Webinar on German-language orthography

That's Peggie. She's an expert.

Dagy has been giving in-house workshops about German orthography at large companies in Austria and Germany for many years now. People often ask her about classes for individuals, which she wasn’t able to offer in the past. This has changed, thanks to ACADEMIA webinars, for which Dagy recorded a 65-minute webinar for (aspiring) language pros. We know German orthography can be tricky, but leave it to Dagy to explain it all in easy-to-understand language and plenty of examples. Here's the link to sign up (yes, it's in German!).

Cocktails for breakfast: Client acquisition at an online marketing conference

Keynote speaker Patricia Bergler of Facebook on stage

Entrepreneurs are supposed to spend time and money on client acquisition when business is good so that they will be prepared for rainy days. This is why Dagy decided to try to expand her client base at a time when she was really busy, following a slow start into the new year. Still, spending 400 euro on a 1.5-day conference that wouldn’t be relevant for me as a linguist  (but all the more as a consumer) wasn’t an easy decision. Luckily, I ended up getting a coupon for 20% off and I was ready to attend the “Mobile Marketing Innovation Days” in Vienna.  I quickly learned that the buzzword “mobile marketing” simply refers to tools and strategies used to sell products (and sometimes services) online using apps. Also, I learned that these sales are mostly done on people’s phones. The speaker line-up at the conference was quite impressive, with some of them working for the big players in the industry, including Google, Facebook, and the likes. The speakers from Google stood out for their professionalism and they also came across as really likeable, also because they emphasized that privacy was holy to them. Which is something I truly wanted to believe, given the huge amounts of data I share with Google on a voluntary basis every day.

The linguist in me heroically ignored language-related hiccups in the conference program (German/English) and elsewhere and focused on my primary goal: networking.

With a total of roughly 400 participants (most of them considerably younger than me), the conference was a good choice in terms of size because it seemed manageable and not too overwhelming. A plus was that everybody was on a first-name basis, which seems to be common in this hip and young industry and which made starting a conversation much easier. As expected, the presentations per se were mostly irrelevant for my job, but interesting from a user’s perspective. Among others, I enjoyed learning about online crime from a representative of Europol, the EU law enforcement agency.

Branded chocolates for everyone (no calories!)

Ultimately, the reason I attended the conference in the first place was the networking during breaks and after or before presentations. Other than a trained translator who now works in online marketing, I was the only translator/interpreter in sight. This fact alone ensured people’s attention when I introduced myself and I soon took to referring to myself as an “exotic species” at the conference. I always used my “ice-breaker question” about the difference between translating and interpreting, which works every time to get a conversation started. Many of the people I spoke to showed interest in my services, from marketing agencies to a pharmaceuticals company, a government agency, a university department, etc. Each and every time, I conveniently ended up talking to the person most likely to need my services, which are people working in marketing and communication departments. Talking to the person sitting next to me before and after presentations also turned out to be a good networking approach.

Even though it was an easy-going crowd, networking can be an exhausting exercise. For those who needed a little pick-me-up, vodka-based cocktails were being served as early as in the morning, thanks to a sponsor, which is certainly unheard of in the US. Drinks in hand, participants avidly exchanged old-fashioned business cards. Needless to say that it is very important to follow up on these contacts shortly afterwards using LinkedIn and/or Xing.

Here are a few takeaways from my client acquisition project at a marketing conference:

• Don’t expect it to be easy. Making conversation with people can be hard, especially outside the US. Make sure you are willing to approach people and start a conversation. Don’t expect others to do it. 
•  If you don’t feel like you’re in a great networking mood on the day of the event, motivate yourself and set some realistic goals such as having a meaningful conversation with three or five people and getting their business cards. I also recommend having a few funny translating/interpreting anecdotes handy. Everybody loves a good story! Asking the other person questions about their job, etc. always works, too. Who doesn’t like talking about themselves?
• Bring a little something. After introducing yourself, go ahead and use our favorite icebreaker mentioned above. Give a small “prize” to those rare people who get in right and to those who gave it the good old college try. Years ago, I had small chocolates with my logo and my contact information made for that purpose (see below, it’s for “Texterei,” the European side of our business). People loved it!
• Cut yourself some slack. Even though you have paid to attend the entire conference, don’t feel bad if you skip a session or two or go home early. After all, networking is not so much about quantity than about quality, but be sure to talk to a fair amount of people.

