Category: Talks, Lectures and Presentations

  • Thrive rather than survive as a Single Person Language Services Unit

    Thrive rather than survive as a Single Person Language Services Unit

    I’ve worked in house for over a decade as the only translator covering a very broad and expanding repertoire of subject matters. One challenge has always been how to juggle large numbers of customers and recurring jobs without a team.

    While I don’t need to focus on the business side of issues (financial, marketing etc.) that a freelancer might have to, I still need to keep everything running smoothly to ensure I can also take time off, or not worry that sick days will lead to everything piling up.

    This topic will deal with how to use and maintain tools, combine specific tasks, and draw up operating procedures to live by. It is about how to ensure you thrive, rather than just survive.

  • Navigating your way through EU legal acts for translators

    Navigating your way through EU legal acts for translators

    If you are looking to focus on certain policy areas, you may find that the depth of information that is out there is overwhelming. I am working on a talk/lecture tailored to Translation students or translators starting out on focusing on certain EU policy areas, based on my own experience from over a decade translating at the FMA.

    The idea is to create a very practical and interactive talk or presentation, which could also be delivered as a number of shorter presentations, including a hands-on workshop, as well as to should how to leverage EUR-LEX for building up terminology and translation memories.

  • Abstract: XXIII FIT World Congress – 4-6 September 2025 in Geneva

    Abstract: XXIII FIT World Congress – 4-6 September 2025 in Geneva

    This abstract was submitted and accepted for submission to the XXIII FIT Congress to be held on 4-6 September 2025 at the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva.

    Breaking the Loop: the need for Experts in the Lead in the Translation Profession

    For the congress track on: Future of the profession

    Addressing the following specific bullet points in the Call for Abstracts.

    • Specialised translation
    • Training and CPD
    • Translation

    Abstract:

    The translation industry pushes an agenda in human-machine translation that relegates the involvement of human translators to a position in the loop. Its default stance of a “Human in the Loop” involvement is at odds with the expertise, training and dedication of professional translators.

    In many jurisdictions translation is an unregulated profession, widely pursued by self-employed individuals. Advances in technology, such as neural machine translation and the use of Generated AI/LLMs have created an industry narrative that translation is now largely machine-led.

    In addition, the erosion of the traditional translation iron triangle of time, cost and quality/scope in translation, due to the heightened use of technology, has added to the pressures faced by members of the profession.

    I will present why there is a continuing need for human translators leading the way, rather than being relegated to a subordinate position “in the loop”, as well as addressing the need for expertise and narrower specialisation over a broader and shallower specialisation, as well as advocating a human-led approach to the use of translation technology.

  • Ten Takeaways from the ATA German Language Division Workshop in Vienna (22-23 February 2025)

    Ten Takeaways from the ATA German Language Division Workshop in Vienna (22-23 February 2025)

    Last weekend, I attended the ATA German Language Division Workshop held here in Vienna. I also delivered a new presentation on Sunday morning (der Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund!). It was the first time that I had presented about the Expert in the Lead (XITL) approach to human-machine translation. Previously it has been the focus of LinkedIn posts and articles in the ITI Bulletin and Universitas Mitteilungsblatt.

    GenAI/LLMs/MTPE and the Profession vs the Industry

    1. Don’t be afraid to present on something new: presenting on a new topic is exhilarating – and audience feedback is really helpful. Presenting to a small, intimate audience is great for presenting on a new topic. I’d been tempted to go for really flashy slides, but opted for readability and high contrast. Day one reminded me to check my slides were clear: in black-and-white or with high contrast.
    2. Even if we’re not all overly keen on GenAI and LLMs, translators certainly see the value of tools: there was a short presentation about AutoHotKey (AHK), which I knew of, but am not able to use in my working environment in the office. From the presentation, it was clear that I’d have plenty of use cases for it. And my other neighbour showed me a lightweight USB-C powered second screen. Various laptop stands and travel tech was on show over the weekend.
    3. The continuing prevalence of AI bias, how to handle it, as well as how to prompt accordingly: Dagmar Gromann gave a two-part session focussing on typical AI bias. I think I was primed by the prompt about what Germans typically eat for dinner. I went for Obazda as a starter after it featured heavily in the prompt output! This session also addressed inclusive language – prompting me to re-listen to the Yellow of the Egg podcast.

