Latest / Found in Interpretation Podcast / Ep. 62 - The ATA President-elect on AI, certification, and the future of our profession.

Transcript

Ep. 62 - The ATA President-elect on AI, certification, and the future of our profession. · Found in Interpretation Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, hello and welcome to another episode I found in
• 0:03
  Interpretation podcast, the podcast that talks about
• 0:07
  translation, interpretation, technology, AI, you name it.
• 0:10
  Once again, I'm one of your Co hosts Alamogordo and I'm here
• 0:13
  with Brian. Brian, how you doing?
• 0:14
  I'm doing great, buddy. And we're also here with Ben.
• 0:18
  Ben, how are you? I'm doing very well, thank you
• 0:20
  both for having me. It's good to have you on, so
• 0:23
  let's let's do this. Yeah, actually, yes, let's do
• 0:27
  it. Don't forget everyone like
• 0:29
  share, subscribe and let's kick it.
• 0:42
  Alright, we are here with Ben Carl.
• 0:45
  Ben Karl is the president-elect of the ATA.
• 0:50
  He's a certified French, English, Mandarin, English
• 0:54
  translator, copywriter. He specializes in corporate
• 0:57
  communications marketing. He has an MBA.
• 1:00
  He's a certified translator. He's been a board member of the
• 1:04
  ATA since 2021. He's the chair of the advocacy
• 1:08
  committee, he membership development committee.
• 1:10
  He's got the Chronicle Editorial Board Award.
• 1:15
  Is that an award? No.
• 1:16
  Is that an award? What am I reading?
• 1:18
  It's just a position, yeah. It's just a position, OK?
• 1:20
  Yeah, alright. And he has a bunch of things,
• 1:23
  such as the recipient of the FIT Gold Pin award for outstanding
• 1:28
  service. He's a ATA conference organizer.
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  You know, he has an advanced Chinese proficiency certificate
• 1:36
  because he lived in Beijing, if I remember correctly.
• 1:39
  So here he is with us. And Ben.
• 1:43
  Welcome. Here I am.
• 1:45
  Thank you. So how does it feel to be the
• 1:48
  the president-elect of ETA? You know, it feels really great.
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  I feel very fortunate to have been elected by my peers to this
• 1:56
  really important position. And, you know, the the last few
• 2:00
  months have really felt like drinking from a fire hose, so to
• 2:03
  speak. There's a lot to do, there's a
• 2:06
  lot to plan, and we are in full preparation for the conference
• 2:11
  in October in San Francisco. So it has been really great and
• 2:16
  a lot of fun and a lot of work. So I am happy to be here to talk
• 2:19
  a little bit more. About it, that's amazing.
• 2:21
  So it's going to be October 2026.
• 2:24
  Yes, October 2026, I should have the dates in front of me and I
• 2:28
  totally neglected to do that. But you can find more on the ETA
• 2:31
  website at atandnet.org. The call for speakers just went
• 2:35
  out. So we are asking people to
• 2:37
  submit proposals for a variety of different kinds of sessions,
• 2:41
  educational sessions. We are really trying to focus on
• 2:44
  the power of human expertise this year and leveling up our
• 2:49
  skills in in this changing world that we live in.
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  And proposals are due in March. And so I encourage everyone to
• 2:58
  submit their proposals. But just coming up with the
• 3:00
  wording of everything and getting the website live, you
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  know, I have great, great support from our headquarters
• 3:06
  staff and yet it is still a lot of work, many, many hours of
• 3:10
  work, so. Yeah, but it's.
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  Very exciting to see it come to fruition too.
• 3:14
  It's. Very, just saw it on the
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  website. It's from October 28 to 31st,
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  2026. You can spend Halloween in San
• 3:21
  Francisco. It's gonna be great.
• 3:24
  Awesome, and then you can go to hit wine country after so.
• 3:27
  Exactly. Absolutely.
• 3:29
  Yes, it's right. It's just, you know, an hour and
• 3:32
  a half north of San Francisco, it's really great.
• 3:34
  And Redwood country too. I mean, California, though, you
• 3:36
  can't beat the landscape. So you can make a little trip of
• 3:39
  it, make a little vacation of it.
• 3:41
  Sounds good. So how how did you become so So
• 3:45
  how did this happen to become president-elect like you?
• 3:48
  Gosh, well, became a certified translator in Chinese, Mandarin.
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  Mandarin. So I'm, I'm certified in French
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  to English. I am not certified in Mandarin
• 3:59
  to English, but maybe one day we'll see.
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  You know, I, I started my translation business in 2013
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  after working at Transperfect Translations for a couple of
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  years in house and I didn't join a professional association right
• 4:14
  away. And it's one of my biggest
• 4:16
  regrets actually. I think associations are so
• 4:18
  powerful and the community that they create and the resources
• 4:25
  that they provide, You know, I was new to the profession.
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  I was like, well, I'll, I can go it alone.
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  I'm fine. And I, I did go it alone for a
• 4:33
  couple years and it was actually exactly 10 years ago in 2016, I
• 4:40
  went to my first ATA conference in San Francisco and I was a
• 4:45
  complete convert from the get go.
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  I was, I was like, well, where, where have these people been all
• 4:51
  my life? Where has the support system,
• 4:54
  this network been all my life? And I became a very dedicated
• 4:59
  volunteer. I, I firmly believe that
• 5:01
  associations are really only as strong as their members make
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  them. And so and became my part of my
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  mission to really make ETA an incredible organization through
• 5:11
  my very small contribution. And in 2021, I ran to be on the
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  board of directors. I didn't win my election, my
• 5:22
  first election, but the board Co opted me for a year to a vacancy
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  and I ran again and won. And so I completed my first term
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  on the board last year and decided that it was the right
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  time for me to run as president-elect.
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  And it's a four year commitment. You serve as president-elect for
• 5:42
  two years and then president for two years.
