Networking

Despite having been a freelance translator and interpreter for more than fifteen years, I have never been a fan of networking. In fact, I did not see the point: I did my work, be it at home or the clients' premises and it was enough for me, I was happy with my little pool of clients.

Regardless, I took a course on Marketing for Translators, little did I know the instructor would become my boss some years later (best boss ever, by the way). The course proved valuable however it focused on marketing.

At one of the ATA's conferences I attended a speed networking session and I cannot say I liked it… I guess by now you already know I am not the social type.

However, MIIS has changed my point of view on networking. And not only thanks to our amazing career adviser but also thanks to two of my classmates who happen to have powerful networking and public speaking skills.

Lucy Jobe http://sites.miis.edu/ljobe/ is my personal social media guru. Thanks to her I got reacquainted with Twitter. In one of her speeches, she provided easy and helpful tips to maximize our use of this network with almost little effort. She has also created the MIIS MegaSec Twitter account to promote awareness about our consecutive interpretation practice sessions. For more info about Lucy https://twitter.com/lucielle_j and https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucyjobe. MIIS MegaSec https://twitter.com/MIIS_megasec.

When it comes to personal networking, Eréndira Sáez is my hero. She attends countless events and does not miss any opportunity to talk to new people and even recommend some friends for jobs! She does have a gift for socializing and networking, but she also believes in the usefulness of the later. She is right, a good part of all the good things MIIS can provide for us is the contacts. And not only for us, ultra stressed out MIIS students, but for anyone. For more information about Eréndira https://www.linkedin.com/in/erendirasaenz and https://twitter.com/ErendiraS.

Our world is increasingly becoming more and more cooperative, and translators and interpreters are not isolated anymore. As an almost pathologically shy person, I find it pretty awkward to start talking to just anyone, however, once the first twenty seconds are over, the conversation gets smoother. Current times require us to be good communicators and salespeople. At first, I thought that having a well rehearsed "elevator speech" was not for me and a waste of my time. I couldn't have been more wrong. Having a "basic shot speech" about yourself will come handy in many different situations, and as you never know where your next opportunity will come from, I would encourage everybody to have one.

To CAT or not to CAT

Are you one of those interpreters who thought they were safe from CAT tools and alike? If you are, you can start thinking about changing careers: CAT tools are here to stay and they will conquer the interpretation world too.

I must admit I was no fan of CAT tools in the beginning (and I am talking about way back in the days), but now Word Fast is one of my best friends and as I started to wonder what could be done to make our lives easier in the booth, or when doing consecutive interpretation, I came across some interesting applications of technology for us, interpreters.

Remote interpreting is already an evidence of how useful technology can be for us and for our clients because it allows for more privacy for medical interpretation and saves time and money due to the fact that the interpreter dos not need to be on site.

Fortunately, the days where a machine will be able to take our jobs from us are very far, however some technological advances can make us much faster and accurate when working. For example, the Smartpen allows interpreters to perform in a hybrid mode: they can read their notes while listening to the speech, which dramatically increases accuracy and is very useful for court settings, for example.

As for the booth, it would be very convenient to have an app in our tablets that is able to transcribe speech and allows us to tap in a certain word to provide equivalents in the target language. That would be very useful and it is a real possibility thanks to décalage.

However, right now we do have some interesting tools and apps that help us train better such as Voice-o-meter that helps us train the perfect voice volume and modulation; Vbookz pdf voice reader can be used to play articles and books and do interpreting practice, as it is possible to regulate the speed; with Interplex lite users can access Interplex glossary databases on an iPhone or iPod Touch; and Listening drill allows users to import TED talks, audio books, MP3 files, and other file formats and use them for foreign language practice.

Technology is here to stay and we may as well take advantage of it.

References

Silva, Cris

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tools-technology-interpreters-cris-silva-m-a-ct-ahi

Drechsel, Alexander

http://aiic.net/page/6624/interpreters-versus-technology-reflections-on-a-difficult-relationship-part-1/lang/1

Orlando, Marc

http://aiic.net/page/6484/interpreting-training-and-digital-pen-technology/lang/1

Welcome!

Welcome to a new space that aims to provide some food for thought for translators and interpreters. Are you a geeky translator? Are you afraid of technology? Are you an interpreter who hates translation? Are you both a translator and interpreter? Do you have a Z language? Whatever your case, you’ll be welcome here.

After 17 years as a freelancer, becoming a MIIS student has changed some of my opinions and positions about the profession and the business.

Let’s roll!