S05E10: Professionalization of Linguist Business Practices

Intro

Hello and welcome to the Translation Company Talk, a weekly podcast show focusing on translation services and the language industry. The Translation Company Talk covers topics of interest for professionals engaged in the business of translation, localization, transcription, interpreting, and language technology. The Translation Company Talk is sponsored by Hybrid Lynx. Your host is Sultan Ghaznawi with today’s episode.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Translation Company Talk podcast. Today we are going to be covering the professionalization of linguist practices and what that means for our colleagues that provide their services on a freelance or independent contractor basis inside and to outside of our industry.

 

To speak about this topic, I have invited Sakshi Vaidya to our podcast today. Sakshi is the founder of Be Translators, and the leader of a team of successful translation and localization project managers.

 

With a master’s in translation and interpreting from Swansea University in the UK, and a bachelor’s in German studies, Sakshi helps translators find their way in the industry by assisting them in finding the ideal clients, using CAD tools, marketing themselves, and doing other business tasks such as pricing, negotiations, etc. She guides LSPs to achieve maximum efficiency and advice on best machine translation and AI practices to help achieve optimization, smooth operations, and increase profits.

 

Welcome to the Translation Company Talk, Sakshi.

 

Sakshi Vaidya

Thank you so much, Sultan.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Kindly introduce yourself and tell us what you do.

 

Sakshi Vaidya

Of course. First of all, thank you for having me on the podcast. My name is Sakshi Vaidya. I am the founder of Be Translators. Be Translators, is an organization I founded which aims at helping translators and agencies navigate through the complexities in the translation industry. I also work as a team lead at a leading agency in the UK, which is also focused on offering translations and interpreting services.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

How did you find yourself in this industry? Tell us about your motivation to join the language sector.

 

Sakshi Vaidya

Of course, I entered the industry through the academic route. I was initially, actually, planning to do my career in psychology, but then, at the same time, I decided to pursue German as a foreign language to have it added extra on my CV. I fell in love with the language and then decided to change my track and move towards undergraduate in German studies.

 

When I started this degree, I was initially very focused on the language itself. But then we had modules of translation, linguistics, and it just opened a new world. After my undergraduate, I then decided to pursue translation. Usually, people go for teaching as well, but I decided to go for translation and carried on with my master’s at Swansea University, which was in translation and interpreting.

 

It was a fabulous experience during which I was then again introduced to another important part of this industry, I would say, which was the technology, the CAT tools and all the software side of it. It was perfect. After that, I landed a job as a translation project manager. It was during COVID that I graduated and started working. So, it was a bit tough, if I’m being honest.

 

I was lucky enough to secure a job. And then after that, I moved on to similar roles. Today I’m here as a team lead. In the meantime, I have also been a guest lecturer at Mumbai University where I completed my undergraduate for technical and business translations.

 

My main motivation throughout this was, as I said, I started with the languages, but then it just started unfolding for me with the translation, with the technical side of it, and that sort of, I would say, culminated into Be Translators, my love for all these things. That’s how I ended up here.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Very, very exciting. Sakshi, what have been some of the pivotal and important events in the industry for you since you joined it? What stood out to you as evolutionary, if you will?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

Machine translation has always been a hot topic since I joined the industry. In each of my roles, it was a vital part. In some of my roles, I have also played the lead role in taking the initiatives and setting machine translations for companies, along with the process and everything. So, I did very thorough research.

 

Alongside MTE, I would say now we also have artificial intelligence and AI being introduced into CAT tools with the MTE and ChatGPT being introduced in Trados. So, I think that is the evolutionary aspect and I try to keep on top of these trends as much as I can to see the latest progress and their sort of collaborations with the CAT tools.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

I have invited you today, Sakshi, to speak to me about professionalization of the linguist experience and linguist practices. I want to preface this interview that we have, you know, highly professional linguists in our industry and this conversation is not about getting their linguistic skills to be better because they already are doing an amazing and outstanding job.

 

Rather, we are focusing on the business aspects of linguistic services or linguists’ practices, such as how do you market, sell, perform finance work, follow up, customer service, and so on. Please provide a high-level view of how things look today.

