ATA SLD

Slavic Languages Division (American Translators Association)

American Translators Association: The Voice of Interpreters and Translators

Two New Slovo Episodes!

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The latest episode of Slovo, the SLD’s podcast, digs into probably the hottest and most contentious topic in T&I right now, AI, with guests Daniel Sebesta and Bridget Hylak. Whether you think you love it or hate it, you can’t escape it, so let’s talk about it!

In case you missed it, check out the previous episode profiling SLD member Viktoryia Baum, tracing her route through the language industry from starting a Bachelor’s in teaching ESL to finishing a Master’s of Conference Interpreting, adventures interpreting in the aerospace sector, and helping implement New York’s language access law.

You can find these and past episodes on the Slovo page on SoundCloud, or through Google Play, Apple Podcast, and Spotify. Follow Slovo on SoundCloud or subscribe through a podcast platform so you never miss an episode!

Generative AI and What It Means for Translators and Interpreters. Part I.

By Viktoryia Baum

Over the past year and a half, the world has been thrown into the hype (or pain?) of artificial intelligence, with the advancement of many products, and the race between the companies to create their own, unique and individual intelligent chatbots capable of many ordinary human tasks. I have been hearing from many colleagues of different ages how this is becoming an existential threat to the profession as a whole, for both translators and interpreters alike. But the real question remains: is it?

I’m a firm believer that if there’s a will, there’s a way. Meaning that I don’t think any of these “robots” will eliminate the need for the profession and the professionals, or somehow bring about our total and ultimate demise. If anything, they can be trained to help us in any imaginative way or method possible. Such opinions of mine have been met with frustration and disbelief by many of my colleagues, yet welcomed and shared by another many.

Recently, Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya invited and encouraged me to consider writing for the SLD blog on any subject and anything at all (thank you, Eugenia!), and although I don’t do much writing in any capacity, I figured I might as well give it a try. I usually have a lot to say about things, so why not do it here? Hopefully, the readers will not have a plate of rotten tomatoes handy to smash against the monitor as they read these lines. Maybe, just by sharing some of my experiences I may help alleviate some technology fears, or help someone learn something new. I will probably anger some colleagues and make them reach for their plate of rotten tomatoes, but that’s where technology is in my favor—unlike 200 years ago, I don’t have to deliver this speech in front of you (thank you, industrial civilization!), and I can hide behind the screen.

Let’s start with some basics and try to break down the concept of generative AI, its purpose, and what it can do. Basically, generative AI refers to artificial intelligence systems capable of generating new data and producing content. It can create not just text, but also images or even audio and video files. Here are some examples of generative AI:

  • Language models (GPT-4) that can generate human-quality text on almost any subject based on a prompt
  • Image generators used to create novel images from text descriptions (DALL-E 2 and Stable Diffusion)
  • Music generators that can compose new songs, musical compositions, or other audio using training data (MuseNet)
  • Video generators that can make video clips by processing and synthesizing existing data (Sora)

The capability behind generative AI is machine learning models, especially large neural networks. They can analyze thousands of datasets and learn the patterns and representations within that data. Having learned and captured those patterns, the models are then capable of generating new content that is similar to the training data statistically, yet differs from it in a new way. One type of machine learning model is large language models (a phrase everyone in the industry has been hearing more and more); those are built on neural architecture, and they are referred to as large because they use huge datasets. There has been a boost and a rapid increase in research and development of large language models in big tech, with any major player buckling up and racing to develop their own models and tools. The now very infamous ChatGPT is a large language model, or LLM. In simple terms, this is a computer program that has received and analyzed enough data that it is now capable of generating its own responses. The quality of the responses always depends on the quality of the datasets the LLM has been fed. The more they know, the better they are at producing content.

I’ve been experimenting with AI chatbots for quite some time now. When I said they can be trained to help us in any imaginative way or method possible, that’s because I’ve tried and largely succeeded on some level, achieving the objective I set out for myself. A few months ago, for example, I chatted with one of the publicly available chatbots (not ChatGPT) about building up a glossary specifically for use in interpretation, and I’d like to share the outcome.

The background for this experiment was fairly simple. I wear both hats of being a translator and an interpreter. In my state, I am a certified per diem court interpreter, but I live in an area with not a lot of need for court interpreting in my language combination. If anything, it’s approximately 4-5 calls a year plus a few depositions. This means that enough time passes between court appearances that my skills and language databanks typically grow rusty and need a solid refreshment before assignments. Preparing for any court appearances can be daunting due to lack of information and/or materials. If all I know is that tomorrow I am heading over to family court, how should I prepare? What should I look for?

