For many, the pandemic has brought stress to the forefront of our minds: worries of catching the coronavirus, job security, maintaining a healthy work-life balance and home schooling are just a few possible stressors. However, it is important to note that it鈥檚 not always simple to sniff out the cause of stress 鈥� and even if you manage to do so, battling those feelings can feel like an uphill struggle with no end. Especially in the translation industry, with its tight deadlines and the pressure to perform to a very high standard, relaxing and switching off can prove challenging, if not unthinkable.

Despite the fact that stress is hard to completely eliminate, there are a few tried and tested ways to help reduce it. Unlike the abundance of other articles on this subject, I won鈥檛 extoll the virtues of yoga, exercise and taking breaks 鈥� sometimes these just aren鈥檛 feasible, especially if motivation is lacking or you don鈥檛 have the time (or both).

What I would like to do though is take the opportunity of , which runs from 10鈥�16 May 2021, to outline a few methods that I and a couple of colleagues use to lessen our stress, on those days where it might all be a bit too much.

1. Cutting back the caffeine

In the translation industry, it鈥檚 common to find yourself overwhelmed by a heavy workload with a relatively small amount of time to get through it: a situation which can cause stress and anxiety to arise even in the calmest of people. Personally, I鈥檓 aware that if my morning starts off this way, I should in all likelihood limit myself to just the one morning coffee, as any more will cause my heart to race and make me feel jittery. My brain then interprets this as anxiety (as the two sensations are very similar) and tricks me into feeling more stressed than I actually am.

Obviously, it鈥檚 not always easy to reduce your intake of coffee, but limiting your caffeine intake is definitely worth a try if you are anything like me! Switching to a herbal tea could be another good option as well.

2. ? Breaking down your work into smaller chunks

If giving up coffee is not for you, I鈥檝e found that gaining a sense of control over your day can prove equally useful. My favourite (if not slightly convoluted) way to do this is by making a list of all of the things I need to do within a certain time frame, i.e. by the end of the day. I then set a timer on my phone for half an hour and try to complete as much as I possibly can before the alarm rings, after which I treat myself to a cup of tea or a snack, or I go and annoy my pet cat for a minute.

What this does for me is to provide a sense of focus. Instead of panicking and trying to remember all the tasks I need to complete along with their deadlines, the list helps to provide an overview of my work while marking tasks as 鈥渃omplete鈥� and incentivising myself with a treat provides a nice sense of satisfaction.

3. ? Getting away from your screen

Sometimes, it鈥檚 hard to see the bigger picture, especially on busy days when you feel like there is no room to breathe, let alone think. Deadlines, issues with technology and tricky technical texts can all contribute to this feeling of futility, making it feel like there鈥檚 little chance of escape and that the universe is out to get you.

To combat this, Mary-Anna, an Account Linguist at Sandberg, suggests that 鈥渋f you鈥檙e feeling like everything is insane and you have too much on your plate, walking away from your screen for just one minute and simply breathing helps. One minute is not going to bring all of your jobs crashing down but it’ll help you breathe and focus.鈥�

 4. ? Using music to help you focus

Charlotte, another Account Linguist, has a slightly different approach to mitigating stress, involving music: 鈥淲hen I have a particularly heavy workload that requires me to power through and concentrate quite a lot, I have some special playlists that are made up of tracks with no lyrics, quite repetitive stuff that won鈥檛 distract me too much; I play them as a 鈥榯reat鈥�. On the one hand, it gets me motivated to focus on my projects because I鈥檓 looking forward to hearing the music, and on the other hand, my brain is now trained to be in a calm and focused mood when I hear that music.鈥�

It could be that these methods don鈥檛 work for you. Everyone鈥檚 brain processes stimuli differently, and it could take a modicum of fiddling about to find a strategy which matches your way of thinking and your lifestyle. However, it鈥檚 worth giving one or two of them a try, even if only to find out what works for you and what doesn鈥檛.

Stress and the issues it causes can be serious if left unaddressed. This article is intended to help you think about stress you may be experiencing and offer some tips that could help reduce it.

If you鈥檙e feeling the burden of stress is too heavy to bear, I would advise speaking to your GP or a mental health professional. There are many concrete ways they can help and guide you. After all, stress is something that鈥檚 going to be ever present in our lives to a greater or lesser degree: the vital thing is that we learn to deal with it as best we can.

The post Mental Health Awareness Week 2021: A few tips for translators appeared first on sa国际传媒.

This is the case with translators too. We all know something in language A gets transposed into language B. But here鈥檚 five myths about the translator profession we鈥檇 like to shed some light on to give you a better idea of how we work and what we can help with.

? Myth 1: Translators translate in Word documents

Yes, sometimes we do. We鈥檙e not fussy with formats here at Sandberg 鈥� we鈥檒l happily work with whatever you have 鈥� but it鈥檚 likely that we鈥檒l want to convert it into a format that we can use in one of the many computer-aided translation tools (CAT tools) we work with.

CAT tools are smart working environments that translators consider their 鈥渉ome away from home鈥�. We come to work, we log on to a tool, and then we settle in for a little while with the task at hand. Here we have our cupboards and drawers filled with helpful tools that support the work we鈥檙e doing.

Exactly what are these tools? CAT tools vary, in both features and layout, but many will have the following:

• Source text (ST) on the left-hand side 鈥� The language you鈥檙e translating from.
• Target text (TT) on the right-hand side 鈥� The language you鈥檙e translating into.
• A glossary 鈥� A collection of terms, like a mini dictionary, that鈥檚 custom-made for a specific client or a specific field. This helps ensure consistency in choice of terminology, from one year to the next, from one translator to another.
• Translation memory matches (TM) 鈥� A collection of sentences, that are custom-assembled for a specific client or a specific field. These are graded on their relevance by a percentage. Say you have a sentence in the current project that鈥檚 very similar to a few sentences you or somebody else has translated in previous projects. The memory will say: 鈥淗ey, look at these!鈥� and you can then choose if you want to reuse and/or rework any of them in your current project. There really are only so many ways 鈥淭erms and conditions may vary鈥� can be translated, so reusing snippets like these allows translators to focus their creative energies on the juicier bits that require more mental effort.
• Machine translation (MT) 鈥� If desired, machine translation can be included in addition to the translation memory. If there are no relevant suggestions from the translation memory, then a machine translation can be automatically applied. Translators call this part of the job machine translation post-editing (MTPE). This is because we use the suggested machine translation as a basis to edit and rework to a final translation.
• When you鈥檙e done, you can take advantage of handy helpers like a spell-checker and a quality control tool to weed out things like typos and double spaces.

