Translations (with Lola Guindal)

This week we have the luxury of having the lovely Lola with us on the podcast. She’s a terrific translator, teacher and first and foremost a fantastic friend. She’ll share her expertise and experience in this really relevant realm. We’ll tackle the tricky, tedious and sometimes terrifying terrain of translations on this week’s episode of FYI!

Transcript

0:01

[Music] this week we have the luxury of having the lovely lola with us on the podcast she's a terrific translator teacher and first and foremost a fantastic friend she'll share her expertise and experience in this really relevant realm we'll tackle the tricky tedious and sometimes terrifying terrain of translations on this week's episode of f y i welcome to for your info english you got it[Music] hello hello hello and welcome to another exciting edition of fyi the program where we tackle a different topic every week abordamos untema di frente cada and hopefully you guys won't just learn english but you'll learn about a wide range of topics from jfk to weddings to gardening to espionage who knows what could come up next but remember if you have any suggestions please let me know because wow we're in our fourth season i don't want to say i'm running out of topics but uh remember i'm always open to hear suggestions from you guys why well this show is for you guys so i want to make sure you love the topics that we tackle every week and this week we're going to tackle translations and i have a feeling as always you aren't going to be the only ones learning in this episode so ladies and gentlemen without any further ado cinemas as i said a terrific translator and careful terrific it's not terrorific it's terrific excellent a terrific translator teacher mother well i you wear many hats i i couldn't put them all in the intro but ladies and gentlemen please welcome a great friend of mine lola hey alberto thank you for having me it's a pleasure to finally have you on the show i mean this isn't our first time working together is that right it isn't but it's been a long time since we last worked together hasn't it yes it's true it's true lots of kids in between pandemics as well wars all kinds of exciting things happening in the world well welcome aboard it's a pleasure to have you here what i want you to do right off the bat is the prime momento is tell us a little bit about yourself now some of my some of my followers some of my students already know you from twitter you know from your social media presence but let's pretend i'm almost thinking that they've never heard of you lola who are you what do you do okay so i'm le larindal um i'm a multi-passionate person and if i may say so myself i'm also multi-talented so i'm an english translator i'm an interpreter and i'm a trainer and i basically help um spanish companies and also professionals individuals overcome that language barrier in business particularly so that they can bloom in the global market great word there bloom flore fed i love it we're off to a good start i knew i knew this was going to be a special show i just had a hunch i think you say a hunch so you do a little bit of everything from teaching translation interpreting i mean a little bit of everything i'm going to talk about the difference between those things a little bit later because many people don't really know the difference what makes an interpreter an interpreter a translator a translator can they be the same person can that same person do both of those roles but first and foremost tell us we use that in the intro first and foremost antiskenada tell us where we can find you on the internet on social media so people can check out your lessons and all the resources that you have available well i'm la piedra rosetta double t and if you google that you'll find me la piera rosetta double t and one single word lola vindal la on google and you'll find my website and everything you need to know about me excellent excellent and also guys i will second the motion when she said she is multi-talented she's passionate she wouldn't be my friend if she weren't i like talented people i like passionate people and i guess that's what made us become friends you know our passion for languages teaching learning yeah i believe a good teacher has to be a good learner yeah and a good interpreter and translator has to a bigger learner too absolutely all right so guys check her out on social media what we'll do is put some links in the show notes the thing is uh let's let's talk about how you got into this field the field of languages in general well i went to a bilingual school so i started learning english when i was about three years old and my entire education has been in english so like two thirds of my classes were in english and then one third was in spanish so we had pe in spanish music and spanish you know all the maria's that we say okay i didn't know that one maddie yes i told you i was going to learn things so you know these not very important classes i imagine that yeah yeah people say that drama's not important but then if you're negotiating you got to know how to act and play a role so so is drama is improvisation is important i learned that in drama class so that's true there is like this stigma like there's certain fields but you found that you were interested in languages there was something that attracted you to languages yeah i was interested in languages and i was also good at languages when i was in in kindergarten my my teachers already said that you know i had a good ear and i could i wanted to communicate in english um so yeah that was always something that i was interested in and then when i found out that i could have a career in languages that that was a thing because prior to that i thought i wanted to be maybe a lawyer or maybe a