What Do I Say?

HOW DO I DECIDE WHAT TO SAY?

Before I (once again) start discussing things inspired by my own reasoning and theorising about the subject of translation and languages (since this is no less than my living), let me say that, at the time of writing, I’m at a stage in my career where I really want to move up / upgrade in a big way; I don’t want to just remain in what I know my father has designated the “casual end” of the industry. In practice, this means getting more work from direct customers rather than from translation agencies (however many times certain translation agencies have hired me to do work for them) and establishing definitive reasons for raising my rates (which largely means gaining proficiency in CAT tools and developing expertise in a certain field with awareness of specialised terminology and other expressions to show for it).

In any case, I have surely established a sound basis for this by now. Of all the things I have translated professionally, the record includes many contracts, business reports and presentation materials and technical instructions, and I am aware of certain online glossaries I can consult to help me deliver a product of suitable quality. Yet for all I have achieved, my market, the scope of people I could confidently win over, remains somewhat limited; even if that is the reason I write these blogs and my tweets. I want to offer potential clients “more” without the worry of coming across as bloviating in my marketing when I do so. And, frankly speaking, it all boils down to the question of how I identify the kinds of people who specifically look for professional translators who are “specialised” in some way when they are looking to hire professional translators, and, in a world of unprecedented opportunity but also an unprecedented level of easily accessible information just waiting to be consumed, due in no small part to the Internet, how I can win them over. I really must learn to network better. And, in my experience, it’s not just a matter of sending people invites on LinkedIn.

I say this because, in translation work, sometimes judging the best thing to say when making a point about a given topic requires determined research into things you just know relatively few people will touch on readily; research into things which are not necessarily covered by the topic itself. But I agree that I want to move up and that developing my judgement in this regard is an important aspect of it.

For the time being, however, on the general subject of the work I do (or rather, the work I’m paid for): it recently struck me that it is by no means that unlikely that someone might ask me, being a professional translator and all, how I “decide what to say” (although I’m guessing we are dealing with hypotheticals). Even if such a question would probably be rhetorical, I wouldn’t mind; but then I find this a question that it’s just too easy to ask those in multiple professions as far as their work is concerned: psychologists and psychiatrists, journalists, teachers, managers, salespeople and, I’m sure, many more. But I mean to relate “how I decide what to say” to my translation work, not least because, to be honest, it is not that uncommon for me to refer to clients points in my work that I would hope they or someone else could have a look at; points which I am not lacking in confidence about as such yet I still think it requires some kind of perspective that I’m not sure I could provide myself or clarify were someone to touch on it (wittingly or otherwise). Writing lucid work is all well and good but, like everyone else, there’s only so much writing I can perfect (and I am no stranger to multilingual proofreading). For example, if I’m going into depth about the specifications of something I haven’t been able to get acquainted with directly… at what point does writing about it in a supposedly authoritative way become no more than bluffing?

Let me outline this in more detail: the question is supposed to be “how do I decide what to say in my translation work?” After all, language can be “flavoured” any number of ways to produce material that might sound peculiar or “off” at best, or embarrassing or offensive at worst. It’s not just about the level of formality of the register, or whether it is supposed to reflect, say, a calm or determined tone, or supposed to hint directly at certain interests in terms of selected vocabulary used. Let’s not forget that I have mentioned before that the debate of culture is never too far away from the debate of how to produce translation work at its best, so maybe it would be interesting to ask, say, an etiquette coach, how they decide what to say? Yes, etiquette coaches do actually exist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq-5DGGhW7k Yes, I do think that this is relevant to my work in that it is conducive to improving translation skills, if in a relatively indirect way. There’s no imagination like independent imagination, after all. And who wouldn’t appreciate it as a cost-free way for attempting to deal with reality?

And this is how I would answer the aforementioned question (I’m sure it will be taken as incredibly vague and over-generalised, but this is my blog): as important as carefully considered expressions are, nothing can substitute commitment to writing sensible expressions; that is the most important criterion of all.

I look forward to working for you. My contact details can be found on my website or on one of my online profiles, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a number of online translation community sites including ProZ, TranslatorsCafe, TranslatorPub and Traduguide.