The back story

The end client had been burned a couple of times by horrible translations. So they contracted with this new agency, on the condition that they could meet the translator and verify his/her ability. The agency didn't have anyone suitable, so they found me through an introduction. Dealing with a translator directly was out of the question, because the end client has a strict bidding process that requires huge capitalization and credit rating just to bid.

The meeting

I met two nice people from the translation agency, and then we drove down to the client's office together. This was my first time meeting them, so although they had my CV, and we had exchanged emails, they wanted to know some more about me. One of their first questions was, "Do you read kanji?" The end clients would probably want to show us some documents, and if I couldn't read them it might not come off well.

I was flabbergasted. I asked the leader of their team, "Can you be a translator and not be able to read the language you translate?" Apparently, you can: this PM's other native English speaker (NES) is an interpreter who also translates. But she doesn't read Japanese well, and instead has her partner dictate her documents; she then "translates" from the voice recording.

I answered that yes, I could read kanji, and kind of shrugged it off until we got to the meeting. There, when the documentation lead brought out the documents that I was supposed to translate, he asked me the same question: "Can you read kanji?" I bemusedly told him yes, and we went on with our discussion, but it left me thinking. Are native English-speaking translators really so thin on the ground that our very existence is questioned?

The null hypothesis here would be that my spoken Japanese is so bad that they doubted my ability to actually read the language. This can be discarded, however: my spoken Japanese isn't at the native level, but it's good enough for these purposes.

It's possible that these two groups' small sample size allowed skewed results to be magnified. I don't know about the end-client's experience with native English-speaking translators, but as I wrote above, the agency's other NES doesn't read Japanese.

Part of it might also be my looks: I'm a big white guy, and I know that I tend to give off a vibe of being big, strong, and not too bright. People often tell me that they're shocked when I first open my mouth and Japanese comes out. So maybe that helped boost the incredulity factor.

Happy ending

Despite the initial doubts of both the agency and the end client as to my kanji-reading abilities, the meeting went well. I'm now working on an interesting project with good feedback from the client. I'm hoping that I can change some minds about NES translators and their abilities. I kind of feel like I'm trying to prove the existence of Big Foot. Which in my case isn't too far from the truth.

Intellectual Property – A Short Story

I didn't think that it fit the blog format very well, so I put it on its own page.

The story is about an imagined near-future of accelerating technological progress, and what it might mean for translators and IP. Can we say "niche fiction?"

For this reason, I tend to err on the side of conservativeness when translating. For example, I still capitalize "Internet," even though fewer and fewer people do so, and in a few years most people probably won't. I prefer to stay a little behind the times, because I don't want the writing style to stand out so much that the reader starts to notice me, the translator, instead of the document's content.

Nevertheless, my clients tend to be more conservative than me. Part of this is because almost all of them are Japanese, so in addition to lacking a firm grasp of English and all its subtleties, they're heavily influenced by what they learned in school textbooks, which tend to be several decades out of date from current usage.

As a result, I often find myself trying to persuade my clients (usually in vain) to be less conservative and formal with their English. When a client asks me to revise a translation so it's more formal, I give them my arguments for why the tone of my writing is correct, including references from technical-writing style guides. For example, the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications has this to say about formality in writing:

Most of the writing that we do for our customers can be considered formal writing. Formal, in this context, does not mean stiff or academic or overly passive. It simply means that we convey a professional image of competence and helpfulness. There is no contradiction between formal writing and a friendly tone.

I do note here that MSTP doesn't like to use contractions. In this sense it's even more formal than my other style bible, Read Me First! by Sun, which says that contractions are fine as long as they don't cause confusion for translators (!).

Both books make the point that a more conversational tone actually aids understanding. People reading technical documents are there for information, not for a pleasant read by the fireside. Using lots of jargon and highfalutin grammar just slows them down. My own views on this are influenced by the Head First series by O'Reilly, which consciously uses a very informal style that's based on solid research about how people acquire and retain knowledge.

And this brings up another problem: views of proper levels of formality for technical writing differ in the Japanese and English-speaking worlds. Even though there's a lot of difference even between English-speaking countries as to how formal writing should be, I think there's a general agreement that technical writing should be friendly, without being presumptuous or smarmy. Meanwhile, what I hear a lot from Japanese clients is that they want the writing to be 丁寧 (teinei), which can be translated variously as "polite," "considerate," "painstaking," and "scrupulous." It's very hard to convey that this kind of approach doesn't work as well in English, because people tend to think that their unexamined core values, like what constitutes politeness, are universal.

