Here is a transcript generated by Otter.ai of The Content Mix podcast interview with VeraContent’s Kyler Canastra and professional translator Meag Garner, on the creative translation process:

Kyler Canastra 0:00
Hi, everyone. Thanks for tuning in today for another episode of The Content Mix. Today’s episode is slightly different from our other episodes this season. I’ve Eric content, we specialize in localization and translation for content marketing, helping clients truly say what they mean. And over the past few years, I’ve seen a steady increase in the importance of translation and localization and marketing across all sectors and industries. And when brainstorming for this episode, I thought there’d be no better person to chat with than Meag Gardner. After graduating with a bachelor’s in Spanish language from Indiana University in 2015. With a certificate in Translation and Interpretation studies, Meag packed her bags and moved to Madrid, Spain, where she’s been living ever since, and navigating linguistic nuances of being an American translator abroad. So without further ado, let’s welcome back to the show and get the interview started. Welcome back.

Meagan Gardner 0:50
Thank you, thank you for having me on. So many moons ago, I studied abroad in Salamanca, which is about two ish hours from Madrid. And I was 18. And before coming for on the study abroad trip, I was studying philosophy, I think. And after I studied abroad, because I had a really good experience in Spain, I went back in switched my major to Spanish and started pursuing translation as a certificate. And the education I had in translation was really good, I had some really great classes and theory and history of translation. And this was about the time when I learned about the history of the translation of the Bible, which I find super interesting. Especially how like, you know, a text that’s quoted by people in so many different languages around the world, until today, and which has influenced political decisions and society. And so many things have shaped our world. This was a translation that’s passed through the hands of several different translators in different centuries. And it’s kind of like a game of telephone in that in that sense. And so because of, you know, like the Septuagint, for example, was like, the first major translation from Hebrew into common Greek. And it’s called that because seven new translators were on the job. But those translations led to the translation we have now of, of the Bible in different modern languages. And yeah, those texts, influence people’s decisions, and how they live their lives. And so learning about all of that got me thinking, you know, when we’re translating, we have to think about the repercussions of the text, and what is its purpose, and who is it for. And there’s a lot of power in that. I think it’s actually quite political and really impactful.

Kyler Canastra 2:48
It’s really interesting that you bring up that point, because I feel like a lot of the times when we think about translation, that’s what we’re thinking about, like traditionally, like, people translating like big old books, or like, not in a sense of marketing, which is interesting now, because I feel like a lot of things you just brought up, like, you know, asking the question, what is it for the impact it has, it’s something that we can apply also, in the world of, of marketing translation. Now, as an American living in Europe, so you’ve kind of witnessed firsthand everyday and probably linguistic diversity of EMEA and the impact translation plays on daily life from business and tourism, and like government offices and all these different entities that need translation, you know, services all the time. So I guess, in your opinion, as someone who’s worked in the field for a while, why is it so important for organizations to dedicate their resources for translation and localization? And what differences actually make having a translator translator who lives and works in the target market?

Meagan Gardner 3:41
Yeah, this is a great question, because I think it’s more relevant now than it would have been even 10 years ago. Because obviously, with technology and globalization and everything, we’re super interconnected, we’re reading translations every day, if you follow someone on Instagram, who is typing something and French or Spanish or whatever, you have this option to translate it. There are so many ways in which we’re consuming translations without even realizing it. And that automatic translation can only do so much. People can really, really tell when a text isn’t written by a native or translated by a native. And this is super important for social media because at Vera obviously, we we do social media, we run social media accounts for many of our clients. And the nature of social media calls for someone who’s on top of what’s happening because of its nature of being so immediate, and you know, up with trends, and so often when we’re running a social media account for one of our clients, we’ll make a calendar for the month, and then the calendar ends up changing because of some kind of current event. And that account has to be run by someone who has their finger on the pulse and you know, knows what’s happening in that in that market. So, for example, there were wildfires in Turkey, I think was last year. And we have, I won’t name the client, because I don’t know if I’m allowed. But we were going to post something that was like very cheery, and the person who was in that market said, you know, we shouldn’t post content, that’s rainbows and sunshine when a lot of people are hurting right now. And a lot of people have had their homes or their businesses destroyed. And so we made a special post for that, and we rearranged the calendar. And I think that that has a big impact on the followers for that account, because they’re going to realize that, you know, this isn’t a robot that is creating the content, it’s a human. And that does good things for the brand. And it makes people feel more connected with the brand, and that they can trust it.