    Freelancing and in-house

    1. In-house translators are far closer to freelancers than some may think: while I don’t contend with the “business” side of translation professionals as an in-house translator, I face many similar issues. I also need to get my point across to decision-makers, and convince people of the value of human translation.
    2. Freelancers are suffering from the industry shift from an emphasis on “top quality” to “good enough”: I touched upon how the industry’s “flight from quality” is affecting the profession (see the graphics below). Some may approach a day where they have to reconsider their ability to “stay in the game” up until retirement. This mirrored the sentiment in a recent “Standing Up” (a closed Facebook Group for translators) thread. I am grateful to Standing Up for connecting me with one of my neighbours for the weekend.
    • Triple Constraint in Translation

    Techniques

    1. Always have something to hand to take notes: as Nina Sattler-Hovdar pointed out in her transcreation workshop on the second day – always take notes – whether on paper or on your phone, tablet or computer. I’m big on always having a notebook on me (even when watching football with my children). The takeaway already paid dividends this week when a thought came to me while printing out some texts. I quickly scribbled it onto one of the photocopies with the biro by the photocopier. I am sure I would have forgotten after a chat in the Teeküche.
    2. Multiple approaches to the same issue: I talked to a few participants about their personal view of translation memory systems/CAT. People’s personal CAT use varies, often by their areas of specialisation. I believe firmly in “you do you” – if it works well for you, don’t change it! Different approaches includes different segmentation e.g. paragraph segmentation rather than sentence-based segmentation. The former is an approach I took many years to find. I find it very useful for “freer translations” e.g. speeches.
    3. The priming effect: a couple of warm-up exercises focussed on the priming effect. I fell into the elephant trap a couple of times: which might possibly have been a sign of tiredness! One presentation analysing machine translation output was very interesting – professional translators use broader varieties of techniques to render texts than machine translation. Many techniques cast me back to my student days and Translation Methodology. At the wordface, intuition plays a big role, so I don’t really analyse my preferences towards techniques. I probably could/should find time to do so.

    The human factor

    1. Translators are an upstanding and ethical bunch: in a world that sometimes can be very devoid of compassion, translators are very compassionate. Even when earning a living (even if this is hampered by industry practices), we still retain our integrity. Sadly some of the tales of agency work paint a far less upstanding picture.
    2. Nothing beats human company: as someone attending for the first time, I was made really welcome and had a day and a half of great conversations with some consummate professionals. This is why I value, and feel duty-bound to fight for, the translation profession. Aaron Maddox’s final session was thought provoking and led to open discussion – including about the positive effects of life coaching.

    Many thanks to all the organisers – Bettina, Ellen, Karen and Robin – as well as all the other participants. To anyone I didn’t really speak to over the weekend, I hope there will be future opportunities. And a particular thanks to my “neighbours” Sarah and Johanna, and other group work participants for the lively chats.

  • Spiez Workshop Resources updated

    Spiez Workshop Resources updated

    Since we gathered in Spiez, I have updated the list of resources that I have made available on this website. In case you attended and don’t have the password – feel free to drop me a line!

    Resources

    Today’s update includes links to the consolidated versions of CRR3 (09.07.2024) and CRD6 (29.07.2024).

  • Abstract – ASTTI Summer Conference 2024 – Spiez

    Abstract – ASTTI Summer Conference 2024 – Spiez

    I will be leading a workshop for financial translators at ASTTI’s Summer Conference, to be held on 3-5 July 2024. This is the abstract for my workshop:

    THE NEW BANKING PACKAGE (DE>EN)

    The workshop also draws on practical examples from primary and secondary national banking legislation relating to banking supervision translation from German into English on subject matters that are currently in and out of the news headlines, and some of the typical communications by supervisory authorities towards supervised entities, sister authorities, or the public.

    A set of exercises for consideration in small groups will cover frequently encountered issues in banking supervision translation, focusing on stylistic elements like rendering issues from German into English and differences in the primary and secondary legislation of different German-speaking countries. The exercises will also reflect the broad spectrum of activities that fall within banking supervision and focus on aspects of translation for different target audiences (e.g. fellow supervisors, employees of supervised banks, and the public).

  • ETUG 2022 –  incorporating eTranslation into Trados workflows

    ETUG 2022 – incorporating eTranslation into Trados workflows

    I recently moderated a session on incorporating the European Commission’s eTranslation MT solution into Trados workflows at ETUG 2022. ETUG 2022 is annual meeting of the European Trados Users Group. It brings together translators, language technologists from corporate language services and representatives from RWS to talk about all aspects Trados. RWS unveil roadmaps for their products and there are use case presentations, like in my session.

    Catherine Lane and Daniel García-Magariños from the Language Technology and Innovation Unit within DG Translation at the European Central Bank demonstrated how they have approached incorporating eTranslation into Trados workflows.

    For me, as a banking supervision translator, it made moderating the session simpler, but interventions from the floor from the automotive industry also provided valuable inputs on some of the considerations for use of MT in workflows.

    The ECB Experience

    The presentation was split into two parts. Catherine addressed setting up the Finance engine, including the QA of imported data, and language combinations and available engines. Daniel demonstrated the tool developed by the ECB for importing machine translations TMX files.

    Catherine dealt with how the ECB has applies rules about the level of confidentiality of documents that can be sent to eTranslation. Mitigations are in place (e.g. files downloaded from eTranslation, not by e-mail, and deleted immediately from the system after download). These measures are necessary for ensuring that the files do not remain in the system for any longer than is necessary.

    Catherine also addressed issues about onboarding of translators – they had used an eLearning module to handle some of the training. Currently it is still an additional aid to complement existing server-based human translation TMs, and not a direct replacement, and serving more as a starting point where existing TMs did not include good fuzzy matches for sentences.

