Student athletes may not realize the long term adv Essays

Student athletes may not realize the long term adverse effects of injuries sustained while participating in competitive sports at the high school level. The wear and tear athletes subject their bodies to in their prime of their athletic career most often leads to serious health problems later on in life. Some of the most popular sports that put players at a high risk of being injured include basketball, soccer, football, volleyball, tennis, badminton, softball and baseball. Although baseball and softball are entirely different sports, the injuries suffered by players from both sports are notably similar. Softball and baseball are both sports where injuries mainly occur from overusing muscles or from trauma that occurs suddenly and by force. Common injuries from baseball and softball include tendinitis, torn rotator cuffs, shoulder separation, tennis elbow, knee ligament injuries, broken wrists, broken fingers and bursitis of the elbow and shoulder. Softball players suffer fewer injuries to the elbow and shoulder than baseball players do because of the natural motion of underhand pitching. However, most pitchers and players of both sports will develop arthritis in their hands from the constant strain on their joints. The long term effects of these injuries are joint stiffness, swelling and pain in the affected areas. Basketball is one of the other sport that has many adverse effects on the body in the long run due to the wear and tear on the knees and joints from repetitive jumping motions, having to pivot and change directions suddenly, being constantly knocked to the gym floor and being pushed and shoved by other players. When most people think of football-related injuries, concussion, broken bones and knee complications come to mind, but what most don't realize are the long term effects of suffering from such injuries. ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) tears, MCL (medial collateral ligament) injuries, Meniscus tears, Hip pointers, and AC (acromioclavicular) joint injuries are all common damages sustained while playing football at the competitive level and can lead to severe and chronic pain, mobility impairments, and loss of full limb functionality later on in life. My dad is a prime example. He had many colleges fighting to get him on there team, but his senior year the state moved his school up from a 4A to 5A and he was hit extremely hard in the wrong place. He ended up with a very bad concussion, one of about six, but still one of the worst ones he had. All of his college offers were dropped when he could've had the potential to become an NFL player. Volleyball involves jumping, sprinting, and collisions with the gym floor at any given moment. It is no surprise that so many injuries occur in this sport that has lasting effects on the body. Because volleyball is mostly an overhead sport - meaning the player's arm is arched above the head - as it is in spiking, blocking and serving the ball, a considerable number of injuries occur in the shoulders and wrists of the players. Despite the injuries players sustain most, including myself, would say that it was worth sacrificing their bodies for the love of the game.

The portrayal of women Essays

The portrayal of women Essays The portrayal of women Essay The portrayal of women Essay Women are portrayed very differently in these pre-twentieth short stories than they are in real life today. This helps to show how differently women were looked at generally before 1900. Women were seen at as inferior and the second sex in these stories. They are also seen as breeding machines and if they did not have a husband to support them with money, then they would die. This is in stark contrast to today, where they are independent and lead their own lives. Women no longer need a man to survive. In The Half Brothers by Elizabeth Gaskell, women are regarded as needing a husband to stay alive. This is shown in the very first line of the story, My mother was twice married. Even in this small statement, we can see from the fact that she was married twice that she needed a husband. When her first husband died, the mother was left with a huge mountain to climb, and the farm on her hands for four years more by the lease, with half the stock on it dead, or sold off one by one to pay the more pressing debts, and with no money to purchase more. This quote shows that without a husband, her life is a struggle. She has been left with a farm which she does not know how to run, with dying animals, and with no money whatsoever. The fact that she was expecting another child meant that her life would have been full of fear of not having enough money to be able to support her and her family. I can see that she is desperate from when her sister comes over and together they, planned and plotted how to make every penny they could raise go as far as possible. We also know that food is short when the story says, but my mother knew that they were pinched, and that aunt Fanny herself had not as much to eat, even of the commonest kind of food, as she could have done with; and as for Gregory, he was not a strong lad. The question of money is eradicated when William Preston asks the mother to marry him. He is a wealthy man and he promises to look after her and her boy. She would never have to do anything ever again because William Preston can provide her with everything she would ever need, and as William Prestons wife she would never need to do anything, if she chose to sit with her hands before her; and a boy was a great charge to a widowed mother; and now there would be a decent, steady man to see after him. The only problem is that she does not love William Preston but it seems as if the offer of marriage is too good to refuse. Indeed it was too good to refuses and she and William Preston were married. This situation again highlights the need of a woman for a husband. Here the woman has married a man purely for money, so that she can have a comfortable life with her children. She does not even love the man, and never smiled after the day when she promised William Preston to be his wife.

Charity Fraud

In the United States, the charity foundation is an organization that formalizes poverty reduction, promotes education, supports disaster relief, and / or supports community projects. A charitable organization is a nonprofit organization that can take the form of a nonprofit private foundation (trust fund) or management foundation (public charity). When many of us hear the tragic events that happen near our house, we open our minds to support other people in need and support them. Every day millions of people donate to charities around the world. However, charities rarely know where to go and how much they will be donated. Unfortunately charitable organization fraud is becoming an increasingly big problem and only one third of the people in the United States have not expressed distrust of their donation. Altruism, charity, and kindness are used to explain the basic desires of most people to influence and help other people. To take advantage of this fundamental trend, we need a strateg y to organize individuals, employers, businessmen, charities, charitable organizations and fundraiser activities and respond with trends of increasing demand in the world with new and more effective solutions is. Fraud involves many activities including forms or other misunderstandings to obtain financial or significant benefits. According to Levi et al. (2007) Interest fraud, charity fraud, check fraud, consumer fraud, intellectual property and product counterfeiting, public money misuse, game fraud, insider trading / market abuse, insurance fraud, loan fraud, pension fraud, Purchase fraud and tax fraud. (Levi et al. 2007) McBarnet (1988) is able to avoid illegal activities by hiring professional consultants to comply with the law, so usually wealthy offenders or large corporations will take white collar crimes He pointed out that it is the people who can make maximum use. Letters of the law. However, if you violate the rules, you can also use expert consultants, hire the best lawy ers, negotiate with law enforcement agencies and competition cases, and create even more luxurious results. (Croll, 1989) This is not the first time to submit a charity fraud. Continuing Google's fraudulent fraud may result in new incidents when you go there. Hundreds of people around the world are using goodwill from others. This is only an example. It was reported three days ago. I have seen it over and over and I admit that I have hardly read this article. It pays $ 44,000 per year, but spends more than $ 500,000 on business expenses. Money is given to new Ferraris and new homes, not to those in need.

The Industrial Process of Product Design and Development Essay

The Industrial Process of Product Design and Development - Essay Example This is basically done through developing innovative techniques which facilitate achieving cost reduction, optimum utilization of resources or improve the quality of the end product (Heizer, Render and Weiss, 2004). Lean manufacturing techniques have therefore evolved as an important aspect in product development processes which facilitates organizations to develop systems that makes optimal utilization of resources and develops a number of competitive advantages for the organization. Lean manufacturing principles are vastly adopted by organizations so that resources can be optimally utilized and value additions at every stage of production are more effective. In other words it can be explained that lean facilitates enhancing effectiveness in the product designing and manufacturing process. Engineers across the world try developing new and innovative concepts which leads to unique benefits for the company, the industry and the customers (Slack, Chambers and Johnston, 2009). The curre nt paper deals with understanding the important of lean manufacturing systems in modern day manufacturing process. It is basically seen that organizations which adopt the lean product development techniques are able to survive market competition and make their products more suitable in enhancing consumer satisfaction. Lean manufacturing system is mainly about achieving resource optimization and enhancing the quality of the end products. In most organization lean concepts are used to strategically counter competition and reduce wastages. One of the most important features of the lean system is that it aids in integrating the needs of customers into the production system (P. Coughlan and D. Coghlan, 2002). Since the prime objective of firms is to fulfil the needs of the consumers, it becomes essential that at every stage of manufacturing consumer needs are kept in mind and accordingly product attr4ibutes are formed. The development of an efficient product

Critical Thinking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Critical Thinking - Essay Example Patients have access to medical advice and similar cases online and can be extremely curious and choosy about medicines prescribed. Hence, medical practitioners must be prepared for queries from patients or their relatives about a particular line of treatment and the medicines prescribed. There are cures for some of the above diseases. Others such as stroke and Alzheimer disease, by and large, do not have an effective cure as of now. In these circumstances, it is advisable to opt for therapeutic treatments such as basic and simple exercises and physiotherapy as these enable patients to live with due adjustments for longer time periods. The above diseases interfere with the physical and mental capacities of the patients. The interference depends on the severity of the attack. It is important to get the correct diagnosis of the disease. Once the correct diagnosis is concluded, the regimen of medicines must be made available to the patient if he or she has to make informed decisions on whether or not to opt for the medicines. The patient has to make informed decisions because certain medicines have debilitating side effects (Deverell, Lil; 2002). Along with periodical nursing care, family members are the best caregivers for patients with the above diseases. The degree of self-support the patient is able to exercise depends on his recovery process and the metal frame. There may be bouts of frustrating moments for the patient and the caregivers. However, the healing process has surprising elements when the patient begins to adjust to the new lifestyle with the ailment (McConnell, Virginia; 2009). Patients must be able to live and move with dignity in spite of the debilitating effects of the disease. Nurses' interactions with the patient must be professional and spontaneous so that the best interests of the patient are served and family members who are involved as long-term caregivers receive useful lessons about caring for the patient. "Patients who are confused hav e changes in their actions and behaviors. A common memory problem is the inability to remember recent events. A confused patient may not remember that he just had breakfast. Personality changes including mood swings, suspiciousness, and delusions may be seen. Disorientation is another common symptom. The confused patient may have difficulty remembering the day of the week, season, or even the time of day" (Caring for the Client who is Confused or Mentally ILL). Along with medical help, the attitude and values of a nurse go a long way in restoring health and confidence of the patient. The confident and reassuring ways of a concerned nurse boost the patient's morale. Time and again, there are awesome accounts of patients receiving the healing touch because of the nature of care received from a particular doctor, nurse or nurses (McConnell, Virginia; 2009). Ethics Professional standards and core competencies in the nursing profession define the essence of a nurse.

