African translators must upgrade their command of African languages – Mouhamed Diop from Senegal
The language industry in Africa is full of untapped opportunities. Kabod has ventured on a journey of identifying, documenting and highlighting inspiring stories and innovative projects from entrepreneurs, researchers and freelancers in the translation, interpretation and natural language processing communities. The final goal is to celebrate African professionals in the language industry and facilitate knowledge and experience sharing. Mr. Mouhamed Diop, our next interviewee is the founder of AA-Langues, a translation company in Senegal. They provide translation services in three languages which are English, French and Wolof. Here is a fruitful interview we had with him. Kabod: What attracted you to the role of translator? How did you start your career in the translation/interpretation industry? I love languages and I started my professional career in 2015 after completion of my MA in translation at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, Senegal. Kabod: How does your native language influence your fluency with other languages? My native language is Wolof. It does not influence my other working languages very much because I have a strong command of both English and French and teach them as well. Kabod: What are some of the relevant initiatives or projects you are currently working on? I intend to carry out an academic research on the issues and difficulties accredited translators face in Senegal, and suggest long-lasting solutions. Kabod: What type of translation do you find most difficult? Legal translation is more difficult than any other translation type. Jurists have their own way to formulate sentences and the translator must always seek to translate as faithfully as possible while avoiding literal translation that might be nonsensical. Kabod: How do you market yourself and your services as a translator? 90% of my clients contact me thanks to my references on my blog, promoting websites like www.goafricaonline.com, www.astra-sn.com and my own website. Kabod: How did you get your first contract? I got my very first contract through my teachers. Kabod: How can African translators position themselves to better tap opportunities in the global language industry? African translators should work in creating well-organized and honest professional networks. Maybe it is good to have one’s own website or a LinkedIn profile, but being part of a bigger family seems much better. African translators must also upgrade their command of African languages because as translators, our first mission should aim to promote our local languages. Kabod: What strategies do you use to increase your pool of clients while maintaining the existing ones? I always respect deadlines. I do spotless work and I am available and honest. For example, I never accept to work towards a language that I do not have a command of though I have notions of it. Also, the deadlines I give are always respected. This is mostly enough for clients to keep contacting you and linking you to more people. Kabod: Do you have any translation topics you specialize in? Why those topics? I specialize mostly in the fields of animal health, agriculture, nutrition and food because I did my translation internships only with NGOs working in bettering equid animals’ lives. Kabod: Are you using Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) tools? Which one do you prefer and why? CAT tools are a must. 80% of clients often complain about being in a hurry and without CAT tools, tight deadlines will not be honored. I mostly use Trados Studio, Deepl, Wordfast and Memsource. Sometimes, clients express their needs in working with a particular CAT tool. Kabod: Do you think there is a viable market for African languages translation/interpretation? Are there enough economic opportunities for translators/interpreters in African languages? There is a growing interest in African languages. I do believe African languages specialists will be served sooner or later. Kabod: Are you a member of a strong network of translators? I am a first-hour and regular member of Astra (Association sénégalaise des traducteurs) created in September 2017 in Dakar. Kabod: What are the three top pieces of advice that you will share to a budding translator/interpreter from Africa from your experiences? 1) A translator must read a variety of texts 2) Watch documentaries 3) Discuss with resourceful people on any topic Kabod: How do you envision the future of translation in African languages? The growth of African languages has no limit. An unexplored or less explored thing always has the power of attraction, but the future of African languages will depend on the day Africans themselves will start to seriously learn their mother tongues and use them officially on top of “received or imposed languages”. Thanks, Mr. Mouhamed, for your time and for sharing your experiences with us. Are you also in the language industry in Africa? Would you also like to be featured in our Knowledge Exchange Series, which highlight the journey and experiences of African language translators, interpreters, computational linguists etc.,? Then, reach out to languages@kabodgroup.com to express interest.