I started with a relatively easy prompt, asking my new AI friend (let’s call him Sam) to help me put together a Russian to English legal glossary to use for interpreting purposes. In a few seconds, the system produced a glossary with some common legal terms, roughly 20 to 25, including terms like lawsuit/claim, indictment, defendant, and court order. The chatbot then asked me if I wanted to know any other specifics to be added “for my translation purposes,” to which I happily said yes, also requesting a set of legal terms in Latin, giving an example prompt of “amicus curiae.” The result was a compilation of another 25-30 terms including bona fide, nolo contendere, ex parte, pro se, inter alia, etc.

For the third part of the conversation, I congratulated Sam on providing me with the definitions of Latin legal terms in the English language, then asking if he could take these same Latin terms and give me their Russian equivalents. He obliged. It is important to note here that the glossary was provided to me in the LATIN to RUSSIAN variant, although for some reason I expected Sam to use the English translations he pulled for the Latin and only then give me the Russian equivalents. I was wrong. Sam was smart, even if my prompt was quite poorly written.

Next, I asked for more terminology, the more advanced, the better. The resulting table included terms like defamation, pre-trial agreement, acquittal, and statute of limitations. I felt that it could have been a bit more advanced, but ok. The next query asked for terms used in family and traffic courts. Then I made another query, and another, and another. But I think I made my point already. Perhaps the best glossary (in my humble opinion) was produced when I asked for terminology specifically used in an arraignment hearing. This turned up terms like request for leniency, motion to suppress evidence, own recognizance release, and recusal motion.

The entire encounter and the prompts along with their results took me approximately 5-7 minutes. The end of the conversation was quite comical, since I asked for all of the terms to be exported to Excel and sent to me via email. Sam happily agreed, took down my email address, and nothing happened. When told that no email had come, he apologized profusely for letting me down and leading me to believe he had the capability of exporting and sending emails. He said that by design he actually did not have that capability, but in his inherent desire to please me, he misrepresented his abilities. The apologetics went on for a few more rounds, much to my amusement and comic relief. It was clear that I wasn’t speaking with a human, but I got amused as if I really were.

Overall, I found the quality of the glossaries produced by AI very high. I did not find any incorrect translations, nor did I find any inconsistencies (some terms were repeated with each of the prompts, and the output was the same). If you ask me personally, I believe that for a real assignment, this approach would have saved me hours of googling terminology and trying to think about all the possible terms I could encounter. Of course, if I were unfamiliar with any of the terms or translations produced, I would have double-checked everything and cross-referenced items using regular old-fashioned dictionaries. For example, if I were to go and interpret at a mining conference, or any other completely foreign subject, like rare and valuable gemstones, I would follow up on what the AI told me.

I forgot to mention that I went into this experiment with very low expectations. I can’t say that I wanted the AI to give me erroneous translations of the terms, to prove that humans and only humans are capable of creating a glossary, but I did think there would be errors. AI proved me wrong, at least for that exercise. I intend to keep practicing and conversing with it regarding my needs in the profession. If you are given the tool, why not use it? And if you are skeptical, I would invite you to try for yourself. Or you can reach for that plate of rotten tomatoes……just kidding. In short, you don’t have to love it or hate it, endorse it or promote it. It’s just a tool. If it can help you save time and do a better job, why not. If anything, you will definitely get some comic relief from experimenting.

If you have any comments or feedback regarding this blog post, I invite you to reach out directly to me via email at vbaum00@gmail.com. In the meantime, I’ll work on Part II of this series over the next weeks. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned!

Viktoryia Baum is an avid technology buff and skilled researcher who spends at least part of her spare time studying new and existing language tools. Having started as an aerospace interpreter many years ago, she discovered she was equally good at translation, so she does both, working with Eastern European languages and specializing in technical, legal, and medical translation and interpreting. She lives in upstate New York and can be contacted at vbaum00@gmail.com.

SlavFile Reprint: Interview with ATA63 DS Dmitry Buzadzhi

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The interview below is reprinted from the most recent SlavFile. The full issue is available here. We look forward to seeing you at ATA63 in LA next week!