Some clients get it; I'm sure that we can all point to Japanese high-tech companies that have great English documentation. But it's also true that most of them have stilted, hyper-formal English, and while this is partly because a lot of Japanese-to-English translators are out of touch with real-live English technical writing, the dirty little secret of the technical English world in Japan is that much of the English is horrible because the companies prefer it that way.

I had a look at this agency's requirements for application:

• Email lengthy resume, with lots of required information
• Email statement of motivation for applying
• Email several sample translations
• Send above documents via postal mail

Motivation for applying? Is this a freelancer application or an essay contest? And why require the same documents to be both emailed and posted?

I think the problem is clear: the agency's screening process is screening out the top applicants, not the bottom ones. I don't think many established translators would go through this kind of rigmarole just for the chance of getting work from this agency; established translators already have a good stream of work.

In other words, when you hire an established translator, you're competing with other translation buyers for this person's time. Why make it a hassle to switch?

It's pretty obvious to me that this agency thinks too highly of itself. You might even take the cynical view that the agency is screening for exactly what it wants: the timid and easily controlled. That's fine. But then don't come complaining to me that you can't get any decent talent.

How to get good translators

The big problem with this agency's approach is that it's passive. The agency puts up an "employment opportunities" page, and waits for the applications to roll in. This kind of approach is obviously going to be biased toward people who don't have enough work for whatever reason — in at least some cases because they're beginners or not good translators.

In my book, the best way to find good translators actually involves doing some work. Instead of passively waiting for applications, go to where translators hang out — mailing lists, forums, what have you. Find the ones who look competent, and contact them. Then if rates, specializations, and other factors match up, send them a small, paid job. If they do well, send increasingly large jobs. I've had several clients approach me this way, and these have turned into some of my best customers.

Sure, this is more work than casting your nets and seeing what turns up in them. But if you truly want good translators, and aren't just paying lip service to quality, can you afford not to?

Over on the Honyaku mailing list, however, "Captain Adam" doesn't think that translators should earn more than $75,000 per year:

In my opinion, a good translator is worth every penny. However, as a translation company owner and former freelance translator, I find it hard to justify that the occupation of "translator" is worth more than a $75,000/year salary.

Logically, clients should buy translation services based on what the service is worth, not by how much the translator is earning per year. Would you rather pay for lousy translation at a higher price, because the translator earns less money than a good translator?

But in my experience, this is a pretty common sentiment. I blogged before about how a translation agency lost a huge contract, and I lost a lucrative job, because the translation coordinator didn't think that a translator should earn as much in one month as I was billing.

I don't agree with that approach. I prefer to translate in a field that I enjoy, even if I could make more money in a different field. I really like software development and IT in general; I'm a programmer in addition to being a translator. This is one of the reasons that I like translating in the IT field.

The grass isn't always greener

A few years ago, a very successful medical-translator colleague offered to teach me the ropes of medical translation. I tried some jobs, with her providing corrections and feedback, but I quickly figured out that the field wasn't for me. I simply had no interest in it, and even making $200K/year+, I didn't want to be miserable for 8 hours a day. I went back to my IT translation, earning considerably less than $200K, but enjoying my work a lot.

Since that failed attempt at switching fields, demand for the kind of work I was doing has dropped considerably, due to international harmonization of drug testing. Top translators like my colleague are still doing OK, but a newcomer to the field like me would probably be struggling now.

Then a few years ago, a new wave of regulation hit the Japanese finance industry. There was suddenly a lot of demand for IT translation by finance-related companies, as they deployed new IT systems to meet regulations. One of my new clients from that industry practically begged me to do financial translation for them in addition to IT translation. They told me that IT translators were a dime a dozen, but what they really needed were finance translators; and they told me that they paid their finance translators a lot more than they were paying me…

But I had no interest in financial translation, so I turned them down. I have plenty of work and I make enough money to stay out of debtor's prison, so I felt no need to switch over just for a bigger paycheck.

Then, of course, the financial industry collapsed, along with demand for financial translation. The top financial translators are probably still getting work, but again, this is no longer "the" field for the up-and-coming translator.

