| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] | From student to translator Thread poster: Trisha F
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| ProZ profile | Nov 13, 2009 |
Your picture is fine if you ask me (although you do look a bit stunned). As it is, it is not an emergency, although you could probably take a better one in time.
As for your profile, there is no rush to make it perfect--fill in the basics for now and then take your time to improve it. You can change it any time.
One little piece of marketing advice, however. Forget about your profile looking more attractive than the competition's profiles. Don't focus on that. Focus ins... See more Your picture is fine if you ask me (although you do look a bit stunned). As it is, it is not an emergency, although you could probably take a better one in time.
As for your profile, there is no rush to make it perfect--fill in the basics for now and then take your time to improve it. You can change it any time.
One little piece of marketing advice, however. Forget about your profile looking more attractive than the competition's profiles. Don't focus on that. Focus instead on what you can offer to a potential client and what information would help them to determine whether you are offering what they are looking for.
I'm just trying to make it all sound professional and interesting at the same time.
Now, now, don't be such a perfectionist. Making it sound like something is like trying to be perfect. You can't be everything for everyone. Instead, why not try to have a rough idea of what kind if clients you want to work with (based on what you can already offer them) and then try to figure out what information they would be looking for in a profile. Then, write your profile so it provides exactly that--nothing more and nothing less. I stress the "nothing more" part (which I feel I am failing with my own profile). It is no use mentioning that you are a published fiction writer if you are only looking to translate weather reports (just an example I made up). If you write about things that potential clients don't care about, that may affect the unity of your profile and distract the clients from seeing the advantage of working with you.
In short, what will impress clients is the content and not the presentation (although I do recommend avoiding typos, red fonts and the like).
And one more thing: don't display information that may get you in trouble (rates, for instance). If you display too much information, people will take your word for it, so if that information changes over time (rates, for instance), people will try to hold you to your word and you will lose negotiating power. Also, a little bit of mystery, if correctly dosed, can go a long way: people will be curious and they will feel like contacting you to find out more. That's when you can show them just what a hot translator you are.
Just relax now and keep in mind that you will not come up with the perfect profile overnight--I tried and failed miserably. By the time you are happy with your profile, it will snow and your profile will have undergone a dozen major updates.
That reminds me, I have a profile to attend to... Gotta go! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Native/Non-native | Nov 14, 2009 |
Hi Trisha et al,
just to add my 2c to this discussion.
As Victoria and Marijke point out, there are scenarios where translating "the wrong way" cannot be avoided. However, IMO such exceptions should not become a rule.
I don't think my English is entirely bad, but I would never even dream of having it as my target language.
Imagine, my German is far, perhaps two levels, better than my English. When I speak to Germans, they usually think I'm from Bavaria or Au... See more Hi Trisha et al,
just to add my 2c to this discussion.
As Victoria and Marijke point out, there are scenarios where translating "the wrong way" cannot be avoided. However, IMO such exceptions should not become a rule.
I don't think my English is entirely bad, but I would never even dream of having it as my target language.
Imagine, my German is far, perhaps two levels, better than my English. When I speak to Germans, they usually think I'm from Bavaria or Austria (for my South-German accent). But again, I would never dream of having German as my target languge.
And an even more obvious example: my native language is Czech; Czech and Slovak are so similar, that Czechs and Slovaks perfectly understand each other in all possible situations. The former Czechoslovakia even had both as the official languages. If I speak Slovak, hardly ever recognizes I'm Czech in fact. But I could never translate into Slovak.
To sum this part up, spoken interaction is not equal to writing. And academic writing, i.e. writing in very formal language about a field you are perfectly familiar with, is very different from everyday translation practice where you often have to translate all kinds of documents. This is sometimes more than difficult to do in your mother tongue, let alone in a foreign language.
As regards you avatar, you may want to upload a logo or even a less recent picture. If you look at mine, this was taken back in 1998, when I started my studies, for the university information system. A terrible picture anyway.
And regarding clothing: I very much agree with what Victoria said about hats. What will you put on if you go to a conference interpreting session? If it's a black velvet coat, a pound of white powder in your face, bright red lipstick, and black eye shadows, that will be probably the last job you've done for that particular client.
If you take me as an example (I don't know if it's a good one), I'm a passionate rock guitar player. But still, when doing my annual "Tour de Clients", I'm always wearing a decent suit if it's my first visit at the client's, a pair of jeans and a decent polo shirt if it's my second visit and the client's dress code allows it. But I would never put on my favourite spiked leather jacket or Sepultura T-shirt.
You may see ProZ in a very similar way: it's as your clients were visiting you each and every day.
I hope this helps a little, although I'm presenting my very personal views and opinions.
Good luck in your new professional life!