Interview with Professor Dmitry Buzadzhi, SLD’s 2022 Greiss Speaker

Interviewed by Nora Seligman Favorov

This year’s distinguished speaker was invited on the strength of a recommendation by one of our newer members, Elizabeth Tolley, who recently earned an MA in RU<>EN conference interpretation from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, where Dmitry Buzadzhi is currently teaching. We thank Elizabeth for that recommendation. Since receiving it, I’ve been familiarizing myself with the YouTube channel of which Dmitry is co-founder: «Перевод жив» (Translation Lives). I myself do not interpret, and I assumed that, for me, this channel dedicated to the art and science of interpretation into and out of Russian would be of limited personal interest. But then I started watching and couldn’t stop: I was as entertained as I was enlightened and, well, dazzled by the high-level production values, by the professionalism of the presenters (sometimes Dmitry himself, sometimes one of his collaborators), by the behind-the-scenes peeks at various international forums, and by, as these videos make clear, the level of skill, training, and conditioning (analogous to what Olympic athletes go through) it takes to be and stay a top-level interpreter. In short, I look forward to two excellent talks at ATA63 in Los Angeles: the Susana Greiss Lecture: “Translation and Interpreting as Acting” (Thursday, October 13, 2:00 pm-3:00 pm) and “Anticipation in Interpreting” (Friday, October 14, 4:45 pm-5:45 pm). Please help us spread the word, including to colleagues working in other languages.

Some biographical details: Dmitry Buzadzhi is a graduate of Moscow State Linguistic University’s School of Translation and Interpretation, with a degree in translation and interpretation (Russian, English, German). After earning his Candidate’s degree at MSLU, he taught translation in the English Translation and Interpretation department for ten years before serving as head of that department for five. As mentioned, he is currently a professor of English-Russian Interpretation, Russian as a Foreign Language, and the Interpretation Practicum, at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California.

Dmitry is an active translator and simultaneous interpreter. As an interpreter, he has worked at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Eastern Economic Forum, the Fort Ross Dialogue, and other important international events. His literary translations into Russian include Babel 17 by Samuel Delany, The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin (forthcoming as «Жернова неба» [Azbuka]), and short stories by Antonia Byatt. He has published over 50 articles on translation and interpretation, has co-authored two textbooks, and recently collaborated on a chapter on conference interpretation in Russia for the Routledge Handbook of Conference Interpreting.

He is a member of the editorial board of «Мосты» (Bridges), a leading Russian quarterly on TI, and is on the jury panel of Cosines Pi, an international contest for simultaneous and consecutive interpreters, as well as a regular presenter at such major industry conferences in Russia as Translation Forum Russia and the Global Dialogue.

As mentioned in the introduction to this interview, I find your YouTube channel, «Перевод жив» to be extremely impressive. How did the idea to start the channel come about and how is it produced? It’s obvious that a lot of work goes into each episode. What sort of team puts it all together? And who’s in charge of finding the snippets of old films that inject a nice dose of humor?

This is really the work of just two people, myself and my longtime friend and colleague Alexander Shein, who was my classmate at Moscow State Linguistic University. The idea initially came from me, although we both have been teaching translation and interpretation (TI) and thinking about it from what could, perhaps grandly, be described as theoretical and pedagogical perspectives, as well as actually practicing it since we graduated from MSLU.

On the one hand, I’ve always liked transferring my practical TI experience into teaching and some kind of theoretical generalizations, which, among other things, helps you understand your own work better. On the other, I think we were both inspired by some great educational videos (not necessarily related to TI or linguistics) you can find online these days.

Unlike articles or textbooks, videos are more versatile, give you a more direct tool to reach your audience and get their feedback, and eliminate the middleman, i.e., publishers, editors, etc. Apart from that, we both enjoy dabbling in technology, so it was a perfect excuse to get some gear and get more serious about filming and editing.

As for snippets of old films, we both are in charge of finding them depending on who is editing a given video. I personally love intertextuality and am a huge fan of Soviet cinema, so it’s hard to resist the temptation to insert a movie quote here and there.

Any plans to expand it beyond a Russian-speaking audience?

Not at the moment. We mostly cover things related to English-Russian TI and the Russian-language market, so you need to speak Russian anyway for our content to be of any value to you. We’re always open to suggestions and collaborations though.

Tell us a little about how you happened to translate Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven? Was this on your initiative or were you approached by someone else?

The new Russian translation is published by Azbuka, one of Russia’s biggest publishers. I have worked with Azbuka before, so this time one of their senior editors just sent me an email asking if I would be interested. I couldn’t refuse of course, having read and re-read Le Guin’s Earthsea trilogy several times since my teenage years, every time completely enraptured by the depth of the story and the powerful characters.