journalist you know you wanted to work with words your communication what we call a wordsmith exactly right right so once you discovered your options you said wait i like this what what attracted you to translation teaching the areas that you work in now i found out about the degree that there was a degree in translation and interpreting uh at this career fair it's called aula it's held in madrid every year yeah i know and there you have employers and universities and i found out that there was a degree it was quite new at the time in translation and interpreting and i said yeah this is exactly what i want to do so um you of course you have to have a good uh command of your native language sure and then you have to master two more languages so for me it was english and german oops oh no worries no and punching microphones not a very good app don't worry don't worry seriously it's not an easy thing i mean you said you were very lucky that you had a knack for it is the thing that came to mind how would you say that in spanish you had a knack for it to have a knack for something and so you got into it that's good too i imagine your parents encouraged you what did they think of this career choice of working in you know languages and and teaching and interpreting and all of this stuff what what was their opinion about it were they supportive for my mom it was like the natural way to go she always thought that i would uh that english would be somehow part of my career so it was a natural way to go she was also obsessed uh with sending me abroad so she saved up okay for the longest times that i could go on an exchange uh to the united states and uh i think it was a natural way to go and it was also a way of paying it off to my mom now you've invested so much in in my education in my english right and now i'm going to make a living out of it so sure yeah i'm sure they might they must be very proud of you especially because well they encouraged you and i think that's so important to have parents who say listen i'm going to encourage you i want you to do what makes you happy what makes you because that's when you're gonna be the best professional you can be doing something i remember when i was a kid the reason i tell you when i was a kid it was you're gonna be a doctor or a lawyer and i was like um neither and it was like yeah so doctor or lawyer i'm like yeah again i'm not interested in either one of those professions i don't i'm not saying they sound interesting i'm just not into it it's not my thing it's not my cup of tea you know how i got into english i have an anecdote to tell you um i think it was my grandpa my grandpa died when i was five years old so a couple years before that uh is when i started um school and my mom was thinking was she got the the brochures and everything for two different schools that literally frances so french and the school that i actually ended up going to english and she asked my grandpa what do you think lithia frances you know this is a very like elite uh school a very traditional school and my grandpa said no go for english because french yeah only the french and the africans speak uh french sure so bad on english because the united states is a world power at the moment so he was a visionary yeah he was because back then that's what they studied french why it was your neighbor yeah i think and they were an empire at one point a long time ago and also you know uh rich people studied french it was this it's hoity-toity exactly but my grandpa said no go for english well in english when we swear we say pardon my french so for us it's not that hoity toity um but wow your grandfather really had that insight to say no no no okay french is a useful language but english is going to run circles around it in the future yeah and i did end up learning french i can speak some french but uh you know my main language is english and i'm glad it is sure and your english is amazing i don't have to tell you that you know that what do you attribute it to now i'm not going to ask you for advice yet because we're going to get some advice from you in the bonus part but how did your accent because a lot of people have a lot of vocabulary they feel comfortable speaking but you seem like you got it all figured out all of those aspects what am i saying i'm saying you're a well-rounded english speaker how did you get to there i mean obviously you said this experience of studying abroad really opened your eyes but how did you stay there because that's another thing one thing is being a young kid getting the accent and the way we put our things together our sounds together and another thing is not losing it throughout the years so how did you how did you manage to do that to keep that english level at the level of a native well you have to be exposed to the language from the very start and then you have to practice deliberately and this is something that i got from interpreting deliberate practice you have to set your goals and then you work towards these goals so if you want to improve your pronunciation you should you should do specific exercises to improve your pronunciation one of the things that i do is um read out loud and this is something that really helps me with uh how i move my my uh muscles around my mouth and my tongue yeah i mean what are we doing when we're speaking we're moving our tongue muscles our mouth exactly it's part of the thing in fact i tell my students i say if your mouth feels comfortable when you're speaking english you're not doing it right mm-hmm it should feel different like it shouldn't you should be like oh that's a weird position i just put my mouth in yeah because you're making a sound that doesn't exist exactly in spanish that's great you you set your goals and you went for them professionally and also