Category: Interpretation
Freelancers Unite! An Interview with CFU’s Paula Kirman
Many ATIA members may have met Paula Kirman of the Canadian Freelance Union (CFU) last year at the AGM in Edmonton, as she gave a presentation to our members on the benefits of joining the CFU. Thank you for joining us, Paula!
Q: Why don’t you start by telling us who can join the Canadian Freelance Union.
A: The Canadian Freelance Union is a community chapter of Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union. Membership is aimed at freelancers working in the media, communications, and information fields, and this can include interpreting and translating. Our members also include writers, graphic designers, website designers, social media consultants, photographers, and videographers.
Q: As you know, many associate and certified members of the ATIA do freelance or independent contracting work. Can you tell us about the benefits of joining the CFU for Translators and Interpreters?
A: Membership in the CFU offers group rates on insurance: health, home, auto, and liability. As many of us who are self-employed know, insurance can be hard to get – and very expensive. The CFU also offers grievance support, so if you have a client who isn’t paying, you can discuss the situation with someone at the union to decide the best course of action. As well, the CFU has a member’s directory that is available to potential clients who want to hire someone who is unionized. There is also the potential to connect with and socialize with other freelancers. Membership in the CFU helps build solidarity for freelancers in the labour movement. We’re stronger together.
Q: Many are drawn to freelancing because it affords translators and interpreters the independence and self-determination of being selective of projects and clients, allowing us to pursue work that we are passionate about. However, this independence can have its downside when it comes to clients’ non-payment of fees or deceptive contracts. How can the CFU support freelancers with problematic clients?
A: As I mentioned before, the CFU offers grievance support when it comes to non-paying clients. The situation will be discussed with the member, and an action plan created. Sometimes all it takes is a phone call from someone at the CFU to your client to convince them to pay up. CFU members are welcome to submit questions concerning contracts. Something the CFU is currently working on is more comprehensive contract advice, and contract templates.
Q: Freelancing also has many draws in terms of lifestyle: building your own schedule, choosing your workload, flexibility, and independence. Unfortunately, this can also mean precarious labour, lack of access to health benefits, and loneliness. What services does the CFU offer to combat these commonly-faced hardships for freelancers?
A: Joining the CFU helps build solidarity among freelancers. You can be connected to other freelancers in your area. Here in Edmonton, there is an Edmonton Freelancers Facebook group that I moderate, and we have regular meet-ups. Meet-ups have happened in other cities as well. The union also offers group rates on health, home, auto, and liability insurance, which can be hard to get (and expensive) for precarious workers. Finally, the CFU gives a voice to freelancers in the labour movement, and advocates on behalf of us by standing up for issues affecting us as precarious workers. If you check out our website (canadianfreelanceunion.ca) and social media, you will see articles and information posted to help inform freelancers about pitfalls to avoid and issues of concern, such as the persecution of journalists, shady websites that “hire” freelancers at low rates, and related issues.
Q: Certified members of the ATIA must carry errors and omissions insurance, as it is one of the critical ways that the ATIA protects both its members and the public. This insurance does not come cheap, and can be particularly unaffordable for freelancers or independent contractors. Can you tell us a little bit about insurance plans tailored for freelancers?
A: The Errors and Omissions insurance offered via the CFU includes Misrepresentation, Professional Negligence, Inaccurate Advice, Libel and Slander, and lost documents. It is an individual plan, not a group one, which means each person would have to get their own quote to see what best suits their needs.
Q: Thanks again for joining us to inform the ATIA’s members about the Canadian Freelance Union! Do you have any closing messages for the translators and interpreters of the ATIA?
A: More information about the Canadian Freelance Union can be found on our website: canadianfreelanceunion.ca. Also, remember that union dues are tax-deductible as a business operating expense (not on the union dues line on our taxes because we’re not a bargaining union), and the benefits of joining are well worth the annual dues.