The Lathe of Heaven has no spells or dragons, it’s more rationalistic and less epic, but it has an interesting correlation with The Farthest Shore, the concluding novel of the Earthsea trilogy, which was completed at about the same time, in the early 1970s. In both novels, the “villain” is someone whose quest for absolute power and abstract “good” threatens to destroy the fabric of our imperfect yet magical world, although in The Farthest Shore it’s an evil sorcerer who wants to defeat death and in The Lathe of Heaven it’s a very liberal psychiatrist who attempts to improve the world in the interests of humanity.

Whether you’re in the booth doing synchronous interpretation or at your keyboard working on a literary translation, you’re bound to run into “untranslatables”—things for which there’s no equivalent in the target language/culture. What are the different ways you handle those instances during T vs. I? Can you offer an example or two? 

That’s a great question: “untranslatability” is something I could talk about forever. Actually, things that really are untranslatable are simply omitted or don’t (or shouldn’t) get submitted for T or I in the first place, so there are no clever solutions there. However, as you rightly said, there are many things for which there is no direct or conventional equivalent in the target language/culture, and these, challenging as they are, give the translator/interpreter a great chance to be creative.

The main differences in handling these things in T vs. I are, of course, time constraints and the completeness of context. When translating, your time for thinking and doing research can be considered unlimited (although in reality it is not), and you know the full context. If it’s a pun, a meaningful name, or an expression in an invented language, in a sci-fi novel, for example, you know exactly what its function is, and you can take into account not just its significance for what has been written so far but also its implications for the rest of the text. In consecutive or simultaneous interpretation, all decisions have to be made on the spot, and you should always bear in mind that you don’t know how the speaker might refer to this “untranslatable” later or how your equivalent might be used by target-language speakers who may want to follow up on the previous speaker’s remarks.

To give a short answer to your first question, I’d say that, in T, you can and should be creative and try to recreate the communicative effect of the “untranslatable” for the target-language audience as fully as possible, even if it means spending a long time on a short passage. In I, however, you have to act quickly and most likely focus on just the most important part of the message (e.g., sacrificing stylistic or cultural nuances to render factual information) and try to play it safe. To a certain degree, a bland but factually correct rendering can be said to be a bad option in literary translation but a good option in simultaneous interpretation.

I’m not sure if I have a list of the best examples in my head, so I’m just going to give a couple of the more recent ones. One of the main characters in The Lathe of Heaven is called George Orr, who at first appears meek and indecisive. When he stands up a woman for lunch, she has this angry internal monologue where she calls “that little bastard” “Mr. Either Orr.” Now, “Either Orr,” apparently, is an attempt to dismiss him as a wishy-washy guy who can’t make up his mind and commit.

The same conjunction in Russian (или… или), obviously, sounds very different, and changing his last name to something sounding more or less like или (“eely”) for the purposes of this little joke is out of the question (it would probably sound silly, Le Guin nerds would be annoyed, and you’d lose the likely allusion to George Orwell). So I thought of a different way a Russian speaker might angrily work someone’s last name into a disparaging description of someone who appears dubious. What I ended up writing was “Надо все-таки снова встретиться с этим мелким засранцем. Мистером Орром-Не-Пойми-Которым” (literally: “Mister Orr-I-Don’t-Know-Who”, but the point is, for those who don’t speak Russian, there’s a rhyme here). Which—talking of Soviet movies—actually reminds me of a scene where a woman, who doesn’t quite know what to make of a guy named Tikhon she just met, refers to him, in her head, as “Тихон – с того света спихан” (literally: “Tikhon, pushed back from the netherworld,” again with a rhyme).

Moving on to interpreting, there was a funny episode at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum where I interpreted this year. We were working at a session, the closing session of the day, titled “ПМЭФ без галстуков” [SPIEF without ties/in shirt-sleeves] I saw that the title had been translated into English as “What SPIEF Left Behind,” which kind of made sense because the idea was that they would casually wrap up the day and pick up some odd bits and pieces that may have been overlooked by other speakers. So I began my interpretation by saying something like, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our session called ‘What SPIEF Left Behind’…” There was a pause, and I peered at the screen to see what the moderator was doing. He was ripping his tie off in a very deliberate manner. So I had to add quickly, “Or, as it’s called in Russian, SPIEF with your tie off.”