Last but not least, here is the big question: Did this marketing effort pay off? The success of marketing efforts is generally hard to measure and if at all, time will tell. My presence at this conference might result in future translating/interpreting jobs or somebody might share my contact information – who knows. One thing is for certain: meeting new people is always an enriching experience, both from a professional and a personal perspective. Needless to say, the chances of getting new jobs will increase with a linguist’s visibility, both online and offline. My bottom line was this: I had fun, I got great insight into an industry previously unknown to me, it was sometimes exhausting (after all, it was work) and I am already planning on attending other small conferences in Vienna.

New Client, New Payment Practices

Oftentimes we only hear bad news about payment practices in our profession, so we figured we'd share some good news instead. 

Earlier this week, we received a phone call from a Las Vegas law firm we know that had not previously been a client. Their translation needs were urgent and required us to drop everything, cancel dinner, and work a few hours in the evening to get it done. We usually ask for a deposit for new clients, but this was a last-minute and urgent request, so we used the highly scientific method known as gut feeling (which mostly works) and started working on the project right away. It was a small, yet intense team effort, and we delivered the project the next day a few hours before the agreed-upon deadline. We e-mailed the invoice at the same time as the project, and we received payment in the form of a check the very next day, which is a new record. We've received electronic transfers the very same day, but never a check from a brand-new client the very next day. We are not quite sure how they got it to us so quickly except that they must have prepared the check as soon as they received the quote (talk about trust!). Either way, we are very grateful for the quick payment and sent the client an e-mail to thank them.

So in spite of the many negative comments about client payment practices you may read, there are some great clients out there indeed. What about you, dear colleagues? We'd love to hear your best payment-related story!

Learn from the Best: Interpreting Training with Darinka Mangino

A few months ago, we both had the pleasure of meeting Mexican presidential interpreter Darinka Mangino at the ATA conference in New Orleans, and we had a great time. She reminds us a bit of our dear friend, the late and dearly missed Esther Navarro-Hall. Darinka is a member of AIIC one of our interpreting heroes with  more than 3,000 days (!) of interpreting at the very highest level (learn more about here here by viewing this cool video and this Spanish-language podcast). When we heard about her online module-based interpreting training courses, Judy jumped at the chance to polish her skills. The class runs 8 weeks and starts January 7, 2019. Here's more information if you'd like to join us in getting a jump start on professional development in 2019. 

Course name: On-line Refresher Course on General Issues Related to Interpreting Module 1
Instructor: Darinka Mangino, AIIC
Platform: Adobe Connect
Dates: Every Monday starting January 7 through April 29, 8 p.m. Mexico City time (Central Time in the U.S.)
Duration: 70 minutes per session
Presenting language: Spanish

ATA continuing education points: 10
Language: Spanish
Cost: MX$5,352 for ATA members and a number of other organizations (approx. USD 270)
Sign-up: https://www.eventbee.com/event?eid=133063102#/tickets


Course overview:

1L	Español mexicano	10L	Organización de glosarios
2L	Preparación	11L	Contextos ONU
3L	Contextos politicos	12L	Agilidad léxica
4L	Voz	13L	Velocidad
5L	Acentos	14L	Autoevaluación
6L	Investigación documental y terminológica	15L	Contextos artísticos
7L	Contextos legales	16L	Escucha y atención
8L	Memoria	17L	Simultánea con texto
9L	Números

Stockholm Syndrome

A few months ago, Judy had the honor to speak at the SLAM! (Scandinavian Language Associations' Meeting) conference in Malmö, Sweden. It was a fantastic event, and after it ended, Judy treated herself to some R&R in gorgeous Stockholm, Sweden. There she learned that the term "Stockholm Syndrome" derives from an actual bank robbery in Sweden in the 1970s. It makes absolute sense that it's based on a real event, but for some reason Judy had thought that the psychologist who coined the term was from Stockholm. Now that this had been cleared up, we started thinking about how oftentimes as linguists and small business owners, we may have the tendency to develop Stockholm syndrome with subpar clients. Of course we are exaggerating a bit here for the sake of the argument and we are not implying that your clients are holding you hostage, but allow us to expand (and you can read up on Stockholm syndrome here):

Stockholm in September. Photo by Judy.