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  And so I've, I've committed myself to four more years of
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  service in kind of the more visible, most visible position
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  at ATA. And I feel really passionate
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  about making a great and ensuring that it supports its
• 6:00
  members and especially that it weathers and thrives during this
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  time of change that we're all living through.
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  Now is the main focus for president-elect, like the main
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  role is it to organize the conference in San Francisco and.
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  You got it. Yes, OK.
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  Then what does the president do? The president-elect is the
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  conference organizer and so I'll be responsible for two
• 6:23
  conferences and San Francisco and then the following year
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  which will be in Las Vegas and, and we actually part of my roles
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  and responsibilities was to help select the site for the
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  conference after that. And so we will be going to
• 6:39
  Orlando in the following year. Gosh, 20182028, I can count, I
• 6:48
  promise. No, in 2028 we will.
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  Be rolling with anyways. I know need to do any math, you
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  know, yes. And so the conference organizing
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  is my my main role, yes. OK, And what does the president
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  do? The president is the lead
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  spokesperson for ATA. They set the tone for what the
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  advocacy committee works on, what the PR committee works on,
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  what our sort of strategic priorities are.
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  And they are the boss, the big boss of our executive director.
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  The executive director obviously reports to the entire executive
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  committee and to the entire board.
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  But the president is, you know, the chair of the executive
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  committee and the board, so they work much more closely together
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  than the rest of the board does to ensure ETA is is doing well.
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  OK. You said that there was a before
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  and after you joined the association.
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  What would be the arguments you would tell to any young
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  translator, interpreter out there who are not in the
• 7:56
  organization? What what would be the direct
• 7:58
  benefits that you have seen to encourage them to join?
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  The we could have a a 10 hour conversation just about that.
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  It's a podcast. Go ahead.
• 8:09
  Yeah, I know, right. I mean, you know, when I first
• 8:13
  started, I had a degree in translation from McGill
• 8:16
  University in Montreal. I had certificate of Chinese
• 8:21
  proficiency. I had been in the industry for a
• 8:24
  little over 2 years, which isn't really that long, but when
• 8:28
  you're young and starting out, you know, it feels like you, you
• 8:33
  know, know everything there is to know or that you have a good
• 8:35
  foundation. I don't know.
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  People think so. Yeah, I, I suffered from some,
• 8:39
  some ignorance of youth and all of that, you know, and I love
• 8:44
  it. Yeah.
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  Not afraid to. Admit teenager.
• 8:46
  Yes, exactly. Yeah, You know, I'm, I'm, gosh,
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  I'm 38 now. So I was 28 then.
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  So I started, I mean, I was 2526 and you know, I, I felt very
• 9:00
  confident that I knew what was up and that I knew what I needed
• 9:04
  to do. And finding a TA, finding the
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  community that it created, finding the educational
• 9:14
  opportunities and really finding the network was the most
• 9:20
  important thing. You know, I, I don't rely on the
• 9:23
  ET directory for work. I don't, I don't, I didn't need
• 9:30
  to be certified in order to, you know, have a fulfilling career.
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  And yet certification has really helped me in so many ways, many
• 9:41
  of them just proving to myself that I could do it, that I had
• 9:44
  the skills. Not to your client, but to
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  yourself. Exactly.
• 9:48
  Yeah, I think, you know, we have some work to do to encourage and
• 9:56
  to promote the value of certification in the United
• 9:59
  States. It's not quite like in in Canada
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  and Quebec where, you know, we're not a professional order,
• 10:04
  for example. So we have to promote the
• 10:06
  benefit of certification. To oh, there are no laws by the
• 10:11
  government. Exactly.
• 10:13
  Yeah, We don't have any statutes that require certification more
• 10:18
  broadly. There are a couple of state laws
• 10:20
  that require certification, but we have some work to do to
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  really reflect the benefit of certification to our clients and
• 10:29
  and more broadly. So I think certification is
• 10:33
  really welcome back, Brian. Yeah.
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  Yeah, exactly. I was.
• 10:37
  Sorry about that. Listening and writing.
• 10:39
  Welcome back. So yeah, technical glitch.
• 10:42
  Right. Yeah, I know.
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  So certification, it's so valuable and we have a really,
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  we are working hard to demonstrate its value to more
• 10:53
  people. But beyond that, I, you know, I
• 10:56
  heard someone else say this recently and I think it really
• 10:59
  rings true for me the, the number of referrals that I've
• 11:03
  gotten from people I met through TA.
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  I mean, it's in the the dozens, if not hundreds of thousands of
• 11:10
  dollars over the years and the amount of learning that I've
• 11:14
  done to level up my skills to become a better professional, to
• 11:19
  market myself. Better, because ATA offers
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  ongoing education. Absolutely.
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  Yep, exactly. Only for translators, Also for
• 11:29
  interpreters. A huge amount for interpreters
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  as well. It's really just, despite the
• 11:35
  fact that it's called the American Translators
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  Association, interpreters are such an integral part of ATA and
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  there are some of our most active and valuable members and
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  we offer a ton of continuing education that is geared towards
• 11:49
  interpreters. That is interesting because in
• 11:52
  Ozak there's, you know, there are a lot of training for
• 11:55
  translators, but interpreters, to be honest, there are not that
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  they don't have much of an input.
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  Sure, I'm trying to change that, but it's, it's a very long
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  process. But I'm very curious right now
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  to see the. I mean I would even.
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  Can I join as a Canadian? You absolutely can, Yeah, Anyone
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  anywhere in the world can be a member of the American
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  Translators Association. And in fact our interpreters
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  division, you know, we have language specific and subject
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  matter specific divisions within ATA.
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  The Interpreters Vision is the largest division in ATA.
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  I think ATA this past year we had about 6800 members, 6800
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  members, over 2000 of them are also members of the Interpreters
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  division. So a good 25% at least, if not
• 12:47
  more of our members are very active interpreters.
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  And so yesterday did they amalgamate like the conference
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  interpreters and court interpreters and community
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  interpreters like it's all. So yes, the interpreters
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  division is sort of the amalgamation.