In general, how much of the work of Russia-based interpreters working between Russian and English involves interpreting for people for whom English is not a native language?

It’s true that much of the work Russian-English interpreters do in Russia involves interpreting for non-native speakers of English. You will end up interpreting for native speakers of Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Hindi, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, etc., etc. Which is actually a pity for our colleagues because Russia has an excellent tradition of training translators and interpreters with a wide range of languages, and, in many of these instances, professionals with these speakers’/listeners’ native languages could be found. Unfortunately, too many people in the world rely on English these days, although that’s a good thing for TI professionals with English in their combination.

Working with non-native English speakers involves many challenges. On the one hand, you get all kinds of unbearable accents, some of which are undecipherable even to a native speaker of English. Such cases are especially painful because the interpreter may only have a vague idea of what the speaker is trying to say but, to everyone else, since “English” is being spoken on the floor, any problems with interpretation are the interpreter’s fault.

On the other hand, if these non-native speakers are your audience, you may sometimes have to use simpler language just because you realize they may not understand your fancy word choices, even if they are absolutely correct.

Final question: Your English is exceptional for someone who grew up outside of an English-speaking country. Could you say a few words about your first encounters with foreign languages?

Thank you for your very generous comment! My first encounter with foreign languages was hearing my parents (both trained as teachers of foreign languages, although they never taught) talk French to each other so that I couldn’t understand what they were discussing. It seemed to be some kind of a supernatural power, a secret code, and must have piqued my interest.

Learning German and English at school came later. My first encounters with actual speakers of English occurred during my final year of high school, when, by a stroke of luck, I had a chance to spend an entire academic year at a boarding school in England. There was greater exposure to all things foreign when I became a student at MSLU, of course, and, towards the end of my studies there, I began to get my first interpretation assignments.

I’ll add one more thing, although you didn’t really ask me that. I’m not saying that spending some of your formative years in a country where your B language is spoken isn’t helpful for your linguistic progress. It certainly is, and the fear of speaking “Russian English” is probably something I’m never going to get out of my system. However, teaching in America has allowed me to see the other side of the coin. Quite often, students who had formal language education in their home countries (this applies to both native speakers of Russian and English) have an advantage over their peers who just picked up their B language living abroad. The latter may sound more fluent and idiomatic at times, but they often lack more formal vocabulary, don’t have a structured view of the language, and may be clueless about some mistakes they still make because they never learned the rules in the first place.

end of SlavFile reprint

Like what you read? There’s more where that came from Check out the Summer-Fall 2022 issue here or the full SlavFile archive here.

Upcoming ATA webinars this week

We have two fun and interactive ATA webinars coming up this week!

November 2 at 6 pm EDT: Ethics in Conference Interpreting with Katty Kauffman

https://www.atanet.org/event/ethics-in-conference-interpreting/


Duration: 120 minutes
ATA CEPs: 2.0

What will you learn?

  1. Working definition of ethics in interpreting
  2. Core concepts and values of conference interpreters
  3. Best practices for onsite events
  4. Best practices for remote events
  5. Where ethics in onsite and remote events converge and diverge

Registration Closes: November 2, 4:00 pm EDT

November 4 at 7 pm EDT: The Power of Social Media: Key Strategies for Marketing Your Interpreting and Translation Services (free for ATA members!) with Mireya Pérez, MS

https://www.atanet.org/event/the-power-of-social-media-key-strategies-for-marketing-your-interpreting-and-translation-services/

What will you learn?

  1. What types of social media posts you can use as a marketing tool
  2. What is visual storytelling and how you can use it on social media
  3. How to identify your target audience
  4. How to create identity on social media
  5. What social media resources are available

Registration Closes: November 4, 10:00 am EDT

Translation by Interpreters and Interpreting by Translators

There is an ongoing debate in the language industry whether translation and interpreting services can be rendered by the same person. Needless to say, while these two services are related, the primary responsibilities and skills that a person needs to provide translation or interpreting services differ.

Meanwhile, many people who are not too familiar with linguistic services think that translation and interpreting are the same trade. Linguistically, this is well illustrated in Russian-speaking countries, where “переводчик” means both translator and interpreter. From the customer perspective, “переводчик” deals with different languages, either working on the written text or providing an oral rendition. In this aspect, the two trades are the same.