• 
  Some clients are just not good clients. If you have a client who repeatedly does not pay you and keeps on asking you to take on more work, either politely decline or ask for payment up front. No need to feel bad for them. You need to look out for your business interests, which mainly include getting paid for services rendered.
• Some clients are abusive. We've all heard the stories: there are clients who are so unreasonable that they are having a negative effect on your mental health. These are few and far between, but if this ever happens to you, you need to walk away without feeling bad. You should actually feel very good about the fact that you are not an employee but a contractor or freelancer, which means you are free to work or not work with whoever you choose. We agree that walking away from good work can be hard, but even if the work is good, there's no reason you should put up with an abusive client. Of course there's no one definition of what "abusive" means, as we all have different levels of tolerance, but in our book if you are thinking about a specific client more than you want and those thoughts are stressful, it's time to say good-bye, in a very professional and friendly way.
• Speaking of saying good-bye: We oftentimes get the question about how to exactly phrase it. You need to use your own style and tone when drafting these messages, but here are some ideas. You don't necessarily have to give a reason, but you certainly can if you would like to (we prefer to keep things very short and spend as little time on it as possible to cut our losses).
• "Thank you very much for your interest in my services. I hereby kindly inform you that I will not be working with your firm/company in the future."
• "Thank you for your past business. It's been my pleasure to provide top-notch services for your firm/company, but I will not continue to do so in the future. Kindly remove me from your list."
• Option 3: Do nothing, don't respond, and perhaps (in extreme cases) block the sender. This is not an option we would go with, but it certainly might be an idea.

What do you think, dear colleagues? Have you suffered from Stockholm syndrome? If yes, how did you resolve it? We'd love to hear from you.

Free SDL Webinar: Pricing Skills for Translators and Interpreters

Just like last year, Judy is delighted to be giving another webinar for our friends over at SDL -- and it's free for everyone (you just have to sign up). The title is: Tell me how to price my translation services, and here's a brief description of what you can expect to learn:

We translate and interpret because we love it, but we also want to make sure we get compensated well for our professional services. Having a well-developed pricing strategy is key to linguists’ satisfaction and success – but what are some of the economic factors you must take into consideration? How can you make sure you don’t get paid peanuts, what does inflation have to do with anything, and what’s price differentiation?

In accordance with prevailing anti-trust legislation, no pricing recommendations will be made. However, attendees will be presented with practical advice and food for thought that they can implement immediately. Join Judy to talk pricing and learn to not be afraid of this key topic – it can be rewarding.

Here's the link to sign up. SDL is based in the UK, so the event will be held on Friday, November 8, at 3 pm GMT, which is 7 am Pacific and 10 am Eastern. "See" you there?

Being on CNN: My Experience

Screenshot from my interview.

Most colleagues will have heard about one of the big interpreting stories of the year involving Russian interpreter Marina Gross at the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki, Finland. It was a fascinating story that resulted in a lot of important discussions within our profession and beyond, and we won't recap the details here today (but you can read more here and here and here). In this blog post, we do want to tell you about Judy's experience of being on CNN in her role as one of the ATA spokespersons. We've gotten a lot of questions about what it's like to be on national television, so here are a few thoughts that you might find interesting, including details on how it all happened:

• CNN woke me up at around 7:15 a.m. I have this cool app called Hiya that  easily identifies numbers on my business cell phone, and my heart skipped a bit when I saw it was CNN. The story had partially broken the day before and I'd already given one phone interview, but I didn't have many details, including the name and even the gender of the interpreter in question (I later learned her name was Marina Gross), so I was dealing with incomplete information, which I hear is not atypical.
• I talked to the producer in Washington D.C. and they asked me how soon I could be in a Vegas studio to record a segment for Jake Tapper's show, which was due to air at 1 p.m. Pacific that day. Given that I was still in my Snoopy pajamas, I said I could be there in 90 minutes. I've never been on national television before, but I did have the foresight to ask if there would be a make-up artist there, and was told that there would be.
• The studio is located in a non-descript strip mall right behind the famous Las Vegas Strip, and it's very professional-looking and a bit intimidating. CNN rents space there when they need to record interviews, as I don't think they have permanent studios in Vegas. I managed to get there 15 minutes early, but was told we only had six minutes for make-up, which was later increased to 17 minutes (yes, this is all a bit stressful). The make-up artist was a lovely German lady who took great care of me and even took a stab at my hair, which I had tried to do myself in a haste. It looked a lot better after she worked on it for five minutes. She's a pro!
• I was still wearing a big and cumbersome orthopedic boot (up to my knee) following Achilles tendon repair surgery, which made getting into the make-up chair a bit of a struggle, but no one could see the goofy boot on television, for which I was grateful. I had been afraid it would be one of those interviews where you can see interviewees' entire bodies, but only the top of my body was to be visible in the recording (I asked).
• After make-up is done you are allowed to drink water, but only with a straw as to not mess up the lipstick. It was 110 degrees outside and I was parched and was afraid my voice would sound scratchy, so I drank as much as I could. They ushered me into the studio--lots of bright lights!
• There's a backdrop of the Las Vegas Strip, but it's not live  shot nor is there a window, of courses, so it's a fake (I never knew that). It's a real moving image, but it's just not a view from where I was. The studio is pretty bare bones: just lights, a chair, a small table, some computers, a camera and a camera operator. There's no one there in the same room to interview you, which feels a bit strange.
• The producer who interviewed me was in D.C., and I do believe he's the same person who called me earlier that morning. It all happened so quickly I didn't even have time to ask! You get a headset in your ear (covered by my hair) and that's where the voice comes from. I was asked to not look into the camera, but to look six inches to the left, which is easier said than done.
• The interview wasn't live, which is a good thing for a national television newbie like myself. I was quite nervous when it started, but things got better as we went along. I got some pleasant questions and some trickier ones, and I tried to stick to the important talking points we have at the American Translators Association and avoided speculating about things I don't know. As opposed to a few years ago, I now feel quite comfortable saying, "I don't know." I made sure to emphasize that I am not a diplomatic interpreter, but that I was going to speak about the profession and the code of ethics in general terms.
• In general, the interview was quite pleasant and I don't think I got any questions that were meant to set me up to say something I didn't want to. I felt quite comfortable through most of it, but your brain is working overtime to make sure you get the right points across and don't say something stupid (yes, that was a real fear that I had). The interview lasted about 15 minutes, and at the end I was asked if I wanted to add something, so of course I could not resist and explained the difference between translation and interpretation. In spite of pontificating about this, the text above my name on the show read "Translating Trump." I tried.
• And just like that, it was over. The camera operator and the make-up artist were the only other persons in the room while the interview were taken place, and they told me I did great, even though I suspect they tell all interviewees that. Roughly 30 seconds of my interview made it to the broadcast, and I was pleased with the way I sounded, although of course in retrospect you always have better ideas. Most of my best ideas came to me in the car afterwards, as expected! I had to almost run out if the studio to make it to my conference interpreting assignment, which was down the street, which is part of the reason CNN picked this particular studio--I was on a tight schedule that day.

