On why I’m starting a blog

Flashback from pre-pandemic times, familiar scene, several people milling around in a bar. Some are old friends, some have just met. A manageable level of awkwardness hangs in the air.

The conversation usually goes like this:

“So, er, what do you do?”

“I’m a translator.”

“Ah, like at conferences, those guys that sit in the booths with the headphones on.”

“Nope, that’s an interpreter. Translation is the written word.”

“Got it. So you translate books and stuff into Spanish?”

“Nope, the other way round. I always translate into English. I could try and translate something into Spanish but it wouldn’t be very good.”

“So what exactly do you translate?”

“Words mainly, sometimes punctuation and grammar. Meaning, nuance, humour, intonation, sarcasm, slogans, sales pitches, and presentations. Occasionally academic articles on the beauty of maths or a study on traffic emissions. Marketing material and press releases, official apologies and pandemic-related notices, the instructions you get in your face cream and the small print inside the box, the little buttons on your app and the ingredients list on your cereal packet.”

“.....that’s great, I actually need my tax return translated into English, could you help me?”

“Er, no sorry. I don’t do that.”

Translation is much more complex than just the words.

In this, my first foray into blogging, I will endeavour to answer this age-old, elusive question: “So what do you do?” from my perspective as a well-seasoned, multi-hyphenated, side hustle, portfolio career, freelancer*. 

*delete as appropriate

I’ll be looking at the business of translation, reflections on being a freelancer in 2020, and I might on occasion get a bit self-indulgent and throw in some anecdotal posts about my own experiences being a guiri-foreigner living in Spain.

And so, in a break from translating other people’s, introducing the L—C blog: all words my own. 

I’m excited.