Tag Archives: #conference

Summary of the ITI Conference 2019

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ITI Conference 2019, Sheffield

Credit: ITI

Last May, during my European vacation, I attended two conferences for the first time. Last month I wrote about my experience at the BP19 Conference. In this month’s post, I write about my experience as a newbie at the ITI Conference, which was held in Sheffield, UK, at the amazing Cutlers’ Hall, on May 10-11.

To begin with, Paul Appleyard, ITI’s Chair, welcomed us by beautifully saying we should be concerned with the changes of the world of our work and be prepared. I agree with him. And a great way of leaving our bubble and keeping updated on what is happening and changing in our profession is to attend different conferences and events. As Paul Wilson, ITI’s CEO, later said, networking is one of the most powerful tools we have, so we should make the most out of it.

Here’s a brief overview of the sessions I attended at the conference. The post ended up being longer than usual, but I hope you find my account of the presentations helpful.

First day

Defining and improving quality in specialized multilingual services, by Angela Sigee

Angela, German lawyer and translator, specifically talked about legal translation. She stressed it is important to bear in mind that lawyers work with words just like translators, but in different ways. She said the main issue in legal translation is that legal systems are different, creating conceptual gaps. There are degrees of accuracy, so it is important to hear, and render, the overtones. Therefore, knowing the source language is not enough. Legal translators must have a great command of their target language.

According to Sigee, future-proof legal translators should understand the big picture and be detail-oriented. She said practice is essential (just like in any other translation area, right?). She recommends partnering with a colleague to review your work and finding a mentor.

Professional organizations are also a great place to look for help in improving your knowledge, since they offer training courses, mentoring, policies. You can also learn with language service providers when they offer proofreading practices, for example. I totally agree! I learn a lot with feedback from editors/proofreaders. Being open to feedback and carefully analyzing them help us learn with our mistakes and the client’s preferences and style, avoiding repeat mistakes.

Angela suggests the following book for legal translators: New Approach to Legal Translation, by Susan Sarcevic.

The other side of the mirror: an inside look at a “translator-driven” corporate communications campaign, by David Jemielity

David is Head of Translations at Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (BCV) and talked about how BCV’s in-house translations team managed to position itself at the center of the bank’s communications decision-making.

According to David, we should position ourselves as high value-added service providers. If you can position yourself as someone who can deeply understand and translate the company’s overall brand voice, you’re doing something different and not commonplace.

Jemielity said that, when not properly aware of a company’s brand voice, a translator can change it by unwillingly deverbalizing the message. Quality means effective communication in the target language. Ask yourself: “Is this effective as communication?” rather than “Is this a good translation?” Regardless of how good your translation is, it won’t matter if it doesn’t meet your client’s expectations.

The source text should not be used as an excuse! Difficult in practice, but totally true. If we used this as “excuse,” we wouldn’t translate anything at the best of our abilities, since practically everything is badly written nowadays.

On creating or translating a brand identity, according to David, numbers are abstract. They don’t answer the essential question: What’s in it for me? You should shift perceptions and talk like the people you are talking to. Good copies are factual, simple, impact-oriented, familiar, authentic, specific, and written in a conversational style that speaks to the audience

David sums up his presentation by telling us the lessons learned from BCV’s translation-driven corporate communications campaign:

  • Really specialize.
  • It’s not about whether it is a good translation. It’s about whether it’s effective communication.
  • Don’t forget about (or shy away from) managing perceived quality as well as actual quality.
  • Be ambitious and play the long game.

Embracing the flexible future, by Lizzie Penny and Alex Hirst, from The Hoxby Collective

“I was praising my success on the number of hours I worked,” said Alex, who was on fire at his marketing career, but eventually burned out. The catalyst for Lizzie, in turn, was becoming a mom. “You should be judged by your output, rather than by when/where you work,” she said. Together, they created the flexible working community The Hoxby Collective, which promotes the workstyle movement to ensure more people can spend their time in the way that most inspires them.

According to them, work should fit around life, not the opposite! You should work however/whenever/wherever you choose, being free to choose your own workstyle. “For us, passion carries much more importance than experience.”

Translators as communicators: diversifying your career, by Adam Fuss

According to Adam, the increased quality of machine technology is forcing translators to reevaluate the services they offer and how they market themselves.

Fuss mentions the following additional areas of practice for diversification: academic copywriting, copywriting and transcreation, and communication consulting.

You need to know yourself really well in order to know how to diversity. For example, are you an introvert or extrovert? Find your ideal balance when diversifying activities.

How to diversify your services in communications consulting: be prepared to work for free (in marketing yourself); get involved; read, share, repeat; look for opportunities in your current work; focus on data.

The Collaborative Edge: mutual revision as a way to improve translations – and translators, by Victoria Patience, Simon Berrill, and Tim Gutteridge (not present)

The trio decided to try a different approach and set up a mutual revision and critiquing arrangement, the RevClub. They review each other’s translations weekly and give feedback on it. RevClub is comprised of three weeks of revision (one for each member) and one week of translation slam.

According to them, it is refreshing to hear constructive criticism and genuine praise of each other’s work. Collaborative work can also lead to confident referrals, since you know each other’s way of work and translation quality.

Establishing a collaborative peer-review system with trusted colleagues keeps you at the top of your game, offers a fresh perspective on linguistic choices, and fosters positive industry relationships.

Making the leap, by Chris Durban

Chris starts with the following question: Do you want to stop surviving and start thriving? So you should change your mindset from “Yes, but…” to “Yes, and…” I totally agree!

Being a really good translator takes a lot of work. And being worried is a good thing. It makes us not settle and aim for better. The premium market involves higher risks, but higher risks equal higher rewards.

“I don’t care about how good or bad the source text is,” she said. We should aim to create translations that work as communication. This point was also made by David Jemielity earlier on, stressing its importance.

Chris also showed us examples of similarity of input provided by machine translation and poor translators. Machine translation will replace translators, but only those who work like one.

Durban gave us some great tips:

  • Be aware of the comfort zone.
  • Specialize.
  • Get granular (technical, financial, legal is not detailed enough).
  • Embrace risk.
  • Eschew PEMT.
  • Limit your time on social media.
  • Invest in yourself (10-15% of your income).
  • Don’t believe everything you read or people say.
  • Find a mentor.

“Get a grip guys!” she said. Technology is good and everything, but it’s the easy part in our job as translators.

Listen to how potential clients and your customers talk. Understand what their issues are. This will make you connect with them and move into their world. Talk about them (clients)! And smoothly and naturally move into the commercial talk.

Second day

Crunching the numbers: how to grow your translation business, by Anja Jones

According to Anja, from Anja Jones Translations (AJT), there is always someone who will do it cheaper! We usually compare ourselves with our customers and competitors (other linguists, LSPs, MT, etc.). However, the market is so fragmented that we need to focus on ourselves rather than on what our competitors are doing. “Start with yourself,” she said. “It should be all about yourself.”

Profit/Loss = income – expenses (direct – gross profit/loss; or operating – net profit/loss)

How to calculate your minimum word price? Start with your business expenses and go to your living expenses. Be specific and detailed on your expenses. Add your monthly translation capacity and you will have the minimum you need to charge per word. Don’t forget to consider savings for rainy days and for taxes when calculating your expenses and minimum rate.

Be confident when negotiating prices and communicating your minimum rates to clients. Articulate why you’re worth what you’re worth.

Translation isn’t a commodity! There is no such a thing as bulk discounts. Don’t drop your trousers just because someone asked you to. Don’t be afraid to say “no.” If you give a discount, communicate very clearly why you’re doing so, make sure the client knows it’s a one-off time, and ask for something in return, e.g. a testimonial.

Also think about how you can negotiate. If the client doesn’t have enough budget, suggest important things you can translate, instead of translating the entire content, e.g. in websites.

Increase your earning potential by using technology, specializing, considering proofreading/editing (not everybody is willing to do that), offering services at an hourly rate or on a retainer basis. Think of ways to make your day more efficient. Your time is valuable so spend it wisely! Every little minute saved adds up to maximize your efficiency.

If you want to expand, consider building a team, e.g. translation coordinator, freelance collective, employer, two-people team.

When increasing prices, be honest and explain where the increase in price came from. Inform clients in advance and offer them the chance to order services before prices go up.