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  And then if you work in education, there's the education
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  division. If you work in medical, there's
• 13:08
  the medical division. If you work in the court system,
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  yeah, there there are other subject matter divisions.
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  So you can sort of dial into the sort of subject matter expertise
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  that's available to you. But the interpreters division
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  also, because there are so many interpreters from so many
• 13:27
  different backgrounds, there is continuing Ed that is geared
• 13:31
  towards conference, towards community, towards medical,
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  towards local. And does it cost more if you
• 13:36
  want to become part of a division or is it just you pay
• 13:39
  your membership fee and then you can choose which division you
• 13:42
  want to be in or? You divisions are a member
• 13:46
  benefit and they are included in the membership fee right now.
• 13:51
  So it's you can be in as many divisions as you want and, and
• 13:55
  they are, yeah. Once you're in a team member,
• 13:58
  you can join those communities as many as you, as many as you
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  like. Nice.
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  And regarding the conference, let's say the upcoming in San
• 14:08
  Francisco or later on in Florida, Yeah, so let's say I
• 14:12
  become a member of the ATA and I joined the organization and I'm
• 14:17
  guessing there are some workshops or some different.
• 14:21
  I mean, there's the main conference and then you've
• 14:24
  enrolled into different workshops and then you get to
• 14:26
  network and also to learn something.
• 14:28
  Yes, absolutely. So, I mean, the conference is
• 14:31
  our flagship event. It has been for 67 years.
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  We're at ATA 67. So it's the 67th annual
• 14:39
  conference, 7th and that's how tall I am.
• 14:43
  Oh my gosh, no, you've just created our marketing campaign
• 14:46
  for us when I need to and we we have a a gosh, what are the
• 14:53
  agent Z or on our marketing team?
• 14:55
  So I mean he's he's even too old for 6-7 but I need to ask him to
• 15:00
  to do something. With.
• 15:01
  You. To go to like a French class or
• 15:04
  a Spanish class in high school and just get them all.
• 15:07
  To say that we get them, Oh my God.
• 15:09
  And then you can promote it. You're 60.
• 15:11
  Seven. I know.
• 15:13
  Oh my gosh. You know.
• 15:14
  What's that? What's the six?
• 15:15
  I mean, I see kids and Oh my God, I got kids at home and
• 15:18
  there are 6 seven I don't like. Hey.
• 15:22
  That's the people our age don't understand it and don't get it
• 15:25
  is literally the entire appeal to them.
• 15:27
  So I'm asking what it means. It may it's it's worth.
• 15:31
  It's not even worth it. It doesn't really mean anything.
• 15:34
  I think my son tried to explain it to me and I'm like that
• 15:36
  doesn't make sense. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense,
• 15:38
  right. So beyond 6-7, which you've,
• 15:41
  you've literally created our campaign for us just now, Brian.
• 15:44
  So I'm gonna, I'm gonna take that and run with that.
• 15:48
  But no, the conference is our flagship event and this year
• 15:54
  during every session time slot there will be 12 concurrent
• 16:00
  sessions and you don't need to pick them in advance.
• 16:03
  You can pick them the second you get there.
• 16:05
  You can look at the conference schedule when it comes out over
• 16:08
  the summer and and sort of set your, your schedule, your agenda
• 16:12
  if you want. There will be I think 100 a 140
• 16:18
  something sessions that are included in the conference.
• 16:22
  So you if you enroll in the conference, those are you can go
• 16:26
  to as many of those as you like. And we will also have advanced
• 16:29
  skills and training day beforehand, which there are very
• 16:33
  frequently very popular advanced skill days for interpreters and
• 16:39
  for translators. Those are three hour interactive
• 16:43
  workshops with a trainer to work on, you know, your consecutive
• 16:48
  skills, your note taking skills and working better in court,
• 16:53
  doing, you know, work, doing depositions over remote
• 16:56
  simultaneous interpreting. You know, it's all just skills
• 17:00
  that people need now to to do better work.
• 17:03
  And so there will be lots of offerings like that at the
• 17:05
  conference as well. Speaking of skills, I remember
• 17:09
  for instance, last year at Atiak ended two years ago as well.
• 17:14
  The big topic was AI at the conference and it was all in the
• 17:20
  the, I would say the strategy or the the idea behind the
• 17:24
  conference and the theme was how to give a plus to the client in
• 17:30
  the age of AI. If I have to sum it up, what
• 17:33
  about ATA's strategy to remain relevant for the next 5 to 10
• 17:39
  years in the HBI? Yeah, gosh.
• 17:42
  Well, I think it's the, it's the $1,000,000 question that we're
• 17:45
  all working to figure out. I from the conference
• 17:49
  perspective, the last two, threeish years, you know, ever
• 17:53
  since Chachi BT came on the scene, AI has been a huge, huge
• 17:59
  topic. And at the same time, I think
• 18:03
  our members are feel a little AI saturated at the moment.
• 18:08
  You know, an AI is changing so quickly.
• 18:10
  So we are really trying to focus on how AI can empower our
• 18:15
  members to do better work or to work more efficiently more
• 18:19
  quickly. And this year, as conference
• 18:22
  organizer, my goal is really to lean into the power of human
• 18:26
  expertise and what AI is not capable of doing.
• 18:29
  The value the humans can add in the age of the AI in a way that
• 18:35
  AI never can. And so my call, the call for
• 18:39
  speakers this year is actually specifically addressing people
• 18:45
  who want to teach those skills to the folks who come to ETA
• 18:50
  this year to the conference this year.
• 18:51
  So I'm really hoping that there is a human value, human
• 18:57
  resilience boot camp this year that will really set a lot of
• 19:02
  the attendees up for success. And at the same time, we can't
• 19:06
  ignore the AI's here. We can't ignore that our clients
• 19:11
  are curious about it, that they're asking about it and that
• 19:15
  they are, they are business people just like we are and they
• 19:19
  want to do good work at a good value for them.
• 19:22
  And so how can we empower them to do that while also showing
• 19:30
  the value that we add even without it, you know so.