Williams Sonoma. Measuring the strategic readiness of intangible assets Essay Example for Free

Williams Sonoma. Measuring the strategic readiness of intangible assets Essay The marketing strategies that Williams-Sonoma is applying involve the extensive use of the internet to market its products to the masses. Online marketing and business provides numerous business opportunities across the globe since it is easily accessible to everyone. This creates opportunity for the company to access various customers as well as suppliers and even potential partners that they can do business with and ensure they provide quality products at affordable costs (Simonson, 1999). This as it has been seen has greatly contributed towards the success of the company. It has been able to increase its customer base, increase in sales of its products and in the long run an increase in its profitability. It is important to note that the internet is continuously growing day by day and there are lots of changes taking place. There are also a large number of people that are using and have easy access to the internet. It is apparent that over the next five years, Williams-Sonoma is likely to experience an increase in the number of customers that it serves (Marks, Frolick, 2001). Furthermore, there is a likelihood that the number of products that the company will provide to the customers will also increase. This means that in the next five years, Williams-Sonoma is likely to experience greater growth of its business and operations in general and may become a multinational company. Q2 Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   As a CEO of an organization, one must be in a position to formulate and implement strategies that will help in achieving the mission band vision of the organization. Making the decisions on what strategies to undertake require sufficient information on the market and other elements that affect the performance of the company (Kaplan, Norton, 2004). In this case study, Williams-Sonoma is seen as a company that is ready to take risks and adopt new strat5egies in marketing its products. From the case study, it is to be noted that the target group for the company is limited to customers that are high income earners considering that it offers high-end products only. Therefore, a recommended strategy would to provide variety or practice product differentiation in terms of affordability (Kanter, 2001). This can be achieved by ensuring that the products are of high quality although affordable. Apart from offering affordable prices and quality products, the other stra tegy that I would recommend as the CEO would be offering of discounts for the products bought. Those customers that buy at least three different items should be offered a certain percentage of discounts to make the products more affordable (Marks, Frolick, 2001). Furthermore, the other strategy that I would recommend would be to increase advertising on social media sites since these have been a great avenue through which companies are able to reach out to customers. Finally I would recommend that the company increases its amount of imported as well as merchandise that is unbranded. Q3 Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   One of the competitors of Williams-Sonoma is Crate Barrel. There is a lot of stiff competition for Williams-Sonoma due to the strategies which are applied by the competitors. In the case of Crate Barrel, the company is using the strategy of low affordable prices on its products as a way through which it is able to attract more customers (Marks, Frolick, 2001). It is to be understood that when the prices of products or even services are affordable, the demand is likely to be high and hence more customers and profitability in the long run. Williams-Sonoma on the other hand offers products at a very high price and hence only attracts the customers that are high income earners only (Kaplan, Norton, 2004). This means that Crate and Barrel has a larger customer base than Williams-Sonoma. The other strategy being used by the competitors includes the setting of their businesses in major locations unlike Williams-Sonoma. This means that the other competitors have been able to reach out to more clients hence becoming more competitive than Williams-Sonoma. Business location is of great importance for any given company. The location will determine the ease of access to the goods and the services of the company by the customers and hence affect the overall performance of the company. Q4 Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   The internet has become one of the avenues through which companies or organizations are able to do business especially marketing their products or even selling their products online. Different companies have employed the use of the internet in different ways and Williams-Sonoma is one those companies that has not been left out in the rush to make business through the internet. Williams-Sonoma is using the internet as a marketing tool for its products whereby it sells information to its customers such as information on recipes (Kaplan, Norton, 2004). The current use of the internet by Williams-Sonoma is the formulation of search for information on its products. The customers have to pay for the information that they get. However, for the future of the company, Williams-Sonoma can make use of the social media sites to promote its products to the numerous internet users available on social media. It would also benefit the company if it opens online stores where it can be able to sell its products online. References Kanter, R. M. (2001). The ten deadly mistakes of wanna-dots. Harvard Business Review, 79(1), 91-100. Kaplan, R. S., Norton, D. P. (2004). Measuring the strategic readiness of intangible assets. Harvard business review, 82(2), 52-63. Marks, W. T., Frolick, M. N. (2001). BUILDING CUSTOMER DATA WAREHOUSES FOR A MARKETING AND SERVICE. Simonson, I. (1999). The effect of product assortment on buyer preferences. Journal of Retailing, 75(3), 347-370. Source document

The Variety of Themes in Othello Essay -- Othello essays

The Variety of Themes in Othello  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   In the Shakespearean tragedy Othello the number and description of themes is open to discussion. With the help of literary critics, we can analyze this subject in detail.    In the essay â€Å"Wit and Witchcraft: an Approach to Othello† Robert B. Heilman discusses the ancient’s instinctive reaction to the love-theme of the play:    Before coming directly to the forming of the love-theme that differentiates Othello from other Shakespeare plays that utilize the same theme, I turn arbitrarily to Iago to inspect a distinguishing mark of his of which the relevance to thematic form in the play will appear a little later. When Iago with unperceived scoffing reminds Roderigo, who is drawn with merciless attraction to the unreachable Desdemona, that love effects an unwonted nobility in men, he states a doctrine which he â€Å"knows† is true but in which he may not â€Å"believe.† Ennoblement by love is a real possibility in men, but Iago has to view it with bitterness and to try to undermine it. (333-34)    The theme of hate is the theme on which the play opens. Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeare’s Tragic Heroes indicates this hate in the opening scene:    It is then on a theme of hate that the play opens. It is a hate of inveterate anger. It is a hate that is bound up with envy. Othello has preferred to be his lieutenant a military theorist, one Michael Cassio, over the experienced soldier Iago, to whom has fallen instead the post of â€Å"his Moorship’s ancient†. Roderigo questions Iago:    Thou told’st me thou didst hold him in thy hate.    And the reply is a torrent of proof of the hatred for Othello that has almost exceeded the envy of Cassio because he possesses the ... ...Gardner, Helen. â€Å"Othello: A Tragedy of Beauty and Fortune.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from â€Å"The Noble Moor.† British Academy Lectures, no. 9, 1955.    Heilman, Robert B. â€Å"Wit and Witchcraft: an Approach to Othello.† Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism. Ed. Leonard F. Dean. Rev. Ed. Rpt. from The Sewanee Review, LXIV, 1 (Winter 1956), 1-4, 8-10; and Arizona Quarterly (Spring 1956), pp.5-16.    Jorgensen, Paul A. William Shakespeare: The Tragedies. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985.    Mack, Maynard. Everybody’s Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1993.    Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.

