| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | CPD (Continuing Professional Development) question Thread poster: Pascal Zotto
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jyuan_us wrote:
A professional translator learns every day by translating, and their professional development happens naturally that way. They shouldn't be imposed to spend time in something they don't really need just for the sake of CPD credits.
It’s treating qualified professionals like children, isn’t it? You’d better behave or else…
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 01:08
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
jyuan_us wrote:
A professional translator learns every day by translating, and their professional development happens naturally that way.
No, the opposite is true. It is very easy for a translator to fall into a comfortable rut where he learns nothing new.
| | | | jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 19:08
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
| Than you for your disagree | Jan 15, 2023 |
Samuel Murray wrote: jyuan_us wrote:
A professional translator learns every day by translating, and their professional development happens naturally that way. No, the opposite is true. It is very easy for a translator to fall into a comfortable rut where he learns nothing new.
Maybe I should have written my last post this way:
"A professional translator learns every day by working as a translator. They learn, on an as-needed basis, skills in business marketing, project management, translation and editing, quality assurance, internet search, business accounting, to name a few, almost on a day-to-day basis. They do these out of their own initiative."
Do these activities count as CPD?
[Edited at 2023-01-15 12:30 GMT]
| | | | Thomas Pfann
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:08
Member (2006)
English to German
+ ...
| Everday work = (part of your) CPD | Jan 15, 2023 |
jyuan_us wrote:
"A professional translator learns every day by working as a translator. They learn, on an as-needed basis, skills in business marketing, project management, translation and editing, quality assurance, internet search, business accounting, to name a few, almost on a day-to-day basis. They do these out of their own initiative."
Do these activities count as CPD?
Yes, they do. (And are officially recognized as such – see original post in this thread.)
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Kaspars Melkis
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:08
English to Latvian
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Samuel Murray wrote: jyuan_us wrote:
A professional translator learns every day by translating, and their professional development happens naturally that way. No, the opposite is true. It is very easy for a translator to fall into a comfortable rut where he learns nothing new.
It is possible to identify your learning needs while doing translation and learn them at the same time as you do your job. Then recording your CPDs is very easy, you just write that down, i.e., I didn't know something and then I learned it by using a specific source etc.
If one has problem recording CPDs like that, then maybe it is time to go outside of daily working and try to learn something more.
As a registered pharmacist both in the UK and Latvia, I have to do CPD in both countries. Latvia has more strict format, only the courses and activities that are officially approved by a committee are counted. Some course were really good for general learning, for example, last year I learned a lot about treatment of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. It was like an extension of university studies. However, I found them less relevant for what I can do as a community pharmacist.
The UK format is less formal, one can select from different learning activities but you have to be able to justify them in case the professional body decides to review your records. It leads to more relevant learning and it could be something you had to learn while doing your daily work.
[Edited at 2023-01-15 14:24 GMT]
| | | | CroPro
Croatia
Local time: 01:08
English to Croatian
| Reading is the best CPD for translators | Jan 15, 2023 |
Or anybody else for that matter. And also time best spent.
Really, if you're not willing to tell them something along the lines of "I've been so up to the neck in projects I didn't really have any time for vacations...err.. conferences and other official forms of CPD", just give them list or number of the books in your source or target language you've read.
I read 150-200 books per year and find myself incrementally (continually) improved (personally developed) with ea... See more Or anybody else for that matter. And also time best spent.
Really, if you're not willing to tell them something along the lines of "I've been so up to the neck in projects I didn't really have any time for vacations...err.. conferences and other official forms of CPD", just give them list or number of the books in your source or target language you've read.
I read 150-200 books per year and find myself incrementally (continually) improved (personally developed) with each and every single one of them.
And I also notice an undeniable quantum leap after 50-70 books.
Reading a lot helps person train their Spidey senses for subtleties of meaning and develop an ear for music of the words. And therein lies the difference between good and great translator.
[Edited at 2023-01-15 14:54 GMT]
[Edited at 2023-01-15 14:54 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I don’t think so | Jan 15, 2023 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
No, the opposite is true. It is very easy for a translator to fall into a comfortable rut where he learns nothing new.
Only if the translator only translates exactly the same content every single time.
As soon as the source has something new, you learn something new.
I learn something every day in my work🤷♂️
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 02:08
Member
English to Turkish
CroPro wrote:
Or anybody else for that matter. And also time best spent.
Really, if you're not willing to tell them something along the lines of "I've been so up to the neck in projects I didn't really have any time for vacations...err.. conferences and other official forms of CPD", just give them list or number of the books in your source or target language you've read.
I read 150-200 books per year and find myself incrementally (continually) improved (personally developed) with each and every single one of them.
And I also notice an undeniable quantum leap after 50-70 books.
Reading a lot helps person train their Spidey senses for subtleties of meaning and develop an ear for music of the words. And therein lies the difference between good and great translator.
[Edited at 2023-01-15 14:54 GMT]
[Edited at 2023-01-15 14:54 GMT]
Judging by the overall translation quality of our 'younger colleagues' (millennials, zoomers), it seems that their CPD mostly consists of switching from one social network site to the other.
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Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 01:08
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Samuel Murray wrote:
No, the opposite is true. It is very easy for a translator to fall into a comfortable rut where he learns nothing new.
How? Almost every single text has its terminological challenges. So you have to read about the subject to determine how you should translate them. With the texts I am translating it is virtually impossible not to learn something new. And to be honest, I think that applies to a very large number of translators.
Apart from that you always have to make sure you convey the exact meaning of your text. I see no way to take your translation assignments lightly if you take your business seriously. There is always some kind of pressure to do your job right, even if the source text isn't the hardest to translate (perhaps there's even more pressure in the last case).
| | | | | Learning via translation | Jan 16, 2023 |
Lieven Malaise wrote: Samuel Murray wrote:
No, the opposite is true. It is very easy for a translator to fall into a comfortable rut where he learns nothing new.
