Musings from an Underemployed Translator July 29, 2023
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings, Uncategorized.3 comments
I’m thinking about renaming this blog Musings from an Underemployed Translator. Machine translation, artificial intelligence, and T&I industry mergers and acquisitions have left me with no work. The rose-colored predictions forecasted highly specialized translators would not be affected, but I am not the only translator at the top of my specialization who has noticed a huge drop in work. Two experts who have actually written dictionaries in their field are also reporting an alarming drop in work. Can it be blamed entirely on MT and AI? Has COVID played a role – or the weak German economy? It’s hard to say. But the fact remains that I am revising my resume and looking for work. I will not be attending the ATA conference this year, because I haven’t had any income in three months.
I have been fighting this for as long as I can. I have marketed my butt off for several years. I started pushing my specialization (medical translation). I thought medical would be a good choice because of data privacy and HIPAA. Turns out many clients don’t care. I started a “second job” as a Zoom producer, but there aren’t a lot of classes offered in the summer months. I picked up a new skill this year when I attended a two-week course to learn old German script at the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in June. I can now read and transcribe the fancy Kurrent and Gothic writing from the 1700s and 1800s. The course was a blast, and I went from not even knowing if the document I brought with me was written in German to being able to sight read it toward the end of the second week. And I transcribed 44 lines of text in 45 minutes with only a few mistakes for our “final.” I sent out an email to my clients informing them of my new skill and got a one-off, 1-page job from one of them. But then, once again, crickets…
The fact remains that I need to earn money to pay rent and bills and buy food for my cat and me. If you are or know of an agency or direct client who could use my services, please send me an email. If you have ever learned or benefited from this blog, feel free to Buy Me a Coffee as a thank you. In the meantime, I will continue to look for a job and if it isn’t in the T&I industry, this blog will go away. It’s been a good run!
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday May 4, 2022
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.1 comment so far
Sign language interpreters and Gov. Mike DeWine April 30, 2020
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, Random musings.3 comments
My state’s governor, Mike DeWine, has been doing a stellar job governing Ohio during the COVID-19 pandemic. I didn’t vote for him. His politics are not my politics. But I and many others are very impressed with the work he is doing and how decisive he has been. He relies on his Director of Health for the Ohio Department of Health, Dr. Amy Acton, when making his decisions. It’s so nice to have science-based decisions being made. Their daily afternoon briefings have become must-see television with many Ohioans (creating “Wine with DeWine” at 2 p.m.). One of my friend’s brothers has made a cartoon about “DeWine and Amy” that has gone viral and is a total hoot to watch.
Governor DeWine was one of the first governors to issue strict stay at home/shelter in place orders and quickly shut down all non-essential businesses. When criticized by his fellow Republicans he has continued to stay the course. As a result, Ohio has had a much flatter curve, with 17,000 confirmed cases and almost 1,000 deaths. He has allowed restaurants to operate with take-out services and then–just as I was missing having a drink with dinner–he announced restaurants could sell cocktails in to go containers. The peak appears to have been on April 27th, and the infection rate has been declining. A tentative reopening date has been set for tomorrow, although masks are a must and we are being urged to stay home if we can.
He surrounds himself with good, qualified people. He has a great team of sign language interpreters during his briefings, and he has a history of relying on trained interpreters. One interpreter, Marla Berkowitz, is the the only certified deaf interpreter in Ohio and has had a location front and center during the briefings. She has even stood out enough to have articles written about her. I assume she does some lip reading, but there is also someone signing to her, which she interprets and relays back in a very easy to understand and logical ASL and emotive facial expressions.
A little holiday spirit December 16, 2018
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.add a comment
I just had to share this little story with you all. One of my best friends from high school is in Thailand to teach English at an orphanage for a month. She bought a large suitcase and organized a toy drive among her friends on Facebook. Lots of stuffed animals and games, and someone even bought the parachute game we used to play in grade school. She is on her way there today and had this status update this morning:
To paraphrase a common quote in English, “Be the good you want to see in the world!” Have a good week.
