November 2014

ITI SCOTNET NEWSLETTER

Isabel Hurtado de Mendoza MITI Tel: 07762 300068 ITI Scottish Network Newsletter Editor Email: editor@itiscotland.org.uk

It‘s that time of year again! Every year, by the time the autumn issue

of the ScotNet newsletter reaches you,

towns are fully decorated, Christmas

markets and Winter Wonderlands are in

full swing, shop displays are all nice and

sparkly, and the TV guide is packed with

Santa films.

This is also the time when we start

thinking of the coming year. What does

2015 hold in store for you? Have you

started thinking of your New Year‘s

Resolutions? I bet our new MITIs will be

busy updating their CVs and social media

profiles, informing their existing clients

and looking for new ones at the higher

end of the market.

The old hands among you might be

feeling that their careers need a boost.

Perhaps Corinne McKay‘s course is just

what you‘re looking for. Or you could

consider getting into transcreation or

literary translation. Perhaps an online

course in subtitling or one of the many

MOOCs available out there?

Whatever it is, don't forget we'd love to

read about your experience:

editor@itiscotland.org.uk

¡Feliz Navidad!

Isabel ♦

Character is the ability to carry out a good

resolution long after the excitement of

the moment has passed.

~ Cavett Robert

Photo: Flood G. (Flickr.com)

Inside this issue

Dates for your diary 2

Translating for publication 3

The business of literary translation 11

Man against the machine 12

Transcreation time 17

Beyond the basics of freelancing 20

Member news 23

ScotNet grants 24

Looking forward to the next issue… 24

Your committee at a glance 25

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 2

Dates for your diary

ITI ScotNet AGM & Christmas lunch: Saturday

6th December from 10.30 onwards, National

Piping Centre, 30-34 McPhater St., Glasgow.

For further information, please check out the

call notice here.

The Scottish Society of the Chartered Institute

of Linguists (CIoL): 21st February, University of

Dundee Tower Building, Perth Road, Dundee

DD1 4HN. Dr Marion Spoering of the University

of Dundee will be giving a talk on language

teaching in Higher Education. For further

information, please visit the CIoL Scottish

Society webpage here or email Anne Withers at

amwithers@msn.com.

Scottish PEN: Remember that this association

regularly organises translation slams and book

events. You can check their diary here or

contact Rosemary Burnett for further

information at office@scottishpen.org.

Setting Up as a Freelance Translator ITI Online

Course: January-March 2014. Over more than

20 hours of webinars and individual sessions,

you will learn how to develop a freelance

translation business and gain an understanding

of how the translation market operates. For

more information visit

www.iti.org.uk/professional-development-

events/iti-online-courses.

ITI CPD workshop: 9th January, 9.30-4pm,

Milton Keynes Business Centre. Writing with

Clarity and Impact, a one-day workshop led by

successful copywriter Piers Alders. Tickets are

£85 for ITI members. For further details or to

book, contact Ann Brooks at

professionaldevelopment@iti.org.uk.

ITI Conference ‗Renew, Rejuvenate, Regenerate

— Translating and interpreting in an evolving

world‘: 23-25th April 2015. Two full days of

presentations, keynote speeches, panels and

fringe events, a pre-conference day of

masterclasses and a conference dinner. You

can find further information and register on iti-

conference.org.uk.

UCL Online Course in Subtitling: 12th January-

27th March. This online course will be useful for

individuals who have a professional interest in

audiovisual translation. The course will be of

particular interest to translators and translation

trainees embarking or thinking of embarking

on a career in subtitling. For more information

visit www.ucl.ac.uk/centras/prof-

courses/onlinecoursesubtitling.

For more events, remember to visit www.iti.org.uk, where you

will find the International Calendar of Events (ICE), or our

own website www.itiscotland.org.uk/diary.

And, if you would like to advertise your own event, please

get in touch with us: editor@itiscotland.org.uk

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 3

Translating for publication

The ever-so-popular ITI Scottish Network summer workshop this year was held at Aston

Hotel, Dumfries, on 21st June. On this occasion, four experienced translators shared their

insights, anecdotes and advice under glorious weather. Barbara Bonatti Divers and Jenni

Syrjälä report on the weekend.

Whoever said Scottish weather was bad?

[Photo: Kay McBurney]

Barbara:

We had four excellent guests and three extra

contributors from the Scottish Network lined

up, on that gorgeous Saturday in the Borders.

Lucinda Byatt and Ingrid Price-Gschlössl, our

non-fiction experts on travel and art

literature, had very different presentation

styles: Lucinda came equipped with

interesting slides on the history and statistics

of literary translation, which provided a

useful context for the whole event; Ingrid

stood before us with no notes, confidently

delivering plenty of practical advice with her

endearing, almost coy, personality.

Kari Dickson and Beth Fowler, the two fiction

experts, gave lively presentations, partly

outdoors, with the rapt audience recumbent,

Déjeuner-sur-l'herbe-style, on table cloths

laid out on the grass by the helpful Holiday

Inn staff.

Finally, our very own Nathalie Chalmers,

Renate FitzRoy and Kim Sanderson concluded

the pleasant afternoon by sharing their tales

of publishing woe, some of them

uproariously funny.

Literary does not just mean fiction – putting

literature into context

Only 3-4% of of all books published in the UK

are translations, though data sources are

questionable, Lucinda explained. This is seen

by Susan Harris of Words Without Borders as

the one major factor stopping the British and

the Americans from understanding the rest

of the world!

Surprisingly, the term ―literary‖ can cover

non-fiction books, such as travel literature

and literary essays; however, it does not

include graphic novels, folktales and

biographies. Even so, non-fiction remains the

largest sector published in English language

(not necessarily in translation), according to

the latest Total Consumer Market Volume

data.

In the ―olden days‖, only non-fiction religious

and political texts were translated into

English, at times even double-translated,

say, from ITA > FR > EN (as in the case of

Machiavelli‘s The Art of War); most educated

people would read fiction in original French

or Italian – which was just as well, as the

―morality‖ of foreign literature was often

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 4

questioned, meaning that foreign novels

would hardly ever qualify for translation into

English.