Meanwhile, demand for IT translation remains strong. Even if demand should drop, at least I'll have the consolation of doing work that I enjoy. If I had switched to medical or financial translation, right now I'd be facing the double whammy of doing work that I hate for peanuts.

Become an expert

That's why I think that translators should pick a field that they really like, and set out to make themselves the expert in that field. A lot of wannabes read "Excel for Dummies" and call themselves IT translators, and I think that contributes to the "dime a dozen" mentality of some clients. But I want my name to be on the top of the client's list when they have an IT document that requires real expertise.

Even if you're in a saturated or niche field (within limits), I think you'll have plenty of work if you can make yourself stand out in your clients' eyes. Getting a reputation as an expert certainly helps in that regard, and it's much easier to put in the sheer time and effort required to become an expert if you like the field.

Branching out

This isn't to say that you shouldn't branch out, or do something different once in a while. In 2009, I've done translations (through agencies) for a candy manufacturer, a soft-drink manufacturer, and a museum. These were really interesting, and I learned a lot doing research for them. One of the funnest translation jobs I've had was about Ultraman. But while these are fun once in a while, I wouldn't like doing that kind of translation day in and day out.

Conclusion

I'll leave the financial, medical, and chemical translation to people who are willing to dedicate a major chunk of their lives to master those fields. I'll invest my time mastering a field that I actually enjoy.

I know you shouldn't compare people but here goes. I said in a previous post that my one and only French classmate couldn't make it to second-year simultaneous interpretation and she had to stick to written translation.

I think this is a pretty common feeling among interpreters: those without the language skills for interpreting have to fall back to translation. To be fair to Sarah L, she was talking about the rarefied world of simultaneous interpretation, where you really can't fake the level of ability required.

On the other hand, however, in my experience good interpreters rarely make good translators. The required skill sets are very different, even though they both involve "transforming" one language into another. Interpreters need to be very quick on their feet, adaptable, and have broad knowledge of a wide range of topics.

Meanwhile, translators need strong analytical skills and the ability to write well in the target language. Many translators claim that writing in the target language is the most important skill of the translator; I tend to agree with them, because this is the one that takes the longest to master. And no, I don't consider myself to be a top-level writer (yet), but I'd say I'm a solid journeyman. Luckily for me, writing appears to be one of the few skills that gets better with age. <G>

I actually used to interpret once in a while (strictly consecutively) for my translation clients. They were happy with my services, especially because I could interpret for the engineers and everybody could actually communicate (the full-time interpreters generally lacked in-depth technical knowledge).

I was paid around $600 per day plus travel and expenses, which was pretty good for me (although top interpreters in Japan make upwards of $1,000/day). Perhaps because I was working among the B-list interpreters, I never saw a big gap between the language abilities of the other interpreters and my own.

Although the pay was fair, I didn't like the work. I would always come back from an interpreting assignment completely drained, and need to veg for a day or two just to recover. I've always known that I'm not cut out to be an interpreter; I liked it mainly as a change of pace and an excuse to travel around Japan, but I was inwardly relieved when I moved to Okinawa and the interpreting requests dried up.

I've seen a lot of translation done by high-level interpreters, and especially when they're working into their B language (although they usually claim it's also an "A" language), you find all sorts of holes and little errors that would no doubt be passed over in spoken language.

I thus don't think that it's a matter of one group (interpreters or translators) having better language skills, but just that they work in entirely different fields, requiring very different skill sets.

I also sometimes print out my translations to proof them, but I usually save a tree by reading them on screen with the zoom ratio jacked up to about 200% instead. It really does help me catch more errors, including bad turns of phrase and homophones, which might have slipped by when reading at a smaller magnification.

One other thing I do when proofing is turn off the "show whitespace" options in my word processor. When I'm translating, I like to show spaces, tabs, newlines and the like, because I can't standing having extraneous whitespace in my documents (although modern versions of Word catch them pretty well), but when I'm proofing, I get rid of them so that I can read the text more carefully.

US $0.42/word certainly sounds a lot more enticing than the $0.10/word or so I see bandied about on sites like proz (and sometimes much less). Of course, this translation is going to require a very skilled translator, with a high level of knowledge of the field. From the offer:

The University of Tokyo has embarked on a project to make outstanding work by its faculty in the Humanities and Social Sciences available in English translation. The titles selected will be published by leading academic publishers in the English-speaking world.