Good translators will look beyond their CAT tool to do research and check external reference materials (such as dictionaries, specialised glossaries and visual materials from the client that show how the translation will be displayed in the final layout). But all the helpful tools listed above are often within easy reach in the same interface 鈥� readily available at a glance and the click of a button 鈥� making not only our lives easier as translators, but ensuring greater quality and consistency in the translation, a win for clients too.

One of the skills translators develop is the ability to quickly decide what to retain and what to discard. Imagine a kind of swooping-down approach鈥� or better yet, Terminator vision! We clock the source text (What is it trying to say?), we glance over to the glossary (Are there any relevant terms?), we zone in on the matches (85% match, but from 2018 鈥� or 75% match, but from 2020? Assessing quality鈥�), then a quick check-in on the MT (Anything worthwhile to incorporate?) to the final construction of the translation itself, using an amalgamation of the resources at hand as well as our own personal cyborg preferences 鈥� and voila: Target (text) acquired.

? Myth 2: Translators need to be excellent in the language they translate from

My family and friends often think the reason I鈥檓 a translator is because of my proficiency in the language I translate from. But for translators, it鈥檚 actually the oft-taken-for-granted skills we have in our target languages 鈥� the languages we translate into 鈥� that are the real reason why we鈥檙e great at what we do.

When you start working with or spending time on your target language, you begin to realise the true impact of things like syntax (sentence structure), collocations (words that go naturally together) and myriad other linguistic devices at hand when it comes to crafting eloquent, fluid language. There鈥檚 likely to be a few embarrassing discoveries along the way too. A-grade student as I was, I鈥檇 still managed to spell something as simple as 鈥渙n board鈥� incorrectly in Norwegian for most of my life (鈥渙m bord鈥� is two 飞辞谤诲蝉)鈥�

Being proficient in your chosen source language, be it English or something else, is important 鈥� we need to be able to understand the source material quickly and correctly (so not just the words themselves, but their meaning, connotations etc.). But as any translator knows, translation is not simply about transferring the words of one language into another. It鈥檚 quite possible to have a sentence in a translation that has none of the same words as its source counterpart 鈥� but the sentence still means the same thing and sounds good. This is where your excellence as a translator can really shine through.

? Myth 3: Translators just need a source text to translate

Yes, but also no. Translators don鈥檛 translate in a vacuum. Our translation decisions are informed by everything and anything.

You have an established glossary you鈥檇 like us to use? Yes please! A translation memory? Great! Want us to use machine translation? We鈥檇 be happy to! A client style guide perhaps? A brief with instructions about style, tone, formality, potential character limitations, intended audience, intended final format, etc.? All-important visual reference materials?

Anything the original content creators used to create the source text are materials the translators should be supplied with. We need them to put our translations into the correct context. In short: we love references! The more the merrier.

? Myth 4: Translators don鈥檛 need a good quality source text in order to translate

No, sometimes we don鈥檛. Translators are used to working with source texts of varying quality. If there are a number of small grammar mistakes or typos, this isn鈥檛 ideal, but most of the time errors like these don鈥檛 impede our understanding of what the source text is getting at and can be worked around.

But every profession has a few recurrent grievances and bad source texts are a 鈥減et peeve鈥� for many translators. It can be especially challenging if the source text is unclear or ambiguous, or so imbued with heavy marketing jargon that deciphering what it鈥檚 actually trying to say becomes a bit like trying to solve a riddle.

The better the quality of source material, the higher the chance of the target material reaching that same level of polish.

Or when you can tell that the source text copywriter clearly has discovered a newfound love of 鈥渟tream of consciousness鈥� and helpful linguistic devices like punctuation and paragraphs are cast aside. Some obstacles can be overcome with a bit of research, but if the source text is still unclear, we鈥檒l do the responsible thing and ask our clients for clarification.

So even though sometimes the translation can differ substantially from its source counterpart (at least on a word level if not on a meaning level), it doesn鈥檛 mean that we don鈥檛 very much use and rely upon the source text as our point of departure. Our job is to ensure the meaning of the source text comes across correctly and naturally in the target language, and our work is infinitely helped if the source lays a solid foundation to work from. The better the quality of source material, the higher the chance of the target material reaching that same level of polish.

? Myth 5: Translators just translate

Some do, and trust us, this can be more than enough. But translators today are often involved in other services too. We can choose to specialise in one or more areas, like market-specific copywriting, transcreation or multilingual SEO.

Many of us do regular editing work like revision and proofreading. Or there鈥檚 layout optimisation, where you develop the skill to spot a double space from a mile off and start thinking in typical typesetter ways of such things as  and .

How about curating a 鈥渘aughty list鈥� of abusive language to help improve an online detection tool? There鈥檚 no actual translation involved in such a task, yet it鈥檚 one of the many services translators as language specialists are able to help with 鈥� even if it can sometimes leave us a little flushed!

I hope you鈥檝e learnt something new about what we translators get up to all day. Translation can often seem like a 鈥榖lack box鈥� from the outside: a source text goes in one end and a target text comes out the other. But as you鈥檝e seen, there is a lot more to it than meets the eye.

Behind every great translation is a great translator 鈥� one who鈥檚 made hundreds of tiny decisions about how to produce the best possible piece of work within the constraints of the project. Looked at from this perspective, translation is truly an art, and one worth valuing.

The post Debunking 5 common myths about translators appeared first on sa国际传媒.

It was due to a misunderstanding about the start time, probably arising from me and the organiser being in different time zones. We didn鈥檛 use a calendar invitation (always use one), I just received a Zoom link and the schedule for the multi-speaker event, and I failed to notice that the slot allocated to me was not the one I鈥檇 proposed in our email correspondence. We were two hours out of sync.

Consequently, at 9:00 on a Monday morning when I was comfortably lining up the day鈥檚 tasks at my desk, dressed in my gym gear for the virtual physiotherapy session I was due to have at 9:30, an email popped up in my inbox asking if I had trouble logging into the Zoom meeting. Even then, the penny didn鈥檛 drop. I logged in to the event, saw the audience nicely in attendance, and thought 鈥測es, sure I can log in, I鈥檓 ready for when my time comes鈥�. As it turns out, it had already come.