Kyler Canastra 5:54
I think it’s really interesting. You brought up the topic of social media and mentioned the work that you’ve done as a community manager working at Vera as well another, you know, skill that you have on the list of things you do. But it’s just like, I think there’s been a huge shift right to how we consume content. And a lot of it is social media. And I think a lot of people think, Okay, well, Instagram, for example, it’s all image base. So they think, but I do think at the same time, what you mentioned too, is that people are looking for content that resonates with them, content that they can really connect to. And I think that’s what success makes, you know, influencer marketing successful because people find maybe a reflection of themselves and the person. But I really think it’s interesting how you mentioned to like how it needs to be localized for each market, the content itself, because that’s going to also add to that like human connection as well, when people are like consuming different types of content on social media channels are exactly

Meagan Gardner 6:43
so connected to brand loyalty. And you can’t really explain it always, like why do I trust this specific brand, when there are so many others that are so similar, but it does come down to that human connection and how it appeals to your emotions. And that’s why influencing works so well, because you feel like you know, this person who’s telling you so much about their lives. And so that’s, that’s super relevant for us writing content for social media, and also doing translations for social media, which isn’t that different in the end is content creation, and it’s localizing our content to very specific cultures.

Kyler Canastra 7:21
And I think it’s also interesting to how I like for us, I think, like you can have maybe I don’t know if you agree with me or not, but when you like, see a translation, like in English, for example, we both lived abroad, and from the US, and we were living in Europe, if you see a translation that’s like weird in English, like, it just turns you off from like, I don’t know, it’s just like this innate, something within us. Like, I don’t trust that branch like that, because it’s really weird. So I think, although people don’t want to really, I see sometimes like people who really want to, like, allocate a big budget for translation, or they really don’t, they don’t see the importance of it. I think those things like you can’t, I don’t know that they’re priceless in the way like you need to have someone that’s actually like writing content that actually is accurate, so that someone actually believes in what they do.

Meagan Gardner 8:06
Yeah, and not just accurate, but depending on your brand voice, it also has to be like very up with the trends and the phrases that people use. Like, if you think about the Instagram accounts that you like, the most, you know, I really like ID, for example, they’re always using like, you know, very young sort of Gen Z or millennial slang, they’re super on top of what like, whatever is happening, whatever meme is popular that day or that week. And that actually really makes you trust them more and feel like, Oh, this is run by people who are just like me. And that is, you know, it’s just basic, like consumer psychology.

Kyler Canastra 8:45
And that’s what I see a lot and like this market is that a lot of brands want to localize because they don’t. And although English is spoken a lot throughout Europe, it’s still not me, or it’s not like the target, you know, the audience, that person in that market is like they want something that is connected to them. And a lot of times that we express ourselves as humans and language, and that expresses our emotions, and some things aren’t captured in every language that we speak. So I definitely think it’s a really cool market to be working in. And it’s really cool that you’ve had the experience as someone abroad, living in Spain and having this connection with the content marketing industry here in Europe. Now, I do think, at the same time, we’ve seen like that translation is on the rise, and a lot of people were more and more interested in, I guess, in that kind of implementing Translation strategies and localization stories about their business. And we’re expected they say, to see an increase of about 20%, between 2018 to 2029, and the number of translators worldwide. So this $45 billion industry is only growing and growing. But in your opinion, as someone working in this industry, what is fueling if expansion and do you think like the role of globalization and the speed of tech innovation has anything to do with this?