 

Sakshi Vaidya

Well, Sultan, I completely agree with you. The linguists are highly capable. Their linguistic abilities are outstanding.

 

Professionalization has become so much important now. It’s a big part of the industry and from the perspective of a translation project manager and a team lead, I have had a lot of experience interacting with numerous linguists on a day-to-day basis from different cultures, different parts of the world, and I can see that they have amazing translation skills and they have good communication skills and professionalization, but I feel that it can be a bit improved.

 

They can be better versions of themselves and then again elevate their business and their overall place in the translation industry. It goes both ways as well. I’ll have to mention this even if I’m working currently at an agency. It’s the linguist’s side and also the agencies, also the project managers and vendor managers. The communication and professionalism on both sides can use a bit of improvement, I would say. It takes two to tango at the end.

 

It’s very, very important and it’s crucial because people who have not entered the industry through academic route sometimes are not aware of the day-to-day processes or workflows, how things work, and if they will be familiar with that, it will just make things easier for everyone in the pipeline and chain for agencies, for freelancers. So, I definitely think that there’s room for improvement and we can make the best version of ourselves.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Let’s start with how we learn about a linguist. What are some effective marketing strategies for promoting translation and interpreting services in a competitive market for linguists today?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

For linguists, if you’re a new linguist, I can see that you might not have a lot of resources or investment to have proper ads or proper marketing channels or invest in paid services. But smaller things such as having a free website or having a signature with your details of your services, your contact details, is very crucial.

 

Now a small thing such as email, I mean people sometimes look at me and ask, why an email? I mean that’s a given. I’ll always have my name. They will know who I am. But they won’t. They need to know who you are beyond your name. They need to know you’re a translator, you’re a subtitler, you’re a transcriptionist, and they also should know where to contact you. So, every time you send out an email, you’re basically marketing yourself.

 

I think that’s easy and free. It’s also very, very important to have these details on your profiles on social media. For example, if you are registered on Prose, if you’re registered on LinkedIn, or even I would say on TikTok, we have a lot of successful translators, I see a lot of personalities, they are viral, and they have gained a lot of clients.

 

So, maintaining online social presence, sharing about your achievements, sharing about your day-to-day projects, day to day updates, “oh, this is the project I’m working on”. Of course, without sharing the details, because you have to value the contracts. But just something, “okay, today’s day is more creative”, “I’m working on a literary translation”, these sorts of things can help a linguist market themselves better.

 

For the agencies, I would say mainly people try to find linguists on Prose.com, on platforms such as Upwork, even sometimes Google would bring out your LinkedIn profile, if you have your details added in the profile description.

 

So that’s where the newbie translators or somebody who wants to try and market themselves in the industry should look at and focus. Having a presence everywhere is crucial.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

How do translators and interpreters typically acquire new clients? What methods have proven most successful for them?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

So, as I already mentioned, right now, it’s having a social presence, good social presence is definitely important. Once you move ahead in the industry, you will find your specialization, you will find your niche, and then going deeper into the clientele. So, in the beginning, I would say, a linguist can have mainly LSPs, language service providers, or agencies, consultancies as their clients.

 

Down the line, if they are, for example, a fashion translator, then a proven method and successful method would be to visit beauty expos, visit exhibitions. So, you will find direct clients there, and you will be able to make good relationships. You will find reliable clients who are in need for your services. I think that’s the best way to go.

 

Some linguists have also shared that sending cold emails or sending personal messages to vendor managers on platforms such as LinkedIn or Instagram has proven helpful as well. I’m sure, I mean, as a vendor manager, one of my colleagues has shared that they get a lot of messages like this. So, if you want to stand out, you really need to make your mark there. Cold DMs is common for everyone to do so. So, you need to really make an impression.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Sakshi, can you describe the best approach to selling translation and interpreting services for linguists? How do they handle objections or negotiate with potential clients?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

So, the best thing to selling is, of course, the translator or the interpreter needs to be clear on what they’re offering. As you know, Sultan, we have translation, transcreation, proofreading, localization, and so many other services in the industry. So, first of all, the linguist needs to be clear on what they wish to offer, and they need to be confident that they are capable of offering those services.