Talking all over the world: a look at the perception of translators and interpreters across cultures, by Jeanette Brickner

According to Jeanette, some things about culture are easy to see, but others not so much. They’re not so obvious. There’s a lot we can accidentally overlook or simplify. Approaches to health and medicine, dress codes, family matters, humor, etc. are examples of cultural specifics.

Privilege isn’t just a buzzword, especially in the language industry, e.g. English-speaking people have particular advantages on a global scale, geography plays a huge role (what if you live somewhere distant?). Even though the EU has 24 official languages and approximately 60 minority and/or indigenous languages, English and French are more relied upon.

According to Jeanette, we should foster a community that reinforces a positive outlook on the profession. She recommends, “Share your knowledge.” The market is big enough for everyone. Talk to your friends and family about what you do (positively, not negatively). Be culturally sensitive.

Asterix and linguistix: the science of the translated world, Oliver Kamm

The keynote speaker, Oliver Kamm, is Anthea Bell’s son. Anthea Bell was an English translator of works such as Asterix and passed away last October. Oliver is leader writer and columnist of The Times.

Did you know the first English translation of Asterix was only published in 1969 (the original French was published in 1959)?

“Telling what it says in the book is what you [translators] do. Not every language in the world is English. There’s a whole world out there. Language is a universal human faculty,” said Oliver. Language is a universal human attribute. You learn and follow grammar rules naturally in life.

Sign language is the most recent language (40 years old). It’s a very complex system. It was invented by children in Nicaragua.

In these dark times of ethno-nationalism and xenophobia, the window into other cultures that literature in other languages gives us is absolutely crucial.

Training new literary translators: teaching through practice, by Daniel Hahn

“Translating is like writing someone else’s book, but backwards and on high heels,” beautifully said British literary translator from Portuguese, Spanish, and French, Daniel.

According to him, “learning is in the process. Almost all my workshops are learning by doing. Teaching by doing means I also get to learn it myself. You learn by being forced to articulate choices that come instinctively to you.”

Translation bloopers are dead! Long live abundant new ways of showcasing yourself and our profession, by Karen McMillan Tkaczyk

According to Karen, there are other more positive ideas we can use to promote our profession than bloopers. And I couldn’t agree more with her! Recommending the people you love working with (nor just behind the scenes, e.g. LinkedIn recommendations, when you can’t do the job) is a great way to promote our profession. Credit revisors/editors when you know your translation has been revised/edited. If you don’t know who they are, add a general note. Another way to promote value in what we do is asking for referrals to current clients. You have to add value to your client so that they can feel you’re worth the referral.

Consider writing letters to the editor on magazines/newspapers on your area of specialization.

When creating a portfolio, focus on your “About” page. We like reading translations, but not everybody does, so the “About” page is important.

Karen concludes her talk and the conference by playing on the conference’s theme: “We can all do our bit in promoting (and forging) the future of our profession.”

 

That’s it! I hope you liked my brief summary of the conference. If I got you into considering attending the next one, the ITI Conference is biennial, so the next one will be held only in 2021.

Summary of the BP19 Translation Conference

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This year I attended the BP Translation Conference for the first time. It was held in Bologna, Italy, on May 1-3.

It was a fantastic experience! I especially liked the app where attendees were able to engage and create activities for everyone to join. It was a great way to get to know people before the conference. When we arrived at the conference, it was as if we were all long-time friends! It’s great not only for newbies and shy and introvert people, but also for everybody who likes networking and meeting new people.

Here is a brief overview on the sessions I attended. The post is longer than usual, but only because there were so many great presentations and insights.

May 1: Workshops

Multilingual SEO for translators, by David García Ruiz

Fresh content is king. Our website’s content should be useful, valuable, relevant (describing what we do and what our clients look for using keywords), competitive (the more specific, the better). Each page should have from 600 to 2,000 words. If your website is in more than on language, you should include language meta tags (hreflang); otherwise, Google will not recognize it as multilingual.

According to a research mentioned by David, “75% [of web visitors] prefer to buy products in their native language. In addition, 60% rarely or never buy from English-only websites.” Therefore, it is important to have a website translated into your working languages.

May 2: Long sessions

Hectic lives + happy clients: four tendencies to rule them all, by Anne-Sophie De Clerq

We develop habits to be able to deal with constraints and expectations, both useful and bad ones.

The big question we should make ourselves is: Who are you? How do you respond to internal and external expectations?

Anne-Sophie’s presentation was based on Gretchen Rubin’s The Four Tendencies framework, which helps getting people to do what you want by identifying what type of tendency they have:

  • Obligers: Respond well to external expectations and like being of assistance.
  • Questioners: Respond well to internal expectations and love knowledge.
  • Upholders: Respond well to both internal and external expectations; their motto is “In discipline we trust.”
  • Rebels: Do not respond well to neither and love freedom.

Listen to what clients have to say to understand who they are and identify their tendency in order to facilitate your selling your services to them.

Suggestions of things you can do according to their tendency:

  • Upholders: Send your portfolio and let them judge, do not pressure them, and ask just the essential questions.
  • Obligers: Show how much you can help them; go for the human touch.
  • Questioners: Describe your process and your strengths; answer any questions thoroughly.
  • Rebels: Display your identity and your passion; offer them choices.

Bottom line is: We are all different, so flexibility is paramount.

What legal clients want – As told by a former client, by Paige Dygert

According to Paige, who is a lawyer herself, most lawyers are horrible procrastinators. However, they are loyal clients. They will hang on to you. And they have the budget, so do not be afraid to charge what you are worth. You can charge for being good, and fast!

When communicating with law clients, be polished (reflect what you want from them; it is not about what you like and enjoy or not), precise (detail-oriented), concise (appreciate their time, be straightforward), and complete.

When working with them, just be the translator, know your role. When asking questions, group them, offer solutions, and know when to ask. Be succinct, reliable, and responsive. Provide excellent translations.

Law journals are the best source of reference material and the highest quality one! Their content is, most of the time, perfectly written.

Get a lawyer mentor to help you. LinkedIn and Facebook are great places to find lawyers. If you reach out to them, respect their time!

A killer marketing strategy to win your dream clients, by Sarah Silva

Persistence is key when trying to find dream clients. Be prepared to stand out and be different. Have a long-term strategy (not a one-time sales promotion).

You can use direct client marketing to keep existing clients, contact old clients, or find new ones. Examples: physical post (lumpy mail, letter, postcard), email and digital marketing, and real conversations (phone, video call, in person). Lumpy mail is comprised of a surprise and delight package in order to make a great first impression. Follow-up with a postcard, email, call, etc. People respond better to handwritten messages.

Do not be afraid to dream big. Dream as big as you like and see what happens. Start with whom you want to work with. Ask for referrals from your good existing clients. Get to know your market (better) and have fun!

Keep that in mind this question when prospecting: “So what?” What do your prospects care about? Grab their attention, talk about their problems, and how you can be the solution.

Let your dream clients know that you exist and care, and that they can trust you.

GDPR and translators: easy steps to protect your and your clients’ data, by Irene Koukia

Backup options: Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, Google Drive. Backup every day! What to backup: TMs, CAT folders, etc.

Boxcryptor: Data security across smartphones, tablets, and desktops. You can choose what to encrypt and what not.

Whisply: secure and easy file transfer.

A VPN secures your private network. Ideal if you work on the go or use a shared Wi-Fi (almost all of us, right?).

Learn what is what about terminology extraction tools, by Andriy Yasharov

Terminology extraction is like data mining, where terms are subtracted from a text. It can be helpful for creating glossaries, thesaurus, and dictionaries; extracting terminology for TMs, etc. It is important because it also extracts the context of a term. Terminology extraction tools: SDL Multiterm Extract, memoQ TE module, SynchroTerm, Sketch Engine, PlusTools for MS Word, FiveFilters, WebCorp, AntConc, Rainbow.

May 3: Short talks

The very first of the day was mine. I will try to write about it in another future post.

Strategies to get more translation clients in a non-spammy way, Olga Jeczmyk Nowak

How to increase clients and keep them coming? Study the market. Contact prospects with a personalized email. Offer them something they are looking for. Reply to them as soon as possible. Don’t spam! Avoid being spammy by personalizing your emails and writing enough professional content (spam filters dislike short emails!). Be honest. Find your identity and make some noise online.

Be online and be active: If you’re not on Google, you don’t exist. Choose the best platform(s) for you.

