If you think that I nearly became a teacher, some of the elements of my career may make more sense. I present or blog because there must be a bit of a teacher in me. This is also the reason why I called my blog and course the Business School for Translators. So when a couple of years ago I was offered the opportunity to teach a handful of translation and interpreting students, it was a challenge I definitely saw myself stepping up to. With my background as a professional, I also believed I could bring the much sought-after practical insights into the profession to the classroom. Of course I knew I would learn a lot myself in the process, but reflecting on this experience a few days ago, I was surprised by how much a professional translator can learn from teaching the craft to others.
Teaching just an odd hour or two on average, I had to rejig my professional life quite a lot. First of all, committing to being in one place at the same time every week, even if only in the late afternoon, turned out to be quite a challenge for a freelancer. Second, I got to experience the dreaded commute. And of course, I was faced with the amount of admin work that my freelance experience can’t really compare to. So what did I learn?
1. Translation is a rational decision-making process
And if it isn’t for you yet, teaching will force you to be much more organised and thorough in your processes. You know, telling your students “it has to be this solution because it just sounds better” doesn’t quite cut it. Time and time again, I had to justify my decisions and rationalise my choices. And believe me, it’s useful, only if to coherently explain to clients why this way of translating is better than what their internal editor suggested.
2. Translation research is useful
Not that I didn’t know that before, having done my BA in translation, but revisiting translation theories and progress in translation research now, with a bit of experience under my belt, I appreciated the academic side of our profession even more. Reading academic articles may not be your favourite, but there’s actually a fair bit of insights and solutions to a range of problems that the academics have looked at. While this won’t eradicate the divide between the academia and industry, I can heartily recommend looking into academic publications on translation and interpreting.
3. Success in translation is ultimately about the skill
Students like asking what to do to be successful. I thought to myself that if I ever get asked this question, I have a wealth of resources to point students to, and that I know which skills to emphasise. But when it got to it, I surprised myself a bit telling my students that to be a successful translator or interpreter they have to practise at least 250 words, a 5-minute speech, even 20-30 minutes a day. This is an important lesson for professional translators as well. It’s easy to think that we all need to spice up our websites, get better at business skills, or go to a yet another conference. Truth be told, honing our core skills should always come first.
4. Despite what they say, translation is alive and kicking
Professional translators seem to be often surrounded by gloomy ideas about the future of the profession and prophecies of impending doom. If you hear it one time too many, you may just start believing it. There’s no better antidote than being around a group of translation or interpreting students. They’re enthusiastic, gifted, passionate. They find jobs, they get their careers off the ground, they carve their niches, as if the translation industry was far from extinction. Perhaps this unspoiled attitude is also something professional translators could take away and adopt.
5. Professional translators have more responsibility than they think
Perhaps the most important conclusion from my teaching experience is that professional translators hold a lot of responsibility over the profession as a whole. Students’ experiences are shaped by encounters with professionalism and skill. It’s not only about meeting and greeting them at professional events or sharing tips, but also displaying excellent quality of work. Showing your own work to anyone may make you feel exposed and examined, and this also holds true when you present your own translations or interpreting skills to a group of ever-questioning students. It’s a lot of responsibility, but it also makes you look at your own work with a more critical eye.
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that those who can, do, those who can’t, teach. Give teaching – in any form – a try, and you’ll be surprised how much you can learn. I’d like to think that perhaps those who can, do, those who can’t teach, find it harder to do.
Anything you’ve learned while trying to explain translation?
Marta Stelmaszak
Marta Stelmaszak is a translator between Polish and English, combining language skills with a thorough understanding of economics and business to help SMEs make as big an international impact as possible, providing translation and interpreting services for the legal, business and marketing sectors. Read Marta's book on business.
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5 Comments
How coincidental that today I was thinking over the translation exercises I shared with a mentee from November 2015 to January 2016 (and laughing to myself, because I think I did throw him the occasional curve ball, without meaning to be cruel). Most instructive to me were his answers to questions such as, “What were the chief difficulties in this text - and how did you solve them?” His perceptions were often quite different to mine. The discussions which followed as to comparative grammar and how refinements in word order in the target, as well as the application of target language punctuation improve a translation, were beneficial to both of us. It was the student who often had the brilliant ideas. It was my anticipation of his next show of brilliance that had me focus more sharply on what you have so rightly mentioned as being of prime importance: honing our core skills.
We learn so much from our students don’t we? 🙂
Thank you, Marta, for this useful article.
I graduated from the Linguistic University in 1992, and while still a student, always thought I would be a teacher in a technical university – in fact, at that time in Russia there were not too many options – a written translator at a design bureau, a tourist guide at Intourist and a school or university teacher were the key options. By coincidence, at the time of my graduation the situation changed with perestroika, and I started to work for a joint venture first and then for international companies which came to Moscow. However, for about 14 years I remained a part-time English teacher in the University which did not become my full-time job, mostly concentrating on technical translation and grammar. Teaching helped me to keep my own knowledge of grammar in good condition, and being a full-time translator I could share with the students my experience as a translator and better control what they translated – many teachers without translation experience just rely on the students when they translate technical texts. I gave teaching up about 10 years ago, partially due to time constraints and partially because students of a technical university are not really interested in a sloid knowledge of English nowadays, including grammar and translation, and underestimate the role of being able to read articles in foreign languages (and not just say “hello’) in further professional development. I miss the teaching component of my life and maybe some day I will start a course for professionals who really need it for their work, in the area I am interested in myself. But this will require first establishing myself as a freelance translator, I am just in the beginning of my way with my two years as a freelancer after 20+ years of office work… I have a lot to learn now for myself
Thank you so much for writing this, it’s very inspirational actually! All the best and let me know if I can help 🙂
This is wonderful