Paradoxes of freelance translation

Paradoxes of freelancing: maintaining individualism

when belonging to a community

Marta Stelmaszak

June 2015

Main theme today

On the agenda

• Brief introduction about me

• Warning!

• Defining paradoxes with examples

• The life of a translator through paradoxes

• Effects of working in paradoxical conditions

• Formulating the big paradox

• Translation community is a mess

• The wicked problem of the translation profession

• Paradoxes, messes and wicked problems in business

About the speaker

• Polish – English translator and interpreter

• Based in London

• BA in Applied Translation

• MSc in Management, Information Systems and Innovation

• Upcoming PhD (yay!)

• Training in marketing, e-business, economics

• Certificate in business mentoring

• Publications, presentations, articles

• www.wantwords.co.uk/school

• @mstelmaszak

http://www.wantwords.co.uk/school

Warning!

• This is a different kind of a presentation – I’m not giving answers, I’m not prescriptive

• I’m hoping to identify some problems and look for their causes, but I can’t do it without you

• I’d like us all to become researchers for about 50 minutes

• It will be a bit abstract, but it has practical business applications – you’ll see it come to you

• It may be a bit confusing – this is exactly how I feel about it

• If you still want some prescriptivism, talk to me during the conference, please.

Welcome to the world of paradoxes

• A paradox is a statement that apparently contradicts itself and yet might be true (or wrong at the same time).



"The following sentence is true."

"The previous sentence is false."


"This sentence is false" is an example of the well-known liar paradox: it is a sentence which cannot be

consistently interpreted as either true or false, because if it is known to be false, then it is known that it must be true, and if it is known to be true, then it is known that it

must be false.

One for you to solve:

For example, consider a situation in which a father and his son are driving down the road.

The car crashes into a tree and the father is killed. The boy is rushed to the nearest hospital where he is

prepared for emergency surgery.

On entering the surgery suite, the surgeon says, "I can't operate on this boy. He's my son."



If everyone is unique, what makes a person really unique?

We usually say that we shouldn't compare ourselves to other because everyone is a unique individual. So, if

everyone is unique and we are ALL unique, what makes us really unique?

The life of a translator through paradoxes

Our working definition of a paradox:

Mind-boggling, surprising statement contradictory in its nature or in contradiction with common knowledge.

Any paradoxes coming to mind? Tweet at #xl8paradox


Stage 1: Translator training

If there’s no one right solution, why is my solution wrong?

Sometimes the simplest translation problems are most difficult to solve.

If there’s no one right solution, how do I know I’m doing it right?

If I’ll have to translate 2,500 words a day in a CAT tool, why am I given 250 words to translate until next Tuesday on paper?

Some translation problems can be solved only by asking the author. He died half a century ago.

The first step in the translation process is to read the brief. Wait, what?


Stage 2: Translator transition

You need to get some experience before you start working but you need work to get experience.

If you want to find work, start working at lower rates and raise them with experience.

Wait, what does it mean the client won’t pay for spaces?

You’re not paid for 100% TM matches because you don’t need to do any work on them yet you need to do work on them to confirm.

I don’t have money to invest but I won’t have money without investing.


Stage 3: Establishing business

Though I’m great with other people’s words, I’m bad at communication.

I do lots of outbound marketing but I don’t pick up the phone when it rings.

The narrower I specialise, the more jobs I get.

The busier I am, the busier I am.

You need to see the value of your work to make others see the value of your work.


Stage 4: Business-as-usual

The more words I translate, the less I earn.

I need technology; technology threatens to replace me.

Experienced translators are good. Good translators are experienced.

It costs me more to do admin myself than to hire someone to do it.

The more I give back, the more I have for myself.

The more you criticise someone for something, the more likely you’re to be guilty of it yourself.

Effects of working in paradoxical conditions

– Chronic confusion often leading to inertia

– Unhappiness and the feeling of being misunderstood

– Warning! May lead to whining

– Urge to find one right solution

– Leaning towards radicalism either way

– Antidote: embrace paradoxes and learn how to live with them?

The biggest paradox I came across:

The stronger I am as an individual translator, the stronger the community. The stronger the community,

the less individual I become.

This is a real mess.

Horn (2007):

• No unique “correct” view of the problem;

• Different views of the problem and contradictory solutions;

• Most problems are connected to other problems;

• Data are often uncertain or missing;

• Multiple value conflicts;

• Ideological and cultural constraints;

• Political constraints;

This is a real mess.

• Economic constraints;

• Often a-logical or illogical or multi-valued thinking;

• Numerous possible intervention points;

• Consequences difficult to imagine;

• Considerable uncertainty, ambiguity;

• Great resistance to change; and,

• Problem solver(s) out of contact with the problems and potential solutions.

The wicked problem of translation

The stronger I am as an individual translator, the stronger the community. The stronger the community,

the less individual I become.

- So how do I react to survive?

A.k.a. why I don’t believe in 10 steps to succeed.

Wicked problems

10 characteristics (Rittel and Webber 1973)

• There is no definitive formulation of a wicked problem.

• Wicked problems have no stopping rule.

• Solutions to wicked problems are not true or false, but good or bad.

• There is no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution to a wicked problem.

• Every solution to a wicked problem is a "one-shot operation"; because there is no opportunity to learn by trial and error every attempt counts significantly.

Wicked problems

• Wicked problems do not have an enumerable (or an exhaustively describable) set of potential solutions, nor is there a well-described set of permissible operations that may be incorporated into the plan.

• Every wicked problem is essentially unique.• Every wicked problem can be considered to be a

symptom of another problem.• The existence of a discrepancy representing a wicked

problem can be explained in numerous ways. The choice of explanation determines the nature of the problem's resolution.

• The planner has no right to be wrong (i.e., planners are liable for the consequences of the actions they generate)

Applying all this to business

• Wicked problems

– Every business is, essentially, a wicked problem

– Accepting it means that we open ourselves up to experimentation, trial and error and numerous attempts

– We get stakeholders on board to solve it

– We design better strategies


• Mess

– Every industry is, in essence, a mess

– Accepting it means we have a wider picture and can understand the setting better

– Appreciating messiness helps us come to terms with it and integrate it into our businesses


• Paradoxes that are true– The more you fail, the more likely you are to

succeed.

– The more something scares you, the more you should probably do it.

– The more you try to argue with someone, the less likely you are to convince them of your perspective.

– The more choices you have, the less satisfied you are with each one.


• Paradoxes that are true– There’s no such thing as bad clients: only bad

translators.

– The best way to learn how to become a better translator is to become a client.

– If we want to educate our clients about translation, we must first educate ourselves about our clients.

– If we want to make money as a translator, we must concentrate on the work — not the money.

Take away

How can seeing paradoxes, messes and wicked problems help us in business?

Marta Stelmaszak

www.wantwords.co.uk

[email protected]

@mstelmaszak

http://www.wantwords.co.uk/

mailto:[email protected]

Education

Paradoxes of freelance translation