Marketing Strategies for Freelance Translators and Interpreters
?Understanding languages is a pretty good industry to get into. Globalization has increased the need for translators and interpreters to continue to break down language barriers. As such, it can be one of the most satisfying careers, as interpreters and translators have a direct role in bridging language and culture and breaking down barriers.
The translation services industry is growing rapidly, and the demand for effective translators and interpreters remains large. The industry is expected to increase to $38 billion by next year and $45 billion by 2020. Additionally, employment rates are expected to grow by 29 percent until 2024. Some of these rates will be within freelancing or contract work. Many who are looking to freelance can benefit from marketing strategies that look at ways of gaining new clients and new contracts. Making real life connections is key. Below are some marketing strategies geared to those who are in the business of language.
If you can commit to talking to at least three different people about your business everyday, you’ll be likely see some changes within your clients, your contracts, and your income.
Social media certainly has it’s place in the marketing world, as long as you are using it consistently in order to build an audience. However, not all marketing should be done on the computer, and meeting your potential clients where they are is equally as important. Do your research, find out where your ideal clients go to network, learn, and grow their businesses — and go there too!
Having a speech prepared that briefly describes who you are, what you do, and what you can offer is key during moments of networking. Whether impromptu meetings or planned networking events, preparing what you will say can help ensure you communicate the information and message you wish to convey. Remember to keep your tone level, your language positive, and use accessible, precise, and plain language. Be sure to tell them how to find you, whether it’s online or your physical work address, and be sure to do it within one minute so you don’t lose your audience.
Now that you have met new contacts, a key piece to networking is following up, rather than relying on your potential clients to contact you. Following up quickly is key, within 24 hours is ideal. Ensure you mention meeting them, and offer to meet up again. If you follow up via written form, ensure you use professional language and edit thoroughly!
Referrals are the most effective, and cost-effective, way to generate new business, yet asking for referrals can feel awkward. It is important to know your client, so generally using the clients you have the best relationship with is important. You may need to be professional and direct, or more personal and out-of-the-box. You may offer incentives for referrals, and be sure to thank your clients afterward.
Anyone who freelances what they do can benefit from learning and practicing some marketing and network strategies. Freelance translators and interpreter, by nature, have careers that rely upon and build relationships. In fact, your very job includes building bridges between culture and language and deepening bonds between neighbours. Now that’s a great career.
How We can Use Feedback for Business Growth
Feedback has always been an effective form of communication used by humans. It has been defined as a response to a person’s behavior that influences whether that behavior will continue or stop. In other words, feedback is information given to us that tells us how we are doing – the good and the bad.
When we receive feedback, the results of that feedback help us to determine if what we are doing is actually helping us work towards a goal. Deliberate feedback is feedback that is used for a specific purpose has many important features.
First, feedback is descriptive in that it based on our observations of another. It is also emotionally revealing. Instead of describing behavior, it may describe the feedback sender’s emotional response. Feedback is also evaluative; it can judge our performance toward our goal. Similarly, feedback can also be used to guide someone toward achieving insight on a particular behavior – this makes it interpretive. Feedback is a necessary tool that is used for personal and professional growth in the translation and interpretation fields.
In sales, marketing, and fields that require gathering potential clients, communication is also highly important for success. More specifically, the importance of a salesperson listening for developing solid relationships that can lead to sales is often stressed. According to some leading researchers in the field of feedback, there are three components to listening in the process of gathering new clients for any business: sensing, evaluating and responding to communication.
Feedback plays a very important role throughout this process. Customers or clients of business people can judge if a we are actively sensing and will likely provide verbal or nonverbal feedback regarding their emotional standpoint here. We are then able to evaluate the incoming feedback. This feedback can be verbal, nonverbal, and can involve anything from the client’s communication skills to their personal style.
In turn, the client or customer will use feedback from the salesperson to determine if they are trustworthy. It is very beneficial for a business person to fine tune these listening skills in order to be deemed more trustworthy. This reciprocal feedback in a buyer/seller relationship will determine the likelihood of a sale being made or a client gained.