How? Almost every single text has its terminological challenges. So you have to read about the subject to determine how you should translate them. With the texts I am translating it is virtually impossible not to learn something new. And to be honest, I think that applies to a very large number of translators. Apart from that you always have to make sure you convey the exact meaning of your text. I see no way to take your translation assignments lightly if you take your business seriously. There is always some kind of pressure to do your job right, even if the source text isn't the hardest to translate (perhaps there's even more pressure in the last case).
You do learn during translation, but in my experience that learning is random and sporadic. If you take a course on a subject, your learning is more systematic and thorough (and your progress will be MUCH faster).
There are things that you will never learn through translation alone. For example, you will never become an engineering expert though translation alone because you have to start by gaining a thorough grounding in maths which has to be built up bit by bit.
| | | | | Formal vs informal | Jan 16, 2023 |
Rachel Waddington wrote:
You do learn during translation, but in my experience that learning is random and sporadic. If you take a course on a subject, your learning is more systematic and thorough (and your progress will be MUCH faster).
There are things that you will never learn through translation alone. For example, you will never become an engineering expert though translation alone because you have to start by gaining a thorough grounding in maths which has to be built up bit by bit.
But most translators will rarely, if ever, need that level of understanding of their subject areas.
A degree in economics would teach me lots of stuff I don’t know, but it’s also mostly stuff I will never need to know for my translations. Whereas my own research is based on the stuff I translate and so teaches me about relevant areas.
Most of my “CPD” is just reading the financial press to absorb new jargon. At the end of the day, I’m a linguist, not an economist. I’m regurgitating someone else’s analysis, not producing my own.
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 01:08
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Rachel Waddington
There are things that you will never learn through translation alone. For example, you will never become an engineering expert though translation alone because you have to start by gaining a thorough grounding in maths which has to be built up bit by bit.
In the almost 23 years I am translating I haven't followed one single course because I simply don't have time for that. In the mean while almost half of what I translate is engineering-related, to the high satisfaction of my clients. A translator doesn't need to study maths to be able to translate maths. I am more than experienced enough to know that. But by all means, follow all the courses you want. I learn every single day, just by doing research for my translations and I know that's more than enough.
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| How much math is really involved in engineering? | Jan 16, 2023 |
Rachel Waddington wrote:
For example, you will never become an engineering expert though translation alone because you have to start by gaining a thorough grounding in maths which has to be built up bit by bit
I've always found the math portion of engineering texts relatively easy to translate; there are other things that make engineering translations more difficult than they would be with just the math and no engineer speak. And I do agree that anything less than a university course won't give you a solid enough foundation in math. I'd sure love to know much more about math than I currently do, but I don't think this knowledge will make me a better translator, it's just that math is beautiful. Too bad I don't have the time and leisure to keep cracking ever harder problems as if I were still in my early student years and didn't have to earn a living. A random observation to wrap up the post: the biggest online Eng-Rus dictionary does contain two translations for "real ananlysis" and one for "complex analysis," but none of them is correct. So, you never know what pitfalls could be waiting for you if you've taken on a math translation project while having no clue as to what the source text is saying
| | | | Pascal Zotto
Austria
Local time: 01:08
Member (2009)
Dutch to Luxembourgish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Thanks for all the answers so far… | Jan 16, 2023 |
So, most answers underline the activities I already found.
Also many thanks for the links to various lists with CPD activities. I think that will help those who struggle with identifying CPD activities a lot.
Yes, my main thought before doing some research on this topic was also, WTF do they want, I learn by doing (in our case translating, well more via the research you do while translating) every day…
But then again you have to be aware that many transl... See more So, most answers underline the activities I already found.
Also many thanks for the links to various lists with CPD activities. I think that will help those who struggle with identifying CPD activities a lot.
Yes, my main thought before doing some research on this topic was also, WTF do they want, I learn by doing (in our case translating, well more via the research you do while translating) every day…
But then again you have to be aware that many translators skip the research and rely on (N)MT results. That would then result in no-brain-users which would certainly not count towards CPD as they do not learn anything but just translate/deliver as fast as possible, including all the terminology, grammar and spelling errors.
Pascal ▲ Collapse
| | | | | It's up to you | Jan 16, 2023 |
Pascal Zotto wrote: So, most answers underline the activities I already found. Also many thanks for the links to various lists with CPD activities. I think that will help those who struggle with identifying CPD activities a lot. Yes, my main thought before doing some research on this topic was also, WTF do they want, I learn by doing (in our case translating, well more via the research you do while translating) every day… But then again you have to be aware that many translators skip the research and rely on (N)MT results. That would then result in no-brain-users which would certainly not count towards CPD as they do not learn anything but just translate/deliver as fast as possible, including all the terminology, grammar and spelling errors. Pascal
For me, CPD is a very personal thing.
It should not be about an externally imposed goal of achieving a certain amount of hours. It should be about what YOU want to achieve to steer your career in the direction you want it to go.
For example, it could be that you have been happily working for agencies for the whole of your career but you would like to start working for direct clients. But you are struggling to do that because you lack certain skills. So, maybe your CPD needs are to do a marketing course - or to hone your target language conversation skills so you are more confident chatting to potential clients in a networking setting.
Or maybe you are a technical translator wanting to take on more creative work. Perhaps a copywriting course would help you.
It's up to you to identify what your needs are and the best way to work towards your goals.
Of course, if you are completely happy with your situation and feel you are progressing in the way you want, you have no need of CPD. But it seems to me that this approach risks leaving your development largely to chance.
I think most translators do CPD in some form, even if they don't think of it as CPD.
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