Psychological perspectives Essay

The brain is a super computer with a complicated network of neurones subserving many of the activities of our daily life. Many of us are unaware of the various interconnected processes that work in unison to let us lead a simple uncomplicated life. Only when someone is ill or not normal do we feel the messing up of a great system. Cognitive function is the intellectual process by which a person becomes aware of, perceives or comprehends ideas. Recognition, conception, sensing, thinking, reasoning, remembering and imagining all come under cognitive functions ( Parayannis, 2000) Behaviour, being emotional or angry are other features of cognitive functions of the brain. They are all related to specific centers or regions of the brain. Injury in the form of trauma or illnesses leads to various cognitive impairments. Summarizing I would deign to declare that each of us is what our brains would want us to be. The combinations and permutations of the neurones decide our personality, skills, talents, feelings, behavior and responses. However we are aware of the fact only in the case of damage to one or more areas of the brain. The theme I shall discuss in my paper is â€Å" Psychological perspectives†. I have selected four chapters from this course which I believe should carry the message of the enigma that is the brain and the emotions that are attached for a social set up. They are Memory System (Chapter 8), Cerebral Cortex and the Lobes of the brain( Chapter 2), Aggression and Prosocial Behaviour (Chapter 16 ) and Social Development (Chapter 3). Memory Memory is of three kinds: sensory, short-term and long-term. Sensory memory depends on auditory, visual and visuo spatial functions . Both cerebral hemispheres are involved in analyzing sensory data, performing memory functions, learning new information, forming thoughts and making decisions (Parayannis, 2000). The left takes care of the sequential analysis. New information is systematically and logically interpreted. Symbolic information like language, mathematics, abstraction and memory is also dealt with. Memory is stored in a language format. The right hemisphere deals with the interpretation of multiple sensory inputs and here memory is stored as auditory, visual and spatial functions. One’s environment is understood. The interpretation of dancing and gymnastics are possible through the right hemisphere functions. Short term memory holds small amounts of information. Selective attention is involved. Everything that we see or hear is not stored. Short term memory is sensitive to interruption or interference. combined with other mental processes, short term memory forms an area of working memory which we use to do our thinking with. This behaves like a scratchpad. When we tackle arithmetic, do a puzzle, prepare a meal or read something, we are using our working memory. Information that has to be stored for long is possible due to long term memory which is also a function of the brain. The area which holds infinite amounts of information can never run out of ‘space’. A person’s educational caliber is supported by this long term memory which is encoded in terms of meaning and importance. Our daily activities are enabled by dual memory comprising of short term and long term memory. When we have an information which we used (short-term) but is not required for the time being, we store it in our long term memory and retrieve it when necessary. Memory loss, a feature of cognitive impairment, is the delay or failure to recall recent or distant events. Amnesia is an extreme form of memory loss when caused by a more severe injury to the brain, probably in a road accident, bomb explosion or shooting incident. Involvement due to injury or aging can produce loss of memory of varying levels. Loss can be a mild dysfunction (MCI ) or severe and named as dementia. Old people of 55-80 years of age could have cognitive impairment without having any illness. Memory loss is seen in degenerative disorders or dementias like Alzheimer’s, traumatic brain injuries, following ECT or in Korsakoff’s psychosis. Damage to the limbic system causes a loss of recent memory. This is seen in Korsakoff’s Disease. Recent events are forgotten due to a direct effect of alcohol or due to the associated nutritional deficiencies. . The ability to store and retrieve from short term memory is affected in natural aging too. The foremost problem is the loss of recent memory in Alzheimer’s Disease. The care-taker needs to be extremely patient as all her time would be spent for looking after the patient ( Ballenger, 2006). Traumatic Amnesia usually occurs as a transient phenomenon following a head injury. ECT induced amnesia follows episodes of ECT in a psychiatric illness. The amnesia is transient and may last a year. Patients with implicit memory (not dependent on the part of the brain) remember to do some things (Dorf et al, 1994). Extensive damage to the left cerebral cortex can affect long term memory. Damage to the right cerebral cortex produces a disturbance in the visual and auditory perceptions and visuo-spatial deficit. Memories of seen articles or heard songs or even regularly visited places would not be remembered. The Cerebral Cortex and the Lobes of the Brain The brain is composed of the cerebrum, cerebellum and the brain stem. The cerebrum forms the greatest part and is divided into lobes named by the overlying bone (April, 1990). The left and right cerebral hemispheres consist of the cerebral cortex, white matter and basal ganglia. The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer of the brain composed of grey matter. It has 1015 individual neurons connected in specific patterns. The white matter holds the tracts which connect the neurons. The surface is folded into gyri separated by sulci or grooves. Each half of the cerebral hemispheres has the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, the limbic lobe and the central lobe. Motor and sensory cortex are found. Sensory cortex is again sub-divided into primary, secondary and association cortices. Primary is where the stimulus reaches first. Secondary is the area which is connected to the primary and helps in the processing. Association cortices have a 2 stimuli input. There are 3 identified associative cortices. They are the basis of thought and perception with practically no influence on behavior. They are the parieto-temporal-occipital cortex, pre-frontal area and the limbic association area. The first receives somatosensory, auditory and visual projections. These associative areas integrate the information from the sensory modalities for language. Injury affecting this area causes a faulty language. The prefrontal area if affected produces problems in several cognitive behaviours. Difficulty arises in control of motor planning. The ability to concentrate and attend, elaboration of thought, personality and emotional traits are determined here. The frontal lobe subserves cognition and memory. Broadman’s area in the left frontal lobe is involved with voluntary motor activities( April,1990). Damage to this area causes contralateral hemiplegia associated with a motor aphasia (involvement of the prefrontal cortex or Broca’s area). The parietal lobe processes sensory inputs and discrimination, body orientation and ability to write. Damage would produce an inability to recognize parts of the body, space and an inability to write. The occipital lobe is involved with primary visual function and visual interpretation. Damage would cause cortical blindness even when the eyes are perfectly normal. The temporal lobe which has the Wernicke’s area subserves the auditory function, expressed behaviour, receptive language and memory. Damage would result in hearing deficits, childish behaviour and receptive aphasia. Lateralisation is evident in the right and left handedness of people. However this is no indication of the dominance of any hemisphere. 95% of people have left hemisphere language function, 18. 8% have right hemisphere language function. 19. 8 % have bilateral language functions. Linear reasoning, speech and vocabulary are lateralised to the left hemisphere. Dyscalculia is caused by damage to the left temporo-parietal region. This leads to difficulty in doing mathematics. Some language functions like intonation and accentuation are with the right hemisphere. Musical and visual stimuli, spatial manipulation, facial perception and artistic ability are functions of the right too. Logical reasoning is with the left but intuitive reasoning is with the right. Cerebral asymmetry is the feature of the normal human brain. The left is the dominant hemisphere with language functions while the right is involved more with visuo-spatial functions. An acquired language deficit accompanying right-sided stroke (left hemisphere involvement) is the best indication that the left hemisphere is dominant for language. The right hemisphere stroke does not involve speech problems. The corpus callosum connects the 2 hemispheres and coordinates the functions of both. Any injury to this area causes ‘Split brain’ where the coordination between the 2 hemispheres is lost. A ‘split brain’ patient does not speak of emotions or feelings. The right hemisphere and the left behave independently. The patient appears to have 2 minds. It was revealed in studies by Robert Sperry, a psychobiologist, who conducted studies in patients in whom commissurectomy (severing the corpus callosum from each hemisphere ) was done as a treatment for intractable epilepsy. He found that the two halves of the brain had specific functions and each side acted independently, whereas in the normal brain, the two halves act in coordination. This is the theory of hemispheric independence (Zaire et al, 1990) After the operation, the right half showed predominance when it came to spatial tasks like arrangement of blocks. The limbic area is the area of the brain that affects the emotions, rage, fear and sex. Integration of recent memory and biological rhythms are decided here. If this area is affected, an angry but frightened personality without emotional control would be the result. Recent memory would be lost. Aggression and Prosocial Behavior Prosocial Behaviour is helpful behavior intended to help another. It is different from altruism in that it is not voluntary helping behaviour that is costly to the giver (Psychology:An International Perspective, 2004). Another definition states that this refers to the â€Å"voluntary actions intended to help another† ( Eisenberg and Mussen, 1989). Prosocial behaviour refers to the consequences of a doer’s actions rather than the motivations behind them. They include sharing, comforting, rescuing and helping, understanding the needs of the recipient (Knickerbocker, Learning to give). Traditional theories of helping include sociobiology, social learning , empathy and arousal. Physical aggression is a major health problem. Childhood aggression is a precursor to physical and mental health problems that occur in later life. Aggressive children are also liable to higher risk of substance abuse , alcoholism, accidents, violent crimes, depression, suicide attempts, spouse abuse, neglectful and abusive parenting (Tremblay et al, 2004) It is unusual for the aggressive students to really harm their targets. However in studies of physical aggression in infancy, it was shown that by 17 months, a large majority of children are already aggressive towards their siblings, parents and peers (Tremblay et al, 2004). A study by Tremblay et al attempted to identify the trajectories of physical aggressions during early childhood and also o identify antecedents of high levels of physical aggression early in life. 572 families with a 5- month old baby were selected and followed up till 42 months. 3 trajectories were identified. The first group of 28% had children who displayed little or no aggression. 58% showed a rising trajectory of modest aggression. 14 % showed a high level of physical aggression (Tremblay et al, 2004). Best predictors before the birth of the child were, having other siblings, confidence interveal, mothers with early( before end of high school ) and high antisocial behaviour , young mothers, families with low income and mothers who smoked. The conclusion indicated was that physical aggression started in early infancy. All the predictors before birth were reasons for the child not learning how to preventive interventions. In order to change or reduce the long term impacts preventive intervention programmes must be chalked out effectively (Tremblay et al, 2004) In a model identifying 5 factors that prompt voluntarism (Clary and Snyder, 1990), they found that a combination of factors ultimately motivates volunteers. One factor is altruism but all the other four are self serving: motivation by socially adjustable conditions, ego defensive considerations, the desire to acquire knowledge or skills for personal or professional education and helping understanding the needs. Aggression is caused in 3 ways in a child: instinct, rewards and observation. Obviously these 3 factors rule the manner in which the aggression is to be overcome or prevented. Catharsis may be tried to vent the child’s anger in other ways. Rewarding non aggressive behaviour works. Cognitive training is also effective. Promoting prosocial behaviour should be tried. Rewarding good behaviour may not be so effective. A better way is to try modelling. The parent should ‘model’ good behaviour as the child always has a tendency to imitate its parents. The parent appeals to the childs pride and desire to be agrown-up (Aggressive and Prosocial Behaviour, Psychology campus. com). Social development Like all humans , babies are also social creatures. It was found from studies that babies recognise themselves at the age of 15 months. Prior to that, they would treat their mirror image as another like them and would even coax them to come out to play. At about 15 months of age, the baby starts showing interest in others and developing a social awareness. It starts showing the emotions of shame, guilt, embarassment and pride. These babies glance at the facial expressions of others to decide how to react just like adults. In one study babies placed at the side of a high cliff kept watching their mothers’ faces. If they were encouraging, the babies would cross. When the mothers exhibited fear, the babies did not move. This is identified as social referencing. It. demonstrated the emotional bond or attachment of the babies with their mothers or caregivers. For most infants emotional bonding appears around 8 to 12 months of age. Psychologist Mary Ainsworth (1913 -1999) spoke about 3 kinds of attachments. The securely attached infants would be upset by the mother’s absence. An insecure avoidant child is anxious about the mother’s absence but turns away when she returns. An insecure ambivalent child also has an emotional bond but has mixed feelings . It wants to be with the mother but is angry at her and does not want contact. Attachments do play a role in the life of the child and its future behaviour. The securely attached ones would be the most confident. Attachment failures could be damaging. The mother has a strong role in promoting attachment in an infant, hoping to improve its mental status and bringing up a resilient child. Attachments to fathers provides one more reason to have a closely knit family with well behaved children. When a seond child arrives, attachment security drops. Commercial child care centers if of good quality does provide additional security. Children tend to have better relationships with their mothers and lesser problems.