• 19:34
  So have you, have you thought of reaching out to Joel Lapine?
• 19:39
  Oh, so Joe, he gave an incredible, incredible session
• 19:44
  at our last conference that was packed to the gills.
• 19:48
  I think he had, I mean, the, the room was probably, you know, the
• 19:52
  capacity was probably 50 and there must have been 80 people
• 19:55
  there. I mean, there was standing room
• 19:57
  only. Thankfully, the Fire Marshall
• 19:59
  didn't. Step in and.
• 20:01
  You know, he, he really has a message that a lot of people are
• 20:05
  really interested in hearing. So actually the the title of or
• 20:09
  the the main theme of your conference is geared towards
• 20:12
  humans, right? Like you had mentioned it at the
• 20:14
  beginning of the podcast. I forget what it was, so yes.
• 20:19
  That's right, we know. This is my non disclosure
• 20:22
  agreement for my clients. Like 20 minutes.
• 20:25
  Later, what happened, This little fish bowl saying no, the
• 20:30
  we there isn't a conference tagline this year, but the theme
• 20:35
  really of what I really want to create this year is the value of
• 20:40
  human expertise and creating resiliency in the age of
• 20:45
  artificial intelligence. And so we from from every facet.
• 20:52
  I'm trying to promote leveling up of skills regardless of the
• 20:58
  use of AI. So how to be a better
• 20:59
  interpreter, how to be a better translator even without the use
• 21:03
  of AI tools, but also how to add value and how to sell services
• 21:09
  in the age of AI. Because our clients, we can't
• 21:14
  ignore that AI is here. They are interested in their
• 21:18
  bottom lines. They're obviously very curious
• 21:21
  about AI. And so we need to be able to
• 21:24
  speak to what AI may or may not be good at, but then what we are
• 21:29
  good at and how to reflect that in the work that we do and to be
• 21:35
  better in every aspect. I think being better and being,
• 21:39
  you know, learning to level up at every, every turn, every
• 21:43
  stage is super, super important. I figure you could say it better
• 21:47
  than me so. I've been thinking a lot about
• 21:51
  it and so, yeah, that's great, yes.
• 21:55
  Now one question, do you have to be a member of a TA in order to
• 21:59
  go to this conference or can you go as?
• 22:00
  You do not. You can go as literally anybody
• 22:06
  can go to the AT conference and almost anyone can be a member of
• 22:09
  ATA as well. You do not need to live in the
• 22:11
  United States. You do not need to be certified.
• 22:16
  The, you know, ETA is for everybody.
• 22:20
  We may be the American Translators Association, but
• 22:22
  Canadian interpreters, interpreters from all around the
• 22:25
  world are more than welcome, as are translators, of course.
• 22:28
  And the conference is open to anybody as well.
• 22:31
  Members get a discount, as you can imagine.
• 22:34
  So joining a TA would allow you to take advantage of all the
• 22:41
  other benefits that ETA has throughout the year.
• 22:43
  While. Also, how about hotel?
• 22:45
  Are you are you working with hotels to give preferential rate
• 22:51
  to people attending? Yes, the the conference hotel
• 22:55
  has a preferential rate and I think you can already book the
• 22:59
  conference hotel yet now, which is really great.
• 23:03
  The the rate seems high, but then you look at other hotels
• 23:10
  for the same dates and it's almost twice as much.
• 23:14
  So you're like, oh, so I think this year people would be,
• 23:19
  people would do well to get their rooms early if they're
• 23:22
  interested in coming. And the conference hotel is an
• 23:25
  incredible hotel. It's the same one that we stayed
• 23:28
  at 10 years ago when I became an ATA convert.
• 23:31
  And it's right by the waterfront, it's right by the
• 23:36
  ferry building and very centrally located.
• 23:39
  So if you aren't able to stay at the conference hotel and want to
• 23:43
  stay on Bart or on the OR on Muni, the other public transit
• 23:50
  option in San Francisco, it's very easy to get to.
• 23:52
  It's very centrally located. OK.
• 23:54
  Are you allowed to say what hotel it is or?
• 23:56
  It's the Hyatt, the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
• 23:58
  Yeah. No, it's not a secret.
• 24:00
  Yeah. No, people want.
• 24:01
  Because that's the highest down there by the Ferry building,
• 24:04
  yeah. This, this financial predation
• 24:07
  is not sponsored by the high end, by the way, no.
• 24:09
  Of course. Yeah, I know.
• 24:13
  Yeah, if you're listening, send some money.
• 24:15
  Send some money. Yeah, yeah.
• 24:17
  Now I went to the the ATA conference years ago in Chicago.
• 24:21
  And one of the things that I liked about it was the the
• 24:25
  exhibit there was like a fair kind of thing with like a bunch
• 24:27
  of vendors. And yeah, you talk a bit about
• 24:29
  that. Are you going to have that
• 24:30
  again? We will absolutely have that
• 24:32
  again this year. We invite technology providers.
• 24:37
  LSP's podcast, Interpreting Technology, say that again,
• 24:42
  Podcasters, podcasters. Absolutely.
• 24:45
  Really. We, we, we, you know, if you
• 24:48
  want to get a booth or a table in the exhibitors hall, you're
• 24:51
  more than more than welcome. Anyone is more than welcome.
• 24:55
  We have even a team members who offer peer-to-peer services for
• 25:00
  things, training or directories, resources.
• 25:03
  They sometimes get tables as well and they're usually
• 25:06
  anchored by a few large LSP's and then smaller LSP's.
• 25:13
  Technology providers. In years past, we've even had a
• 25:17
  headshot photographer who you can book either book in advance
• 25:21
  or try to do some walk up hours with.