personally i believe oh yeah you know because for you it was personal too you said okay i want to i want to show my parents that they didn't waste their money that they that they bet on the right horse as we say you know i remember the day that i received my last grate from the degree um so i received it and i knew i had passed it but i received the grade and then i'm you know i'm a graduate right and i told my mom and and she was more excited than i was and she cried i didn't you're like what's the big deal mom yeah so yeah um it really makes me proud to have made my mom proud about it yeah absolutely well that's you know i feel like half of what i do in my life is just to call my parents and say yeah guys i got some good news especially now i think everybody needs a little bit of good news you know all right let's talk about the different kinds of translation i know there's simultaneous also what we said before the difference between interpretation if you could clear up the different avenues the different um fields that are under this umbrella okay translation is like the general umbrella i would say but translation is only written okay and then interpretation is oral and in real time so that would be simultaneous kind of yeah simultaneous interpretation you also have consecutive so you speak then you make a pause and then i interpret like in a press a conference a press conference sure sure okay and then uh there's dubbing but this is something completely different and it's not related to translation but some people mix it up okay so that's what i'm saying somebody could work in several different like jose castro a friend of ours who does a little bit of everything he does he really is a jack of all trades um uh so translation written interpretation oral and then with an interpretation you could have bilateral that means you interpret at a meeting or a negotiation and then conference interpretation that is at a conference so a monologue if you have a conference about i don't know pharma uh well someone presenting an investigation a research paper on whatever uh that would be translated either simultaneously or consecutively but you know what alberto i always say simultaneous translator because google positions me better so i'm kind of a mercenary there and i never use the right terminology i use the terminology that people use when they're searching right that's smart yeah it's smart i mean one thing is you know the the semantics okay well technically i'm it's not simultaneous and another thing is i want people to find me exactly you know and speaking of just in case uh you guys didn't write it before her website is la piedra rosetta double t in fact she did has done some jobs for me why don't you tell them about the special favor you did for me and for my wedding you remember you don't even remember don't i needed the translation but like a specific kind of translation that i was like what do i do and you're like send it to me uh i you needed a sworn translation yeah and that's something i do sworn translation or certified translation this is something uh this is a translation you need for the administration and i'm certified by the foreign affairs ministry to do that and i i believe i had to translate your birth certificate was that that's right you got to see my real age my birth certificate yeah i remember you you saved me there because i was like what is it what do i need you're like send it over i don't yeah that's me i'm certified i'm like wow cool yeah yeah yeah and i i do multiple of these like every week not for weddings uh mostly for people that need to be relocated for work oh okay relocation sure sure well this is great because i imagine that too that you're in you get to do a lot of different projects there's a lot of variety give us an idea of some of the projects typical projects maybe you're working on now or that you've worked on recently just so we get a general idea of different kinds of products or projects yeah uh things that i've done recently uh for instance this morning i translated uh a wedding uh certificate okay it's a marriage certificate i've also interpreted at weddings oh cool yes when one of the spouses is um foreign not necessarily english or american they could be i don't know filipino or whatever i have to interpret to make sure that they are not coerced into marriage ah so it's not like a forced or arranged marriage exactly yes and that they know what they're doing right right yeah i've also uh interpreted lately uh at uh um at this uh networking event for companies related with blueberry production oh wow i love blueberries but but yeah but that's what i mean you get events for this you know for sure weddings politicians farmers i mean you you really get to work in almost every industry because what industry doesn't need what global industry i should say doesn't need things to be translated yeah and many business people don't realize that uh if you really want to if you really want to strive and you really want to make money in the global market you really do need a translator and an interpreter and we've we've seen those pl those people who have decided not to use them and we're going to talk about that in the bonus part of today's show remember guys we have a bonus episode i always say a bonus part but it's a full episode and if you guys are patrons you can join us in the bonus episode we're going to take a look at some common misconceptions some of the biggest snafu's situation normal all up or flubs another way to say une ror we're going to look at some movie titles and their funny translations and of course we're going to get some tips from lola if you want to speak like her and have that confidence well she'll be able to give us some of the tips that could help us not only as a translator or as