How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator

How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator Corinne McKay How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator by Corinne McKay ISBN 978-1-4116-9520-7 First Edition  ©2006 by Corinne McKay. All Rights Reserved. Published by Two Rat Press, a division of Translatewrite, Inc. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review, without permission in writing from the author. For information, contact [email  protected] com.Disclaimer: This book is published by Two Rat Press and Translatewrite, Inc. , who acknowledge all trademarks. All information contained in this book is believed to be correct at the time of printing. However, readers are advised to seek professional advice where necessary, as the information in this book is based on the author's experiences. The author of this book is not profes sionally engaged in providing legal, financial or career planning advice. Please send comments or corrections to [email  protected] com. For Dan, Ada and my parents, who sweeten every day. Contents Introduction Acknowledgments 9 15 An overview of the translation business 17 1. 1 What is a translator? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 17 1. 2 What does it take to become a translator? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 18 1. 3 Improving your language skills †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 21 1. 4 A translator's working environment †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 22 1. 5 What kinds of work do translators do? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 25 1. 5. 1 Software Localization †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 27 1. 6 Who do translators work for? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 28 1. 6. 1 Working for translation agencies †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢ € ¦. 28 1. 6. 2 Working for direct clients †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 30 1. A bit about interpreting †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 31 1. 8 How do translators set their rates? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 33 1. 9 Professional Associations †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 34 1. 9. 1 American Translators Association †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 34 1. 9. 2 National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 35 1. 9. 3 Translators and Interpreters Guild †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 35 1. 9. 4 American Literary Translators Association 35 1. 9. 5 Federation Internationale des Traducteurs 36 1. 9. 6 International Association of Conference Interpreters †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 6 1. 10 Certification for Translators †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 36 1. 10. 1 American Translators Association †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 38 1. 10. 2 Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination Program †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 39 1. 10. 3 State Court Interpreter Certification . . . . 41 5 CONTENTS 2 Starting and Growing your Business 2. 1 Preparing for your job search †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2. 1. 1 The basics of writing a translation resume . 2. 1. 2 A new resume for a new career †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2. 1. 3 The structure of your resume †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 2. 1. 4 Your name †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. . 1. 5 Your summary of qualifications . †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2. 1. 6 The body of the resume †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2. 1. 7 What about a cover letter? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 43 43 43 44 45 46 47 49 50 2. 2 Finding your first clients †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 51 2. 3 Building up your business †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 56 2. 4 Starting a part-time translation business . †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 59 2. 5 Business skills you'll need †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦.. 61 2. 6 Setting up your office and your business †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 63 2. 7 Maximizing productivity †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 5 2. 8 For working parents †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 67 3 Home office setup 3. 1 Preparing for your home office †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3. 2 The ups and downs of worki ng from home . . . . 3. 3 Necessary office equipment †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3. 4 Organizing your business †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3. 5 Translation home office technology †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3. 6 Non-Western character sets †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3. 7 Speech recognition software †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3. 8 Translation memory software †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 69 9 69 71 73 75 78 79 80 Trados †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 82 3. 8. 1 3. 8. 2 SDLX †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 83 3. 8. 3 Deja Vu †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â ‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 83 3. 8. 4 Wordfast †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 83 3. 8. 5 Heartsome †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 83 3. 8. 6 OmegaT †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 84 3. 8. 7 WordFisher †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 84 3. 8. 8 across †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦.. 84 3. Choosing a computer system †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 85 CONTENTS 7 4 Rates, contracts and terms of service 4. 1 Setting your translation rates †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4. 2 R ate sheets †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 4. 3 Contracts or work for hire agreements . †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4. 4 Terms of service †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 4. 5 Researching your potential clients †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4. 6 Standard payment terms and methods †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4. 7 Setting the stage for payment †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4. When things don't go as planned †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4. 8. 1 Arbitration and dispute resolution †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4. 9 Cash flow issues †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 5 S etting up your business for growth 5. 1 Incorporating and planning for taxes †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 5. 1. 1 Corporate Entities †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 5. 1. 2 Tax planning †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 5. 2 Key Questions Before the Project Starts †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 5. 3 How to Raise Your Rates †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 5. 4 Ten ways to please a translation client †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Resources Glossary Index 87 87 91 92 95 99 101 102 104 108 109 111 112 114 115 117 120 121 125 133 139 Introduction I decided to write this book because I love my job, and because so few bilingual people are aware of the high demand for qualified translators and interpreters, or of the lifestyle benefits of being a language entrepreneur. In 2002, I was looking for a new career after eight years as a high school French teacher, and hoping to find a work-from-home job using my language skills. I thought back to a translation internship that I had done in college, and remembered how much I had enjoyed it.At the time, I had almost no knowledge of the translation industry nor any job contacts, so I started out by calling every company listed under Translators and Interpreters in the local yellow pages. Over the next few months I became involved with my local translators association, the American Translators Association (ATA), and began getting some calls for translation work. A year and some 400 resumes later, I passed the ATA certification exam in French to English translation, and my business continued to grow, while still allowing me to work from home on a flexible schedule, earning a healthy income and spending lenty of time with my family. Although I spent most of that first year marketing my fledgling business, the effort paid off; after three years as a freelance translator I earned my highest gross income ever (including when I worked full-time as a teacher) while working 20-30 hours a week from home. I developed specializations in legal, financial and marketing translation, edited my local translators association newsletter, presented seminars at the annual conference of the American Translators Association and often found myself exclaiming, â€Å"This is so interesting! while working on a translation—in short, I had found my niche. At the same time, the path from that day with the phone book to the day I told a client, â€Å"Sorry, I'm booked for the next two weeks† 9 10 INTRODUCTION was harder than it had to be, because there is a real shortage of training materials on how to run a translation business. Most translators enter the field because they love languages and writing, not because they love marketing and bookkeeping, but many translators' businesses fail because the y lack basic business skills.If you'd like to succeed as a freelance translator, it's definitely important to pursue training in translation techniques, translation software, and other tools of the trade, but these types of courses are easier to locate. Part of the reason I decided to write this book was because, having never run my own business before, I struggled so much with these basic business questions: how and where to find prospective clients, how to pursue translator certification, how to decide whether expensive computer software would help my business, how to set my translation rates, and so on.This book is based on the article Getting Started as a Freelance Translator, which first appeared on my website and was picked up by several translation websites. Later, I expanded that article into an online course that has continued to be very popular with aspiring translators. Following the success of the course, I realized that there must be many more people out there wondering how to use their language skills to break into the translation industry, and the idea for this book was born. The good news about translation If you're considering a career as a translator, there's a lot to look forward to.Given the global reach of businesses in the 21 st century, translators are employed in almost every conceivable business sector, from banking to museums to health care to high-tech. If you have a special skill or interest in addition to being bilingual, you're almost sure to find clients who will pay for your services, and you'll get to work on materials that interest you. Overall, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics http://bls. gov projects that job prospects for translators and interpreters will increase faster than the average until at least 2014.Translators are usually well paid for their work, with the most recent compensation survey by the American Translators Association reporting 11 that the average self-employed full-time translator earns over $ 50,000 per year. Most translators, even if they work 40 hours a week or more, live a very self-directed lifestyle and can tailor their work day around other interests or commitments such as families. The good news about virtual work In publicizing their work-from-home newsletter The Rat Race Rebellion, the e-entrepreneurship specialists Staffcentrix http: //staffcentrix. om estimate that â€Å"There is a 30 to 1 scam ratio among home-based work ‘opportunities. ‘ † Although there are definitely some unscrupulous translation clients out there, translation itself is a great example of a legitimate work-fromhome opportunity. The vast majority of translators in the U. S. work from home, so translation agencies are used to this business model, and don't think it's odd to employ translators who work from home. Home work has a lot of advantages for you as the home worker, and for your community as a whole.By working from home, you'll probably experience greater job satisf action and less stress, since a relatively minor disruption like a dentist appointment or furnace repair won't derail your entire work day. Most of the time, you'll be able to structure your work day around your peak energy times and your family's needs, rather than your employer's policies. Your commute will be as long as it takes you to walk from your bedroom to your office and fire up the computer while still in your pajamas. Not surprisingly, most home workers experience a greatly improved quality of life.Likewise, working from home often has a very positive effect on your community and the world as a whole. Less commuting means less traffic congestion, less fuel usage and less need for parking areas. Home-based workers are around during the day, allowing them to volunteer for school and community activities and to be available for their families. A study by the International Telework Association and Council (ITAC) found that home-based workers are absent from work less than hal f as often as officebased workers, leading to greater work productivity in general. 