• 25:23
  If so, if you need to refresh your headshot, you know, um,
• 25:27
  it's, it's, it's a steal. I can't remember how much it was
• 25:30
  last year, but you know, you can sit there and do your, do your
• 25:33
  pose and they'll, they'll professionally edit a shot and
• 25:36
  send it to you. So we can try to make the
• 25:39
  exhibit hall a really kind of welcoming place where you can
• 25:43
  learn more about the technology that's being used right now and
• 25:47
  also create a really organic networking opportunity by just
• 25:50
  setting up with some of the coffee stations between sessions
• 25:53
  in that room. So there we we all you.
• 25:56
  Know. Yeah, in a hotel.
• 25:57
  I hear that they're, they're quite expensive, right?
• 26:00
  Oh my gosh, it's crazy. What the what what they charge
• 26:05
  for a gallon of coffee. It is in the hundreds of dollars
• 26:10
  so. For a gallon.
• 26:12
  Yes. For Canadians out there, a
• 26:14
  gallon is 4 liters. About right, give or take 4
• 26:16
  liters, yes, no, they, they really get you on the on the on
• 26:21
  the coffee one on everything, frankly, which is why you know,
• 26:26
  the conference is an investment. You know, we, it's an investment
• 26:30
  in yourself and in your education and the coffee once
• 26:33
  you get there, once you know, once once you get there, the
• 26:36
  coffee that we offer is free. You can obviously purchase more
• 26:39
  coffee if you want, but we get to pay through the nose for the
• 26:42
  coffee. So come, come.
• 26:45
  I'll have a double espresso macchiato.
• 26:47
  Please. Come one, come all and enjoy the
• 26:51
  most expensive coffee you've ever drunk, yes?
• 26:53
  Oh my God, yeah, this is where all the members are.
• 26:56
  All the the entry fees are exactly.
• 26:59
  Where it goes? Yes, precisely.
• 27:01
  Yeah, that's why sometimes I go to conferences, you know, I
• 27:03
  travel and sometimes I'm in a hotel and I just have the hotel
• 27:07
  coffee and I'm like, why is it so watery?
• 27:09
  I'm sure they cut it with lots of water.
• 27:12
  Maybe they got some cost not. The Hyatt, though, of course, is
• 27:16
  the best hockey that you've ever had.
• 27:19
  Yes. Why?
• 27:20
  This is a warning to the This is the warning to the Hyatt.
• 27:23
  Do not water down your coffee right.
• 27:24
  Exactly. And I think, I think this height
• 27:27
  too has a little cafe in the lobby where you can, you know,
• 27:30
  purchase additional coffee if you, you know, if you if you
• 27:33
  need additional caffeine between caffeine, caffeine time stops.
• 27:39
  Yeah. So.
• 27:40
  That little daily coffee. Will be flowing either.
• 27:43
  Way, yeah. Now to come back to the
• 27:46
  membership thing, the one thing that I find really cool about
• 27:49
  ATA is that you have, well, you have the basic membership fee,
• 27:53
  then there's the sorry basic membership and then you have the
• 27:57
  certified member, but there's also a corporate membership if
• 28:00
  I'm not mistaken. Yes, there are a bunch of
• 28:02
  different membership tiers. The the least expensive one is
• 28:06
  for students. Obviously we want the the next
• 28:10
  generation to join a TA and to feel welcome at ATA and to learn
• 28:15
  about the benefits of being in a professional association early.
• 28:20
  I mean, French has a great word for this that we don't have a
• 28:23
  direct translation for in English, you know, to to get the
• 28:28
  next the the next. Generation.
• 28:30
  Next generation. Yeah, exactly.
• 28:32
  Yeah. And I, I love that word and how,
• 28:34
  you know, what it evokes for people, you know, in, in French
• 28:37
  and English. We, you know, we could invent a
• 28:38
  new one in English. Maybe we should.
• 28:41
  So we're trying to encourage that as much as we can.
• 28:46
  No, the relief. I need some relief, no?
• 28:49
  Yeah, maybe it's a relief for the older people.
• 28:52
  I think. The younger generation coming
• 28:54
  in. Indeed, right.
• 28:57
  So and yes, we have, we have a student membership and there's
• 29:00
  also a transitional membership if you're a recent graduate.
• 29:02
  And then for just regular active or corresponding, corresponding
• 29:07
  is what we call members who do not live in the United States,
• 29:10
  but who are members of a TA and certified members.
• 29:13
  Those are all the same rate, same tier.
• 29:17
  And then if you want to join as a corporate member or as an
• 29:21
  institutional member, there's a membership for you too.
• 29:23
  So if you have a small LSP or you know a boutique LSP and want
• 29:28
  to join as a company and to list your services as a company, you
• 29:33
  can do that. And if you are one of the one of
• 29:37
  the huge LSP's, you know you have revenues in the hundreds of
• 29:41
  millions of dollars, you can also join ETA.
• 29:44
  And so there there is a within the corporate structure, there
• 29:48
  is a tiered membership as well. So if you are publicly traded
• 29:53
  and have hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, you pay a
• 29:56
  bit more than the boutique LSP does.
• 29:59
  OK. And what's the benefit of
• 30:00
  becoming a corporate member of a corporate members?
• 30:04
  They have better access to fellow ATA members.
• 30:09
  ATA members really like to do business with other ATA members.
• 30:12
  And you can list your services in the AT directory as well,
• 30:16
  which is a really visible place in the United States to list
• 30:20
  your services. So, you know, if you were a
• 30:22
  Canadian LSP, for example, and you aren't as well known and
• 30:26
  into potential clients in the United States, you could
• 30:30
  advertise your services through the directory, for example.
• 30:33
  And you and your employees can take advantage of the continuing
• 30:37
  education opportunities that ATA offers as well.
• 30:40
  One of the things that I like about the ATA 2 like I was a
• 30:44
  member years ago and then I stopped for whatever reason and
• 30:47
  then I should probably become a member again and I'm.
• 30:50
  Here to tell you you should join ETA.
• 30:52
  We would love to have you. Thank you.
• 30:55
  Brian, you're on the podcast right now.
• 30:57
  This is being recorded. What's gonna be honorary members
• 31:00
  for now? Yes, you're both welcome.