So that's it, dear fellow interpreters and translators! Being on CNN was a bit scary, but it was also a big honor to represent our profession. 

Get Rid of Robo Calls: Hiya App Review

No matter where you live, one of today's modern inconveniences are robo calls or unwanted cold calls from marketers, and this is especially true for small business owners in any industry. Ours is no exception, and many T&I professionals run their businesses with a cell phone instead of both a land line phone and a cell phone. Either way is of course fine, but the issue of unwanted phone calls remain, and they are not only annoying but also take away time from actual important work-related tasks. So what can be done to reduce those unwanted calls? Judy tried an app for her Android phone called Hiya and it works really well. Here's her quick review.

• Hiya is actually free and has no ads. You can download it here by entering your cell phone number. Available for Android and iOS.
• Basically Hiya is an additional layer on top of the phone. Say someone calls you who's not in your address book. Your regular phone service will not identify the caller, but Hiya will. It will also add the helpful "spam suspected" warning to the call screen so you won't waste your time picking up the call.
• Some unknown numbers -- we haven't really been able to figure out how Hiya determines which numbers -- will receive a text message thanking them for their call and asking them to identify themselves. In our experience, Hiya is smart enough to only send these messages to actual cell phones, and the caller gets the option to type in their name and their query. Robo callers will not do that, so problem solved. Hiya has sent these automated text messages to actual real new customers, but in our experience, they were not that bothered and simply typed in their name, got cleared by Hiya, and called again. 
• Hiya's caller ID is incredibly powerful -- it will identify pretty much any caller. That's how Judy found out that CNN was calling her for an interview a few weeks ago (more on that in a future post).
• You can look at your missed calls on your regular phone interface, but going to the Hiya interface identifies the caller quickly, so you can see, at one glance, if you missed a call from a potential or current client you might not have saved in your contacts. You can then prioritize those phone calls, for instance if you see that you missed a phone call from law firm XYZ.
• In summary: I've been using Hiya for a few months and it's blocked at least 5-10 spam calls every day, which makes my work life more enjoyable and I actually enjoy answering the phone now because I have not taken one single robo call since I've had Hiya. It's definitely one of my favorite apps right now.

We hope you find this post helpful, dear colleagues! If you have found a similar solution that also works great, please do share it with the community. 

Meet a World Cup Interpreter: Anabella Tidona

Anabella at work at Fox for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

If you are like most sports fans, you've been busy watching the FIFA 2018 World Cup, right, dear readers? We've been watching as much as possible, even though our beloved Mexico lost to Brazil. One of the main reasons we are watching has nothing to do with football/soccer, and everything to do with interpreting. We have the pleasure of knowing several of the Los Angeles-based interpreters who were retained by an agency to interpret the interviews with players and coaches both before and after the matches (they get the feed from Russia). We have never interpreted on live television (and during one of the world's biggest sports events to boot!), so we cannot even begin to imagine how nerve-wrecking it would be. We had the chance to interview the Spanish interpreter for the World Cup, who worked for Fox through the above-mentioned interpreting agency. Anabella interpreted for several different countries and dozens of players of coaches for around 20 days. Judy has had the honor of sharing the interpreting booth and the courtroom with fellow federally certified interpreter Anabella Tidona, and without further ado, here's our interview with her. 