 

So, if they don’t know how to work with transcreation or subtitling software, then they probably should not opt for it. So, once they decide, okay, I want to offer X services, then they need to decide what rates they want to offer and have a range of rates. So, everything being clear on your side makes it easier to sell.

 

So, once you approach a vendor manager and they have a project for you, then you can discuss based on what their budget is and what they are ready to offer you and negotiate properly. When negotiating, it’s a lot of times there is margin, I won’t lie, from the agencies, from the vendor teams, but sometimes there’s really not. Sometimes when a project manager is telling the linguist that this is the budget, this is it.

 

So, a linguist should be willing to be flexible and have a range of rates. As I said, that would be the best part in selling and negotiating. You need to find a win-win situation that builds good relations, and then it in turn helps gain clients. During negotiations, it can be a bit of a friction, but you just need to try and have a positive attitude towards, we need to find a good ground, we need to find a middle ground. I have seen cases where linguists are not ready to negotiate, and they are fixed on their rates.

 

Now, I’m not against it, of course. If you have a bottom rate, then that is fair, that is for you. But you need to keep in mind that sometimes due to this, you will pass over clients which can potentially have high paying projects in the future. You never know. So handling negotiation is a very tricky part. But if people are clear on what they want to offer, then definitely selling would be easier.

 

One more thing I’d like to add here is also I have seen linguists try and use projects to train themselves for new services. So, for example, if they’re looking to expand into transcreation from translation and if they’re not aware how to work in that area, they take up projects and then they try to learn on the project. I would strictly advise against it because you might lose the client. You might lose your reputation.

 

So, if you’re looking to expand in that case, then take a proper course, learn the skills. Then maybe in the beginning, you can offer cheaper rates to get some projects and train on them. But after having the formal training and after that, you can then look into raising your rates to the usual standard.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Sakshi, what pricing models do linguists or independent contractor and independent contractor capacity use for their services? How do they determine the pricing structure for different types of projects? I mean, how can they improve on their pricing to make it easier and more compelling for the buyer to do business with them?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

Normally, the pricing models that are used are per word for translation services, per hour for proofreading, and interpreting, and sometimes even per page for non-editable documents or scans. There are also a few linguists who offer rates at minimum charges. So, if something’s under, for example, £20, then that would be a minimum charge that the client has to pay to get their services.

 

It’s also helpful to make yourself more compelling, to offer a flat rate for higher word count projects or giving a discount. Because in that way, you’re increasing the profit margin for your client, but also in turn, you’re securing a big project for yourself. So again, stressing on being flexible with rates is just going to work in favour of a linguist.

 

So, you need to have that mindset to be a bit more flexible, a bit more adjusting. And another thing I would say to make yourself more compelling is to offer maybe seasonal discounts. If you feel like it’s a slow month, or it’s a slow week, then you can offer your clients 10% discount just for this week and you can secure more projects.

 

As I said, for higher volume projects, discounts are very important. I would also say why you should not offer discounts on low volume projects. Because, I mean, for one, looking at it, it might seem that, oh, it’s just a 10-word project. It’s so easy. I could just, you know, do it with a discounted rate. Why not? The client would like me more. But the linguists need to understand that the admin time that it takes to negotiate the rate or have the project and communicate on emails, research about it, invoice the project is still going to stay the same.

 

So, offering the discounts for higher volume project will give you a better profit. If a client is offering a regular project, it’s also compelling to have a lower rate in that case, because then that guarantees you a frequency of projects every week or every month. And that’s a steady income. So willing to be flexible with rates and offering these discounts will definitely make you more compelling in the industry.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Let me ask you about, you know, the linguist abilities to manage their work. How do linguists manage translation and interpreting projects from start to finish today? What tools or software do they use for doing their work besides performing the translation or interpreting activities? I’m referring to things such as project management, finance and so on.

 

Sakshi Vaidya

So, Sultan, I would like to break my answer in three components for this question. The main thing that a linguist needs to look at, apart from actually translating or interpreting, would be time management, organization, because they will have multiple projects to juggle. So multitasking, keeping a good organization is important and invoicing.

