It was a pleasure to have a chat with our Irish translator Aaron Butler on Thursday. As a translation agency, we love to get to know our freelance translators, to ensure a good relationship and even better results in our translations.
Irish Gaelic, the official language of Ireland and spoken as a native language by between 20,000 and 80,000 people, is making a major comeback. Aaron, translator from Spanish to English, from English to Irish and from Irish to English, has told us about his background as a linguist, as well as his experience translating into and from Irish Gaelic.
Thanks a lot Aaron for joining us at TranslationsInLondon. Welcome to “A Cuppa With”, we would like to learn a bit more about you. So, Aaron, tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Aaron Butler. I’m a 30-year-old freelance translator specialised in insurance translation: home, sports and health.. I am from Derry/Londonderry. I have been looking to work as a translator since I started learning languages. It all started when I used to go on holiday with my family in Mallorca, Spain. I was just fascinated by people speaking other languages. I had no idea what they were saying. I started learning languages in school, I started with Spanish and Irish, so, then, I carried on. I actually thought there will be more opportunities with Spanish so I did my degree in Spanish, but I was also so keeping up with Irish and keeping touch with languages in general. After university, I went to Vietnam to teach English. I didn’t have yet my masters, I wanted to travel and also have a job, but be kept in line with languages. Eventually, I did my translations masters and finished last year, on December 2021. Since then, I’ve been working as a freelance translator. It’s been quite exciting; I’ve had my ups and downs. I’m still learning all the business side but languages and translations are my main thing.
In terms of translation work, I’ve been doing a lot of transcription, some proofreading, subtitling, and I’ve translated some websites. I have also translated for TranslationsInLondon, some pharmaceutical documents.
With Irish being one of the official languages of Ireland, Irish translation services are on demand. We know there aren’t many native speakers of Irish so, when you translate from English into Irish, what are the main challenges you face? What are your sources?
My biggest challenge is finding terms, especially if they are pharmaceutical. It’s very difficult to find sources like parallel texts. I use online resources, for example, databases from other translators, terminologists or governing bodies that work with the Irish Government.
The different dialects of Irish are also a challenge for me (I studied Gaeilge Uladh (Ulster Irish) as I live in Northern Ireland (because you have to make sure to use the standard language of the entire country – Caighdéan Oifigiúil (Official Standard) . There are also differences with pronunciation depending on the word order. For example, in Irish you can add a séimhiú (lenition) or an urú (eclipse), and it’s important to know when and where to use them. Otherwise, the speech does not flow correctly.
For terminology, most of the resources are online but sometimes I consult with my fellow Irish translators and I have a very helpful network I can consult with.
These are a list of resources Aaron recommend to consult:
(It can be helpful with technical terms – e.g., pharmaceutical terms)
(A research group in Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge, Dublin City University, that has a strong focus on legal and legislative terms)
(The National Terminology Database for Irish)
(A collection of dictionaries related to Irish & English, as well as grammar and pronunciation databases)
(Foras na Gaeilge’s online English-Irish dictionary. Foras na Gaeilge is the body responsible for the promotion of the Irish Language throughout Ireland)
We cannot avoid mentioning Derry Girls as Val is a fan!
That was a good a way to promote Derry to the rest of the world. It is a good reflection and good portrait of the language. (If you haven’t watched the show, check out the trailer).
Did you grow up in Derry too?
Yes, I was born and raised here. I went to university in Leeds and then I came back to Ulster University in Coleraine. Then on to Vietnam and back here.
A large proportion our audience are “wannabe” translators, as they are at university. Becoming a freelance translator is a challenge. Most translators start translating as a part-time job until translation turns into a full-time job. What would you recommend to people who want to work with your language pairs?
My business is called Butler Translations so, obviously, the first thing that stands out is translation. But in university I developed the idea of translation is everywhere. There are multiple forms of translation. For example, subtitling and transcription are also translation. Thinking this way has allowed me to offer different services. I love translation; however, I think transcription can help you with your listening and typing skills, so it has benefits to offer. Also, in terms of transcription and subtitling, it helps hard of hearing people and make the content more inclusive. I like the idea of helping others and not just for a profit. If nothing else, 80% of people who use subtitles are not deaf or hard of hearing, so your work will more than likely be beneficial to someone other than your client. Therefore, I think transcription and subtitling are still a good way to keep up with your language skills if you are not getting translation work and it also opens your mind, making you realize there are other opportunities with the language skills you have as a linguist. In any case, I make sure that proofreading, subtitling and transcriptions are a small part of my work, being translation the bulk of everything.
After the talk, TranslationsInLondon shared a few tips with Aaron. Pay attention! These tips can be of great help to you.
To promote yourself, it is important to focus on a specific field. This way, you will become an expert and will be able to deliver high quality work. Also, get to grips with translation tools, such as Trados, for example. Being able to use them successfully will lead to more jobs coming your way!
Finally, if you are interested in starting your own translation agency, beware of translation scammers! There are people who pose as translators and steal CVs, so make sure you do your research on the translators you work with!
If you enjoyed this blog post, stay tuned for more interviews of the TranslationsInLondon A Cuppa With series!