Translation Times: Congratulations on being one of the World Cup interpreters!  How did you prepare for this assignment?

Anabella Tidona: I was lucky that in the months leading to the tournament there were over the phone interviews with some players, that allowed me to ease into the subject. I would study each player’s career (which clubs he played for and in what position, some career highlights) and also their national team: coaching staff and teammates. 

The day before every match I would watch on the FIFATV channel on YouTube the pre-match press conference that my team would do. The FIFA interpreters are of exceptional quality and I sure learned from them too. The sound of the press conferences is recorded in two channels, one ear for the original language and the other ear for English interpretation. Be sure to listen with headsets to decide what you want to hear. Speakers can be overwhelming.

Go Mexico! Photo by Anabella Tidona.

Translation Times: Can you walk us through the logistics of your daily work for this assignment? Your call times were pretty early because of the time differences, right?

Anabella Tidona: Yes, that’s correct. We would arrive two hours before the beginning of the match and we would interpret the express interviews that the assistant coaches would give right after the squads arrived to the stadium. The infrastructure is amazing: many times we could see from a helicopter camera the bus with one of the national teams going from their hotel to the stadium.

We were also ready to interpret any half time interviews, although very few coaches granted those, and post-match interviews. Post-match interviews happen right after the ref blows the whistle. The players are still breathing hard from running, and the adrenaline is still pumping from the match.

Translation Times: Is it nerve-wrecking to be on live television? It would be for us.

Anabella Tidona: Not nerve-wrecking, but certainly exciting. Some players and coaches were predictable and some others surprised us with what they had to say!

Translation Times: What were the most challenging parts of this assignment?

Anabella Tidona: It’s pretty much live TV and there is no do-over. Post-match interviews happen by the side of the pitch and the stadium background noise is still there. 

Translation Times: What were the most rewarding parts of this assignment?

Anabella Tidona: The behind the scenes people making this whole thing possible. Very talented, hard-working and kind people. Everyone pulling together to make this look (and sound) great on TV.

Interpret this! Photo by Anabella.

Translation Times: Who was your favorite player to interpret? Or coach?

Anabella Tidona: Hirving Lozano (#22 Mexico) when he said the whole team busted their asses training (“nos partimos la madre entrenando”). They actually aired it like that.

Edinson Cavani (#21 Uruguay) during the post-match interview after having scored 2 goals against Portugal was a bitter sweet moment, because he was top scorer at that match but he left the pitch a few minutes before the game was over due to a calf injury. He was very emotional because he knew he would not be able to play the following match against France where they were finally eliminated.

Translation Times: Did you come up with a particular solution that you were really proud of that you’d like to share?

Anabella Tidona:  Really focus on the output, really hear yourself speak, one ear uncovered. Most of us were doing Retour into our English B, so we all tried our very best to sound good. Also, try to finish quickly at the end of the interview, does not look pretty when the interviewee walked away and the interpreter is still doing his or her rendition.

I would also listen to the interviews I interpreted previously and try to analyze what could be improved the following day.

Translation Times: Did you have a booth partner? 

Anabella Tidona: No, because the interviews very short in duration. 2 minutes tops.

Many thanks for sharing your experiences with us, Anabella!

Anabella Tidona is a Spanish interpreter based in Los Angeles, CA. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She holds a degree in Political Science, a diploma in Conference Interpreting and a Masters in Medical Translation. The U.S. gave her the opportunity to forge her interpreting career and she has not stopped exploring all the different facets of the profession: conferences, TV, legal and medical. 

Where's the PPT?

Today's post is about one of the big tribulations of conference interpreting: getting the conference materials you need ahead of time so you an review, research, prepare, and do a great job at the actual event. Fellow conference interpreters are probably already nodding their heads in agreement that unfortunately it can be very, very difficult to get clients to give conference interpreters the materials they need ahead of time. We don't really have a good answer as to why that is the case (we have some ideas, though), but here are some thoughts on this subject:

