Integration: An Unstoppable Force

Posted On January 15, 2013By TranspanishIn Languages/  No Comments

Countries are rarely monolingual, and not only due to the effects of globalization on cross-border movement. Nearly every country of the world counts at least one, and often many native languages among those spoken within its borders. Nonetheless, each area maintains one dominant, modern-day language that is used for government, commerce, industry, education, etc. While populations speaking languages native to an area are often integrated in modern society, it is very rare that they cannot communicate in its dominant language.

Imagine living not only in a modern, but a highly urbanized and populous area, without knowing even the basics of the dominant language? It seems impossible, but that is the effect that globalization and cross-border movement are having on some countries, particularly in Europe.

integration

An article published by BBC News last month looks at the existence of migrant communities within Great Britain which get by solely with the languages from their countries of origin. The Romanian population, in particular, is a case in point as a community so large and enclosed that many of its members cannot speak or understand even basic English. And it’s not unique to European countries. The history of the US is filled with examples of communities — the Irish in New York, the Japanese in California, etc. — which came and settled among each other, resisting to some degree integration with society at large. And yet resistance to learning the dominant language — in this case, English — never lasted more than a generation or two.

According to the BBC, such is the case with migrant groups in the UK. While parents may never learn English, their children invariably pick up the language in school, and more recently in their use of technology. Regardless, as immigration shows no sign of slowing down, governments increasingly employ interpreters and commission translations of documents to accommodate these migrant communities. Some argue that this simply encourages them to not learn English.

And yet ultimately, it doesn’t really matter how many satellite TV channels are available, or whether the shop owner down the street doesn’t speak English either. Integration is a force that can’t really be completely stopped. It might be delayed for a few generations, but whatever forces cause the rejection of integration — fear, disinterest, lack of resources – it will eventually give way to curiosity of one’s surroundings and their proximity.

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Organizing Your Time As a Freelance Translator – Part 2

Posted On January 11, 2013By TranspanishIn Tips for Translators/  No Comments

Continuing with our last post which looks at ways to manage your time effectively as a freelance translator, we’re including some more tips to maximize your time efficiency. The following items are designed to help freelancers with task management.

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Task management can be a tricky thing, and begins with organization. One thing that can either hurt or help is organization software. This is something that many people try out, only to end up back in the same place of too much to do and too little time to do it. Software tools such as Swift-To-Do List Professional, for example, offer a valuable service, but only if your workload justifies it. If emails from clients wondering when you will finish a project are what remind you that there is a project, then having a tool to organize your jobs with deadlines may be a good idea. Then again, if you’re able to mentally keep track of your assignments, or use some other method of documenting them, then using another software tool could just take up more of your time.

An often overlooked way to be a more efficient freelancer is to de-clutter — not only physically, but mentally as well. Mental de-cluttering requires a certain amount of compartmentalization; that is, separating relevant thoughts and activities from those that are not related to work, and saving the latter for another time and place. A clutter-free physical environment can also go a long way in minimizing distractions and helping you stay focused on the task at hand. So don’t forget to clean and organize your work space, too.

And finally, task management — even for a freelance translator — does not have to be a solo endeavor. Knowing when it’s time to seek collaboration can make all the difference in effectively managing a heavy workload or completely losing control of it. And since it’s not always easy to predict when a little help will be needed last-minute, staying in touch with other translators that you’ve worked with and keeping those professional contacts could end up being a wise decision for your business.

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Organizing Your Time as a Freelance Translator – Part 1

Posted On January 10, 2013By TranspanishIn Tips for Translators/  1 Comment

Freelancing as a translator or in any other industry requires an expert level of time management. Many people mistakenly believe this means figuring out how to make themselves work as much as possible within a given day or week — which is really just figuring out how to fight procrastination, or how to make yourself into a workaholic, depending on how far you take it. The truth is, time management as a freelance professional means understanding what you need to get out of each day, and making sure you achieve it regularly, if not every day.