12 INTRODUCTIONIs freelance translation for you? Despite all of these positive reports, it's very important to do some realistic self-assessment to determine if a career as a freelance translator is for you. Translators need a lot of skills besides fluency in at least two languages; translators need to be excellent writers in their native language and need to be interested in and skilled at terminology research using both paper dictionaries and the Internet. Translators also need to be avid readers in their native and non-native languages in order to keep up their language skills and their knowledge of world events.Equally important, and the subject that we'll focus on in this book, is a translator's ability to run a business. When you work full-time for an employer, you have one job title. When you work for yourself, you're not only the translator, but also the department head for sales and marketin g, technical support, customer relations, accounting and facilities maintenance. Unless you're willing and able to pay someone to do these tasks for you, you'll be doing them yourself, in addition to your regular job. Before you launch yourself into a ranslation career, it's important to ask yourself a few questions. Are you the type of person who is often described as highly motivated, driven, a go-getter; or do you have trouble following through on a plan once the exciting idea stage is over? Are you consistently able to meet deadlines with almost no supervision or direction, or do you head off to shopping websites as soon as the boss disappears? Do you have the multi-tasking skills necessary to manage multiple clients and deadlines at once, or does this type of work leave you feeling overwhelmed and wondering where to start?In addition, it's important to factor in a start-up period of at least six months to a year when launching your freelance business. Of course this is just an estimate, and the length of everyone's startup period will vary, but for translators who work in a relatively common language pair (for example French, Italian, German, Spanish or Portuguese paired with English), it's best to budget on at least six months of doing a lot of marketing and working less than full-time. For some people, for example parents 13 f small children or full-time students who are looking for some supplemental income, the spotty cash flow of a startup period may not be a huge concern. If you're planning on translation as your full-time income, you'll need to either continue your current employment while your translation business gets up to speed, or plan on living off your savings or a loan during this time. It can help to focus on the fact that with a consistent and reasonably aggressive marketing effort, you'll have years to enjoy your freelance lifestyle and income after your startup phase ends.So to all of you out there wondering, â€Å"What exactly does som eone with a degree in foreign languages do for a living? ,† I wish you happy reading, and hopefully, happy translating! Acknowledgments Very few books are truly solo endeavors, and this book is no exception. Special thanks go to the people who lent their enthusiasm to this project when it was just an idea to toss around over coffee or e-mail: Eve Lindemuth Bodeux, Beth Hayden, Thomas Hedden, Bruce McKay, LaNelle McKay and KarenMitchell for their insights and encouragement, and the students in the first two sessions of my course, Getting Started as a Freelance Translator for their excellent feedback on the course materials that this book is based on. My colleagues in the Colorado Translators Association, the American Translators Association and Boulder Media Women, and the readers of my e-newsletter Open Source Update are an ongoing source of knowledge and inspiration that every translator and writer should be so fortunate as to have. And Dan Urist†¦ where to start†¦ pent more hours than a recovering computer systems administrator should have to on the layout, design and editing of this book, learning at least two new pieces of software in the process and lovingly hounding me until the last word was written. 15 1 An overview of the translation business 1. 1 What is a translator? In a nutshell, a translator is a human being who changes written words from one language to another. If this sounds obvious, take another look! First, it's important to note that although computers play an important role in translation, professional translators are humans, not computers.Second, a translator works with written words, unlike an interpreter, who works with spoken words. If you're new to the industry, you've learned something important right here; that the phrase â€Å"speaking through a translator,† contradicts itself, since translators work in writing. While some people work as both translators and interpreters, most concentrate on one or the other. Translators are also, by definition, fluent in more than one language. In the industry, these are referred to as the source, or â€Å"from† language(s), and the target, or â€Å"into† language, which is almost always the translator's native language.So for example, a translator who is a native English speaker and learned Portuguese and Spanish might translate from Spanish and Portuguese into English. If you work in the most common language pairs, such as English paired with French, Italian, German or Spanish (known as FIGS in the translation industry), chances are that you will never translate into your second or third language. If you work in a less common language pair, you might find yourself as the exception to this rule.A client might need a document translated from Thai into English, a job that would usually be handled by a native English speaker who has Thai as a second or third language. However in practice, it's often easier to find a native Thai (or 17 18 AN OVERVIEW OF THE TRANSLATION BUSINESS Lingala, Malayalam, Fulani, etc) speaker who has English as a second language since there are many more native Thai speakers who also speak English than the other way around. In this case, the job might be handled by a native Thai speaker, and then proofread by a native English speaker.In the United States, most translators work from one or two source languages; it's extremely common for translators to have only one working language pair, like Spanish into English, or Japanese into English. In other areas of the world where foreign languages are more widely studied, most translators work from at least two source languages, and often many more. It's not at all unusual to find Europe-based translators who work, for example, from English, Spanish and French into German, or from Norwegian, Swedish and English into Danish. 1. What does it take to become a translator? Being multilingual isn't the only skill a translator needs, but it's certainly the m ost important. Translators learn their languages in many different ways; many grew up in bilingual households or countries, some learned their second or third language in school and then pursued experience abroad, some took intensive language courses or worked in a foreign country for several years, and it is also quite common for translators to become freelancers after working as military or government linguists.Almost all translators working in the U. S. have at least a Bachelor's Degree, although not necessarily in translation. As a rule, most professional translators have at least some experience working and/or living in a country where their source language or languages are spoken; many translators lived and worked in their source language country for many years, or pursued higher education in their source language(s).In-country experience is a big asset for a translator, since translation work involves knowing not just the structure of the language to be translated, but the cu ltural framework that surrounds it. This isn't to say that classroom study doesn't produce excellent translators, but it's important to realize WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME A TRANSLATOR? 19 at the outset that to be a successful professional translator, you need near-native proficiency in your source language(s); if you're starting from scratch, a few semesters of part-time language class won't be enough.As a point of reference, the U. S. Government's Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center offers a program to teach Middle Eastern languages to government employees, and the basic program involves 63 weeks of full-time study. Many people wonder how to tell if their language skills are good enough to work as a translator. While there are various language testing services that can tell you where you stand, probably the easiest way to get a feel for your translation readiness is to translate something.Go on the web and find a legal document, newspaper article or press release in your source language, then try to translate it. As we'll discuss later, professional translators make constant use of reference materials such as print and online dictionaries, terminology databases, etc. , so when you look at your practice document, don't assume that you should be able to whip out a perfect translation on the spot. The key points are: can you understand this document on both a word-for-word and a conceptual level, and can you convey its meaning in your target language?Translators today work in almost every conceivable language pair; while the market in the United States has historically been very strong in Western European languages such as French, German, Italian and Spanish, there is an increasing (and increasingly lucrative) market for translation in Asian and Middle Eastern Languages like Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Farsi, Pashto and Kurdish; Central and Eastern European languages like Serbian, Czech, Slovene and Macedonian; as well as the â€Å"languages of smaller iffusion† like Nepali, Hebrew or Somali. In most language pairs, the amount of work available is proportionate to the number of translators in the language. While there is obviously a great deal of English to Spanish translation work in the U. S. , there is a correspondingly large number of translators in this language combination; and while there may not be a great deal of work in Indonesian to English, there 20 AN OVERVIEW OF THE TRANSLATION BUSINESS re also not many translators in this combination, resulting in a correspondingly small amount of competition for work. In addition to near-native source language proficiency, translators need other skills too; probably the most important are excellent writing skills in their target language, in-depth knowledge in one or more areas of specialization, and business management skills. Some would-be translators are in practice not very successful because they have weak writing skills in the ir target language, making their translations difficult or unpleasant to read.Highly specialized translators are among the highest-earning members of the profession; for example a bilingual intellectual property attorney, stock broker or biomedical engineer may earn many times the per-word rate of a â€Å"jack of all trades† translator with a B. A. in German. Some translators turn a previous career into an area of specialization, while others take additional courses in areas of specialization or learn specialized terminology from more experienced translators.Paradoxically, specializing can also lead to more work, not less, as the specialized translator becomes known as the go-to person in his or her area of expertise, whether it's environmental engineering, textile manufacturing or stage sets. The translation industry in the United States is moving more and more toward an independent contractor model, where the vast majority of translators are self-employed and work for a var iety of clients; in 2005, approximately 70% of the members of the American Translators Association were self-employed independent contractors.As such, translators need business management skills such as the ability to find and retain clients, work on tight deadlines with little supervision or management, handle increases and decreases in work flow and cash flow and perform tasks such as bookkeeping, tax planning and computer upkeep and maintenance. In fact, most self-employed translators spend 25-50% of their time on non-translation work, largely involving management of the day to day tasks of running a business, so these skills are just as important as translation-related skills in succeeding as a freelance translator.IMPROVING YOUR LANGUAGE SKILLS 21 1. 