I’m often asked, how did you get into languages to begin with, why do you want to work with languages and how do you establish a language services business on the back of that? Well, I don’t claim to know everything, but I know what works for me. So, based on my experience so far, my top ten tips (in no particular order) would be:
1. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes when you learn a language. Mistakes mean you’re trying to say more than you know, so you’ll learn more when you’re corrected and use that in the future. If you’re afraid of mistakes, you’ll be reluctant to say or write anything.
2. Pursue a language and culture that mean something to you. Personally, I was drawn to Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Albanian, Romanian and Romani. My love of those languages and their people helped me through the inevitable tough patches.
3. Focus on a subject that interests you and you have some expertise in (sport, music, media, cooking, law, business, medicine and so on and so on). If you’re interested in the subject matter, you’ll want to keep going and learn more.
4. Be open to new technologies and new ways to work with languages in the 21st century. Don’t think that machine translation or AI is always the enemy. Maybe contribute to improving them. Use CAT tools when they can enhance your productivity. They don’t stifle your creativity.
5. Embrace the fact that you’re always learning. You’ll never know everything and that’s not a bad thing. However long you’ve been a professional linguist, you’ll learn new terms, new expressions and even new languages.
6. Don’t compare yourself with other people. Your skills mean that you have a lot to offer. Just because other people have a YouTube channel or are big on Instagram doesn’t mean that they’re any better than you at your job.
7. Set up a website and a linked e-mail address to promote your services. It’s essential nowadays and it’s easier than you think to find a reasonably priced package that you can design yourself, if funds are low. Marketing your services in multiple languages pays dividends.
8. Establish a unique selling point. Maybe you have a rare and sought after language combination. Maybe you can translate or interpret in subject fields that only have scant, if any, competition. Build your reputation.
9. Build up a network of colleagues, contacts and consultants. Not only can you seek their advice and they yours, but there’ll come a day when you can’t take on everything and recommendations are very much appreciated. It benefits both parties in the long run.
10. Last, but certainly not least – enjoy it! I love working with languages and I hope that comes across. The more you enjoy it, the more you want to carry on, the more you want to learn and the better you become.
Albaro Languages 