For some freelancers, their time is best divided on a per-project basis (“I want to finish this large translation by the end of the week”, or “I’d like to get these three small assignments done today.”) For others, organizing their time in hourly increments makes more sense. The latter group of freelancers might think of their work time in terms of hourly rates, while the former group may simply set productivity goals. However a freelancer chooses to mentally organize their time, getting it organized for the purpose of setting — and meeting — personal goals is the first step.

Another important aspect of managing your time effectively is to have an honest, one-to-one chat with yourself about how well you work with distractions. Especially with translation work, freelancing can require a significant focus at some times and, let’s be honest, less focus other times. Knowing which type of project you’re accepting, or getting ready to begin, is essential in planning your time. If you receive a highly technical job, for instance, you may want to make sure beforehand that your work time will be uninterrupted. On the other hand, if it’s a job that you can easily knock out on a tablet or smartphone while riding the subway, or at home while watching a toddler, then go for it. The trick is to be honest with yourself about how much quiet you need to work and how much focus a particular job requires, and then plan the day or week ahead of time.

One final thing to consider is the paradoxical role that technology plays in your life as a freelancer and as a person living in the 21st century. With the plethora of tools out there to help people get their work done faster and easier, technology can also seem like the modern, adult version of a kid knocking at door asking you to come out and play. The fact that freelance translators spend their working hours in front of a screen certainly doesn’t help. What seems to work for many freelancers is setting reasonable — not overly optimistic — goals. “I won’t check Facebook or headlines for the next hour,” for example, or limiting social media/break times to a predetermined number of minutes, and sticking to it. If you can’t go eight or nine hours without partaking in these distractions, then allow yourself to do it with strict limitations so that it doesn’t get out of hand.

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Quick tips to organize your time

  • Schedule your day
  • Avoid distractions
  • If you work at home, let your family and friends know your working hours so that they don’t disturb you
  • Use a calendar
  • Track your time
  • Choose the best time of the day to work
  •  Take small breaks

Organizing Your Time as a Freelance Translator – Part 2

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Meaning of “la migra”

Posted On January 8, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  2 Comments

Following the last post on US Border Patrols, we’re taking a look at a term widely used in immigration contexts – La Migra. The term is more often heard in states along the border with Mexico than any other region of the U.S., although it can be heard just about anywhere that Spanish slang is used.

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A derivative of the Spanish term migración (migration) or related to migraciones – the offices dealing with immigration issues in Spanish-speaking countries – the term has become shorthand for both agencies and individuals that deal with immigrants and immigration. Both the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agencies can be referred to as La Migra, as well as the personnel who work for them, including immigration officers and agents who perform inspections of cars crossing the border or in search of illegal immigrants in places of business.

While the term is not only used by immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, if you hear La Migra come up in conversation, chances are someone is complaining about an encounter with immigration officials – much the same way a person might complain about having to deal with the law.

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U.S. Border Patrol to Refuse Interpretation Assistance Requests from Other Law Enforcement Agents

Posted On January 4, 2013By TranspanishIn Latinos, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators/  No Comments

Image courtesy of: U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Towards the end of November 2012, an impactful memo was released to little media attention by the Deputy Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, David V. Aguilar. The memo simply stated that Border Patrol agents would no longer respond to requests for language assistance (e.g. Spanish interpretation) from law enforcement officers who are not within the Department of Homeland Security. U.S. Border Patrol agents are required to be bilingual and traditionally have met the interpreting needs of law enforcement agents from other departments.

While the exact cause of this memo remains elusive, it comes shortly after the Northwest Immigrant Rights Projects filed a civil rights complaint arguing that the use of Border Patrol agents as interpreters unfairly limited access to government services for people being questioned who had limited English abilities. Immediately after the policy change was announced, the American Immigration Council hailed the decision, adding that these interpretation services “unconstitutionally targeted individuals for deportation based on the fact that they looked or sounded foreign and eroded trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement agencies.”