Fast forward past the eureka moment, a quick dash back to the event programme and a short period of frantic scrambling, and my potential no-show turned into a 60-min slide deck being presented at break-neck speed in 45 minutes. I had to skip some content and present off camera which I consider a real faux pas for online speaking. Furthermore, my phone rang in the middle of the talk with the physiotherapist chasing me for the missed appointment and the overloaded washing machine kept drumming in the next room with an ear-shattering spin cycle (always do the laundry outside of online meetings).

Not my proudest moment. I don鈥檛 take kindly to professionals winging public speaking, even when we are essentially making a voluntary goodwill contribution. You prepare, out of respect for the audience for whom you want to provide value, but also because your reputation matters.

Speaking in a professional peer context is quite an art form. I was reminded of this last week at the virtual event. At the language industry events, our knowledge sharing is always member-generated, and at times I wonder what motivates someone to spend hours to prepare a free online webinar, publish an article on an association platform, give a talk at a special interest group or do an interview with a podcast host, knowing that the audience may consist of knowledgeable peers and interested business partners but also of competitors? Perhaps it鈥檚 about staking a claim. Spreading ideas. Making a difference. Eradicating problems. Benchmarking self.

With virtual meeting opportunities multiplying in the past two years, we鈥檝e been challenged to re-evaluate and rethink our major language industry events. Many old-timers seem more attracted to intimate, organic and egalitarian ways of sharing views (just look at Clubhouse). It鈥檚 easy to glance at a speaker event programme and think 鈥渨hat鈥檚 new, I鈥檝e heard it all before鈥�. And it鈥檚 true, not every presentation is original.

However, it was evident from the talks at GALA Connected 2021 that the language services sector today covers so many evolving services, fast-moving technologies, diverse talent pools, interested stakeholders and hugely different client industries, that we all feel there are corners of our own industry we don鈥檛 know enough about.

Originality may be a bit overrated. Not everyone is original in business either. You don鈥檛 need a听unique business idea to run a successful language services business. In fact, knowing that clients have paid for a similar service before is reassuring. It means that there is demand for your offering and if clients are buying it from others, they may buy it from you too. Most language service companies run their operations on the principle of giving their clients what they want and competing on being either

But we must differentiate on other kind of value too. It鈥檚 essential for enabling localisation buyers to make informed choices. The way to differentiate here is to explain how we create value added, over and above the baseline value the client can get from any LSP. That value added needs to match at least one of the localisation buyers鈥� pain points, whether it鈥檚 to give them everything they need as a one-stop vendor, be a specialist partner who knows their vertical and becomes part of their community, be a regional expert who helps them enter a specific market, or to transform the efficiency of their localisation operation with technology.

Here in the UK, the Association of Translation Companies is organising a 鈥樷�� competition that celebrates the language service companies that specialise 鈥� and who, as specialists, provide services to their industry partners. We at Sandberg are proud sponsors of the competition, having helped LSPs around the globe for 25 years with localisation into听the Nordic languages and English.听It was befitting that our Operations Manager Susan Hoare was on the judging panel, since adding outstanding value is something her own teams have been praised for. Their production excellence has repeatedly earned them high client feedback scores like听鈥榓dded value provided by this team:听5/5鈥�.

Whether in service provision or public speaking, value added is closely linked with authenticity. It鈥檚 not enough to talk the talk 鈥� the talk must be substantiated with stellar evidence. Speaking of which, GALA Connected 2021 showcased dozens of language industry professionals who had clearly distilled months and years of personal experience into their inspiring bite-size presentations. Here are a couple of quotes from what they said that I find both insightful and actionable:

鈥淚ntroverts can be immensely drained by being constantly in video calls. They are not used to looking at their own reflection all the time, it makes them feel they are always on stage.鈥�

鈥淟anguage service buyers want agility, accessibility, engagement, quality 鈥� in this order.

Language service providers offer quality, process, price, agility 鈥� in this order.鈥�

鈥淎 flat discount for MTPE does not work. And the parameters based on edit distance are even worse, because they introduce unpredictability and still don鈥檛 correlate with the time spent by the post-editor.鈥�

鈥淒ata services are the shining new thing that can transform our lives and give us purpose for the next ten years. Maybe.鈥�

I for one treasure the curated content that language industry associations and organisations make available to us. Maybe it鈥檚 because I鈥檓 old enough to remember the days when all the knowledge sharing we had was anecdotal. I continue to enjoy that kind of confidential sharing within my personal networks, but I鈥檒l also persist in contributing to and engaging with the industry鈥檚 flagship events.

The post Director鈥檚 Cut, take 28: Speaking of which appeared first on sa国际传媒.

This year, however, I decided to try to teach myself a new language. It鈥檚 less of a 鈥渘ew year鈥檚 resolution鈥� and more like a 鈥淛anuary resolution鈥� 鈥� while others are trying Veganuary or Dry January, I鈥檝e been attempting to teach myself Swedish using only free resources.

So why Swedish?

As a bit of background, I currently translate from three languages into English as part of my role as an Account Linguist at Sandberg. I started learning French and Spanish at secondary school, and then picked up German as a beginner at university, where I studied all three. Besides those, I鈥檝e dabbled in Icelandic, Sanskrit and a couple of other languages over the years, aided for the most part by apps such as Duolingo and the embarrassing number of barely-touched language learning books on my shelf, but I鈥檝e never made the foray into Swedish. Until now, that is.

Hopefully I can help you to make a start 鈥� after all, that鈥檚 the most difficult part!

I picked Swedish for a few reasons. First, there appeared to be a large number of resources out there, ranging from apps to websites describing grammar and YouTube videos about pronunciation. Second, many of my colleagues at Sandberg are either Swedish, know Swedish or have studied Swedish in the past, so I would be able to ask for help if needed. Finally, and perhaps most importantly 鈥� I wanted to be able to understand ABBA songs in their native language.

In this article, I鈥檒l explain the free resources I鈥檝e used and any problems I encountered while giving my opinion on the best ways to start learning a new language. It takes a lot of dedication if you鈥檙e thinking of starting a new language from scratch, but hopefully I can help you to make a start 鈥� after all, that鈥檚 the most difficult part!

