Céline Graciet’s post over at her blog, Naked Translations, got me thinking about my own experience of applying to be a Qualified Member (MITI) of the ITI, which fortunately was not as bewildering as Céline’s experience sounds.

By the time I applied for MITI membership, I’d already been a member of ITI for some time, having first joined as a student member while studying for my MA in Translation and Linguistics in 2003. This gradual transition through the membership grades may well have made the procedures more familiar to me than it would to someone perhaps coming straight in as an MITI. When I began working as an in-house translator a year later I then ‘upgraded’ to Associate membership. Anyone with a proven ‘professional interest in translation or interpreting’* and who can provide two references can apply to be an Associate member.

This means that the main difference between Associate members and Qualified Members is that Associates have not been ‘officially’ assessed or examined by ITI; Associates are also not listed on ITI’s directory. However, they are very much part of ITI and enjoy many of the same benefits as MITIs (at a fraction of the membership subscription that MITIs pay).

When the time was right to apply to for MITI membership, I opted for the exam route, which is quite different to the assessment route (I think the cost is more or less the same). The ITI admissions officer was helpful and clear in her instructions, but I have to say I thought there were some areas for improvement in the exam itself. For example, my text was way out of my subject areas, despite specifically stating these in advance on the application form. I wouldn’t have dreamed of taking on the text if offered it as a real-life job. Needless to say, it was one of the most challenging translations I’ve ever worked on (and rightly so), a real test of my linguistic research and translation skills. I enjoyed the creative challenge, but it would perhaps have been more of a test of my ability to translate in my specialist fields if I had been examined in one of the subject areas I actually translate in.

I took the exam in the comfort of my home office over a weekend. I received the text on the Friday evening and had to deliver it back to the ITI office the following Monday. It was a relief to be able to do the exam at home, on computer, rather than in an exam hall on paper. This also replicated my normal translation environment. I’m not sure if it’s common knowledge that the ITI exam is sat in this way; it was certainly one of the attractions for me. I felt the results could go either way right up until I received them, but I’m happy to say I did pass. Similar to Céline, to get any feedback at all (i.e. more than ‘yes’ or ‘no’) I would have had to pay around £50-60. Even though I passed, I’m sure the feedback would still have been informative. I think the exam does have a fairly low pass rate, something around 20-30%, much like the CIOL DipTrans, but I don’t think that should put people off if they feel ready and enjoy a challenge. The bar for professional recognition should of course be set high, while remaining achievable.

What attaining MITI status meant for me was that I was able to feel a lot more confident about hitting the ground running in my new freelance career. I have felt a lot more sure-footed about my work ever since. Because I haven’t ever really been freelance while an Associate member (I went freelance shortly before my exam results), it’s hard for me to compare the benefits of Associate vs. MITI in terms of the amount of work I get, but I *have* got some excellent clients simply through my ITI directory listing. Besides being able to meet and share ideas with other translators and attend discounted training events and conferences, the main benefit for me is confidence in my work. Having that external validation is like having a seal of approval, especially if you’re starting out as a freelancer like I was.

I hope this post helps give a rough idea of what it’s like to take the exam route to be a Qualified Member of ITI, and I also hope many more people will decide to do it. For others’ sake, I also hope Céline’s blog post will be used by ITI as constructive feedback so that the overall application procedure will be made as transparent as it possibly can in future, for example automatically including feedback in a revised application fee. However, even as an Associate the benefits of being an ITI member are numerous, so if MITI is not something on your business plan for 2011, I’d certainly argue that Associate membership is worth looking at.

*Wording from ITI’s website

Last Saturday I attended the CIOL Centenary Members’ Day in London. This was my first CIOL Members’ Day, despite having been a member for about 7 years. There were lots of great speakers, but the two talks that attracted me most were Professor David Crystal HonFCIL on ‘Languages: Past, Present and Future’ and Michael Benis FCIL on ‘Translators or Consultant Linguists?’

I’ve heard Michael touch on this idea of ‘consultant linguists’ before (and FWIW I think it’s something we should all be considering), but in this blog post I want to focus on an observation Michael made during his presentation: we have a talent leakage in the UK translation and interpreting industry.

As a profession we seem to lose a higher than average number of talented, hardworking people, at a time when translation needs are sharply increasing. It’s true that fewer people are studying languages at school and university right now, but I’d be surprised if the impact of this was already so apparent.

Why? Does it matter? Do we have an image problem? If so, how do we change it? We want the best talents to seriously consider a long-term career in our industry, don’t we? How can we stop them leaving, assuming we think there’s a good reason to get them to stay?

