Sending your CV to translation agencies - Is it a waste of time?

Most new translators start off by sending out CV’s to translation agencies. This strategy is both time consuming and actually quite ineffective, many because few translation agencies actually pay attention to them let alone respond to them.

To be fair some agencies receive as many at 70 CV’s a day, ranging from nothing more than a blank e-mail with a CV attachment to “all-singing-all dancing” CV’s with colours, photos you name it! Responding to them requires a significant amount of labour, something that most companies cannot afford.

Of course, you could argue that agencies should invest more time in finding qualified linguists - after all every agency website seems to claim that they are “the fastest growing agency in the country” using only “the most qualified linguists”. Such claims are a ridiculous marketing tactic designed to attract clients who know nothing about the translation process. If such claims were really true all of these translation agencies would be industry leaders, there would be a massive shortage of qualified translators and agencies would meticulously check CV’s just in case they were losing a potentially amazing translator.

Despite claiming that they work with “thousands” of freelancers the reality is that most agencies actually work with a small number of skilled - but preferred - translators who are the first port of call when a job comes in. When this small group is working to full capacity or the source document is out with their translation speciality then the agency will look further afield and other translators might have a chance.

Sadly translation agencies seem to forget that many new translators are not necessarily new professionals but are individuals who may have spent decades working in other fields. As such their lack of experience as translators is outweighed by their knowledge of their specialist subjects.

So is it worth even sending your CV to agencies in the first place? Is there a better way to break into the industry? Should the new translator use their time more productively to get better results? 

5 Tips for Beginners Using Social Media

The use of social media is seen as a key element of business development for many professionals. Yet many small business owners often see the time required to develop and maintain social media sites such as LinkedIn or Twitter as a major obstacle to their use.

How can you effectively manage all the different social media sites without getting “maxed-out”? Well, there’s lots of advice out there, but here’s 5 tips that I’d recommend:

• Have a plan

Very few businesses need to use everything that’s out there. So it’s important to think about what you want to achieve with social media. Do you want to attract new clients, keep existing clients informed, follow market trends or establish yourself as a bit of an expert in your field? Pick the social media mix that best suits your goals.

• Learn, learn, learn

It’s far better to use one or two social media formats and use them well, than have poor blanket coverage of everything that’s going. So if you want to use Twitter, for example, take some time to learn how to use it properly and get the most out of it. Look for blogs that can give you some hints and tips about improving your use of different sites such as http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/

• Dedicate time to participate in social media.

“That’s just the problem I don’t have time!” I can hear the screams. Random participation can send out a negative message to your audience, so set aside specific dedicated time to maintain the profiles you set up. This can be as little an 10 minutes twice a week or one morning a fortnight.

• A little (but often) goes a long way.

While many professional bloggers post as often as once a day, let’s face it, the rest of us humble mortals can only probably manage 2 or 3 posts a month. If your readers see a regular pattern in your activity they will continue to follow you, but there’s nothing worse than looking at a blog month after month only to find that there’s no new posts.

• Cross post where possible

You don’t have to spend hours posting different items on each site you use. It is often possible to adapt or reformat posts to several social media sites at the same time. There are some great tools out there - like Tweetdeck - which allow you to do this. Often a comment on your Facebook business page can direct readers to your blog etc. So if you have some good, regular content spread it round the sites you use, that way whatever form of social media your client is using they can pick up on it.

Do you have any good suggestions about using social media effectively? Why not leave a comment and share it.


You can find me on some popular social media sites:
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter

WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER (3)

While it is true that learning a new language takes time and a real sense of commitment, the whole process can be made easier when you work smarter not harder - thinking about the language learning strategies you are using.

In this post we want to look at a memory tool that can help you learn more in less time - a mnemonic. Mnemonics are memory aids that involve using a rhyme or phrase to jog your memory. Let’s look at an example:

Problem: You are trying to remember which French verbs use  être in the past tense (passé compose) rather than avoir.

Solution: “Dr & Mrs P Vandertramp”. In this case each letter of the phrase represents the first letter of a verb that uses être:

Devenir

Revenir

Monter

Rester

Sortir

Passer

Venir

Aller

Naître

Descendre

Entrer

Rentrer

Tomber

Retourner

Arriver

Mourir

Partir

Mnemonics can be used in a variety of ways - why not leave a comment explaining what your favourite memory trick is!

Translators Needed for World Trade

Once more we read that small and medium sized businesses are losing because too few of them are exporting overseas. Failing to plan an export strategy, lack of confidence and - surprise - poor language skills are among the reasons why some SME's shirk back, according to a report in the Financial Times.

How long will the UK moan about poor language skills without actually taking positive steps to solve the problem? English may be known as the language of international trade, but it is foolish ignorance to think that "everyone speaks English".

The economy needs to look outwards and more businesses must look overseas to succeed. That means employing more linguists in the long run, and using qualified translators and interpreters in the meantime.