Meagan Gardner 9:53
Yeah, it’s like I was saying before, you know, like, as we, you know, become more interconnected. That’s influenced Seeing the way that business operate, businesses operate as well. And so, for me, at least, it’s not uncommon for me to be on Instagram and I get a targeted ad, and I click on it, and the website is in Australia, or it’s in China, or it’s in Scandinavia, I’m thinking, you know, like, how, how is this possible? But it’s because with data they can reach further audiences, they can, you know, analytics can fuel, being able to connect with someone who they think based on analytics will like your products. And so what happens then, if that company that’s based in Scandinavia, is reaching audiences, and other countries around the world, where they don’t have anyone in house who speaks that language, or who has knowledge of the local culture. And so what a lot is that they have automatic translation for, for the ads or for their website. And then the customers get turned off immediately, or they don’t even it’s so incomprehensible that they can’t actually even navigate the website. And so if that company in Norway, or whatever they realize they have a bigger following on in the States, for example, because they’ve done really well on Instagram, and all of a sudden, their analytics are telling them farther traffic outside. All of a sudden, their analytics are telling them, you know, 20% of your followers are based in New York now, then they might think we should invest in localizing our content, so that we can actually retain those people who are clicking on our website, because they like our products. And so that’s where we come in where we, if we don’t have someone in house, we work with trusted freelancers around the world who are in that market. They know what’s going on. They they know the specific dialect within that language, because many times customers are looking for UK, English versus Australian versus us. And we can find someone who’s the perfect person for the job. And I think, actually, this is a missing part of the puzzle for a lot of businesses who are expanding very rapidly in a digital way.

Kyler Canastra 12:09
Yeah, exactly. And I Yeah, it’s really interesting to see kind of how automatic translation and how that’s impacting, I guess, like, a lot of people are using it. And I think with any piece of content, and something that you and I both know about, whether it’s a blog post, or like a piece of a caption on Instagram, you have like, I don’t know, like 10 seconds really to like capture a reader. So if someone’s reading a blog, they’re gonna read that first part of the blog. And that’s kind of where you pull the people in. And same with like, Instagram caption, you have, like, a split second really to be like, do I trust this? Do I want to read more, I’m interested. And if the translation is off, then they’re not going to be interested. So you’re gonna lose so many people like, can be great that you have all these clicks, right on your website, on your blog. But then if no one’s actually spending time on the page and reading it, then it’s, it’s pointless. And so that’s why it’s like that big argument of like, let’s just pump out content for SEO, which I get it. And it makes sense. And it’s kind of the name of the game at the moment. But at the same time, you don’t want to have this meaning meaningless content. So it’s really important to, to keep those things in mind. Now, a lot of times, too, I think, in my experience this in general, I worked as a translator, I worked with Meag, she, I get a lot of my, like experience from her. And the field of translations that did not have a certificate and translation like she did, and a lot of experience. But a lot of people I think there’s a lot of misconception about like, what translators do, I think people just think, Oh, you speak two languages. It’s like the classic, we speak two languages. Oh, you can translate. And it’s like, that’s not the case. Now, I really wanted to ask this question, just to give people more insight. I think a lot of times on the show, we’ve had the people implementing these, like big, you know, content marketing, localization camp strategies or campaigns. But like, we never had someone that actually is doing the work. So I was just wondering like for you like, what’s on your translators checklist? Like what are some essential steps that need to be taken when you’re doing a translation to ensure that you’re accurately translating your source texts? And does this vary by like, the sector you’re working in? Or is it like the same process for every task that

