Blog - Elani Wales – German to English Translation

Nov

2021

Book Review: How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator by Corinne McKay

A Time for Renewal

I am not exactly new to the translation world. In fact, I’ve been ATA-certified in German to English translation since 2018. However, as I mentioned in my last blog post, it’s been a bad year. I faced some challenges in my life that bled into my business. Now that I can finally get some breathing room, it seems like a good time to reflect, to grow, and to do some of the things I’ve meant to do for a long time.

How to Succeed

What better place to start than with Corinne McKay’s very well-known work, How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator? I’ve heard it mentioned any number of times, but I was still curious about the reality of it. How would it hold up to the very different translation world of 2021? Would it still hold value for someone with experience in translation?

There’s no two ways about it: if you are just starting out as a translator, you need this book. The six years since its initial publication in 2015 do nothing to dim the actionable advice and sheer scope of How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator. From the advent of machine translation to increasing pressure on wages, Corinne McKay covers it all. I only wish that I had read it when I was first starting out. I can think of a number of mistakes I would have avoided.

Starting Out, Keeping Going

However, I’m glad to say that the value was also there for me as a mid-career translator. Some parts of the book were self-evident to me, and could be quickly skimmed, but there were many passages that I highlighted and read in detail. In my reading, I created an action list of thirteen tasks. All are things that I will be updating, improving, and getting for the first time as a result of How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator. (No, I won’t be sharing the list here – all the value is in making up a list that is specifically relevant to your business!) Some of the items on the list were merely reminders of things I already knew I needed to do. However, quite a few are ideas that were new to me and resources that I hadn’t heard of before.

For more reviews and a purchase link, you can visit Corinne McKay’s website here. I highly recommend it. For most translators, How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator will teach you to do just that.

Oct

2021

It’s Been Quite a Year

I think I need to start off with a warning…if it’s not a good time for you to read about cancer, stop now. I started writing a cheerful blog about my new position with the German Language Division of the American Translators Association and realized that I couldn’t start the blog again without at least once acknowledging what’s been going on with me. To put it bluntly, this has been the worst year of my life.

My father has been battling cancer for several years. At the beginning of the year, the treatments just weren’t working anymore, and it became clear that he needed more help. His home in Sedro-Woolley is about an hour away from mine. I started coming over once a week, and almost immediately realized than once wasn’t enough. So it was twice a week, until the day I arrived to take him to a doctor’s appointment and got the news that he had decided to stop treatment and transition to hospice care instead. I stayed the day and got things set up as well as I could. I didn’t have so much as a spare shirt or a toothbrush with me, so I had to go home that night. The next day, I came back to stay.

I expected to be a caregiver for several or many months. In the end, my dad had less time left than anyone, even his doctors and hospice nurses, could have guessed. Not quite a month later, he was dead.

This isn’t the place for me to write about what it is to be a caregiver, and what it is to lose someone. In any case, either you already know, or you won’t truly know until it happens to you. But this has been a strange lost year, and it wasn’t until I started to come back to life that I realized just how strange it’s been. There’s so much I need to catch up on, so I’ll start with just one thing: it’s good to be back.

Dec

2019

GDPR Translation for Academic Language Experts

Academic Language Experts commissioned me to write about translating GDPR and the challenges it presents. You can read the results here: GDPR Translation: Privacy Policies, Data Subjects, and Litigation, Oh My!

Jan

2019

Taking the ATA Certification Exam

I had wondered about the ATA certification exam for a long time before I finally took it. Its reputation is intimidating – after all, it’s hard not to be scared of an exam with a 20% pass rate! Nonetheless, once I had a few years of experience under my belt, I started thinking seriously about the exam. Not only was I confident that certification would benefit my business, I also wanted it for personal satisfaction. However, the exam is expensive, particularly when you include travel expenses to the sitting. I didn’t want to waste my money if I wasn’t truly ready. That meant just one thing: the practice test.

