Off topic: Translation Article Topic Suggestions? Thread poster: Patricia Bowden
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Patricia Bowden
Italy
Local time: 12:10
Member (2013)
Japanese to English
+ ...
Hello everyone!
I hope you all had a wonderful start to 2024.
Last month, I accepted an interesting project. One of my clients asked me to write 12 articles (1 per month) about translating in general for their newsletter. I am free to choose the topic, but I must keep in mind that I will be writing to translators in multiple language pairs (so nothing too specific).
In January, I wrote an opinion piece on the benefits of a collaborative approach to translat... See more Hello everyone!
I hope you all had a wonderful start to 2024.
Last month, I accepted an interesting project. One of my clients asked me to write 12 articles (1 per month) about translating in general for their newsletter. I am free to choose the topic, but I must keep in mind that I will be writing to translators in multiple language pairs (so nothing too specific).
In January, I wrote an opinion piece on the benefits of a collaborative approach to translating. For February, I will write about my personal process for translating. It may be helpful for some of the newer translators to read about the process of an older translator (I can't believe it's been 10 years already). I also wrote about skills translators can cultivate in order to stay ahead of AI for national translator's month, so I can't do that again. —side note: I edited AI translations for a bit in 2022. It was awful. The translations always seemed fine at first glance, but once I really got into it, it was worse than a novice translator. I stopped doing it after a month. Too much stress.—
I wanted to know if any of you lovely people had any other ideas for topics. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Can we see the first two articles? | Feb 17 |
Just to see what general direction you're going?
Patricia Bowden wrote:
Last month, I accepted an interesting project. One of my clients asked me to write 12 articles (1 per month) about translating in general for their newsletter. I am free to choose the topic...
In January, I wrote an opinion piece on the benefits of a collaborative approach to translating. For February, I will write about my personal process for translating.
I wanted to know if any of you lovely people had any other ideas for topics.
Many of us are not lovely
| | | | Patricia Bowden
Italy
Local time: 12:10
Member (2013)
Japanese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | I am not really sure what direction I want to take | Feb 17 |
I am not sure if I can share them publicly. However, I think I can share this description of my section in the newsletter.
Gain insights from our senior translator Patricia as she shares her experiences, thoughts, and tips on navigating the translation industry.
With this in mind:
If you were receiving this newsletter, what topics would you want me to cover?
If you were writing for this newsletter, what would you write about?... See more I am not sure if I can share them publicly. However, I think I can share this description of my section in the newsletter.
Gain insights from our senior translator Patricia as she shares her experiences, thoughts, and tips on navigating the translation industry.
With this in mind:
If you were receiving this newsletter, what topics would you want me to cover?
If you were writing for this newsletter, what would you write about?
If you were a new translator, what kind if insights would you want to hear?
This is my first time doing anything like this and so, I don't really have a general direction, what kind of direction would you take?
Cilian O'Tuama wrote:
Many of us are not lovely
And that's why I love this community. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 12:10
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| KudoZ for copywriters | Feb 17 |
In KudoZ: can you translate this phrase for me?
Here: Can you make my content plan for me?
I don’t wanna sound too harsh, but I think you are asking for too much. Is this an audience research or looking for creative ideas? I think a paid copywriter should be well-equipped to complete both on their own.
At least personally I can’t answer this as I never ever read newsletters, never mind what’s in them. Good luck anyway.
[Edited at 2024-02-17 13:... See more In KudoZ: can you translate this phrase for me?
Here: Can you make my content plan for me?
I don’t wanna sound too harsh, but I think you are asking for too much. Is this an audience research or looking for creative ideas? I think a paid copywriter should be well-equipped to complete both on their own.
At least personally I can’t answer this as I never ever read newsletters, never mind what’s in them. Good luck anyway.
[Edited at 2024-02-17 13:09 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| Maybe tell us more about your client? | Feb 18 |
What are they aiming at? Who reads their newsletter? What are they trying to sell? To whom?
And what's "national translator's month"?
Just innocent questions.
C
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:10
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Patricia Bowden wrote:
I wanted to know if any of you lovely people had any other ideas for topics.
Just make sure you always play up the role played by translators, for instance
. the importance of a friendly professional relationship between the translator and the client;
- the challenge for a client in making contact with a translator who has specific knowledge in a particular field (as I recently discovered with a client who needed a translator with a very particular set of skills);
- the difference in quality, accuracy, and style between an automatic translation and a human translation;
- the role of the translator in keeping the world going round (without translation the world would come to a stop)-
Etc.
