Oh, My Aching Back

Translators, writers, editors, academics, and teachers spend a lot of time sitting at our desks, often hunched over a computer. This leads to bad posture, tight muscles, and aching limbs. How do you cope with all this?

I know you’re supposed to get up every hour and have a stretch and a quick walk, but I frequently am so into my work that I forget. I end up sitting by my computer for hours on end, so focused that I don’t realize how much my body is hurting. One thing I try to do to combat this is to keep a glass of water next to me. I drink water constantly, so I am forced to get up pretty often, both to go to the bathroom and also to refill my glass.

I also try to sit on one of those large fitness balls when I am doing some reading that doesn’t require me to sit at the computer. Fitness balls make you sit properly, even if it’s hard to sit on them for too many minutes at a time.

But despite my best efforts and despite the various tools at my disposal (a foot rest, a raised screen, etc), I still end up with a huge amount of pain. I go to the gym and for swims regularly, because keeping active makes a big difference. Also, I finally found a good massage therapist and I try to indulge when I can, though it isn’t cheap. It’s better to spend some money and not have so much pain, even if part of me struggles with the idea of enjoying such luxuries.

What do you do to prevent or handle work-related aches and pains?

Swedish Poetry Program

I heard about this and thought it sounded interesting. I’ll be listening.

On April 6, the Center for Translation Studies at Barnard College hosted "Swedish Poetry Today," a program of readings and discussion with Anna Hallberg, Jörgen Gassilewski, and Johannes Görannson.

Center director Peter Connor recently sat down with moderator Elizabeth Clark Wessel to preview the upcoming event and to discuss her work as English-language translator of Hallberg's poetry.

This is the first of a series of audio-interviews on translation to be conducted at the Center.

Listen to it on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLrX6PXEiGw

Translating Expressive Language in Children’s Literature

In a post that is shameless self-promotion, I’d like to mention that the book based on my PhD dissertation is now out. You can find more information here.

I had a wonderful experience as a PhD student, partially due to my fantastic supervisors, Professor Duncan Large and Professor Andy Rothwell. Hearing other people’s horror stories about the lack of support and consideration they got from their supervisors only reinforces my sense of gratitude at how thoughtful, helpful, and kind Duncan and Andy always were. It’s thanks to them that I have gotten this far.

I’m quite pleased the book is out, because I do think the work is actually pretty useful, for both translators and academics, because it looks at a topic that hasn’t been researched much in the past and offers concrete, pragmatic suggestions. I hope some of you will find it beneficial.

Chapbook Contest

Some of you might be interested in this contest.

ANOMALOUS PRESS ANNOUNCES OUR FIRST-EVER CHAPBOOK CONTEST!

March 15 – May 15

$500 prize plus publication!

Finalist manuscripts will also be considered for publication, and all submissions will be considered for publication in the journal.

$15 fee.

We will publish the winning manuscript in each of the following categories:

* Translations. Specifically innovative translations, translations that draw attention to themselves, hybrid translations, translations that defy convention, translations that prey on, magnify, distort, and bring greatness to source texts.
* Poetry. Original poetry.

Christian Hawkey will judge the translation category.

Christian Hawkey is the author of Petitions for an Alien Relative (a chapbook by hand held editions, 2010), Ventrakl (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010), Citizen Of (Wave Books, 2007), Hour, Hour, a chapbook which includes drawings by the artist Ryan Mrowzowski (Delirium Press, 2006), and The Book of Funnels (Verse Press, 2004), winner of the 2006 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. In 2006 he was given a Creative Capital Innovative Literature Award and he has also received awards from the Poetry Fund and the Academy of American Poets. He teaches at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.

Poetry judge will be announced soon!

Electronic submissions only. Full guidelines available at www.anomalouspress.org/chapbooks.php

Archaeology and Language by Colin Renfrew

Archaeology and Language by Colin Renfrew is a dated but still relevant book that serves as a good introduction to the idea of using archaeology as a way of tracing the history of language. As he states at the beginning of the book, we need not look at just economic developments to explore the history of humanity because national, ethnic and linguistic identities are important too. Thus, people study ruins, documents, pottery, language, and more as a way of understanding the development of languages.

Renfrew admits how “extraordinary” it is that languages in Europe and Asia (India and Iran, for example) are related, and then asks “But what is the historical reality underlying this relationship? Where did these languages come from? Did they derive from a single group of people who migrated? Or is there an entirely different explanation? This is the Indo-European problem, and the enigma which has still not found a satisfactory answer.” (11) Many scholars have attempted to understand this by a) trying to construct a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language that is the parent of all the other languages and b) by trying to figure out where the so-called Urheimat, or homeland, of PIE was.

Renfrew feels we must question “the extent to which it is legitimate to construct a Proto-Indo-European language, drawing upon the cognate forms of the words in the various Indo-European languages that are known.” (18) As an example of how far wrong we can go with this method, he uses the example of Latin. He quotes Ernst Pulgram, who tried to reconstruct Latin based on the Romance languages and to thereby make sense out of “Latin” culture, without actually looking at Latin that we know, and he found that what we would construct is actually different in many ways from actual Latin and what we know of ancient Roman culture (85). Hence it is argued that we cannot reconstruct languages in this way.

As for the Urheimat, Renfrew runs through the various theories, such as that the people who spoke PIE came from north-central Europe, or that they came from eastern Europe and the steppes, and some scholars have even suggested northern Europe, such as Lithuania. But he argues that this idea of a homeland is problematic and that many who have suggested it have fallen into “dangerous traps. They have placed too much faith in the idea of some reconstructed Proto-Indo-European vocabulary, from which some kind of word-picture of the original homeland might be put together. They have too readily assumed that a given pottery form, or an assemblage of items of material equipment can be equated directly with a group of people and hence supposedly with a particular language or language group. And they have not adequately explained why all these languages, or the speakers of all these languages, should be wandering around Europe and western Asia so tirelessly, in a series of migrations, thus setting up the pattern of different languages which we see today.” (75)

Renfrew discusses the idea that the similarities in the Indo-European languages came from contact, not common ancestors with one homeland, and he offers the various models that might work for this idea (replacement models, colonization, or continuous development).
In sum, this book is an interesting exploration of the history of the Indo-European languages, with some sections that read almost like mystery novels, because of the excitement (for example, when he discusses the discovery of Hittite or explores the history of the Celts). It’s not the most recent book on the subject, but it’s an important one.

The Next Generation of Translators

I teach in an MA program in literary translation. Every year, students come in, expecting that once they have their MAs, they will be able to work full-time as translators of poetry or plays or whatever else. Every year, a number of students come in, sneering at people who translate users’ manuals or cookbooks or financial reports and vowing never to be one of them.