The International Standard ISO 17100 “Translation services — Requirements for translation services” does not restrict whether a translator can also handle interpreting assignments. It only mentions that a professional translator shall have competencies, including linguistic and textual, in both the source and target languages.[i]

Someone who professionally translates from one language into another accepts an ethical and professional duty to represent their qualifications, capabilities and responsibilities honestly and always work within them. Being truthful in advertising applies to professional translators and interpreters: our resumes, websites, brochures, business cards, manner, and non-verbal emotional tone all must accurately reflect who we are and what we can actually do, both practically and professionally.[ii]

Following that logic, a translator must decline, say, a request to help their client with over-the-phone interpreting of a conversation with a draft contract’s other party. Likewise, an interpreter has to decline a proposal to translate pitch decks used at a conference where this interpreter is engaged, despite being immersed in the event’s context and thus knowing these particular pitch decks’ content well.

To a certain extent, I agree with that. As a freelance translator, I have to decline an assignment that I cannot properly perform when it is beyond my qualifications. And what about those assignments that are within the scope of my abilities, even though I was never professionally trained and qualified in that area? Is it still a good idea to miss out on a lucrative interpreting or translation assignment then?

At this point, I have to quote Corinne McKay, an ATA-certified French-to-English translator and former ATA president: “When you work full-time for an employer, you have one job title. When you work for yourself, you’re not only the translator but also the department head for sales and marketing, technical support, customer relations, accounting and facilities maintenance. Unless you’re willing and able to pay someone to do these tasks for you, you’ll be doing them yourself, in addition to your regular job.”[iii]

To run a successful business, freelancers therefore do not have to miss a business opportunity if they feel up to the task. And if we look at it that way, why not try out both translating and interpreting even if you are not yet qualified in the twin trades?

In this regard, I believe that besides developing a specialization in a particular field, it is essential to find a niche in which offering a specific service really makes a freelance translator or interpreter stand out.

In his recent article “Does the jack of all trades still get the short end of the stick?”, the current editor of The NAJIT Observer, Jules Lapprand, stated, “Translators and interpreters have a superficial knowledge of almost any topic, and unless they have extensive experience in another profession, deep knowledge of only one: language. This reality was difficult for me to accept initially.” This quote resonated with me as I think translators and interpreters need not be afraid of gaining the “jack of all trades (and master of none)” moniker if they are trying out a new area of specialization. As a matter of fact, we have to be interested in new topics, master new areas, and find niches to stand out in. Otherwise, our overall marketing and messaging will more likely speak to no one. Courtroom interpreting with its “structured legalese and its own language that does not change as quickly as the latest fads do in other areas”[iv] is an excellent example of interpreter’s specialization. In other words, offering legal translation and court interpreting services at any time can be a niche.

Since we have a profound knowledge of language, we should be using that to its full extent, not limiting ourselves to one of the twin trades of translation or interpretation.

Today, however, it is rare for a freelancer to be both a translator and an interpreter.

In a truly inspiring Troublesome Terps podcast episode #63,[v] high-profile conference interpreters Louise Jarvis, Monika Ott and Sybelle van Hal-Bok, three members of three very different networks admitted that they often do translations as well when the existing clients ask for it. It should be noted, however, that translation is only a small part of their businesses; they still focus primarily on conference interpreting.

In this context, I would suggest that not only are different skills required to render translation or interpreting services, but our psychological make-up is also important. The existing stereotype is that translators are usually introverts with a tendency toward being quiet and reserved. Interpreters, however, are more often extroverted in nature. In addition, we are all human. Like everyone else, translators and interpreters tend to fear failure in an area where they feel less confident. For this reason, when it comes to deciding between staying in your comfort zone or handling a twin trade assignment, language professionals would rather remain in their comfort zone (i.e., decline a twin trade assignment), no matter how lucrative it is.

When the language service is provided by a company, it is usually never asked whether translation and interpreting can both be offered, but when it comes to a freelancer working with end clients, it can oftentimes be that the end client likewise expects the contracted translator to interpret.

For example, I was recently interpreting for a client, a law firm partner, who had a phone conversation with the Legal 500 Rankings researcher to find out how to send a law firm submission. As soon as the client found out that he had to fill out the multi-page submission templates, he asked me to translate the templates into his language. Did I decline that offer? Of course not! This is just one scenario where an interpreter can and, I think, should also perform as a translator. Let’s take a closer look at other scenarios.

