METM presentation
 

The translator’s invisible toolkit


Andrew Morris, Avignon, France

Every translator needs a set of basic survival tools, ranging from language competence and subject expertise, to IT and business skills. Without these, any career is going to have difficulty taking off.

However, in this session, I argue that this will take you so far and no further. If all you want to do is survive, you’re fine. But if you want to move beyond that and thrive, you’ll also need the invisible toolkit, which contains the values, beliefs and above all emotions to help you move ahead and make a real impact on the people and markets around you.

This session will not only help you identify these tools, but also give pointers to how to cultivate them. And the key to opening the toolkit in the first place is found by looking inside, not outside. It depends not on tips and tricks but on the quality of the questions you ask yourself, and the energy you are prepared to put into seeking the answers and implementing them, over time, in your own practice.
 
Andrew Morris is a freelance translator, reviser, writer, editor of ‘the clearing’ digital magazine and musician (pretty much in that order) and the host of the Standing Out forum on Facebook. He began translating 6 years ago and besides the cut and thrust of the daily linguistic challenge, he is particularly interested in what makes thriving translators succeed. His approach suggests that it takes far more than knowledge and skills, and is unafraid to look words like ‘attitude’, ‘philosophy’ and ‘emotional intelligence’ squarely in the eye.