Meagan Gardner 14:02
you do? I think it’s a similar process. And it’s a really good question. Because There’s so much that goes into the process that isn’t seen from the outside, it’s a lot of people conceptualize it as a before and after, just sort of putting it through this filter that turns it into another language magically. But first, before you even start, you have to ask a lot of questions and make sure you have those clear. Whether that means doing a bit of research or asking them to the client. For example, you know, who is the audience here? Because regardless of how the source was written, you have to keep that in mind as you translate the target text. So why do they want this translated? Who is this aimed at? What kind of register, what kind of tone do I need to employ as I’m translating this? Do we have word or character limits? This is the case a lot in the world of content marketing when we’re translating a campaign for something that will appear on LinkedIn and we don’t have very much space. It’s not so much the case usually with blog posts or long form content. But if it’s something for social media, typically, we have to keep the target text very aligned with the length of the original text. Once you have all of those questions in mind, you have to make sure you understand the subject matter, you know. We’ve seen anything at Vera, from legal text to creative sort of magazine content. And I first do a once over, I read through the whole text before I even start because it’s really important to know the gist and the tone that you’re working with and also understand what they’re talking about before you start translating line by line. So another another question that you keep in mind, that brings me back to my translation theory classes about 10 years ago, I’m dating myself, which is, does this translation need to prioritize the source texts or the target text? And by that I mean, you know, is it more important that it’s a quote unquote, quote, unquote, direct translation? Does this need to be line by line as similar to the original as possible? Or do we have a bit of liberty to prioritize the final product and make that sound as natural as possible in the low in the target language and in the specific dialect or region that this is going to be reading? Typically, the latter is more the case with creative texts. So if we’re translating a an opinion piece for a magazine, they want us to use slang maybe or expressions, idioms, so that it reads like it was written in the target language, as opposed to the source language. And the former is more the case with legal texts or something that’s quite technical, where nine times out of 10, there is a set translation for what you’re saying, like legal terminology, or medical terminology. And so that’s another factor you have to keep in mind when you’re translating. And yeah, I think I covered everything. I mean, there’s so much more that goes into translation, which would be like consistency of punctuation, capitalization, making sure you’re sticking to US English versus UK versus any other, you know, dialect or, or version or region of language. Um, I think I think I’ve covered everything, but

Kyler Canastra 17:47
there’s probably a lot more factors that you didn’t cover. But I do think a really interesting point you brought up was like the research part of it. But like that goes into the translation, because I think a lot again, the consumption is that people just sit down and just automatically do it. And it’s like, no, it’s so many different factors. And one of them is research. And I think a lot of times, people are very, like, they want to find someone. So say you’re talking about these legal text translations, they were like, want someone that has a legal background, which in some cases is important. But I do think like what makes translators really like, I don’t know, interesting profiles, I guess a good translator is someone that really knows how to do good research. And I think that it’s really interesting and something that we see very content, like one of the trusted translators we work with, they work in, like across the different, like a variety of different sectors, industries that maybe have specializations. But at the same time, they’re able to, I don’t know, I think this curiosity that translators have to learn more and always keep learning and to adapt and to like work in different styles and different industries. It’s something that’s really unique. And really, like I figured translator, I think a lot of times, if you say like a good translator is someone that speaks both languages, and they know what’s going on, and mostly, which isn’t a very familiar to the culture, and that’s part of it. But I think at the same time, it’s more important that you’re a good writer and understands like the nuances of the target language that you’re translating to. But also someone that’s just curious and wants to keep, like constantly learning. And that’s really great.

Meagan Gardner 19:08
Yeah, I think that what makes a good translator, similar to what makes a good writer, a good copywriter, which is being very meticulous and knowing how to research and also being very curious, because if whether you’re being tasked with creating content, and b as as a copywriter, or translating your job is going to entail reading about different subjects every day, man, I can’t even tell you how many different industries I’ve translated for. There was a dark time of air content where we did translate a manual about how an air conditioning unit worked. And that was a grim.

Kyler Canastra 19:47
That’s a lot of research.