I suppose I see part of my job as informing students about the market for literary translation and about being realistic with them. An MA in literary translation will help them, of course, but it will not automatically enable them to support themselves by translating novels. Very few people – even well established, highly talented translators – can live off their literary translation work.

I also point out to my students that many people combine literary translation with other kinds of translation or with teaching or editing or research or work in the charity sector or work at banks and so on. I tell them how stimulating I personally find it to combine different types of translation and how it helps improve my language skills and my translation skills and also teaches me about new topics.

Most of the time, the students are definitely not convinced. Maybe it’s because they’re young (for the most part) and idealistic and think that everything can and will just be handed to them. Maybe they genuinely think they are too good for anything but translating song lyrics and memoirs. Maybe they don’t want to think about the fact that they will have to work hard in order to have a career in translation. Maybe they don’t have any money worries and have relatives who will support them as they translate short stories. Maybe there’s something else going on.

Of course I feel a bit hurt and shocked at the way they mock anything other than literary translation (one student actually said, “I would never lower myself to translate cookbooks!” even after I had mentioned how many cookbooks I have translated). But more importantly, I worry about what will happen when these students go out into the “real world”, armed with their MAs in literary translation, expecting to be able to support themselves on such work. I try to give them hints about how to improve their chances, and I organize talks with the Careers Centre on campus, and I talk to the students about practical matters such as writing a CV, networking, building a website, signing up with agencies, getting mentoring, and so on. So I try to do the best I can as a teacher and fellow translator.

But some students are resistant and only want to talk about translation theory. Some yawn as I suggest book fairs they might want to attend and how they can exchange business cards with editors and publishers. Some even criticize me, saying that I am negative and make them worry about what will happen next. So it’s a matter of trying to gently be realistic with them, to the best of my ability, hoping something that will sink in, while also continuing to encourage them.

What tips do you have for working with the next generation of translators?

Is That a Fish In Your Ear? by David Bellos

I read quite a few books on translation and I can say that in my opinion the best book on translation came out in 2011 was Is That a Fish In Your Ear? by David Bellos. Bellos is professor of literature at Princeton and he translates from French to English.
Bellos’ book is not complicated and it is not about theory. Much of what he writes about has been written about in other books already, and often one can find much more information in other books than in his book. But what I like here is that he writes short, fairly simple mini-essays on many different aspects of translation. You can read a chapter here and a chapter there and learn something new and interesting without having to read the whole book if you do not want it. He writes, for example, about what translation is and is not, and what people say and think about translation, and how to use dictionaries, and on interpretation, and the European Union and language, and what the news has to do with translation, and automatic translation (he writes that it is not possible right now because “what you can say by means of translation is what the word means in the context in which it occurs” (p. 83), and a computer does not understand context), and dialects, and how we must rely on the translator or interpreter, and about poetry, and much more. It is clear that with so many topics, Bellos’ does not into much depth with them; in other words, in this book he discusses a little bit about a lot, and not much about just a little, as some readers would probably prefer. Personally, I like being able to dip in, but I understand that such a book is not for everyone.

What would we do without translation? Bellos writes, “Instead of using translation, we could learn the languages of all the communities we wish to engage with; or we could decide to speak the same language; or else adopt a single common language for communicating with other communities.” (p. 7) With 7000 or more different languages in the world it sounds unlikely. So we need translators, but why then do we have phrases such as traduttore traditore? Why are people suspicious of translators and translation in general? You can read about this in Bellos’ book.

Another thing that you can read about is how many non-translators believe that there is a right or good translation and a wrong or bad one. Bellos writes, “A translation can’t be right or wrong in the manner of a school quiz or a bank statement. A translation is more like a portrait in oils. The artist may add a pearl earring, give an extra flush to the cheek or miss out the grey hairs in the sideburns – and still give us a good likeness.” (p. 331) A translation is an interpretation and everyone interprets differently.

Sometimes a reader might wish that Bellos had written a whole book instead of just a short chapter on something, but as a whole, his book is very interesting and worth reading. His book is “en portrait in oils” – you or I might have added some jewelry or removed some hair, but it is still a beautiful painting.

What Machine Translation Can and Can’t Do

This is a guest post by Hassan Sawaf. Hassan Sawaf is the Chief Scientist at SAIC Linguistics Division where he works on the Omnifluent™ linguistics solution. He can be reached at hassan.sawaf@saic.com.

I have encountered quite a few myths regarding the capabilities of machine translation (MT) technology in the close to twenty years I have worked in the natural language processing and MT fields. Recently, the technology has developed to the point that most translators will use or encounter it at some point in their career. With this in mind, I have put together a short list of what MT can and can’t do so that translators can best use their time and resources.

MT Can: Translate speech-to-speech and speech-to-text.

It is often assumed machine translation only covers text-to-text translations, however recent advances in MT and automated speech recognition (ASR) technology have enabled far-reaching applications. Automated foreign language closed captioning is one example, conversing with a hotel owner while traveling would be another.

MT Can’t: Convey information instantly from all mediums or types of media.

MT technology is not yet the Star Trek “Universal Translator.” Even in the most advanced technology with fully integrated ASR, speech-to-speech and speech-to-text is near real time and a non-trivial process. After a phrase is spoken, it can be displayed and edited by a human before being synthesized and voiced by the machine to minimize potential errors. Also, MT can’t convey or communicate information reliably from all types of media such as (still or motion) pictures.

MT Can: Be used for important business, transactional or personal matters.

Many people are surprised when I tell them MT can be used in a healthcare setting. However, MT technology is already being employed by hospitals, via tablet devices, to better communicate with their patients. This is possible because advanced MTs can be tailored to specific domains or industries, so that highly technical terms, like “hilus of the lung” are as easily recognizable as common words like “home.”

MT Can’t: Be used in situations when style, creativity or instant clarity is required.

MT is not ideal for language requiring stylistic or creative input such as marketing or legal documents. While the technology can be used in a healthcare setting to distribute vaccines, it would not be helpful in a situation requiring instant clarity or in advertisements where specific words and their connotations are chosen carefully and have significant cultural meaning.

MT Can: Be customized for highly accurate translation

MT technology, on average, can achieve 80 percent accuracy compared to a professional human translator. In some cases, this level of accuracy can achieve enough understanding for the purposes of the communication. True hybrid machine translation (HMT) technologies, which integrate statistical and rule based translation, can achieve close to 95 percent accuracy once they have been tailored for a specific industry or domain. In my experience, the accuracy of MT is the biggest misconception among translators who may not have experienced the more sophisticated, customized technology.

MT Can’t: Reach 100 percent accuracy.

