Translators in the City (#xl8city) is
a series of articles that looks at why translators choose to work in a certain
city. Since freelancers can essentially set up anywhere in the world, the
series seeks to find out what individual cities can offer linguists, and
features testimonies from a handful of translators about how their city can
motivate and inspire them in their work.
In this final
post of Translators in the City, where could be better to round off the
series than Barcelona? It’s cool yet eccentric, and stylish yet down-to-earth.
And with 1.5 million people, Barcelona is a sizeable city. In London and Paris,
you feel as if you’re living in a city within a city. But in Barcelona, you
feel as if you’re living in a village within a city.
Maia Figueroa (@maia_figueroa) has been
translating books and novels, amongst other things, since 2008 after a variety
of jobs in education and the chemical and tourism industries. Maia has a BA
(Hons) in Media and MAs both in Scriptwriting and Translation. She jointly runs
eCPD Webinars, a company
that provides flexible training for professional translators.
Judit
Izcara (@dramaconpatas) is new to the translation world and is even still
studying. A native speaker of Spanish and Catalan, Judit is fluent in English
and German, and also speaks French and Italian. Earlier this year, she began
learning Finnish.
Simon Berrill (SJB Translations) has been translating since 2001, working from Spanish, Catalan and French into English. Born and brought up in the UK, Simon studied history at Bristol University and then worked as a journalist on English regional newspapers for almost 15 years before moving to Badalona, near Barcelona, where he has lived ever since.
In
this post, Translators in the City is lucky to have a contributor born in
Barcelona, another who moved to the city and now calls it home, and another
somewhere in between. Let’s learn more about what made our hosts move to
Barcelona or why they stayed.
Judit, a native of Barcelona, began her journey
into translation two years ago. “I work in Barcelona, my city. I was born and
raised here, in such a wonderful city. Although I did not choose to live here,
I think it is the best thing that has happened to me. Here we have almost
everything: sea and mountains, hot and cold, city and surroundings – yeah, in
the same city, awesome, isn’t it? And, of course, we have languages, plural. We
are part of Spain, but in my lovely nation we speak two languages. And this
makes us bilingual by birth-right. I speak both, I think in both languages. And
that is an incredible gift!”
Simon, a native of the UK, challenges whether it
was him who chose Barcelona or the other way round. “My first visit to
Barcelona was in January 1999 and the fact that within four months I was living
here had more to do with being in love than anything else, although I was also
captivated by a city that seemed to have everything: history, fascinating buildings,
wonderful restaurants and beaches, to name just a few of its attractions.”
Maia’s arrival in Barcelona was the result of a
series of coincidences, however. “I had been working as an in-house translator
at Dow Chemical, in Tarragona. It motivated me to do an MA in translation and
finally become a professional translator for good. Halfway through my masters,
though, my job description changed radically and I ended up in a different
department with little to do and lots of spare time to translate subtitles for
DVDs and my first novel —a period romance— during working hours. Around that
time I met my partner, who lived in Barcelona. Soon after, we started to make
plans to get married and the choice was obvious: I wanted to pursue a career in
translation, which I could do from practically anywhere. So, after the wedding
I moved here and became a freelancer.”
.JPG) |
The dramatic Sagrada Família towers over Barcelona
and can be seen from practically anywhere in the city. |
Let’s
compare Barcelona with other cities. You can’t deny that it has fierce
competition in attracting a translator’s attention. In Europe alone, we’ve had
London, Berlin and Madrid all making a solid case for why translators would be
happiest there. Why is Barcelona the best city for a translator to work from?
“Translation is such a portable job nowadays that
I’m not certain any one city is any better than another as a place to do it,”
says Simon. “One thing I love about Barcelona though is that you can always see
out of the city, whether it’s looking out to sea or up to the hills inland. For
me, that’s an essential quality, as I always find cities oppressive if I can’t
see beyond their edges when I’m in them. I love Bristol, where I went to
university, but I hate London, for example. Having the sea close at hand is
also a big attraction and a walk along the beach can be very relaxing.”
So Barcelona’s better than London, Simon thinks.
What if we compared Barcelona to the Spanish capital? “Madrid is bigger, but
from my point of view Barcelona is better indeed,” argues Judit. “We are
smaller, true, but we are warmer. And the city is, too! It could be that we are
between two rivers, the mountains and sea, so we need to maximise our space –
and our time, too! And that make us hard-working people, with almost no time to
waste, because our lack of long space. But you must think: if Barcelona is so
small, what are you doing there? Barcelona is big, do not get me wrong. But if
we compare ourselves with Madrid, we are smaller. But as we say in Catalan, ‘in
the little pot you’ll find the good jam!’”
And where can you find the best jam? “When
I come out to play,” Maia explains, “I like to go to some of the parks,
especially Parc de l'Oreneta, which is on the outskirts of the city, up a hill,
but I mostly visit the nice neighbourhoods where there are fewer tourists. I
avoid the Ramblas as much as possible.”
One
thing that translators who prefer the countryside would ask is how you can work
in such bustling surroundings. What would be the argument to live and work as a
translator in busy Barcelona instead of rural northern Catalonia for example?
