Apps for Translators and Interpreters

I recently attended the InterpretAmerica Summit and one of the things that called my attention was the amount of people with a smartphone glued to their hands throughout the entire summit.  I know many of my colleagues are extremely savvy users of social media, but I guess I was not prepared to see so many people tweeting at once in a room.  This made me wonder (once again) if I should own a smartphone as well. How important is for a freelance translator/interpreter to have a smartphone? Is it vital? Was I missing out on something crucial? After all, I do have a solid online presence that I can manage from my laptop. From my point of view, buying a smartphone seemed like an investment that just wasn't worth it, if its only benefit was immediate updates from my social networks.

When I asked a colleague from Brazil what she thought about this, she reminded me of something I had completely forgotten: Apps! She told me there were many apps that made her work as an interpreter and translator easier and more productive.  You could find a myriad of dictionaries, glossaries or podcasts.  Suddenly, having a smart phone didn't seem like a vain luxury, but a sound investment. So, when I moved to a different city and had to change my phone plan, I also got a new (smarter!) phone.

I did some search on useful apps available for translators and interpreters with the most popular areas of specialization (legal, financial, foreign trade, and health care) Here is my list of useful apps. What about you? Do you use some apps that you absolutely love? Do you use at all apps for your job as an interpreter?

Financial Terms by Santpal Dhillon

This app is available for Android, iphone, and ipad.

It contains more than 1200 terms.  It is specially designed for people working in in finance, insurance, banking, accounting, consultancy industry. The great thing about this app is that you don’t need an internet connection as you can use it offline. This is a great advantage when you are in the booth or a meeting and need to look up a term quickly. Other features include them ability to add comment, make notes, mark terms as favorites, and email the terms. The best thing of all is possibly the fact that all upgrades will be free.

International Trade Dictionary by Slig Logic

This app is a great reference if you work with texts from the procurement and logistic industries. The app has been designed for both iPhone and iPad. This app is note free, but you can buy it for 1 USD (0.99, to be precise). It contains more than 1000 terms related to the import-export process, custom codes, and logistics terminology.

Incoterms App

This is a must-have if you translate international sales contracts. This app is great when you need to quickly reference the 2010 (or 2000) Incoterms on your mobile phone. If you don’t have internet access, this app gives you offline access to the 2010 Incoterms and the 2000 Incoterms for past reference.

TheBook of Jargon®  

Under this name, you can find several glossaries aimed at law and financial specialist. Do you need to find out the meaning of some jargon used in the banking/legal/ financial world? It is very likely that this series of Apps can answer your question. The great thing is that it includes terms used   for several countries e.g. United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), France (FRA), Germany (DEU), Italy (ITA), Qatar (QAT), Russia (RUS), Saudi Arabia (SAU), Singapore (SGP), Spain (ESP), among others.

Also, because this is a global guide, you can search for terms in a number of convenient ways:

Using the free text search box

Browsing in alphabetical order

Separately reviewing the terms for a specific jurisdiction

Time Tracking Apps

As a court interpreter, I always need to know the exact time when my assignment starts and ends. It is also valuable to have information about the case (client’s name, office room, judge’s name, etc.) here are some apps that allow you to track your time and even generate invoices.

TimeClock: A Time Management Tool for the Android Market

If you are using an Android phone, this app is for you. It has a number of features interpreters will appreciate; including the ability to enter several time increments and generate invoices. It is very easy to use and it is certainly a good choice for interpreters using an Android phone.

Time Master for iPhone and iPad

This app has got high reviews, and I think the reason behind that is its great versatility. These are some of the feature of this time-tracking app:

Features:

• You can track time by start time, stop time and/or by duration.
• Timers can keep running even if you are not running the app.
• You can have time entries are by client and even sub-categorize them by project or task.
• You can set billing rates that can be defined by client, project, task or custom for a single entry.
• You can enable time rounding by hour, minutes and/or seconds..
• You can use filters to sort by: day, week or month. By client, project, etc.
• Reported and Invoice Status (if you decide to add the invoice module).
• You can track your expenses (mileage, meals, hotels, etc.)
• You can photograph your receipts for Expenses.

And finally….. Podcasts! But that deserves a whole new blog post. 