Getting the most out of the practice test

I followed the ATA’s recommendation to take the practice test under exam conditions, and it was a good choice. After all, the point of taking the practice exam was to figure out whether I was ready to take the real one. My score wouldn’t have reflected my changes of passing if I hadn’t followed the rules. I didn’t worry too much about trying to make it exactly like the real exam, but I only used print resources and set a strict timer. That seemed realistic enough to me.

Signing up for the big one

While I waited to get my practice exam back, I thought a lot about how the grade I received would affect whether I signed up for the real exam. Obviously, I would sign up if I got a perfect score. Equally, I wouldn’t sign up if it was a catastrophic failure. The real question would be what to do if I just barely passed or failed. Would it be worth the risk?

As it turned out, I didn’t need to worry about it. I passed with a good grade. I did make two minor errors, but I was also awarded bonus points for a particularly good solution to a translation problem. That being the case, I felt confident in signing up for the exam.

The next question was whether to take the exam by hand or type it. At the time I took the exam, the computerized option was still fairly new, and the rules were a little confusing. I chose to handwrite the exam because I don’t make letter transposition errors in handwriting, and I sometimes do while typing things. However, the rules now very clearly allow candidates to use their own digital dictionaries and glossaries, as well as online dictionaries. Since looking things up this way is much faster, I don’t think there’s really much of a choice anymore. In my opinion, the computerized exam is clearly easier.

Preparing for the exam

Once I had my exam date, my hotel room, and my transportation organized, there was one thing left to do: finish preparing for the exam itself.

My secret weapon in preparing for the exam was creating my own practice tests. I found generalist texts in my source language, trimmed them to the right length while trying to look at them as little as possible, and then kept to a strict time limit. Most of my texts were from newspapers. I liked Die Presse and Die Zeit, but my only real requirement was that they couldn’t be too simple or too complex. Not only did this help me practice working with limited resources and a strict time limit, it also helped to build up the muscles in my writing hand.

I also printed out the document of grading rules, read through it several times, and brought it to the exam. This resource ended up acting like a client style guide. I highly recommend bringing a copy with you.

The big day…

I prepared for my exam with a mellow evening and as much sleep as possible. I didn’t try to do any last-minute studying, although I did page through the rules again. While I brought water and energy bars with me, I found that I didn’t have any time to eat. I was surprised by how much I needed to hurry! Doing my practice tests, even with a strict time limit, I generally got done with time to spare. In the certification exam, I needed every last second. Of course, the water got plenty of use.

When you take the exam, you sign an agreement not to say anything about what the texts were – so I won’t. What is public knowledge is that you will choose two texts to translate out of three possible options. I was astonished to find that one of my options was a text about one of my favorite things! I took it as a kind of omen. Even though I frankly thought the text I didn’t choose was easier, I chose the two I found the most interesting. Sometimes, you just have to listen to fate…or coincidence…or whatever you want to call it.

After the exam, I was so mentally drained I was a little incoherent. Luckily, my only plan for the rest of the day was a quiet dinner with friends. I was too tired for anything else!

Waiting for results

I tried not to think too much about what my results would be. After all, they would show up whenever they would show up, and nothing that I could do now would change them. I tried not to think about it…but I wouldn’t say that I succeeded.

At long last, I arrived home one day to find an envelope waiting for me. I ripped it open and found the news I had hoped for: I was now certified by the ATA in German to English translation.

The benefits of being certified

I’m happy to tell you that being certified really does bring me more work. I’ve noticed a substantial uptick in the number of (reputable) queries I get, and responses to my CV are better than ever. Getting certified wasn’t easy, but I’m glad that I took on the challenge.

Oct

2018

Meditation for Translators

These are a few things that I think we’ve all experienced as translators: The mental exhaustion of processing an avalanche of words. The stiffness and tired eyes that come from sitting at the computer a little too long. The frustration of working out a tricky business problem or difference of opinion.

There’s no such thing as a universal solution, but there are a few things that always help. A cup of tea, a walk, a supportive group of fellow translators – where would we be without them? But there’s one more thing I think you should add to your tool box if it isn’t there already: meditation.