How to get your first literary translation

published – the importance of scholarships

and prizes

Two main scenarios were discussed. You may

either:

Be asked by an agency you already

work for to translate a book

Approach publishers with a book you

want to translate

If you have a book that you want to translate,

this is the official procedure, as Ingrid

explained:

Approach the author first, if still living,

to seek support/approval

Contact the original publisher‘s

copyright department, to ask whether

the rights are still available for the

language you want to translate the

book into

If the answer is ―yes‖, prepare a

sample translation (usually a couple of

chapters) as well as a summary of the

entire book, and approach potential

publishers in your target country with

your proposal

The interested foreign publisher will

then purchase the rights (however

please note, this does NOT guarantee

that you will be their translator of

choice!)

Competition is fierce! Give the

publisher an incentive to choose you.

Possible options: obtain a scholarship

or win a prize

Most importantly, never give up:

persevere, persevere, persevere!

If you have never translated literature before,

both Ingrid and Kari recommend applying for

a scholarship, to give publishers confidence

in your skills. Most translators associations,

the Goethe-Institut and the Scandinavian

NORLA offer translators travel, residential

and financial scholarships of up to £2,000

for a chapter and summary. The whole

process can take 1-3 years, but the good

thing is that you do not need to pay

scholarships back, even if you do not get

published in the end!

Beth [Photo: Kay McBurney]

Beth‘s reference for the publisher, instead,

came in the form of the Harvill Secker Young

Translators‘ Prize, which she won in 2010,

and Lucinda reminded us that non-fiction

literature has its own prize, too: the FIT‘s

Aurora Borealis Prize, partly financed by

copyright revenues.

How to go about selecting potential

publishers – tips from all panellists

Attend as many book fairs and

festivals as possible, in both target

and source countries, but select your

targets well! Seek only publishers

specialising in your particular genre

and do not try to engage in business

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 5

talk just yet: wait till you go back

home.

Involve the authors in your pursuit:

they may persuade their international

agent to mention your name as their

translator of choice, when marketing

to your target country. Publishers have

a tendency to listen to agents more.

Acquire the Writers & Artists

Yearbook, Kim Sanderson suggested.

Do A LOT of soft networking, join

e-groups and be seen at every event,

festival and International Translation

Day. Most of it happens in London,

but it is worth the expense: your face

will start to be recognised. One day,

some publisher will urgently need a

translator and they will say:

―Remember the one who was ALWAYS

there? Have we got their card?‖.

Join the Translators‘ Association: their

journal has one publisher featured in

every issue. Unfortunately, you must

already have at least one publishing

contract (not necessarily published

work) under your belt to be able to

join.

Attend the International Summer

School in Literary Translation,

organised by the British Centre for

Literary Translation, University of East

Anglia.

Offer to write a reader‘s report. These

are poorly paid (£50-100), but good

at getting your name out there. They

serve the purpose of giving the

publisher the plot and feel of a foreign

book they are considering for

publication. Some guidelines for a

good reader‘s report are the following:

Do give the full plot, with twists (do

not worry about spoilers: they need

to know!)

Do describe the feel of the book

Do offer any relevant comparison

with similar, previously published

books

Do not show off! This is a service

you provide, not your personal

showcase

Do include translated reviews about

the book from the country of origin

Do offer your personal opinion and

recommendations, both on the

book itself and the way it would (or

would not) fit in with the genre they

publish.

As Angelika Muir-Hartmann

commented: if one reads books all the

time, one might as well get paid £50-

100 to do it!

Remember! Publishers are not the

enemy: they are as passionate about

books as we are. And they are usually

very generous in passing your name

around once they know you.

Ingrid [Photo: Kay McBurney]

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 6

Workload management

Lucinda and Beth both found that literary

translation on its own does not guarantee a

steady workflow. They usually alternate

commercial translation work with their

literary assignments, often running the two

at the same time, for both practical and

sanity-related reasons: literary work does not

come to you regularly, and when it does it

averages 100,000 words and can take more

than a year to complete... you can hardly put

all other clients on hold; but periodically

breaking up the intensity of literary

translation (particularly fiction) with

something more mechanical may prove to be

an invaluable release of mental strain.

Having said this, Beth admitted she does not

like being given too much time to complete

the work: phrases tend to get overworked

and later rejected by editors and publishers.

Open Door was 65,000 words and took her 3

½ months, but Paradise was 80,000 words

and she had a 6-months deadline – far too

long: she kept tweaking the text endlessly!

The Harry Potter translator into Hebrew

apparently concurs: she had to produce

3,000 words/day and she found that stress

enhanced her performance, Lucinda

reported. Plus, family helped – though how

exactly was not clarified. With a coffee drip,

perhaps? Or surviving on carry-outs for

months without complaining?

Kari‘s first translated book was a co-

translation. She enjoyed working with a

fellow translator, and found the shared

responsibility very reassuring, for a first time

experience. They started off by both

translating the first chapter to compare

styles, and they eventually settled on

translating alternate chapters, to allow

stylistic differences to naturally even out.

Although they were each only paid half the

money, she feels that the end result was

much more than the sum of its parts.

Lucinda [Photo: Kay McBurney]

The challenges and strategies of literary

translation – non-fiction vs. fiction

Lucinda suggested that there may be some

difference in the way non-fiction and fiction

translations are carried out. Most issues are

the same (research, register, consistency) but

will be given different emphasis. As for

reading the entire book first, she does not

feel that this is really necessary with non-

fiction. It is, however, useful to know roughly

how much research you will need to carry

out, and to make sure you factor this in when

invoicing!

Literary work does not come to you regularly, and when it does it averages 100,000 words and can

take more than a year to complete.

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 7

Italian academics tend to write in a

convoluted way, and translators have to

decide whether to take the author‘s style

closer to the readers‘ comfort zone, or to

give readers a flavour of it, sacrificing

readability. According to Arthur

Goldhammer, non-fiction translators should

cater more to the ―linguistic norms of the

readership‖, while fiction translators are

supposed to respect the ―aesthetic choices of

the author‖.

