Category: Professionalism

Marketing Strategies for Freelance Translators and Interpreters

Posted on by drawingboarddesign in Industry Tips, Interpretation, Professionalism, Translation

?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. 

Self-Care for Busy Professionals

Posted on by drawingboarddesign in Industry Tips, Inspiration, Professionalism

Self-care is often defined as anything we purposefully do to take care of our emotional, spiritual, and mental health. But there is much more to it than that. What we often don’t hear about is self-care defined as the opposite – things we don’t engage in because they are not good for our health. 

Additionally, self-care isn’t always planned activities, but it can be anything that helps you move toward either stillness or growth, such as playing with thinking patterns, exploring attitudes, purposeful reflections, and meaningful connections.  Perhaps one of the most well-known terms in mental health but also one of the most misunderstood, simply because it is difficult to define something that can look, feel, touch, taste, and smell differently for everyone.

Self-care for individuals who work as translators or interpreters may look the same or different from those who work in other fields. Translators, who often work in solitude and interpreters, who have high paced expectations, need to take care due to these special circumstances. Here are 5 ways in which any busy professional may consider for self-care. 

?Connect to Others

Connecting to others is important, especially when working alone is very important. As human beings, we are creatures who not only thrive through human connection, but require it for sustaining life. From an evolutionary perspective, we need each other to stay alive. This was especially true in the past, but our brains have not evolved as fast as society has. We are generally safe in solitude, but at times our brains will tell us that it is dangerous to be alone. In fact, being alone and lonely can trigger our fight, flight, freeze response. Connecting to others (or allowing others to connect to us) is key to mediating this response and may be the most important self-care work we can do.

?Fuel Your Creativity

Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” shows us that creativity is a human need that helps drive us towards “self actualization”, or towards fully knowing our potential and talents, which furthers us towards fulling knowing ourselves. Luckily, as translators and interpreters, you are often working within the realm of creativity. Of course, there are countless other ways to be creative, and integrating more into your life can be an important act of self-care.

?Live in the Moment Using Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a phrase that most people have heard of. It is defined as “a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations”. This helps us understand, tolerate, and live with our internal experiences. There are many resources available for mindfulness, and finding a few practices you enjoy doing can be integrated into your repertoire of self-care.

Create Full Sensory Experiences

Our five senses have a direct pathway to our brain, and thus can help soothe and calm us, or can help us better integrate our learnings. Creating situations during which each of your 5 senses can explore, integrate, and experience can facilitate new brain connections, new behaviors and habits, or can simply produce stillness and calm.  

Validate, Appreciate, and Celebrate Yourself

Finding ways to validate yourself, which means to tell yourself that your inner experiences are all important and okay, is key to self-understanding and self-growth. Equally important is finding time to infuse appreciation in your life, whether it’s from big successes or from simply finding gratitude in the fact that you have the ability to take breaths. Recent research has shown us that gratitude can actually help with integrating learning and helps with decision making, as these areas tend to be more active during grateful moments. Finally, celebrating yourself through purposeful ceremonies and traditions, such as a weekly time to watch your favorite tv show, or a monthly get-together with validating friends, is a lovely tool for self-care, because it shows self-love. 

How We can Use Feedback for Business Growth

Posted on by drawingboarddesign in Field, Industry Tips, Interpretation, Professionalism, Translation

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.

6 Ways to Sharpen Listening Skills

Posted on by drawingboarddesign in Field, Industry Tips, Interpretation, Professionalism

?Steven R. Covey, in his famous book that outlines The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, stated that “most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply”.  Interpreters, however, understand that listening to understand is fundamental to the work we do. Without proper listening, vital information can be missed, and the message can be misconstrued.  Listening allows us to properly intake information and sort through it, in preparation for changing the incoming language while still communicating the original message.

 An Interpreter’s listening skills must be sharp, as there can be immense pressure to do one’s job with speed, accuracy, and all while likely having an audience. Listening skills can also be helpful in other professional ways, such as engaging others and potentially gathering more clients and business opportunities. The following suggestions are potential ways to hone or practice these skills. 

 1.      Clearing the mind of “other clutter” 

When we can clear our minds of information that is competing for our attention, this helps us focus better on what we are required to do. If you have difficulty clearing your mind of competing thoughts, as most of us do, a simple visualization prior to starting may be helpful. Visualizing keeping the other stuff that is in your mind to one side temporarily, and in the forefront is where your task at hand is. For some, visualizing containers within the mind is helpful. In these containers you can place the other mental content, close the lid, and reassure yourself that you will come back to these items later.  