 

Now, today we have the tools. Like Asana, Trello and ClickUp to help with these. Previously, it used to be Word docs or Excel sheets and it used to be a whole tedious setup. But today, linguists have the options to choose from the software and they are really good software to manage this. So, in terms of time management, the linguists can use the software and their calendar feature to block out times.

 

So, if you have accepted a project that you need two hours to do, you can block out today’s two hours or tomorrow’s two hours in the calendar and that’s it. So, you’re not double booking yourself or you’re not overwhelming yourself. The software in turn also then have you sort of a to do list or a schedule. They create a schedule for you to work on and you’re not suddenly in the middle of the chaos.

 

In terms of organization, it’s important to have clear details on every project you work on. Of course, client name, clients time zone. I have seen so many instances where linguists simply just mix up the time zones and then miss the deadlines. So, I would I would very much stress that these software’s are a big, big help because you can customize them. You can add these details of having a client name for each project set, having a time zone set, and you can just select from the dropdown.

 

In this way, each project is arranged for that particular linguist with all the details in it. You might have multiple contact persons from a single agency and you might be working on multiple projects for the same agency. So, you as a linguist need to keep a track of everything and have an overview of where you’re at.

 

This software has proven really, really helpful in that, with invoicing, you can create your invoices and save in these sort of project e-cards. I’m sure you’re familiar with this software as well. Nowadays, everyone is using them for these sorts of management things. So, you can simply have customized stages as per your services. You can keep moving these e-cards into the respective service and have an overview of your whole work schedule.

 

Normally the translators proceed with these and if they’re not doing this already, I would definitely recommend to follow as it’s proven very helpful for everyone.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

What strategies do linguists use to retain clients and ensure long-term relationships?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

So, as the topic of our podcast, professionalization I would say, is a very main part of this business skill for a translator, mainly having regular and professional communication and is the key to maintaining good relations with the client. Of course it’s you have good linguistic abilities and that’s a given, but in order to actually gain the project and to showcase those abilities, you need to first gain the client and for that you need really good communication. You need to have the politeness the professionalism in it to get to the doorstep to actually get the project, and then show your talents.

 

When you get these clients, maintaining those relationships with small things, such as keeping your clients updated on your holidays, for example, or if it’s a season festival, sending them wishes via email. It’s very small things that make people happy and it’s a very good way to keep these relationships and have yourself in their memory. You will stand out, if a person sending you wishes for every festival and the professionalism in this is definitely a key.

 

So, because everybody is now working remote, it’s not face to face anymore, so whatever you share via email, sometimes even on calls, that’s what your personality is for the other person. That’s what you’re going to showcase. So, if you want to portray yourself as a business professional, if you want to put your best foot down, you really need to focus on good communication skills.

 

Then of course the second point would be high quality deliveries. So, offering whatever you’re offering confidently with your abilities and good quality deliveries is very important. Because we have clients from all over the world, the point, I would say, is having cultural sensitivity and having the respect when communicating with people from different countries, from different backgrounds and understanding that some things will be different, also plays a part. You don’t want to lose out on a client because of something you did, and you don’t even know.

 

So, having that professionalism and understanding these differences is a distinguishable factor. Helping people out, I would say my bonus tip would be if a project manager is asking you for help on some small translation, and they just say, it’s two words, can you do it for free? Now, I know first instinct would be absolutely no, why should I do it for free, but help out a friend in need, and that friend will come through for you.

 

Trust me, if you maintain these sort of relations, if you try to look at it as a business, and just someone who pays you, it’s, it’s going to work, okay, yes, but not as good as if you look at them as someone, you’re not exactly a friend, but someone you know, someone you want to work with. It will make a big, big difference in this, and will definitely retain you more clients.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Sakshi, what are your thoughts about how should translators and interpreters handle client feedback, complaints or issues that arise during or after a project?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

Yeah, that’s a big topic, isn’t it? It becomes tough when it gets to complaints, so as hard as it is, one should try and assess all the complaints or negative feedback objectively and professionally. I know and understand it is tough to hear negative feedback or criticisms on your work.