• 31:02
  Yeah, you're both more than welcome.
• 31:03
  Obviously, yeah. So we're one of the things I
• 31:06
  like is that you guys do a lot to promote the profession and
• 31:10
  there's a lot of associations there, there to kind of
• 31:12
  safeguard the profession and make sure that like the rules
• 31:15
  are followed, that kind of thing.
• 31:16
  But I feel like the benefit for GTA on top of that is that you
• 31:21
  guys actually promote the profession.
• 31:24
  And there's a lot of, like I remember when I was a member,
• 31:28
  there was a lot of of companies of the United States that would
• 31:31
  call upon my services because they were looking for a French
• 31:35
  Canadian interpreter rather than just the French.
• 31:38
  Sure. Yeah.
• 31:38
  Interpreter. So.
• 31:40
  Yeah. All right.
• 31:42
  Yeah, I mean, I'm taking notes here.
• 31:43
  Motion is so important, I think, especially in this day and age.
• 31:47
  You know, when you, I still feel like, especially in the United
• 31:51
  States, because we're not a bilingual country, even though
• 31:56
  there is a huge, huge community population of people in the
• 32:02
  United States who speak more than one language and, and who
• 32:05
  don't speak English at home. You know, the United States does
• 32:08
  not have an official language. Um, there are some seats that
• 32:12
  have official languages, but at the federal level we do not have
• 32:15
  an official. Language.
• 32:15
  Didn't Trump just sign an executive order?
• 32:19
  An executive order at the federal level that that has
• 32:23
  changed a couple of things, but executive orders are are not
• 32:26
  laws. And so we technically still do
• 32:30
  not have an official language in the United States, even though
• 32:33
  his executive order indeed has changed a bit of the landscape.
• 32:40
  And there was a great, you know, it, it, it has, it has changed
• 32:45
  some things. So, but, and we are here, part
• 32:48
  of our advocacy and PR efforts at ATA are really to educate
• 32:53
  people that language access in the United States is still
• 32:57
  federal law, that people are entitled to language services
• 33:03
  when they need them. And our members are well
• 33:08
  equipped and well poised to provide those services.
• 33:11
  And we, you know, we have the experts that are needed to, you
• 33:15
  know, in all of those critical scenarios and situations to
• 33:18
  provide language access when people need it.
• 33:22
  It reminds me of this situation and it reminds you of this
• 33:24
  situation in Quebec because in Quebec we have an official
• 33:26
  language act for the for the provincial government, it's
• 33:30
  French only. But because of that language
• 33:33
  service providers are step up and provide.
• 33:36
  And because of that, in a way, there's more work because now
• 33:41
  that there's an official language in French, well then if
• 33:44
  someone speaks English or any other language, then, you know,
• 33:47
  they don't magically appear to speak French just because the
• 33:50
  government snap its fingers. Right.
• 33:53
  Yeah, indeed, yes. And so it's, um, it, it, it is
• 33:59
  interesting to see how the landscape is changing.
• 34:02
  And a big part of what AT is working on through our PR and
• 34:06
  advocacy efforts is to demonstrate how important
• 34:10
  language access is and that it is still the law, It is still a
• 34:14
  right in this country to have access to those services.
• 34:18
  And the, the, the value of working with an expert who, who
• 34:22
  is an ATA member, it is, it is really critical at this time
• 34:28
  with everything going on here at the moment that people
• 34:32
  understand what their rights are.
• 34:34
  Because we, we live in a land of rights and, and the land of
• 34:37
  laws. And we have a lot, we've done a
• 34:42
  lot of good work and have a lot of good work yet to do to make
• 34:45
  sure that everyone knows how what those are.
• 34:48
  Now I'm going to ask a maybe a loaded question, but I think I'm
• 34:52
  sure you'll navigate through this fine.
• 34:54
  And if you don't wanna answer, that's OK too.
• 34:57
  But the rates like the to become a, a member, it's the lowest,
• 35:03
  well, the student and the regular member, then the
• 35:05
  certified member are the rates like, do you find them fair for
• 35:09
  the industry? Because I, I mean, personally I
• 35:11
  do, but I don't know if other people feel differently, if
• 35:15
  you've heard different. I I personally find them very
• 35:19
  fair. I think if you work it out, it's
• 35:22
  less than a dollar a day. American.
• 35:27
  Yeah, a dollar to American indeed.
• 35:29
  Yeah. That's like 350 Canadian.
• 35:32
  Yes, when I think now, I think now it's maybe $1.05 a day.
• 35:37
  I think because we, we have recently started adjusting the
• 35:42
  membership, membership rates to inflation because voting, you
• 35:48
  know, we used to have to vote every year on whether or not to
• 35:50
  change dues and that what was. People never voted yes for these
• 35:55
  things like taxes in California. People.
• 35:58
  People never vote to increase them.
• 36:00
  No, of course, Yeah, no. And, and, and we obviously want
• 36:03
  ATA dues to be affordable and we offer a lot of benefits
• 36:11
  including a a very hard working headquarters staff, the
• 36:16
  certification manager, our marketing manager, our
• 36:20
  membership coordinator, our executive director, our
• 36:24
  editorial coordinator. I mean, we have, we have a
• 36:26
  really enviable, you know, staff that helps make ATP what it is.
• 36:32
  We have, you know, we have to have a corporate address.
• 36:35
  We have to have all these things I'm in order to operate and.
• 36:38
  Those not mistaken, you you're volunteering although you're
• 36:41
  president-elect, right? Yeah, you don't.
• 36:43
  Get really. Yes, you.
• 36:44
  Don't get paid, but there's some stuff that is getting paid.