How to distinguish yourself? Create a brand and keep improving it. Offer something different and more elaborate. Adapt your service according to each client. Keep reinventing yourself!

How to raise your rates (and still keep your clients), by Susanne Präsent-Winkler

Start raising your rates with new clients, especially when you are busy. Then do it with your current clients. Base your raise on your country’s inflation rate. Set your limit as to how low you can go on the rate to still make a living and stick to it. Don’t work for peanuts, for the sake of the entire industry!

Add all relevant steps of your translation process in the quote, so that the client knows what is included in the price.

Dealing with difficult customers – conflict management for translators, by Peter Oehmen

After a negative client experience, 67% of the customers buy somewhere else, only 33% of them stay. One unhappy client tells 15 other people about their negative experience. One happy client, on the other hand, tells six other people about their positive experience.

Conflicts are based on differences of perspective, so we need to understand others’ perspectives and be able to explain our own. Be clear and factual in your communication. Go for consensus and compromise.

The power of soft skills in a digital age, Jaquelina Guardamagna

We need to get better at being human. That is why soft skills have become essential nowadays. They are personal traits that enable individuals to interact effectively. They can help us win clients, when combined with hard skills.

Essential soft skills in the digital age: Empathy, decision making (decisions are part of human nature), flexibility, creativity (it’s what keep us dreaming), collaboration, self-management. If we use them effectively, we will never be replaced! Soft skills will be the difference between those who get replaced by machines, and those who succeed in a digital age.

Bucking the trend of self-promotion (and still obtain the results you want), by Magda Phili

Self-focused narratives: As translators, if we don’t talk about ourselves, who will, right? However, improve your narrative to avoid being perceived as arrogant: Rephrase it and involve other people.

Magda said that her experience showed her that translators working together and promoting each other see their business grow. Solidarity and collaboration boosts confidence, improves quality and efficiency, and helps you gain perspective.

Humility brings collaboration, collaboration brings more work and excellence, while perseverance brings results.

Are you really a professional?, by Vasiliki Prestidge

According to Vasiliki, prices don’t say anything about you and your services. We’re more than just a number!

“Every package is the golden package,” she said. Therefore, we should treat everybody with the same level of professionalism. In a hyperconnected world, one contact can change our life. Be professional in all aspects of your work. You never know who will be impressed by you and request your services. “You look like a business, you behave like a business, you get the business.”

Productivity hacks for translators, by Sherif Abuzid

Sherif talked about Can Newport’s concept of deep work, which is mastering how to focus on a single task in order to boost productivity and maximize your energy expenditure.

If your laptop battery would last for only one hour and you had to choose one app to use, which one would you choose? Your answer will show your priority. We have a limited amount of energy, like batteries. We need to make the best use if it, setting priorities.

Deep work means working in a distraction-free environment, fully focused. If you totally focus at one task at a time, you are more productive. “Focus is the new IQ.” Focused professionals stand out from others. Start with the most important tasks and keep your main goals in mind.

It’s not only about business. We can apply deep work to our personal life as well. Keep your phone away during family time!

How to follow the deep work principle: Plan for tomorrow; focus on goals, not tasks (do what makes you move forward); and set tight deadlines for all activities

Do you diversify your business?, by Francesca Manicardi

Diversification is for creative minds who can easily switch from an activity to another and who can properly manage their time.

Pros of diversifying your business: More stable source of income; creativity boost; change of perspective; and increased visibility.

Effective time management for translators, by Iwona Piatkowska

The bad news is that time flies. The good news is that you are the pilot.

The first step to greater productivity is to create a distraction-free environment, and that is something only you can do, e.g. mute your phone, close the door, have a dedicated office, switch off push/desktop notifications, etc.

Work in chunks and take cycled breaks, e.g. Pomodoro Technique. Take into account that our attention span is of 45-50 minutes. Make your breaks effective: Change constantly, go away from the computer (walk the dog, do the dishes), energize your body, etc.

Track your progress, especially in long projects. It boosts your confidence and keeps you motivated. Do 50-60% of the project as soon as possible. Be a (wo)man of action!

A balanced and healthy lifestyle is the foundation of productivity on a daily basis. Exercise frequently, eat nutritious meals, and sleep well.

Clean your desk every evening, plan your day ahead, set a timer for tasks, and invoice projects immediately.

Running a translation business as a restaurant: tips for a balanced menu, by Carlos la Orden Tovar

According to Carlos, there are four types of restaurant: 1. Just another takeaway: Unbelievably average; rat race. 2. The franchise: Generic, but familiar; safe money; average service = average clients. 3. Luxury restaurant: High-end clients, elaborate services, based on a thorough experience. 4. Classic revisited: Pick classic stuff; add a new, unique touch; charge double; focused on clients who value quality and innovation.

Make a list of your skills, things you are good at. Make a list of what is trending in the market. Score them and craft the perfect menu of your service offers.

Stretch your services by offering, for example, DTP, QA, testing, glossary & TM services, etc. But don’t stretch it too much. Focus on your strengths.

Study your ideal client, engage and find out, list your needs, plan buffer time, and consider investing in proper training.

 

That’s it! I hope you like my brief summary of the conference. As you can see, it was totally worth it. So if I got you into considering attending it next year, it will be held in Nürnberg, Germany, on April 24-25, 2020! Save the date and stay tuned for more information.

If you were interested in any talk in particular or in all of them, their recording are available to be purchased on demand here.

You can also find reviews by other attendees here.

How to make the most of an ATA conference

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First of all, Happy Thanksgiving!

This won’t be a Thanksgiving post though. I decided to leave it to my last post of the year, next month, when I intend to make a 2017 wrap-up. Should you miss my Thanksgiving posts, you can read the ones I published in the previous years: What I learned from a bad year (2016), Five things to be grateful for (2015) and Giving thanks (2014).

Today I want to talk about my experience as a newbie at ATA 58. The American Translators Association (ATA) traditionally hosts every year a huge conference with more than 1,000 attendees, each year in a different U.S. city. This year, in its 58th edition, it was held in Washington, D.C. and attended by exactly 1,721 people from all over the U.S. and the rest of the world.

Upon preparing for it, I asked my colleague and friend Melissa Harkin, who had already attended the ATA conference for the first time last year, for some tips. They were all extremely useful, so I’ll make a summary of my tips, based on my experience as a newbie, with hers.

Since it’s a huge conference, the largest in our area, standing out is key. However, be careful with how you interpret this “stand out.” It doesn’t mean desperately imposing and calling all the attention to yourself; it means gracefully leaving your mark and differentiating yourself among the crowd.

  • The conference has an app. As soon as it’s out, fill out your profile with all possible information, including adding a picture and a CV, and adding your language pair in your description, so people can see your language pair straight from the attendees’ list, right below your name. Believe it or not, most attendees underestimate the app and do not use it for anything. Besides being handy during the conference, since it’s filled with useful information, it’s a great way of making yourself visible.
    A potential client contacted me before the conference – she was looking for Brazilian Portuguese translators. Later she said that she liked my app profile because it clearly stated my language pair under my name.
  • Don’t make it about yourself. Focus on the other (either colleague or agency). Truly engage, show interest, ask questions about them. Avoid being forced and sounding like a robot.
    I met a girl during the Welcome Celebration who took the Buddies Welcome Newbies session’s tips too literally, and the poor thing ended up sounding fake to me, resulting in zero engagement.
  • Be open to meeting new people, naturally engage, occasionally exchange business cards, if given the opportunity, and move on. In Portuguese, the expression “alugar uma pessoa” (rent a person) is used when you talk with a person for a long time. Don’t do that. It’s a huge event, with hundreds of people and a bunch of things to do. Time is precious.
  • The Brainstorm Networking features quick brainstorming sessions where a group of people quickly introduce themselves, exchange cards and discuss a scenario. Follow the steps quickly, and don’t dominate it, so everybody has their say. This is not the place for a heated discussion or parallel conversions.
  • The Job Fair is not on a first-come-first-served basis, so be cool and take your time. Don’t rush in front of other people neither simply throw your card on the table. Stand in line, if there is one, and while you wait for your time try to listen to what the recruiters are saying, so you can spare their time when your turn comes. Even if they don’t work with your language pair/area of specialization, be friendly and thank them for their time.
    Extra tip (by Melissa): Create a personalized visual CV for the Job Fair. You will certainly stand out.