• Contracts. In all our conference interpreting contracts, we always include a clause stating that all speaker PPTs, reference materials, etc. must be received no later than five days prior to the event. The deadline can be a bit flexible depending on when the conference is. Now, clients usually agree to this clause, but what if the deadline comes and goes and no materials have been sent: now what?
• The options. One option is to enforce the contract--depending on how you have written it, of
  
  course--and state that you will not interpret unless materials have been received, as per the contract. The usually gets the client motivated to find the materials. Let's be clear: we know that conferences are complicated beasts with many moving parts. After all, we have been speakers at conferences ourselves, and we know they are logistical challenges. However, it's in everyone's best interest to get the interpreters the materials they need ahead of time: it's good for the audience, the speakers, the client, and of course the interpreters. If we had a nickel for every time someone said, "Oh, it's just general topics!" only to then have a speaker who made broad connections between cryptocurrencies and the price of steel in Nigeria at breakneck speed, we'd be sitting on a beach sipping cocktails out of a coconut. The other option you have is to tell the client that they will have to sign a document saying they will assume all responsibility for the quality of the interpretation because you, the interpreter(s) has/have not received the  documents that you need in order to do a good job. We like to tell clients that we are like surgeons: we can't operate without a scalpel and without knowing which surgery we are performing, no matter how skilled we are. Yet another option is to insist on none of these things and just do the best you can without any sort of material, which is scary and usually not the best option. But sometimes it's the only option. The problem is that if you do not do a good job, it will reflect poorly on you and only you: the audience will have no idea that you didn't have preparation materials for this conference on reverse financial hedging strategies. All they will know is that you didn't do well. And that's unfair, of course, because you have been set up to fail.
• Don't get us wrong: many times, clients (usually an LSP) will go to great lengths to ensure that you get the speakers' slides and sometimes even the showflow (those are our favorite clients!) ahead of time. Once in a while we even receive translated (poorly translated, but still) PPTs from all speakers, which is amazing. Sometimes for conferences on financial topics and big industry conferences (think Consumer Electronics Show, where Judy interpreted in January), no materials will be released to anyone, period, because of confidentiality issues. Other times the LSP simply does not understand the value of getting the PPTs for the interpreters (a sign that this isn't a very good LSP if they do not understand the profession), and does not want to "bug" the end client for the slides. Other times speakers will be working on their slides until the very last minute and simply won't have anything to share until the 11th hour. We worked at a conference that featured the speaker changing his slides AFTER the rehearsal, which was about 10 minutes before it went live and was broadcast to the world. That was less than ideal, but we made it happen.
• Roll with the punches. Like all interpreting fields, the working conditions in conference interpreting can be imperfect, and you need to be prepared for that fact. It does get tricky at times when you have to find the precarious balance between enforcing the minimum standards of what you need to do a good job and being flexible and providing good customer service to a client who might be working under less-than-ideal conditions himself or herself. Bottom line: don't be a diva but do insist on the basics. Here in the U.S. you'd be surprised how often the client does not see the need for a booth for conference interpreting in a large ballroom and wants to use mobile equipment instead! There's no real answer on how to best handle all this in general, and we've interpreted with both a full deck of translated PPT presentations and a complete showflow and at events where we have had no idea what was going to come out of the speakers' mouths; not even a general idea (those aren't good situations).
• Find what works for you. In conclusion, the best you can do is find what works for you and stick to it as much as possible. It also depends a bit on the client and your relationship with them and your ability to decipher how much you can push without alienating them. Usually, explaining that we need a scalpel to do surgery, we mean, that we need a booth and preparation materials to do conference interpreting, is a good start for clients and LSPs alike. Another important point we like to make to clients is the following: You want your company to look good in other languages, right? Then give us the materials we need to so can prepare and make your company shine in the other language.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic, dear fellow interpreters. 

SLAM! Conference in Sweden: Master Class (Direct Clients)

We are delighted to announce that Judy will be heading to Malmö, Sweden, to speak at the SLAM! (Scandinavian Language Associations' Meeting) Conference on September 15. Since Judy is a big fan of Scandinavia, it wasn't hard to convince her to come back to Sweden, and she will be giving the opening address of the SLAM! conference, which is a collaboration between the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish translation and interpretation associations. Check out the preliminary program here. In addition, she's giving a master class the day after the main conference, which is offered in conjunction with SLAM! but has a different sign-up here. The master class is titled: No Pain, No Gain: Active Marketing to Direct Clients and will be held on Sunday, September 16, 2018.

Many colleagues want to market to direct clients but can't quite figure out how to best approach this challenge. There's no easy answer, and as the title of the master class hints at, it might be a bit painful to get there (but it's worth it). The three-hour workshop includes everything Judy has learned in more than a decade working with direct clients and is divided into 1-hour segments. Bonus: since this will be held in Sweden, the workshop includes dedicated time for fika (essentially a coffee break with yes, coffee, tea and pastries). After the workshop, the idea is to perhaps get together with interested colleagues to head to an informal dinner to keep the conversation going and to nurture relationships.