The first leakages might occur at undergraduate or postgraduate university level, or later on, after a stint as a project manager. Project manager frequently choose not to move into translation itself. What is clear is that they are finding their skills are better rewarded (financially or otherwise) in other/related industries.

One reason could be that there’s a lot of misinformation out there, and it often starts at school. Language students often decide to aim for a career outside the profession because a message filters through that studying language(s) is a ‘useful asset’, rather than something to base a career on. As Helen Campbell FCIL from the EC’s DG for Interpretation said in her talk (‘Training Translators and Interpreters in the Next Ten Years’) last Saturday, the very real shortage of high-calibre English mother tongue translators says otherwise. Even at university level the myth still circulates that there’s no real ‘career’ (or decent income) to be had in translation, so students start to think of a broader career portfolio.

But what about those who do make it as far as the beginnings of a career in translation? We accept that not everyone who starts out in translation and interpreting will want to stay forever and ever, but I think there’s a definite pattern emerging. In this talk, Michael suggested that these professionals feel that their talents and skills are not rewarded in the industry, and that there’s no clear career progression. Or perhaps they think the industry is not forward-looking or modernising enough to accommodate them? So they look to related professions, where they find exactly the same skills they used as translation professionals are much more highly regarded and remunerated.

How can we reverse this? We have 2 major professional associations in the UK, and they do their bit, right? If we take the example of the few client <-> linguist events that do exist, these are rather one-way, usually with a panel of translation companies at the front of a room taking questions from the floor (the budding/established freelance translators). We need to press for more visibility and a more active role for translators, not passiveness and invisibility (hence Michael’s use of ‘consultant linguist’), and this means being better communicators as a professional group and getting ourselves out there. Why don’t more translators and interpreters attend industry trade fairs, for example, to show the outside world what we’re made of?

I dare to suggest that perhaps there’s also too much inward-looking negativity out there in our industry. We often complain about how difficult it is to succeed as a freelance translator, how standards are falling, how so many translation companies pay unacceptable rates, how we’re the little guys against the big corporations. This victim mentality is not helpful, in my opinion, and it’s seriously off-putting to new entrants to the profession. We don’t want to deny that to make a living as a professional translator or interpreter requires a lot of hard work and dedication, but what career worth having doesn’t require a bit of hard graft?

I hope that this case study will help any future translators out there to get an idea of what it’s like being a professional translator and the sort of skills the job requires.  The edition also included case studies of other language professionals, one of which is on the same page as mine – you can download it out here: Real World article Feb 2010

I’ve written a replica of that case study for my blog:

Job title:

Freelance Translator

Languages:

French, Spanish and Portuguese (into English)

Company/location:

My cosy home office in London!

Background:

I translate from French, Spanish and Portuguese into English (my mother tongue). I started off by doing a BA in French and Spanish at Cardiff University, then went on to do an MA in Translation and Linguistics (Spanish and Portuguese) at Westminster University in London.

After my studies I managed to get a job as an in-house translator, and this gave me the opportunity to really hone my language skills. However, after a few years I decided that freelancing was for me and so I launched a new career beyond cubicle life.

A typical day for me:

I’ll usually be at my desk quite early in the morning, since my commute only involves a short walk to my desk! I often start my day in the same way as most other people, by checking my emails. There may be urgent requests from clients that I need to respond to. I will also typically do some reading of industry-specific newsletters and foreign press or listen to podcasts in my source languages. When I start working on a translation project, I will need to consult with the client for any background references and will need to carry out my own research into the subject matter and terminology. The finished product will then need to be thoroughly edited and proofread before delivery to the client.

Working from home, I get to manage my own workload, but I generally try to work a standard 8 hour day, although I sometimes need to work evenings and weekends to complete urgent or large jobs.

What’s the best thing about your job?

Without a doubt, being my own boss!

So you want to be a professional translator?

You’ll need excellent writing skills in your mother tongue and of course fluency in the languages you translate from. You’ll also need to acquire sound knowledge of one or two specialist fields, for example medicine, law, IT, engineering or physics. I work mainly in the fields of law and marketing, so I need to maintain my knowledge in these areas through ongoing training.

You’ll also need to bear in mind that if you’re freelance, you’re effectively running your own mini-business, so take some time to check out what that entails.

*Psst! If you’re tempted by translation but would like to have a taster before committing, I notice that London Metropolitan University are hosting a Taster Day for Linguists as Mediators, through the UK National Network for Translation.