 

You have spent hours, you’ve done a lot of research, and you’ve put a lot of hard work and sweat into it, and somebody’s calling it not a good translation. It feels bad, and I feel you there. But evaluate what happened.

 

So, whenever you receive a complaint, whenever you have an issue, first try to focus on understanding why it occurred. Was it a technical issue, for example? Was it a technical glitch? Is something wrong with your software, or maybe something’s wrong with client software, so that you can be preventative next time to avoid that issue. Then, if it’s an issue of quality, then what do we do? We need to try and objectively find out if our translation is actually incorrect, if it’s actually not compatible with what the client has asked for.

 

In that case, be honest and accept it. That’s the best way to go. Don’t try to cover up. Don’t try to be defensive. I have seen people get really angry at times as well when they have been confronted with such feedback, and despite the fact that other translators, other reputable experienced seasoned translators have provided their opinion. Saying, no, this thing is not entirely accurate. And the translator who carried that work out, they were furious.

 

That doesn’t yield you anything. You’re only human, if you make a mistake, admit it. If it’s not your mistake, then justify it properly, professionally. It’s not a blame game. You’re only trying to justify your work.

 

The linguists need to keep this in mind, that you are the expert. Somebody who is offering you a job may not even speak that language. So, they’re completely relying on your expertise, on your knowledge, and you need to come through for them with your clear justifications. Be available to justify your good work. So the best way to handle criticisms, I would say, is, is this, these following steps.

 

At the end, if the linguist feels that they did not like how it was handled, or they don’t feel like working with the client, it’s fine. Just move ahead. You can tell them that you would not like to continue the collaboration and you can look into getting other clients. So that’s always an option for someone who doesn’t want to work with these people.

 

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Sultan Ghaznawi

Sakshi, what financial practices do translators and interpreters follow to ensure the profitability and sustainability of their business? What are expected norms that they must adhere to?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

The main thing would be accurate pricing, of course. If you want to have good sustainability for your business, you need to make sure that you’re not pricing yourself too low or too high either, because then that would risk not gaining enough clients. So, you need to be just competitive enough in terms of pricing.

 

You can find reference rates on websites such as Prose, on forums, on chats and then you can try and find your best rate. You need to also make sure that you’re planning your budget properly. So, as we saw already, there are certain tools that can help a linguist outside translation but there are also tools that help with translation such as the CAT tools, Strados and Memsource, Memoq.

 

Now sometimes they have subscriptions, they have licenses, not all the tools are free. If you are working with some of these tools, then you need to make sure they are actually giving you the benefit, giving you the worth of your investment, or if it’s if it’s not worth it.

 

You need to really plan properly and make sure that with every paycheck you’re saving some of it, to partly reinvest, which would be then continuous professional development. Taking new courses, getting latest software and also saving for a rainy day, for slower months and in case there’s some unexpected expense you need to have money saved for, and taxes of course which would be a big expense.

 

I would advise that diversifying income streams has proven helpful and is a successful tactic, so instead of just offering translations, look into offering other services alongside Take proper courses and then start offering subtitling, start offering localization, because it might be that something in that industry, there’s a big event major event or there’s just a boom like we see right now, the online web series and Netflix movies, everything online. It’s just so much.

 

There are so many projects going around for subtitling transcription. There’s a lot of demand, so you need to diversify income streams. In terms of norms, you need to have transparency and of course practice all these things ethically, is important.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Let’s discuss negotiations. How do linguists approach contract negotiations with clients? What key terms and conditions do they include to protect their interests?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

So, in terms of contract negotiations with language service providers or consultancies, if I’m being honest, there is not much room for a linguist to negotiate. There’s very little room. With direct clients, there’s a lot more room and they can set their own conditions and key terms for things such as PO cancellations, or dispute resolution. You can have terms that protect you in case of any error or mistaken translation, then you can ensure that you’re still being paid.

 

But mostly translators have LSPs as clients. So, in terms of that they have little room. The only advice I can give here for linguists, when they are negotiating contracts, is make sure you’re clear on all the services and rates clauses, because at times there are clauses based on, for example translation and they would have a clause regarding amendment rounds.