Ingrid came up with a cunning ploy, when

she had to render into German some

dialogue written in English with a Vietnamese

―accent‖. She translated the dialogue into

plain German, then headed for a Vietnamese

restaurant and asked a member of staff to

read it out loud. She phonetically transcribed

his efforts and voilà! She had her German

with a Vietnamese accent!

Beth, instead, has to handle a lot of

Argentinian slang. She translates it with a

neutral, rather than regional British slang,

which will not sound completely out of place.

One of her authors, Iosi Havilio, often

changes tenses within a sentence; rather

than faithfully replicating this, she takes each

case individually, based on sentence fluency

and impact on the reader. She likes to write a

first draft from start to finish with no

revision, to capture the voice of the author

and the emotions it rouses in her. She does

not ask herself ―Did I translate this

correctly?‖, but rather ―Did I manage to

recreate that feeling?‖.

Kari specialises in crime fiction, which can be

quite profitable but comes with its own

challenges: for instance, foreign crime series

may be published in English out of the

original sequence, which makes them harder

for the translator to work with.

There are three main sub-genres in crime

fiction:

Police procedural is possibly the hardest:

crime classification and rankings vary

enormously (even within Britain!) so she

has her ―men‖ at both the Lothian Police

and the MET, to keep her right with

terminology; you also get plenty of

legalese, forensic and medical terms and

you need to KNOW YOUR GUNS!

Americans certainly do: to avoid

embarrassment she has an exploded

gun diagram amongst her resources,

and she once went to a gun shop and

asked to be shown how to take a gun

apart.

Noir is characterised by slang from

immigrants of vastly different origins.

Scandinavian immigrants speak a slang

(she showed us a typical sentence on

screen) that is part Arabic-Turkish-

Spanish-English. She chooses to flatten

it with a certain register associated with

each character.

Classic crime can be very relaxing by

contrast: often written in locked-room

style, it features no guns (not in so much

detail, anyway), no drugs and, since it

cannot be set any later than 1975 to be

defined ―classic‖, you do not even get

DNA.

Beth does not ask herself ―Did I translate this correctly?‖, but

rather ―Did I manage to recreate that feeling?‖.

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 8

We were told about the so-called secondary

translation: when popular fiction is double-

translated, for lack of translators in the right

language combination. Her own English

translations of Swedish crime novels were

used as source text before; she did not

realise this, until she was contacted by an

Indonesian colleague, asking her to clarify

why police stations would need to have a sex

line – they had clearly misunderstood the

meaning of ―hotline‖.

Not quite the typical ScotNet venue

[Photo: Sylvie Jefferson]

About authors

Ingrid reminded us that our work must be in

the author‘s interest, not our own, so having

a good rapport with authors is paramount.

Beth regrets not asking her first author

enough questions, for fear of coming across

as unprofessional. She encourages us to ask

a lot of questions, but recommends putting a

few of them together before contacting an

author: she knows how off-putting constant

communication can be. She once had an

author who wanted to see each chapter as

she translated it, and edit it in real time! It

turned out that the author had not intended

to show lack of trust, she was just being very

passionate about her book, and sent Beth a

letter of thanks for ―such a wonderful time‖

when it was all over.

Lucinda agrees that a good rapport with the

author (or other knowledgeable contact, if

the author is no longer living) is essential.

The downside is that it becomes very hard to

say ―no‖ if they ask for urgent work.

Kari agrees, having had to say no to Anne

Holt, for whom she had already translated

three books with great mutual satisfaction,

when she was asked to translate a fourth one

to a very short deadline: if the publishers‘

demand for publication is strong enough,

they may not wait for you to become

available again. And once your job is given to

another, you are unlikely to get it back.

About editors

Lucinda finds the final stage before

publication very rewarding: it involves

teamwork between an external reader, a

copyeditor, a proofreader, the author and the

translator. Her advice is ―pick your battles‖:

know when to accept criticism about style

and when to put your foot down on things

you really feel strongly about.

Beth admits that editing of your work can be

traumatic, but not all comments are set in

stone, they are open to discussion. Plus

editors are best placed to spot

―translationese‖. You do get the odd

uncooperative editor, though: when she was

translating 10 Women, she advised Amazon

Crossing that she would be unavailable from

a certain date, as she was going to have a

baby. They still sent her the editor‘s

comments 6 days after childbirth! She

confesses she gave her approval without

even reading them.

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 9

Nathalie had us in stitches with the account

of her experience with a children‘s publisher.

Her translation of A Little Princess had to be

cut shorter, to fit in the EXACT number of

pages that all adaptations in the series had

to be. However, when she was asked to ADD

a few paragraphs to her translation of Lewis

Carroll‘s Alice in Wonderland (―surely you can

add a few verses!‖) she first treated them to a

mutinous silence for a few days and, when

they did not take the hint, she firmly refused.

All's well that ends well: they made up the

pages by adding a few illustrations instead.

Payments and royalties

Both Kari and Renate FitzRoy warned us

about the clause in the contract stating that

you will be paid ―subject to author‘s

approval‖. After having carried out weeks of

research and translation, both translators

saw their work rejected by the author, and

received no compensation.

Lucinda advises getting your payment split

up into 4: advance, two more interim

payments and a final one. Payment for

research is usually a separate lump sum,

often passed on to the author by the

publisher. She also strongly advises writing

on your invoice the phrase ―I assert my moral

right on this work‖, to protect yourself from

plagiarism and illicit use of your translation.

Kim Sanderson had her translation work

published without her knowledge: it was

meant to be for internal corporate material

and ended up being distributed to the wider

public. She did not reap any benefit from it,

except the chance to join the Translators‘

Association. She also noted that translators

are entitled to receive a portion of public

lending rights (a few pence) every time their

translated book is borrowed from a library or

photocopied. Incidentally, the TA‘s

recommended fee for literary translation is

£88.50/1,000 words.

