增加新的服务,承认自己错了
来自Next Level团队:在他们职业生涯的某个阶段, 许多语言学家考虑在他们的工作组合中增加一项新服务. 一个重大的改变,比如增加一个全新的工作领域,可能会让人望而生畏,甚至可能带来灾难性的后果, but what if it’s successful? In this week’s post, 安妮·康纳讨论了她是如何接受一项以前的服务,并再次成为她自己的服务.
当我16岁学习西班牙语时,我开始规划一份使用语言的职业, typing, and shorthand in high school. Seven years earlier, the foreign language seed had been planted in me when my older sister Mary Ellen started learning Spanish in high school and taught me a few phrases. While taking my own Spanish classes, I sensed that conversational fluency would require paying close attention to and mimicking the accents of my heritage-speaker classmates, who graciously invited me into their homes to hear and practice my Spanish with them and their families. At Temple University—where I studied Business and Legal Spanish translation and interpreting—I took a part-time student worker position as an exchange program assistant at the University’s Center for International Services, which gave me real-life translation and interpreting opportunities as I kept up my shorthand and typing skills. In college I also took courses in Italian, which I continued to study after graduation at the America-Italy Society of Philadelphia in the evening after work.
Fast-forwarding to 1991 when my husband Bill and I were the proud-but-nervous parents of boy/girl twins who had been born prematurely a year earlier, 我意识到我在家庭办公室做翻译的梦想可能会成真, 多亏了家用电脑的出现, fax machines, and modems. 我的大学朋友和前同事, Linda Pollack-Johnson, had already been freelancing as a French and Italian translator from home for a year and told me that the first thing I needed to do was join the ATA and its local affiliated group (now an ATA Chapter), 特拉华山谷翻译协会. I then attended a meeting about income taxes as a freelancer and immediately started to market my services to local translation agencies, making up the $2,那时候我的设备在几个月内就花了900美元.
我欣喜若狂,我可以帮助补充永利登录网址的家庭收入,同时作为一个全职妈妈. 过了几年,工作请求的“高峰”才远远超过“低谷”, 但在超过25年的时间里,我一直致力于翻译工作, editing, and spoken-word transcription. Many ATA and DVTA interpreter colleagues, my sister, 甚至比尔也继续鼓励我在孩子们长大后回去做口译. However, I was afraid to take that leap and return to what I had done in-house in the export and medical fields ages ago because I thought, “当我出去解释的时候,我怎么能记住专业术语呢?他们都会回答:“但你会接受训练,而且真的很喜欢。! 你有口译员的个性!” Stubbornly, I kept refusing their promptings because I was so used to my routine of working with the written word and having my hardcopy and online references and glossaries always at my fingertips.
Then something occurred that led me to change my mind and finally admit to those people in my life that they were actually right and I was wrong: the COVID-19 pandemic. By the late spring of 2020, both my Italian>English and Spanish>English translation work requests had all but dried up, since I had specialized in clinical-trial translation and subspecialized in handwritten medical reports and serious-adverse-event documents. By the end of that same year, 比尔从他的飞机公司老板那里接受了一个包裹, which needed to lay off more than 25,000 employees. 比尔讨厌在家里办公(那时候我很少在家里办公)。. Luckily, 他达到了公司裁员的最低资历和年龄要求, 在我照顾一岁孙女的时候,他帮了我很大的忙.
是我的DVTA同事艾琳·哈格鼓动的, in April of 2021 I took and passed the virtual Bridging-the-Gap Medical Interpreter Training program through the Lehigh Valley Health Network; Eileen had taken it in person several years earlier. 在完成课程并将其列入我的ATA目录配置文件后不久, 我开始接受(并享受)面对面的医疗, educational, and community interpreting jobs. 不过每次演出前我都很紧张, 一旦我习惯了事情是如何运作的,以及如何在作业之前研究词汇, I started to relax and found that my English>Spanish interpreting speeds were increasing. During the summer of 2021, 我也开始收到一些来自当地直接客户的翻译请求, as a result of using my slow work period to take Madalena Sánchez Zampaulo’s and Veronika Demichelis’ virtual courses on increasing T&我在网上的存在和完善我的谷歌和领英列表,我的网站等. Since then, 我想接受多少份口译工作就接受多少份, while also serving clients who find me (usually on Google) and ask me for translations of their Italian or Spanish demographic documents into English for the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (with a branch office within 5 minutes of my house), USCIS, and other purposes. Still other clients who find me online ask me to manage translation projects going from English to other languages, which I have come to enjoy.
The direct interaction and feedback that I experience in the various interpreting settings and during translation encounters with grateful individuals whom I’ve helped complete the processing of their vital statistics documentation is extremely rewarding and is something that I didn’t realize I was missing while doing only LSP-sourced translation and editing for so long. Though I’m truly grateful for all those years I was able to translate or edit from wherever I was (at home, while traveling, etc.), I really enjoy getting out of the house and not having as many deadlines over my head as I used to have during my translation-only heyday. 一旦一天的口译结束,我就可以忘记它,放松一下!
In conclusion, during these times of emerging artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that are changing the landscape of various professions, I’m extremely grateful that in-person Spanish interpreters are still in great demand in the Delaware Valley and that I finally heeded the sage advice of my peers and family. So, 致所有想要改变现状的翻译和口译同事们, my advice is: Don’t hesitate to take additional training or refresher courses in a specific area that you love or always wanted to learn about. That way, 您可以在ATA配置文件中添加更多产品, online listings, and website so that both LSP and direct clients can find you easily and so that you can increase your business income.
About the Author
Anne Connor是一名专业的西班牙语和意大利语到英语的医疗和法律翻译, as well as a Spanish Community, Educational and Healthcare Interpreter. She has been an ATA and DVTA member since January of 1991 and is now a Life/Active ATA member and a Lifetime DVTA member. She holds a B.B.A. 在费城坦普尔大学获得商业法学士学位,辅修西班牙语. She is a past President and Secretary of the Delaware Valley Translators Association (serving on the DVTA Board from 1994 to 2016) and serves on the following ATA Committees: Business Practices (Mentoring Subcommittee), Professional Development, 及公共关系(学校永利登录网址小组委员会).
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安妮·康纳分享了一个多么鼓舞人心的故事! 她的经历体现了坚韧、适应能力和抓住新机遇的力量. 看到她如何克服挑战是令人振奋的, embraced change, 最终,她在拓展自己的职业视野中找到了成就感. Anne’s dedication to continuous learning and her willingness to step out of her comfort zone are truly commendable. Her positive attitude and proactive approach serve as an inspiration to fellow translators and interpreters, 提醒永利登录网址所有人对成长和进化保持开放的重要性. 为安妮的持续成功和她为她的领域和社区做出的宝贵贡献干杯!
Lovely story! Full of hope and courage. 这是一个很好的建议,可以帮助永利登录网址所有人随着时代的变化而发展.
Thanks for sharing.
Dear Anne: Kudos to you! 如果一个人打算长期留在一个行业,重塑自己是不可避免的. 展现了T的韧性和敏锐&I community