Even with the next generation of MT technology it is extremely unlikely that it will ever achieve 100 percent accuracy. There are many reasons for this, but perhaps the best explanation is that human communication is extremely complex. Even if I am in the same room, viewing the same presentation as my colleague who is speaking my native tongue I might only understand 95 percent of his intended meaning.


MT Can: Be used by translators to be more efficient

I have heard many analogies, but I like to compare MT to a car. You can get to where you want to go without it, but by using the technology you are going to get there faster and/or more comfortably. There are many kinds of vehicles and its important to select the type based on need, however, the translator is still in the driver’s seat. In the past, only the largest language service providers could afford MT, but now many vendors have Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings making the technology affordable for freelance translators.

MT Can’t: Replace human translators

The amount of data each year is increasing exponentially, and the increased rate of globalization means more and more of it needs to be translated. MT is a tool that will make human translators more efficient so they can focus their time on content that needs the creative, stylistic human touch.

Translation as a Comic Strip

This is a fun blog/book/comic strip, which features a translator and his adventures in comic format. There are so many metaphors for translation and perhaps translation is a comic strip could be one too, but regardless of that, check the site out.

Read a Translated Book: A Challenge and a Campaign

[Note: a slightly different version of this article was published in the Huffington Post yesterday.]

I run an award-winning international literature book group here in Norwich. As far as we know, it’s the only book group in the UK that just reads translated literature. This is surprising because translated literature is a gift that allows us to learn about other people, other places, other perspectives, other ideas, other ways of being, other lives. Without translations, we would be so much poorer and our lives would be much narrower.

However, many people are afraid of translations; translated literature seems harder somehow or less authentic. But that needn’t be the case.

So I want to challenge you to read more translations. Start with just one book. You can pick a Nobel Prize-winner, for example, or maybe one of the books that’s up for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize this year. Pick a translated thriller, if that’s your favorite genre, or try some poetry. It doesn’t matter which book you read; the aim is just to read translated literature.

Then the next part of this campaign is to keep reading translated literature. Start with one book and then try to read one or two translations a year, or even more. Encourage your friends to do so as well.

If you live in Norwich, come to my book group. If not, you could even start a book group of your own that just focuses on translated literature. If you want some tips, here is a document I created to help people start book groups like the one I run.

Pass the word on. Tell others what books you’re reading and what you think of them. Post comments here or on other blogs and discuss your experiences.

I challenge you to read just one translated book. I think it will change you and I suspect you’ll want to keep reading translated literature. Translations aren’t scary; rather, doing without them is.

Translation Course at Arvon

A few years back, I went on a wonderful writing course at Lumb Bank, one of the Arvon foundation’s centers. It was a beautiful location and I really enjoyed my week there. Now, for the first time, Arvon is running a translation course, with Michael Henry Heim, Anthea Bell, and Sasha Dugdale. It should be fantastic and I hope some of you can attend it.

Interview Tips, Part 3

This is the final post in my series of interview tips. This one focuses on the interview itself along with some general final advice.

Interview tips

--I have been surprised at the way some candidates interrupt interviewers and start answering questions before they’ve completely heard the questions. Sometimes that leads to interviewees offering different information than was asked for. It’s also downright rude to interrupt.

--Take notes while people are asking questions. Sometimes you get double or even triple questions disguised as one and it’s easy to lose track. A candidate might start answering one question and then forget what the others were. Write brief notes to yourself about what you are being asked and also about what you might like to say in response. That’s much preferred to having the candidate say, “I’m sorry, but I forgot what your other question was.”

--Prepare answers to typical questions. Don’t look shocked when you’re asked questions such as “Why have you applied to this job?” or “Where do you see yourself in 5 (or 10 or 20) years?” or “What classes or programs do we teach that you might like to be part of?” or “How does your writing/translation work fit into our department?” You should expect questions along those lines and be prepared to answer them fairly smoothly, without sounding unsure of yourself. Look at books on interview techniques and ready yourself to answer the most common interview questions.

--Look at each panel member as you talk, making eye contact with each one in turn. Do not focus on one or two members and ignore the rest. Although that can happen when someone’s nervous, it can be disconcerting to be stared at by the speaker.

--Pay attention to the subtle signals the panel members are giving you when interviewing you. They may be nodding to show you’ve said enough and that they’re ready to move on, or they may look bored or distracted. Don’t keep rambling on if you suspect that they’ve heard enough; finish your statement and silence yourself, awaiting the next question. I’ve been in a number of interviews where the candidates talk on and on, repeating themselves, giving more or different information than requested, and boring the panel, even though a panel member might have tried to signal to the candidate that we were ready to go to the next topic. Displaying a lack of attention to people’s body language says something about how you might behave in the classroom.

--Don’t talk about things other than what you were asked. Candidates understandably try to get a lot of details into their answers and to subtly show off, but try not to do too much of it or to go too off track. Especially don’t discuss personal details such as your recent holiday, your partner/spouse and/or children, your maternity/paternity leave, your health, how much money you spent to come to the interview, your political views, or other such things; those topics are usually irrelevant to the question at hand. Again, panel members might worry about your conduct in the classroom if you appear to be an “over-sharer”.

--Don’t sound frustrated if you are asked something in more than one way or if you have to repeat information you included in your covering letter or CV or presentation. Not everyone has read or seen everything you’ve provided and also some questions are standards and must be asked of every candidate regardless of whether the candidate also gave the information elsewhere. Don’t say, “Well, as I already told you...” or “As you will have seen from my CV...” Simply give the information requested.

--Show you’ve done research about the place. Mention what you’ve learned from perusing the website or other publications. Name people you’ve had contact with. Show that you haven’t just applied to any old job at any old employer – you want this job with these people at this place. Prove it. Some of the best candidates have said things such as, “I noticed that you offer a course on X. That’s something that I’d really like to be part of because...” or “I first learned about your university when I met Dr. X at a conference. She told me...” or “You don’t yet offer an MA-level course in X, but I thought I could develop that because...” This shows initiative.

--On the other hand, don’t show off any negative research you’ve done. I was interviewing possible interns for our translation center and I was shocked by how many of the interns criticized us, sometimes by mentioning a typo in one of our publications (typos happen to the best of us, I’m afraid), or by saying they would do something better than they thought we did at the moment, or by quoting someone they knew who didn’t like an event we ran. None of this is appropriate. It’s great to offer suggestions for activities you might like to be involved in and for contributions you’d plan to make, but don’t make your potential employer look or feel stupid. It’s just common sense.

--Have some questions for us in turn. Prepare a few questions about the university as a whole, the specific department, the students, and/or the research/writing/translation work done there. Don’t ask for information that is available on the website, such as how many students there are or what classes we teach. Also, don’t ask about when you might receive a sabbatical or tenure, because that makes you seem as though you feel entitled to the job and to various perquisites already. Show an interest, but don’t overdo it.