The market is very big for African Languages Translators – Stephen Kwadwo Boateng from Ghana
The language industry in Africa is full of untapped opportunities. Kabod has ventured on a journey of identifying, documenting and highlighting inspiring stories and innovative projects from entrepreneurs, researchers and freelancers in the translation, interpretation and natural language processing communities. The final goal is to celebrate African professionals in the language industry and facilitate knowledge and experience sharing. Mr. Stephen Kwadwo Boateng is next on our list! He is the founder of iTranscribe Consult in Ghana. They offer language consultation, translation, interpretation, transcription and transcreation services into Asante Twi and English languages, etc. Below is the result of a conversation with him about his journey in the language industry. Kabod: What attracts you to the role of translator? How did you start? My zeal to see African Languages reach the global world with no difficulties is what attracts me to the role of translator. I started as a translator in 2013 after gaining admission to the university to study Asante Twi. Since then, I have loved to work in the language industry and I am currently working more as a language consultant. Kabod: How does your native language influence your fluency with other languages? The Asante Twi dialect which is a part of the Akan Language is unique. Aside from its tonal nature, it has various sounds that are similar to other languages, especially the English Language. Kabod: What are some relevant initiatives you worked on? I have personally worked on the Google Gboard project which is a keyboard available on all stores that seek to have a word bank for suggesting words while users type in Twi. Kabod: What aspect or type of translation do you find most difficult? Why? Technology/Engineering Domain because with Akan where I work in, technology and engineering has very limited or almost no vocabulary. What we mostly do is to transliterate which becomes very difficult due to our alphabet. Kabod: How do you market yourself and your services as a translator? I have a website and on almost all language providers websites such as ProZ, freelancer, fiver, upwork. This helps people to reach out to us when they search for our services online. Kabod: How did you get your first contract? I had my first contract via Facebook after I sent a message to Kasahorow; one of the companies dedicated to promoting African Languages. Interestingly, they replied to my message after a year, but that was a breakthrough for me as a translator. Kabod: How can African translators position themselves to better tap opportunities in the global language industry? With the growing technological trends, African Language Providers should be very visible online by joining all Language Providers sites like the ones i listed above which are ProZ, freelancer, fiver, upwork, etc., and remain committed to clients for recommendations. Kabod: What strategies do you use to increase your pool of clients while maintaining the existing ones? Mostly after our first encounter with a client, we continue to send them messages during holidays. We also have personal contacts with some of them to still get in touch with them. We keep advertising to reach out to potentially new clients. Kabod: Do you have any translation topics or areas that you specialize in? Why those topics? Yes, and it is because no one is a repository of knowledge. When I get a project outside my domain, I spend time reading up on the subject and continue to update myself with other areas. Kabod: How do you leverage technology to facilitate your work as a translator? Which Computer Assisted Translation tool do you prefer and why? Yes, technology has been a very instrumental part of our work as translators. I use CAT tools and mostly clients give access to some of these CAT tools for their projects. I personally use OmegaT, WordBee and Trados. Kabod: Do you think there is a viable market for African languages’ translation? Are there enough economic opportunities for translators in African languages? Yes, I think the market is very big for African Languages Translators. However, solely freelancing as an African Language Translator is a bit difficult to sustain one economically. I will advise African Languages Translators to look for other opportunities such as Transcription, Transcreation, Subtitling in their language pairs. Kabod: Are you aware of any network for translators in African languages? Are you a member of a strong network of translators or interpreters such as ALATT? Kindly mention them. No, I personally don’t belong to any Network for African Languages. I think there are Country Based Networks, but not an African Wide one. However, I am a member of the International Literacy Association. Kabod: What are the three top pieces of advice that you will share to a budding translator/interpreter from Africa from your experiences? 1. Build online presence 2. Invest in yourself and CAT tools 3. Network with other Language Professionals Kabod: How do you envision the future of translation in African languages? I see a very great future for the language industry in African Languages, however, with the current trends of technology, I think machine translation even in African Languages will gradually take over the industry in the future. Thanks, Mr. Kwadwo, for your time and for sharing your experiences with us. Are you also in the language industry in Africa? Would you also like to be featured in our Knowledge Exchange Series, which highlights the journey and experiences of African language translators, interpreters, computational linguists etc.,? Then, reach out to languages@kabodgroup.com to express interest.
