hard to believe I’m a translator, instead of a movie producer). My aim is simply to share things that I find interesting, or that have worked for me as I’ve built up my freelance practice over the past 5 years or more.

Technical details

I’ll be capturing the screencasts using Jing. I’ve forked out a few bucks for the Pro version because I prefer to work with the MPEG4 format, but I’ve also used the free version of Jing with good results before, for anyone who is interested.

I’ll upload the screencasts to Jing’s free hosting space, then embed them here in my blog. Jing limit their recordings to 5 minutes each, which is good news for me and for you.

It’s a very simple, straight-forward process and there’s no reason why anybody else couldn’t do the same, were they so inclined

Why am I really doing this?

OK, I accept that simply liking projects and having fun aren’t in themselves good enough reasons to go to all this trouble. The truth is I’ve found myself on a bit of a mission.

There’s just so much that we do well as language professionals, and the way that we work is a huge draw for many people. But frankly, we’re not very good at letting the wider world know why we’re so great, and we somehow manage to scare away more newcomers than we attract.

Sometimes it can feel like petty whinging and negative, dismissive comments are the defining features of many translation communities, online and off. In my own small way I’ve always tried to offer a positive, empowering but still realistic view of the profession to try to counterbalance this. In fact, this was a large part of what motivated me to publish my very first work-related blog post almost three and a half years ago. It’s still a large part of why I blog today, although thankfully there are increasing numbers of positive translator-voices online.

With this particular project, I’m hoping (rather grandly) that even more translators will be encouraged to strengthen their online presence, either by sharing screencasts of their own with fellow colleagues, or by picking up enough tips here and there to enhance their online presence in other ways.

If we all chip in, maybe we can better communicate to clients, newly established translators and the community at large the positive message that we’re a vibrant, talented and confident community of professionals.

Now for the disclaimer

If you’re a regular here, you’ll probably already know that I’m not a marketer or a social media expert, and despite rumours to the contrary, I’m definitely not a millionaire. I’m a full-time freelance translator, one who makes mistakes and still has a LOT to learn about translation.

I also feel I should point out that I don’t believe for one second that social media and new technologies hold the answer to everything that is challenging about our work, or that there is only one right way of doing things. But new technologies have played a huge role in building my business, and I’m aware that not everyone finds them as easy to navigate as I do. So I figured, why not share what I do know?

So stay tuned, let me know what you think and feel free to leave me a comment with suggestions, questions, or ideas of things you’d like to see covered in future screencasts.

* probably not really secrets

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