Meagan Gardner 19:48
You have to be curious, you have to be open minded and say, you know, I don’t know how air conditioning units really work. So we’re gonna learn something

Kyler Canastra 19:56
exactly. And that’s a good good case of like, you got to kind of find like The air conditioning experts like translator translation experts like often so it really matters is if someone is willing to do the research and is good at it. Now I did want to talk about a recent project you were involved with, that didn’t probably like require a lot of research because you were a big fan of the person we were translated for. But we were recently ever content involved with a very creative and creative translation project that came to us from Sony Music, Spain. And the task was to translate the song lyrics for Argentine artists, Nathy Peluso and with people that don’t know Nathy Peluso. So she’s a very, she’s actually very big right now in the Spanish speaking world. She just performed at Coachella in the US, which is a big deal. And she’s kind of getting a bigger global presence at the moment. And she had just maybe like a month ago, or a month or half ago, she released a new music video, which was she did in collaboration with PlayStation because PlayStation was releasing a new video game called Horizon forbidden West, which I had no idea what that game was. But when I talked to gaming friends, they were like, oh my god, it’s a big deal. Now, and they she had this song that she had written in Spanish, and they needed a very accurate English translation, because they’re gonna be launching this on a global scale. And obviously, like I guess, a global language right now is English. So not only was this like a challenge, since it had to be translated and localized for a non Spanish speaking and global audience at the same time. But as Meag knows, as a fan of Nathy Peluso, her writing style is very unique to her. And it’s very much she plays a lot on words. And there’s a lot of imagery and like, she expresses herself through her lyrics, which is very difficult and Meag I think had like, two days to do this. And it came out fantastic. I’ll tell everybody go look at the mag and talk about more of the video itself too. But definitely check it out. But I wanted to know a bit more about like, how you got, I don’t know how you went about this project, because again, we just talked about this checklist. But obviously this was like a time crunch kind of in a way, but also a very creative and kind of out of the box translation. So I guess how did you go about the project? And what challenges did you face when you’re working on this?

Meagan Gardner 22:10
Yeah, thank you. I, I always said like, I mean, when I want to talk about this project, I always say, this is literally the reason I studied translation, I found this project fascinating. And I was a huge Nathy Peluso fan, so I was very excited to work on it. But actually, a lot of research did go into it, although I already knew her songs quite well, the first thing I did was put her songs back on and pay really close attention to the sort of way that the word sound together, how does she like to rhyme? What kind of imagery does she use? What her big themes are in her songs, that’s really helpful to know, like, you know, how does she present herself to the world? How does she, what’s her identity, because the more creative a source text is, the more creative you have to be in the target text to be a faithful and good translation. And so, in back when I was studying translation, the most challenging translations we had to do were always of poetry or song lyrics, things that maybe don’t always make sense. At first glance, you might maybe have to dig for more context, you have to pick apart metaphors understand what they’re saying, and then try to replicate a similar image or metaphor in, in the target. And so yeah, first I kind of did my my literature review and listen to all her songs. And then I listened to the new one and watch the video so I could understand sort of the images she wanted to make appear in the person’s head was listening to it. And then I really studied the lyrics and everything. So for something like this, you can’t you can’t just dive in and start translating. You really need to wrap your head around what she wants to convey first, and then start. And there were many drafts involved, of course. But yeah, so I had to keep in mind this style, rhythm when you’re translating. You don’t exactly have to rhyme for song lyrics, especially because these were for subtitles. Like she’s never going to sing what we translated out loud, would be awesome. But so those things you have to keep in mind. A huge, huge challenge was translating idioms. There’s this example that we talked about before. That’s actually in this web a case study about this project on veracontent.com. And it’s this idiom that Nathy makes reference to, but she doesn’t use it exactly how it is in Spanish. So it’s it has to do with an idiom that’s about sort of rings falling off your fingers for a rough translation, it’s like a semicolon, loser Nils. And this image like harkens back to the times where, you know, kings and royalty would wear rings and have a ring fell off your finger that could symbolize that you are doing something that is below your rank, you’re stooping down to a lower level to do like the dirty work of someone who, someone who is below your rank would typically do. And so she in her song, she’s talking about, you know, grinding every day to like, fight for what I deserve. And she says that silica Lusa Neos, like her, your her rings have fallen off her finger, and backed by you, and about a year would be kind of like the daily grind or the hustle. And so she’s saying she has dipped below her rank, and she’s really, you know, worked hard to get where she is. And so in the end, we went with, I got my hands dirty in the daily grind. And we chose that because there was still this image of hands involved. And an image of maybe the hands were clean before and they got dirty. And so that would be like, lower than the rank that you started with. And we chose in the daily grind, because throughout all of her songs, she has this repeated message of I’ve been working so hard every day for this, and they’ve tried to stop me, and I’ve come across obstacles were people who didn’t want me to succeed. And I just, you know, stared him down and kept on kept on keeping on. And so we were pretty happy with that translation.

