The Linguist

@Linguist_CIOL AUGUST/SEPTEMBER The Linguist 33 INSTITUTE MATTERS Meet our members DANIEL GWIRA DISCUSSES HIS RECENT MOVE TO GHANA AND THE THINGS HE HAS LEARNT AS A TRANSLATOR quickly and the only reason I am not quite working at normal pace is the pandemic (which would be the same anywhere). Which of your assignments over the years have you been most excited about? After 21 years as a translator I've had too many exciting assignments to mention. One that particularly interests me now is a legal case involving Ryanair and some employees who were made redundant during the pandemic. It's an ongoing case with ever more twists and turns – and also quite lucrative for me! What advice would you give a newcomer? The main thing I would advise someone coming into the industry to do is pay attention to the advice you were given when studying to become a translator. I was told a lot of things but chose to ignore much of it in the beginning – to my cost. You will also learn a lot of things along the way. As a freelancer you have to decide whether to work only with agencies, only with direct clients, or with a mix of both. I've only worked with agencies because that fits my talents. To work with direct clients you have to be tech-savvy so as to handle the many technical problems that will inevitably arise. When working with agencies you have to remember that many project managers do translations on the side, so they can be as stressed as you (or more!). Who has most inspired you in your life? I can't say any specific person has inspired me though I have admired a number of historical figures. What has inspired me most is an idea: to have the broadest possible education. That has helped me considerably in translation because you need a broad frame of reference in many subjects and not just in the specific specialism you're working in. Tell us a bit about your background… I was born in the UK but went to secondary school in Ghana. I started being interested in languages other than English in my mid-teens: French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. I learned them on my own because there were no teachers (except on and off in French). I can't say that was a problem specific to a developing country, because I doubt many schools anywhere would have the resources to provide teaching in all those languages. I originally wanted to teach French literature in an American university. I was given a scholarship to study for a PhD there, but I left with a Master's because I wanted to broaden my mind in other subjects and languages. After seven years in the US, I ended up in London and started studying to gain a Diploma in Translation. My work in languages started from there, although I struggled to get work as a freelance translator at first. Why did you want to work with languages? I've always had a love for the English language. As a child, reading was my favourite pastime and the language was invariably English because we were living in the British Isles. I was taught a bit of French as a small child but thought it 'hard', which is surprising because I later took BA and MA degrees in French literature, and currently translate from French into English. You recently moved back to Ghana. Why did you make that decision at that time? I spent much of my life in the West because, for a long time, I liked it better than my own part of the world. However, if you live in a country as part of a minority you have to accept how the majority culture treats you, or leave to a place where you feel more comfortable. I took a lot of crap from people, which included a few bad experiences with racist individuals in the translation industry. There was an American who had a pile of jumbled up texts he wanted me to sort out – not translate or edit. There was an assumption that I wasn't a proper translator, just an office help. At a German translation society meeting in London, a guy who had been very helpful to me as a new translator suddenly called me a monkey. Overall my experience of the UK translation industry was ok, but changes are needed in the West, which is why I left. What challenges were there in moving your business from Southampton to Accra? My main challenge in returning to Ghana was getting used to a country I'd last seen in March 1982! There weren't any big administrative or business challenges, though before I moved it had seemed an impossible undertaking. The internet in Accra is acceptable, though not as good on the outskirts, where I live, as in the city centre. I live where I do because of its rus in urbe environment and beautiful surrounding hills. I managed to set up in business very

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