How I use revision clubs for translation skill mastery
CPD focus: translation revision clubs
In the translation industry, revision is a careful comparison of the translated text against the original source to ensure the message and tone of voice have been faithfully and effectively and communicated in the target language.
I completed over 100 hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) over the past 12 months. Yay for me, right? Let me explain a bit more about how I passed this milestone.
100 hours may sound like a lot: it works out as three/four working weeks. But when you’re doing regular chunks of CPD as a habit, it’s actually quite easy to hit the 100-hour mark.
One CPD activity I do that really racks up the hours is revision clubs.
What on earth is a revision club, you may ask?
The word ‘revision’ makes it sounds a pretty tedious, I’ll admit. A bit like a club for swotting up before an exam. But no, in the translation world, ‘revision’ means something different. Revision is similar to an editing process, with the important distinction of there being two languages and two texts.
In the translation industry, revision is a careful comparison of the translated text against the original source to ensure the message and tone of voice have been faithfully and effectively and communicated in the target language.
In a real-life translation job, the revision part of the project will be done by a second translator. This follows the ‘four-eyes’ principle, based on the theory that if only one person works on a text, something will inevitably get missed.
In the best-case scenario, the translator and reviser will work closely together to discuss the suggested changes before agreeing on the final version. The best translations will be produced as a collaborative effort by two (or more) translators/revisers.
So now you know.
In CPD terms, a revision club aims to replicate this collaborative work in a more relaxed space.
Three translators – at any stage in their translation career – come together to find a challenging text they can first work on separately, before meeting (online) to discuss the text’s stumbling blocks and to compare notes.
Three seems to be the magic number for revision clubs – I’m in a revision club for French, Spanish and Portuguese and they all consist of three translators. I think it could be unwieldy with a higher number, while with fewer translators there would simply be fewer ideas flowing.
The three of us spend an hour discussing the text’s challenges, sharing the results of our subject and terminology research and comparing each other’s translation solutions. There are scant other opportunities to get your work peer reviewed: they are worth their weight in gold.
Because I translate from three languages, I’m part of three different revision clubs. It’s a lot! But we don’t always manage to meet monthly; sometimes it’s bimonthly if we’re busy and that’s fine. Flexibility comes with the territory when you’re freelance.
But being part of a revision club still means spending many, many hours per year on translation mastery with my peers – honing my craft, discussing solutions and crystallising my own thoughts. Often it means taking a fresh look at my understanding of a phrase, or even a whole text or concept in the source language.
The best things about this form of CPD?
It’s free.
It involves talking to my peers, which adds to a feeling of community.
It exists at the coalface of translation – we get down to the nitty-gritty.
You get to pick the brains of your peers. Sometimes they come up with an incredibly apt turn of phrase, sometimes you do. It’s a virtuous circle.
Even if it’s not a ‘real’ translation project, it is real-life translation in action. And we always make sure we pick challenging texts so that we’re stretching ourselves.
Because I track my time, I can see that in March I spent a total of seven hours on my revision clubs. That’s basically an entire workday! So you can see how these hours add up over a year.
Are you part of a translation revision club? Or a similar type of group within your industry? I’ve love to hear your stories!
How did I get here? How and why I became a specialist French, Spanish and Portuguese into English translator
As a boutique translation business owner who thrives on solving problems, it’s usually my clients I want to know more about. I’m usually asking what do you need; what are your values and your goals? After all, when it comes to getting the job done, it’s really not all about me.
But maybe you want to discover more about my background, to work out whether I’d be a trustworthy partner. And so, you may ask yourself (as that Talking Heads song goes), ‘Well, how did I get here?’. Or you may be someone interested in finding out how on earth someone might end up becoming a translator. Reader, you’re in the right place.
An intentional path
Almost every day, I’m immensely grateful to have discovered translation as a career. My journey to becoming a translator was very much deliberate and planned.
It all started with GCSEs in French and Spanish back in the 1990s. When it was time to choose my A-levels, those two languages seemed a natural choice because I was getting good grades in them. But by then it wasn’t only about the grades – I was starting to think more about my future study and subsequent career. For me, I loved the fact that taking A-levels in languages opened up doors for me. I learned so much about other cultures and histories, and this gave me a fresh perspective on the world. I cherished that.
I spent a long time researching the right university, and I definitely made the right choice. I had a fantastic four years at Cardiff University/Prifysgol Caerdydd, studying for my BA in French and Spanish. Translation was an integral part of my degree course, and it was at Cardiff that I received some of my most valuable tuition as a fledgling translator. Fun fact: my other favourite modules focused on Spanish history and French literature.
Full immersion
In 2001, my third year, I went to live in Nantes, France, and then Barcelona, Spain. I studied at the universities there and experienced the countries’ language and culture in real life. This was when things really took off and I truly felt confident in my second languages. Ever curious, while in Barcelona I couldn’t resist taking a part-time course in Catalan. This year was also when I fell hook, line and sinker for France and Spain as countries, and I’ve tried to return as often as I can ever since.
Linguist on a mission
It was at Cardiff that I first learned about translation as a profession, and I knew right away it was the one for me. There was something about it that appealed to all my skillsets and interests. But four years at university were not enough, I decided! I was incredibly eager to learn more about translation theory and practice, and about linguistics in general. So I applied to study an MA in Translation and Linguistics at the University of Westminster.
At Westminster I began learning Portuguese as a cognate language of Spanish. I loved Portuguese immediately, and found that, with my knowledge of Spanish, Catalan and French, I could soon read it with relative ease, and took additional evening classes to top up my speaking and listening skills.
Stumbling upon a niche
For my MA dissertation, I did a 15,000-word translation about women’s rights in Nicaragua, with an extended linguistic commentary, in coordination with the charity Womankind Worldwide. This was how I discovered and explored my first subject area niche. Westminster University had great links with the translation industry, so I felt ready to go out into the ‘real’ world once I’d completed my fifth year of study.
Picking up the pace
I was lucky that, living in London, there were some in-house opportunities around. Someone pointed out an advert for translators at INTERPOL’s bureau in London, so in 2004 I applied, got an interview, passed the entrance test and got the job.
I’ll always be so grateful for these first few years in-house as a newbie translator finding my feet. I was able to access training, development, and real-world experience that I wouldn’t otherwise have gained. My work at Interpol was – naturally – focused on legal translation, so that also gave me a solid specialism to focus on. But it also introduced me to how international organisations function and interact. It is hard to find translators with a genuine background in international organisations, and that job gave me the grounding I needed.
Hitting my stride
It wasn’t long before I realised that I wanted to set up my own boutique translation business. The security of my translation day job allowed me the space to spend my free time honing some crucial business skills and building my network. I even brushed up my English grammar proficiency through a TESOL certificate at intensive evening classes, just in case things didn’t work out. But I didn’t need to worry. After six months of combining English teaching with my part-time translation business, I went full time.
Where I want to be
Setting up my own business in 2008 was one of the scariest, most exhilarating things I’ve ever done. I’ll never forget how that first week felt. Nearly 15 years later, my work days are varied and almost always fascinating and fulfilling. All thanks to translation. Who could ask for more?
Translation demands quite a niche set of skills. Beyond the obvious requirement to speak another language, you need an eye for detail and an aptitude for the rhythm and flow of writing, not to mention clarity, excellent grammar and punctuation, as well as deep subject-matter knowledge. Every step I’ve taken has led me to becoming the translator I am today, and oh, what a journey it has been.