If you are shy or new to conferences in general, don’t miss the Buddies Welcome Newbies session, right in the first day. Buddies are seasoned attendees who are willing to help newbies (first-time attendees) around the conference. The session has great tips for enjoying the conference to the fullest, and you sit at a table with other buddies and newbies, so it’s also a great opportunity for meeting new people. If you are by yourself and don’t know anyone, you won’t be anymore after this session.

If you already have a “gang,” don’t stick only to the person or group of people you already know. Whenever there is a different person around you, switch from your mother tongue to English, so they don’t feel left out. It’s great having familiar people around, but try exploring the event by yourself, being open to meeting new people in the halls, seating right next to you in a session, at breakfast, at social events, etc. Keep a friendly, smiley face at all times, face up. Look at people’s eyes, say hi/good morning even when you don’t know them. Though not in a creepy way of course; be natural. I connected with someone at breakfast who I ended up learning was a project manager. She contacted me after the conference for a potential partnership.

Have business cards on you at all times! It’s unbelievable how people don’t take business cards or don’t take enough. Take around 50 cards per day. It’s more than enough. It’s better to have some left than running out of them. Asking people to take a picture of your last card is, in my opinion, mind you, embarrassing.

When exchanging business cards, make notes on the person’s card, don’t rely on your memory. I had never done that before (never thought it was necessary), I started doing it at ATA 58, but it wasn’t enough. When handling cards post-conference I obviously forgot things. For example, at the Exhibit Hall and the Job Fair you will meet dozens of recruiters. However, some of them may not work with your language pair or area of specialization. If you don’t write it down on the card, you may forget and end up following up with the company anyway post-conference, showing lack of attention and care. Possible notes: where you met the person (Exhibit Hall, Job Fair, Brainstorm Networking and which round, speaker, etc.), if you should follow-up or not and why, your personal impressions, etc.

Last but not least, have fun!

After the conference, wait for about two weeks before following up, so you can give people a chance to settle down or even contact you first. When contacting them, don’t assume they will remember you. Briefly recapitulate where and how you met, and attach your visual CV so they can easily remember you.

My post is already too long, so now I’ll leave it up to you: Do you have any other tips to add?

How to successfully network at a translation conference

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Courtesy of Unsplash, by Matthew Henry

Those who know me well are quite aware of the fact that I am a conference rat. I love conferences and, most of the time, they are an “excuse” for traveling somewhere and visiting some place new. So much so that whenever I travel my mom asks if I am going to attend any conferences. Well, sometimes I do travel to visit friends, you know?

After attending so many conferences, you end up naturally mastering this networking thing. However, I know how difficult it can be the first or second time we attend one. We feel lost, most of the times we do not know absolutely anybody, we are shy, and we want to dig a hole on the ground to hide and simply disappear from this frightening place. See? It is normal, it happens with anybody. I never feel comfortable whenever I go to a new place either, like a new gym, for example. But I will not stop exercising just because of that, am I? Well, I know this may be more than an excuse for some people though…

Keeping this conference newbie tiny issue in mind and the fact that the Abrates Conference is just around the corner, I decided to share with you some tips for successfully networking at conferences without simply throwing yourself at the people either.

  • First of all, having and carrying your business cards with you at all times is a must. And this is valid for any occasions. Have a bunch of business cards in your wallet, purse, gym bag, car. Whenever someone asks for your email or phone number, just handle them your card and make a good impression with your professionalism. 😉
  • However, do NOT just randomly start giving your cards away to simply anybody with no reason whatsoever. Wait for the right time. Timing is everything when you want to make a good impression.
  • In order to find the right time, first, you need to be open. When we feel shy, we tend to bury our heads in our notepads, mobiles, or even in the coffee break food. (Who never?) Look up, not down, and keep a smile on your face at all times. Do not be afraid of saying hi to people even when you do not know them, especially those who are sitting right next to you during the numerous talks. This openness is key to finding the right time to “strike,” besides making it easier for people to approach you.
  • Approaching other attendees is not necessarily the worse thing ever. Small talk is there to rescue us! Comment about the icing cold air conditioning, the horrible Wi-Fi connection, the nice venue, the amazing lunch you just had, that coffee you terribly need, you name it, with the person who is sitting next to you. After breaking the ice, show interest and ask the person their name, what they do, where they are from, etc. And take the chance to ask for the person’s business card, so you can keep in touch. Naturally, they will also ask for yours. There you go. It does not hurt, does it? And you cause a way better impression when you show you are interested in knowing about the person than if you make it about yourself from the beginning. This approach can also be used during coffee breaks: comment about the amazing food, the interesting talk you just attended, how sleepy and in need of coffee you are… And repeat the same next steps: show interest to know who the person is and ask for their card.
  • Another way of approaching other attendees is when you “know” them somehow: you always see them commenting/posting on Facebook groups, you like their blog/what they do, you are Facebook “friends,” you name it. These are great ice-breakers.
  • Do not leave a conference without talking to presenters you like or whose presentations you enjoyed! There is no better ice-breaker than approaching the person to say you watched their presentation and loved it. Ask for their card so you can follow them on social media, and there you go. Or, if given the chance, you can even approach them before their talk (even if you are not really planning on attending it), saying you saw they are presenting, you are interested at the topic but unfortunately will not be able to attend it, so maybe they could give you their card so you can keep in touch? 😉

In a nutshell, the key is to be friendly and open at all times, and take every chance to start a small talk and take it to the next level by showing interest at the person. Only make it about you if the person opens the floor for you to do so.

If you engage with as little as one person per period (morning and afternoon), you end up with four contacts to follow up at a two-day conference. If you adequately follow up with them after the conference, these four people may introduce you to other people throughout the year and at the next conference as well. It is a vicious circle that only gets bigger with time, and one that works for itself, with no need to make such a great efforts anymore.

Now, last but not least, it is also important to know how to properly follow up.

  • Write an individual and personalized email to people you really liked meeting showing your appreciation.
  • Do NOT simply add people on social media without sending them a private message reminding them exactly where and how you met, or where you know them from. Actually, this should be always applied, like a best networking practice. It is hard to remember every single person we meet at conferences, and anywhere for that matter.
  • Now, I know this is hard to ask nowadays, but I actually prefer to follow their blog, like their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter, etc., instead of adding them as friends on Facebook or LinkedIn, especially those I did not really have a chance to connect that much.

Those who are at the the ITI and NAJIT conferences can already start applying these tips. If you do, let us know if it worked. And for those who are attending the Abrates Conference next week, like myself, you can start practicing in the shower. 😉

7th Abrates Conference: Official coverage – Part 3 (final)

Posted in Events, Miscellaneous by

Should you have not done so yet, read Part 1 and Part 2 before proceeding.

Sunday

The first presentation I watched on the second day of talks was Patricia Moura Souza’s on the Translation Office 3000, a management software for translators. Patricia acknowledged that, although the TO3000 is not user-friendly, it turns out to be a great management tool for translators after you learn how to use it. It took the speaker three months to fully understand the program and totally depend on it for managing her translation work. So we can consider she is now a strong advocate of the tool – its ambassador, if we may say. According to her, some of its benefits is that the user can create and control budgets, invoices and payments by creating groups for services provided (such as translation, interpreting, editing, etc.). Patricia even reveals its greatest secret, that is not clearly understood from the interface: the vertical menu, on the left, refers to all the clients (general data) and the horizontal menu (in the top) refers to the selected client (data by client). And its three greatest functions are: relationship with the client (contact details, pricing list, payment methods, etc.), workflow control (list of projects, specific information, delivery calendar) and financial control (invoices, payments, balance sheets, reports). Now something I particularly loved was that it has a specific tab for marketing! And you can also add other tabs. Other basic operations: you can use your CAT tool wordcount, you can customize fields, and there are all sorts and colors of filters! You can find Patricia’s PowerPoint presentation here. For more information about her experience with the software, read Como o Translation Office 3000 mudou a minha vida – parte 1 e Como o Translation Office mudou a minha vida – parte 2. You can download a 30-day free trial here. Should you love it and decide to buy the software, use this link.

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Patricia Moura Souza

Next, I watched the beginning of Leonardo Milani’s talk on professional attitude, but unfortunately I had to leave early because my own presentation was next. However, I was able to grasp one important point: your productivity in terms of words per hour/day is not the same as quality. It does not indicate if you deliver a quality translation or not. And, for him, it is irritating to ask for productivity.

