International Translation Day theLanguageSandwich with Suzan Brown and Guests

Show video

brilliant here we go so I'm recording this  for the language sandwich for international   translation day which is the 30th of September  and I had the idea just to get a few translators   together because you're always in the shadows you  guys you know people don't realise I think this   magically they get all the translated text  back to people think I'm a translator because   I speak another language but I am so far from a  translator. I don't I have not done the studies,   I don't have the qualifications, I don't have  the specialism. Yes, I understand the language   and people get confused you know between people  that are bilingual and professional translators   and the journey that they have to go on to get  to where they are as a qualified translator.  So if I go around my screen I would it's a  really sort of a quick one to ask you guys   just to tell us where you are what  languages you specialize in and,  well, let's say when you're qualified, how  long you've been doing it whereabouts you are,   and what are your languages. How does that sound?  Great yeah lovely brilliant. So i'm going to start   with Layla who is still frozen but we can still  see she's really it's really a look for me to be   frozen but you can still hear me. Yes absolutely  that's fine and I just look confused in the photo   so I've been translating for 16 years now that's  when I qualified um I did French, German and   Spanish at um college and I took them on to  university and then i did my MA there as well   in translation um and i'm based in the UK you're  basically okay brilliant um and what about you   uh i'm a translator as well french Arabic it's  my tongue mother and french french english   I'm working in a martial national in  insurance and as frank the freelancer as well   so you do you do the both and you're you're  joining us from Tunisia so we've got a really   international language sandwich today sorry we've  got real international some group between us today I obtained the translation diploma 20  years ago maybe I stopped to count years okay um that's it no that's cool that's  brilliant for now it's just a really tiny intro   and i don't want to put anybody under under  pressure either you know um Kiara how about you?  Well i'm based in Italy at the moment  and I started translating in 2014 and my   native language is Italian so i translate from  French, German, Danish and English into Italian You're quite active on linkedin as well i think  yeah well it depends not on reactive there are   members who are more active than than me but i  like to keep updated i like to to know what's   happening in the sector so yeah and we all we  all have our style don't we i'll go i'll come   to kelsey now because you are definitely active  on linkedin i've seen some really cool videos   from you good good girls so tell us a little bit  about just about your languages and where you are  Yeah so um i am a Yank based in London. I have  been in the industry only for about five and  

a half years now um and my main language  pairs are French to English but the bulk   of the work that I do is actually freelance  account management and project management   um either for direct clients who need  their documents translated or for um   agencies who kind of need an extra  pair of hands and i kind of go in and   white label my services that way so um so  yeah that that's the main thing that i do but   very active on LinkedIn um i went freelance uh  about five months ago and decided that I needed to   really hit the ground running with LinkedIn  and started posting silly tick-tock videos. It's kind of changed has the platform and  at the end of the day we do what's best for   our personal brand i mean some people it's  not you know it's nice not really my cup of   tea every day but that that that's that's my me  trying to build my brand and you're the same so   we do what we can do away and i know i finally  got the time right for you so anna what a little   bit about yourself. Yeah hi hi everybody so i'm  based in Madrid Spain i'm a translator uh content   creator and copywriter working with well Spanish  is my mother tongue i translate from german and   english into Spanish and i normally translate  technical and technology applications websites   and things like that yeah um about copywriting  and content creator is more general because i have   i haven't decided uh um like a sector uh right  now so i'm just doing a little bit of everything   that's good because you're getting experience in  different areas that way and antoinette obviously   me and ness are known to each other we  did work in the same office for a while   so how are you and us tell  us a little bit fine i'm fine  so i'm i'm Brazilian so my language is Portuguese  are translating into English from English sorry   into Brazilian Portuguese quite often i have to  explain that i am not qualified to translate into   European Portuguese because there are quite  a few differences so it's kind of funny.   I've been a translator for a long long time i  i don't have a any academic qualification i'm   like i'm so old that i'm from the time where you  could just you know learn by doing it so i learned   by um experience by trying by um you know being a  team with different translators and learning from   them as well so i was an in-house translator uh  a technical in-house translator for you know my   my formation here so that was my university um and  yeah so i i translate a little bit of everything   that's another another you know kind of  very general as well more technical uh my   background is engineering so you know it's kind  of uh what what interests me one of the things   that interests me but yeah and that leads  me on to sort of another question about how   like i know a couple of you sent me messages  explained now you go into the industry and some   of them were really interesting because it's what  what what sort of leads you there what made you   decide on that path maybe maybe go to malek first  like a mic pronouncing your name correctly yes   yes that's it it means angel in arabic oh  i love that i'm not as essential as