In the fields of interpretation and translation, gathering clients is important if you are working for yourself or your own business. As such, it is necessary for us to be both skilled at what we do in our fields AND skilled as business people, in order to gain new clients or new contracts. Using feedback in the process of marketing yourself is essential.
Feedback also helps us determine if the “product” we are producing or selling is in line with the client’s needs. Gathering the feedback of our clients, through sensing, evaluating, and responding can help us determine if we are on the right pathway towards the goal of producing a piece of written translation work or interpreting in the way that is required.
The feedback we give is equally as important, even in our personal relationships. Most of our communication is done through nonverbal language, and we can communicate a lot in this manner. Sometimes we give feedback to others that we don’t intent to give – through facial expressions, body posture, and our stance.
Being aware of our bodies and the feedback we give through them is important for communication, progress toward goals, gathering clients, having positive relationships, among many other things. Feedback is a bidirectional process that influences us personally, as well as directly contributes to our business of gathering clients for interpretation or translation needs.
What Happens in the Brain When We Interpret?
The human brain is a powerful control centre. It is responsible for everything from our ability to breathe to our ability to be empathic. It is responsible for all skills and abilities, and language is no exception. Language is an exceptionally complicated, yet highly coordinated task. It is a cognitive skill that is both unique to humans and universal to all human cultures. Different brain structures are responsible for all parts of language production – including hearing spoken words, making sense of those words, producing a response, and executing that response.
So how does the brain do this? Many researchers have asked themselves the same question, and some of them have attempted to find the answer. Most research uses fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) so that the areas of the brain that are working harder during different situations can be viewed. More specifically, some research has examined the brains of interpreters to better understand the skills involved in understanding and producing speech. Two well-studied areas that play a very significant role in language are two areas known as Wernicke’s and Broca’s.
Wernicke’s area, located in the temporal lobe of the left hemisphere, usually, plays a large role in understanding the incoming language information. It is here that the original language goes in and where you make sense of the meaning of the words and sentences. Whether translating or interpreting written or audible language, Wernicke’s area is responsible for transforming words into their meaning. Not only is this area responsible for language comprehension, but it is where we plan the what we want to say back. For interpreters, an extra step is involved during which language is switched, and the speed of which this happens is extremely fast. If this area is damaged, speech is created without content or meaning.
The next large brain area involved in language is called Broca’s area. Although the research is less clear on the role of Broca‘s area, it has been hypothesized that Broca’s area also is involved in language production and comprehension, including verbal working memory, syntax, grammar, and the motor movements responsible for speech. It is also associated with functions outside of language, including motor-related activities associated with hand movements, and sensorimotor learning and integration. Damage to the Broca’s area can disrupt language production, but nobody is quite sure exactly what specific language-related function is lost to cause that disruption. Thus, the Broca’s area plays a large part in interpretation.
To get more specific, researchers have looked at brain scans of interpreters in three different situations: listening to a sentence in one language, listening to and repeating a sentence in one language, and listening to a sentence in one of their languages and interpreting it into another of their languages. Broca’s area was lit up during all of these tasks. Interestingly, the caudate nucleus, an area of the brain responsible for learning and decision making, was the most engaged part of the brain during the latter task. This makes sense, because the caudate nucleus uses information learned from previous experiences and to make future decisions, and so it coordinates different parts of the brain to do this. These researchers hypothesize that interpretation requires various regions of the brain, not only the language centres, to be coordinated during the difficult task of interpretation. The caudate nucleus becomes more engaged during such a task because it has a huge role in facilitating this highly coordinated function.
In general, language is a multi-faceted cognitive skill that engages many areas of the brain, but most prominently Broca’s area and Wernicke’s areas. For those who work in interpretation, it has been found that many more areas of the brain are also engaged, because the ability to switch languages requires more coordination and abilities. This coordination is likely to be controlled by the caudate nucleus. It is safe to say, however, that much more research is required to be able to answer exactly what happens in our brain when language is interpreted.