• 36:47
  Exactly. So, you know, membership dues go
• 36:49
  towards, I mean the, the predominantly what membership
• 36:54
  dues pay for are staff salaries. So that is what we're, you know,
• 37:00
  we're paying for the, the support of the people who really
• 37:03
  make ATA work conference, right. We are volunteers, yeah, the the
• 37:10
  division administrators, the committee chairs, the members of
• 37:13
  the board, we are all working for free and, and I feel very
• 37:19
  passionate about that and think it's really important to to give
• 37:22
  back in that way. And so I also feel that the, you
• 37:28
  know, dollar and five cents that I invest in my career every day
• 37:33
  is worth it and that I get that back in spades through the
• 37:39
  network that I have it at ATA and the referrals that I get
• 37:43
  through TSA and the community that I get through TSA.
• 37:47
  Now I will say that like as a, as a business owner and like a
• 37:51
  small boutique service provider, I guess is what you're that what
• 37:55
  I would fall into as a category. What I do when I don't, what I
• 38:00
  don't because I have my stable of English, French interpreters
• 38:02
  and translators and Spanish. But like if it's a, it's a,
• 38:06
  another language, I don't use that as an ask for.
• 38:09
  Often. The first thing I do is I look
• 38:12
  at Canadian associations and, and see who's, if there's a
• 38:15
  certified one in one of those. And then if not, then I'll look
• 38:19
  at the general membership. And if I can't find anyone
• 38:23
  there, I'll go to the ATA and then I'll start with a certified
• 38:26
  ones again and then move down to the regular membership ones,
• 38:31
  Right. So I will highlight that like as
• 38:33
  a small language services provider, yeah, I, I sometimes
• 38:40
  overlook just the regular members because I'll stop at the
• 38:43
  certified members. So I do think that there's a lot
• 38:46
  of value from becoming a regular member to a certified member.
• 38:50
  Absolutely, absolutely. And, and because ETA is, you
• 38:54
  know, it is the American Translators Association, our
• 38:57
  certification program is just for translators, but there are
• 39:02
  lots of other interpreter certifications in the United
• 39:06
  States and we have a mechanism for interpreters to list those
• 39:10
  certifications in their profile at ATA.
• 39:13
  So if you are certified in one of the states or many multiple
• 39:18
  different states you work in, if you were certified through CCHI
• 39:22
  or one of the other credentialing bodies for medical
• 39:24
  interpreting, if you are a federally certified court
• 39:28
  interpreter, you can list those certifications in your profile.
• 39:31
  So Someone Like You, Brian, who's looking for a a certified
• 39:35
  interpreter would be able to find them more easily in our
• 39:39
  country. Yeah.
• 39:40
  Cool. Yeah.
• 39:41
  And I think that's a really it's it's it is a really valuable
• 39:45
  aspect of ETA. And one of my goals in my new
• 39:50
  role is to make the directory even more visible, so to work on
• 39:55
  search engine optimization strategies and inbound traffic.
• 39:58
  And I mean, I'm even I'd really like to look into the
• 40:01
  feasibility of. Paper clip PC ads and
• 40:05
  retargeting ads to drive more traffic to our directory so that
• 40:10
  our members can can get more leads.
• 40:13
  And I think that's really a valuable, valuable things we
• 40:16
  have. We have a really great brand
• 40:17
  recognition in the United States.
• 40:19
  We have a lot of great content to share.
• 40:22
  So we we just need to leverage it a little bit more.
• 40:25
  Effectively, I think that's better than when I was a member
• 40:27
  of a TA, we still had the the paper copy directory, like it
• 40:31
  came to your to your house and like it was kind of like the
• 40:34
  Yellow Pages. I was trying to say was an
• 40:36
  interpreter. So you have to go through.
• 40:37
  It well, you haven't been a member in a while then, it
• 40:41
  sounds. Like a while.
• 40:42
  We don't. We don't.
• 40:43
  Do the train your age. By Yeah Yeah I Know Everything
• 40:46
  podcast. I seem to age myself.
• 40:49
  Well, we age every week. Ryan, yes, we do.
• 40:52
  Every day, every minute, you know, here we are just sitting
• 40:55
  around aging. Yeah.
• 40:56
  So Speaking of aging, Ben, I mean, I got one last question as
• 41:04
  we are wrapping up. Let's say if you're 25 years
• 41:09
  old, if you were 25 years old today and would you still choose
• 41:14
  a translation as a career? And if so, how would you
• 41:19
  encourage someone who's 25 today and who's starting in the field?
• 41:25
  That's such a great question, and it's one that I think about
• 41:27
  quite a lot, actually. Last year, last spring, I was
• 41:32
  invited to speak at a small liberal arts College in Vermont
• 41:37
  called Bennington College. Shout out to the French
• 41:39
  students, the French translation students at Bennington College,
• 41:43
  and I was. Like share, subscribe.
• 41:45
  Right, exactly. Yes, I, I was able to, I gave a
• 41:51
  little translation workshop to the French translation class and
• 41:55
  then I gave a larger lecture to kind of all of the world
• 41:58
  language students at the, at the college to talk about my work.
• 42:02
  And, and you know what I see sort of as I don't know the,
• 42:07
  the, the, the way to have a fulfilling language career.
• 42:12
  And I really, really do firmly believe that there is a bright
• 42:17
  future for folks who work in translation and interpreting,
• 42:21
  who want to work with words and to bridge cultures and to kind
• 42:27
  of share in this incredible industry that we work in.
• 42:32
  And I think that language skills are the, the, the bare minimum
• 42:41
  translation and interpreting expertise is like the next tier.
• 42:45
  And the increasingly there is another tier on top of that.
• 42:49
  That is true subject matter expertise, industry expertise
• 42:55
  and added value that's beyond just words.
• 42:59
  And So what I mean by that is that if you are going to be a
• 43:05
  French English marketing translator who works in the
• 43:09
  Canadian market, you not only need to be an absolute word
• 43:14
  whiz, but you need to know what the markets look like in Canada.
• 43:20
  You need to know how to do market research.
• 43:22
  You need to know how to advise clients on creating bilingual
• 43:27
  campaigns, on how to really appeal to multiple markets and
• 43:33
  not simply through your lived experience, but through
• 43:37
  additional education, through your own studies, through your
• 43:41
  own case studies, through you know, really profound and deep
• 43:46
  knowledge and how you acquire that knowledge.