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Leonardo Milani

As I said, up next was my presentation. I talked about how to use Facebook professionally as to positively, and not negatively, influence your professional image. However, I will write a more detailed post specifically about it in the upcoming days. Stay tuned.

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Yours truly

After my presentation, I ran to João Roque Dias’, on technical drawings. I must confess I just wanted to take a peek at it, so I did not even sit down. I stood in the back of the room taking pictures and tweeting a bit about his presentation, after all, the subject was not something that interested me, since I am not a technical translator of that area. However, to my great surprise, I had to take a seat, because João is certainly a captivating speaker and managed to catch my attention. The Portuguese speaker used attendees to compare both methods of ortographic projections, European and American, with “people” projections. According to João Roque, the translator should always be attentive, because symbols, displays and controls are not always translated. And picture captions should never be translated if the picture itself is not available for reference. If they are, they must be consulted. For example, a “disk” can mean different things in technical drawings, and the picture will tell which one it refers to specifically. João gave some tips about the translation of different types of documents with images. For example, in patents, bid documents and specifications, the text to be translated is almost 100% related to one or a few images, so we should start by studying the images and check if there are inconsistencies with/from the text. In manuals, instructions and leaflets, on the other hand, the text to be translated is clarified by numerous images, so we should study them as we go along, checking for inconsistencies with/from the text. At the end of his presentation, the charismatic speaker had some exercises about his talk and those who got the answer right earned cool customized freebies. It was certainly a pleasure to meet João Roque Dias in person at the conference.

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João Roque Dias with Reginaldo Francisco

Closing ceremony

To sum up the best Abrates Conference so far, we had the surprise visit of Vera Holtz, a Brazilian actress, dear friend of Liane Lazoski, current President of Abrates. Her presence was also a surprise to Liane herself, and was organized by recently-elected President, William Cassemiro, and Vice-President, Renato Beninatto. They sang a song together; it was a quite touchy moment, summing up yet another fantastic conference in great style. You can watch her surprise entry and them singing here.

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Vera Holtz and Liane Lazoski

New Abrates Board

Since only one slate signed up for the elections, the “Criando Pontes” (Building Bridges) slate was officially elected on Sunday, after the closing ceremony. So here is the next Abrates Board, to take office in July 5:

William Ferreira Cassemiro – President
Renato Beninatto – Vice-President
Dayse Boechat – 1st Treasurer
Ricardo Souza – 2nd Treasurer
Paula Ianelli – General Secretary
Iara – Second Secretary

Supervisory Board:
Filipe Alverca
Adriana Caraccio-Morgan
Manuela Sampaio

Deputies:
Liane Lazoski
Peterso Rissatti
Ana Valéria Ivonica Silva

Platform:
Besides continuing all innovative actions of the last Boards and expanding the acknowledgement of the association, some of its proposed actions are to: expand the Mentoring Program, hold smaller events in other states of the country, offer courses at affordable prices to members, partner with universities, create departments (such as for Literary Translation and Interpreting), optimize the call service, improve the use of social media, etc. Suggestions from members will be always welcome.

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Elected Board

Next conference

Although there is no defined date for the next conference yet, the venue is already set: São Paulo. According to the elected President, they will try to make it happen during the same period, early June. See you next year at #abrates17?

Read more…
João Vicente de Paulo Júnior: Mas quem foi que disse que tradutor tem que ganhar pouco? – VII Congresso da Abrates, by Juliana Tradutora
Ricardo Souza: Tradumática – VII Congresso da Abrates, by Juliana Tradutora
Sessão Sintra apresenta: mesa-redonda sobre tradução literária e direitos autorais – Ernesta Ganzo, Daniele Petruccioli, Renata Pettengill, Lenita Esteves e Petê Rissati – VII Congresso da Abrates, by Juliana Tradutora
Expressão regular: uma poderosa arma para o tradutor, by Bianca Freitas on the Pronoia Tradutória blog
Takeaways of the Abrates Conference, by Translated in Argentina
Winning clients as a freelancer: An LSP perspective, Eugenia Echave’s PowerPoint presentation
MT Options for the Individual Translator, by Kirti Vashee

And there are plenty of other links in Parts 1 and 2 as well. Enjoy!

7th Abrates Conference: Official coverage – Part 2

Posted in Events, Monthly post by

This is the second part of my post about the Abrates Conference. Read the first part here.

After having such a good start, the second talk I watched on Saturday was Isabel Gorg’s, also on automated translation. The speaker conducted a survey and found out that 22% of the interviewees used some sort of MT strategy. Her presentation was mostly based on pointing out common mistakes in MT, such as spacing, capitalization, grammar, sentence structure, local standards and terminology. Being aware of their frequency makes it simple to spot and correct them. And, needless to say, source quality can also highly influence the quality of MT translations. The takeovers from her talk were: MT will not disappear, but rather get better; MT can increase productivity; we should concentrate on what MT does right, not wrong; and we should align our expectations.

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Isabel Georg

The third talk I attended on Saturday was by Felipe Cichini Simões, on personal and professional budgeting for freelancers. According to Felipe, we must never spend every cent we earn, but have some savings for vacation, professional investment, variable income, etc. The speaker suggested the YNAB (You Need A Budget) method and briefly showed us how the app works. According to Felipe, in order to start a budget plan, we must forget the past and start planning from now on. Felipe also said that giving each cent a function helps us understand what we can do with our money. Acknowledging our actual expenditures (besides our fixed ones) is also important for planning our future budget. However, he also points out that budgets are not always perfect, and sometimes they may not work as planned, especially for us, freelancers, who do not have a fixed income. It can happen, and we may not lose heart. The speaker also suggested the Wave Accounting app for financial control. I will surely try any of those apps, because I myself am very bad at budgeting and planning for the future. I know, shame on me!

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Felipe Cechini Simões

Next on the presentations I attended on Saturday was Adriana de Araújo Sobota’s, on how to start working with translation agencies. The large room was totally full and people loved her presentation. Adriana mentioned methods for receiving payment from overseas (PayPal, Moneybrookers, direct bank transfer, wire transfer through Payoneer and TransferWise) and how to check a potential client’s reputation (Payment Practices, Blueboard, Hall of Fame and Shame, Untrustworthy Translation Agencies). It is also important to check if they have a physical address, on-line domain, professional e-mail address, etc. When looking for translation agencies on Google, we should be careful with the search results, because they can return one-person companies/entrepreneurs, not only agencies. Adriana also mentioned the importance of professional behavior, having a good CV, knowing how to behave on-line, communication, etc. The translation market is fast, so we should make sure we do not lose a chance for nothing. All the information needed on how to find potential clients is out there: research and search for it. The speaker concluded her presentation stressing out some don’ts: do not depend on only one agency; do not pressure the potential client for the result of the test; do not ask if you can send a CV, simply send it; do not send bulk e-mails; do not complain about an agency in public (social media).

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Adriana de Araújo Sobota

After lunch, I attended GALA’s presentation, “Economic Crisis at Home? The World is Yours – How to Overcome Obstacles When Selling Abroad.” You can read more details about this one here, on a post I wrote for their blog.

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GALA (Globalization and Localization Association): Fabiano Cid, Lilian Alves Mouton, Eugenia Echave and Gabriela Morales

After that, I ran to a presentation I was actually part of, about the Abrates Mentoring Program. Steering Committee members William Cassemiro, Adriana Sobota, Mônica Reis and yours truly explained how the program works and what the rules are to those who wish to take part both as mentor and mentee. Our current mentors and mentees, both represented, respectively, by Filipe Alverca and Sabrina Fuzaro and present among the attendees, had a voice and spoke about the enriching experience they are having with the program. You can find more information about the program on its web page and on this blog post I wrote a while ago (both in Portuguese). Juliana Tradutora has also written a blog post about our presentation, also in Portuguese, here. Should you not understand Portuguese, here are some important points:

  • The program is totally free, from all parts: both Committee members and mentors are volunteers, and mentees do not have to pay to take part.
  • To be a mentor, the person needs to be an Abrates member and have at least five years of experience in the area.
  • To be a mentee, the person also needs to be an Abrates member and have a maximum of two years of experience in the area. Or be in the last year of a Translation/Interpreting course.
  • The program lasts two years with a minimum of two hours of mentoring per month (in person or via Skype or other method agreed upon both parts).
  • The program’s coordinators closely follow their assigned pairs through follow-up reports both the mentor and the mentee have to fill out separately after every meeting.
  • The coordinators must be aware of every decision made by their assigned pairs in order to avoid any potential issue, including change of date of the meeting.