¿Cómo acceder a trabajos de traducción de agencias internacionales? - Por Patricia Fierro, MSc

He tenido un poco abandonado el blog por cuestiones de trabajo, pero finalmente ahora regreso y esta vez con un excelente artículo escrito por mi colega, Patricia Fierro, sobre cómo acceder a trabajos de traducción de agencias internacionales. Patricia es una de las primeras traductoras profesionales que conocí y su eficiencia y dedicación han sido una inspiración para mi. Esta es una pequeña reseña de su larga carrera como traductora:

Patricia Fierro tiene 16 años de experiencia como traductora y es miembro fundadora de la Asociación de Traductores e Intérpretes del Ecuador, ATIEC. Además, obtuvo su Certificación de la American Translators Association en 2007. Sus especializaciones son informática, telecomunicaciones, productos químicos, administración de negocios, desarrollo y SAP. Tiene una Maestría de Informática de la Universidad de Oregon (EE.UU.) Su página de internet es www.TheBestTranslations.com.

¿Cómo acceder a trabajos de traducción de agencias internacionales?

Portales con anuncios de trabajos

www.proz.com

www.traduguide.com

www.translatorscafe.com

www.gotranslators.com

www.language123.com

Precauciones al trabajar con agencias internacionales

Antes de trabajar para agencias o clientes internacionales, les aconsejo revisar el Blue Board de proz (www.proz.com/BlueBoard), el Hall of Fame and Shame de translatorscafe.com (http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/MegaBBS/forum-view.asp?forumid=39) y el sitio de www.paymentpractices.net (con un costo de membresía).

Nuevamente, recomiendo este artículo:

http://wiki.proz.com/wiki/index.php/Detecting_and_reacting_to_false_job_offers_and_other_scams

Si suena “demasiado bueno para ser cierto”, seguramente lo es. 

Requisitos generales para trabajar para agencias internacionales

- Tener un perfil lo más completo posible en cada portal indicado. Los perfiles pagados son los que aparecen primero en las búsquedas de clientes. En algunos, el lugar en que aparece un traductor en los resultados de consultas incluso depende de la cantidad de respuestas correctas a solicitudes de ayuda terminológica, que el traductor haya dado (como los Kudoz de proz).

- Aprender una herramienta CAT o TAO (traducción asistida por ordenador).  Muchas agencias solicitan estas herramientas como un requisito indispensable. Las herramientas más comunes son Trados, Wordfast y Deja Vu.  Se puede obtener información en el Internet.  Recomiendo Swordfish: http://www.maxprograms.com/products/swordfish.html Tiene la ventaja de abrir archivos Wordfast y Trados.  Cuesta € 260 por licencia individual.

- Posibles formas de pago:

• Cuenta de PayPal.  Lo más recomendable es asociar esta cuenta con una cuenta bancaria de EE.UU. o Europa, para poder realizar transferencias desde PayPal a esta cuenta y luego retirar dinero directamente desde cualquier cajero.

Tarifas que se pagan por recibir / enviar pagos: 2.9% más USD 0,30 del monto enviado.

Ventajas: Se evita dar información de cuentas bancarias a personas a quienes un traductor no conoce. Desventajas: se debe pagar USD 11 si no se tiene cuenta de EE.UU. ni de Europa.

•   Cuenta de MoneyBookers – www.moneybookers.com  Las ventajas son las mismas que para pagos por PayPal aunque las tarifas son mayores. Este portal es el preferido de agencias europeas

• Giro bancario – Las desventajas son tarifas altas y riesgos por tener que enviar datos de cuentas bancarias a la agencia o cliente.

• Cheques – Ventajas: no se pagan tarifas cobradas por los portales mencionados. Desventaja: Posiblemente el cliente no quiera / no pueda enviar un cheque en la moneda solicitada o cobre alguna tarifa por hacerlo.

¿Cómo conseguir clientes internacionales?

Se puede resumir en una combinación de experiencia, profesionalismo y educación.

Experiencia. Nada reemplaza la experiencia. En base a la experiencia, se crean glosarios, y se aprende a manejar mejor herramientas como MS Office, MS Windows, MAC, etc. Mientras más trabajamos en el área, también mejora nuestra redacción del texto destino.

Educación. Capacitación continua, especialización, excelente redacción en los idiomas destino, y lectura de periódicos, revistas, literatura, manuales, informes, etc., en nuestros idiomas fuente y destino.

Profesionalismo. Revisar con frecuencia nuestro correo electrónico, contestar de forma respetuosa todos los mensajes, nunca divulgar el contenido de los documentos cuya traducción nos solicitaron, mantenerse actualizado en temas tecnológicos, y acceder a foros y blogs para traductores. 

Algunos portales de redes sociales, como LinkedIn y Xing, nos ayudan a divulgar nuestra hoja de vida y establecer contactos con futuros clientes y colegas.  