3 Improving your language skills If you'd like to work as a translator but your language skills are not yet up to par, you have a few options. The best, but most difficult, is immersion: living and working or going to school in a c ountry where your source language is spoken. If you want to improve your French, without a doubt the fastest way to do it is to move to a French-speaking country for a year, work or go to school with native French speakers, and speak only French while you're there.If this isn't possible for you, university programs in translation and interpretation do exist in the U. S. , although they are much less common than in other countries. However, nearly all medium or large colleges and universities will offer advanced courses in the more widely spoken foreign languages. The American Translators Association http : //atanet . org sells several publications listing translating and interpreting programs, and also has a mentoring program for its members, although the program is geared toward professional, not linguistic, development.If you're trying to improve your language skills, be realistic; although it's certainly far from impossible to learn a new language at age 30, 50 or 70, it's also n ot going to happen with a few semesters of night classes. If you're starting from a beginner level or close to it, two to three years of intensive language study in a college-level program is probably a bare minimum. However, if you have a solid foundation in a second or third language, for instance you studied it in school for 10 years including several trips to a country where the language is spoken, you might be ready to start translating right away.As mentioned before, simply knowing more than one language isn't enough to guarantee your success as a translator. While requirements for different translation jobs vary, nearly all translators have at least a Bachelor's degree, and often more education than this. If you would eventually like to earn certification from the American Translators Association, you'll need either a Master's degree or higher, or several years of work experience as a translator. The rapid expansion of the translation industry, flexible work possibilities and high earning potential have made freelance 2 AN OVERVIEW OF THE TRANSLATION BUSINESS translation an attractive career for bilingual lawyers, accountants, doctors and scientific professionals, and many translators feel that specialization is extremely important to their success. This is especially true as the Internet has opened up work opportunities for translators who live in countries where the cost of living is relatively low, and where educated professionals may be able to make more money by working as translators over the Internet than by practicing in the professions they were trained for. 1. A translator's working environment The translation industry in the United States is moving more and more toward the independent contractor model. In the past, many large companies and even many translation agencies had staffs of in-house translators, but these jobs are now few and far between, and when they do exist would rarely be given to a beginner. In contrast to other professions wh ere newcomers are expected to pay their dues as in-house employees and then enjoy the â€Å"reward† of freelancing, the translation industry usually works in the opposite way.Most translators start out as freelancers and may even remain self-employed for their whole careers, while most wellpaid in-house translators are hired with years or even decades of experience. It's important to be realistic about whether the life of a freelancer is for you. While you'll have a great degree of control over where, when and how much you work, you'll also give up the security of a steady paycheck, benefits, paid time off, and a pension or employer-sponsored 401K. Most freelance translators in the U.S. work from a home office, and there is no stigma attached to working from home; translators who rent office space outside the home are definitely the exception rather than the rule. The vast majority of a translator's work is done on the computer, using either a word processing program or text editor, and possibly a computer-assisted translation program. Translators make extensive use of reference materials such as print and online dictionaries, terminology databases, and discussion with other translators.The almost constant use of a computer A TRANSLATOR'S WORKING ENVIRONMENT 23 makes repetitive strain injury one of the few work-related injuries that translators are at risk for. There are many positive sides to a translator's work environment. Compared to other work-from-home jobs, translation can be very interesting and well-paying. Although you probably won't get lavishly rich working as a freelance translator, translation industry compensation surveys report that the average self-employed freelance translator earns about $52,000 per year.Translators who are highly specialized in technical fields, or work with in-demand language pairs may earn much more than this, and in-house translators for certain branches of the U. S. government or international financial instituti ons may earn $70,000 a year and up. At the same time, it is important to be realistic about the time and effort involved in reaching this level of income.Unless you work in a language pair and/or specialization that is extremely in demand, it may take a year or more to develop a regular client base that will allow you to replace the income from a previous full-time job, and you will probably need to send out several hundred resumes during that time. Before starting your freelance translation business, it's important to determine if you have the financial resources, time and energy to get through the startup period to the point where you are earning a reasonable and steady income.Starting a translation business is a fairly inexpensive proposition. If you already have a home computer and high speed Internet access, you might make do with business cards, computerized fax service and a modest reference library, for a startup cost of only a few hundred dollars. To a large extent, freelan cers can determine when and how much they want to work. While it probably makes good business sense to accept as much work as possible from your regular clients, on a day-to-day basis many translators work on their own schedule rather than from 9 to 5.A translator's eight hour day might run from 7:30-11:30 AM and 4:30-8:30 PM. This flexibility makes translation an excellent career option for people who have young children, are semi-retired, or just want to work part-time. Today, most translation work hap- 24 AN OVERVIEW OF THE TRANSLATION BUSINESS pens remotely, and translators can live almost anywhere. The up and down nature of most freelancers' work loads also lends itself to using free time to take classes, pursue hobbies, travel or spend time with family. On the downside (and of course there are some downsides to all of this! , as with other consulting or freelance work, some aspects of translation can be stressful and difficult to manage. Many translators describe their work as feast or famine, with months of little work and months of working every waking moment and more than a few moments that should be spent sleeping. Worldwide business acceleration has affected translation turnaround times, with agencies eager to have translations returned as soon as possible, sometimes within a few hours for a short project. Clients who pay late or don't pay at all can cause major financial problems, especially for translators who live paycheck to paycheck.Translators who work in common language combinations like SpanishEnglish may face pressure to lower their rates in order to remain competitive, especially if the client can find qualified translators in countries where pay rates are much lower. In addition, working from home has its ups and downs; even for an introvert, the life of the home office can be lonely, and time spent on (unpaid) non-translation work like accounting, marketing and maintaining computer systems can become frustrating when you'd much rather be translating!If you've never worked for yourself before, succeeding as a translator demands a high degree of self-discipline. With no boss in the next cubicle and a list of household errands to finish, it can be hard to focus on your work, and if you have a family or housemates, equally difficult to find a work-friendly time and space in your house. However, most translators enjoy their work and like to talk about what they do and how they got started. The ever-changing nature of the job appeals to many people, since no day â€Å"at the office† is exactly like another.Another positive aspect of the job is that most translation clients value their translators and treat them as professionals who deserve to be fairly paid for their work. Even in the most common language combinations, the supply of qualified and capable (emphasis here! ) translators often cannot WHAT KINDS OF WORK DO TRANSLATORS DO? 25 keep pace with the industry's demand, resulting in a generally positive employ ment picture for translators and interpreters. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that employment prospects for translators and interpreters should grow faster than the average for all occupations until at least 2014. . 5 What kinds of work do translators do? As cross-cultural and multilingual communication become more important to the worldwide flow of business, translators and interpreters are employed in almost every conceivable business and government sector. From law to health care to finance, entertainment, information technology and advertising, translators and interpreters enable global communication. Some translators, especially those with specialized professional or technical training, might concentrate on only one subject area, such as pharmaceuticals, corporate finance, computer software or legal contracts.There are even translators who specialize in seemingly obscure areas like fisheries management, shopping mall construction, stamps, or groundwater hy drology. Still others position themselves as â€Å"jack of all trades† translators with concentrations in certain areas. In general, the more translators there are in a given language pair, the more specialization is required, and the smaller the translator pool, the less incentive there is to specialize. German to English translators in the U. S. almost certainly have specializations, but the same isn't necessarily true of the few Bosnian to English translators doing business in the same markets.Translators sometimes work in collaboration with other linguists, particularly if the work involves a large project that needs to be translated in a short amount of time. Today, translation teams almost always work together over the Internet, rather than in person. The size of translation projects can vary widely, from a single line of text such as a company slogan, to an entire book or website. Most translators who are self-employed work from project to project, with the average pro ject taking anywhere from 26 AN OVERVIEW OF THE TRANSLATION BUSINESS n hour to several days, and some longer projects mixed in as well. Most translators working in the United States today work on business and technical documents, rather than literature. Although most translators in the U. S. are independent contractors, full-time jobs for translators and interpreters do exist, particularly in areas such as court and health care interpreting, web content translation, software localization, and translating and interpreting for the United States Government's various agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency.Translators who are experienced and/or qualified to work in more than one language pair may have a greater chance of being offered an in-house position. Literary translators (translators who work on books, poetry or short stories) make up a relatively small segment of translators in the United States. This is bec ause literary translation is typically not very well paid, and because Americans don't tend to read literature in translation, so there is a small market for the work of literary translators; in 2004, only 891 of the 195,000 new books printed inEnglish were adult literature in translation. If you translate into a language other than English, there may be a larger market for literary translation services, especially if you are qualified to work on textbooks, technical manuals, and other â€Å"non-literary† book projects. Localization translators are a rapidly growing group in the industry. Localization, or the complete adaptation of a product such as a web site, product marketing kit, software program or advertising campaign into another language, used to be confined mostly to computer software.Now, software localization is probably the largest segment of the localization market, but it's certainly not the only segment. Businesses may hire localization agencies when they want to take a new product global and need culturally-targeted marketing advice in addition to translation services. WHAT KINDS OF WORK DO TRANSLATORS DO? 1. 