We had a fantastic feedback from our current mentors/mentees, from potential mentors/mentees and from people who run mentoring programs in other associations all over the world, such as Canada, Argentina and Israel. They were mesmerized by our organization, quality and professionalism. The presentation was followed by our own coffee break filled with positive comments, feedback, nice conversations with people who were interested at the program and future contacts. Should you be interested in learning more about it, do not hesitate to leave a comment below or send an e-mail to mentoria@abrates.com.br.

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Steering Committee members, William Cassemiro, Adriana de Araújo Sobota, Caroline Alberoni e Mônica Reis, mentee Sabrina Fuzaro and mentor Filipe Alverca

To sum up a perfect first day, Renato Beninatto hosted a round-table about, once again, machine translation with Kirti Vashee, Ricardo Souza, Ronaldo Martins and Marcelo Fassina. Marcelo Fassina, from Lionbridge, started talking and said that usually material with low access by the general public or the end user goes through MTPE (machine translation post-editing). However, the agency must always inform the translator when they use MT. The translator’s feedback is extremely important to feed the MT and improve it, as Kirti also mentioned in this morning’s presentation. Ronaldo Martins took the floor and spoke beautifully and eloquently. I was in owe with his perfect choice of words. According to him, evolution is inevitable. Technology may close some doors, but it will certainly open other windows. Ronaldo explained the difference between accelerated, delegated and augmented technologies. The first ones are not revolutionary; they only assist, but do not replace; for example, bikes. The second ones are substitutive, but are not necessarily better than what they replace. The last ones, on the other hand, enable us to do things we were not able to do before. In spite of what people think, MT involves science. Ricardo Souza followed, representing translators. Last but not least, Kirti Vashee also gave his opinion on the subject. According to him, human translation is the driving force of technology.

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Ronaldo Martins, Kirti Vashee, Renato Beninatto, Ricardo Souza and Marcelo Fassina

This was it for Saturday. Sunday talks in Part 3 (final).

Read the impressions and reviews of other attendees:

Adriana de Araújo Sobota: Como começar a trabalhar com agências de tradução – VII Congresso da Abrates, by Juliana Tradutora
Traduzir livros para crianças é coisa de gente grande – VII Congresso da Abrates, by Juliana Tradutora
Silvana Nicoloso: Identidade de gênero e o trabalho de interpretação simultânea em Libras – VII Congresso da Abrates, by Juliana Tradutora
Mesa-redonda sobre machine translation – Kirti Vashee – Ricardo Souza – Ronaldo Martins – Marcelo Fassino – VII Congresso da Abrates, by Juliana Tradutora
Comitê de Mentoria: Adriana Sobota, Caroline Alberoni, Mônica Reis e William Cassemiro – VII Congresso da Abrates, by Juliana Tradutora
Marina Piovesan Gonçalves: Inglês geral x inglês jurídico: diferenças e/ou semelhanças – VII Congresso da Abrates, by Juliana Tradutora
7º Congresso da Abrates – Resumão, by Laila Compan
5 insights que tive no 7º Congresso da Abrates, by Laila Compan
Ensaio sobre o fracasso, by Thiago Hilger on Pronoia Tradutória blog
Como começar a trabalhar com agências de tradução, Adriana de Araújo Sobota’s PowerPoint presentation
The Larger Context Translation Market, by Kirti Vashee

Other links can be found in Parts 1 and 3.

7th Abrates Conference: Official coverage – Part 1

Posted in Events, Miscellaneous by

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The 7th International Abrates Conference was held from June 3 to 5, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, our Wonderful City – that truly lives up to its nickname. It was an amazing event, way better than expected, in my opinion, even though there were less attendees than last year, probably due to our unfortunate financial crisis. However, those who attended the event were certainly not afraid of the threat and took the bull by the horns leaving their comfort zones, dusting off, polishing their knowledge, networking and prospecting.

The conference in numbers

  • 3 days
  • 8 pre-conference courses
  • 612 attendees from 6 different countries (Brazil, Portugal, Canada, US, UK and Argentina) and from all around Brazil
  • 85 speakers from 8 different countries (Brazil, India, UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and US) and from all around Brazil
  • More than 90 talks (more than 60 hours of amazing content)
  • 5 CAT representatives
  • 15 sponsors from Italy, US, Argentina, Czech Republic, South Korea, France and Brazil
  • 5 social events

Pre-conference courses

This year, the Brazilian Association of Translators and Interpreters (Abrates) also offered pre-conference courses in association with Café com Tradução on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, Val Ivonica gave a basic course on memoQ. On Friday, Roger Chadel gave a basic course on Wordfast Classic; Val Ivonica gave a workshop on Regex (advanced memoQ); Carolina Caires Coelho and Flávia Souto Maior, from Ponte de Letras, gave a workshop on translation of literary texts from English into Portuguese; Cláudia Mello Belhassof gave a course on Brazilian Portuguese grammar; Daniele Fonseca, on interpreting and how to make decisions in real time in the booth; Ana Iaria and Ricardo Souza, on shipping and similar documents and their translation solutions; and Rayani Immediato and Mabel Cezar, on translation for dubbing and relationship with clients. They could be purchased separately, but with a discount for conference attendants.

Also on Friday, in the afternoon, there was also the Abrates accreditation test.

Social events

Social events started on Thursday with a happy hour organized by yours truly and Abrates Board members Dayse Boechat, First Treasurer, and William Cassemiro, Second Treasurer and recently elected President, at Inverso Bar. It was a nice opportunity to say “hi” and get to finally meet some colleagues in person, talk and relax a bit. Approximately 70 people managed to meet us there, so it was really pleasant and fun.

On Friday, after the opening the ceremony, there was a toast with a buffet offered by GALA (Globalization and Localization Association). Another good opportunity to see those who arrived only on Friday.

On Saturday, there was a dinner organized by Abrates with good food, drinks, music, dancing and lots of fun. I certainly had a great time and laughed a lot.

Last but not least, on Sunday, last day of conference, Fabiano Cid organized a GALA networking get-together at Pub Escondido. Once again, we had such a great time and could relax from the hectic conference days.

Opening ceremony

The conference’s official opening was on Friday evening. Before the actual opening interview, William asked if there was any sign interpreter who could volunteer to interpret the opening. Paloma Bueno Fernandes kindly volunteered and did a wonderful job interpreting the national anthem. Everybody turned their eyes to her and her amazing interpretation, beautifully followed by someone who was standing right in front of her. It was an unforgettable moment.

Renato Beninatto then interviewed Cora Rónai. Cora is a journalist and daughter of Paulo Rónai, who was one of Abrates’ founder and also hold the position of President of the association. Paulo was born in Hungary, but moved to Brazil during the war. Besides being a translator, he was also a philologist and critic. Although Cora is not a translator herself, it was beautiful listening to her telling stories about her father, his many important friends, such as Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, with whom he exchanged lessons of Portuguese and French. Her father, as she said, was saved by translation. He was released from prison for being the only person who could translate from Hungarian into Portuguese. Some curious facts about Paulo were that he loved footnotes to explain translations and was one of the first people to have an electric typewriter. I had already heard Liane Lazoski (Abrates’ President) talk about him that same day in such a beautiful way and with such passion and admiration that inspired me to want to re-read his books.

Saturday

The first day of presentations started brilliantly with Kirti Vashee’s presentation, who talked about Corporate Utility and the General MT Technology Landscape. Kirti is a US-based independent MT consultant/expert and presented some quite interesting insights and figures on MT, for example, he said Microsoft spends US$ 500 million a year on human translation, but that accounts for only 2% of what they translate. Other companies that use MT in their translations are: Facebook, eBay, Google, Intel and Adobe. Some translation volumes are too high and cannot be met by human translators, so that’s when MT comes into play. “Good MT” allows more to be translated faster and at a lower cost. However, if there is legal viability and real importance, human translation must be used in order to avoid risks. Kirti said that in languages like Portuguese, Spanish and French, MT is getting better with time and can be a threat in case of repetitive material (Hungarian, Turkish, Korean, Hindi, Zulu and Swahili are, on the other hand, among the worst). According to a Google study (2012), Portuguese is the best MT language due to its greater and larger content.