 

So, read everything clearly and make sure you understand. It could just be that you’re signing a contract that says, “we will expect you to do a number of rounds for amendments for your translations. If we find that it’s not suitable”. You can’t sign something, then turn back. You will be bound to follow it.

 

So, make sure you’re signing everything after understanding and especially keeping an eye on the clauses that relate to dispute resolution, termination of contract and PO cancellations or deductions. Those are the key things that can affect in case of any complaint or feedback.

 

You can of course request the vendor manager to change, if you don’t agree with something and then it’s up to them, if they decide to change it. If you definitely don’t agree with something, don’t sign it and don’t take them on as a client, I would say.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Very good advice. What should be key strategies for business development and growth in the translation and interpreting industry for linguists?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

So continuous professional development is very important, because with today’s ever-changing world, as we saw machine translation, artificial intelligence. In order to develop your business, you need to make sure you’re on top of all the latest trends in the industry, so that you know that there is a new service such as now post editing has become lately very popular.

 

So, you need to keep on top of that, and you need to make sure you are taking all the courses that are relevant for it, to expand your business and grow it. And of course, following latest newsletters or this podcast, I would say, is also a good way to keep on top of these trends. You’ve got Slater, you’ve got Multilingual Media and other newsletters, RWS. You can always follow those and follow other podcasts as well like this one and keep on top of the trends.

 

Offering various services and gaining as many direct clients as you can, have also proven helpful in growing or expanding the business and diversify. I can’t stress enough how important it is for a linguist to diversify and offer more services.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Sakshi, let’s talk about differentiation. In a landscape where there’s a lot of people offering the same service. For linguists, very quickly it becomes difficult to differentiate if they’re all going for the same type of work that’s available. How do linguists differentiate their services from those of their competitors, their peers and others?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

That’s a really good question. It’s difficult to stand out, but definitely there are ways that you can improve and work on. One would be specialized niches. So, whatever specialization you have, you can try and go a bit deeper into the specialization and have a niche such as, for example, instead of legal, you can have a niche that is family law or I don’t know, divorce law.

 

Then you would have a highly specialized niche, not just a specialized niche. And then that’s where you will have more demand and less competition. That can be a way to stand out in the industry.

 

Also, working with rare language pairs. If you are a fan of learning new languages like me, I mean, every year, pretty much I start learning a new language and you can try and learn new languages, gain proficiency, get to know about the culture and offer them as your languages as well. That that’s a good way to differentiate yourselves.

 

The last, but not the least would be certifications. Obtaining a specialized translation certifications or memberships of Chartered Institute of linguist or continuous professional development. These things can be very important in distinguishing yourself whenever we have assignments. If you see there’s someone from CIOL in the database, with eyes closed, we would contact them because we know that they offer good quality.

 

So having memberships of these organizations is very important. The only thing is that they can be a bit expensive for a new linguist. So, it’s a part of sort of a later second or third stage in the industry after you enter.

 

Something that anybody can do, would be having testimonials and referrals. So, if you have good testimonials from your client sharing, that can also make you stand out when others read that testimonial, they know what sort of experience you provided for your previous client and then that makes you different. That makes you unique.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Let’s talk about partnerships and how do you find allies for yourself and your business? How important, Sakshi, are partnerships and networking in your business these days, and I’m talking particularly about linguists? Can you share examples of successful collaborations that came about, because of networking and knowing people?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

Definitely. Having a community and network in the industry is very important, Sultan. I can’t stress more because as we said before, we work remotely, we don’t even meet people.

 

So, it’s important to have good connections and have people that can share your name. For example, if you’re a part of a community or forum or group of translators, you might be working on a different language pair compared to somebody else. And if they get a project and they need the language pair that you’re offering, they might just suggest their client, oh, actually I know someone and they can offer this to you and they’re really good translator.

 

So, these sort of little things, on the agency side, if I have to share, when teams switch up, when people move from one company to another, I have seen this trend that they bring people, bring freelancers that they worked with in the previous job. Trusted, reliable freelancers to their new company because they know that the experience was so good.