--When you are thanked and dismissed, thank the panel in return for their time, and immediately leave. I’ve seen candidates stay on, awkwardly making small talk or asking more questions. The panel most likely has a very strict schedule that they need to keep to and once your interview is over, they don’t have more time to chat.

Final notes

Many of these tips might seem very obvious, but over and over again I’ve seen candidates do the complete opposite of what would actually serve them best. After their interviews, the panel has exchanged looks that meant, “That was awful. Let’s hope the next one is better.” That’s not the impression you want to leave the interview panel with.

The tips offered here can be boiled down to: be clean and neat, polite, well-organized, and well-prepared. That won’t guarantee that you get the job, but it will help you stay in the running. And since many of us who write and translate want or need another job as well, anything you can do to make yourself more appealing as a candidate can help.

Interview Tips, Part 2

This post continues on from the last one, with more interview tips. This one focuses on the presentation, which is your opportunity to describe your writing/translation work/research to a captive audience.

Presentation tips

--Make sure your presentation reflects the brief you’ve been given. If you were asked to discuss your research or publications, as is common in academic interviews, do that. Don’t simply recite a list of your publications or grants and don’t talk about your teaching or administrative experience. If we have things we want to ask you about those topics, we will do that during the interview. The presentation is a chance for you show your enthusiasm for your subjects and to teach us about them; in other words, we learn about your writing/research and your teaching style by listening to you. Make the most of the opportunity.

--Do not give a handout and then just read from it, or put words on your PowerPoint and then read from them. The screen or handout should be adding to your presentation rather than being a useless extra. It’s also really boring to sit there, listening to someone read aloud from a sheet of paper. Use the handout or the screen for key points or quotes, not for the entire thing.

--Practice your presentation in advance. It’s very awkward to sit while someone struggles for words or appears not to have any idea what to say. Be very well prepared; just as you might prepare for a reading from your work, prepare for your presentation.

--Along the same lines, time yourself. If you’ve been given 15 minutes to talk, that doesn’t mean 10 and it doesn’t mean 20. It means 15. Use your time well and fully.

--If you have books or other items you want to bring as props to illustrate your talk, that is fine, as long as they don’t take away from what you are saying. Pass them around during the question session, not during the presentation itself, or they will distract your audience.

--Listen to questions and comments from the audience completely and respectfully before answering them. I’ve seen candidates get annoyed when someone has misunderstood or questioned an aspect of their presentation. They then interrupt, sigh, roll their eyes, or otherwise show their irritation. This behavior tells us how you might treat a confused student or colleague.

--Don’t be afraid to admit to ignorance when responding to a question. Many people try to bluff their way through difficult questions, but it actually is much more professional to say, “Thank you for mentioning that author. I haven’t heard of her book, but I’ll look for it...” or “Actually, I never thought about the topic from the perspective you’re proposing. Thank you for the suggestion. I’ll have to think more about it...”

--Thank your listeners for their time and their questions and comments.

Interview Tips, Part 1

As spring is approaching, that means interview season is closing in (at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere). Even if many writers, editors, translators, and teachers work freelance or work with “parallel careers” (i.e. they have a number of part-time jobs), interviews are still a part of what we do, especially in regard to teaching. And yet they are not something we often think about or prepare correctly for.

I’ve had the pleasure of being on a number of interview panels since starting work at the University of East Anglia in England and one of the things I’ve learned most from this experience is what to do – or not to do – at interviews and presentations. It’s amazing how a candidate’s behavior, appearance, and level of preparedness can completely change the minds of the panel; someone who sounds really appropriate on paper can come across as arrogant and hard to work with in person, while someone who sounds possible but not like the best choice can blow us away with his/her intelligence and enthusiasm. Since I have participated in interviews for jobs related to literature, writing, and translation, here I will offer tips that are particularly appropriate for people working in those fields, but the general ideas can be applied to many interview and presentation situations.

Since I have so many tips, I am going to divide them into three posts.

General tips

--Wear clothes that actually fit you. Too often I’ve seen people come in wearing shirts that gap, showing off their bellies or breasts, or trousers that are too tight, offering a view of a camel toe or the outline of underpants, or that otherwise don’t fit. Don’t just trudge out your interview outfit the night before the interview; try it on days in advance and go purchase something new if necessary. People get an impression of you right away and you don’t want to make your interviewers embarrassed by the sight of too much flesh. It’s just unprofessional.

--Similarly, wear clothes that are clean and neat. I’ve been astonished to see people come in wearing stained or hole-ridden sweaters or trousers; it just suggests that they don’t care too much about their appearance, which makes the panel wonder what else they don’t care about. You may wear those clothes when writing at home, but don’t wear them to the interview. Also, if you have a presentation one day and the interview the next, don’t wear the same outfit. It gives people the impression that you aren’t particularly clean.

--Jeans generally aren’t appropriate interview wear. You don’t have to come in a business suit if that’s not your style, but don’t wear sloppy, wrinkled, overly casual clothes either. If possible, spend a day on the campus/grounds before your interview and see what the staff members seem to wear, and then dress slightly better than that.

--Also, don’t wear any heavy colognes or perfumes. I work with several people with severe allergies and you don’t want to make the interview panel gasp for breath. You also don’t want to walk out of the room and leave the panel wishing for fresh air rather than wishing for you to join their department.

--In general, try to look like you take care of yourself. While we aren’t judging you on your looks, it can put us off if you have messy hair, an unshaven face (not that you have to be cleanly shaven, just that you shouldn’t have a day or two’s worth of shadow), bad breath, or too much make-up. Your look should reflect who you are, obviously, but also remember that you’re in a professional setting and should look fairly, well, professional.

--Be aware of any nervous habits you have – biting your nails, picking your nose, jiggling your foot, playing with your hair, and so on – and avoid doing them. It’s very distracting to people who are trying to listen to you. We sympathize with you because we know interviews are nerve-racking, but a key for you is to appear calm and confident.

A Round-Up of Blogs/Websites

Here are a few blogs/websites you might want to check out.

This collection of awful library books might make you laugh. My childhood friend Yvette, who used to work at a library, sent me the link.

Those of us who are bibliophiles will enjoy this bookshelf “porn”.

Another link for the bibliophiles. This is called the Joy of Books, and rightfully so. My mother, who is a librarian, sent me this.

I think Leah Palmer Preiss’s art is beautiful and it clearly appeals to literary types.

Finally, here’s a new blog on audiovisual translation.

Quote on Translation

The process of translating comprises in its essence the whole secret of human understanding of the world and of social communication.

--Hans Georg Gadamer

A Round-Up of Articles

Here are some articles you might find enjoyable/interesting.