Being your own Project Manager. Pt 1

Earlier this month, I started a workshop on Project Management at Penn State University.  I was very happy about this opportunity because I still struggle with managing effectively my different translation projects.  I must admit that for many years, my idea to manage projects went something like this:

-  Write down the name of project #1

- Make a mental note of the deadline

- Freak out and pull and all-nighter when you have less than 48 hours to deliver your project.

- Deliver it and pray you don’t get called to clarify or change anything.

- Write down the name of project #2...

I could not continue with that type of “management” if I wanted to deliver a quality job and avoid a nervous breakdown. While I am much more organized now than when I started as a translator, I feel the insights gained in my Project Management workshop have given me new perspectives on how to get my work done more effectively. This workshop is not finished yet, but I want to share some of the lessons I have learned so far:

1.  Less is More

Many times, one has the tendency to overcommit because the thought that we might be rejecting a job just doesn’t feel right. However, it is far more damaging to fail to deliver a translation project on the agreed deadline because of overcommitment. In order to avoid this kind of situation, it is crucial for translators to have data on two things:

-  Average amount of words translated per day

- Average amount of time spent in research (terminology management/ reading important additional documents for the translation of a text)

Everyone is different and, more importantly, not all texts bear the same amount of complexity.  Don’t just go with the idea that “ most professional translators translate 2000 words per day”. Find out how many words you can translate in an hour. Try to translate general and specialized texts.  Also, register the amount of time that completing a translation job takes you. This will prove very helpful when you have to quote on the estimated date of delivery of a project. You can find a more extensive post on the number of words translated per day in this great  blog

2. Be Proactive

Many translation projects end up taking more time, being redone or completely cancelled due to ineffective communication. Most of the time, we only talk to our clients when we encounter a problem. In other words, our approach to projects is a reactive approach instead of a proactive one.

When working with a LSP, a project manager will answer all the questions we may have, but when we work with a direct client, we need to be more proactive in our conversations with them. We cannot expect clients to merely hand us the document to be translated.  We need to make our client understand that we are going to ask a lot of questions about the product/service, about the goals of the company, and the type of consumers they want to reach. In other words, we need to tell our clients that the more informed we are about a project, the better we can localize it.

Both my website and email signature include a link to ATA’s brochure “Translation: Getting it Right”.  This is a great tool for letting clients know that “having an inquisitive translator can only mean good news.” (p. 18)

I will be posting soon on more lessons learned during the workshop.

Have a great weekend and don’t be shy to comment :)

Practice, Practice , Practice.... but Where to Start?

You speak two languages fluently, you are sure that your command of your mother tongue is impeccable and so are your writing skills. You believe you’d make a great translator, but where to start? How to know if this is indeed the case?  What can you write in your resume that counts as “translation training/ experience”?

While I think it is really important to formally study the theoretical principles of translation, nothing is more helpful than practice, practice, and more practice. Learning-by-doing is undoubtedly the best way to become a better translator.

When I was an undergraduate, I was lucky enough to have four translation and interpretation introductory courses. I learned, among other things, about the necessary steps to follow before beginning a translation, writing glossaries, and the proofreading and editing of a translated text. Getting a formal instruction in translation has brought me many benefits, and I would certainly recommend it to everyone thinking about becoming a freelance translator. However, if you will not be taking any formal classes soon or if you just need more translation practice, I have compiled some resources available for free in the Internet to help you practice and get more experience in translation.

TED

I love this website! Most of you might be familiar with TED. It is a project aimed at spreading wonderful ideas. This project makes talks from researchers, activists, and artists available to everyone through their website. They have an Open Translation Project. You can sign up and start translating the videos you choose. Every translation goes through a review process, which makes possible for you to get feedback/suggestions about your work.  Also, they credit your work on the web page of the talk you translate, and you can have a profile in their Translators’ page.

Khan  Academy

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization that aims at providing great education “for anyone anywhere and at no cost”. You can volunteer your translation skills for this wonderful cause while getting more experience in audiovisual translation (subtitling and dubbing.) The Khan Academy has an international blog where they post about their translation and localization efforts.  You can apply to become a volunteer here. 

Translators without Borders 

TWB is a non-profit organization dedicated to “increase access to knowledge through humanitarian translations.” In order to be a volunteer, you need to have four years of professional experience or 2 years of experience and a university degree in translation or related subject. If you comply with this requirement, I highly recommend you to join this organization. It is a great way to contribute to a more equal world by helping others to get access to crucial information they need. This is what translators do best. We help break language barriers.   