But it was, it was very, very challenging. And the last thing you have to think about is, if someone comes to watch her video on YouTube, they don’t know Spanish and they’re only listening or they’re only reading the English subtitles. They’re gonna base their opinion on her artistry and what the song is and how good the some lyrics are only by reading the, the English subtitles. And so we need to create a text that not only is faithful to what she’s saying, but that sounds good. You know, like, the things she says in her songs sound really cool, you know? And so we had to play with the songwriter a bit and and try to create a text that someone’s like, oh, that, that that’s a Bob, you know, like, that’s a banger?

Kyler Canastra 27:25
Yeah, exactly. And it’s really cool that like, I think it’s really great that I asked you this question after asking you this checklist question because like, it shows how every process is different. But I found I didn’t even know this until right now that you kind of looked at her whole like discography in the sense of like, this is the message of her. I think that’s like part of her story. And as someone I like her music as well, I haven’t dive so deep as you have. But I think like, it’s really cool, because that’s her image that she has, like, she works hard. She’s like a strong, independent woman that’s kind of come from a very, like humble background, and has has this goal, and she doesn’t care what people think. And she’s gonna make her goal and like, share her music with the world. And I think that’s her priorities. So like the fact that you’ve kept that in mind when translating and made sure that you have that imagery there, because it’s probably something that’s so important to her and her messaging as an artist. That’s really cool. And one thing that Meag didn’t mention is that since these were like subtitles, another really cool thing that we had to like, also, like make sure the lyrics would fit on, like the frames of the different of the video itself. So she also worked with someone else on our team that knows how to do subtitling and made sure like the everything fit perfectly and everything was lined up. And it just that makes it even more difficult. Because not like you’re just gonna have the lyrics published somewhere and someone can just look at it side by side, it’s like they actually have to be fitting in each frame of the music video. So that’s a really amazing product. But I also think is something that you do as a translator, and marketing as well. Like, this whole thing of like, understanding the brand is like understanding the artists in this case and understanding what they want to project out to the world. And also just kind of like the thread that is going to be connecting every piece of content that they produce, whether it’s on social media or on our blog. So that’s why it’s really interesting to I think, have you on the show, because it’s telling us how much actually goes into translation and how it’s just not something that you snap your fingers, and it’s done. It’s a craft. And I think a lot of times people forget that and transmitted any more credit, I think for the work that they do. For sure. Yeah.

Meagan Gardner 29:17
And that’s why I mean, I’m plugging their left and right, but very proud to work at there. Because, you know, as opposed to other maybe like huge translation companies where, you know, maybe quality of sacrifice for meeting a deadline, or I don’t know, I think at Vera, we really prioritize quality and and we communicate really well so that we know if this is exactly what the client wants, and does this match with the tone and the audience and everything. We care a lot about the translations. And I think we have a team of really passionate content writers and translators who take a lot of pride in their work. And so I think that’s really key. Due to being a good translator,

Kyler Canastra 30:02
yeah, I mean, that’s the reason why we both have stayed at the company for so long. It’s just that we really believe in that. I don’t know, that seems like I don’t know the motto or like that we really dedicated to quality and to really helping our, our clients kind of get their voice across in a way that they’re proud of, as well. And it takes all these factors that go behind it. Now, I did mention this before kind of the rise of technology and how that’s impacting translation. But for I think, years now in our industry, we’ve heard that it’s going to, like everything’s gonna be shaken up right by artificial intelligence. And yes, we’ve seen like a rapid progression in this, I think, wasn’t even within the past five years. And when it comes to the accuracy of the tools that are out there, but obviously still, they’re far from perfect. So you know, for example, when we’re putting something into Google translation, it’s kind of not going to properly capture the colloquialisms, like the idioms, you’re just talking about that song translation, like, it’s gonna be a bit off for, even though when it comes to more straightforward translations are pretty accurate. But I was just wondering, like, as someone that works in industry, and someone that does use these tools, in their day to day work, like, What’s your opinion about like computer assisted translation tools? What CAT tools? Do you find them helpful? Or do you think they hinder your experience as a translator?