that How did you decide then just did that  you wanted to be a translator did it come   through a progression of um i  i like uh languages in uh in   general i started my um university courses  by uh literature french literature um studies   but i think that uh teaching is not for it's  not for me so i found that translation um   is a good option to escape from teaching uh  so i um i changed my uh my specialty yeah   did anybody else start somewhere else and then  going to translate or is there anybody that was   100 i want to be a translator me yes it was  me i mean when i began at university i studied   english philology but definitely i wanted to  be a translator it's true that education came   into my path but at the end i i noticed how  well they match me when you are like teaching   grammar you know much better the text you can  analyze much better um how words go together   how to use the language and things like that so  both professions help me a lot when when i work   as a translator and even when i teach i also say  don't translate this this way because words don't   work in this way in spanish or in english so they  complement both professions perfectly yeah because   i find that the standard of education in in in  translators is higher because you know clearly you   you're not just just translated you have  to understand the written word you have   to understand and mother tongue you have to and  on top of that you've got to understand all the   technologies that's changing all the time the  cat tools and the and the software that some of   the language service providers offer to you know  to enable you to to sort of reach the content um   how did you get into it kiara well it's very  funny because i think it was i was a child and   we used to go on holiday to south tyrol in  northern italy and that's a bilingual area   and i was exposed to different languages since i  was a child and then i started being curious about   that strange language which at that time was  german then bit by bit i got passionate about   languages and i if i think about it i've  studied languages for all my life i mean   i studied languages at secondary school then i  went to university and i i i started translation   um with my ba then interpreting with my m.a and  then i went went on and on and i couldn't think   my life without that language is actually it's a  constant challenge and it's so it's so fascinating   because you learn so much about people about  cultures so that's what i believe as well it   does open your mind up to the so the culture  is 100 i know that layla has lost her camera i've turned it on and off again i've done the  trusty trick but it's not working oh no don't   worry just how did you how did you come to to  decide on that as a career on translation as a   career yeah i think like kiara i've always liked  languages i mean i did them at school then i did   them at university and i couldn't decide which  ones to do and i wanted to do more but i could   only do three and i did do italian miles during  my masters as well so i've got that about gcse   level but i've got no formal qualification in  that one i've also done some mandarin and some   hindi i used to go to india a lot on holiday and  i like to travel in when before i had my daughter   i could travel a lot more and so i just really  just really enjoyed them and i did have a job   after i finished university and but i carried on  translating until i felt that i could go full time   so i did it so part time to start with and  then i decided that's what i wanted to do so   i always kept it going because i didn't want to  waste all that time and energy and i spent doing   the studies and the enjoyment of it to lose it  just like that because it's so easy to to lose   your languages quickly yeah i get that yeah i  mean i i i hear people all the time so well i   learned and i got my a level in there in french or  german and i've never used it and i'm like oh gosh   what a waste because you've got i mean i do think  you do have to spend a certain amount of time in   the country to to really to get people definitely  and what about you can see what's your journey   what decided you the the american education system  for languages is not that great um only it's   probably probably slightly worse than the british  one i'm sure you can attest to layla um but   uh i just i just thought learning a different  language was was the coolest thing that i could   possibly do and uh so i studied french in high  school did some german and stuff um and when it   came to go to university in america they were  actually phasing out the french program to the   university that i was getting accepted to and i  arrived and i said okay well how do i drop out   and realize that that was like my main focus  is that i wanted to whatever else i did in life   i wanted to be able to speak french and be able  to communicate in a different language that was   really important to me so um i found this this  course here in the uk and moved over and it just   so happened to be a translation course and  so i've just kind of fallen into translation   you know much like a lot of us here through the  love of language yeah through the levels and what   about well you kind of touched on it that's why  i changed to the um change to that question isn't   it a mess to in this what is the what is your  favorite part of being in the translation industry   or being a translator what's your favorite bit  highlights it's it's that it's always different   is that there is always something new that you  learn something new that you have to um research   that you have to you know read about it's it's  you know it's it's even when it's a boring text   there will be a little bit of something maybe you  know oh my god i'm not sure if this coma is right   and then you have to go through you know  lots of websites and but something someone   thinks one way someone someone else thinks a  different way where is that coma going to be   always you know it could be it could be um  the subject it could be the language itself   you know the the mechanics of the language or the  you know or they are the soul of the language that   you have to there is always