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Our current scenario demands faster turnaround times, resulting in more information, therefore, in the need for faster translations. An interesting fact Vashee pointed out was that today we have more active scientists alive than in the previous 200 years all together. It is a lot of information being produced!

What needs to be clear is that MT engines are not equal. Some are great, others are terrible. And the problem is most DIY initiatives are created by people who do not know what they are doing. We, translators, should take part and get more involved so we can change this scenario to our benefit. Human feedback can raise the raw output to previous unseen quality levels. It is worth knowing how to climb. Understanding MT output is key to determining opportunity value. Quality of the MT system can be even more important than rate per word. The best translators develop their own “effort scores” after seeing a meaningful sample of actual MT output.

Kirti Vashee suggests Lilt, an adaptive dynamically learning MT environment that personalizes its suggestions to the translators’ translation style. Although it does not support all languages yet, it does support Brazilian Portuguese.

In a nutshell, PEMT will become more common, so we have to learn to determine when it makes sense for us.

Read Part 2.

Read the impressions and reviews (most of them in Portuguese, but there are a couple in English at the end) of other attendees:

VII Congresso Internacional da Abrates: cada vez melhor, cada vez mais forte, by Ponte de Letras
Como chamar a atenção de agências, by Luciana Frias
O valor do corredor, by Carolina Walliter
Como foi o Congresso da Abrates 2016, by Thais Aux
Impressões do VII Congresso Abrates, by Sidney Barros
#abrates16 – Parte 1, by Thiago Hilger
#abrates16 – Parte 2, by Thiago Hilger
VII Congresso Internacional de Tradução e Interpretação da Abrates, by Juliana Tradutora
Ligia Sobral Fragano: A versão de filmes brasileiros – VII Congresso da Abrates, by Juliana Tradutora
Ponte de Letras: Vamos conversar sobre tradução editorial – VII Congresso da Abrates, by Juliana Tradutora
Marcelle Castro e Mylene Queiroz: Recursos online para treinamento de intérpretes – VII Congresso da Abrates, by Juliana Tradutora
Luiz Fernando Sant’Anna Alves: Diz a legenda… – VII Congresso da Abrates, by Juliana Tradutora
Como foi a palestra “Mastermind na Tradução”?, by Catia Santana on the Pronoia Tradutória blog
Impressões sobre o VII Congresso da Abrates, by Catia Santana on the El Heraldo de la Traducción blog
VII Congresso Abrates, by Kelli Semolini
Introdução às ferramentas CAT: por onde começar, PPT presentation by Jorge Rodrigues
VII Congresso Internacional da Abrates – Encerramento, video by Abrates shown during the closing ceremony
Vera Holtz e Liane Lazoski, video by Thays Mielli of the surprise made to Liane Lazoski at the closing ceremony
GALA joins forces with Brazilian Association at the 7th Abrates Conference, by yours truly on the GALA blog
The Abrates Conference in Rio: Translators focusing on MT, by Kirti Vashee
Abrates 7th International Conference, by Teresa Maria Freixinho

My impressions on the VI Abrates Conference – Part 2

Posted in Events, Weekly post by

In case you did not read the first part, here it is.

Still on the second day of the conference, after the panel with representatives of some associations, we had a coffee break and, after that, our second keynote speaker, Renato Beninatto, spoke about Brazil’s position in the translation world. Beninatto talked about how Brazilians sometimes complain a lot about the local situation. According to him, translation, as well as its problems, is the same everywhere, not only here. The translation market is globalized. Renato also says it is a shame that ATA has the same number of Brazilian associates as Sintra: we should give more credit to local associations. To conclude his presentation, he shows this video and says a person is able to create a new initiative by themselves and inspire others. The first follower of the initiative is the most important, because he is the one that validates the leader.

In his presentation, he referred to this article: Brazil: The Social Media Capital of the Universe.

The second day was over and, while some attendees headed to a pizza place, I headed to a sushi place, where ACME E-learning hosted a Mixer with a dozen people. It was quite a pleasant evening, and I had the chance to get to know incredible new people from different areas and met a couple I already knew from other events. João, ACME’s director, will soon publish pictures and probably some words about this successful networking event.

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With João Artur Souza, from ACME E-learning.

On Sunday, the third and, sadly, last day of conference started with Renata Cassemiro’s presentation about the importance of the translator’s occupational health. Renata is physiotherapist and Pilates instructor, so she gave us some extremely important tips and orientations. According to her, some diseases take years to start showing its symptoms, therefore, we shouldn’t wait to try to find a solution. Did you know that the incorrect use of the phone is one of the biggest causes of problems? Don’t hold the phone between your ear and your shoulder. Use a headset instead. Fact: the human being is capable and prepared to walk 30 km a day. That’s why a sedentary lifestyle brings so many health problems! Some of her tips: establish pauses throughout your workday; avoid fried food and have lighter meals; therapeutic massage is advised once a week.

The second presentation of the day was by Débora Policarpo, who talked about financial planning. Débora is a business administrator specialized in wealth management and asset allocation. According to her, financial planning is the process of achieving our life’s goals through the adequate management of our finance life. There is nothing that takes more our attention than financial problems, right? We should understand the family’s budget and dynamics, as well as in which stage of life we are in. Débora said we must set our short-, medium- and long-term goals and the income we want/need to have when we retire. There is no magical formula to calculate how much we should save to achieve our goals: we need to know the time we have and the desired income.

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During Débora Policarpo’s presentation.

We had a coffee break and, after that, my presentation.

After my presentation, I watched part of Carolina Walliter’s presentation on coworking. Unfortunately, I missed a great part of it, but it seemed very interesting indeed. People loved it! According to her, coworking is a network society that generates quality of life and social awareness. Sheila Gomes, who was also watching Carolina’s presentation, recommends that we at least try working in one of the coworking spaces available. I do plan on working some hours or a day in a coworking space we have in my town. As soon as I do, I’ll write a post about my experience. 😉

The last presentation of the conference was with Isabel Vidigal, who mainly talked about ProZ.com and the possibility of getting clients from it. According to her, you have nothing to lose creating a free profile on ProZ.com, but work carefully on it.

After that, we had a lunch break and, finally the last keynote speaker, Ulisses Wehby de Carvalho, from Tecla SAP, who gave a really relaxing and enjoyable speech about the life of an interpreter. We laughed a lot with his funny and incredibly embarrassing/amazing histories! According to him, mistakes happen in the booth because there is no backspace. The interpreter has to learn how to properly deal with them when they happen.

And that was it (or at least part of it, since I attended only 1/6 of the wide array of possibilities). You can find some links to posts people have already published about the conference below:

Talking in the real world, post-conference article by Robert Lange Greene on The Economist
A LBM no Congresso da Abrates, by Ligia Sobral Fragano, from Little Brown Mouse
VI Congresso da Abrates – Parte 1, by Laila Rezende Compan, from the blog Tradutor Iniciante
VI Congresso da Abrates – Parte 2, by Laila Rezende Campan, from the blog Tradutor Iniciante
VI Congresso da Abrates – Parte 3, by Laila Rezende Campan, from the blog Tradutor Iniciante
VI Congresso da Abrates – Parte 4, by Laila Rezende Campan, from the blog Tradutor Iniciante
VI Congresso da Abrates – Parte 5 (final), by Laila Rezende Campan, from the blog Tradutor Iniciante
Impressões sobre o VI Congresso Internacional da Abrates, by Sidney Barros Junior
VI Congresso Internacional da Abrates – Um sucesso muito além do esperado, by Ponte de Letras
Línguas e Tradução: Outro Encontro de Tradutores, by Anita Di Marco, from Anita Plural
VI Congresso da Abrates: uma viagem pelo mundo da localização, by Maíra Monteiro
VI Congresso Internacional da Abrates, by Marina Borges
E o VI Congresso da Abrates?, by Thiago Hilger, from the blog O Jogo da Tradução
CAT Tools na tradução literária: para quê?, by Rafa Lombardino, from eWorldNews, about Reginaldo Francisco’s presentation (in English: CAT tools in literary translation: what are they good for?)
A TradWiki e a visibilidade do tradutor, by Daniel Estill, from TradWiki
Como foi o VI Congresso da Abrates para os iniciantes, by Lorena Leandro, from the blog Ao Principiante
Pesquisa em tradução literária: seleção de fontes e entrevistas, by Rafa Lombardino, from eWorldNews, about Candice Soldatelli’s presentation (in English: Research in literary translation: selecting and interviewing sources of information)
Impresiones sobre el congreso – Abrates 2015, by Víctor Gonzales, from El Heraldo de la Traducción
Vamos fugir do tradutês?, by Rafa Lombardino, from eWorldNews, about Ponte de Letra‘s presentation (in English: Let’s avoid translationese, shall we?)
Pensando a tradução de variantes linguísticas, by Rafa Lombardino, from eWorldNews, about Solange Pinheiro Carvalho’s presentation (in English: On translating linguistic variants)
O tradutor sob os holofotes, by Rafa Lombardino, from eWorldNews, about the round table with Carolina Caires Coelho, Alyne Azuma, Alessandra Ruiz and Candice Soldatelli, moderated by Petê Rissati (in English: Translators under the spotlight)
O papel do tradutor na nova era da publicação digital, by yours truly on the blog eWorldNews, about Rafa Lombardino’s presentation (in English, translated by Rafa herself: The role of translators in the new digital publishing age)