Pragmatic Failure - The Test for Language Learners

In the globalised world where English is regarded as a lingua franca (at least by most native English speakers), it can be easy to spot the native from the non-native speaker. Sometimes the accent is the give-away because it is often the hardest thing to achieve - as most of us who have learnt another language will appreciate.

However, even the most accomplished language learner will experience what is known as pragmatic failure and that’s a serious fault because it can have dramatic consequences.

Pragmatic failure takes place “whenever two speakers fail to understand each other’s intentions” (Blum- Kulka and Olhstain, 1986). Thomas (1983) described it as “...the inability to understand ´what is meant by what is said´”. It does not spring from a lack of knowledge about how to handle the ‘technical aspects’ of language such as grammar, syntax of phonology but from failing to understand how language may be used in a social or societal context.

In other words, we might see an error in grammatical structure, word order or pronunciation as part-and-parcel of the language learning process, and let the error pass because “we know what you mean”. With pragmatic failure what is said may be grammatically correct but come across as harsh, rude or inappropriate - not because that is the intention - but because the learner is unaware of how a native speaker uses the language.

Examples of pragmatic failure would be asking someone about a taboo subject or failing to understand the meaning of a colloquial metaphor. In some cultures it is inappropriate to ask someone how much money they earn, so raising this topic may be perceived as vulgar in some cultures while completely acceptable in others.

For the language learner, it is essential to have more than a purely linguistic knowledge of the languages you speak - a deep cultural knowledge of the countries where those languages are spoken is important, which is why it's good to spend time visiting the countries themselves. Thomas (1983) proposed that “linguistic competence” must be composed of both “grammatical competence” (i.e. knowing the syntax, phonology and semantics of the language) and “pragmatic competence” (knowing how and when to use language correctly.)

This “linguistic competence” equips the learner to convey the correct meaning and sense of the language so as to avoid giving the wrong impression. So pay attention to the way language is used, put things into context, watch native speakers and observe how they use language. Become culturally aware and this will help you to avoid pragmatic failure. 

References:

Blum- Kulka, S and Olshtain , E. (1986): “Too Many Words: Length of Utterance and Pragmatic Failure”, SSLA 8: 165-180.

Thomas, J. (1983). Cross-cultural Pragmatic Failure, Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 91-112

WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER (2)

Last time we spoke about the way in which successful language learners work smarter not harder, by thinking about how they are learning - they develop strategies to make the whole process easier.

Learning Spanish, for example, could be easier than you think, especially if you consider what you already know. You actually more than what you might give yourself credit for!

There are many words that are common in both Spanish and English because both languages have their origins in Latin (this is the case with Spanish more than English) and the English language has also been influenced by French, which is also a Latin based or Romance language.

Some Spanish words look very similar to English ones (these are usually known as cognates*). In some instances the only difference is an accent mark in Spanish – which affects the pronunciation of the word more than the meaning. Here are some Spanish words - the English equivalent is obvious!

chocolate  área  gas  melón  hotel  teléfono

This is especially true with words ending in –al where the meaning is the same in both languages: animal, central, hospital, personal are a few examples.

You can also understand the meaning of a lot of Spanish words simply by changing how the end of the word is spelt:

Replace –ción with –tion

circulación = circulation

identificación = identification

vacación = vacation

Replace –ario with –ary

aniversario =  anniversary

itinerario = itinerary

vocabulario = vocabulary

Replace –dad with –ty

comunidad = community

publicidad = publicity

universidad = university

So the next time you look at a Spanish newspaper or website look out for words that could be cognates and check them in a dictionary – you’ll be surprised at how much you really know.

*Just a word of caution. Some words are known as false friends because they may look the same as an English counterpart but they actually have a different meaning. The good news is that only a minority of words are false friends!

Learning a Language? Work smarter not harder Part One

When it comes to language learning many people are put off by the level of commitment required to be a successful learner. After all, it does take a lot of time and effort to master a language well enough to communicate.

People commonly refer to “easy” or “hard” languages to learn, but the reality is that no language falls into either these categories. There will no doubt be aspects of a new language which are similar to our mother tongue but there will also be many differences which might require a bit more work on our part.

Different learners struggle with different aspects of language learning and this is down to several factors:

• ·         Motivation (“My boss says I need to learn Dutch go get that promotion”)
• ·         Previous educational experiences (“I was never good at French at school!”)
• ·         Existing knowledge (if you’ve mastered French, for example, then Italian should be relatively easy since they are both Romance languages)

However, you can make great progress by working smarter not harder. Successful language learners don’t necessarily spend more time studying the language than you or me. They do however, tend to spend more time thinking about how they will learn. By taking time out to consider different learning strategies, they end up working smarter not harder, and with good results.

Over a couple of future blogs I hope to mention some strategies you can employ to make your language learning for successful. 


Do you have any suggestions about what works well for you? Why not add a comment and share your ideas. Some of your suggestions may feature in future blogs!