This first article is by translator and writer Tim Parks. Do you need to know the language you are translating from? To what level? Does this affect translation?

The next piece is on harsh book reviews. Ouch! As a reviewer myself, I try to be fair and balanced, but never mean. Life’s hard enough without being cruel, I think.

Here’s an article about writing novels. Is the novel a dying art? Is it still relevant?

If you can read Swedish, this piece is about new Swedish words from 2011.

Finally, my mother sent me this link about the power of vowels.

AHRC Funding Opportunity: Doctoral Studentship

Some BNW readers might be interested in applying to do a PhD in translation. If so, here's a scholarship opportunity.

The Translation Group at Imperial College London invites applications for a 3-year doctoral studentship funded by the AHRC to begin in October 2012.

Research in Translation Studies at Imperial College is carried out in a vibrant environment. Members of staff of the Translation Group are highly research active, and the Group is home to many PhD students conducting doctoral research in areas such as translation studies, translation technology, localisation, audiovisual translation and accessibility to the media. The Group nurtures a subject-specific research culture by scheduling research seminars, inviting guest speakers from the UK and abroad, welcoming academic visitors who wish to spend periods of research at Imperial College, and organising seminars, colloquia and conferences at our institution and other venues.

For further information about the Translation Group research, visit: www.imperial.ac.uk/humanities/translationgroup/ourresearch.

Studentship Award

Standard tuition fees and a maintenance grant will be paid by the AHRC for three years. For 2011-12 the maintenance grant for students in London was £15,590. EU candidates are normally eligible for a fees-only award, unless they have been ordinarily resident in the UK for 3 years immediately preceding the date of the award.

Eligibility

In line with research council requirements, applicants must meet UK residency criteria or be ordinarily resident in the EU. Applicants should hold a first or upper second class degree, and hold or be studying for an MSc or MA degree in modern languages, translation, or in another relevant area related to Translation Studies. Applicants should also fulfil Imperial College English language requirements, and be supported by two strong academic references. Further details concerning eligibility are available via the AHRC website at:

www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Documents/GuidetoStudentFunding.pdf

(pages 39-46).

How to apply

Applicants are invited to suggest their own topics of study, within the field of Translation Studies and submit a fully developed proposal. They are advised to contact a prospective supervisor to discuss their interests. For research interests of staff and of recent and current doctoral students, please visit:

www.imperial.ac.uk/humanities/translationgroup/phdstudy.

Applicants should send the following documents to Tom Barbanneau at t.barbanneau@imperial.ac.uk by 19^th March 2012. Please note that all documentation is required in English:

• A research proposal including information about the research background/context, research aims and questions, methodology, any required resources and/or sources, and accompanied by a complete bibliography. The following document provides some advice on how to write a PhD proposal.
• Curriculum Vitae.
• Two academic reference letters.
• A supporting statement of academic interests and reasons for applying for this studentship. This statement should also include details of academic achievements and any relevant research experience.

The deadline for applications is 19^th March 2012. Interviews will be held at Imperial College soon after the deadline. For enquiries, please contact Dr Rocío Baños-Piñero at r.banos-pinero@imperial.ac.uk.

Passionate Engagement

I have enjoyed novelist Caryl Phillips’ work since I was first introduced to it when I was doing my MFA in fiction. So I was very excited when I saw his new collection of non-fiction pieces, Colour Me English. This book is worth reading for lots of the pieces (the piece on James Baldwin was really sad and touching; Mr. Phillips’ remembrances of September 11 were likewise moving; his discussions about what it means to be English are thought-provoking), but I especially liked a section early on in the book:

***

I believe passionately in the moral capacity of fiction to wrench us out of our ideological burrows and force us to engage with a world that is clumsily transforming itself, a world that is peopled with individuals we might otherwise never meet in our daily lives. As long as we have literature as a bulwark again intolerance, and as a force for change, then we have a chance. Europe needs writers to explicate this transition, for literature is plurality in action; it embraces and celebrates a place of no truths, it relishes ambiguity, and it deeply respects the place where everybody has the right to be understood, both the thirteen-year-old boy whose books are thrown out of a bus window, and the boys who are throwing the books, and it judges neither party in the hope that by some often painfully slow process of imaginative osmosis one might finally recognise what passed before one’s eyes today, what occurred yesterday, and what will happen tomorrow, and it implores us to act with a compassion born of familiarity towards our fellow human beings, be they Christian, Jew, Muslim, black, brown, or white. This truly is my hope for Europe, and I know that the writer has a crucial part to play in this. I believe this. And this only.

***

I confess that I’m rather idealistic about fiction, the way Mr. Phillips is (and I’d expand his description above to include the whole world, not just Europe), and this sometimes make me feel like I don’t belong in my literature department at the university. There, people talk about theory and about authors being dead and about the intricacies of metaphor, and while these things are indeed important to discuss (I’m not so keen on the idea of authors being dead, myself, but that’s a different story), they aren’t all there is. I’m interested in how literature affects readers and how it can change people, and ultimately change the world. People tell me I’m silly, but like Mr. Phillips, “I believe passionately in the moral capacity of fiction to wrench us out of our ideological burrows and force us to engage with” the world and with other people.

Read Caryl Phillips’ book, and read his novels, and engage with the world around you.

Market Research

Short Fiction is a literary magazine devoted to, well, short fiction. The magazine accepts translated short stories.

Top 10 Blogs on Translation

’Tis the season for blog and website awards! Brave New Words has been listed as one of the top 10 blogs on translation. See the list here, and ignore the fact that I’ve been referred to as male, even though I’m actually female.

All these nominations and awards are much appreciated. Thanks so much to all my readers for reading, commenting, and nominating this blog!

Reading Before/After Vacationing

I have a friend who loves to read novels set in the city or country he’s about to travel to. For example, last year, we both attended a conference in San Francisco, and he prepared in part by reading novels (and also watching films) set in that city. I know other people who like to do the same thing as a way of entering holiday mode.

As for me, I actually prefer reading such novels after I’ve been on the vacation. That’s because then I can picture the scenes and I can understand the interaction of setting with plot and character better. Also, it keeps that holiday mode going a bit longer. It’s just a matter of personal preference, though.

Not long ago, I was at the library, browsing shelves, and I randomly picked up a book called Ashes to Dust by Yrsa Sigurdottir, translated from Icelandic to English by Philip Roughton. I turned to the back cover and saw that this crime novel was set in Iceland’s Westmann Islands (the so-called Vesuvius of the North), where I’d been earlier this year. That immediately sparked my interest and I checked out the book. I loved that the book was set in a place that I’d visited and that I knew something about. It made my enjoyment of the story much deeper and more personal somehow. And reading the novel also brought back wonderful memories from my holiday to Iceland.