5. 1 Software Localization 27 A sub-specialty within the translation and localization industry is software localization, the process of translating software user interfaces from one language to another.For example, when a large software company produces multilingual versions of its applications, every piece of text displayed by the software must be translated into the target language, and in many cases the graphics must be altered as well. Software localization involves both bilingual software developers and document translators specialized in information technology, since the software's user interface, help files, readme files, screen shots and incidental files (such as warranty information and packaging) must all be translated.Software localization is an enormous industry in its own right, largely because computer users throughout the world now expect their software to be in their own language, and will naturally be more interested in purchasing software or visiting websites that they can access in their own language. Therefore, the software localization industry is a source of a large amount of work for bilingual software developers and for translators, and is currently one of the fastest-growing sectors within the translation industry as a whole. In addition, localization breeds localization; a localized web browser utomatically creates a need for localized websites; a localized piece of software demands a localized manual to go with it. Two useful resources for localization professionals are the Globalization and Localization Association. http: //www. gala-global . org and the Localization Industry Standards Association http: //www. lisa. org. Software localization is often completed using different tools than those that are used for document translation; some computer-assisted translation tools can cross over between these two types of translation, and some cannot.So, it is important to investigate what tools will be required if you would like to look for software localization work. 28 AN OVERVIEW OF THE TRANSLATION BUSINESS 1. 6 Who do translators work for? 1. 6. 1 Working for translation agencies For a freelance translator, there are typically two types of clients: translation agencies and direct clients. First, let's look at how translators work through agencies. A translation agency, which may also refer to itself as a localization agency, translation company, or translation bureau, has its own roster of clients and sub-contracts their translation work to individual freelance translators.The agency handles the project management end of things, interacts directly with the translation client and (hopefully) pays the translator and deals with any collections issues. Ideally, the translation agency should pay its freelance translators when their invoices come due (normally 30 days after the agency accepts the translation) whether the agency itself has been paid by the end client or not. A translation agency is not an employment agency, and there is no fee involved for a translator to register with an agency.However, an agency normally cannot guarantee a steady flow of work to any one translator, and will normally pay the translator a good deal less than the per-word rate that the agency is charging the client, in many cases up to 50% less. Freelance translators are often required to sign a confidentiality and non-competition agreement which states that they may not work directly for any of the agency's clients for some period of time, or may not disclose who the agency's clients are, or the nature of the assignments that they work on.Like translators themselves, translation agencies can be either very general, â€Å"all languages, all subjects,† or highly specialized, for instance translating only for the medical industry, or only translating between E nglish and Korean. In the uncertain world of freelancing, translation agencies provide some measure of job security. When you work for an agency, you don't normally have to communicate with the end client directly, and in many cases the agency may even forbid you from contacting the end client. Instead, you translate the documents that the agency sends you, which means that you spend your timeWHO DO TRANSLATORS WORK FOR? 29 working instead of managing the project and handling the client's questions. Also, an agency that becomes a regular client may be able to provide you with steady work, and will often pay you even if the client is late in paying them. A good agency project manager understands the nature of translation work, and asks the client in advance to clarify potential questions, for example should currency amounts in Euros be converted to dollars, saving the contract translators a great deal of time. Many of the best agency project managers are or have been translators them selves.Agencies also provide some amount of â€Å"disaster insurance† in the event that you get sick in the middle of the project, suddenly find yourself in over your head on a very technical document, or another type of unforeseen event. If something like this happens, the agency can often find a replacement translator or editor to step in, which is a responsibility that falls upon the translator if an agency is not involved. In exchange for the services the agency provides, you will give up some freedom. The agencies you work for may have fixed pay rates, or may ask you to reduce your rates to stay competitive with other translators.When an agency becomes a regular client, you want to keep them happy, so it will be hard to say â€Å"No! † when they call you on Friday afternoon with a big project due Monday, disrupting your planned ski trip or home improvement project. Also, agencies vary in quality. While a good agency can effectively hand you work on a platter and d eal with all problems that come up between them and the end client, in practice this doesn't always happen. An agency may claim (rightly or wrongly) that you did a substandard job on a project for them, and then ask for or just go ahead and take a â€Å"discount† on the payment you agreed on.Or, an agency may not have much cash in reserve, and might not be able to pay you if the end client doesn't pay them. Agencies also have their own set payment terms, and in most cases the terms aren't negotiable. For example, agencies in the U. S. generally pay within 30 days from the date of the invoice (referred to as Net 30), or 30 days from the end of the month (30 Days EOM), while agencies in Europe take longer to pay, sometimes as long as 60 days from the end of the month or 30 AN OVERVIEW OF THE TRANSLATION BUSINESS 0 days from the date of the invoice. 1. 6. 2 Working for direct clients The other main option for a freelancer is to work for direct clients, meaning working directly f or translation customers without a â€Å"middleman† involved. A direct client might be a shoe manufacturer in Sweden that wants to market its products in the U. S. , a patent law firm in Japan, a university in the U. S. with non-English speaking visitors, or an individual who wants her high school diploma translated into French so that she can study abroad.The income potential of working for direct clients is attractive; in many cases double the income of working for an agency. Direct clients may also be able to provide large volumes of work if their turnaround time allows for it. Whereas a translation agency will often split a large project between several translators to get it done faster, a direct client might be willing to let you translate their entire 50,000 word annual report, resulting in more income and less administrative overhead for you; or they might be willing to let you act as a â€Å"mini-agency,† subcontracting work to ther translators you know and kee ping a percentage for yourself. With a direct client the translator is often more in control of the payment terms involved; for example, the translator might be able to request payment in advance for certain services, an option that almost never exists when working through a translation agency. There are some disadvantages in working for direct clients as well. When you work through an agency, it's the project manager's job to explain the ins and outs of the translation process to the client.If the client doesn't know what source and target language mean, or the difference between traditional and simplified Chinese, or whether they want the company's name in all capital letters throughout the document, it's the agency's responsibility to deal with this, not yours. When you work for a direct client, for better or worse there's no one between you and the client. In cases involving a small project such as a birth certificate translation, it might take more time to explain the process t o the client than it does to complete the translation.If the client has an unrealistic A BIT ABOUT INTERPRETING 31 deadline, keeps changing his/her mind about the project specifications, or wants additional services such as desktop publishing, it's up to you as the translator to deal with it. If the direct client doesn't pay, there's no one else to lean on for the money—you simply have to handle it yourself, or hire a collection agency if things turn really sour. All of these aspects are worth considering before you decide whether to work through agencies or for direct clients.Somewhere between an agency and a direct client is a small but growing group of freelance project managers. These individuals function somewhat like one-person translation agencies, and may be handling outsourced translation for a larger corporation. This style of business combines some of the advantages and disadvantages of the agency /direct client model. Probably the most significant item to discuss up front is what happens if the end client doesn't pay or is late in paying the project manager who hires you, since unlike a large translation agency, this ndividual probably doesn't have the cash reserves to cover a large bill that goes unpaid. 1. 