The Complaint Club

We recently hired a contractor for a professional service (not related to translation). This person happened to be an acquaintance of ours and we were familiar with his work -- let's just say he's a graphic designer (he's not). Last week, we received a phone call from him that made us decide that we wouldn't work with him again. Why? Ready for some tough love? Read on. 

He called during our workday to ask us to help him with some profession-specific problems that we cannot solve. Still, we took time out of our day to give him some pointers. They were difficult issues, but that's what we are paying him for. In addition, we think it's simply unprofessional to take the clients' time in situations like these. His main concerns were things that he should have foreseen before accepting the project. The conversation revealed that he simply wasn't ready to deal with some details related to the project, which didn't exactly make us feel warm and fuzzy. The bottom line: As the client, we don't want to hear about a contractor's business issues (unless his computer dies and our files are lost). That's what colleagues and friends are for. We've always strongly advocated having a "complaint club" and not complaining to your clients  -- unless it is a very specific question that only the client can answer, of course. Now that we were on the receiving end of the contractor's complaints, we feel even stronger about the need for a complaint club. Let us explain.

Choose two of three colleagues whom you like and feel very comfortable with. Friends are fine, too, but they should probably understand your business. Then, ask them if they'd like to be your complaint club. It's a small, exclusive club of people you can call when you need to vent, simply want to talk, or need solid advice on how to solve a business-related problem. We have a complaint club, too. In addition to the two of us, it has three honorary members, and those are the folks we call for advice and help. Naturally, we don't call our clients to vent or complain, but you'd be surprised how many people do (including this morning's contractor). Your clients don't care about whatever issues might arise during the translation process. They pay us to translate, interpret, copywrite and to solve their problems. Think about it: do you want your lawyer to call you to complain that she is unable to upload a large file to her system? Venting and asking for advice is important, healthy, and part of any business -- but choose your complaint club wisely. We think a big part of the professionalization of our profession is presenting ourselves as what we are: independent service providers who can tackle difficult issues. 

Who's in your complaint club? We'd love to hear about it!

Oddball Scam

The e-mail that we received this week has scam written all over it.  The tell-tale signs include the Hotmail address of the sender, lack of e-mail signature, vague details about the actual project, grammar and punctuation mistakes, etc. We saw the red flags immediately, including some funny stuff, like the sender wanting us to print, bind and deliver thousands of pamphlets to Germany -- hilarious, right? Here's the e-mail:

Hello,

My name is Charles B whittaker, an executive Managing Director and the Western Region Leader at Frank Crystal & Company. I got a contract, in which I am needing help in translation. The project is about translating the attached document I sent you to a Germany language, print them out in thousands of copies, bind them in form of pamphlets and to deliver them to our company in Germany.  I will need your help in the translation. Please, let me know how this will work out, and email me the total price we are paying you for the translation. I want you to know as well, we are needing the assignment done on or before August 20th. I attached the document, sent to you in MS and PDF files. Please, kindly acknowledge my proposal, and get back to me as soon as possible. 

Sincerely, Charles.

We dug a bit deeper. The company Charles claims to work for, Frank Crystal & Company, does indeed exist, and we bet they are not happy that their company name is being used in this way. They are an important insurance brokerage firm in the U.S. While one can never be 100% sure that a scam is a scam until one has actually been scammed, we'll go out on a limb (not really) and say this is a scam. However, how is it a scam? Is it the classic scam where they will assign the project, offer to pay ahead of time, then send too much money and ask for us to wire the difference back (that's an old one, and turns out the initial wire was not legit)?

We took a quick look at the attachment (always dangerous), and a Google search with the first paragraph of the text yielded what we expected: the text was taken, verbatim, from this website.  It is crystal-clear to us that this is a hilarious scam, but we are puzzled as to how this scam could potentially work for the scammers.

Any ideas, readers? Have you heard about this one? We'd love to hear from you.

