CONSULTING

Enabling people to communicate successfully across language and cultural barriers is my ultimate goal. Communication is the heart of interpreting an translation, and I will be delighted to help my clients to become confident and competent cross-cultural communicators and educated consumers of language services.

I am offering consulting sessions on the following topics:

How to Determine the Scope of Language Services you Need

For a non-linguist, buying language services can be confusing and frustrating. 

• What is a certified translation and why would I need it?
• Transcribing and translating a three-hour testimony costs a small fortune. Is there a way to lower the expense?
• Do we really need to pay for two simultaneous interpreters for a day-long conference packed with back-to-back sessions? Can't we just use our bilingual employees?
• Under what circumstances is it appropriate to use machine translation and what to expect from a non-human translation?
• My Russian counterpart seems to speak English just fine. Why would I need an interpreter and possibly a "check linguist" for an important negotiation?
• Do I need to translate a text "for information" or "for publication" and how these products differ in cost and completion time?
• Are there remote interpreting options?

These questions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to determining the type and the scope of language services you need. Professional services are expensive, and with the abundance of bilingual people and proliferation of machine translation, might seem unnecessary. Warning: This viewpoint might be extremely dangerous and lead to grave errors and potential liabilities! I will be happy to schedule a remote consulting session and help you with finding a balanced solution addressing your needs and optimizing the costs.

How to Communicate Effectively with a Non-English-Speaking Audience

Imagine you put a lot of thought and effort into preparing a presentation for an international audience: you've refined your key message, carefully selected content, designed compelling slides, and (in an ideal world) even rehearsed your speech out loud.

However, your presentation did not go the way you've expected:

• When you told a joke, several people laughed heartily right after you delivered the punchline, a part of the audience chuckled a few seconds later (which is an eternity in the compressed realm of a breakout session), but the majority of the listeners were silent and looked perplexed.
• During a Q&A session, one attendee asked a question about the concept that was clearly outlined on one of your slides.
• Another participant completely misconstrued your main point.
• You asked an audience member a simple follow-up question that required a yes-or-no answer, and in response she gave a mini-lecture on an unrelated topic.
• And afterwards, you overheard someone saying that you presented like "a typical American, with overabundant enthusiasm: a lot of woohoos but little substance."

What went wrong? Did the interpreters completely screw it up?

The truth is, interaction with multilingual audience, especially when intermediaries (i.e. interpreters) are involved, changes the flow and the dynamics of communication. To navigate these treacherous international waters successfully, speakers need to modify their content and delivery. You can find several useful tips in my blog post, but remember that true mastery comes with training and practice. 

My coaching session will help you to identify and avoid potential pitfalls typical for cross-language and cross-cultural communication. This two-hour seminar can be conducted remotely or on-site. 

How to Write for Translation

A good translation starts with a good source text and with the clear understanding of its objective. While working on a text intended for translation, you need to take into account cultural and semantic characteristics of the target language, implicit and explicit meaning of your message, concepts and ideas that are not easily understood by your target audience.

A competent linguist can help you to fine-tune your writing before it is submitted for translation, which in the end will save you a lot of time and money. Please contact me if you would like to discuss your project and review your text.