The memo further added that law enforcement personnel outside of the Department of Homeland Security would instead be given “a list of available local and national translation services.” As a result, Spanish interpreters working in the private sector would fill agents’ needs moving forward. However, critics of the policy change argue that interdepartmental collaboration would be severely hindered, including evidence-gathering and even officer safety. They add that while it may not affect agents working close to the border with Mexico – where most personnel are already bilingual – it could have serious repercussions for those working farther away from the border.

The change comes at a time when the number of Border Patrol agents is increasing rapidly, along with the federal budget which funds their operations.

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Linguistic Diversity in the U.S.

Posted On January 3, 2013By TranspanishIn Languages, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

Diversity in North America has essentially been on the upward trend since the continent was first colonized. It’s natural, then, that the region’s linguistic diversity would be increasing as well. But while linguistic diversity in the U.S. in particular has undeniably been rising in recent decades, according to a report by the Census Bureau, these bilingual and multilingual gains have come unevenly.

For one thing, linguistic diversity appears to be intricately tied to geography. For example, Asian languages such as Chinese and Korean are more widely spoken in California and Hawaii, along the Pacific coast. The concentration of French speakers is mostly in Louisiana and Maine, while German speakers are primarily found in North and South Dakota. Meanwhile, Spanish is spoken far more heavily along the Mexico border and in Florida, as is to be expected.

Language Diversity

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What may be less expected is the rate of growth of speakers of another language in the US. Sure, with current rates of immigration, it makes sense that the number of foreign language speakers in the US would increase quickly. After all, the country was built by immigrants. Yet what a report from the Census Bureau analyzing linguistic diversity in the U.S. between 1980 and 2007 revealed was that the number of foreign language speakers is increasing faster than population growth itself. And that’s just talking about people who speak another language at home – not the number of people learning a foreign language.

How is it possible that the number of native speakers of a language other than English can grow faster than overall population growth (an astounding four times faster, to be exact)? The answer is that more immigrants are retaining their linguistic heritage and teaching their children from an early age. While there were 381 distinct languages recorded in the report, the languages were categorized geographically by source, including Spanish, other Indo-European languages, Asian or Pacific Island languages, and all other languages. With its own category in the report, Spanish constituted 62 percent of the population of native speakers of another language.

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Language Professionals and Students: So Many Careers, So Little Time

Posted On December 27, 2012By TranspanishIn Languages, Tips for Translators/  No Comments

The claim that speaking one or more foreign languages increases your job marketability has almost become cliché in recent years. However, in an ever-globalizing world, it is truer than ever. For those who attain fluency in one or more languages beyond their native language, translation is an obvious option, with a variety of directions to go in. But there are several other careers either directly related to languages or tangentially related.

Any time someone achieves a deep understanding of any subject, there is always the option to become a teacher in that area. Depending on level of education, certifications and work experience, this could even be at the college or university level. Similarly, polyglots may often become theoretical or applied linguists and go on to publish industry-related research. These are also the folks that organizations tap into when a languages-related study needs to be developed and conducted.

Outside of academia, there is also an array of interpretation careers. When most people think of interpretation, they imagine the highly skilled interpreters that might work at the UN or some other multi-national organization. Achieving that level of professional success may be daunting for some, but there are certainly other directions to go in as an interpreter. Businessmen and women who travel for their work often find themselves in a country where they do not know the language, and require an interpreter to follow them around for a few days or weeks. This kind of work can be grueling in terms of work hours, but often pays higher rates because of it.

The tourism and hospitality industry is also a popular choice for those who study languages or grow up with fluency in more than one. Everything from hotels to cruise ships, restaurants and vineyards will often employ bilingual people, especially those with knowledge of English. Other less-obvious options that many don’t consider are museums and libraries. Regional departments in a museum, for instance, may require someone with extensive knowledge of the language from those regions, even ancient languages. Some jobs as a librarian, or information scientist, may also ask for knowledge of at least one additional language.

One area that many language students overlook is that of logistics and distribution. This is a thriving industry in many parts of the world, and due to the nature of international transport, often requires knowledge of different languages at the level of being able to communicate. Employees working in a ship harbor, for instance, may need to coordinate with their equivalents at the port of embarkation. Communicating with distributors in another country may also be required, as well as communicating with import and export agents or government representatives.