What about you? Do you enjoy reading books before/after a vacation that are set in the vacation destination? Why or why not? And do you have any favorite such novels to recommend?

Market Research

Transcript Review is a literary magazine devoted to smaller languages. I only just learned about it, but it sounds interesting, so check it out.

Best Blog Award

Brave New Words has been nominated for the best blog about the English language by Macmillan dictionary. Please vote for BNW here (on the second page of the list).

Translation Goals for 2012

Happy new year!

What are your translation goals for this year?

One of my major goals is that I hope to continue promoting a couple of Swedish authors whose works are unfortunately not available in English yet. I’m working on some sample translations for them and I’m helping them query publishers in the US and the UK. They are wonderful authors but because they are neither well-known nor crime novelists, it’s hard for them to find publishers who will publish translations of their work. But I’m hopeful!

Happy Holidays

I hope you have a lovely and relaxing holiday season. Personally, I plan to take some time off to read for pleasure and to work on my own writing and translating.

Charitable Feelings and Translation

Though most of us who translate need to earn a living from our work, there are times when we will take on translation, editing, or writing jobs for no money. Mostly this is when we are feeling charitable and want to donate to an organization and when our donation comes in the form of our time and effort and not tangible money.

For example, I organized and edited the Bryn Mawr College Cookbook, a project that took months. All the proceeds went to my alma mater. I must confess that I was a bit surprised and offended when the college wrote me later that year to urge me to donate money to the school; I did a quick calculation and found that the time I’d spent putting the book together equaled several thousands of dollars worth of donations to the school, and that didn’t even include the time others had donated to the project or the proceeds the school received. Still, I was happy to do it.

But a university is not a charity. I’ve also done writing, editing, and translating for charitable organizations and for individuals, as a way of offering them some professional help that they might otherwise have had to pay for.

During this holiday season, I urge you to do likewise. If you can spare just a little of your time and your talents to help someone or an organization, I am sure that would be much appreciated.

Gillian Lathey and The Role of Translators in Children’s Literature

A few months ago, I published a review of Dr. Gillian Lathey’s latest contribution to translation studies. Her work on children’s literature is both important and fascinating, and she’s also a passionate speaker. Dr. Lathey, who teaches at Roehampton University in London, gave a great talk to my students this semester about the influence of translators on children’s literature and she also led a workshop for my MA students, encouraging them to look at various issues in regard to translating children’s lit. Here is the review:

The Role of Translators in Children’s Literature: Invisible Storytellers. Gillian Lathey. New York: Routledge, 2010. 241 pages. £76 (hardcover). ISBN: 078-0-415-98952-7.

Gillian Lathey’s latest contribution to the field of children’s literature in translation looks at the history of children’s literature in translation into English. Lathey provides an overview of translators and the role of the books and genres that they translated. As she points out, “Evidence from these biographical, bibliographical, and historical sources and from translators’ prefaces, afterwords, notes, and other writings has yet to be organised into a chronological account of translations and their resonance in English-language children’s literature. This book can only offer a starting point for such a major undertaking.” (5) It is an excellent starting point, and one can only hope that there will soon follow such histories of other languages.
Lathey’s book traces how early translators translated, without considering any particular special needs that children as an audience might have. Works for adults were read by and/or told to children, and this primarily included the Bible, romances/adventure stories, and fables and fairy tales. Even through the late 15th century, “[c]hildren were not yet regarded as separate consumers of texts other than books of instruction on courtesy and manners or schoolbooks.” (32) As Lathey points out, books became cheaper and more easily accessible via travelling booksellers, so children were able to read books not written or translated with a specific child audience in mind. Thus, children read what was available, and because such works were so popular, these were the ones that were most often translated. The style of translation generally seemed to include adaptation to the target culture. Lathey writes that “[i]t is hardly possible to speak of children experiencing cultural difference through these early translations of fables and romances, since multiple retellings had removed most cultural markers, but they did bring new kinds of stories to young readers. That novelty lay in the form of the short fable with its attached moral, or in the alternative, unsanctioned pleasures of the dramatic and episodic sixpenny romance.” (42)
Later on, writers and translators began to consider children as audiences with particular needs, and this led to the concept of writing works that could educate and improve children, while also entertaining them. A very popular book was Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, which was then translated and/or adapted in many countries. “Mapping and thereby controlling the natural world in fictional form was the province of the many European editions and reworkings of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, following Rousseau’s endorsement in Émile in 1762 of Defoe’s novel as the only text suitable for a child. The ‘robinsonnade’ was an unprecedented cross-cultural phenomenon in children’s literature, originating in Rousseau’s recommendation of Defoe’s novel as an exemplification of man’s autonomy and ability to improve his situation through intelligence, reflection, and hard word.” (62) This is a typical example, then, of adults using literature as a way of teaching children, and translators in turn felt they could change texts as needed, to better suit the target culture. The idea that the “child is a being whose natural instincts are not to be trusted, who is in constant danger of moral failure, disobedience, or succumbing to prejudice” (77) influenced how people then wrote or translated for children.
Things have changed today, so translators are very aware of who they are translating for. Instead of “religious persuasion, entertainment, and moral educational” (111), translators and theorists are more interested in a focus on child images and on appealing to what children want, rather than what adults think they need. “At the same time [as there has been increased academic interest in the topic] there has been an increase in the number of instances where translators directly address child readers, rather than their parents or teachers, in prefatory remarks.” (175) This affects what gets translated, by whom, and how.
Besides looking at which genres have been translated and how, Lathey also offers histories or case studies of some translators, such as William Caxton, Samuel Croxall, Helen Maria Williams, Thomas Holcroft, Mary Wollstonecraft, Edgar Taylor, Arthur Ransome (most people are unaware of his translation work), and Wanda Gág. She also has interviews with several more recent translators, Anthea Bell, Patricia Crampton, and Sarah Adams, about issues such as payment, working with editors, and methods for translation.
In this book, Lathey also briefly discusses topics such as the role of the Batchelder and Marsh awards, how the US and the UK were different in terms of translatorial strategies and practices in the 1930s, relay translations, women as translators and the related issue of the low status of translation, and more. Not all of these matters are covered in the detail that they deserve, but that is understandable given the scope of this work. Lathey aims here to “to trace in outline the chronology and impact of translators and translation on the history of children’s literature written in English and, wherever possible, to give an account of the motivation and methodology of translators working for a child audience.” (8) As such, her book is an important first step and it fills a gap in the field of translation studies. One can only hope that soon there will be such books for other languages/cultures as well, and that other researchers will pick up where Lathey has left off.