    Currently translations are only delivered for one engine at a time. However, it is possible to have translations into multiple languages. I meant to ask about pivot languages for exotic combinations – e.g. for Finnish-Maltese does MT output involve an intermediate step through English?

    MT’s Top Model

    Another consideration is about which engines to use. For my area of work, I would probably use 2-3 engines (e.g. Bundesbank Neural, Finance, Formal). This would require running the process three times at the moment. Depending on the text type, however, the Formal engine (e.g. for legal texts) might prove the most useful. The Finance engine would prove more useful for financial texts.

    As Daniel explained, processing power also means that there is currently not direct way to access eTranslation from inside Trados. Instead, eTranslation translates the document and the output made available to download. Downloaded files are imported into a separate Translation Memory for MT results. In the translation project a 20% penalty applies. The TM settings are “lookup” and “concordance” enabled, but “update” disabled. This essentially means it is a read-only translation memory.

    The ECB’s “eTranslator importer” helps ensure that the files land in the right place and domain-specific fields appended to each TU. This includes extra field content about the engine used. The Translation Memory is cleared regularly.

    Averse – Ambivalent – Evangelist

    Three attitudes towards MT emerged in the discussion about the uptake among translators. I called them “averse”, i.e. those who opposed the use of MT, “ambivalent” i.e. nice to have but not a deal-breaker, and “evangelist”. There has been some move away from “averse” towards “ambivalent”. Possibly this is due to the emergence of NMT, thereby overcoming the aversity displayed towards statistical Machine Translation.

    A similar project from the automotive industry mentioned that their own project had only given access to more experienced translators. Less-experienced translators might lack the depth of knowledge to identify that a fluent sounding TU was in fact incorrect.

    I am in the “ambivalent” camp. The potential uses for eTranslation in my setting in banking supervision are evident. I am aware of the fact that there is still a considerable post-editing of the MT required. My direct concern is needing to pseudonymise all mentions of the entities in question. Similarly for any placeable values (e.g. about total assets etc.), but doing so negates the productivity gain.

    I find MT output is very rigid in its word order, whereas I like to invert sentences to in turn negate the use for a passive in English

    However, I can understand and appreciate that texts carefully prepared for translation (check out search results for “writing for translation” to get an idea), mean a greater productivity gain. This might in turn improve unnecessary verbosity and lead to clearer writing.

    Takeaways from the session

    A few take-aways from the break-out session on integrating eTranslation into the translation workflow of the European Central Bank

    • Any institution, agency and authority with access to eTranslation can use this approach.
    • There are a number of domain-specific engines. Currently eTranslation only uses a single engine per request. Different engines seem better suited to different text types.
    • eTranslation works for all EU official languages, and there are also some other non-EU languages (e.g. Ukrainian, Chinese, Arabic)
    • ECB used language data from central banks and supervisory authorities to build the Finance engine.
    • A 20% penalty to MT output means that eTranslation output only comes into play where there are no human-translated and verified TUs.
    • From an assessment of translation quality for pure MT out, language combinations with the largest number of TUs achieve the best results.
    • Translators fall into three camps “averse”, “ambivalent”, “evangelist”. Some sceptics (averse) are becoming more enthusiastic, partially due to the advent of NMT.
    • Future developments include tools for anonymization or pseudonymisation – essential when using names of entities etc.
    • Translator experience level may contribute to gains from these workflows.
  • Talk given to students at the University of Graz

    Talk given to students at the University of Graz

    I turned 44 on 24 June 2021. The momentous realisation was that I was halfway between graduating (23) and retirement (65). Fortunately, I had an excellent opportunity to take stock of things, and gave a talk to a class of MA course Translation students. The students were from at the Department of Translation Studies at the University of Graz. The talk was at the invitation of Hendrik Bower.

    (more…)
  • Abstract: EULITA 2018 in Sofia

    Abstract: EULITA 2018 in Sofia

    Presentation on “The market for legal translation in Austria: the financial markets supervision perspective” presented at EULITA Conference, in Sofia, March 2018

    Two primary reasons exist for the burgeoning demand for translation in financial market supervision. Firstly, increasing Europeanisation of financial market supervision, following the advent of the Single Supervisory Mechanism in banking supervision, the establishment of European Supervisory Authorities in banking, insurance and occupational pensions, and securities and markets supervision, and bank resolution within the Single Resolution Mechanism, and their language regimes have created increased demand in the national language to English combination. Secondly, the cross-border nature of activities of supervised entities, particularly those whose cross-border activities are not restricted only to other EU Member States, also presents particular challenges with regard to legal translation in relation to ongoing supervisory activities. In addition, the constantly evolving language services market also presents considerable challenges for both translators and consumers of legal translation services. Finally, while technology increases productivity, its use also affects charging models, which can in turn complicate the procurement of legal translation.

    Keywords: Europeanisation, cross-border supervision, Austria, language services, procurement, productivity