Kari [Photo: Kay McBurney]

Kari prefers being paid ½ on signature and ½

on delivery. When it comes to royalties, you

can either choose the ―advance‖ method, with

royalties being paid to you once the amount

of your translator fee is fully repaid by sales,

or the ―threshold‖ method, where you get

paid less for your work, but receive royalties

straight away. In addition, if you are lucky

enough and the book you have translated is

turned into a film, you could receive

$10,000.

As a conclusion to this most informative and

entertaining event, our speakers on fiction

were asked whether they feel more like

writers than translators. No, not writers, they

replied, more like artists.

A list of useful contacts given in Beth Fowler's

and Lucinda Byatt‘s presentations are available

on the ScotNet‘s Yahoo Group site.

Lucinda strongly advises protecting yourself from

plagiarism and illicit use of your translation.

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 10

Wishing you were there? I do! [Photo: Kay McBurney]

Jenni:

This spring, as I finally decided to join

ScotNet, one of the first things I found out

was that the summer event wasn‘t far off.

The prospect of joining a large group of

people that I had never met for a whole

weekend was quite daunting, but I was told

that staying for the entire event was

definitely recommended, so I decided to

jump in at the deep end. No sooner had I

registered for the event than I was contacted

by Convenor Pierre Fuentes, who wondered if

I might write something about the event for

the newsletter – something I was almost

expecting, based on the last newsletter. So it

was to be a lot of firsts in one go!

My nervousness about the event was greatly

diminished by the kind offer of Ute Penny

and Kay McBurney to ride down to Dumfries

with them, as this gave me the opportunity to

meet at least some of the participants before

the first evening‘s dinner. This friendly

welcome into ScotNet provided a great start

to the weekend, and I was assured by Kay

and Ute that everyone else would be just as

friendly. The dinner in Casa Mia proved them

right, and it was a great way to meet a few of

my fellow participants. As the newbie, I was a

little awed by the collective experience

around the table, but despite feeling like the

baby of the group I was definitely not treated

as one.

Saturday turned out to be just as lovely and

sunny as the day before. After registration,

the event started with a few announcements,

and Pierre also introduced me as the newest

member. I am very pleased he did, as this led

to several people coming up to me during

the day to find out how I was getting on.

Then it was time for the first two sessions

(which I shall not go into, as I know they are

being covered by Barbara), followed by a

delicious lunch buffet. Because of the warm

day, the decision was made to move the third

session outside, so we got to enjoy it in the

shade of some trees, sitting on tablecloths

kindly provided by the hotel staff. Afterwards

we moved back inside, by which time the

room had luckily cooled down a little. A

wedding that was taking place in and around

the hotel at the same time made sure no one

forgot which country they were in, as men

were seen running around in kilts and the

soundtrack of the day consisted of bagpipe

music.

In the evening it was time for dinner and

entertainment. I enjoyed the food, but I have

to admit I was a little disappointed when I

found out that the entertainment usually

consists of a ceilidh – hopefully I will have

more luck next year! It was also a shame that

I wasn‘t able to stay for the walk on Sunday,

as it would have been a lovely day for it, but I

had to head back to Edinburgh to attend a

Finnish midsummer picnic.

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 11

ScotNetters propping up the barman

[Photo: Kay McBurney]

All in all, I enjoyed the weekend very much,

and the sessions rekindled my old dream of

translating literature. I can definitely say that

I was very well taken care of during my first

ScotNet event, and I am already looking

forward to the next one! ♦

The business of literary translation

Summer 2014 certainly seemed to have a theme for the translation world so, when the

Emerging Translators Network announced their upcoming workshop on literary

translation, I asked ITI member Sarah Pybus to contribute a guest report. Not that I

wanted to compare this event with ScotNet's summer event – of course not!

On 21st July, the Emerging Translators

Network – an online group for early career

literary translators – held its first workshop

at the Free Word Centre in London, entitled

―The business of literary translation‖. A whole

host of renowned translators, editors and

publishers were on hand to give us an insight

into the business aspects of literary

translation and reveal their top tips:

1. The translation itself is not the only way to

earn money when translating a work of

fiction or non-fiction: make sure to consider

other aspects such as the public lending

rights, audio and film rights, serialisation

and a potential fee if your translation is sold

to other territories.

The Free Word Centre [Photo: Sarah Pybus]

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 12

2. To make sure you get the best possible

deal, you can join the Translators Association

once you have received your first

commission. They will be able to advise you

on your contract.

3. Find out whether your translation may be

eligible for a grant. Many publishers may not

be aware of the financial assistance available,

and this could swing things in your favour.

4. Once you have submitted your translation,

try to welcome the editing process. After all,

everyone involved is working towards the

same goal: an excellent translation. Find out

whether your fee for the translation also

includes participating in the editing process,

and make sure to factor in the necessary

time.

5. As many people have found (myself

included), literary translation is not the

easiest field to get into. If you want to pitch a

particular book to a publisher, do your

homework. Figure out where it fits into the

market and who will read it. Stay up-to-date

with independent foreign fiction awards and

prize lists and find out what has been selling.

6. One way to make yourself known among

publishers is to write reader‘s reports. This

involves writing a synopsis, providing some

brief information about the author, giving an

objective view on the book and comparing it

with familiar works. However, if you are truly

struggling to get through a particular book,

tell the publisher. There‘s no point wasting

your time if you‘re the wrong person to

review it. Reader‘s reports don‘t pay well, but

they are one potential way into the field.

7. Other suggested routes into literary

translation include collaborating with more

experienced translators, entering

competitions, applying for mentorships,

attending summer schools and answering

calls for submissions in literary magazines.

These may prove more effective than sending

samples to publishers.

The Emerging Translators Network

(emergingtranslatorsnetwork.wordpress.com)

is open to anyone with a demonstrable

interest in literary translation and provides a

safe forum in which to ask questions, no

matter how basic. Members will soon be able

to access the Translator‘s Toolkit, a series of

updatable PDFs containing advice about the

industry. ♦

Sarah Pybus translates from German

to English, focusing on tourism,

marketing and media. Her website is

www.pybustranslations.co.uk and

you can find her on Twitter as

@PybusTrans.

