Things Translators Never Say (and where to say them)
This week on Apertis Verbis we are joined by Erik Hansson, freelance translator and founder of Things Translators Never Say, the Facebook group where like-minded translators turn to find a sense of community. With almost 13,000 members, the group won the Proz.com Community Choice Awards for the most popular Facebook page in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 and has been a one-of-a-kind platform where translators can share impressions about the translation industry, share their struggles and frustrations, and feel like they belong to a community – something often difficult for freelancers! The key ingredients of this recipe are sarcasm, a live-hearted spirit, and the feeling that we are all in this together.
Erik, thank you for joining us this week. Could you tell us a bit about yourself, how you started working as a translator, and what areas you specialise in?
First of all, many thanks to you Miruna for giving me the opportunity to take part in your interview series! It's indeed an honour to be your guest!
Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was a poor student in Sweden with empty pockets, I quite often travelled to Eastern and Central Europe. This is how I got to know my German girlfriend here and finally decided to move to Germany from Sweden at the beginning of the 1990s. I have now lived in Germany for more than 27 years.
After I moved to Germany in 1991 I first started out as an English teacher for adults more or less by chance. Back then, shortly after the reunification of Germany, there was a huge demand for English language trainers in different courses for unemployed adults. One year later I decided to establish my language services business which focused on different language services, covering training sessions, translation and interpreting.
Some years later I had more and more translation jobs for German into Swedish. At the end of the 1990s I realized I wouldn't have time for both training and translation, so I decided to leave the language training sector and focus entirely on translation. Today I translate mainly technical texts within engineering, automation and renewable energy from German into Swedish.
In the new millennium, with the advent of social media, I got more active on different professional portals. This meant I got in contact with many new colleagues and could expand my network.
When did you first decide to set up Things Translators Never Say (TTNS)? What were your main expectations when you founded the group?
It was one of these days when frustration was high and motivation was low. As I realized that most freelance translators work alone, they have no colleagues to turn to when they need to let off steam or just get rid of their frustration. Family and friends who are often not within the translation business can't understand our daily struggles with clients, payment issues or annoying enquiries from a special species of clients.
My idea was to establish a closed group on social media where we as translators (and interpreters, as well) can exchange our experiences with clients and rant and vent rather than just moan – but without the risk of jeopardising our business relationships with clients. As I strongly assumed I wasn't the only translator who felt this way, in August 2013 I decided to set up the Facebook group Things Translators Never Say, in short TTNS. Since then the group has grown continuously and now has almost 13,000 members from all over the world. From the very beginning, my intention was to create a platform where colleagues, on a professional level, can exchange opinions and ideas, share experiences and strengthen their self-confidence. On a personal level I think it's important to get rid of frustration and move beyond isolation. And let's not forget the power of sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek when dealing with annoying situations!
I joined the group at the very beginning of my career and I personally found it extremely useful from a practical point of view: reading about the issues more experienced colleagues had and how they dealt with PMs and clients helped me get a real overview of how the market truly was. I feel that, in a sense, TTNS has an educational value, especially for newcomers to the industry. In your experience, why do translators turn to TTNS?
I agree with you that TTNS is not only a group for venting and letting off steam, but also for sharing practical information for beginners or even seasoned colleagues. There are ongoing discussions about how to deal with payment issues, what to expect from a cooperation with a new agency, how to stay self-confident in negotiations with clients and many more topics.
From my perspective, the main reason why translators and interpreters turn to TTNS is because of the light-hearted atmosphere and the feeling of being a part of a big community of colleagues. We all live in different parts of the world, have different cultural backgrounds and work with different kind of clients – but still we are all in the same situation in our daily work.
Erik as a speaker in one of the panels at the Translating Europe Forum 2018.
Did you ever imagine it becoming so successful? Nowadays, TTNS members frequently organise pow-wows and get-togethers, and meet up in person, with no laptops, glossaries, or TMs in sight. Did you ever expect so much enthusiasm for the social aspect of the group?
Looking back at these five years of TTNS, I never would have dreamed that the group would become so successful. Besides the professional side of the group, where we discuss all kind of topics around translation, it also fills me with joy to see how many members meet offline, expand their personal social networks or even create spinoff groups. This social aspect and different bonding activities among members have been important from the very start.
Every Friday we have our traditional virtual beer o'clock gathering in the group (but sometimes in the real world as well) when we sum up the week and share pictures of our preferred beverages. Other examples are the TTNS World Map which has a pin for every member in different places all over the world or the TTNS Birthday Calendar where we can send our birthday wishes. Now and then we organize different anniversary events for reaching yet another milestone in membership numbers and we have the well-known TTNS Chocolate Chain where members swap names and addresses and then exchange chocolate and other sweets. And let's not forget the TTNS Online Store where members can buy various merchandise articles like t-shirts, hoodies, badges, caps or bags with a unique TTNS slogan. There are many things going on in the group.
From a logistical point of view, running the Facebook group must be time-consuming, as it involves accepting and vetting new members, moderating the discussions, and trying to engage with members. How do you manage to cope with all this work "behind the scenes"?
Oh yes, I agree with you. Coping with a group of this size takes a lot of time and energy, but luckily I can rely on a fabulous support from my co-admins Dana Szabados, Birgit Nakielski and Anja Müller who all do a fantastic job. In addition to our work, as we can't have our eyes everywhere and read every single post, we ask members to report any posts they think are not within the scope of TTNS. Our next step is to have a closer look at the reported post and decide whether it will be kept or deleted. And in the end, the success of the group is based on the members' activities, how often they post or take part in discussions, support us in the admin team and spread the word about the group among their colleagues who haven't joined yet.
And, last but not least, a question we usually ask all of our interviewees: what is your favourite (almost) untranslatable word/concept in your mother tongue/working language and what could be an approximate translation of it into English?
Oh well, let me suggest the lovely Swedish verb hinna which is hard to translate into English or any other language. It simply means "to make it in time" or "to have enough time", for example to catch the bus or the train. "Jag hinner med bussen" roughly means, after a quick glance at your watch, "I have enough time to catch the bus".
Thank you again for taking the time to answer our questions, Erik, and most importantly for creating TTNS. If for some reason you have been an online social recluse for the past 5 years and have not joined the group yet, hopefully you will be motivated to do that now: get ready for amazing puns, beer jokes, light-hearted banter, tongue-in cheek references about pricing, and a true sense of community.
TTNS also has an online store so, with Christmas coming up, if you want to get into the "translation holiday spirit", you might want to check it out for translation-related merchandise and humour. And remember, if you see a TTNS colleague working on his/her laptop in a café or enjoying beer o'clock at the pub wearing a TTNS T-shirt, go up and say hi (we don't bite)!