Meagan Gardner 31:16
Yeah, well, maybe it’s a hot take. But I am really Pro Tools like tech tools in translation. And I think all translators should be because if we try to fight technology and automation, it’s only going to go bad for us, we should really be using those tech tools to the best of our abilities so that we can be better translators and more efficient. I’m definitely not advocating for only using, you know, automatic translation machine translation, I think we should be using it as a really strong base to work with. This is more helpful for less creative texts, of course, you know, like, with the Nathy Peluso project, for example, it wouldn’t be super helpful for me to use CAT tools, just because every single line would be totally rewritten. But for a legal project or for business project, or something that has repetition. There are a lot of aspects of CAT tools that go beyond just machine translation. For example, we work with Memsource, and Memsource, has a really good machine translation. But also it facilitates project management, and it communicates deadlines, you know, as they’re approaching, and it tells the editor when the text has been translated, and it’s ready for them. And so it has that aspect of it. And then it also has this aspect that I think is fantastic, which is having a translation memory and a term base. And so if I’m translating for a client, and we have an ongoing relationship, as they start sending me new documents, I can have things in the memory that pop up and say, Hey, this is how you translated this before for this client? Do you want to use it again? In most cases, I’m saying absolutely, yes. Thanks for reminding me technology, that that’s how I did it. And so there are all these ways that it can supplement your work to actually make you more efficient, and make you consistent in your work. And to just be sort of an assistant as throughout your process. And so I am very pro capitals, or any kind of automation that can do the sort of repetitive, easy, repetitive, easy work for us, and leaves the more creative bits to us.

Kyler Canastra 33:38
Exactly, I think it’s really important point that you made is like, we have to kind of embrace change, if you kind of work against it, but it’s not going to help. But I think another thing that is important to highlight is that at the end of the day, a human still needs to be involved, in some extent, right to like, make sure that things are expressed the right way, and that everything flows well. And like you can’t, I think that’s maybe something that artificial intelligence may never get to, like, we’re never gonna get to the point that unless I don’t know, who knows how these things are gonna evolve. But it’s always important to have that human that’s working on it. But it’s really cool to see how these tools help streamline different tasks, but also, like, help me know, different companies, for example, scale up their translation work, because if you have tools that are everyone’s getting notified when a translation is done, it’s just like, on the same process with the term base, and the translation memory, you’re going to help, you know, multiple people can be working on the same project, while it’s being consistent, because they’re gonna know how to translate determines the way the client wants. It’s super important. So I think it’s really cool to hear like your perspective on that. Cuz I feel like yeah, like, it is a maybe hot point. I don’t know, like, it’s a controversial thing to say as a translator because, you know, you have the traditionalists who are like, we this is like a disgrace to the industry. But I do appreciate your approach. It’s kind of like working along alongside technology rather than against it because what are you going to achieve other as the world changes? Now, to end like to kind of before we sign off on the interview, I feel like everyone has seen like funny, you know, translation memes or like, you know, on Reddit or some like that, like funny translations that they see on different sides at restaurants like that. So I have to ask, and we’re doing a different episode today. So I think it’s appropriate. But I kind of want to know, like, if you have any funny translations stories that you’ve come across, like different like situations or anything like that, that you’ve had in your time as a translator,