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 13

Man against the machine

On 4-6 August, more than 1,500 people met at the Freie Universität, Berlin, for the FIT

Congress. With its eye-catching title, Man vs Machine? The future of translators,

interpreters and terminologists, it‘s no wonder it attracted so many attendees. Sally

McPhail, reporting here, was one of them.

Around 1,600 people attended the FIT (the

Fédération Internationale des

Traducteurs/International Federation of

Translators) Congress from over 70

countries. It was a massive event so I will try

to write a succinct report which is a bit of a

tall order!

Monday

I attended the opening ceremony which was

very informative and I found out both the ITI

website and ITI Bulletin had been recognised

by FIT at the triennial FIT Awards ceremony

in Berlin on 2 August. ITI Bulletin was named

Best Periodical for the third time, after

previously winning in 2005 and 2011. The

Best Website award was won by www.iti.

org.uk jointly with www.universitas.org, the

website of Universitas Austria. ITI‘s

candidate, Terry Oliver, was elected to serve

not only on the Council, but also as Vice-

President of the Executive Committee. So an

all-round good weekend for ITI!

There were solemn moments as we devoted

our thoughts to the one hundred years

anniversary of the Great War and this theme

was borne out later when we considered the

anniversary of 60 years of FIT and the role

which interpreters played during the

Nuremberg Trials against leading figures of

the Nazi regime; an exhibition in the city

examined the lives and careers of the

All photos in this article kindly provided by the BDÜ.

interpreters who covered these trials using

documents and images from almost seven

decades ago.

The theme of man versus machine was duly

announced and it was echoed throughout the

three days.

Lastly, I attended a seminar by Maureen

Ehrensberger-Dow and Gary Massey from

Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW)

on their study on the interaction between

translators and machines. This covered

aspects such as whether segmentation of a

text could affect a translator‘s creativity and

how frustrating it can be when your

computer can‘t keep up with your typing. As

previously advertised in the e-group, you can

take part in their survey by following the

links at the end of this article.

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 14

Tuesday

First up a seminar on literary translation —

this followed on perfectly for me from the

ScotNet Summer event, except it was in the

reverse! (I can also recommend that those

who aspire to a career as a literary translator

read Sarah Pybus‘s article on p. 35 of the

September ITI Bulletin in ‗The business of

literary translation‘.)

Next, off to a panel discussion on machine

translation which was chaired ably by Ralf

Lemster, Vice-President of the BDÜ. To start

us off, Ralf highlighted a recent article in the

Economist which had been translated using

MT into German. ‗Default looms‘ becomes

‗Standard Webstühle‘ (weaving looms) —

much hilarity ensued.

There was a rather polite debate where many

of the questions raised had certainly been

raised before, and where I began to feel that

there is confusion amongst our peer group

about the distinction between MT and CAT

tools.

In conclusion, there was an appeal to

translators to work together and support

each other to face up to the perceived threat.

My personal view is that, whilst progress has

undeniably been made within the field of

machine translation, which I supported by

taking part in Philip Koehn‘s research

programme www.casmacat.eu, we are all

keen to see real evidence of progress here.

For a really good summary of the current

position/thinking regarding MT, please read

the article by Jon Olds MITI on p. 31 of the

September ITI Bulletin.

The next panel discussion I attended was

entitled ‗The Timeless Translator‘ featuring

Hugh Keith, Cate Avery, Chris Durban,

Terence Lewis and Terry Oliver. They

discussed the ‗constants‘ – ignorant

customers (but not stupid or untrainable as

Chris Durban hastened to add), tight

deadlines, pressure on price, quality of

service to customer…

There was a small plug for a new book which

featured in the June/July Bulletin ‗101 Things

a Translator Needs to Know‘.

Next up for me was the Translation slam

supported by the Goethe-Institut as part of

the Deutsch 3.0 initiative, which I had really

been looking forward to and I was not

disappointed. Two pairs of translators

worked initially from English into German

and then our very own Hugh Keith and Iwan

Davies went head to head proving just how

different the length of the translation can be,

amongst other things.

On the Tuesday evening there was a party

with a band and a ceremonial letting off of

balloons into the Dahlem skies with

clearance from air traffic control!

Wednesday

I attended the closing ceremony, where we

voted to approve President of FIT, Marion

Boers‘s resolution in support of interpreters

and translators in conflict zones. She handed

the baton to incoming FIT President, Henry

Liu.

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 15

In the afternoon, I attended Michael Farrell‘s

session on ‗Client satisfaction surveys‘ which

was surprisingly insightful. Like most of us,

Mike had gone through a slow period in 2011

and he started to panic about where his next

project was coming from. So, in order to

better understand his clients, he carried out a

simple survey to assess the extent to which

the service he was offering was meeting his

clients‘ requirements. His declared aims

were:

- to bring services in line with clients‘ needs

- to improve service

- to ensure client loyalty.

His undeclared aims were:

- to give his working day a purpose (I love

his honesty) during the down period

- to remind his clients about him

- to check that they were indeed still his

clients.

His survey is freely available at

www.traduzioni-inglese.it/satisfaction-

survey.html with an honest illustration of his

results, which were very positive even if you

factor in the 20% margin of error.

Despite the hard facts, Mike also learnt that

other things about what his clients were

really looking for and his understanding of

what a client perceives as quality was at odds

with what is conventionally understood to be

quality amongst translators. Also, what the

client perceives they are asking for is at odds

with what we as translators provide them

with e.g. localisation — not purely a

translation.

In conclusion, I thought the BDÜ staff were

great hosts and the venue was excellent. The

weather by and large held out very well for

us. The best freebie was certainly the fan

from SFT — ‗the very dab‘ for such occasions

in high summer. It was certainly difficult to

manage the numbers at times and the way

people were forced to queue must have been

devised by somebody with years of

experience in the GDR!

If you‘d like to learn more about FIT, then

please read Iwan Davies‘s article in the

September Bulletin on the recent FIT

Congress and on the importance of solidarity

and cooperation with translators and

interpreters around the world. ♦

Survey

The survey is available in six languages.