Setting the ground rules

Before starting this challenge, I decided to set myself some rules:

1. First of all, I would only practise for 45 minutes per day, i.e. the amount of time I would normally spend commuting on the train in the pre-COVID world. I chose this amount of time for a variety of reasons, the most important being that it is more sustainable to practise a language every single day for a short period of time rather than once or twice a week for a few hours. It also gives your brain a chance to let the new information you鈥檝e learnt sink in, rather than overloading it with vocabulary for two hours and then forgetting everything straight away.
2. Secondly, as I mentioned above, I would only be using free resources to learn Swedish, so there鈥檇 be no buying of Swedish textbooks or paying for premium versions of apps 鈥� I want to prove how it really is possible to start learning a language without spending anything.
3. Finally, at the end of the month, I would need to take a test to see whether I鈥檇 managed to reach (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). This is because I think it鈥檚 really important to have tangible goals in mind when learning a language.

Week 1

For the first couple of days, I didn鈥檛 have much of a plan about which resources I wanted to use. I started off with the apps that I knew already 鈥� and . If you haven鈥檛 come across either of these apps before, they basically gamify the language-learning experience, and most would agree that they are a lower-effort method of revising vocabulary and learning new words, though neither explain the grammar behind the words and phrases.

As my aim was to get to at least A1 level of Swedish by the end of the month, I quickly realised that I would need to introduce a different resource which explained both grammar and basic but useful vocabulary. This is how I came across the website . If you鈥檙e trying to learn a new language from scratch, I would advise doing some googling until you find the best resources for you 鈥� everyone has different learning styles, after all!

I ended up using Say it in Swedish throughout the entire month as my principal source of learning material. I found that each topic was explained succinctly, mixing both grammatical themes and a variety of fundamental topics such as family, colours, directions and parts of the body, all of which are really handy basics when you鈥檙e learning a language from scratch.

Where I wanted to learn more about a certain topic, I found it really useful to search for more information online, and in some cases asked questions of my patient colleagues, many of whom are already very experienced in Swedish or are native Swedish speakers themselves. This leads us nicely onto week two鈥�

Week 2

In week 2, I decided it鈥檇 be a good idea to research the different tenses that Swedish uses, to see what I was getting into and make some notes on the basics. To my absolute horror, I discovered a new concept which isn鈥檛 used in any of the other languages I鈥檝e learnt in the past.

Rather unhelpfully, the websites I was checking didn鈥檛 give much of an indication of when said concept (the , if you are interested and want to go down a rabbit hole of confusion) should be used, or why. But luckily, working in a Nordic translation company means I had a secret weapon: people who know Swedish.

I bothered a couple of colleagues to see if anyone could offer up an explanation where the internet had failed, and I was in luck. In a few minutes, a grammatical mess that I previously had no idea about had been untangled and suddenly seemed so much clearer. It鈥檚 at this juncture that I would highly recommend that you get yourself a friendly speaker of your target language to help you through sticky situations like this 鈥� there are plenty of communities online via social media and YouTube, for example.

By the end of the week, I had expanded my vocabulary further and had a better idea of how to form grammatically correct sentences, even if these were still limited to phrases such as 鈥渏ag har en svart katt och hon heter Tulip鈥� and 鈥渄et 盲r ett stort hus鈥�. Baby steps.

Week 3

At this point, I was starting to realise quite what I鈥檇 got myself into. Learning a language is no mean feat, especially trying to teach yourself. From scratch. Using solely free online resources. Motivation was waning and I hit a bit of a wall; the only thing keeping me from quitting was the fact that I鈥檇 committed to writing this article, and it鈥檇 be pretty embarrassing to admit that I gave up halfway through, before I鈥檇 even learnt how to ask for directions.

So I kept chugging along, incorporating some news articles in l盲tt Svenska (鈥渆asy Swedish鈥�) into my routine. I found this really helped me enjoy the learning process more than I had previously, as it introduced me to a variety of new, topical themes and awoke me to where and how specific grammatical concepts are used.

Another benefit of this style of learning is that it鈥檚 slightly more intuitive, as you can make educated guesses at what specific terms may mean in English based on the surrounding vocabulary. I鈥檇 definitely recommend varying the different resources and methods when learning a new language, not only because I find it effectively combats lack of motivation, but it also helps your brain to learn to process a variety of inputs as you would in your native language.

Week 4

By the start of the final week, I felt as though I鈥檇 developed a schedule that worked well for me 鈥� I鈥檇 finish work, have a tea break, and then make a start on Swedish. I was using a mix of the different methods described above, as well as making revision posters to stick up behind my desk and developing techniques to learn vocabulary more efficiently.

My favourite way to learn vocabulary, I鈥檝e decided, is writing down words repeatedly until they stick in my head. Sometimes you don鈥檛 need to have flashy apps and special games to learn vocabulary: if you鈥檙e anything like me, good old pen and paper does the trick!

31 January finally dawned and it was time to test myself on what I鈥檇 learnt and find out whether I had reached A1 level. I found two different online tests, which I will link to at the end of this article.

The first of these tests didn鈥檛 have any listening exercises, but it did provide questions on grammar and vocabulary, so I decided to take the results as evidence of my Swedish written comprehension and grammatical skills rather than an indicator of how 鈥済ood鈥� I was at the language on the whole. This first test gave me a result of 26 points out of 40, which apparently means that I have reached A2 level in terms of written comprehension and grammar, which was above what I expected!

However, the second test supplied some more in-depth results. It included sections on vocabulary and grammar, reading, listening, and also allows the test-taker to self-assess their writing and speaking skills. For this second test, my result averaged an A2 as well, though it dipped to A1 for listening.

Overall, I鈥檓 really proud of the results I achieved through this little experiment. While I鈥檓 yet undecided on whether I鈥檒l continue learning Swedish in the long term, I鈥檝e definitely learnt a lot 鈥� mainly, that consistency is key. Having spent just 45 minutes per day, every day, on learning this language and managing to reach A1/A2 level at the end of a month (in terms of comprehension at least!), I feel really accomplished and have managed to form a habit that I hope sticks with me in the future.