an interpreter but as a student as an english speaker and as she was saying before you never stop being a student you know especially as a teacher you're always trying to bring new things to the table as a parent you're constantly trying to challenge yourself to bring new things to the table so i really hope you guys will join us in the bonus episode it's going to be tons of fun if you want to get the bonus episode every week you can find out more at patreon.com alberto alonso we have got a wonderful curious community of students who get together and we get together every week and review each episode once a month we have a master class and these students are not only classmates they are friends they encourage each other so i want to send a shout out to all my patrons especially my super duper students javier roberto david jose maria mila alex patricio and edgard and don't forget about my interstellar students isa paco diego and carmen remember if you want to find out more you can find out on patreon.com slash alberto alonso and we are back in lately and we're back folks lola before we wrap up the first part of the show i wanted to pick your brain a little bit more now to pick your brain to find out more to get more information i like this expression firstly you've done so many different jobs in a wide range of fields give me an idea of the best job you've ever done one of the best jobs and one of the worst jobs and we don't have to mention company names but you know maybe just because it was very tedious as we said in because let's be honest there's that part where you're simultaneously translating but all that time that you're working on that is tedious to get to that point okay so my best uh jobs i'm going to mention two one is quite public and that's the one time that i interpreted for sharon stone oh wow that was fun because i also got to to meet her personally and and my my grandma uh she said oh uh finally finally you you are having success with your career and i'm like yeah yeah you made it yeah this was not the best paying job but you know it was sharon stone well hey sharon stone come on and then i got to travel to paris not with sharon stone but with a lawyer um to me it was a meeting with a company but it was cool because the client paid for for the trip to paris and i got to do some tourism as well oh cool so that was pretty cool and then the worst uh jobs they're always related to agriculture and these are the ones organized by by ministries and things like that agriculture the uh the bureaucratic stuff i guess right the red tape kind of you're like yeah how many sections does this paragraph have exactly and they always uh they they are very limited in time so they speak really quickly and you have to know all these legal things the the jargon as we say because we have her got two words for her slang which is and jargon is specifically all right tell us about the typical process so you get a phone call you get an email i go into la pia de rosette and i say hey i've got a job for you mm-hmm what happens next it's usually an email because i'm terrible with phone calls you know i have three kids so it's almost impossible to take the phone uh so i get an email and uh you tell me a little bit about what you need i will tell you um how i can help you and uh then i'll send you a prize offer and then you can decide whether you want to work with me or not sure an estimate just giving them giving them well either way guys i can vouch for her oh thank you i'll have a voucher[Music] i can vouch for lola she's professional she's great i mean you can hear the way she speaks i don't have to vouch for her you guys can hear how well she expresses herself in english okay so you accept i accept the the the estimate you accept the job what's next uh if it's an interpreting job you well if it's a translation job also you'll have to send me your documents okay okay so documents for interpretation are really important because like 60 of the work for an interpretation is done prior to gotcha prior to the event so i have to study i have to get familiar with the company uh with the topic uh so as i said it before um interpreters are really good learners because we have to learn all the time we have about different things exactly different things and for different events we have to get familiar with the vocabulary so that's done prior to the event and then after that uh we have the event you will be super happy and and that's it and then you'll have multiple events after that probably because you want to flourish in the in the global market having a translator or an interpreter is really important for that absolutely and then you bill them you send them an invoice and you gotta wait eight months to get paid no i'm joking well i'm just guessing there spoiler alert here i i always uh uh you always have to pay in advance if you're working with me okay gotcha well i know because i love it like you said they're like and then you send them the bill and they're like crickets and you're like wait what happened to the prison we had yeah like the priest has only that hurry that rush is only on one end no it doesn't work like that in my case i'm pretty booked up so if you want to book the date uh you'll have to pay in advance great just to make sure excellent excellent well it's also a way to make sure that you know you're covering your butt so to speak you know take over this all right well we have to wrap up the first part but this has been so informative i'm learning a lot myself even though i'm familiar with a lot of people in this profession as well as yourself we know a lot of friends mutual friends but i knew it was going to be an enthralling fascinating topic and i can't wait to hear more in the bonus episode of f y i[Applause][Music][Music][Applause] you