 

So, having good networks with fellow translators, maybe of different languages, as I said, they don’t have to work with the same language pair as you do. And project managers, vendor managers are very, very important. I myself have worked with so many linguists in my current job, which I used to work with in the previous job as well, because they provided such good quality. And I would say that would be a good example to share of a successful collaboration.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

You’re right, 100% right Sakshi. How do linguists integrate technology into their business operations? What role does technology play in improving efficiency and service quality?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

Technology definitely has gone far ahead, has developed a lot, and it can save everyone, including translators, a lot of time from mundane and time-consuming tasks. I mean, we saw Asana, Trello, ClickUp, these sort of things can already improve the efficiency for a translator, and they have stepped up their game, absolutely.

 

And when a translator can keep these sort of things out of their mind, they don’t have to worry about, oh, I can’t remember when I have to invoice this job. I don’t want to miss the payment. They can focus on translation and that in turn has effect on providing a good quality translation and good quality service to the client.

 

So, technology has integrated itself in every step of the workflow. I mean, in translation, we know it already that machine translation has become a big part, sort of acts as a draft generator, I would say. And post-editing has become a big service lately. So, that is, I think, a good example as well, where the linguist can simply post-edit the work. Of course it has to be post-edited.

 

I would not anyone using raw MT or directly offering machine translated text to save time. That’s not what I mean when I say that technology has helped linguists. I mean that they have a draft already that they can review. They can quickly make the changes, grammatical errors fixed, context errors fixed and there you go. I mean, a translation would take a lot longer compared to post-editing.

 

Lately we also have software for generating transcriptions and captions and subtitles, which are then again sort of QA’d in the similar way what we do for post-editing. So definitely technology is everywhere and we really need to embrace it.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Thank you. Of course we do. And you know, some of our linguists are way ahead of their game. They know exactly how to, for example, use different types of technologies. It’s a good thing. They’re pioneers in their field.

 

Let’s cover another area that a lot of linguists probably don’t have the background or expertise to protect themselves, and that’s legal considerations. What legal considerations do linguists need in order to address, in their business, such as contracts, intellectual property, and data protection?

 

You mentioned earlier about the different ways that they could, for example, negotiate with customers. But then they have to each time enter into a relationship with a client that’s a legal binding agreement. What type of legal experience and background do they need?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

Absolutely. There has to be a legal background. I mean, that’s one thing you remind me of, Sultan. If a client offers you a project without having any documents in place for onboarding, such as NDA’s, terms and conditions, and they just send you a project and that’s it. That’s probably a big red flag.

 

So, I mean, as long as you’re following the contracts, that’s fine. It won’t be dangerous, even though it’s legally bound, because you’re following it. But on the other hand, you need to really be careful that you’re not entering into some sort of scam client. I mean, there are scammer clients lately.

 

I’ve seen quite a few posts actually, where people are pretending to be an agency and getting work done for free and then not paying the translators. So, a translator definitely needs to be super careful about signing all these things. Normally they should expect an NDA, terms and conditions, document from an agency, or a client to sign, that would be it.

 

As I said everything needs to be read very carefully. There is another thing that can help linguists in protecting themselves in such businesses, in case there is a negligence or an error on their side. It’s called professional liability insurance and let me make it clear, that this is not legal advice and I’m not liable, but I would like to inform the linguist that they can check up on this.

 

It’s basically sort of an insurance for your business that covers you in case you make any errors and in case the legal contracts that you have signed, the company decides to take an action on that and your mistake sort of comes your way. So this can be helpful. There are clauses about intellectual property and data protection in almost all of the confidentiality agreements now from the agencies.

 

I’m not surprised. Nowadays everything’s digital, so you need to really have strict measures in place for data protection and these things. So, just make sure you’re signing whatever you understand and you read and make sure you’re clear on everything.

 

Some easy tips would be for translators to avoid violation of these contracts, do not use any sort of public repositories or public devices when you’re working on clients confidential projects, work on secure Wi-Fi or interrupted drives, any sort of data that is being shared. If you’re expected to destroy it within a certain time frame after the project is completed, do so.