African translators should market their skills and showcase their work – Wandile Nkambule from South Africa
The language industry in Africa is full of untapped opportunities. Kabod has ventured on a journey of identifying, documenting and highlighting inspiring stories and innovative projects from entrepreneurs, researchers and freelancers in the translation, interpretation and natural language processing communities. The final goal is to celebrate African professionals in the language industry and facilitate knowledge and experience sharing. Today’s interviewee, Mr. Wandile Nkambule is an African languages freelance translator in South Africa. He translates from English into Zulu and English Siswati. Keep on reading to know more about him. Kabod: What attracts you to the role of translator? How did you start? My love and interest in languages and my desire to see people reading publications in their own languages attracted me to this role. I started as a volunteer translator in one non-profitable organization and received training through the Translation Techniques courses. Kabod: How does your native language influence your fluency with other languages? My native language touches the heart when spoken as naturally as possible, so as it is among the language group called the Nguni languages, it helps me to be able to make the difference between the grammar of my language and that of other languages which are closely related to it. What are some relevant initiatives or projects you are currently working on? Currently I am busy with translating books for children, evaluating and reviewing the Facebook community standard material and the User Interface which includes the display screen, appearance of a desktop. It is the way through which the user interacts with the application or the website. Companies need the website’s strings to be translated for their websites or their applications to be displayed on the computer. Kabod: How do you market yourself and your services as a translator? I market myself using social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook and registering on Translation websites such as translationdirectory.com, proz.com, translationcafe.com. How did you get your first contract? I got my first contact after applying for the position advertised by a translation company on Facebook. How can African translators position themselves to better tap opportunities in the global language industry? There is no other better way African translators could position themselves than marketing themselves and showcase their work and their skills. Kabod: What strategies do you use to increase your pool of clients while maintaining the existing ones? Producing quality services, delivering the tasks on time helps me a lot! The good reputation I have moves clients to recommend me to others. Kabod: Do you have any translation topics or areas that you specialize in? Why those topics? As a Freelance Translator, I don’t have a specific area or topic I specialize in. Companies assign me different topics to translate, and I do my best in all of them. Kabod: How do you leverage technology to facilitate your work as a translator? Are you using Computer Assisted Translation tools? Which one do you prefer and why? Technology is a helpful tool for translation. I use technology to research complex ideas. I use technology to get other useful tools which help me to do my job efficiently. Currently, I am using the OmegaT as my translation tool. But companies sometimes provide their tasks online and let me use their translation tools like word bee, Smartcat and Trados. The one that I am comfortable with is the Smartcat because it is very easy to use, not complicated, effective and fast. Kabod: Do you think there is a viable market for African languages translation/interpretation? Are there enough economic opportunities for translators/interpreters in African languages? Yes there is a viable market for African Language Translators because Africans nowadays enjoy reading materials in their own mother tongue. There are many economic opportunities. For example, people prefer to read lease agreements, sign contracts, and purchase things that they understand. So having things like that translated in their mother tongue would be great. So African Languages Translators may use opportunities like that to show that they have people’s interests at heart. Kabod: Are you aware of any network for translators in African languages? Are you a member of ALATT or any other strong network of translators? Kindly mention them. No, I am not aware of any network for translators in African Languages. I am not a member of any strong network of translators except being in the list of translators appearing in the websites mentioned above. Kabod: What are the three top pieces of advice that you will share to a budding African translator? My first advice is that translators must understand that translation is not simply to change source language words to vernacular, but to localize the ideas in a way that touches the heart of a reader. My second advice is that they must be free to negotiate with the clients about the deadlines of the projects because the lack of communication leads to rush translation jobs with many errors. And my last advice is that translators should if they can try to sharpen their skills through translation courses and learn how languages differ in grammar. Kabod: How do you envision the future of translation in African languages? I see it growing bigger and having a tremendous influence in all African languages, where people enjoy reading material translated naturally and in a way that touches their hearts. I also see myself being a full-time translator in African Languages as well. Thanks, Mr. Wandile, for your time and for sharing your experiences with us. Are you also in the language industry in Africa? Would you also like to be featured in our Knowledge Exchange Series, which highlight the journey and experiences of African language translators, interpreters, computational linguists etc.,? Then, reach out to languages@kabodgroup.com to express interest.