Please access it by clicking on your preferred

language version.

English:

gibbon.zhaw.ch/limesurvey/index.php/4784

55/lang-en

German:

gibbon.zhaw.ch/limesurvey/index.php/4784

55/lang-de

French:

gibbon.zhaw.ch/limesurvey/index.php/4784

55/lang-fr

Italian:

gibbon.zhaw.ch/limesurvey/index.php/4784

55/lang-it

Spanish:

gibbon.zhaw.ch/limesurvey/index.php/4784

55/lang-es

Portuguese:

gibbon.zhaw.ch/limesurvey/index.php/4784

55/lang-pt

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 16

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 17

Transcreation time

On 22nd October, Robert Arnott attended a Centre for Translation Studies lecture by Dr

David Katan, translation professor at the Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy, given at

University College London. Thanks for letting other ScotNetters read about all this food

for thought, Robert!

We were promised that the lecture — entitled

―Translation at the cross-roads: time for the

transcreational turn?‖ — would emphasise ―a

more context-based understanding of

communication, and hence a more

intervenient role for the translator‖. It did.

Dr Katan started with the all-too-predictable

health warning that what he was about to say

would be depressing for

the audience, which was

mainly composed of

translation students.

Namely, that there had

recently been

predictions of

something like a 70%

drop in the volume of

human translation work because of the

continuing improvement of MT over the next

decade or two. And yet, surveys have

revealed that translation professionals such

as freelancers and lecturers are optimistic —

not necessarily in the direction of translation

pure and simple, but in those of localisation,

advocacy and cultural brokering: in other

words, tasks that are less text oriented and

more people oriented. Localisers, in

particular, are context oriented, creating

text, rather than just translating it, for the

appropriate audience. Intriguingly, it has

been shown that, whereas translators are

perceived as being more professional, it is

the more overtly creative roles of localiser

and copy writer that tend to attract more

prestige — and higher rates of pay. A

translator might provide the first, textual,

step in the process, but someone else can

take the message further and change the

tone for the target readership.

An example was given of an American health

information leaflet that was not just

translated but culturally

altered for a Hispanic

readership, changing

parts of the content to

produce a more family-

oriented message. This,

then, is transcreation,

comprising translation,

but also cultural

adaptation — put a slightly different way:

translatorial intervention plus intercultural

mediation. But ―transcreation‖ is not yet in

either the Oxford or Merriam-Webster

dictionaries. Wiktionary suggests

―transcreation‖ is something very close to

―adaptation‖ — and in fact, Dr Katan himself

seemed to find the word rather annoying and

unsatisfactory. A Dutch-speaking member of

the audience pointed out, however, that the

term is in fact used when adapting material

between Flanders and the Netherlands.

Moreover, we are being entirely Eurocentric

to think of it as a new term at all. Dr Katan

drew our attention to the fact that:

Whereas translators are perceived as being more professional, it is the more overtly creative roles of localiser and copy writer that tend

to attract more prestige—and higher rates of pay.

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 18

―The people-oriented and the time-

oriented creative translations of the

ancient Sanskrit spiritual texts are

generally termed as ‗Transcreation‘.

Transcreation has been the general

mode of translation in modern Indian

languages from the olden days. This

term [was] originally used by

contemporary writers like P. Lal for his

English translation of the Shakuntala

and Brhadaranyaka Upanishad (1974)

[…] Sujeet Mukherji (1981) prefers to

call it ‗Translation as New Writing‘. But

‗Transcreation‘ seems to be a better

word to express this literary tradition

of India. […] Transcreation can offer

the best possible solution for the

problems of culturally oriented literary

texts. Transcreation in this context can

be understood as a rebirth or

incarnation (Avatar) of the original

work.‖ (Quote from ―Translation,

Transcreation and Culture: The

Evolving Theories of Translation in

Hindi and Other Modern Indian

Languages‖ by G. Gopinathan).

How, then, does transcreation work in literary

translation? A translator who transcreates

(―adapts‖?) adds enough of their own

creativity and new input to the original work

to become the target text‘s new author.

Unlike the comparatively anonymous

translator, they take on more visibility and

autonomy. On the commercial side, Lingo24

specifically offer transcreation among their

services, describing it as creative translation.

The crucial question for translators is

whether to assume that so-called

transcreation is a different service offered by

different people, or to assert that translators

can be and are transcreators.

Transcreation requires two elements: the

creation of at least some message from

scratch, but also translation. Perhaps those

translators who would insist, ―That‘s not

what I do‖ should ask themselves, ―Who else

is better placed?‖

Turning to questions of mediation and

intervention, Dr Katan, to my delight, used

an example that he credited to Prof Ian

Mason, a more than familiar name to

ScotNet‘s Heriot-Watt graduates in particular.

An Italian businessman is presented with a

risibly low offer from an American, and tells

his daughter, who is interpreting, ―Digli che è

un imbecille.‖ — ―Tell him he‘s an idiot.‖ His

daughter turns to the American and says, ―My

father will not accept your offer.‖ A delightful

act of mediation — or it would have been, if

only the furious father hadn‘t understood

enough English to realise his invective had

not been transferred. Indeed, a related

example featuring Alex Ferguson came up in

the questions following the lecture: the

erstwhile Man Utd boss apparently asked

those interpreting him to replicate any

swearing he might use, not realising how

difficult this often is to achieve, not least in

languages such as Japanese.

This whole area challenges the notion of

language as being purely a system of transfer

— the general conduit meme, in other words

Even if fidelity to the original text has always been held up as the

correct paradigm for translation, there is now increasing

recognition of intercultural communication and mediation.

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 19

— where instances of loss of fidelity, or of

some nuances being lost in translation, make

one think of leaks in a pipe. The perceived

professionalism of the translator is perhaps

too tightly associated with fidelity, with

substantive changes being made only when

absolutely necessary for producing

sufficiently idiomatic language in the target

text, and that is why the tasks of intervening

or mediating between the cultures is

sometimes seen as a different professional‘s

job. However, even if fidelity to the original

text has always been held up as the correct

paradigm for translation, there is now

increasing recognition of intercultural

communication and mediation. Hence, for

translation, the bridge — spanning a

communication divide that is cultural as well

as linguistic — ought to be a better meme

than the conduit.