 

Mainly treating disinformation with ethical consideration it requires, is the hallmark of professionalism because every day the translators handle so much sensitive information, medical reports and witness statements, legal documents. So yeah, it’s important.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

What trends or changes do you foresee, Sakshi in the translation and interpreting industry and how are translators and interpreters preparing to adapt to them?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

So the hot topics are of course AI and MT and the industry is still very much divided about how MT is going to take over or AI is going to take over. What they need to do is adapt to it. They need to, as we said, embrace the technology because it’s just a help.

 

As we said, technology is integrating itself in every step. It’s helping us. It’s not trying to replace us in any shape or form, it’s a myth. I would very much like to debunk the myth that it’s not happening because it’s not so ahead where it can replace the human touch, the cultural sensitivity, the nuances, the puns that we understand. It’s never going to be able to do that, at least not now.

 

So, I think the translators really need to adapt to this latest trend of AI and make sure that they are making the best use of it, in order to benefit themselves. I mean, previously, if you take the example, people used to go to libraries for research, actual physical books. Then came Google and it was new. Now that’s basically AI. I mean, you can’t even imagine going to a library physically to research about something. You’ll just Google it.

 

So yeah, the translators don’t need to be afraid of this latest trend. And yeah, they can get on board with it.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Absolutely. In closing, Sakshi, what advice do you have for translators and interpreters that are new or those who want to evolve and want to stay up to date with the trends and developments in our industry?

 

Sakshi Vaidya

So, the first advice would be, of course, follow the translators and follow this podcast because you’ll get to learn a lot and you will definitely be able to stay on top of the trends with all the talks that Sultan has.

 

Other advice that I’d like to give is, in general, keep on top of the worldwide trends and developments in major sectors because the translation industry is, I think, one of those rare industries which is connected to anything and everything, primarily because it’s so much.

 

Every culture, every country, every language, every industry, you have translations, localizations everywhere. So, if you’re on top of it, you might just be able to foresee something and a specialization that is emerging and make sure that you are in front of it.

 

For example, we had COVID now and the people who were on top of this probably realized, translators, that they needed sort of to get on the medical translation specialization. People who prepared for it, I bet, they got a lot of medical projects. I mean, there was a boom, definitely.

 

So, keeping on top of these things, the news, and then at micro level, you can keep on top of the AI and latest industry trends with CAT tools so that you can make the most of technology, be most efficient, and then focus solely on actually translating and offering good service. Let me tell you, language service providers are not behind on this race. They are getting on every possible wagon they can to be at the forefront of these technology advancements.

 

So, the linguists definitely need to step up their game and match the pace to be in the forefront with the LSPs so that they can have successful collaborations.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

What a great, fun, and informative conversation, Sakshi. I really enjoyed speaking with you and I would love to continue this discussion in the future. You’re certainly helping the industry on both sides to become more professional and, quite frankly, easier to work with. For those listening, there was a lot of value and how we can make things better, improve things. In particular for our dear linguists colleagues.

 

Thank you for your time, Sakshi, and for sharing your thoughts with us.

 

Sakshi Vaidya

Thank you so much, Sultan, for having me on this podcast. It was great talking to you.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Okay, it’s time for my roundup of the interview and my analysis as to what has been discussed.

 

The language industry is a dynamic and growing field driven by globalization and the increasing need for cross-cultural communication. While linguists possess invaluable linguistic expertise, they often face challenges in marketing their services and negotiating competitive rates.

 

To thrive in this competitive landscape, translators, interpreters, and other language professionals must hone their business skills. This includes understanding target markets, developing effective marketing strategies, building strong client relationships, and managing finances efficiently.

 

Presenting oneself as a professional is crucial for establishing credibility and commanding higher fees. Linguists can achieve this by crafting compelling resumes and portfolios showcasing their expertise and experience. Active participation in industry associations, attending conferences, and pursuing professional certifications can demonstrate commitment to excellence and continuous learning.

 

Effective communication skills are also essential, allowing linguists to clearly articulate their value proposition and negotiate favorable contracts.

 

That brings us to the end of this conversation, and we will continue to cover this topic in the future. Please share any comments or feedback that you may have and thank you for listening. Make sure to subscribe to the Translation Company Talk Podcast on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Spotify, Audible, or your platform of choice and give this episode a 5-star rating.

 

Until next time!

 

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