Upcoming Fall Conferences and Webinars

Time flies - it's already July! That means that the conference season is almost upon us. Time for a short list of U.S.-based events that you might or might not have heard about.

XIX FIT (International Federation of Translators) World Congress in San Francisco, CA. This international federation of translators and interpreters has more than 100 member associations around the world. This congress is rarely held in the U.S., so this is a fantastic opportunity. Dates: August 1-4, 2011.

Translate in the Catskills in Maplecrest, NY. Organized by translation industry guru Chris Durban and held in the scenic Catskills, this new seminar is back by popular demand. Now in its second year, "Style in Translation" will focus on polishing translator's writing skills in their target language. Some workshops focus on the French/English language pair, but it's all about writing -- all language combinations are welcome. Dates: August 12-14, 2011.

AAIT (Atlanta Association of Interpreters and Translators) 5th Annual Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. This year marks the organization's 30th anniversary and its 5th conference, so there is a lot to celebrate! This year's topic is "Industry Transformation and Trends." Held at the Doubletree Hotel, this two-day conference will feature several well-known speakers, including Marcela Jenney and one Jenner twin. Have a look at the program here. Dates: September 24-25, 2011.

eCPD webinars -- worldwide. Organized and hosted by our wonderful colleagues Lucy Brooks and Sarah Dillon, eCPD webinars are a great way to get professional development without leaving the house. The fall schedule includes a fantastic line-up, including Note-Taking for Interpreters on September 1, Working as a Literary Translator on September 13, Pricing Strategies for Translators on October 17, which Judy is quite excited to present, Nataly Kelly's Getting Started with Telephone Interpreting on October 26, and about a dozen other high-level workshops. Cost is very reasonable, and all you need is an internet connection -- accessing the webinar after you've registered is a breeze.

ATA 52nd Annual Conference in Boston, Massachusetts. So we might be a little biased,  but this is our favorite conference of the year. Not only do we get to meet up with all our friends and colleagues, enjoy dinner and drinks together, but we also attend dozens of interesting seminars and workshops. See you in Boston?

Keep It Short

As entrepreneurs, the only resource we have is our time. We know this is not the first time you've heard this, but it's important that we use our time efficiently. One of our favorite -- yet very simple -- strategies is to write short business e-mails. Whenever we can, we try to keep them to no more than three paragraphs, and we use pre-written templates whenever we can. Think about it: with the amount of e-mail that gets sent these days, we could spend all day just answering e-mail, and that wouldn't be very good for our business.

Dagy is infinitely better at this than Judy, who tends to be a bit more verbose. However, we both try to keep it short. This not only save us time, but also benefits our clients and colleagues, who are also quite busy. After all, who wants to have to scroll down when reading an e-mail? In addition, as translators, we are also writers, so we might as well demonstrate our abilities by writing concise and to-the-point messages. Looking for another way to get the most out of your time when writing e-mail? Become a faster typist. There are a lot of great online programs that will help you do just that. To find out your current speed, try TypingTest. 

A ♥ for Language Blogs

We've been thinking about how we find new blogs, especially language blogs, and in particular those written by fellow translators and interpreters. We hear about them at conferences, read about them on Lexiophiles, and find them via Twitter.  New blog owners also e-mail us to let us know they've launched a blog. Sometimes they ask us to add their blog to our blogroll, which we gladly do after a few months of following that particular blog. In terms of spreading the word about blogs we like, we have our handy blogroll, but what else is there? On Twitter, we have #followfriday, and for the blogosphere, we thought we'd do the following.

Below is a list (with links) of 10 of our favorite language blogs, in no particular order, followed by a brief description. We'll then ask our blogging readers to do the same on their blogs (don't forget to link to the blogs so everyone can find them!) and title the blog entry A ♥ for Language Blogs. The idea behind this exercise is to spread the word about new blogs that we all benefit from reading. Because we like raffles, we'll raffle off one of our books to anyone who does a blog posting. In a few weeks, we'll do a Google search for A ♥ for Language Blogs and choose a winner (randomly). How does that sound? Are you in?  By the way: there are significantly more than 10 blogs that we love, but we just chose the top 10 that we feel engage us the most. 