So, why do translators not transcreate more?

They may be reluctant to accept

responsibility for creative input. Some may

be risk averse, leaning towards the source

text more than the context. But David Katan

pointed out that, if transcreation is a

variation on translation that includes an

inherently creative process, then ―a machine

can‘t touch it‖. His advice, therefore, in the

face of ever improving MT, is to take the risk.

Translators can and probably should be more

actively interventionist and creative. Other

professionals are already taking on such

roles, and are getting better paid for it. In

foreign language films, it is the editors —

those who do the final stylistic touches —

who make the money, not the translators

who have simply converted the source script

into a first draft. Translators can too often be

viewed as providing an essentially technical

service, compared with copy writers and

consultants, whereas, in truth, all translators

do recreate to an extent, rather than just

converting text directly.

Indeed, as linguists, translators do have to

take decisions as mediators: to foreignise or

domesticise when translating literature; to

offend or avoid offence when interpreting.

There is no a priori decision for the language

professional to get wrong or right in this

regard: their professional role is not to come

up with some right answer, but to respond to

such dilemmas by making their own decision

— in the case of interpreters, often in a split-

second. In other words, translators and

interpreters should maintain the freedom to

decide.

Completed by around 20 minutes of

thoughtful and constructive questions, this

was a highly informative and absorbing

session. Thanks must go to Alison Hughes

for drawing our attention to lectures such as

these – perfect for finding oneself in London

of a midweek with a bit of spare time. ♦

Translators can and probably should be more actively

interventionist and creative. Other professionals are already taking on such roles, and are getting

better paid for it.

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 20

Beyond the basics of freelancing

When I heard an ITI member rave about Corinne McKay‘s new online course (1st edition,

spring 2014), Beyond the Basics of Freelancing, I got curious. Would this be yet another

course that promises lovely clients and hugely increased revenues but teaches you

nothing new? Apparently not!

I hope that the

name Corinne

McKay will be

familiar to

most readers

of this article.

Corinne, a

Colorado-

based French

to English

translator, is

one of the most well-known translators in

our sector, mostly for her book How To

Succeed as a Freelance Translator, first

published in 2006, with a second edition in

2011. She also runs a translation blog1 and

co-hosts a podcast.2 She has been delivering

the ―Getting Started as a Freelance

Translator‖ course for more than 8 years and,

in 2014, decided to launch an equivalent

course aimed at more experienced

translators.

So, what were my motivations and reasons

for choosing this course? I have been a

freelance translator since 2010, lucky (and

hopefully good) enough to have more work

than I can handle since I started out.

However, in February 2014, for the first time

in over three years, I experienced one of

those dreaded ―famine‖ periods. No work, no

calls, no emails: it wasn‘t the holiday season,

1 thoughtsontranslation.com

2 speakingoftranslation.com, co-hosted with Eve Bodeux.

and my few clients had always seemed very

happy with my work. The reason was more

serious, it seemed: I hadn‘t done any

marketing since I started out, and I knew I

had to do something to make my business

go in a direction that suited me. However, I

didn‘t know where to start, how to structure

my efforts and how to define my objectives.

I needed guidance and this is exactly why I

decided to do ―Beyond the Basics of

Freelancing‖. The trainer, Corinne McKay, is a

seasoned translator who has always been

very keen to share her experiences – good or

bad – with the readers of her blog and books.

I had met Corinne at a translation event in

Paris in 2012 and our nice exchanges and

conversations had made a very positive

impression on me.

The organisation and timeline of the course

were exactly what I was looking for. ―Beyond

the Basics‖ is an online course based on

individual assignments that one is free to

undertake at one's own pace. It also includes

conference calls with the group of students,

Nelia Fahloun

Corinne McKay is a seasoned translator who has always been

very keen to share her experiences – good or bad – with the readers of her blog

and books.

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 21

which are best attended live, but can be

listened to afterwards, as well as a 1-hour

individual consulting call with Corinne.

Before the start of the course, Corinne sent

each student her two books, How To Succeed

as a Freelance Translator and Thoughts on

Translation (a collection of her major blog

posts very neatly organised by topic) and

also asked us to validate our preferred dates

and times for the conference calls. Each week

focused on a specific issue –marketing, client

base, financial matters, etc. – for which

Corinne provides general advice and links to

useful resources, from her blog, her books,

or from other resources. Students were

expected to fill in the assignment document

with details of their individual situations and

Corinne sent back her comments a few days

later. We had a conference call each week,

during which we could discuss the current

assignment‘s topic or any other issue.

Students were also encouraged to send

questions to Corinne beforehand, especially

if they could not attend. All conference calls

were recorded and the link was sent to the

group almost immediately after it took place.

The group consisted of about a dozen

students, with very different language pairs,

prior experience or specialisations, a

diversity which was actually a great

advantage.

The course was extremely helpful to me for

several reasons. First, it allowed me to make

good use of an unexpected down period,

even if work came back slowly after the start

of the course, and then more intensely

towards the end. Second, the course also

inspired me and motivated me to actually do

some marketing instead of ―resting on my

laurels‖ and potentially pay a hard price later.

Corinne shared her own experiences and

errors as well as the lessons it has taught

her: marketing is something that we can do

every day, by small increments and by setting

realistic goals. Her comments and analyses

are always very constructive and inspiring.

The approach also encouraged me to be very

honest with myself, and articulate thoughts,

fears and desires that had been going in my

mind for months, but which I had not

transformed into actions. In this sense, it was

very nice to have an external point of view on

my business, marketing materials, ideas, and

even finance, from a trustworthy and

experienced translator, who is not a

competitor. Whenever I mentioned the course

to my partner, I referred to Corinne as ―my

coach‖ and I think the term summarises well

the way I viewed the relationship. Corinne‘s

perspective on my business helped me figure

out that I do have the experience and

abilities to approach more specific clients for

the type of work that I enjoy most, and

therefore command higher rates and

ultimately work less for the same income, or

even a higher one.