In sum, there is certainly a plethora of options to consider when researching language-related careers. Each carries its own set of requirements and non-language related training. But an in-depth knowledge of at least one foreign language will certainly open a variety of doors in the job marketplace.

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When you should turn down a translation project

Posted On December 21, 2012By TranspanishIn Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

Translator thinking

It may sound counterintuitive, or even just scary, but there comes a point in every freelancer’s career when they have to – or should – turn down a job. Far from being a bad thing, it is a necessary part of freelancing that will ultimately be better for your career and the clients that you work with. Here are some reasons why:

Not Enough Experience or Not Within Your Expertise

Though a project might sound promising and you might be tempted to gain a new client, you should not take projects that will be very difficult to complete. Consider, for instance, that you are an English to Spanish translator, always translating to your native language Spanish. You receive a Spanish to English project and are tempted to accept it, even though you know that you don´t have the right experience. Or maybe you receive a medical translation when your specialization is law. Once the excitement and sense of calm from getting new work wears off, you’ll be stuck trying to hurry through and complete a translation that takes too long because it is outside of your expertise.

Client Has a Tight Deadline

This might be a client that contacts you suddenly for a rush project, or who claims that every job is “urgent”, or who calls you on Thanksgiving day, or on Sunday afternoon, etc. There are plenty of these clients out there, and they should be avoided (unless you really enjoy being at someone’s beck and call and having no life or freedom, or unless they are willing to pay an extra charge.) You might have the patience to get through one or two jobs with this type of client, but beware when that patience runs out and you’re both stuck with a deteriorating situation.

Money Matters

All clients want to save money, it’s just a part of business. But freelancers should be wary of those who ask for big discounts. It could indicate that the client will not value your work, but it also has a negative impact on your business as a translator. Taking low-priced jobs means that you would need to accept more jobs. And that can make you more stressed about finishing projects quickly, and consequently lead to lower quality in the work that you do. Ultimately, charging a higher rate (not abusive, but a reasonable rate) is better for both the client and the translator.

In addition, projects with payment terms that are far from what is acceptable for you should be avoided. This point is particularly important because when working as a freelancer, you have to make sure that you are creating a cash flow that is sufficient to cover your living expenses. If a project does not include payment terms that would allow you to do that, it is best to pass on the project.

Research the Client for Red Flags

With so many online resources for checking up on a client’s profile or reputation, it just makes sense to do it. A good practice is to always search for a new client on Google and to also look them up on a site like the Better Business Bureau for US and Canada (http://www.bbb.org/). If you are working for a translation agency, a good place to see the agency reputation is http://www.proz.com/blueboard.

While you can’t necessarily believe everything you read online, if you Google a client and several sites with complaints about them come up, it’s a pretty good indication of what you can expect from working with them. The kinds of information you may find online include whether they pay on time, if they are easy to work with, and any specific issues that tend to come up in their business relationships.

Uninformed Clients That Are Not Willing to Learn

Beyond the deadline issue, some clients are just pushy and make unrealistic requests for projects. For instance, they ask 100,000 words translated in a couple of days, and aren’t willing to learn what translation is about (and why that request is not realistic.) A savvy translator will not spend too much energy on these clients. Rather than getting frustrated with uninformed expectations, you can explain politely why the project is unrealistic or tell them that it is not the way you work. If they wish to work with you, they can alter the request.

Follow Your Instinct

A final note is to watch out for clients that just seem too eager to hire you and pay you right away without getting basic information. There are new scams created every day, and experience in picking them out can protect you from falling prey. But even if you don’t have so much experience under your belt in dealing with clients as a freelancer, you can always fall back on your gut instinct. This also goes for projects that are not necessarily “scams” but that just don’t seem right for you, your schedule, or your expertise.

There are many reasons why a project might not be right for you, and it’s in your best interest to know what a “right” project looks like.