And here are links to some presentations that presenters made available somehow and that I became aware of:

Roney Belhassof’s presentation: Usando a internet sem ter que virar nerd
Val Ivonica’s presentation: A tecnologia vai acabar com o tradutor?
Juliana Samel’s presentation: Falsos cognatos e decalques na tradução médica inglês > português
Layla Penha’s presentation: Interpretação consecutiva e além – como se já não bastassem os desafios da tarefa em si (recorded presentation, part 1 – you can also search for the other parts)
Jorge Rodrigues’ presentation: Rumos e perspectivas da carreira do tradutor profissional
Jorge Davidson’s presentation: O ABC das CATs: o que você nunca se atreveu a perguntar
Paula Ianelli’s presentation: Quatro traduções e um original
Mitsue Siqueira and Bruno Fontes’ presentation: Gerente de projetos: de onde vem, para onde vai? You can also find a video of part of the presentation on YouTube here.
Carolina Walliter’s presentation: Coworking e os tradutores na vanguarda da nova era do trabalho
Fabiano Cid’s presentation: A situação do tradutor hoje no Brasil: problemas encontrados em três anos de LQA

On a last note, it was informed in the conference that there will be a series of talks on bureaucracy and translation, Tradutor vs. Burocracia. The first one will be held in Rio de Janeiro, on October 1st.

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Besides, a workshop is also on the make with the amazing Isa Mara Lando, organized by Luciane Camargo. It will be on a Saturday in July, from 10 a.m. through 6 p.m., in São Paulo. If you are interested at attending in, please send an email to lucianecamargo@hotmail.com informing your date preference (4th, 18th or 25th).

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And if you are not an Abrates member yet, it’s now or never! They are offering a 50% discount on the annual fee for those who attended the conference. But it’s only until June 30th!

If you want to check what else happened during the conference, follow the hashtag #abrates15 on Facebook and on Twitter.

And if you are interested in attending the next one, it will be held in Rio de Janeiro, date yet to be announced. I’ll certainly let you all know when we have news about it.

Last, but not least, the next post – that will most probably come this week – will be about my presentation.

My impressions on the VI Abrates Conference – Part 1

Posted in Events, Weekly post by

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Last weekend, from June 5th through 7th I attended (and presented at) the VI Abrates International Conference in São Paulo (Centro de Convenções Rebouças). Abrates is the Brazilian association of professional translators and interpreters and, since 2013, they hold an annual conference in different Brazilian cities. The event is the largest and most important in the area in Brazil, and possibly now the largest in Latin America. This year, we almost reached 900 participants (last year, in Rio de Janeiro, there were 450 attendees; and in 2013, in Belo Horizonte, 390).

The conference officially started with great news: PayPal partnered with Abrates and will now offer special rates for receiving payments – for Abrates members only. For receiving payments from abroad, the rate will decrease from around 7.4% to 3.49% + R$ 0.60 per transaction. Everybody – including me, of course – was ecstatic with the fantastic news! Stay tuned on how to benefit with it if you are an Abrates member. The association will publish it on their site and share on their Facebook page when they do. Besides, you can also call PayPal’s SAC to know more. Following the official opening, the first keynote speaker, Robert Lane Greene, Berlin-based business correspondent for The Economist who writes the “Johnson” column on language for The Economist online, talked about languages around the world. He starts speaking in an impressive Portuguese and admits he is part of a small group of weird North-Americans who like to learn other languages. After his introduction, he starts his presentation in English and shows us some interesting numbers related to languages on the internet. On Wikipedia, for example, translations are mainly to and from English, indicating a lack of language connections. On Twitter, a great number of users tweet in two languages, and Portuguese/English is one of the most common pairs (behind Malay and Spanish). Greene also differentiates between business suit language and underwear language: the first is the one you simply wear/use for any reason, the second is close to our heart and intimate self.

The infographic on this page was one of the images he showed. Robert also mentioned this article. He also has a book, You Are What You Speak.

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With Robert Lane Greene.

After his interesting presentation, we had a cocktail party where we had to change to say hi to our fellow translators.

The actual presentations started for good the next day. The main characteristic of this conference is that we have plenty of choices to choose from: there were six different rooms with a diversity of topics being presented at the same time throughout the event. My first choice (always a difficult one, Paula Ianelli and Reginaldo Francisco, for example, were also presenting at the same time) was about technology and how we can use them to improve productivity, by Fernanda Rocha. Did you know, for example, that Windows and Mac’s calculators convert units and currencies? They also calculate periods of time. You can also add two other clocks (time zones) to your toolbar.

Time to change rooms! Off to room 5 where Rafa Lombardino talked about digital self-publication. Did you know that, in Brazil, a material becomes public domain after 70 years of the author’s death? She suggests creating a blog/site to document your book translation projects (it can also serve as a portfolio). You can find the newsletter about her presentation and the link to the Prezi presentation here.

Next one was in room 1, with João Vicente de Paulo Jr. and Giovana Boselli, who mentioned some important steps we have to follow when/before accepting a project not to have unexpected problems down the line. For example, read the allocation instructions carefully (delivery date/time, volume, subject), open the files and have a look at them, check if a big project requires partial deliveries, check if there is reference material to be followed (glossaries, style guides), payment method.

After the coffee break, I heard Monica Hruby, president of ATPI-Rio, mentioned some problems sworn translators face in Brazil and the regulation that surrounds it. An important point: translation agencies can’t be sworn translators! So be aware! I chose this presentation because I heard from a colleague last week that many sworn translators on Jucesp’s list are dead and their son/daughter are translating on behalf of the deceased translator! This is totally insane!

Back to room 1 to hear Raquel Lucas de Souza tell us about how she became an agency. Circumstances made her realize she could solve her clients’ problems not by translating, but by finding people who could do it, being a project manager. We need to fully understand ourselves in order to identify our qualities and find out our place in the market. A professional posture is essential for having good final results. At the same time, Capitain Israel Souza Junior, last year’s keynote speaker, was talking in room 4 about idiomatic expressions in war movies’ translation.

After lunch, I watched a panel with representatives of 10 associations: ATPIESP, ATP-MG, APIC, GALA, ATP-Rio, ASTRAJUR-RS, ATPP, Abrates, Sintra and ATA. The panel was very informative and useful, but I’d like to bring the attention here to the current situation of Sintra (Brazilian translators’ union). It once had only 173 paying affiliates and considered closing its doors. Nowadays, there are 233, but it is necessary 327 in order to have a financial balance. With its current budget, they can only run until October. Currently, 106 affiliates are in default, but they can only be removed from the union after 2 years not paying! The annual fee to become an affiliate is R$ 330.00. As pointed out during the panel, some people spend a fortune to attend ATA’s conference, but claim it’s too expensive to pay for the union’s fee. I’m an affiliate and I believe the union is essential for helping us defend our rights. See, for example, what they are doing, with ATP-Rio and Conati, to defend our rights regarding Simples Nacional here.

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Conference attendees featuring yours truly doing what I did best: tweet. 🙂

Please find the second part of this post here.