Contingency planning for translators interview January 23, 2018
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings, Tech tips.add a comment
Tess Whitty, Swedish translator and marketing guru, interviewed me recently for her Marketing Tips for Translators podcast. I demonstrate why I am not an interpreter at around minute 17 when I completely blank on the word for accordion. I hope you enjoy it.
As Tess explains on her website:
Many clients depend upon us freelance translators, and it is important to have a plan for worst case scenarios. This year has also been a year of many natural disasters and unfortunately colleagues passing away too soon. I was very happy to see that today’s guest held a presentation on contingency and crisis planning during the last ATA conference. In this episode she is sharing all her best tips.
Important things covered in this episode:
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What contingency planning and crisis management is
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Questions to ask ourselves to plan for unforeseen events
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Things to have in place if we would get sick or pass away
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How to deal with a crisis
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How to protect our business
What to do when a translator disappears September 19, 2017
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings.14 comments
I’ve been sitting on this post for about three and a half years. I initially was going to write it when one of my colleagues disappeared while working on a portion of a project I was working on. One of the documents was too technical, so I had asked my client to send that file to her. I delivered my files on time. My client and I then went 24 hours waiting for her to respond somehow. She did not respond to e-mails or phone calls. In the end she finally delivered, but really, really late. I have never heard from my client again. This colleague is no longer translating full-time and is in a position that hopefully makes her much happier.
However, this happened again with another colleague today. I woke up this morning to an email from one of my clients begging to me to step up to the plate and deliver the remaining 10 pages of a 27 page PDF of a quote on construction parts. I had initially turned it down two weeks ago because it is not my field at all, and gave her the name of a colleague who works in that field. So this colleague not only had had a fairly long lead time to do the translation, she also then renegotiated the Friday deadline to Monday morning and sent 15 of the 27 pages on Monday afternoon. That helps no one. She was not also responding to the client at all.
So my client ended up contacting me in a panic to see if I could help her deliver the rest asap. I wasn’t happy, but I accepted the rest of the job to placate my client. I worked on it for about an hour and a half and was then told my colleague had finally delivered the translation. I was also told to bill for my work and then told to increase my word rate and the rush rate once she received my invoice. At least this time my client is happy with me and will hopefully keep working with me, so that’s a plus.
That said, I will never be recommending this colleague again. This is the second time she flaked out on one of my clients when I recommended her. There will not be a third time. I kept an open mind after the first time, because she had a pretty good excuse of a death in the family. This time it was supposedly a medical issue. I felt badly for her; however, in light of the other factors I don’t accept the excuse. Each time she had what could be considered a credible excuse, but that is the thing – if there is a pattern you will never be trusted again by the people you burn. At what point do you just admit you screwed up? If she had said last week that she was having trouble making the deadline my client could have found someone else to do it instead of making excuses to her end client.
I know agencies unfortunately deal with this kind of behavior all the time, because it will sometimes come up in casual conversation. I simply don’t understand how anyone who calls themselves a professional translator can work like that. When I had an attack of appendicitis a few years ago I let my clients know to reallocate the translation from my Emergency Room bed. I would never dream of simply dropping out of contact for a day or two. If I ever do, you can be sure that I am unconscious or dead. Those are the only two acceptable excuses.
I would really love to start a dialog here in the comments. Whether you are a project manager or a freelancer, have you ever been bit by a flaky translator? How did you handle it? Have you worked with them again? How did you end up placating the end client? No names or identifying information please. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.
Giving Tuesday November 28, 2016
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.add a comment
Since its inception in 2012, Giving Tuesday has been celebrated across the globe as a day to give back: whether it be through donations, fundraising, volunteering your time and expertise, or simply by calling others to support a particular cause or initiative. This year ProZ has partnered with charity:water for Giving Tuesday. All donations will be matched by ProZ, so if you donate $10, charity:water will get $20. Water is life! For more information: click here.
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday mea culpa November 4, 2016
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.2 comments
Next time someone please tell me when the queue stops posting! Not one of you said anything. LOL. I can’t believe I went almost a month without noticing. I thought for sure I had scheduled out past the conference. I’m blaming preconference and real life stress. New posts now scheduled. Sorry!
Musings from an overworked translator 