For anyone looking to learn a new language, whether it be Swedish or Mandarin, I truly would recommend that you try to learn a little bit every day and spend some time working out which techniques and resources work best for you. You don鈥檛 always need fancy apps or textbooks, there鈥檚 a whole world of alternative resources out there just waiting to be discovered.

The post How I learnt Swedish in 4 weeks appeared first on sa国际传媒.

1. Rockin鈥� around the Christmas tree ?

A much-loved staple of Christmas in Norway centres around the Christmas tree, or juletre in Norwegian. Families gather to hold hands and sing traditional carols, all while circling the decorated pine. It鈥檚 a favourite tradition of Norwegian Translator William, who explains: 鈥淭raditionalists in Norway will not decorate the tree until 23 December, or 鈥榣ittle Christmas eve鈥�, in readiness for the actual Christmas eve (julaften) on the twenty-fourth. Across Scandinavia, this is the big day of the feast, when presents are opened. The revolving procession and hand-linked singing of Silent Night and other classics therefore marks a grand and special opening of the twelve days of Christmas.鈥�

In years gone by, a more public expression of this tradition has been a common sight up and down the country. Communities host Christmas tree parties for locals to celebrate together, often forming several rings, one outside the other, around a large public tree. While this practice may not be possible this year, William hopes 鈥渢hat it may be in for a revival after the current pandemic, when people realise how valuable it is to hold another person鈥檚 hand and join in the joyful singing of silly ditties and solemn carols.鈥�

2. Feasting in odd numbers ?

The night before Christmas (Badni vecher) is very important in Bulgaria, as it is when the main festivities take place. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the time when the whole family unites and prepares the holiday dinner,鈥� explains Business Administration Advisor, Radostina. 鈥淭here are seven or nine dishes, but they have to be meatless. We prepare a traditional bread with a coin hidden inside before the bread is baked. It鈥檚 believed that the person who gets the chunk with the coin will be the richest in the coming year.鈥� It鈥檚 not clear where the importance of the odd number of dishes originates from, but it鈥檚 said to bring good luck.

3. Taking the (polar) plunge ?‍

There鈥檚 nothing like wading into ice-cold water to shake off that festive over-indulgence, and it is a tradition that continues to grow in popularity around UK shores. Buoyed by the yuletide spirit, thousands take to the sea each year, braving water temperatures that average a biting 6鈥�10 掳C. 鈥淎 Christmas Day, Boxing Day (26 December) or New Year鈥檚 Day swim is becoming a new tradition for me,鈥� says Production Manager and keen swimmer, 础尘测听(pictured right). 鈥淭he day usually depends on my location and how much mulled wine was consumed the night before!鈥�

A New Year鈥檚 Day dip is also a favourite ritual of Swedish Translator Lena, who now lives in the UK. 鈥淚t is something I do every New Year if I am spending it in Malm枚, where I go with a friend to a kallbadhus [a type of bathing house with direct access to the sea], which we have loads of around Sweden. This is one of the things I most miss in the UK, and I鈥檓 now being forced to learn how to swim in the sea without having a sauna before or after!鈥�

4. Decorating with candles ?

Many of us will soon be adding some sparkle to our homes and trees with fairy lights, but for some of our Nordic colleagues, using real candles on their tree is still the way to go. Finnish Account Linguist Aino, explains: 鈥淢y family, to the horror of my English husband, still use real candles on the Christmas tree. My parents鈥� house is wooden, but over all these decades, there have been no accidents…!鈥�

It is a family custom that is also close to translator William鈥檚 heart. In his house they use candle holders passed down from his grandmother. 鈥淓very Christmas Eve, we turn off all the lights, so all you can see is the real candles on the tree,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t makes for a magical atmosphere.鈥�

5. Stepping into the new year ?

New Year鈥檚 Eve brings with it a whole host of global traditions and celebrations, and just one of those practised by some of our UK colleagues is the ritual of 鈥渇irst footing鈥�. This is an ancient Gaelic custom which places great importance on the first person to cross the threshold of your house at the beginning of the new year, often bearing gifts for the household and receiving food and drink in return. It is thought that this tradition dates back to the time of the Viking invasions and it is for this reason that it鈥檚 considered very unlucky for a fair- or red-haired person to be the first footer!

鈥淢y dad insists on first footing at New Year,鈥� says English Account Linguist Mary-Anna. 鈥淣owadays he leaves and comes back in, although when he lived in Glasgow he used to either first foot all of the neighbours or essentially do a party crawl and first foot all of his friends… A very efficient way to get a few free drinks!鈥�

And no British New Year鈥檚 Eve party would be complete without a rendition of Auld Lang Syne, written by famous Scots poet Robert Burns. 鈥淎t midnight on New Year鈥檚 Eve we always gather with the family or neighbours in a circle (sometimes in the middle of the road), cross and hold hands, and sing Auld Lang Syne,鈥� says HR Advisor Melissa. 鈥淭hen we open the front and back doors to let the old year out the front door, and the new year in through the back.鈥�

6. Watching a Christmas classic ?

And finally, for some of us, curling up on the sofa in front our favourite festive film is about as Christmassy as it gets. Cue blankets, hot chocolate… a crackling fire if we鈥檙e lucky! And while many may opt for a heartfelt drama or a cheesy rom-com to get them in the Christmas mood, for Norwegians, the main draw of their favourite holiday movie might have less to do with the film itself, and more to do with the questionable voiceover. Norwegian Account Linguist Ingrid, explains: 鈥淥ne of my very favourite Christmas traditions is watching the film (Three Wishes for Cinderella) at 11am on Christmas Eve. It鈥檚 dubbed into Norwegian with just one man doing all the voices. If that sounds ridiculous, that鈥檚 because it is! But I and a good chunk of the Norwegian population watch it and make the same jokes about it every single year.鈥�

Hopefully we have introduced you to some new festive traditions, one or two of which you might even want to try out yourselves. However you choose to celebrate this year, we at Sandberg wish you a safe and happy festive season and a prosperous new year to come!

The post A Sandberg Christmas: 6 of our favourite festive traditions appeared first on sa国际传媒.

Dear Santa,

I was looking forward to coming home to see you, but as the Finnish borders remain closed to non-resident foreign nationals听(e.g. husbands) and visiting ex-pats would have to spend most of their time in quarantine, I鈥檝e given up on that plan. With your low numbers of COVID-19 cases, I understand why you wouldn鈥檛 welcome people home this Christmas.