something new there  is never one day that is yeah i've done that   knowledge don't we from just from the sort  of the areas where i work especially if   i mean i get that some people will have real  specialism like anna did you say technical and even in that you'll find different areas  where you learn I reckon you must be learning   sort of every day I mean stupidly I took  a job as a customer service rep speaking   you know speaking French and goodness hat you  know and it was for a bathroom company and I   had french plumbers ringing me up and asking  me why the certain thing didn't fit there and   I ended up having to explain to these plumbers in  France how to fit our products so and I'm clearly   had to buy a technical dictionary so I think  I could probably help a plumber fit a shower   in France now because I know all about olives  and things like that but it was very valuable Does anybody else have any sort of highlights  or funny stories about their time translating? Not directly translating, but how language was  useful that you wouldn't have expected it. When   we went on holiday to Cuba and for some reason  the key card system on the door of the hotel   room would stop working we couldn't get out! I  rang the reception and they were saying oh just   bring the key card down to the reception and  I say no literally we cannot get out the door   and this guy came along and he was on the other  side of the door and he was speaking in Spanish   and he's saying move out of the way I've got a  pickaxe and all this stuff if it wasn't for me   being in there we were on the first floor in like  an apartment block that was nowhere near reception   if I hadn't if I hadn't been able to  speak Spanish at the time and actually   you probably wasn't that great but I was  trying my best with without a dictionary   because I didn't really know what pickaxe  was in Spanish um but it was funny because   he literally he broke the door down but we  could have been up there like god knows how You don't think initially but that could be quite  scary actually well I was a bit concerned because   my husband it wasn't my husband at the time but  he was going to jump out the window and I was   like we're actually on a first-floor window I  don't think you'd actually not break something   so um this is how situations end  up getting a bit more complicated but in terms of funny funny text i had to i helped  once with this um doll catalog of products so it's   like sandy is standing in a pretty purple dress  with flowers on talking to her super friend um   whatever it was you obviously had to make it  sound like this little kids this little kid doll   and she was friends with so-and-so and  she was wearing this pretty dress and   and that was interesting especially  when you were looking at the term   whether we know like the english dolls have no  hair and you wouldn't say they're a bald doll it   really was really difficult to translate the way  that they wanted it translating without it sounded   like this doll sounded very strange like it had no  hair but it was normal like that the translation   made it sound like it just didn't work in this  language and how however they wanted me to do it   i was thinking you can't put a bald baby but that  explicitly explained it as this bald baby and i   knew that meant one of those dolls with the slight  indentations you know where it's pretend hair   ended sometimes you have to make a compromise  that you're really not happy with that sounds   like that sort of a situation because something's  just not they just don't come across do they yeah   and you often want to put a note on but then you  think well but will the note what will the outcome   be because maybe that is all you can do yeah so  yeah sometimes you you aren't quite happy but you   have to do what works in english sometimes it's  it's cutting putting parts out because especially   when you do german to english there's a lot more  explanation in german just know which bits are   good which bits you can get rid of which bits  are going to be losing meaning so there is that   there's always that tug of war between getting  the right balance really and that's something   you get over time that's the experience you get  because initially you're taught to stay quite   close to a text from your studies obviously  in practical sense that doesn't really work   and because it just sounds strange and there  are so many different areas actually we put   post on yesterday about you know drug translation  localization and trans creation i mean we will   we could save that for another time the horizon  transcreation gone wrong does anybody actually   do any transcreation between you ladies yeah  yeah i work for it quite a lot um there's always   one of the funny things that i've had to do before  is um with in kind of seo stuff um which happened   to be a little bit of transformation as well um  but it was for it was for a video game and um they   were translating keywords so not only do you have  to do the keyword research on them and everything   but they're translating the negative keywords  uh which took some cultural adaptation because   um you know you think about an online game and  the type of things that teenage boys type into   their chats and stuff like that things that you  don't want to rank for and then trying to explain   those concepts to you know your japanese team  and then your spanish team and your french team   you all get very embarrassing very quickly yeah  so i've tried to think about teenage by googling   yeah i had to translate once a block list  that's what they called at the time so words   that would not be allowed as um usernames and  they were all offensive words so when i was   approached for the job is like um would  you be you know would you be okay would   you be comfortable translating that because  you're gonna be reading a lot of bad words   reading them is not a problem but writing them  it's great oh my god i don't want to look at it well malik what's your favorite part about  being in the industry what's your highlight you need to put 10 pounds in the mute box now would strive to point  out disappeared completely this diversity of texts and