 2.      Preparing body language  

Non-verbals and other body languages are the primary way we communicate.  Being consciously aware of what we are communicating through our body is essential from the get-go. This allows the other person to see us as prepared and engaged in what they have to say. A quick scan of your body prior to beginning may be helpful. Starting at the toes, scan upward while thinking about open body language can be helpful.  Likewise, body language in the other person is important to gauge as well.  What is the other person doing? Are they leaning forward and engaged? Or leaning back for some distance from you? This is also important to assess to determine if you are on track.  Open body language can even encourage the other person to open up. 

 3.      Having the right tools 

This may seem obvious, but necessary and worth mentioning all the same. Having the right tools for interpretation is essential for listening and having what you need prepared shows that you are ready. ? 

4.      Practice summarizing to assist with consolidating information 

An interpreter’s role is not only switching spoken word from one language to another, it also includes the ability to condense information when necessary.  The skill of summarizing information is essential, here. This is where an interpreter takes the incoming language and shortens it, while still ensuring the message of the statement is clear and is communicated. Not only does this get a message across, but a good summarizing statement can leave a listener feeling as though they are listened to and understood. Practicing this in everyday communications can be essential to sharpening it. 

5.      Practice empathetic listening 

Interpreters are often in situations where emotions are at a high. You act as a window between two languages, and thus between the two communicators. Empathy, which is the ability to both understand the feelings of another person, and further, to communicate that you understand, can help mediate these situations.  

6.      Find a method for managing stress 

The pressure to perform is intense in an interpreter’s world. Having methods in place to manage this is essential. When we are under stress, our bodies and minds react in ways that may be beyond our control and may impact our ability to do our jobs. Preventing this from occurring, through relaxation exercises or mind clearing strategies similar to point 1 can be helpful. Find what works for you! ? 

As a bonus, not only are listening skills valuable for the basis of what interpreters do, but they can also help in other areas of life. Most of these skills can be applied to our personal relationships, and can help deepen these connections as well.  

4 reasons why you need to learn to let go of your translations

Posted on by drawingboarddesign in Field, Industry Tips, Inspiration, Professionalism, Translation

Translators, similar to writers, often get attached to the fruits of their creative work, the words they’ve crafted, creative solutions they spent hours pondering. That’s why handing over a project to a client can elicit mixed feelings—on the one hand, you’re thrilled to take on new challenges; on the other hand, you’re parting with your brainchild that, in a way, carries parts of you. Translation offers a glimpse of your personality, reveals your thought process, exposes some of your biases, beliefs, and values. Even the most technical of translations has your unique style in it, your choice of words, your voice.

While it’s rewarding—even necessary—to take pride in what you do, holding your work too close to your heart can undermine it.  Pouring your heart into what you do and leaving a piece of you in every project won’t go unnoticed and your clients will appreciate your passion. It’s about finding a healthy balance between dedication and detachment that will help you carry your signature throughout your work and get better with every word.

Here’s why letting go of your translations will make you a better and happier translator:

1. Letting go of your words will make you more receptive to criticism. Distancing yourself from your translations will help you take feedback and potential criticism constructively, and transform them into improvements to the original text. If a translation is an extension of you, then any form of criticism, even the most benign and well-intentioned, is going to feel as an attack on you. If you happen to work with an editor or peers who scrutinize your work, knowing exactly where you end and your translation begins will save you from unnecessary self-doubt. An adequate distance between you and your work where you focus on quality and solutions that best suit your context will help avoid tensions within your team.

2. It will help you think critically and grow. Be proud of what you do. Yet keep your mind open to better ideas. You can only take a step back, evaluate your work, and question some of your decisions if your translation is loved from a distance. By cutting ties with a text, you’ll see rationale behind your decisions and know why you did what you did, and how you can do better next time.

3. Acknowledging your mistakes will be easier. Typos in early drafts are inevitable. Did you miss a footnote? Or did your editor point out an inconsistency? If you detach your work from yourself, you will find that owning mistakes and correcting them will become easier.

4. Do it for your self-esteem and emotional well-being. Distancing yourself from the work you do for your clients will help sustain a healthy self-esteem and shield from forming a negative perception of yourself with every comment you might receive about your work. Waving good-bye to your translations will never become easy, especially if you truly love what you do. Don’t let your dedication, zest, and love for translation get in the way of professional growth and job s