How are you coping with the travel restrictions yourself? I bet you鈥檙e anxious to toe the line and set a good example鈥� but some jobs simply have to be done. I guess your sleigh rides qualify as work-related travel, so on those grounds maybe the authorities will let you fly.

Here at Sandberg, we decided not to post out our usual Christmas hampers but have opted to send our staff virtual gifts instead. We hope to minimise spreading the virus and save the shops鈥� delivery slots for those who are self-isolating. In doing so, we鈥檝e also reduced international air traffic which should leave you more space in the skies when you set off on your big night.

How has it been at your workshop this year? Have you had to redesign, to accommodate the two-metre rule? We closed our offices nine months ago and moved everyone to work from home . But we have continued to recruit new staff throughout the year, which has made learning how to train colleagues without being next to them in the office an interesting challenge! I鈥檓 proud to say our teams have done extremely well.

It鈥檚 been such a grumpy year here in the UK. I expected our main struggle to be in preparing for business with the EU from 1 January 2021, but now I know better. Whilst there鈥檚 still no clear guidance on what will happen in just over a fortnight, the country battles with disunity and distrust around many other important decisions too. And we have lost more lives to COVID-19 than virtually any other European country, whilst the government鈥檚 borrowing has reached unprecedented levels.

However, I鈥檓 mindful of those who鈥檝e had an even tougher year. This month, we are once again fundraising as a company for Translators without Borders鈥� Christmas campaign. Have you seen the goodies my Nordic workmates have baked for that project!? Please distribute some holiday cheer to everyone who has helped by donating on our .

Santa, your elves always seem so chirpy and happy, what鈥檚 your secret? My colleagues sometimes get disheartened and I鈥檇 like to be better at supporting them. I try to impart direction, inspiration and training through Teams, webinars and video, but it鈥檚 not always easy to gauge how it鈥檚 received and whether it鈥檚 enough. I appreciate every opportunity to hear from the teams beyond what I get to see in numbers and reports.

You know what I鈥檇 like for Christmas 2020? To have your powers. I鈥檇 like to be able to see my colleagues where they are. Not to see who鈥檚 naughty or nice, but to know their mood and how they are. Throughout the year I know they will have skipped lunch to make sure a translation project kicks off promptly or stayed up late to sort out our virtual infrastructure. I鈥檇 love to hear what they think at those times, and what their longsuffering spouses think too!

At our online catchup meeting last week, my management team opened the virtual doors to their private lives and shared photos of how they鈥檝e decorated their homes this Christmas. We had pictures of inventive 3D advent calendars, fully decked trees, stockings, Christmas cakes, home-made paper stars鈥� and I was even introduced to the concept of Christmas-themed Japanese bento lunchboxes (pictured right, as fashioned by Tomomi, the sister-in-law of Sandberg鈥檚 Operations Manager).

Wow, it felt great to peep past our professional lives and share private interests and aspirations!

Santa, I know that you rely on your teams, and I do too.听 Many of my colleagues and fellow localisation industry members live a long way from home and are not able to visit their native lands this Christmas. It鈥檚 always a hard time of year to be away from family, but they will likely feel it more this year than ever before. It would be lovely if you could remember them specifically and drop extra goodies down their chimneys as you do your rounds this year.

Thanks and see you around,

Anu

The post Director鈥檚 Cut, take 27: Home for Christmas appeared first on sa国际传媒.

These words come out of my mouth quite frequently to certain people.听I鈥檝e found that humility can be my greatest friend when I鈥檓 faced with difficult decisions.听Let鈥檚 be frank about it 鈥� most times the decisions are difficult because we don鈥檛 know which way to go.

If you鈥檝e lost direction or need help with progressing in the right direction, you could do worse than turn to coaching or mentoring. There鈥檚 a range of support opportunities available, which my friend , a qualified relationship coach and strategy consultant, pictures as a continuum:

鈥淎t one end there is Counselling 鈥� empathetically listening and gently helping the individual to find their own voice. This is often non-directional and non-outcome focussed.

At the other end of the spectrum we have Consultancy 鈥� telling the individual what they should do.

In between these extremes, there is Coaching 鈥� helping the individual through open questioning to find their own solutions to achieve their own goals.鈥�

What Neil describes as coaching, I鈥檝e also heard being referred to as mentoring. To me, the difference between coaching and mentoring is so academic that I鈥檒l use the two terms interchangeably, although it鈥檚 probably just as vexing as people assuming that translation and interpreting are two words for the same thing.

Mentoring can be formal or informal, often to do with career growth and skills development. Sometimes it can be so informal that you鈥檙e not even sure whether you have a mentor or not. What鈥檚 most energising about the process is its purpose: to help you explore what may be holding you back from fulfilling your true potential. After all, the world doesn鈥檛 need a dulled shadow of you; it needs the most fully alive version of yourself you are able to give.

Being mentored

I have benefitted from coaching/mentoring twice in my professional life: most recently five years ago when I took on the role of CEO. My key question at the time was 鈥榓m I cut out for this?鈥�. Mentoring helped me examine the ideas that were limiting me or blocking me from achieving what I wanted to achieve. My biggest takeaway was that 鈥業 can do it鈥�, and that in the areas where I鈥檓 not able to attain the highest level of mastery, I should build a team around me who are. That鈥檚 what I鈥檝e been working towards ever since and I鈥檓 very grateful to have such an adroit management team running Sandberg with me.

Being a mentor

Can any leader who wants to 鈥榞ive back鈥� become a mentor? You need good listening skills and the ability to delve into problems, options and solutions with your mentee, for sure. And a structured plan wouldn鈥檛 go amiss either.

A few years back, I joined Women in Localization鈥檚 , which pairs established localisation industry professionals with those seeking guidance for their careers in the field.

One of my mentees was Marta (not her real name), a thirty-something translator who was questioning whether she wanted to translate any more. Having travelled extensively 鈥� which freelance translating suited excellently 鈥� she鈥檇 settled down and now lived permanently abroad. With no intention of returning to her native country, she felt her language and cultural skills would eventually fade, and she wanted a job that didn鈥檛 rely on her native language.

Marta had tried her hand at content creation, but felt it was not for her. She鈥檇 worked for a while as a data analyst and concluded the same. She had enrolled on a master鈥檚 degree programme in localisation hoping that it would lead to an in-house position at a language services company. But studying just wasn鈥檛 as inspiring as it had been on her bachelor鈥檚 course.