In my legal translation practice, I have often been asked to render interpreting services when the end client needs to expeditiously negotiate contract details or urgently talk to a counterparty who does not have access to the Internet and therefore is unable to quickly respond to an e-mail. Notably, the client rightly assumes that I am already immersed in the upcoming deal’s details as I have been drafting or translating the contract for some time now. In that scenario, I provide interpreting services.

Vice versa, clients may forward me audio messages asking me to let them know the messages’ content in writing in a meeting, which is why they can’t talk. With such requests, I translate, even though the source content is in audio form.

Another classic example of assignments at the juncture of the two twin trades is on-the-spot translation, which occurs when I am asked to orally render a written legal paper’s content. This is quite specific to business meetings and court sessions where the client has not had a chance to quickly find a translator and instead asks the interpreter for a sight translation. In that scenario, I translate. There is all the more reason for this as the Russian law does not yet provide for sworn interpreter status, so the Russian courts do not require a separate certification for court interpreting. In short, by primarily focusing on legal translation, I do not need to sub-contract court interpreting assignments. This strategy has proven beneficial by allowing me to retain existing clients and catch new business opportunities.

To summarize, provided that both the client and freelancer are happy, I think freelancers offering both translation and interpreting services, even those who were never professionally trained and qualified in the twin trades, are still legitimate.

Notes

[i] ISO 17100:2015(E), paragraph 3.3.

[ii] American Translators Association Code of Ethics and Professional Practice, 3rd tenet: https://www.atanet.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/code_of_ethics_commentary.pdf

[iii] Introduction to the book “How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator” by Corinne McKay. First Edition. 2006

[iv] “Does the jack of all trades still get the short end of the stick?” by Jules Lapprand. July 30, 2021

https://najit.org/does-the-jack-of-all-trades-still-get-the-short-end-of-the-stick/?unapproved=106974&moderation-hash=310e754a47eb598a50c8c69fb18c6b8e#comment-106974

[v] Troublesome Terps, a roundtable-style podcast covering topics from the interpreting space and the wider world of languages; episode # 63 of July 21, 2021: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/troublesome-terps/63-interpreters-assemble-8TwuQZeFCaR/

Author bio

Dmitry Beschetny is an English>Russian translator and interpreter specializing in legal translation and court interpreting, based in Moscow. He holds a master’s degree in law and a master’s degree in humanities and social sciences, also having an academic qualification in translation studies.

Dmitry has extensive experience in criminal investigation and public prosecution. He has also worked as an in-house lawyer, and a legal counsel with law firms before turning his previous career into his area of specialization in the T&I industry. He has been translating and interpreting for academia, law firms and private clients. Dmitry can be reached at db@legalxlator.com. 

 

 

We would love to feature other guest authors who are translators and interpreters working with Slavic languages in future SLD Blog posts! If you have recommendations or would like to share expertise, please email the SLD Blog co-editors: Veronika Demichelis and Marisa Irwin.

Upcoming ATA Events: June 2021

ATA’s events schedule is as busy as ever. Here are a few upcoming events not to miss!

“Introduction to Localization” by Alaina Brandt
June 15, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT / ATA CEP: 1.0
ATA members: $45; non-members: $60. Click to register.

Localization is the act of customizing language services and products to audiences who speak different languages. The strategies employed in localization are highly dependent on cultural, subject field, and textual/product expectations. Localization strategy is tailored to business goals in areas like sales, expansion, and growth. Localization work is performed in a dynamic environment of rapid technological advancements, ever-shifting regulations, and looming and unforeseen risks.

Join us to learn about opportunities in this exciting field and the skills needed to be a successful localizer. You will leave this session understanding that localization is anything but a one-size-fits-all approach.

Virtual Brainstorm Networking
June 29, 5:00 – 6:00 pm EDT
FREE and limited to ATA members! Click to register.

Join your colleagues for this fun, fast-paced hour of solving common business challenges in small teams. Attend this virtual event to meet new people, learn new skills, and expand your support network, while sharing your own experiences. Don’t miss it!

“Practical Strategies to Capture Notes Virtually When Providing Remote Interpreting” by Armando Ezquerra Hasbun
June 30 / 11:00 am – 12:00 pm EDT / ATA CEP: 1.0
ATA members: $45; non-members: $60. Click to register.

The pandemic has forced us to adapt to interpreting from home. In this webinar we will review basic and advanced pointers on how to use low-cost or free programs and applications you may already have to capture information, bypassing the traditional approach of handwritten note-taking strategies.