The translator is also going to have to work closely with the publisher, probably going through several revisions and proofing the camera-ready copy prior to printing. That's more work than the "fire and forget" mode of translation that's common when you go through agencies.

This rate isn't all that unusual. ¥38/word is about on a par with what the top translation agencies in Japan charge (about 50-75% of which makes it to the translator). It's middling for direct clients with highly demanding work. The University of Tokyo seems to be trying to cut out the middleman, thereby attracting a higher caliber of talent for the same money as going through an agency. An institution like UT has the administrative and publishing capabilities to handle such a task on its own.

I hope this can serve as another point on the graph to those wondering what freelance translators (especially Japanese-to-English) actually charge. Beginning translators especially tend to only see the bottom end of the rate scale, offered by the low-end agencies willing to hire inexperienced translators. But there's quite a large range available, depending on your talent, experience, knowledge, and marketing skills.

I knew about flow before I knew about the concept of flow. I used to call it "crankage" — that state where the translation just flows, you're just cranking it out. When I learned about flow, I set out to observe myself in my work, to learn how to get into it sooner and for longer, and keep from going out of it.

Flow gained

To me, flow in is all about effortless concentration. Concentration because you've got to hold a lot of information in your head, while simultaneously formulating the equivalent information in English. Effortless because like hitting a rock while skating down a big hill, anything that derails your concentration is going to bring the whole thing crashing down.

To get that high level of concentration, I find that my mind has to be rested. I need to be relaxed and comfortable, and shut out the distractions. Exercise helps — lately I find that a midday walk really helps me get focused for the rest of the day.

I also need to be familiar with the subject matter, be confident about my ability to write in the target field, and feel free to use my best judgment. Running up against a term I don't know or a concept I'm unsure of is like hitting that rock while bombing Suicide Hill on my skateboard at 40 kph.

Flow lost

Have you ever had one of those dreams where you're about to learn some profound truth? The big doors open, the truth is revealed, and you finally grok it.

And then your dog starts licking your face because he wants out. The truth sinks away, like a stone in the ocean, until all you're left with is the ripples.

That's kind of what being in flow and being disrupted from flow are to me.

When I get interrupted from flow, it's like a bubble has popped. I look at the six-line sentence I was just translating — the one I had formed an entire translation for in my head, which I was just about to type out — and I can barely make sense of it now. I read to the end of the sentence, and the beginning is already fading from my memory.

The two biggest things that bring me out of flow are interruptions and failure to understand the source. This is why I try to encourage my clients to use email instead of the telephone whenever possible, and why I try to stick with fields I'm familiar with. The interruption might take a couple of minutes, but tends to kill my productivity for a while after that.

Flow maintained

When I'm in flow, it's like I'm writing the document myself, not translating it. I barely notice the original Japanese — it's like some sage adviser whispering in my ear. On the other end is my rapt audience, listening to my story unfold.

When I'm out of flow, and review my translation, I often think "hey, that was a pretty good translation," even though I've usually written the first translation that came to mind. I think that drawing on your intuition often results in a better translation than analyzing it to death. Of course, that only works if you actually know what you're writing about. I could never pull this off translating something out of my field. When I know the field, doing the translation is like one of those mystery books where you figure out everything in the first five pages, and then spend the rest of the book going "yup yup, I'm so clever."

Conclusion

Flow is different for everyone. I know some people who say they work better in a buzzing office, while I prefer a nice, quiet office, with maybe some Steely Dan or Dreams Come True in the background. Others feel stimulated by tackling a wide variety of material, while I like to stick to a few fields.

I've also personally learned not to push it. I get a lot more done and feel better when I work for spurts of an hour or so, punctuated by rest. Another thing I've learned is that the ability to maintain concentration is like a muscle that gets stronger when exercised. As I push 40, I feel the loss of physical stamina since my 20s — for example, I can't pull all-nighters like I used to, and if I do I pay for it — but my mental stamina seems better, if anything.

I also think that this is very relevant to freelancers, because when you've learned to produce better translation faster, you'd prefer to be compensated for the added value you're producing. But it's hard to convince a boss to pay you for the value you add when he thinks he's paying you for warming a seat. It's not impossible — I've had a couple of in-house offers paying roughly what I make now, when you count benefits — but I prefer to avoid the argument by simply charging for my work, and not my time.