Over the months, we explored Marta鈥檚 interest in taking up a managerial role. I was able to assure her it wasn鈥檛 unrealistic to consider a career change in her thirties 鈥� I鈥檇 done the same. We spent time figuring out who she was as a person, and she finally concluded that although she was capable of performing as a part of a team or company, what she really wanted was to do her own thing.

When I last spoke with Marta, she was thinking of becoming an author in a field that really interested her, perhaps getting a book published one day. She said the mentorship had definitely been worth it, and even though I鈥檇 often lamented our lack of structure and milestones, for her just being able to talk to someone from the same industry but at a different stage in their career had been valuable.

Reversing the roles

Reverse mentoring is the opposite of traditional mentoring. Instead of a senior staff member imparting their wisdom to a junior recruit, the senior colleague listens and learns from the junior one. The primary objective is to enable senior managers to stay in touch with their organisation and the outside world, which often means educating them about something like technology or diversity. But the advantages go both ways, as more junior co-workers have an opportunity to understand and be heard by their senior colleagues.

I remember bringing the idea up at our management meeting a few years ago, and the first response from my peers was: 鈥楽o Anu, are you admitting you can鈥檛 keep up?鈥�. There lies the rub: reverse mentoring cannot be implemented in an organisation without humility.

A while back, I chatted to Texan coach and team-builder . Having seen her in action, I know what an awesome mentor she can be. We were comparing notes and discovered that our respective experiences with structured coaching programmes had sometimes left us flat. Shelly surmised that perhaps the best mentoring right now happens organically.

With that in mind, I encourage you to go and seek out a mentorship for yourself. Right now.

Seven months ago, we were all facing the global pandemic together, bracing ourselves for the challenge of saving lives. Now our experiences have diverged: different countries and regions are at different stages of the fight, battling with varying degrees of restrictions and sacrifice. We encounter discord and seemingly impossible asks, and we need to get through them without ending up exhausted and burnt out. A powerful mentorship won鈥檛 erase the trouble and chaos, but can help us find our own path amidst that chaos.

The post Director鈥檚 Cut, take 26: Going from good to great with mentoring appeared first on sa国际传媒.

There is, however, an important distinction between being thrown in and learning on the job. After all, most of us learn best by doing. With Sandberg鈥檚 structured guidelines and buddy system, we make it through our first newbie weeks stronger, wiser, infinitely more caffeinated 颅and, most importantly, ready to take responsibility for the important work we do.

Hitting the ground running听?

At Sandberg, we believe that by training and supporting our new starters, we鈥檙e setting them up to be the best they can be 鈥� for us and for our clients. A full week (!) is set aside for induction and training. New starters are introduced to the translation industry as a whole and Sandberg鈥檚 position in it, as well as our vision and company values.听They鈥檙e acquainted with their role and their team, their accounts and their clients. It鈥檚 a chance to get familiar with the computer-aided translation (CAT) tools they might be working with, explore the oddly named internal systems (Wookie?) and, not least, have a crack at learning their new colleagues鈥� names from the get-go.听

Ivan Gechev, a Project Manager at our Varna office in Bulgaria, was a complete newcomer to project management and the translation industry when he started at Sandberg in 2019. The induction week helped him wrap his head around not only his own role, but also where he fitted within the structure of his team and where his team fitted within听the听company.听

He says: 鈥淚 remember being amazed by just how detailed and hands-on the training sessions were. For example, the session with Anu [our Managing Director] was key to introducing me to the informal and personal nature of our company culture.鈥� An introduction to project management with team leader Mihaela Ikonomova prepared him for what his actual working day would look like. 鈥淓very single training session,鈥� he says, 鈥減rovided valuable information, whether on ISO standards, a variety of CAT tools or, for example, the intricacies of translator selection.鈥�

Your buddy鈥檚 got your back听?

After the induction week, training continues in-team. 鈥淏uddies鈥� and experienced colleagues are on hand to offer advice and guidance, and crucially, feedback. When听you鈥檙e ready to deal with most aspects of your role independently, it can be nice to take a moment to bask in the sweet glory of mastering something new.听

Yet in a fast-moving industry, the ability to be flexible and adapt quickly is key. That鈥檚 why we continue to train our employees and encourage them to learn more about special areas they might be particularly interested in, whether it be learning about search engine optimisation (SEO), improving their Icelandic or diving into one of the guidelines, for example on translation quality, from听, a language data network.

The name of the game听?

Another term for this is Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Required by translation service standards that Sandberg complies with such as ISO 17100, CPD听boils down to life-long learning. Maintaining or acquiring knowledge and skills, and developing personal qualities that aid your work, means that you鈥檙e engaging in CPD. What sets it apart from more formalised training is that it鈥檚 self-driven and systematically documented.

Acquiring and documenting our skills through CPD is good for several reasons. Not only is it an opportunity for our employees to keep learning and be challenged, they also become more agile and can help with other types of work not directly linked to their own role when there is a business need. But ultimately, we believe that well-trained and confident professionals are best equipped to provide the localisation solutions our clients are looking for.

Learning never stops听听

Many a Sandberg heart has skipped a beat upon first receiving their Learning Units (LUs), the core of Sandberg鈥檚 training structure and basis for CPD.听It鈥檚 a bit of a wedge, to say the least. If you thought that promotion might be more easily within reach by schmoozing down the pub with your manager, you might want to think again. Our company culture reflects our Nordic values: consultative management, a focus on teamwork, transparency and equal opportunities. This means sharing knowledge, giving feedback, embracing technology and training continuously.

The LUs cover several topics such as project management, linguistic competencies, client/supplier relationships and teamwork. These topics are divided into sub-sections detailing various skills. Completing a skill is done by documenting, either through team leader observations, case studies or written summaries, how you have come to learn the skill and how you have applied it in your daily work.