 

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The Risks of not Providing Safety Information in Workers’ Languages

Posted On December 19, 2012By TranspanishIn Spanish Translation, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

It is no surprise that Hispanics entering the US with limited or no English abilities often end up working in factories across the country. With a limited capacity for communication in English comes a limited set of options for work. Yet factories can be some of the most dangerous places to work in any country, where the ability to read and understand warnings and cautionary signs can mean the difference between health or injury.

Safety and Spanish Translations

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This issue famously came up in mid-2011 in an incident at Tyson Foods, an international corporation with headquarters in Arkansas. The factory incident revolved around a poisonous gas leak that occurred when a worker failed to read the label on a container, pouring a chemical into it that, when mixed with the residue of the chemical previously held in the container, produced chlorine gas. The Center for Disease Control interviewed the worker after the accident, and reported that he said his primary language was Spanish and that he could not understand the label written in English.

While Tyson Foods contests that the argument of the worker in question—claiming instead that his primary language is English and that he simply failed to take note of the label—the case highlights the importance of warning and safety precautions in factories, and the ability of workers to properly understand them. It doesn’t necessarily make sense for companies that run factories and other sites with Hispanic workers to provide language training to all of their employees—in terms of the time and resource investment. So it would seem that providing translations of things such as container labels, warning and hazard signs, etc. would make the most sense.

Another issue that arose in the Tyson Foods case corresponded to the way employees are trained for these potentially dangerous jobs. While the company claims that hands-on training is already practiced in its factories, cases such as this one emphasize why this form of training in the employees’ native language(s) is preferable to video or reading-based training techniques, in which employees may only understand part of the information provided in English, or none at all.

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Branching Out: The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Work

Posted On December 14, 2012By TranspanishIn Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators/  No Comments

Translators work in a variety of contexts, whether independently as freelancers, with an agency, or as a manager and/or editor within their own agency. The career trajectory that some choose to pursue, after entering the industry under the wing of an agency, is to branch out on their own as a freelancer. Armed with the knowledge and experience they acquired at said agency, these guys are ready to conquer the world. But what happens when things are going too well, and they can’t handle all the work coming in?

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Many freelancers worry about building their client list so that they have enough work coming in on a consistent enough basis to pay the bills. But the other side of the coin is managing that work so that you’re not inundated and turning away clients who then look elsewhere. When the risk of turning away business arises, freelance translators may choose to find other freelancers and outsource the excess work. This can obviously be a positive development in their career and can mean growth for their fledgling business. But it can also carry some risks of its own.

The immediate benefit of outsourcing extra work is that a client list can continue to grow and create more consistency of work coming in. Translators may find that they have jobs on a more regular basis, as they can accept work without having to worry about high volume times, since they have a backup translator or two to help out. It can also allow them to be more choosy regarding the types of translations that they do—focusing on particular areas of interest, and doling out the others to the people they hire.

In these cases, specialization can take root not only with the independent translator, but also with the people that he or she hires to help out. However, it is important to remember that a certain amount of time may be required to sufficiently train the freelancers in their particular area. Whenever outsourcing occurs, the person who outsources the work and maintains client relations is ultimately responsible for the quality of submissions.

Indeed, translators who began their careers working for agencies may underestimate the amount of time required to train the freelancers that they outsource to. There may be a learning curve to consider when working with others to achieve consistency in translations, especially with highly technical terminology or in cases where the client has set expectations regarding how they want certain terms translated. This is important particularly if the outsourced work is for regular clients in order to free up more time for newer clients. Any time there is more than one translator working on documents from a particular client, consistency will be an issue that is front and center and that will require some time dedication, at least initially.

In the process of outsourcing extra work, some people will find that they have a talent not only in doing translations but in managing the work of others. And if that is the case, he or she might consider hiring translators who work with other language pairs. Of course it would be important to make sure qualified and reliable proofreaders are on hand to ensure consistency and accuracy with the other language pairs.

Ultimately, the option to outsource extra work can be highly rewarding for freelance translators who have a real talent for what they do. But they should also be aware that doing so makes them accountable to the work of other people, and will most certainly end up being more time-consuming with the addition of new tasks that must be managed.

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