[Edited at 2024-02-18 17:46 GMT]
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I know the following is not about the more or less easy going subject "culture", but I would start a survey and research based on the influence of already translated reference material on technical, medical or chemical translations, where both, the first translator(s) of the reference, and the end translator, have no sufficient background of the subject. I was so annoyed last year with a job for a high level end client where I had to complete various already translated documents based on patents... See more I know the following is not about the more or less easy going subject "culture", but I would start a survey and research based on the influence of already translated reference material on technical, medical or chemical translations, where both, the first translator(s) of the reference, and the end translator, have no sufficient background of the subject. I was so annoyed last year with a job for a high level end client where I had to complete various already translated documents based on patents. It was a mess and I had to translate so many pretranslations on scratch, to avoid to deliver a completely unconsistent end documentary. I would create that article with the title "Error propagation in translations" and would make a deeper research for the reasons and what effect all these factors have on the translation culture (or should I better say sub culture?) as such. And whenever I looked up the products on the German sections of the end clients website (a multinational robotics and electrical equipment company with three big letters), I was shocked about the quality. I wonder to what extent those documents will be used again and again as reference, either by translators or AI based systems such as DeepL. Food for thought? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Patricia Bowden
Italy
Local time: 12:10
Member (2013)
Japanese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | You answered a question I didn't ask | Feb 20 |
Lingua 5B wrote:
In KudoZ: can you translate this phrase for me?
Here: Can you make my content plan for me?
I don’t wanna sound too harsh, but I think you are asking for too much. Is this an audience research or looking for creative ideas? I think a paid copywriter should be well-equipped to complete both on their own.
At least personally I can’t answer this as I never ever read newsletters, never mind what’s in them. Good luck anyway.
[Edited at 2024-02-17 13:09 GMT]
I am not a fan of bad-faith answers like this.
I never asked anyone to make a content plan for me. I simply asked if anyone had idea ideas. You don't? That's fine. You and everyone who agreed with you can keep it moving.
Edit: I just wanted to ad that I am not, nor did I claim to be a copy-writer. I am first and foremost a translator. I just happened to write one article and it ended up being more popular than I ever imagined. I am literally a fish out of water here. Obviously, I will get this done with or without help, but I thought it would be a good idea to ask other translators what they would write about if they were in the same situation.
[Edited at 2024-02-20 20:07 GMT]
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Patricia Bowden
Italy
Local time: 12:10
Member (2013)
Japanese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Cilian O'Tuama wrote:
What are they aiming at? Who reads their newsletter? What are they trying to sell? To whom?
And what's "national translator's month"?
Just innocent questions.
C
The newsletter is aimed at other translators. It is something they created to help facilitate a comraderie within their network and a place to share knowledge. There's a section that highlights a translator (like a self-introduction), a section that praises a translator (kind of like employee of the month), a section that shares positive customer feedback, a section that highlights a project that a customer complained about and how it was resolved so that we can learn from it, and now my section.
I don't think even they have a clear goal in mind for my section. They just told me that my article on skills that translators can hone to stay ahead of AI got a lot of positive feedback from the other translators and offered me this.
"National translator's month" is an incorrect term that I used. It should be "International Translation Day." Last year, this agency did their own celebration for "International Translation Day" but it was for the entire month and so I got a bit mixed up. I apologize.
Nothing is for sale. They're just trying to do something nice.
| | | | Patricia Bowden
Italy
Local time: 12:10
Member (2013)
Japanese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Matthias Brombach wrote:
I know the following is not about the more or less easy going subject "culture", but I would start a survey and research based on the influence of already translated reference material on technical, medical or chemical translations, where both, the first translator(s) of the reference, and the end translator, have no sufficient background of the subject. I was so annoyed last year with a job for a high level end client where I had to complete various already translated documents based on patents. It was a mess and I had to translate so many pretranslations on scratch, to avoid to deliver a completely unconsistent end documentary. I would create that article with the title "Error propagation in translations" and would make a deeper research for the reasons and what effect all these factors have on the translation culture (or should I better say sub culture?) as such. And whenever I looked up the products on the German sections of the end clients website (a multinational robotics and electrical equipment company with three big letters), I was shocked about the quality. I wonder to what extent those documents will be used again and again as reference, either by translators or AI based systems such as DeepL. Food for thought?
That is VERY interesting. I encountered similar problems when I worked as a project manager.
Thank you!
| | | | P.L.F. Persio
Netherlands
Local time: 12:10
English to Italian
+ ...
| Draw from your experience | Feb 21 |
Hi Patricia,
I hope you don't mind if, on my way to keep moving, I stop for a couple of words.
Since you already have a 10-year working experience, both as a project manager and a translator, I'm sure you've met many challenges, and had to come up with viable solutions to the most different problems more than once: this is great building material for a long-running blog/newsletter.
You say tha... See more Hi Patricia,
I hope you don't mind if, on my way to keep moving, I stop for a couple of words.
Since you already have a 10-year working experience, both as a project manager and a translator, I'm sure you've met many challenges, and had to come up with viable solutions to the most different problems more than once: this is great building material for a long-running blog/newsletter.
You say that you can't be too specific, but don't be afraid to give it your personal touch, in order to attract – and retain – your readers' attention. For instance, you translate from Japanese, and I'd find it really interesting to know more about how you deal with such a different language.
Matthias's tip is spot-on, it's a topical issue that deserves to be highlighted. It's a big idea, so you could split it in two parts, and you'd have two months covered.
I'm also with Tom, big us up. Be confident, you got this. ▲ Collapse
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