Is Charging Extra for Urgent Work Justified?

Is Charging Extra for Urgent Work Justified Being a translator, you are often faced with situations where clients will ask you to take up urgent jobs. This will very often put your schedule in a haywire status and make you burn the midnight oil and put in extra efforts to get the work accomplished. So, when such a situation arises and makes you go through so much hardship, is it justified for you to be charging more than your usual rates to take up such jobs? First and foremost, you need to decide on whether or not you have to take up such jobs. If it is upsetting your schedule too much it is better to refuse than to compromise on your other obligations in accomplishing this job. This scenario is applicable if you are asked to work on holidays and weekends, days when you generally do not take up any work. But, if you agree on taking up the job and would like to charge more than your usual rates, tell the client specifically that it is going to cost so much extra to get the job done.It is better to clarify on the matter beforehand rather than trying to approach it after the job is completed. This will ensure that your demands are either met or if the client is not agreeable will search for other options. This is better than trying to sort things later as it may sour relationships for future projects. Now that you have decided on charging extra for completing work urgently, the question arises as to how much is the additional amount that needs to be paid. Although perceptions vary from individual to individual, experts have a general opinion that it needs to be around 20-50% extra than usual translation rates. Of course, there is no industrial norm about this and this is totally left to the options of the particular individual who can decide depending on the kind of time and effort that is needed to complete the work.

Tips to Improve Interpretation Skills

Tips to Improve Interpretation Skills While some people are excellent with their translation they still are not able to do a good job at interpreting because they fail to give notice to other important issues such as tone of voice, pronunciation and intonation. So, what should be borne in mind while improving these qualities to give better interpretations? The tone of voice plays an important role in interpretations. It is best to carry out interpretations in a calm neutral voice although some interpreters may even try to replicate the passion of the speaker’s voice. This reproduction of emotions of the speaker can be permissible if it is kept without going to any extremes which may then sound disrespectful. Also, speaking with great emphasis could leave the interpreter drained and lose vigor quickly. It is also important to bear in mind the usual tone of voice that is used in communicating different languages. Some languages are spoken in a very calm voice while others are spoken with more emphasis. The tone of voice must be adjusted such that languages spoken with different pitch should be quite similar to one another. This will prevent misunderstandings between people understanding different languages that you are interpreting. Correct pronunciation is important for you to relay whatever the speaker is communicating properly to the others. The audience must be able to understand what you as the interpreter is trying to tell for which pronunciation and vocabulary must be quite exceptional. Another factor that needs to be given importance for you to excel as an interpreter is to have the right intonation. Accent is a huge problem while learning other languages as your accent for the native language influences the way you speak the other language. Try to develop good enunciation skills while learning the other language without much influence from your native language. This needs special exercises and training to achieve and may not be very easy. Work hard and practice on improving on skills such as tone, pronunciation and intonation and add it to your skills of translation and very soon you will definitely come out in flying colors.

10 Handy Tips while Interpreting First Time

Handy Tips while Interpreting First Time Everyone has to undergo the ordeal of undertaking many tasks the first time. There is usually a lot of apprehension and nervousness attached to doing things the first time. This is true even for a person taking up interpretation. Interpretation is a tough job to do and facing it in the beginning stages needs you to be prepared to do the job with efficiency. Your preparation to interpretation begins much before you actually take up the task. You need to be well-prepared by having ample amount of practice before you actually start. Here are a few important handy tips that will prepare you to take up interpretation right from the start. 1. It is important for you to know both the original language and the target language well. Doing ample amount of work in translation field will definitely be an added plus to your credit. 2. Practice interpretation by training using some speeches or your local news. 3. Develop a good notation system so that it will help you in your interpretation. 4. When you know in general what the speaker is going to be talking about, ask someone you know to develop a mock speech in that subject for which you can do an interpretation. 5. Practice speaking at a steady rate with no hesitation maintaining proper eye contact with the people listening to you. 6. Know the speakers’ names much before the speeches begin so that there is no confusion from your side. 7. Ensure that you have a microphone that is on a stand or a clip-on such that your hands are free. 8. See to it that you are seated close to the speakers so that you can hear them clearly and also to provide the speakers of your visual presence to remind them that the speech is being interpreted. 9. Try to have a word with the speakers beforehand if possible. Ask them for your cooperation. In case the speaker is not stopping for a long time graciously ask them to stop for you to interpret. 10. It is necessary to stay calm and not get perturbed at all times, even if you make a mistake. Remember, with lots of practice and confidence it is definitely possible for you to face the ordeal of interpreting the first time and be successful in your endeavor.

Useful Method to Improve Memory for Consecutive Interpretation

Useful Method to Improve Memory for Consecutive Interpretation Interpretation is definitely much tougher than doing translation jobs as the work involves translating and speaking in real time. As there is no time to think back and research what is being said it necessitates the interpreter to be very good in both the languages. Among interpretation jobs, many interpreters opine that consecutive interpretation is much tougher than simultaneous interpretation. With consecutive interpretation, there is a likelihood of forgetting what the speaker had told and the possibility of missing out on important details in the speech. This is even more difficult when you need to remember details such as names, numbers, dates, etc. For this reason, many interpreters are not too comfortable in taking up consecutive interpretation work. If you are planning on getting into consecutive interpretation or would like to get better at it you can follow some simple but very important method that is described below. You can start by taking up some online speeches that are available in your local language and start working with it. You can even try to do it with the local news on the television. Transfer these speeches or a portion of the news into a digital recorder. Play the speech sentence by sentence and try to remember the summary of each sentence by stopping in between. Try not to think of the actual words but to remember the concept that is being conveyed. As you become more used to it, try and begin to translate into the other language that you are taking up interpreting in. Once you are more comfortable doing this sentence by sentence, you can take up longer parts of the speech to work with. Use notation systems for names, number, dates and anything else that you could forget. If you follow the method described, you can slowly become proficient with doing consecutive interpretation with very less amount of taking notes and remembering most of the things spoken. But, most important thing to remember is that it is not an easy job and requires a lot of practice and effort to become a master.