What does meditation offer translators?

In 2018, no one needs to be told what meditation is, but you might need a little persuasion that it really does apply to your life. To many people, meditation seems like either too much of a commitment, or too little of one. Too much: Doesn’t that mean I’m trying to become enlightened? Isn’t thinking of absolutely nothing hard? Too little: Isn’t meditation just sitting? Or worse, just a kind of fad?

I’d like to offer a different way of looking at meditation. Have you heard of the 20-20-20 rule for preventing eye strain when spending long hours working at the computer? It refers to taking a quick break every 20 minutes to look at something at least 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. It’s so simple and quick – No equipment needed! It takes less than half a minute! – and yet it can protect your eye health and prevent tension headaches.

Meditation is a little like that for the mind. We live complicated lives. Emails can arrive and notifications can ping at all hours of the day and night, leading to levels of constant stimulus that would have been unimaginable even a few years ago. By taking time to meditate, we create space for the truth to flow in. Silence allows things to find their proper perspective. In taking a few minutes to do nothing, we may discover how to go about doing what we need to do – and more importantly, what we should actually be doing!

Mental clarity

As translators, we face two intertwined challenges: The primary challenge of doing our work well, of solving translation problems and catching every typo, and the secondary challenge of making sure we have work to do in the first place.

The clarity that meditation brings has obvious applications in making our translations the best that they can be. The clearer our thinking and the better our concentration, the more easily we can find elegant solutions and catch potential errors. However, meditation is no less useful in finding work in the first place. Many of us work as translators because we love translation, not marketing, and yet marketing ourselves is essential to maintaining a steady workload. Meditation provides the clear-sightedness we need to recognize patterns in our behavior (like not marketing in busy times, even though we know we need to), patterns in our choices (like what type of actions we find easy versus which are actually effective), and patterns in our outcomes (Do you really need to answer that query from an agency offering $0.01 a word, or is your time better spent talking with a positive, supportive business partner?). Meditation means clear vision. Clear vision leads to better choices. Better choices mean better work. And better work means a happier translator.

How to find a meditation practice

One of the most important things to remember about meditation is that there isn’t one right way to do it. My own practice is a form of breathing meditation that emphasizes the center. It works for me, but it’s certainly not a one-size-fits-all solution. Some people swear by mediation apps, some by moving meditation. It’s all a matter of what works for you, because consistency is key. The following list is by no means a formal classification. Rather, I hope that it will offer you some possibilities.

1. Breathing meditation

Plus: The breath is an instant connection to our physical bodies, something that can be very helpful for busy translators who need a little help getting out of their heads.

Minus: Getting started can be confusing. Will you be breathing to your own rhythm, or following a bell? How long should your breaths be? It can take a little time to develop your practice or to find the right type of breathing meditation for you.

2. Meditation apps

Plus: Meditation apps are convenient. They’re easy to find and download, and many are even free. They make it easier for some people to meditate consistently by providing tracking and rewards.

Minus: Apps can be intrusive, which is the opposite of what you want from your meditation practice. Tracking and badges can also cause compulsive, reward-seeking behavior and undermine your practice.

3. Zen meditation

Plus: Zen meditation can be done anywhere and at any time, and no equipment is needed.

Minus: Zen meditation can be intimidatingly austere. Many people feel overwhelmed by the idea of not thinking.

4. Moving meditation

Plus: Moving meditation is a good solution for people who are sick of sitting still, need a little more mental stimulus, or need to incorporate more movement in their day.

Minus: It does require some planning and can be difficult to do in some public spaces.

5. Mantra meditation

Plus: Having a mantra gives the mind some structure. Using the shape and texture of words for meditation is likely to resonate with many translators.

Minus: Finding a mantra that fits well with you can be difficult.

Like finding the best solution for a tricky translation problem, you may need to use a little trial and error to find what feels right. The good news is that in this case, querying the client has never been easier. You always have instant access to the authority on what is right for you in meditation – it’s you.