CPD conversation: Translation skills
Continuing our look at the CPD categories in the ITI CPD logging tool, Hayley Carter-Smith, Jenny Zonneveld and Nele Petermeier take a look at ‘translation skills.’
How would you sum up CPD in this area, and can you give some examples?
Hayley: Translation skills is a broad category, and there is a lot of overlap with language skills. For example, I see reading in my source language, and even certain texts in my target language, as part of both translation and language skills CPD. It’s almost impossible to work on one without also improving the other!
Jenny: As I live and work in the Netherlands, the focus of my translation skills CPD is on maintaining my English writing skills and terminology knowledge. CPD I’ve undertaken to improve my writing skills has included a writing workshop for translators given by Ros Schwartz, a copywriting course and a series of creative writing workshops. I also consider reading a quality newspaper (I have a subscription to the Financial Times and its Dutch equivalent) and anything else in English I have time for as ongoing CPD, but I don’t log all those hours!
Nele: I think this involves anything that helps create more accurate and culturally relevant translations which meet the needs of clients and the target audience. Moreover, I think it includes training that enables you to translate more quickly and efficiently. So that covers activities that help you keep up with the latest technological trends and tools as well as subject-specific courses or even CPD in related fields such as search engine optimisation (SEO) and copywriting.
How do you identify areas you feel are in need of improvement, and how do you go about meeting those needs?
Hayley: While I am working, if it takes me longer than normal to research a certain word or phrase, I will write it down and identify it as a CPD priority. Research is, of course, an essential part of the process, but we’ve all had moments where we’ve thought: ‘I shouldn’t be finding this quite so difficult!’ This happened to me recently with a really idiom-heavy text, so I brushed up my knowledge of French idioms and turns of phrase and how to render these in English.
Jenny: Working with a reviser, preferably someone resident in the UK, helps me eliminate second-language interference in my writing. I make sure I spend time going over any changes they make and adding new terms and phrases to my termbase for future reference.
Nele: I think through your day-to-day work, you very quickly realise what slows you down and where you need to improve. In the first instance, I see what training courses are available internally at AJT, where I work as an in-house translator. I also work with some very experienced colleagues, who are always happy to help – sometimes it’s worth asking around if other people in the team would benefit from training in the same area, which can lead to fellow team members organising and running CPD opportunities.
What is the most useful CPD activity you have undertaken in this field?
Hayley: Providing pro bono translations in my new language pair (Portuguese into English) has really helped me. As I am still learning, it inevitably takes me longer to produce a polished target text, and volunteer translations often come with much longer deadlines. I proactively got in touch with a few organisations that had some, but not all, of their materials in English, and asked whether they would be interested. I always explain that this is a new language pair for me and that it’s for practice. But most people are just happy to be offered a professional service for free!
Jenny: As an autodidact, perhaps the most useful resource I have for honing my translation skills is the SENSE Utrecht special interest group (SIG), which meets every two months and discusses a wide range of translation-related topics, including holding mini translation slams. Another very useful source of CPD is the Dutch Network WhatsApp group, where members mentor each other by advising on tricky terms and wordings and many other aspects of our translation practice. The beauty of this group is the mixture of colleagues with either English or Dutch as their first language, and residency in either the Netherlands or the UK.
Nele: I attended a training session on SEO, which was very useful since it highlighted the importance of keywords, explained how to choose them, as well as how often and where to use them. This made translating blog articles designed to direct traffic towards a client’s website easier.
Do you have any tips or suggestions for people seeking CPD in translation skills?
Jenny: My tip for those who want to work on their translation skills is to read well-written texts in your source and target languages and work on your writing skills. Business writing, creative writing, blogging, it doesn’t matter – just do it.
Hayley: There’s a huge number of resources out there to help, especially online. As an introvert, I can find attending in-person events or joining in with slams etc quite stressful – but even just actively observing will make a huge difference. If you are a member of an ITI language-specific network, you can also look back at past discussions among other more experienced members about terms and phrases. They can be quite entertaining, as well as educational!
Nele: Choose your CPD activities wisely. Some courses may be of more value to you than others and some may focus on topics you have already covered (e.g. as part of your degree). You may want to ask your colleagues or fellow translators for course recommendations, too.
This article first appeared in the November-December 2022 edition of the ITI Bulletin.
Remember to log your CPD using the ITI logging tool. It is quick and easy to use and provides evidence to clients and agencies of your achievements.
When you achieve the annual target of 30 hours you will be awarded a certificate and logo to use on your website and other marketing materials. MITIs and FITIs will automatically have the logo added to their Directory profile.
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