Laura Karkimo, who just started her seventh year in the company, has been using the LUs to document her professional development while working towards becoming a Senior Finnish Account Linguist. Had the LUs been a physical document, hers would probably be pretty tattered by now. 鈥淗aving trained and been a 鈥榖uddy鈥� to several team members over the years,鈥� Laura says, 鈥淚 can see how the learning units give structure to training. They鈥檙e vetted, formalised and objective, ensuring consistent and fair learning opportunities across the company.鈥�

However, even after so many years, Laura finds that there鈥檚 no shortage of new things to learn or, indeed, relearn. She says: 鈥淐ontinuously updated LUs, for example information on feature announcements in CAT tools, help to ensure that I do my work in a way that is the most optimal now, not in the way that was the most optimal, say, four years ago.鈥�

Training 鈥� what (or who) is it good for?听?

The short answer: absolutely everyone. Setting our starters up with an induction week and buddy system isn鈥檛 just out of the听goodness听of our hearts. Neither is our focus on CPD, or why we encourage our employees to keep working on their LUs. Quality translations are at the forefront of everything we do at Sandberg.听

We believe that trained professionals are better at understanding what clients want and setting out with a clear idea of how to achieve that. They will, for example, know what and why reference materials are necessary and how to make the best use of them. They can effectively apply and navigate tools that aid our translations, such as glossaries, translation memories (TMs) and, if the client wants, machine translation (MT).听

Investing in our employees is a way of investing in our clients 鈥� only the best results will keep our clients coming back to us.

The post Training听and professional development: the Sandberg approach appeared first on sa国际传媒.

There are many parallels to our COVID-19 world: in the Wonderland, walking away from something brought you towards it. In our world, we keep those we love at a distance as a sign of caring. For Alice, running helped her remain stationary. For businesses, even the most vigorous running may this year result in merely staying stationary (and many would in fact be grateful for that). And the government decision-making on coronavirus containment, e.g. the rules of the current UK , has at times been reminiscent of the incomprehensible mind puzzles of the Red and White Queens of the Wonderland.

If we have indeed stepped through the looking glass into a new story, what鈥檚 the plot going to be like from here on? No one seems interested in dwelling on what has been. As businesses, we are encouraged to author the story of what happens next. But the challenge in real-life storytelling is that, in order to be useful, our stories need to be true. And, by definition, true stories will always be about what has been.

This means that before sketching the next chapter, each of us might benefit from a little reflection. You may think that humans automatically learn from experience, but that鈥檚 not true. We only learn if we reflect on our experiences. Ergo, instead of peering through the looking glass, I decided to have a little peek into it. I am not in a position to see what the mirror might reflect back to you, but here are a few things it reflects back to me.

There鈥檚 now

I believe that pride in who we are defines our present and our future. Consequently, I set it as my goal to be able to look back with pride on how we at Sandberg responded to the COVID-19 challenge. Three months down the line, I am viewing the European lockdown months as a period when we continued to trade professionally and treat our colleagues, clients and suppliers with exactly the same dignity as before. I am pleased with that.

There were also days when I got too emotionally attached to the performance of the company. I felt I was only a good leader when everything was going well. Those days taught me that my mood as a leader casts a longer shadow than I think. I must learn not to disconnect from the team when I feel low and not to change things erratically for them when I feel impelled to action.

In March 2020, I told my colleagues that I know I ask them every day to trust my ability to steer the company. Furthermore, I ask them to trust that I鈥檓 doing it with integrity and benevolence. In order to nurture that trust, I started a corona vlog for the (by then 100% remote-working) Sandberg staff where I talked to them weekly about what was happening in the world, how the company was doing and what I was basing my decisions on. Here are a few clips from those videos.

Then there鈥檚 next

With the easing of lockdown measures, we are entering a听period of unpredictable and possibly muted economic recovery that gives rise to new threats and opportunities. But I have every bit of faith in Sandberg鈥檚 future. That is why you see us going ahead with our in-house recruitment plans and why we鈥檝e had five interns join us for the summer. The next group of new colleagues starts in July.

Then we face the question of how to bring people out of isolation and back into our offices. We鈥檝e started by asking whether we even want to bring people back to the office and what the purpose of the office is for a company that can clearly operate without one. We have always maintained we need offices for training and supporting new staff. But having to maintain a metre-plus human distance on the premises would negate many of the reasons why we prefer onsite support to virtual support.

Cabin fever is of course a terrible thing and for many of us having even one colleague in the same room is better for our mental health than working totally alone from home. Some colleagues are restricted in what kind of a home office setup they can have, and going to the office 鈥� even if it was them alone in there 鈥� would be a better option than working from their bedroom or kitchen table.

There鈥檚 no normal

The image at the beginning of this article referring to life in lockdown as being in prison may seem in poor taste. The only allusion I want to make is to the feeling of not being in control and to having limited decision-making power concerning the future.

The notion of 鈥榥ormality鈥� is built on the assumption of steadiness. Without steadiness, there is no normal and the only thing we can rely on is our agility to adapt. With that in mind, we鈥檇 be wise to invest in planning for what we should do differently if there was a second wave of COVID-19 with further lockdowns in the next 12 months. We should only learn the hard lessons once.

Earlier this summer, I was discussing furloughing staff with a colleague. He noted that although I seemed to be concerned about the circumstances of individuals, I would obviously invariably put the company鈥檚 interests first. That is true, I would. It is my duty, as a director (for corporate governance) and as the head of the management team (for operations). Whilst my job has taught me to treat the company as a legal entity that has a life separate from the lives of its stakeholders, I鈥檝e also learnt that in serving the former I serve the latter. The stakeholders 鈥� clients, employees, collaboration partners, shareholders and the community 鈥� are always at liberty to engage with Sandberg or to walk away from it, but if they engage, it鈥檚 in their best interests that I keep the company healthy, purposeful and attractively transparent.

The world we see through the looking glass is characterised by fast-changing shifts in cultural norms, societal values and behaviours. There鈥檚 an increasing demand for responsible business practices, and many companies, including us, are working on a renewed brand purpose. This should benefit employees as well as clients. At the risk of sounding insensitive at a time when so many jobs are being lost, I surmise that work could now become the place where we feel more like ourselves than anywhere else. In an unpredictable world, having a job that aligns with our values can have a key role in helping us live out who we are.

The post Director鈥檚 Cut, take 24: Through the looking glass appeared first on sa国际传媒.

Nordic dialect map

Learn about the languages and dialects of the entire Nordic region with our interactive map.

Nordic dialect map

Learn about the languages and dialects of the entire Nordic region with our interactive map.

The post Celebrating the European Day of Languages appeared first on sa国际传媒.