7 A bit about interpreting As you explore a career in translation, it's worth considering whether you would like to focus your business exclusively on translation, or include interpreting in your range of services. Like translation, the market for interpreting depends largely on your language pair(s), and unless you do over the phone interpreting, is more location-dependent than translation since you need to be in the same place as your clients.Interpreting has several â€Å"modes,† the primary ones being simultaneous, where the interpreter talks at the same time as the speaker; consecutive, where the interpreter listens to the speaker and takes notes, then interprets what the speaker said; and sight translation, where the interpr eter reads a written document in another language, for example taking a court document in English and reading it to a defendant in Spanish. Simultaneous interpret- 32AN OVERVIEW OF THE TRANSLATION BUSINESS ing is probably the most common mode, since it is used at the United Nations, in court, and in various other conference-type settings. Interpreting demands very different skills than translation. While translators are stereotypically detail-oriented introverts who don't mind spending an hour finding the perfect translation for a word, interpreters must be able to think on their feet and work with little or no advance preparation.Translators most often work alone at home, while interpreters are often literally in the spotlight, standing next to a court witness, hospital patient or head of state and communicating for him or her. Until the advent of conference calling, interpreters had to be in the same place as their clients, and court and conference interpreting is still heavily de pendent on on-site interpreters. However, over-the-phone interpreting is becoming more popular, especially in areas where it's hard to find on-site interpreters.Many translation agencies also schedule interpreters, and courts, hospitals and schools may employ in-house interpreters. One major difference between interpreting and translation is that interpreters often work in both â€Å"directions† of their language pair, so must be highly proficient in speaking their non-native language; many high-level conference interpreters consider themselves to have two native languages, rather than one native language and one or more second languages. Interpreters are paid by the hour or by the day, and pay varies widely. In some areas of the U. S. English4-6panish court interpreters might make less than $15 an hour, while conference interpreters who are members of the elite AIIC (International Association of Conference Interpreters) might make close to $500 a day. If you are interested i n interpreting, one excellent way to assess your skills is to go spend a day as an observer in court. Most courts in the U. S. are open to the public, and you can sit in the viewing area and try to interpret as the proceedings go along; better yet take a notebook and make a list of words and expressions that you need to research.The major employers of interpreters in the U. S. are courts, health care settings and schools, so these are all good places to focus on if you would like to explore interpreting. HOW DO TRANSLATORS SET THEIR RATES? 33 1. 8 How do translators set their rates? Translators are generally paid by the word, with some variation in whether the word count is based on the source or target language, for a single word (most common in the U. S. ) or per thousand words (most common in the U. K. ), although payment is sometimes made by the line as well, with a line being comprised of a certain number of characters.For projects where charging by the word would result in a r idiculously low payment, for example translating an advertising slogan, translators are often paid by the hour. Translations of official documents such as birth certificates may be billed by the page. Many translators have a minimum charge for small projects, for example a flat fee for projects up to 250 words. It's also common for translators to add a premium for a rush project, or to offer a discount for a large project or ongoing work. The actual per-word rate depends on your language c)oamndbispe-tlz(),andsowhtyurcliensa willing to pay.Asking â€Å"How much do translators charge? † is like asking, â€Å"How big is a ball of yarn? † The variation in translation rates is enormous; if you visit online translation marketplaces such as Translators Cafe http://translatorscafe. com, or ProZ. com http: //proz . com, you'll see an abundance of translators willing to work for just a few cents a word, while a highly specialized medical, legal or technical translator working f or direct clients might make mid-double digits (cents, not dollars! ) per word.In addition, many translators are reluctant to publish or even discuss their rates for fear of being targeted by antitrust actions. If you work for translation agencies, there may not be much room for negotiation on rates, and â€Å"setting your rates† may be more a matter of finding agencies that are willing to pay what you would like to earn. Agencies will often ask you what your rates are, but just as often the agency already knows what it can or will pay for a typical project in your language combination, and is unlikely to give you work if you charge more than the â€Å"standard† rate.Some agencies will also tell you up front that 34 AN OVERVIEW OF THE TRANSLATION BUSINESS you're welcome to specify your rates, but that the agency prefers to work with translators who charge less than a certain number of cents per word. Still, translation agencies as a group are not usually out to get tra nslators to work for an absolute rock-bottom price, and will usually offer a fair rate for a project. Reputable agencies may even look askance at translation rates that are more than about 10% below the average or standard rate in a certain language combination. 1. Professional Associations for Translators and Interpreters Professional associations are an excellent resource for both beginning and experienced translators and interpreters. At the international, national, and local levels, professional associations allow you to network with colleagues, pursue continuing education workshops and attend conferences related to the field. They also improve your credibility as a linguist. As one agency manager comments, â€Å"If a person is a member of a professional association, it shows that he or she has a network of colleagues to draw on and is willing to invest some time and money in the profession. Especially if translator or interpreter certification isn't offered in your languages, belonging to a professional association shows that you're serious about your work. Following is an overview of professional associations for translators and interpreters working in the United States. 1. 9. 1 American Translators Association The American Translators Association ht t p : //atanet . org is the largest professional association for language professionals in the U. S. , and offers membership to both individual linguists and translation companies.The Association also includes various language or specialization-specific divisions that members can choose to join. Benefits for ATA members include a listing on the ATA website, a subscription to the monthly magazine ATA PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS 35 Chronicle, reduced rates to attend ATA conferences and seminars, and various professional benefits such as credit card acceptance, retirement programs, etc. The ATA holds a large annual conference each year in the fall, and information about upcoming conferences is also available on the ATA website.The ATA administers its own certification exams, which are probably the most widely recognized translation credential in the U. S. As of 2006, candidates for the certification exam must also be members of ATA. For more information on certification exam dates, see ATA's website. 2006 individual dues are $145 per year. 1. 9. 2 National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators The National Association of Judiciary Intrpreters and Translators http: //najit . org is a professional association for court interpreters and legal translators.NAJIT holds an annual conference, publishes the newsletter Proteus, and advocates for positive changes in the court interpreting and legal translation professions. NAJIT's website also includes a helpful list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about court interpreting. 2006 individual dues are $105 per year. 1. 9. 3 Translators and Interpreters Guild The Translators and Interpreters Guild http : //ttig. org is the only nation al (U. S. ) union of translators and interpreters, operating as Local 32100 of the Newspaper Guild–Communications Workers of America.The Translators and Interpreters Guild operates a translator referral service that is open to members, and offers additional membership benefits such as a union credit card, life insurance, and legal services. 2006 individual dues are $120 per year. 1. 9. 4 American Literary Translators Association The American Literary Translators Association http: // literarytranslators. org is dedicated to serving literary 36 AN OVERVIEW OF THE TRANSLATION BUSINESS translators and â€Å"enhancing the status and quality of literary translation. Members receive a variety of publications about literary translation, such as Translation Review and ALTA Guides to Literary Translation, and ALTA also holds an annual conference on literary translation. 2006 individual dues are $65 per year. 1. 9. 5 Federation Internationale des Traducteurs The Federation Internationa l des Traducteurs http: //fit-ift . org is an â€Å"association of associations† for translators, which gathers more than 100 professional associations for language professionals from all over the world. FIT does not accept individual translators as members, but does old an annual conference open to translators and interpreters throughout the world. 1. 9. 6 International Association of Conference Interpreters Membership in AIIC http://aiic. net is open only to experienced conference interpreters who have worked a minimum of 150 days in a conference setting, and must be sponsored by three active AIIC members who have been in the association for at least five years. The AIIC website contains many helpful articles and links for aspiring and experienced interpreters. 1. 10 Certification for TranslatorsAs we discussed in a previous section, for better or worse, you don't have to have any type of certification to call yourself a translator or interpreter in the United States. Vario us organizations offer certification, but the list of language combinations is far from comprehensive. For example, organizations in the United States offer certification only in language combinations that involve English, so if you translate or interpret German into French or Japanese into Korean, there simply is no certification available in the U.S.. Reliable and uniform certification is one of the most CERTIFICATION FOR TRANSLATORS 37 important issues facing the translation and interpreting professions today. Since no standardized certification for translators and interpreters exists, there is little agreement on what makes a â€Å"certified† translator or interpreter. In some cases, linguists who have earned a certificate in translation or interpreting refer to themselves as â€Å"certified,† while to others, â€Å"certified† means having passed a nationally standardized examination.There is a great deal of controversy over whether certification is a reason able guarantee of a quality job, or whether non-certified translators and interpreters are to be avoided. As a linguist, especially in a common language combination such as English with French, Spanish or German, becoming certified is one way to distinguish yourself from the pack of questionably qualified people offering translation or interpreting services in these languages, and certification may be required for certain types of work.In some court systems it is now difficult to find work as an English —Spanish court interpreter if you're not certified, and some translation agencies may insist that for certain end clients or certain types of translations, you have to be certified if the option is available for your languages. In addition, the American Translators Association's most recent compensation survey (published in January, 2006), found that certified translators earn approximately $6,000 per year more than their non-certified colleagues.On the downside, there are num erous translators and interpreters with excellent qualifications who have failed certification exams, or don't feel that they want to take them at all. As one translation agency manager comments, â€Å"Certification doesn't mean that the person can meet a deadline, work well with other translators or respond to client input and questions, and all of these are crucial to winning and keeping clients. † More practically, the certification exam itself represents a somewhat artificial environment in which you're asked to demonstrate your skills.For instance, although the ATA is currently pursuing the possibility of offering computerized certification exams, the exam currently must be handwritten, something a practicing translator would seldom if ever do. Hopefully, the computerized ATA certification exam will become a reality in the near future. 38 AN OVERVIEW OF THE TRANSLATION BUSINESS Following is an overview of the main certifying organizations for translators and interpreters in the United States. If you work in a language combination that doesn't involve English, an Internet search can help you find certifying organizations in a country where your languages are spoken. . 10. 1 American Translators Association The American Translators Association ht t p : //atanet . org offers certification (formerly called accreditation) to translators in 27 language pairs as of 2006; passing the exam earns you the right to add the designation â€Å"ATA-certified for X to X translation† to your credentials. As of this writing, the available certifications are ( indicates that the test is available in eithe