Looking forward to seeing you there! 

Cancellation Policies for Court Interpreters

For one of our final posts of 2017 (time flies, doesn't it?), we wanted to discuss an important issue for court interpreters: cancellation policies. 

If you have worked as a court interpreter for any length of time, you will be familiar with a common phenomenon: depositions, arbitrations, mediations and other types of hearings get moved, cancelled, postponed, etc. It also happens in court, but many courts will  pay the interpreter for a cancellation that is received less than 24 hours ahead of time. For civil cases and in the private market, it's up to the interpreter to set and enforce cancellation policies. In general, as a profession, we can do a better job at enforcing this, and we have (anecdotal evidence here) noticed that colleagues can be timid about their cancellation policies. However, definining them and sticking to these policies can be key to preserving our earning potential. We recently heard from a dear colleague who doesn't like to take depositions anymore because so many of them get cancelled. She has a good point, but rather than not taking the work, we think the better approach is to draft a good cancellation policy. In fact, we like cancelled depositions and other hearings.

It's entirely reasonable to have a cancellation period. In fact, many professionals have it, including doctors, lawyers, and even massage therapists and hair stylists. Most people understand that you have relatively little opportunity to sell your time again to someone else if the first person, the one you had originally scheduled, cancels a few hours ahead of time. In addition to potential lost income, there's also the issue of professional courtesy: most of us are busy enough that once we have a slot booked we get inquiries for the same slot from other clients, which we turn down (if you operate on a first-come, first-served principle, like most of us do). It's reasonable to expect clients to give us plenty of notice so we can fill the slot once they discover they need to reschedule.

Our cancellation policy is 24 hours, and we have enforced it without major problems for years. Once in a while a client will ask us to cut them some slack if they cancel, say, 23 hours ahead of time, and depending on the client, we do. We are now thinking about changing our cancellation policy to 48 hours, because in our experience, it's quite difficult to fill cancellations within a day. What about you, dear colleagues? How have you handled this issue? We'd love to read your comments.

Webinar: Negotiating Skills for Linguists

Image created on www.canva.com

We know, we know: negotiating is probably most linguists' least favorite part of the job, but it doesn't have to be painful. Join Judy and the CLEF in Québec (Carrefour des langagiers entrepreneurs/Language Entrepreneus Forum -- go entrepreneurs!)  on Friday, December 8, 2017, for a pre-holiday webinar on how to make everyone, including yourself, happy when negotiating contract terms -- but maybe not always. It's important to keep in mind that the negotiation process doesn't have to be something negative and adversarial. Sometimes it's good to look at it just as a conversation during which each party gives and takes a little.

Note: the webinar will be presented in English.

Here's a webinar abstract:

Regardless of your profession, negotiating is often everyone’s least favorite activity. It can be stressful and intimidating for linguists, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s also an opportunity to hone your skills, try new strategies, and even cement your business relationships if done right. It takes practice, patience, and the willingness to assume some risk. During this webinar, the speaker will take you through some of the main things to keep in mind when negotiating with potential and existing clients.

You can register for the webinar here. Hope to see you there and happy negotiating!

Budgeting for Quarterly Estimated Tax Payments

Norwegian kroner, because we had the picture handy. Photo by Judy.

If you are like most small business owners here in the U.S, in our profession or any other, you are probably quite familiar with quarterly estimated taxes, which are due four times a year. We generally think taxes are a great thing, and that they are one of the main things that make a society work, and we are happy to pay them. But sometimes small businesses run into cash flow issues and occasionally you have to scramble to come up with the estimated tax payment when it's due. It's happened to us, too, and while we have always been able to pay it, we figured we needed an easy way to guarantee the money is there when we need it.

The strategy we started using is quite simple, but one we had only used intermittently before: every time we deposit a check into our checking account or receive a payment via online banking transfer (which they all should be, but we digress), we immediately take 20% of each payment and transfer that into a savings account that's used to pay taxes. The two accounts are with the same bank (Chase, as much as we dislike them at times) and the transfer is quick, easy, and free. Since the money goes out so quickly after it's been deposited, we don't really miss it, and we ware delighted to have it come tax time. 

What do you think, dear colleagues? Do you follow a similar strategy?

Personal Document Translation: What If I Can't Read Something?

The last post of the month is about a topic that's not very glamorous, but can be quite lucrative: personal document translation. Oftentimes, linguists shy away from it because dealing with non-businesses can be time-consuming and it's happened more than once that you don't get paid. We avoid this by kindly asking for pre-payment for personal document translations. We've translated hundreds of documents for dozen of government agencies around the world, and one of the most frequently asked questions we get from new colleagues is: what do you do if you can't ready something? Allow us to share our thoughts.