I would most definitely recommend the

―Beyond the Basics of Freelancing‖ course to

anyone in a situation similar to the one I was

in a few months ago: busy, but willing to

expand your client base, strengthen your

It was very nice to have an external point of view on my

business, marketing materials, ideas, and even finance, from a trustworthy and experienced

translator.

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 22

specialisations, and more generally move up

the market. However, it should be noted that,

for optimal results, the course requires a

strong involvement, i.e. being able to commit

several hours to it throughout a four-week

period, and the willingness to define a plan

for moving forward and stick to it.

For more information about the course, visit

http://translatewrite.com/?page_id=30.3

Corinne was also invited on Episode 21 of the

Marketing Tips for Translators podcast to

talk about this course.4 ♦

3 I am not affiliated in any way with Corinne McKay and this

review is provided for information purposes only.

4 http://marketingtipsfortranslators.com/podcast/episode-

021-beyond-basics-translator-marketing-interview-corinne-

mckay/

So who needs a translator anyway?

[Contributed by Margret Powell-Joss]

Please send your own So who needs a translator anyway? photos to editor@itiscotland.org.uk.

Nelia Fahloun - BABELIANE TRADUCTIONS

(SFT, AITI, AITC)

English & Spanish to French legal and

editorial translator

+33 6 19 15 11 10 / +33 2 99 68 27 79 -

Skype : nelia.fahloun nelia@babeliane.com | www.babeliane.com

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 23

Member news

With the introduction of the new ITI membership structure this year, quite a few people

have recently moved category within ITI. If this applies to you, please remember to notify

the Membership Secretary of any changes to your ITI membership status since you joined

the network. In particular, let the MemSec know when you upgrade to MITI, as your

details will then be made available to Joe Public online. On the other hand, this term

we‘ve only had one new member joining us. Maybe we should be making a bigger

outreach effort?

New members:

Susanna Schraag: After my move to

Glasgow in 2005, I was not able to practice in

my profession as physiotherapist due to

differences in education.

Having studied English and French back in

Germany, I decided to embark on a new and

different career path. I completed the DPSI

course and am currently studying for the

Diploma in Translating.

I am self-employed and working as an in-

house translator for a polymer company as

well as translating and interpreting for a

variety of different customers and agencies.

In my spare time I love cooking, cycling and

playing golf with my family and friends.

Others:

Congratulations to the new ScotNet MITIs:

Barbara Bonatti Divers (English into Italian),

Beth Fowler (Spanish into English), Tania

Gordon Aitken (Spanish into English), Carol

Latimer (German into English) and Yuliya

Roach (English into Russian). Well done,

ladies!

We‘re also happy to inform you that there

are two new potential ScotNetters out there.

One is our Convenor‘s daughter, Aoife, who‘s

bound to be plurilingual. Congratulations,

Pierre!

The other one is Marga Burke‘s wee Amy

Faith. She was born on 9th September

weighing 7lb 9oz. You can see her below

with Marga and her partner, Sue.

Oh, I almost forgot… and yours truly got

married on 20th September ;-)

♦

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 24

ScotNet grants

The ITI Scottish Network offers 2 levels of

grants to members as a contribution towards

the costs of attending ITI events:

1) Grants of up to £30 are available for

attending Scottish Network meetings.

2) ScotNetters may also apply for grants of

up to £70 for attending national ITI events.

How to apply for a grant

Contact our treasurer (currently Norma Tait)

at treasurer@itiscotland.org.uk before

registering for the meeting. Subject to

availability and meeting the eligibility criteria,

she will approve the grant and notify you.

In due course, forward her a copy of the

receipt for the event or transport expenses

and provide her with your bank details. She

will then pay the respective amount into your

account.

General conditions: Maximum one grant per

person per subscription year. You must be a

member of ITI, so Friends of the Network are

not eligible. Also members living in the

central belt are not eligible to receive grants

for network meetings in Edinburgh/Glasgow.

All recipients must be willing to contribute a

report on the event they attended to the ITI

ScotNet Newsletter.

The level of grants is reviewed every year at

ScotNet‘s AGM. Under the current budget, 10

grants of £30 and 10 of £70 are available

each year. From time to time the committee

may also decide to offer additional grants to

enable ScotNetters to attend particular

events, such as they did for the 2013 ITI

Conference. ♦

Looking forward to the next issue…

Yeah, yeah, I know you all know by now that I think Kay is a wonderful proofreader. I just can‘t

help saying it again: thank you for all your help, Kay! Thanks also to all those of you who wrote

reports for this issue, those who didn‘t ignore my bullying and those who sent in articles out of

the blue. You make my life so much easier! I already have some good reads lined up for the first

2015 issue (including autumn workshop reports), but please don‘t hesitate to drop me a line

(editor@itiscotland.org.uk) if you‘d like to get your event reports, book/software reviews or

adventures abroad published! ♦

ITI ScotNet Newsletter Page 25

Your committee at a glance

Convenor

Pierre Fuentes

0131 4557499

convenor@itiscotland.org.uk

Treasurer

Norma Tait

0131 5521330

treasurer@itiscotland.org.uk

Newsletter Editor

Isabel Hurtado de Mendoza

07762 300068

editor@itiscotland.org.uk

Membership Secretary

Ute Penny

01368 864879

membership@itiscotland.org.uk

Deputy MemSec

Nathalie Chalmers

01888 562998

membership@itiscotland.org.uk

Events Coordinator (East)

Angelika Muir-Hartmann

0131 3334654

muirhartmann@aol.com

Events Coordinator (West)

Ann Drummond

0141 2219379

ann@drummond9593.freeserve.co.uk

Webmaster

Iwan Davies

01738 630202

webmaster@itiscotland.org.uk

Deputy Webmaster

Marian Dougan

0141 9420919

md@dnalanguage.com