The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2024 - 31

BP
Don't hesitate to take additional
training or refresher courses in a
specific area you love or always
wanted to learn about.
far outnumber the " valleys "
in work requests, but for over
25 years I continued to devote
my work life to translation,
editing, and spoken-word
transcription. Many ATA and
DVTA interpreter colleagues,
my sister, and even Bill
continued to encourage me to
go back to interpreting after
the children were grown.
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,
" How will I ever remember
specialized terminology
when I go out to interpret? "
They'd all reply, " But you'd
get training and really love it!
You have the personality of
an interpreter! " 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 pandemic.
By late spring of 2020,
both my Italian>English
and Spanish>English
translation work requests
had all but dried up, since I
had specialized in clinicaltrial
translation and
subspecialized in handwritten
medical reports and seriouswww.ata-chronicle.online
adverse-event
documents.
By the end of that same
year, Bill accepted a package
from his aircraft-company
employer, which needed to
lay off more than 25,000
employees. Bill loathed
working from our home office
(which I rarely used then).
Luckily, he met the minimum
company seniority and age
requirements for the layoff,
and he became a huge help on
the days when I babysat our
one-year-old granddaughter.
Spurred on by my DVTA
colleague Eileen Haag, in
April of 2021 I took and
passed the virtual Bridgingthe-Gap
Medical Interpreter
Training program through
the Lehigh Valley Health
Network; Eileen had taken
it in person several years
earlier. Soon after completing
the course and listing
it on my ATA Directory
profile, I started accepting
(and enjoying) in-person
medical, educational, and
community interpreting
jobs. Although I was really
nervous before each gig at
first, once I got used to how
things worked and how to
research vocabulary prior to
the assignments, I started
to relax and found that my
English>Spanish interpreting
speeds were increasing.
During the summer of 2021, I
also began receiving several
translation requests from
local direct clients, as a result
of using my slow work period
to take Madalena Sánchez
Zampaulo's and Veronika
Demichelis' virtual courses
on increasing your T&I online
presence and refining my
Google and LinkedIn listings,
my website, etc. Since then,
I've been able to accept as
many interpreting jobs as
I want 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 five minutes of
my house), U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services,
and other purposes. Still
other clients who find me
online ask me to manage
translation projects going
from English into other
languages, which I've come
to enjoy.
The direct interaction and
feedback 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
I didn't realize I was missing
while doing only language
services provider-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.
Once a day of interpreting
is over, I can forget about it
and relax!
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, to
all my translator and
interpreter colleagues looking
to change things up, my
advice is: Don't hesitate to
take additional training or
refresher courses in a specific
area you love or always
wanted to learn about. That
way, you can add more
offerings to your ATA profile,
online listings, and website
so that both language
services providers and direct
clients can find you easily and
so that you can increase your
business income.
Anne Connor is a professional Spanish>English
and Italian>English medical and legal translator,
as well as a Spanish community, educational, and
health care interpreter. She has been a member
of ATA and the Delaware Valley Translators
Association (DVTA), an ATA chapter, since January 1991. She
has a BBA in business law with a minor in Spanish from Temple
University in Philadelphia. She is a past president and secretary
of DVTA (serving on DVTA's board from 1994 to 2016). She
serves on the following ATA committees: Business Practices
(Mentoring Subcommittee), Professional Development, and Public
Relations (School Outreach Subcommittee). anbrec@cs.com
American Translators Association 31
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The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2024

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