• Ask the client. The beautiful thing about working directly with individuals who most likely are the owners of the documents in question is that you can easily go to the source. This is important for handwritten documents where say, the place of birth is noted but it's a small province in a country you are not familiar with. In these cases, we do think it's perfectly acceptable to ask the client, as they would obviously know where they were born.
• When to put [illegible]. While there are no hard and established rules on this, we would never guess or fill in the blanks (more than a letter or two) if the portion we cannot read is typed but either too faint to read, cut off, etc. In that case, even if the client could solve it for us, the issue is readability of the document (rather than sloppy handwriting), and in such cases, we usually put [illegible]. Most of our colleagues have tended to handle it this way, but of course there are other approaches.
• Requests for changes. You'd be surprised how often clients have asked us to change their birth date (because it was incorrect on the original or for other, significantly less legitimate reasons), name (because they have since gotten married or divorced), or simply asked us to translate parts of the document and exclude others. However, that gets us into the dangerous territory of document falsification, and you want to steer as clear of that as humanely possible. Since these document translations are almost always certified and notarized, we never change, add, redact, etc. anything at all -- no matter how small. Explaining to the client that document falsification is a crime in which you will not participate usually does the trick.
• Certifying other's work. This is a bit off-topic, but still related. Oftentimes clients will say that they "just translated this themselves since they speak both languages" (we can see the collective eye roll from here!) but that they want a "real" translator to certify their work. We gently point out that we cannot say the work is ours when it isn't.

What about you, dear colleagues? Do you handle this in a similar fashion? We would love to hear your thoughts. Just leave a comment below!

Interpreting: Spanglish Example of the Month

As many English<->Spanish interpreters know, especially those of us who work in the US, interpreting Spanglish and anglicized versions of Spanish words can be a signficant challenge. Many non-English speakers do speak enough English to throw English terms into their Spanish-language speech, which makes things interesting, to say the very least.  Even if you live and work in an area where you are surrounded by Spanish and Spanglish (as Judy is in Las Vegas, NV), many of these can can still throw you for a loop. Having grown up in Mexico City, we pretty much know how Spanish speakers can potentially mispronounce English-language terms to come up with all kinds of indecipherable things, but here's one that really was a challenge. And perhaps it wasn't even Spanglish. We don't really know what it was, but here it is for your reading pleasure. Note: the following is in both English and Spanish.

At a deposition. The attorney, Ms. Higgins, is the English speaker, and the deponent, Ms. Ríos, is giving testimony in Spanish..  Mr. Urr is Ms. Ríos attorney. All names have been changed. Judy is the interpreter.

Ms. Higgins: On the afternoon of April 10, where were you going?

Judy (interpreting): En la tarde del 10 de abril, ¿a dónde se dirigía usted?

Ms. Ríos: A la Willy-Willy.

Judy (interpreting): To the Willy-Willy.

Ms. Higgins: I am not familiar with Willy-Willy.

Judy (interpreting): No conozco la Willy-Willy.

Ms. Ríos: ¡Pues la Willy-Willy! En la Decatur esquina con Tropicana.

Judy (interpreting): Well, the Willy-Willy! On Decatur and Tropicana.

Ms. Higgins: I don't know a store with that name.

Judy (interpreting): No conozco tienda alguna con ese nombre.

Ms. Ríos: Pues no sé, licenciada, pero yo voy a cada rato. Muy buenos precios.

Judy (interpreting): Well, I don't know, counsel, but I go all the time. Great prices.

Mr. Urr, interrupting: For the record, my client is talking about the Goodwill store.

Judy (interpreting): Quiero hacer constar en actas que me cliente se refiere a la tienda Goodwill.

Ms. Ríos: ¡Exacto! La Willy-Willy, o Goodwill, o como le digan. ¡Es lo mismo!

Judy (interpreting): Exactly! Willy-Willy, or Goodwill, or whatever it's called. Same thing!

Ms. Higgins: I would never have guessed that. OK, let's continue talking about what happened when you went to the Goodwill store.

During depositions and all other legal proceedings, things happen very quickly and you have very little time to react. In retrospect, Judy did have a hunch (based on the address the deponent provided) that the Ms. Ríos was referring to the Goodwill store, but definitely knew that a hunch (or a guess) was not an acceptable option. We think this worked out beautifully -- an attorney who had knowledge of the case clarified everything for the record and we went on with the deposition. After it finished, there was much good-natured laughter about Willy-Willy.

We would love to hear your best examples of Spanglish or other challenging interpreting situations, dear colleagues!