Meagan Gardner 35:23
I have heard so many, not just things that I’ve seen clients do, or or businesses do, but things that have happened to me or like, you know, translation mistakes that I’ve almost made that could have been very dire. And this actually, something like this actually happened really recently, a few weeks ago. So there’s this guy called Ian schrager, who he was the person who ran studio 54 in Manhattan. And he now is in the hotel business, he makes these beautiful, luxurious hotels. And he just opened one in Madrid, I think, about two weeks ago. And so I was translating a text that was sort of, you know, an article about this, and why it’s important and everything. And something else to know about Ian schrager is that he’s a very edgy guy, he is known for being quite crude. And Studio 54. You know, there were a lot of whispers about what goes on in there, you know, where there are potentially orgies happening. And so I had this in mind, because, you know, I was doing my research before I started, I was, I needed to read about this guy, and any context that might come in handy when I’m translating about this new hotel. And so there was, they were interviewing him. And one of the questions was, you know, you’ve had some, you’ve, your thing has been being quite edgy. Do you think that your new hotel in Madrid is also edgy or subversive? And he was like, oh, you know, it’s funny you ask, because during the design process, one of my design guys asked if we should put up framed pictures of Korea as they taught us. And see the problem here, that I didn’t realize at the time, that there was a typo in the Spanish. And it was supposed to say quality, this de todos, which would be bullfighting. But since its headquarters, they told those with a D, then in slang, in Spanish, that could be everyone having an orgasm. And so I was like, you know, based on what I know about this guy, and the fact that, you know, well, the next line was that when the when the time the I proposed this, the local Spanish team said, No, I think that would be passive, like, that would be crossing a line, that would be too much. And so I’m thinking everything I know about this guy, he loves to push people’s buttons. You know, the team said, No, the team said that that was too crude. And so I wouldn’t have been translated as you know, framed pictures of everyone having orgasms. I know. And this was for LP,

Kyler Canastra 38:12
which is like Stanley, one of the biggest Spanish newspaper, like Spanish language newspapers in the world. So you’re.

Meagan Gardner 38:19
So I flagged it to the client, because I thought, you know, even though it kind of makes sense, in the context, it would be really bad if this was wrong. And it does feel like quite crude to put in the newspaper. And so I asked the client, and she just lost it, she thought it was hilarious. And she didn’t realize that there was a typo in the original. It was also important that, that I flagged it to her because I could fix the the target text, the translation, but she could also get it fixed in the original because it would have the same meaning in Spanish. And so that’s just an example of you know, why we have to work with machines, but also with the human element, because it was only context and background research and everything that told me it could be this, but it could also not be this. And so yeah, that I think the takeaway there is that we, we, as human translators can have the big picture and sense of something might be wrong.

Kyler Canastra 39:16
Exactly. And like grammatically was correct. But a machine may not pick up on and I also I think highlights the importance of like attention to detail, and how translated really need to focus on every little aspect of the source text and a target text and every part that goes into a project. Now we’ve come to the end of the interview. Unfortunately, I feel like we could talk about this topic for a long time, because we are both translation nerds in that sense. But it’s really special to have you on the show today, Meg because we don’t often have people from very content like the people that make up the work that we do. Come on the show and share with our audience like the craft and everything that goes behind translating especially with different marketing pieces of marketing content. So it was really great to have you here and to kind of give you the chance to talk about something that you’re so passionate about something that’s kind of changed your trajectory, your professional trajectory as a translator and someone working in a different market in a different country. Now, I just wanted to always ask this too. But is there if anyone was listening to this episode, and they wanted to talk to you or reach out to you like, it’s the best way to connect with you on LinkedIn?

Meagan Gardner 40:25
Yeah, LinkedIn is fine. I think I have my email on there. Either one’s completely fine.

Kyler Canastra 40:30
Awesome. So yeah, so if you want to reach out to Meag, you can find her on LinkedIn. It’s Meag Gardiner. And she’s also connected with me. So if you connect with me, she should be there. But thank you, again, so much for sharing all your wonderful insights with us on today’s episode. And thanks everyone else for listening in as always, and for more perspectives on the content marketing industry in Europe, check out veracontent.com/mix and keep tuning into the podcast for more interviews with content experts, experts, and also maybe some future interviews but other people have parts of the veracontent team. So we hope to see you next time and thanks again for tuning in. Thanks Meag.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai