Continue reading »]]> After many months of anticipation, I am finally about to leave on a volunteer project working in the Pernambuco Sertão, North East Brazil. The preparation for this trip has been somewhat haphazard, amongst working and trying to tie up loose ends before I leave, but now there is little else to do except get on a plane on Monday and see what is waiting for me when I get there.

So what will I be doing exactly? I am going over with a UK organisation called International Service, who have decades of experience in the international development field. They are working with local partners in Brazil, both local NGOs who focus their efforts on the sustainable livelihoods of small agricultural communities in the Pernambucan Sertão. The Sertão, or Backlands, is a notoriously harsh environment, characterised by long periods of drought.

Whilst the traditional vegetation is that of “caatinga”, some of which is very valuable vegetation, much of the land has been degraded through years of cattle ranching and clearing for monoculture farming such as cotton. The organisations with whom we are going to work, CECOR (Centro de Educação Comunitária Rural) and CHAPADA (Centro de Habilitação e Apoio ao Pequeno Agricultor do Araripe), focus on the strengthening and broadening of production based on agroecology (drawing upon traditional knowledge, alternative agriculture and local food system experiences) in their communities and the dynamics of solid commercial projects, to build sustainable livelihoods within these communities.

The work is community orientated and all the work we will be carrying out will be led by the needs of these communities. I am very excited about the project, and whilst I will not have reliable or frequent access to the internet whilst I am away, I will be creating a blog and uploading to it whenever possible.

I wish you all the best for the next three months, and hope you follow the blog!

Continue reading »]]> Last week I interpreted for a young man whose cousin did not believe that I was English, given my level of Portuguese. This happens more than you might expect, and I believe it has more to do with my nationality than my expertise in the language. Now, I do not deny that I do speak both Spanish and Portuguese to nearly a native level (if this weren’t the case, then I would be in the wrong job!). However, their disbelief tends to principally lie in the fact that they do not believe an English person, with English parents, to be capable of learning, or more importantly willing to learn, another language to such a standard.

Whilst this is a lovely compliment on the one hand, it also serves as a constant reminder of what I find to be one of the most frustrating characteristics of the British and English speakers in general. To drive this home, when I returned to my flat that day I happened upon an article in The Guardian on exactly the same subject. Learning another language is much more than just words. It is, as Will Hutton expresses, a willingness to open oneself up to another culture and to learn about and embrace these differences. Or reject them, but to be able to step outside the insular view of one’s own culture and see the world from someone else’s point of view.

I live in London, which is an incredibly multicultural society, yet us British are letting the side down. I frequently meet people who can speak, to differing levels of ability, three or four different languages (they are never the English amongst us, if you take out my friends and colleagues in the translating world). I am not saying that everyone should become linguistic experts, but taking an interest in another language, and learning it to some degree of conversational competence can only be a positive thing. In my opinion, it is not just a question of attitude, but a question of survival in a global world.

If more people invested time in learning languages I believe we could also make this world a more agreeable place to live. By learning about the languages and cultures of others we can learn to be more tolerant and understanding, and can also be more analytical of the world that surrounds us, as we have a more varied experience base from which to draw.

What is even worse is that we seem to be moving backward. Since I left school, the previous Labour Government abolished compulsory modern foreign language GCSEs, which has led to a drastic decline in the number of school attendees taking foreign languages. When I graduated from the University of Birmingham after my first degree, I did some work experience in a local school for a month. For me it was really disheartening to receive the negativity that emanated from the school classroom as regards languages. They were viewed as useless – everyone speaks English anyway, and why would I want to go anywhere they didn’t? (however, as cited in Michael Hofmann’s article, 75% of the world population speaks no English at all).

I have always loved studying languages, and have plans to learn more. I believe that the values of learning other languages are immense – you have other cultures opened up to you, completely different ways of thinking, of expressing yourself – it really enriches your life. People who think that that makes it just an extra are wrong. These skills are highly adaptable and therefore highly appropriate for the workplace, whether you want the languages themselves to form a central part of your role or not.

I sincerely hope that there is a way to reverse this trend. I see some glimmers of hope in the students that I tutor, their dedication and the joy they get out of learning languages. Now becoming a linguist and how to progress in a career as such is another issue – then you are lacking a specialism aside! But that is another issue, one I am currently debating in my head and deciding how to move forward. You never stop learning in this life!

Continue reading »]]> I sat down to write this blog post, realising that I had been freelancing for around 6 months, and started to think. It seems a long time ago that I received a call offering me an interpreting job. The first time I walked in and met the client, they asked me if I came and did a lot of jobs like this. My answer was no. My answer is still no, it happens to be quite a unique job (as they so often are), but at the time it was no as the only other jobs I had done were a couple of doctor and hospital appointments in London and Birmingham some time before.

After seven months of freelance interpreting I feel that I have learnt a lot. I have learnt of the ups of interpreting – you nail a phrase exactly, the client compliments you at the end for a job well done, the variety; and the downs – strong accents (on both sides), giving bad news, and the client simply not turning up. I have to say interpreting has not disappointed for a job in which every day is different. I have interpreted in situations as varied as hospital appointments, probation and prison services, therapy sessions, child protection cases, occupational therapy visits, and a general assembly of Peace Brigades International, an organisation aimed at providing protective accompaniment to human rights defenders around the world. Now no one can say that it has been boring can they?

I have to say I am happy with my choice. Back in the summer, when I was working away on the MA project and taking on interpreting jobs to get by, I did wonder if it was the right choice, to go freelance straight away. How would I ever survive in London? However, where there is a will there is a way, and armed with an array of casual jobs I have taken on the freelance market. Alongside interpreting I currently do language tutoring, note-taking for students at universities (a great job, I would recommend it to any naturally curious person who likes to learn) and translation when it comes up (finally got my first proper length job just before Christmas and it was great). I mustn’t forget bar work sometimes too.

So, I have a busy schedule! And it is true, last year, when I was busy I would end up working sometimes seven days a week (you can thank the tutoring and bar work for that), and it sometimes seemed like it was all too much, then as soon as there was a hint that it would go quiet, a sense of impending doom (maybe a bit strong) comes over you, instead of enjoying the peace and quiet. However, after seven months, and a few proper days off at Christmas I feel more settled and prepared to successfully juggle my jobs and my time.

So, any New Year’s resolutions? Well the PBI General Assembly taught me that I did indeed want to go into conference interpreting. This is not going to be easy. However the PBI job consisted of nine intensive days on a children’s camp in the middle of nowhere in Switzerland, with a group of three of us interpreting all of the presentations, workshops, work groups, you name it. Sometimes we finished at 10 o’clock at night, having started at 9 that morning. I loved every minute of it. The days leading up to my departure I was so nervous I nearly did not want to go. What if I couldn’t do it? What if they all think I am incompetent? Well I did go, and I can do it. I was lucky, the other two interpreters were wonderfully supportive, and the whole team of people were amazing, which helps no end when you spend nine days eating and working and sleeping in the same environment. The learning experiences that job offered can take up another blog post on its own. So it’s enough to say that that is my aim, which is going to take a lot of work and I don’t even know how many obstacles on the way.  Secondly, I plan to work at obtaining more translation commissions. I really enjoyed the job I was commissioned for before – it was the first “proper” professional translation work I have completed (many volunteer translations aside). Translation in my opinion provides an ideal balance for interpreting. The vocabulary and style you pick up from translating will provide knowledge for interpreting and vice versa, and whilst one can be completed from the comfort of your own home, the other gives you the opportunity to get out and meet people.

So I think that is my rambling done for now. I would love to hear any comments from people who have the same, or conflicting, or any experiences or views on the subject. I hope to hear from you!

Continue reading »]]> I was reading an article by Céline Graciet about language attrition the other day and it made me think back to when I was living in Spain and Portugal.

Many things that characterised her year studying in Brighton rang true for my year in Lisbon particularly, where I knew just one English person with whom I actually spoke Portuguese. Whilst I have not had the experience that Céline does of living for such extended periods of time in another country I did find that I would have difficulty bringing to mind certain English phrases or words when asked. When I returned to England the first few weeks were splattered with moments when the only truly suitable phrase that would come to mind to describe something would be in Spanish or Portuguese.

Now I have the opposite problem. I am living back in England, after a year living in Spain, waiting to commence an MA in Translation and Interpreting, and trying my hardest to recuperate my Portuguese (unfortunately after a year in Spain my Portuguese has suffered), maintain and improve my Spanish, and also improve my English (as highlighted by Céline, the dangers of not keeping up with the evolution of your own language) and I have, by spending so much time concentrating on the development of my foreign language knowledge, inadvertently sometimes forgotten about my own).

I have also realised that my Portuguese sometimes pollutes my Spanish. I was translating an article for HEDON Boiling Point magazine about Natural Draft Gasifier Water Heaters, and asked a ex-translator colleague and friend of mine to proof read it for me (it was English to Spanish). He picked up on a couple of times where I had inserted Portuguese structures onto Spanish verbs.

I have various methods to try to combat these issues: I try to keep in contact with friends in various countries, make more here in London, read on-line newspapers whilst simultaneously making glossaries of new words and phrases, watch on-line news programmes, but is this enough?

I would like to think that there is some way to have it all, but I don’t think there is. I do believe that as time goes on, I will improve from experience, having read more, spent more times in all relevant countries, known more people, but it still seems like a daunting yet exciting task. I agree with Céline in that practice is paramount and would add that so is dedication and motivation. Here’s to the future!

Continue reading »]]> One of the volunteer projects I have been working on these past couple of months has been translating magazine articles for HEDON – Boiling Point magazine. The articles are to be translated into Spanish from English, something which I would never accept as paid work, but given the extra time I have whilst volunteering, and the amazing proof reading kindly offered by my friend and mentor Alex Sanchez, it is something that I find to be a valuable and interesting learning experience.

This is not least because I have a particular interest in renewable and improved energies. The course which I am slowly drawing to a close is very technical and based on the “traditional” renewable energies – wind farms, solar energy, the use of biomass and so on. The Boiling Point magazine focuses more on improved renewable energies for rural households, and so are more focused on improved stoves/heating appliances to reduce smoke exposure and subsequent illnesses. This therefore gives me insight into a distinct aspect of renewable energies.

One of the difficulties I have found translating such material are the number of neologisms, or maybe more precisely, the number of new terminology for products. One such example is the “Off fire reboiling pot”. This has been interesting, as sometimes you can find “translations” on the internet that you disagree with, sometimes not at all. For this article I was translating the Helpline, which referred to another article which appears in the same edition. I was therefore stuck with a dilemma. Firstly I spoke with my contact at the magazine, and asked her to inform me when the other article had been returned translated. Unfortunately this has still not come to pass, and so for now, the translation stands as Olla Re-Ebullición sin Fuego. I decided on this as it seemed to be the most reasonable translation, as the pot refers to a cooking pot that you can take off the heat once the water boils yet the food keeps cooking, therefore reducing the time that it is necessary to be burning fuels, and therefore costing money and contaminating the air.

Another example was a article I translated about a Natural Draft Gasifier Water Heater. This article presented me with distinct issues. I did find various “translations” for this product, but none of them on their own seemed to fit quite right, for their order or the words used. Finally I settled on Gasificador calentador de agua de tiro natural. Whilst I am still not convinced it is perfect, it flowed a lot better than other ideas that were very heavily weighted with “de”, such as calentador de agua de gasificación de tiro natural. Very ungainly.

And so the task of translating becomes an ever increasingly tangled web. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how best approach such difficulties? Whatever comment or suggestion is always welcome.

Continue reading »]]> Being new to translation, one thing that I am really trying to get my head around is the subject of CAT tools and MT. Some of the most heated discussions to be found on translating websites and blogs it seems to me centre around CAT tools. Being very inexperienced in the field, I have decided to download Wordfast and see if I can get to grips with that and see how it works.

The difficult thing about the subject is that I can see the merits of both sides of the argument. I can see that they should increase productivity if used correctly, but can also see that using them to go over fuzzy matches can take just as long if not longer, as you have to check so carefully what has been done correctly.

The worst effort of machine translation I can recall was the information booklet for a four star hotel in a town in Spain where I was living this year. My boss showed it to me for a giggle one day. The grammar did not agree, the hotel team was translated as “human equipment”, machines were personified. It certainly brightened up our day, but you have to ask the question of why a four star hotel could not spend a small sum just getting it right. Any human being with a decent sprinkling of English knowledge could have improved such a translation 100%.

However, I do not believe that CAT tools, if used properly, should produce such poor quality work. I will try Wordfast and see how I get on in understanding it.

I would love people’s educated opinions. I am trying to get some experience with them before starting my MA in Translating and Interpreting in September because, although it is one of the subjects offered on the course, there are other topics that I feel may be more useful if I can “self-train” in this department. Advice on this level is also very welcomed.

Continue reading »]]> I finally have a blog. Now all that needs to be done is to start writing in it. I wanted to have read some things to be able to make some intelligent comments about, yet, although I have still had very little “paid” work, I still find myself so busy that anything I read I get dragged off to do something else, with any ideas for a well structured, thorough post slowly forgotten.

However, I am not trying to be negative. I have only just started up as a freelance translator and interpreter, and whilst I have a long way to go, there are signs that not only have I chosen the right path, but also that work will come my way. I have had two strokes of luck so far, one in which I came to land an interpreting job instead of another individual because the recruitment consultant’s sister has the same name as me. It’s a funny world.

Starting at something new can be frustrating, but a very worthwhile challenge. At every hurdle I am confronted with how much there is to learn. This is a very exciting prospect, and I cannot wait to embark upon my Translation and Intepreting Masters in September.

My aim with this blog is to voice thoughts as a progress through this learning progress, and hopefully meet some people along the way. I hope you will join me on my journey.