For
Maia, Barcelona offers the perfect mix of personal and professional aspects. “I
like living surrounded by the things I need, having everything handy, and that
includes publishing houses as well as bars, restaurants, the markets,
libraries, fibre optics internet access and all the rest. By being here I have
everything I need to be a successful translator, including my clients. In my
case, being close to the publishing houses that I work with is crucial. You'd
be surprised how useful it is to pay regular visits to the people you work
with, talk to them in person, make yourself available to them; it makes them
remember you. So I guess the same applies to people who work with dubbing
studios, the videogames industry or even with manufacturers, and so on.”
But as cool and sexy as Barcelona is, it’s still a
big city, so would it still be hard to chill out there? “Yes, it is true we
have a lot of stress,” says Judit, “but when I need to relax I just need to go
outside. My balcony is an awesome place to relax (above all in summer). But if
I really need to relax, I just have a walk through my neighbourhood. I don’t
live in the city centre, but not as far from it as you might imagine. If you
leave the city centre, you will find that each neighbourhood is like a little
village.”
And where does Judit think the best place to work
in Barcelona is? “The University Campus. I do not know if it has something to
do with my habit of studying or working there, but in the middle of my old neighbourhood
I find peace. I only need to go upstairs until the third floor of the
University library and it is like heaven: silence, good views and always the
perfect atmosphere.”
 |
Christopher Columbus watches over the harbour,
pointing out to sea towards the New World |
So
far in the Translators in the City series, we’ve featured metropolises like London
and Madrid. But only Brussels has been the other city in the series that speaks
more than one language on an official level. Does living in a city that is
officially multilingual make for a better environment for translators?
“For a linguist, Barcelona is a fascinating city
because of the two languages in everyday use: everyone can speak Spanish and
most people speak Catalan as well,” Simon states. “Having two languages to
learn can be daunting at first, but it’s very rewarding and I’m now used to the
bilingual conversations that often develop. Someone who doesn’t live here might
wonder what’s the point of learning Catalan when Spanish will get you by. But
that is to ignore the fact that Catalan is the first language of most people
here and if you don’t understand it, you are the one who misses out.”
For expats like Simon, this must be a lot of hard
work. As a translator, though, surely this is a worthwhile challenge, and one
which might pay off in business terms. “If, as a foreigner, you speak Catalan
as well, your effort is recognised and rewarded,” Simon continues. “As a
freelance translator, I’m sure I have secured and built relationships with many
customers here partly by being willing to communicate with them in Catalan.”
Judit relishes the city’s wider linguistic
diversity. “Barcelona, besides its universities, is a special place: it is a
mixture of cultures, languages and habits. And it is the best place to be
translator indeed. There are a lot of foreign people studying or working here,
so you only need to search a little to find somebody native of your working
languages. Moreover, we have a high awareness of languages, so it is common to
find people who speak more than our two mother tongues.”
So,
we’ve heard how much of a linguistic haven Barcelona is. But what I’d like to
know is whether this is reflected in the local translation industry. In our
Brussels post, we learned that the industry has been traditionally
underrepresented there. Is this the case in Barcelona?
“Like most big cities,” Simon supposes, “Barcelona
has quite a large and active translation community. I am a member of the
Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters of Catalonia (APTIC).
Most of its members are Catalans, but they are very welcoming to foreign
translators and the association organises many professional short courses and
social events. I have also joined Mediterranean Editors and Translators (MET),
based in Barcelona too, which has a membership largely of English-speaking
translators.”
“There are lots of libraries,” adds
Maia, “and plenty of continuous professional development in terms of
conferences such as Fun4All, TraduEmprende, some of the most important trade
fairs and industry events, and, naturally, courses organised by the
universities, by the translator associations — APTIC and MET, for example— and
by various other companies. Luckily, continuous development is no longer tied
exclusively to given places and now translators from all over the place can
access training from virtually anywhere —I should know, I co-own a successful
online training enterprise, eCPD Webinars (shameless plug!)— but nothing beats
being right where things are happening.”
Are there many chances for Barcelona’s
translators to get together on a more casual basis, though? “As for informal networking,”
Maia continues, “we have the MET APTIC meetings, but I'm not aware of any
tweetups in Barcelona. I shan't be the one starting one. Too shy for the job.”
 |
| The sun setting over Barcelona's beachfront |
So,
that’s Barcelona for translators. The professional side and the personal side.
Before our contributors leave us, what are their favourite sides to the city?
Simon enjoys the strong literary
tradition in the city. “This really comes out on my favourite day of the year,
St. George’s Day, when translators as well as authors can be seen on stalls all
around the centre marking the festival of the patron saint of Catalonia, which
also happens to be World Book Day. I always encourage people to visit Barcelona
on 23 April because it really is a unique celebration: a city full of the books
and roses traditionally given as presents for the occasion.”
What about Maia? “I'd say that all of
the above, plus great food, nice wine, the nice weather and lots of concerts
and music festivals. We are also a train ride away from other fantastic places
such as Tarragona, the Delta, the Costa Brava, Madrid, etc. But when I am in
the city I love exploring the bars and restaurants of Barcelona with our
friends.”
That concludes the Translators in the City series. Have you read the other posts in the series: Berlin, London, Madrid, Brussels and San Diego? Maybe the future will bring new installments - who knows?
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