fails that we  can discover uh across the translation and um   uh the attention of detail has said uh  even for a comma or a point but I think   after years of translation we have this uh  how to say professional deformation you know   judge people about uh they don't put a  capital letter or something like this   i think that i can judge them about the details  like uh like this and uh the search that we make   all over the day um even about a small i  don't know a phrase or an expression and   even after years that i have the same passion for  uh learning a new language uh i um i studied two   years of Spanish now i started the Italian it's  not the same 20 years ago the mind is pressured i   think but this passion to discover because across  the language you can discover all the culture of well um when it comes to interpreting  and translating i think the best part of   it is teamwork because i really like to work  under the foreign principle and it gives you   a different perspective it makes you  grow it makes you learn so i really like   to work in tandem with another colleague  whether in the booth or when translating   and regarding what layla was saying before i have  a i have a story um about how how much languages   were useful in difficult situation in 2011 i was  stuck in Denmark because of a snow storm and i was   at the airport my flight had been cancelled and so  everyone was waiting there i went to the customer   service desk and i spoke Danish to the lady at the  desk and luckily i got rebooked on another flight   and i and i flew first class it happened only once  in my life but um i always use it as an example   to make people understand how important is to  first know the culture of the language you you are   learning and how useful it can be to  speak another language so that's my   actor i love that that was the reason i went  that i went to Switzerland in the first place   to learn the language because i was every  time i went on holiday somewhere everybody   spoke english back to me we expected it and i  just i honestly found it a little bit rude that   we just expect everybody to speak english and i  just thought i don't want to be that person that   doesn't actually make an effort  i'm not learning enough about   about other cultures and it was the best thing  ever did go to switzerland and france and yeah   it didn't take me down a translator's career but  it definitely i think it made me a better person   has anna have you have you got any and it does  only favorite parts about the industry well my   favorite part uh the same as the colleek has said  i mean the variety of the things you are doing you   are learning every day so i remember for example  at the beginning of the summer i was translated   a technical manual for a huge machine and i was  scared of the machine because i thought it was   just a tool you know but then i saw an image on  the internet and say wow no that is huge i mean   it was oh my god i'm scared of this match i know  how it works how i mean the security systems and   everything and now i'm providing an application  about healthier style so and and the nutrition   things like that so everything you can learn  from just translating or just a single project is   is amazing and well my anecdote is not so well  it's fun of course but i i felt so embarrassed   i remember i went to rome like um um seven years  ago i was in a wedding and then we were doing some   uh sightseeing around and we were in a square um  there are a lot of cats there they are allowed   to be there and you can feed them and  and whatever you want and and there was   a family with some kids and uh one of them was  next to me and i say have you seen the cuts   so slowly in english because i heard them speaking  english and the little girl just turned to me   like what language are you speaking and i was  so involved like oh my god i can't speak english and kids will come out because they won't   be thinking to hear another  accent or anything like that the mother's things are bless you kids  are the worst when you're learning a   little language because you think  you've got to a certain level and   then you'll say something to a kid  and they'll say well what did they say could you even speak it it'd be good to learn from  and when i was on the year abroad i was looking   after these boys that um i lived with the family  in germany and one of the boys was three and one   was six and we used to play lego together and i  never knew about like what a tour was in german or   you know what a flat tour to build this thing  we're building or whatever and they didn't   speak any english at all and i found that my  language came on a lot quicker there because   i was listening to them they were obviously  listening to what i was saying and correcting me   if they wanted to because they obviously knew  better and and i really enjoyed that experience   there actually because it was really challenging  to never be able to speak english because it was   too easy when you go to classes yeah i think total  total immersion is is just the best thing isn't it   we are we are coming up half an hour and i  don't want to keep i don't want to monopolize   monopolize you you that is when you've given me  your time already i genuinely i am genuinely in   awe and you do a fantastic job that was a reason  just just to have a little chat you know people do   online seminars and let's talk about the you  know details about technical things and then the   all the tools that you use and i just want to  put it out there let you all speak and just say   that you do a fantastic job it is international  translators day it's not about the technology   and the big companies it's about it's  about you guys that got boots on the   ground and you're doing it every day so  thank you i can just say thank you give me   thank you susan yeah yeah thank  you so much for the amazing day always good to see faces thank you so much for coming and  giving me a little bit of your time   thank you for inviting us you're  welcome nicer gathering girls yes hope it wasn't too painful have  a lovely lovely afternoon and thank you thank you bye thank you bye-bye still here

2021-10-03

Show video