Wikipedia

My idea of translating for Wikipedia originated when I decided to search for some biographical data of a rather infamous British diplomat, who recently made the news in my home country, Ecuador. When I went to Wikipedia to find out more about this person, I looked at both the English and the Spanish versions of the entry in Wikipedia. While the information in English was very complete, the Spanish version was less than two paragraphs long.  This got me thinking about the disparities regarding access to information. I thought I would help shorten this disparity by translating into Spanish some entries from Wikipedia written in English. It is not only great practice for me, but it gives many people access to the information they are looking for in their own language.

 Indigenous Peoples' Center for Documentation, Research and Information -DoCIP

 I have worked with this non-profit organization by providing my translation and interpretation skills at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII).  This forum is held in Geneva and New York.  This is truly a great experience to help indigenous communities and their representatives to get their voice heard at the UN. DoCip offers opportunities to do short- or long-term volunteer work, in-house or by e-mail translations.

If you are looking for some more practice, the “Route into Languages” consortium has a wonderful website with some translation exercises. Here is the link.

Finally, interesting opportunities to practice/refresh your interpreting skills include ICVolunteers. Here is the link to a video about the experience of several interpreters at ICVolunteers.  Babels is another organization that groups hundreds of volunteer interpreters and translators.

Starting your career as a freelance interpreter/translator is challenging, but the above-mentioned resources can provide you with a taste of what to expect in you future profession, and they can also help you gain invaluable experience.

Get ready for...the Summer?

Yes, it is time to get ready for the summer. This year I am saving my money towards one goal: to travel and attend a summer school on Translation or Interpretation. Call me a nerd, but going to a foreign country to intensively learn/improve my translation and interpretation skills just sounds like total fun to me. I definitely want to do it, but I realized there are many options out there and I need to analyze them carefully. If you are also thinking about going to summer school, look carefully at what each school has to offer and analyze how this experience could contribute to your profession.

Keep in mind your  long-term professional goals

One can get very excited about the possibility of going abroad and learning about new topics in the fields of translation and interpretation. For example, I found out about the Translation Research Summer School and I immediately thought: "Oh my God, this is for me!" However, after a more careful examination, I decided the aims of this Summer School were not aligned with my own long-term professional goals.

While I am interested in the linguistic and cognitive theories behind my work as a translator/interpreter, I do  not see myself carrying out research in these areas in the near future. This program looks very good for someone thinking about to begin a PhD in Translation/Intercultural Studies. If you are an M.A. student wondering about possible research proposals to continue your PhD, then this is for you!

One of my long-term goals includes gaining more expertise in my fields of specialization. I work in the realm of social sciences, namely Economics, Law, Finance, International Development, and Marketing.  The Summer School at  Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh offers precisely lectures on these topics and their English to Spanish Conference Interpreting Workshop sounds really interesting.  They have not posted their fees yet, but let's hope they do it soon.

Another well-known option for professional interpreters is the Cambridge Conference Interpretation Course. This will be specially helpful is you are a professional interpreter that needs to brush-up their interpretation skills. Given that the great majority of interpretation work I do is from English into Spanish, I would love to get more practice and feedback on my French into Spanish interpretation performance. The working languages of this course are: English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Italian.

Another goal of mine this year is to improve my technological skills. I want to gain knowledge on more than just CAT tools. The Translation Technologies Summer School in Croatia seems to be a good option for those of us who want to learn more about machine translation, localization, and terminology management.  

Finally, if one of your long-term professional goals is to work in the field of Audiovisual Translation, then this Intensive Summer Course in London is a perfect option. There are several language pairs being offered; and If you are a literary translator or would like to become one, there are plenty of workshop options in Norwich, London, and Paris.

Have you attended some of these summer schools? Do you know about any other summer workshops/courses? What are your thoughts on spending part of your summer in this way?

A bit about me

Welcome to T&I!  I have created this blog to start a conversation about the translation and interpretation industry. Here you will find a variety of posts ranging from marketing tools for translators to the cognitive dimensions of  simultaneous interpretation.

Let me tell you a little bit about me: After having studied Economics in Prague, and while I was studying International Studies and Applied Languages in Quito, I translated documents and newsletters for several NGOs as part of my duties as an intern. It was without doubt the task I enjoyed the most during my internship. Since then, my curiosity about the world of translation and interpretation grew. I had many questions in my mind: Where could I go to study T&I? Who hires translators and interpreters? Will I be able to earn a living with this profession? Will it be possible to get an in-house position? Is freelancing for me?

I learned the answers to these questions the hard way during my years working as part-time translator/interpreter. In fact, now that I have decided to do this wonderful job on a full-time basis, new questions and challenges have arisen. This blog is an attempt to document those challenges, talk about them, and share tips and strategies to stand out in the industry.

Hope you will enjoy this blog!

Yolanda Isabel