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OPINION & COMMENT TERESA TINSLEY First steps Follow our new columnist on her first year in the translation industry JULIA GRAHAM eachers on my Masters in Translation course at the University of Westminster warned us that we would need one to two years to set ourselves up as translators and be able to make a viable living. Yet I was eased into a false sense of security by the number of emails I received through my university from translation agencies and companies who had vacancies they were looking to fill. Moreover, at careers events for translation and interpreting students, the guest speakers always spoke of the great demand for German<>English translation, a set in my combination. I loved hearing about the day-to-day running of a translation company and the aspects of having your own one-man (or onewoman!) show. I diligently scribbled down everything I heard in my little notebook and, in idle moments, would think of how I would design my own business cards. Once my MA project (extended translation plus annotations) was submitted, I began to look for freelance opportunities. The reality didn���t meet my romanticised expectations. As someone newly qualified, my first instinct was to try the boards on ProZ.com that list translation projects. I attended one of their free webinars on making the most of your profile to attract work and was doing all I could to be proactive, but there seemed to be so many stumbling blocks. First of all, the section on computer assisted translation (CAT) tools tripped me up. Having funded myself through my Masters by working five evenings a week in a call centre and with a hefty overdraft, I was in no financial state to be spending on software or a new, compatible laptop. My balance sheet was far T Vol/51 No/6 2012 from balanced, as my economics lecturer stressed it must be. Of course, the problem with software is not just in acquiring it, it is also in learning how to use it. I was having problems getting my elderly Macbook to talk to free-trial Parallels Desktop, Trados and MemoQ software. And having devoured as many reviews as I could about Mac compatible software, I was still somewhat wary of Wordfast, with many people voicing their concerns over its reliability. The iPhone 5 has just been released, our phones can now talk to us, write our emails and text messages, and yet there still seems to be a lack of CAT tools available for Mac users. I decided a different approach was needed. I like working under pressure and I am aware that there is not always enough time to go back over translations ten times in order to polish them to ���perfection���, but I wasn���t prepared to accept some of the unreasonable deadlines and remuneration on sites listing translation projects. I agree that I shouldn���t be paid as much as someone who has been working in the industry for a number of years and who is therefore more able than me, but I do not want to support anything that diminishes the skill, quality or importance of the industry. I left that na��ve person back in the classroom with her business card and logo doodles. So, for now, I am sending off CVs and job applications for in-house translation positions. It does take some skill rummaging through the good and the impossible offers. Not surprisingly, the vacancy for the person who can translate German > English, English > German, French > German and German > French is still unfilled��� Meanwhile, to keep my mind in translation mode, I am reading anything technical I can lay my hands on, such as the fire installation guide that our builder left behind. Unlike in the period of my last review, when A-level results dominated press coverage of language issues, there have been no big language stories over the last couple of months, but rather a range of topics and titbits that have caught the eye of journalists. Perhaps the one that has sparked the most interest is the ���Twitter map��� of London, showing that people in the capital are tweeting in 66 languages ��� with Spanish the most popular language after English. This sits uneasily besides the news that the exam board OCR is planning to withdraw Asset Languages exams in 20 of its 25 languages ��� leaving only French, German, Italian, Mandarin and Spanish. This was covered not only in the TES (���Language Woes Deepen���) but also by the New Statesman, with Rowenna Davis asking ���Why is the Government Ripping into Language Learning?��� (13/9/12). The NS also published a wry piece about how Nick Clegg had left his Number 10 ���minder ��� uncomprehending in a corner, while he held a meeting with European Council President Herman van Rompuy entirely in Dutch. The Financial Times contributed a couple of solid pieces about the advantages of languages in business: Tim Smedley���s article on 25 October included some excellent quotes from the British Chambers��� Adam Marshall, while, in September, Michael Skapinker argued that employers should pay a premium for foreign language skills in order to encourage more Brits to learn them. Meanwhile, we learnt from The Telegraph that the ���world���s biggest social network for language learning��� ��� busuu.com ��� will be moving its HQ from Madrid to London, following investment by Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Lastminute.com. And two prominent people have been reported as going multilingual: The Washington Post reported that Arabic is to be added to the languages of the Pope���s weekly message and, nearer to home, we learnt from The Sun that Kelly Brook has been learning French ��� for her forthcoming film Le��on d�����roticisme��� Languages are so versatile, aren���t they? Teresa Tinsley is Director of Alcantara Communications; www.alcantaracoms.com. DECEMBER/JANUARY The Linguist 25