• 43:49
  I mean, there, there are. It can be years of expertise, it
• 43:52
  can be studies, whatever it is when we have these superpowered
• 44:00
  engines of knowledge that we can access for free just by typing
• 44:05
  whatever, and they seem so fluent and they seem so
• 44:08
  accurate, you need to know when they're not.
• 44:12
  And that that boils down to knowing more than they do.
• 44:16
  And so I think that we are in an in an era where continuing
• 44:22
  education is increasingly important, where extra
• 44:27
  linguistic expertise and skills are all the more important.
• 44:31
  So if you're 25 years old and you are just so good at
• 44:35
  languages and you want to find a way to make this career work for
• 44:38
  you, I think there is an incredibly interesting and
• 44:41
  viable path to doing that. And I think it's it's going to
• 44:44
  be a little more challenging than in the past, but I think
• 44:47
  the folks who succeed are going to do absolutely great.
• 44:51
  Absolutely. I completely agree, the the more
• 44:58
  knowledgeable you become the better the questions you can ask
• 45:03
  because if you don't have any knowledge you'll ask sorry dumb
• 45:07
  questions and then the machine will not provide you with the
• 45:12
  right answers. So expertise is also how you
• 45:15
  interact and how you get the knowledge.
• 45:18
  So asking the questions is important too, yeah?
• 45:21
  Well, and not only being able to prompt the machine, but being
• 45:23
  able to prompt your clients, I think, and I think maybe that's
• 45:27
  where the real value is to being able to ask your client the
• 45:32
  right questions. Because clients just want to
• 45:35
  know that they're going, that their project is going to get
• 45:39
  done, that their their job is going to be done.
• 45:44
  Peace of Mind, yeah. Peace of Mind to the, to the
• 45:47
  best of your ability and not just the best of your ability,
• 45:50
  but really, really well, you know, they want, they want to
• 45:54
  meet their business goals. And if you can help them do
• 45:56
  that, you're, you're in the door.
• 45:59
  And so are you asking your client what their goals are?
• 46:03
  Are you asking them what they want to achieve?
• 46:06
  And do you know, do you truly know how to help them reach
• 46:11
  those goals? And if you do, like you said,
• 46:14
  you're golden. Yeah, cause AI is not gonna do
• 46:16
  that for you. Or they're not.
• 46:17
  It's not gonna do it for them. No, it's up to you to put that.
• 46:21
  They can't they, they, they can't look at the situation,
• 46:25
  they can't look at the background, they can't look at
• 46:27
  what the goal of this particular project is and know what to do
• 46:31
  to to achieve results. But you can and so take.
• 46:36
  Advantage of being a smart human.
• 46:37
  Exactly 100%. One last thing before we leave,
• 46:43
  I do want to request one thing. I'm going to lobby it right now.
• 46:47
  I think that if you ever do a rebrand of the ATA it should be
• 46:51
  called the ATI A and include interpreters.
• 46:54
  In it, so there is an Axia already.
• 46:58
  So I think we, we need, you know, I can, I can assure you
• 47:05
  wholeheartedly and with a, with a, with a full chest.
• 47:09
  And Ariana Grande says that that interpreters are more than
• 47:14
  welcome at ATA and have a very, very secure home at ATA, whether
• 47:20
  we change the name or not or whether we change our logo or
• 47:22
  not. And so I and at the same time,
• 47:26
  Right? Exactly.
• 47:28
  Let me put it this way. Let's put it this way.
• 47:31
  When people hear a translation translators association, they
• 47:36
  don't think of translators like we do.
• 47:38
  We all OK, Translators are writing, interpreters are
• 47:41
  speaking. People think of translation in a
• 47:43
  very broad sense. Yeah, they do that include we
• 47:46
  do. That includes all the language
• 47:48
  professionals out there. Yes, and that was gonna be my
• 47:51
  next point. You know, the number of times
• 47:52
  that you see in any art news article, it's always through the
• 47:59
  translator, it's very rarely through the interpreter.
• 48:01
  So I think we can use that to our advantage and we do so.
• 48:05
  Well, I've had, I've had clients for 20 years would still ask me
• 48:07
  to hire translators and then like you mean interpreters.
• 48:10
  Yeah, wait, which one do you need?
• 48:11
  Yeah, I'm not going to change their, their, their way of doing
• 48:14
  things after 20 years. Sure.
• 48:17
  If you can't beat them, join them.
• 48:19
  Honestly, yeah. Alright guys.
• 48:23
  So thank you very much, Ben, for joining us on the podcast.
• 48:30
  Uh, Brian, I'll give you the last word.
• 48:33
  Yeah, thank you so much for for sharing the upcoming events
• 48:36
  where I'm looking forward to hearing all about San Francisco.
• 48:39
  There's a I saw the the ad it looks very professional.
• 48:43
  The come to San Francisco. It's very.
• 48:46
  Very well, yeah. Yeah.
• 48:47
  We put it in the show notes. Yeah.
• 48:49
  Yeah, yeah. And if I'm looking forward to
• 48:52
  Orlando as well and then no Las Vegas 1st and then.
• 48:55
  Vegas 1st and then Orlando, Yeah, so some some sunny
• 48:58
  destinations for everybody. Well, I look forward and I wish
• 49:02
  you great success in the conferences and there's no
• 49:05
  reason why you shouldn't have great success.
• 49:07
  And I feel like you're coming full circle, like back to San
• 49:09
  Francisco, same hotel, same conference, so.
• 49:13
  Yes, 10 year anniversary, yeah, it feels really great and and
• 49:16
  I'm excited to to be the one planning it's gonna be.
• 49:19
  Awesome. Congratulations.
• 49:20
  Thank you both so much. I really appreciate it.
• 49:22
  This has been really nice. Alright everyone like share,
• 49:25
  subscribe and we'll see each other next time for another
• 49:29
  episode. Take care.
• 49:30
  Take care.