1. Thoughts on Translation: Our wonderful friend and colleague Corinne McKay, who lives in Colorado, pens beautifully written articles about our industry. Highly interactive with lots of comments.

2. Mox's Blog: We really enjoy Alejandro Moreno-Ramos' hilarious cartoons about the world of translation and interpreting. He sees the funny side in our business, and we are huge fans of Mox, the underpaid translator, and Mina, the smarty-pants turtle. Alejandro is both a translator and a cartoonist.

3. About Translation: Italian translator Riccardo Schiaffino has been blogging for a long time, and his comments and insight are a very worthwhile read. He's also based in Colorado, where he also teaches translation.

4. Translate This!: Our friend Michael Wahlster, who is based in Southern California, is a true language blog pioneer. His blog has been around since 2003, and he frequently blogs about technology.

5. Musings from an overworked translator: A very busy German-to-English translator, our friend Jill Sommer runs one of the most popular language blogs. She's always generous with her insight. Our favorite blog post is the one about certified translations for the U.S. market.

6. Separated by a common language: American linguist Lynne Murphy, who lives and teaches in the U.K., provides priceless insight into the differences between American and British English.

7. Brave new words: Globetrotting linguist B.J. Epstein hails from Chicago, lived in Sweden for many years, and now teaches at the University of East Anglia in the U.K. We met her in Vienna a few years ago, and really enjoy her posts, especially those about literary translation.

8. Translation Tribulations: Our colleague Kevin Lossner, based in Germany, is one of our few cyberfriends we have not met (we will try to change that soon). We particularly enjoy his insightful posts on translation technology, and Kevin is a witty and gifted writer.

9. There's something about translation: Sarah Dillon, who's Irish and lives in Australia, runs one of the most beautifully designed blogs we've ever seen. While she doesn't post as frequently as others, her posts are a great read. She's an expert on all things web 2.0.

10. Words to good effect: A newcomer to our list of favorite blogs! Marian Dougan lives in Glasgow, Scotland, and Judy had the pleasure of meeting her a few weeks ago. Thoughtful, thought-provoking posts. 

Dancing Translators

The most fun Judy has had on a dancefloor in quite a while took place during the ITI Scottish Network's wonderful three-day summer meeting in Stirling, Scotland, where she was lucky enough to be the guest speaker. The program included a Scottish ceilidh, which is much more than a dance. Judy had been a tiny bit afraid of the ceilidh -- yes, there's some anxiety when one must perform unknown dances -- that turned out to be completely unfounded. The very fun and talented live band gave easy instructions, and one needs no experience to do this. Who knew it would end up on YouTube, though? Watch us dance! This specific dance is called the Shetland Wedding Reel, and Judy is wearing a black and orange kimono-style dress (and high heels, for some reason). Keep an eye out for the tall male dancer -- he's fantastic, and he's wearing a traditional Scottish kilt. Enjoy!

What Time Is It in Montevideo?

As our readers might know, we unfortunately live in different countries (but see each other all the time) and have clients on three continents. While we can certainly easily figure out what time it is in Vienna -- currently Pacific + 9 -- things get complicated when we collaborate with a client who's in neither one of our time zones. While it's simple math, time zones can be difficult to figure out, and we've received plenty of late (or early) phone calls from folks who don't do their math right. As services providers, we want to make sure we don't wake anyone up, so we have to determine precisely what time it is in our customer's city. The best free online tool  out to figure what time and date it is anywhere in the world that we've found is TimeandDate.com. We've tested it many times, in tricky situations, in countries that might or might not observe Daylight Savings Time (quite a challenge when we were in Chile and the switch was postponed by a month), and the site always gets it right. It's free and there's nothing to download. Before you call a customer, check the website to see if it's a good time to call. If your customer's signature or website does not tell you his or her place of residence, try googling the area and/or country code.  