“Interpreting Insults from Spanish into Your Target Language” by Darinka Mangino
June 30 / 1:00 pm – 2:30 pmEDT / ATA CEP: 1.5
ATA members: $65; non-members: $90. Click to register.

Even seasoned interpreters have a hard time making the right choice when dealing with big words and colloquial expressions when content is more emotional than technical. In some cultures, expletives might be used as a form of flattery and expressions of closeness, even if authoritative dictionaries list those big words as taboo.
When you do not know how to interpret insults, you may use a different register than the speaker used originally. A colloquial expression could become a formal one or—even worse—a word that is key to the message could be omitted.

Having a strategy to delve into the cultural meaning will help you detach from the awful feeling of uttering insults you don’t mean but have to say in the first person. You will make confident choices and be assured that you did not compromise the speaker’s agency or your client’s trust.

In this webinar, you will learn how to not take words at face value, how to perform a comprehensive analysis of the message, and how to convey the speaker’s message accurately.

Register for both “Practical Strategies to Capture Notes Virtually When Providing Remote Interpreting” and “Interpreting Insults from Spanish into Your Target Language” and save $15!

ATA SLD podcast: Episode 25 with Andrei Falaleyev

Dear SLD members,

The new episode of Slovo, the ATA SLD podcast is live!

In this episode, our podcast host Maria Guzenko talks to Andrei Falaleyev, a conference interpreter with more than 30 years of experience and a seasoned interpreter trainer. Andrei shares tips on becoming a sought-after interpreter, specializing, and training interpreters.

Listen here, or anywhere you get your podcasts – Slovo is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify.

Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode!

Last call to register for the SLD virtual workshop “Interpreting Idioms and Cultural References”

ATA’s first-ever virtual workshop is on Saturday, March 13, and it’s organized in close collaboration with the Slavic Languages Division for the benefit of Russian interpreters.

“Interpreting Idioms and Cultural References” will be presented by Yuliya Speroff, medical interpreter supervisor at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, as well as a Russian-English CoreCHI™- and WA DSHS-certified medical and social services interpreter. Yuliya has interpreted in a variety of settings—from a fighter jet factory to real-time brain surgery. She has an MA in business management and is certified as both an English and a Russian language instructor with more than 10 years of teaching experience.

Yuliya Speroff was just named Interpreter of the Year by CHIA (California Healthcare Interpreting Association), so we are very excited to have her as our workshop instructor.

Join us this Saturday, March 13 at 12:00 pm Eastern time for two fun-filled hours of exploring various idioms and cultural references in English and Russian and small-group discussion of how to best convey their meaning in the target language. You don’t have to be an interpreter to join! In fact, translators who are interested in idioms will get a lot out of this workshop too, and will benefit from cross-pollination of ideas and experiences with colleagues working in other fields.

Due to the interactive nature of this workshop, attendance will be limited to 30 people.

Registration closes at 5 pm Eastern on Friday, March 12, so don’t delay—register today!

Participants are eligible for 2 ATA continuing education points, 2 CCHI continuing education units, and 0.15 IMIA/NBCMI continuing education units.

 

 

Upcoming Virtual Workshop in Russian: Interpreting Idioms and Cultural References

Join us on March 13 for ATA’s first virtual workshop, held in cooperation with the ATA Slavic Languages Division: Interpreting Idioms and Cultural References (presented in Russian)!

Being able to understand and deal with colloquialisms and idiomatic expressions is an essential part of a professional interpreter’s skill set.

In this 2-hour interactive workshop, presenter Yuliya Speroff will introduce participants to common idiomatic expressions encountered in spoken discourse and equip participants with strategies for interpreting idioms and cultural references.

The participants will be able to apply their newly acquired skills through small group discussions and practice activities.

Registration is open, but space is limited, so hurry up and register today: https://www.atanet.org/event/interpreting-idioms-and-cultural-references/

This virtual workshop is approved for 2 CCHI CEUs and 2 ATA CEPs.

SLD Podcast: Episode 21 with Katarzyna Hoerner

The latest episode of the SLD podcast Slovo is now available! This time, Maria talks to ATA-certified English>Polish translator and certified medical interpreter Katarzyna “Kasia” Hoerner, who shares how she came to specialize in the medical field. Katarzyna also touches on her work as a staff translator and interpreter, the demand for Polish language services in the US, and the changes and opportunities brought about by the current health crisis.

Listen now on Soundcloud or through your favorite podcasting platform, and be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Spotify so you never miss an episode!

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