Reverso Website

Here’s yet another from the growing array of online translation websites. This is called Reverso and it includes a slightly different selection of languages, including Hebrew, Russian, and Arabic, than many other such sites.

End of the Semester Reflections

In just another week, the semester ends. It’s amazing how quickly the time goes by.

My teaching this semester has focused on children’s literature and on literary translation. I had 60 undergraduate students studying children’s literature and of course I made sure that we looked at texts for children from cultures other than English-speaking ones and that we discussed translation issues. In the MA course in literary translation, we looked at different genres, including children’s literature, drama, and detective fiction, with a brief foray into historical texts.

Besides the slight overlap in subjects, I noted that there was an overlap in the discussions the various classes had. Something that came up over and over again was power and the related issue of ethics. For example, in children’s literature, adults (in the form of authors, editors, translators, publishers, booksellers, librarians, parents, and teachers, among others) have power over the child readers (or the read-to) in terms of deciding what texts are available for them and how those texts tackle different topics. In translation, translators have power over their target audience in terms of what texts we make available to them and how, and editors and publishers and authors frequently have power over the translators in regard to strategies and approaches to translation.

That is to say that we must be aware of ways in which we might abuse our privileged positions, especially as adults and as translators. It’s easy to forget that we have this power, because we often complain about being overworked, underpaid, and invisible. But after having spent three months interrogating this subject in detail with my students, I am reminded that we would do well to always consider how our actions might affect others, whether in a translation or in some other way.

Market Research

The literary magazine Absinthe focuses on contemporary European writing and would be a good market for those who translate from European languages.

Translation on QI

On Stephen Fry’s wonderful QI, on the episode about “Inequality”, he recently mentioned that Louis Pasteur so hated the Germans after the Franco-Prussian war, that he would never allow his work to be translated to German. That then influenced the beer industry. See how translation crops up in the unlikeliest of places?

Funding and Grants

I’ve noticed that more and more often these days, publishers are contacting translators and asking us to find funding for books they want to publish but don’t want to pay for (or, to be fair, can’t pay for). Getting funding and applying for grants is not something we learn in university programs in translation and it’s not really something that many of us consider part of our jobs (see this article I wrote on getting grants awhile back). But it is something we have to learn more about; at the very least, we have to know how to advise publishers to go about finding and applying for the grants that governments and cultural institutions offer, even if we don’t do the actual applications ourselves. Sometimes we’re even asked to translate grant information (usually for free) and occasionally we’re begged to forgo part or even all of our fee so a book can get published.

Getting grants is not easy. It’s also quite a different skill from translating. Whose responsibility should it be? Personally, I’d like to be left to do what I’m good at (translating, editing, and writing), but I know that in this market, we have to be more willing to go into the business side of things and to help get the grants that will pay for our labor and get our work published. What do others think?

The Iowa Review

The Iowa Review wrote me quite awhile back to tell me about their new translation and literature forum. I only recently got around to looking at the site and I’m pleased to see such a high-profile literary magazine show translation some attention. You can check it out on the Iowa Review’s website.

Linguee Reference Site

The Linguee website might be of use to some of you, as it is an online bilingual dictionary for the language pairs English-German, English-French, English-Spanish, and English-Portuguese. It’s become quite popular and it might help those of you who work with those languages. Perhaps Linguee will expand beyond those tongues in the near future.

Translation at the European Parliament

The Terminology Coordination Unit at the European Parliament contacted me (and lots of other language professionals, I’m assuming) to tell me about their work translating between 24 languages. thought it was quite interesting. They wrote, for example, “Our activities also include maintaining external contacts with university departments, entities dealing with terminology and language specialists, informing more than 800 translators at the Parliament on various terminology- and language-specific conferences, organising three seminars per year under the general title "Terminology in the Changing World of Translation" as well as giving presentations in Luxembourg and abroad for terminology professionals and students.”

They run a website with information about their work and it’s worth having a look. Remember, the EU needs translators, so if you aim to be a full-time professional translator, this might be a place where you could work.

A PhD From the Other Side: Working with Supervisors

The past few posts were about getting a PhD, and they were from a student’s perspective, but here’s a link from the other side, i.e. your supervisor’s perspective. It talks about how to handle your supervisor.

I haven’t been on the other side that long (I only got my PhD in 2009) and I haven’t supervised that many PhD students, but I’ve learned a lot in that time. One is that it is incredibly enjoyable to work with PhD students and to help them on their journey.

But perhaps more relevantly for you, I’ve seen how things can go pretty wrong. Here is some simple and perhaps obvious advice.

If your supervisor asks you to submit work by a certain date, do it. If you don’t do it and your supervisor follows up (which, incidentally, is an annoyance for both of you and a waste of your supervisor’s limited time), respond to the message. Your supervisor cares and wants to make sure everything is okay. Your supervisor has an obligation to you, but you also have an obligation to him/her. Follow through and follow up.

When you submit work, make sure it is clean and clear. No grammatical or orthographic mistakes. No half-sentences. No unfinished ideas. No outlines (unless you were asked to submit an outline). Do the work that was requested and make sure you edit it carefully before turning it in. Be professional about your PhD; it is, after all, your job at this stage in your life.

If you are asked to submit your work in a certain format (by email, for example, or in hard copy), do it. Different teachers have different preferences for how they read student work. I prefer emailed documents, so I can use Microsoft’s Track Changes feature and edit the work in a neat fashion. But others prefer hard copies. So listen to what your supervisor requests and follow the instructions.

If you have a meeting scheduled, prepare for it. This means having the work finished and submitted on time, as discussed above. This also means that you come armed with questions and/or discussion points. Your supervisor will generally direct the meeting, but you should have some comments as well. This is your chance to get advice, so take advantage of it. Also, this should be needless to say, but come to meetings on time. It’s so irritating and inconsiderate when students are late or don’t show up at all.

Also in meetings, make sure you take notes. You’re not going to remember everything that was said, so make the most of your opportunity and write down the ideas and critiques you get. I’ve been in supervisions where a student just says “Yeah, yeah, yeah” and doesn’t write anything down. It won’t surprise you that such students don’t generally make the changes that have been suggested in the meeting. This means that the supervisor then has to repeat all those comments another time, and what’s the point of that?

You don’t have to agree with or do everything your supervisor says, but you should at least listen to it with an open mind. It’s pretty rude for a student to make faces, sigh, or interrupt while the supervisor is talking, and yet I’ve seen this more times than I would have liked.

Don’t waste time in meetings talking about your personal life, unless this is directly relevant to your studies (if you’re going through a divorce or you’ve had a death in the family or another difficult situation, you may need a break from your studies or an extension to a deadline).