By the way, it's now 9:02 in Montevideo, and 2:02 p.m. in Vienna, where we are happily working together. 

Interpret This!

Have you seen EU interpreters at work? We love to hear and see them in action online (all sessions of the European Parliament are available live and as a video stream), and they are incredibly impressive, especially given the speed of most speakers. Our hats are off to these highly qualified colleagues (accredited freelance interpreters or staff interpreters) who ensure that communication between the 27 member states is as smooth and efficient as it can be. Curious about how to become an EU interpreter? Not surprisingly, the European institutions only accept the very best interpreters, and they are actually actively looking for freelance interpreters for the German booth (meaning you have to interpret from at least three languages into native German) as well as other booths. If you think you have what it takes to work at the European Commission, the European Parliament or the European Court of Justice, check out this link to start the application process.

If you'd like to know more about the much-feared interpreting exam (commonly referred to as "test"), have a look at the following videos. The EU has made them available on YouTube. The source text is read in French and the second video consists of the (fake) applicant interpreting into English. It's long consecutive, and we mean really long -- about six minutes. Find out if the applicant passed the test at the end of the second video. 

Part 2:

Protect Your Vision

If you are like us, you probably spend way too much time glued to your computer screen. As our optometrists constantly tell us, it's not good for your eyes, and we should take frequent breaks (which we don't, we will admit it). Luckily, our web guru just found this nifty tool that should help us take care of our precious eyes a bit better. It's a simple and free online tool that will black out the screen at pre-defined intervals. You can either set up a custom break rule, meaning that you tell the system how long of a break you'd like to take every X minutes, or you can use some of their pre-defined rules. Try the 20-20-20 or 60-5 rule. The 20-20-20 rule means a 20-second break after 20 minutes of work,. During the break, you should focus eyes on something that’s 20 feet away. The 60-5 rule means a five-minute break after 60 minutes of work. We chose the latter, and we like it.


Evo, a cute little robot, will be your personal vision-protecting assistant. The program is completely free to use. Get started here. There's also a handy section for eye gymnastics. However, if you have serious problems with your vision, be sure to visit your doctor!

Patagonian Penguins

It's time for another real-life business case. This story comes from our own business, so we have changed all identifying details to protect the parties. Some details we have had to distort completely -- we don't want anyone being identified by our story, which has an important point, we promise. Read on.

A colleague from a faraway country recently referred some business to us (our colleague consented to this blog post), and we started communicating with the very nice direct client. We quoted on a mid-sized project and waited for confirmation. A few days after that, we received an e-mail from an organization that is closely associated with our client. For simplicity's sake, let's call our client Green Juice and the other organization we'll call the Association for the Protection of Patagonian Penguins (APPP)*. In a very nice e-mail message, APPP told us that Green Juice strongly prefers to work with vendors who support conservation efforts and who are members of APPP. We had to think about this for a minute. Was Green Juice, via APPP, telling us that we had to make a donation to APPP to land this translation project? It certainly appeared that's what was going on.

After some deliberation, we responded with a brief, friendly e-mail. We thanked APPP for protecting Patagonian penguins and mentioned that we support several animal rescue organizations in both the U.S. and Europe, and that we are also the very proud parents of a cat (Junia) and a dog (Luna), who were both adopted from shelters. Finally, we said that while we are happy to donate to worthwhile charitable organizations around the globe, we were simply not able to join new organizations to obtain specific, one-time business. Finally, we stated that we completely understood if Green Juice preferred to work with another qualified linguist who was a member of APPP. We left it at that and tried not to sound defensive (we think we succeeded).

Dear readers: What would you have done? We'd love to hear what you think. Perhaps we could have factored the cost of APPP membership into our price quote? It just didn't seem right, and sometimes you just have to decline politely and move on. Project update: Not surprisingly, we did not get this project.  For the record: We are all about saving Patagonian penguins.

*APPP is a completely fictitious organization, as is Green Juice.