[Upraveno: 2009-11-14 10:19 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Trisha F 
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:54
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks for your comments Stanislav, I have to say I generally agree with everything you have said and do believe that it is best to translate into one's native language. I don't entirely rule out translating into a language which is not my own on exceptional occasions though (and only if I have the competence to carry out the task at a high standard). I mentioned an example of such exceptions in my previous post but my priority is translating into Spanish.
Stanislav Pokorny wrote:
... my native language is Czech; Czech and Slovak are so similar, that Czechs and Slovaks perfectly understand each other in all possible situations. The former Czechoslovakia even had both as the official languages. If I speak Slovak, hardly ever recognizes I'm Czech in fact. But I could never translate into Slovak.
This is a very interesting observation. Months ago, a fellow MA student from Portugal asked me to proof-read her translation of an instruction manual (if my memory serves me well, it was a sauna equipment installation manual). Portuguese and Spanish are also very similar and speakers of these languages can usually understand each other reasonably well, provided they're patient enough. Furthermore, she had learned some Spanish and even lived in a Spanish-speaking country for some time. Her spoken language level was passable perhaps but she had poor writing skills. Still, she took on a translation job where English was the source language and Spanish, the target language. She basically relied on her spoken language ability and mostly, on the similarities between Portuguese and Spanish to do the job.
When I got her translation I was slightly annoyed. The document was very lengthy and it was full of faux-amis, inappropriate calques, "guesses" and strange phrases. I had to rewrite a considerable part of it. The worrying bit was that there were technical terms and measurements I had never heard of. I did some research but I could not find any translation solutions for a few of them, probably because it was necessary to contact the company and / or the author of the manual to obtain more details. As I wasn't able to do that, I wrote some notes for my friend, telling her to ask for more information.
Regardless of how friendly, hard-working and nice this girl is I was a little angry because she had shown a lack of professional ethics in my opinion. A bad translation of an instruction manual may have fatal consequences. Maybe I'm exaggerating but I was absolutely apalled to see that she hadn't thought for one second that she could have let someone boil alive in their own sauna just so that she could earn a few quid. She said that there was a higher demand for Spanish translations in her agency so she was accepting Spanish translation commissions... A few days later she thanked me, apparently the agency people were very pleased with "her" work. It was so irritating to hear that but I'm sure she realised that Spanish is not a "piece of cake" after all.
Stanislav Pokorny wrote: A terrible picture anyway.
Not at all
Stanislav Pokorny wrote:
And regarding clothing: I very much agree with what Victoria said about hats. What will you put on if you go to a conference interpreting session? If it's a black velvet coat, a pound of white powder in your face, bright red lipstick, and black eye shadows, that will be probably the last job you've done for that particular client.
Well, I don't wear white powder but as the pic was taken at night and the flash was a bit strong I look too pale and the lipstick appears to be brighter than it actually is. I'll ask my house mate to help me out with a new pic as soon as possible because the ones that are out of date are even "gother" than this one. Thanks for the advice.
[Edited at 2009-11-14 20:05 GMT]
| | | | Trisha F
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:54
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
ViktoriaG wrote:
And one more thing: don't display information that may get you in trouble (rates, for instance). If you display too much information, people will take your word for it, so if that information changes over time (rates, for instance), people will try to hold you to your word and you will lose negotiating power...
I was wondering about displaying rates but you've answered my question before I even asked it.
There are things I hadn't thought about regarding personal info, I'm not taking the perfectionist approach to writing a profile but I'll have to make sense of what I've done so far. Nevertheless, I'm not that afraid of filling in the profile section now after reading such good advice.
I've had a tough day but hopefully I'll have some "About me" info in a while. Thank you so much.
[Edited at 2009-11-15 02:11 GMT]
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I think you should take the time to identify the clients who are the most likely to be interested in your services and send each of them a tailored email.
In your case, it would probably be Spanish publishers specialised in gothic/fantasy fiction. Your published work is your main asset, make the best use of it. Your lifestyle, which usually doesn't interest your customers, might even be a good point.
Besides, it would allow you to work with something that you like prob... See more I think you should take the time to identify the clients who are the most likely to be interested in your services and send each of them a tailored email.
In your case, it would probably be Spanish publishers specialised in gothic/fantasy fiction. Your published work is your main asset, make the best use of it. Your lifestyle, which usually doesn't interest your customers, might even be a good point.
Besides, it would allow you to work with something that you like probably more than user manuals.
About rates: you don't have to publish a fixed rate, but I think that publishing a range might be a good idea. Some customers do not contact translators who do not publish their rates. Before publishing mine, I was receiving ridiculously cheap offers all the time which was very annoying.
[Modifié le 2009-11-15 07:29 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Louise Souter (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:54
Spanish to English
+ ...
Since you're in the UK, have you considered joining the Institute of Translation and Interpreting?
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