Helen Eby

Question and Answer

• What is your name?
  • Helen Eby
• Where do you live?
  • Aloha, Oregon, USA São Paulo
• How long have you been an interpreter or translator?
  • 20 years
• What made you decide to become a translator or interpreter?
  • I have been working with both languages all my life. I can't imagine not being a translator or interpreter!
• List one strength that you think sets you apart from your colleagues.
  • Seeing the problems that are behind the problems we see. Those are the ones we have to address!
• Name the one thing that you most enjoy in your translating or interpreting career.
  • Mentoring others and helping them launch. That is why we run The Savvy Newcomer (www.atasavvynewcomer.org).
• We all have worked on those not-so-perfect assignments. Write about one such assignment that was not ideal and what you learned from it.
  • There was only one assignment I didn't get paid for. I was asked to edit a translation done by a "very good translator". It honestly looked like something a computer wrote, and they didn't give me the source. I kept chasing them, and did it reluctantly.
    They acted offended that I would think it was done by a computer... it turns out they didn't pay, and a couple of years later I got an envelope in the mail for a class action lawsuit asking if I wanted to get my $50 back. I didn't bother. It wasn't worth it.
    I learned this. If it looks unreasonable, it probably is. If people don't give reasonable answers, don't trust them.
• If you could go back in time to when you were just starting out as a translator or interpreter, wTranslation hat advice would you give to your younger self?
  • Trust your gut. A lot of this is common sense.
• Name one resource – such as a phone app, CAT tool, website, and so forth – that you find especially helpful in your translating or interpreting work.
  • www.linguee.com
• What’s the best book you’ve read this year?
  • Hijo de hombre, by Augusto Roa Bastos