Do be polite at all times. This means thanking anyone who exerts time and effort on your behalf, not just your supervisors but admin staff, other teachers, interview subjects, and so on. It’s just good manners. And to be crass about it, you’ll probably want or need a reference from your supervisor later, so it doesn’t hurt to make a good impression.

Good luck working with your supervisor!

Getting a PhD

The past two posts were about good and bad reasons for thinking you might want to get a PhD in translation studies. Here I want to write a bit more about what kind of person you should be in order to succeed in a PhD program.

I won’t lie to you. It is difficult to get a PhD and it takes a lot of effort, motivation, and perseverance, but if you are passionate and hard-working, you can probably manage it. You have to be willing to spend three or more years really focused on your topic and that means you have to choose a topic that you truly care about. It is easy to let yourself get swayed by what a supervisor suggests or wants or by a grant opportunity you spot (there are sometimes grants for people who agree to research a particular subject or agree to take on a certain job in exchange for having their PhD paid for), but I would personally recommend that you pick a topic you are fascinated by, or you will find your motivation dropping partway through the program.

You also have be able to work independently and to push yourself. You spend a lot of the time in a PhD program researching by yourself, reading and taking notes by yourself, writing up drafts by yourself, editing by yourself, and struggling by yourself. If you’re very sociable and can’t handle spending time on your own and/or if you find it hard to motivate yourself, then a PhD is not for you. If you can set goals and hunker down to make them happen, then you’d probably do well in a PhD program. A PhD is not like a BA, in that teachers won’t chase you to find out why you’re not attending seminars or turning in your work (or, okay, your supervisors will chase you a bit, but not as much as if you were an undergrad or a high school student). It’s all up to you to make sure things happen.

You also have to be the kind of person who can handle criticism. Your supervisors want to ensure that your work is as good as possible and that it will pass muster when it comes time for your defense/viva and for any possible publications. In most cases, they aren’t trying to be mean, but they may sound harsh (especially if you keep making the same mistakes and don’t seem to listen to what they are telling you). I’ve seen students cry over the criticism they get or go into a panicked spiral of self-doubt. That doesn’t help anything, although of course it’s okay to pity yourself a bit now and then. You have to learn how to hear what is useful in the feedback you get and to be able to brush yourself off, make changes, and carry on.

On the other hand, you have to believe in yourself and know how and when to defend your ideas or your way of writing. Your supervisors aren’t always right, even if they want you to think they are, and sometimes you have to tell them, “Thanks for the suggestion, but I think I’ll actually continue on in this way because…” or “I’m not so sure about that because…” You’re not always in the wrong and you have to know when to give in and when not to. You also have to learn how to defend your ideas and methods, as this is an important part of academia.

You also have to be fairly academic and interested in the theoretical side of things. You can’t just write a PhD thesis/dissertation on why you translate in a particular way or on suggestions for translators. While the practical aspect is essential and while there should be less of a practical-theoretical divide than there currently is, a PhD is pretty theoretical. I’ve talked to MA students who say they’re interested in doing a PhD, but “only if there’s no theory”. It doesn’t work like that, I’m afraid.

Mentioning the obvious, you have to know at least two languages. I’ve actually been contacted by people who’ve proposed that they study the translations of a particular author or book but without knowing the source language. Of course looking at target texts is essential, but that can’t be all you do. It’s not called “studying translations” but “translation studies” and there is a big difference there.

Ideally, you’d also be a translator yourself or at least have some experience translating. I’m sometimes surprised and dismayed by the number of people in translation studies who profess to be able to comment on what translators do but wouldn’t know how to translate themselves. An art critic has to know something about color and perspective and an expert in translation studies should know something – on a practical level – about words and context.

So, if you have many of the skills and qualities mentioned here and if you are interested in academia (whether for just a few years or for your entire career), why not apply to PhD programs? You sound like you could be a good candidate!

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post about what you actually do in a PhD program in translation studies, so you might want to check that out for more information.

Why Not to Get a PhD

This is a companion post to the last one. Here I’d like to mention bad reasons for thinking you might want to get a PhD in translation and/or signs that you are not suited to a PhD. These include, but are not limited to:

--You simply want “Dr.” before your name and “PhD” after it. Sorry, but a desire for titles is not a good reason to spend 3-10 years working on another degree. I’ve met people like this and I think they’re just wasting their time, because they don’t have the right sort of motivation.

--You aren’t interested in one particular topic. I know some people who are quite smart and engaged, but like to constantly change the subject they are engaged with. That doesn’t work in a PhD. Here you must be willing to work intensely on one subject.

--You don’t know what to do with your life, so getting another degree seems like a sensible option. Getting a PhD is a huge investment in terms of time, money, and effort, so actually, in many ways it’s not a sensible thing to do. I know people who’ve started graduate degrees because they didn’t know what else to do and partway through lost their enthusiasm. They ended up realizing that they wasted their time and money when they could have been finding a job they really enjoyed.

--You don’t enjoy translation theory or any sort of theory. If you’re purely a practice-based person – and there’s nothing wrong with you if you are! – then you probably don’t want to spend a number of years thinking on a theoretical level.

--You know you want to work solely as a translator and you already have a number of customers and/or a niche in the market. In this case, a PhD probably won’t help you too much, as you don’t seem to need much in the way of marketing your skills and services.

--You are the type of person who doesn’t like working independently. In this case, it’s hard to imagine that you will do too well as a translator, and you definitely won’t survive a PhD program, where you have to work on your own and be very motivated.

Again, as with the reasons for getting a PhD, these reasons can apply to many fields, not just translation.

See the next post for more on getting a PhD.

Why Get a PhD

I get quite a few emails from people who are considering getting a PhD in translation but want some sort of confirmation that it’s a good idea. While I obviously can’t offer that, because decisions about what to do with one’s life are extremely personal and context-dependent, I can say some of the reasons why you might want to get a PhD in translation. These include, but are not limited to:

--You want to go into academia. In most cases, you will need a PhD to get an academic job.

--You have a passion for a particular subject and want to explore it in depth. This is what a PhD is about.

--You want a qualification that will help you stand out from other translators. I know a number of translators with PhDs and they certainly say that in a glutted market, any extra qualifications or skills can help you get work instead of someone else.

--You want a qualification that will help you stand out from other writers. Some people get a PhD because they then want to write “the” book on a particular subject. Many PhDs do lead on to books based on the thesis/dissertation and having another qualification will help ensure a publisher that you are the right expert for the book.

--You love learning and would thrive in an academic environment for a number of years. Some people really enjoy attending classes, seminars, and workshops, spending time in the library, debating and discussing ideas with others, and so on. If that’s you, then getting another degree might very well suit you.

Obviously, many of these ideas are applicable to areas other than translation!

In the next two posts, I’ll write some more about getting a PhD in translation.