Jean-Marie Le Ray, a multifaceted translator-interpreter

A professional translator and interpreter for over thirty years, Jean-Marie Le Ray has carved out a niche in the translation market. Passionate about his profession, he seized the various opportunities that our field offers by combining translation and interpreting with operating a consultancy specialising in linguistic web content and marketing. But that's not all! He is also a lecturer for translation students and professional translator-interpreters. The goal? To improve the image of translation in the market.

All translators and interpreters know that translation is a field not very well known to the general public. Often, the image and role of the translator are undervalued, overshadowed by machine translators, which some believe can translate numerous documents without issue. While it’s true that machine translators are becoming more efficient, they will never match the level of expertise that a professional human translator has. In other words, a precise understanding of the different nuances of the language, as well as the ability to consider the cultural dimension essential to carrying out a translation.

At AbroadLink, we have taken an interest in Jean-Marie Le Ray's journey to discover his unique experience in the translation and interpreting world.

Jean-Marie Le Ray is the first translator to offer us his testimony in our new blog category "Translator Portraits". Our goal is to share testimonies and experiences of some of our collaborators.

Question 1: Looking at your profile, what caught my attention was how diverse your career is: interpreter, webmaster, linguistic evaluator, entrepreneur... as well as over 30 years of experience in the field of translation.
Could you tell me which profession has brought you the most satisfaction and why?

Your question conceals the definition of a slasher, a concept that was popularised about ten years ago thanks to Marci Alboher, who used it to describe the millions of freelancers unable to answer the question "What is your profession?" in a single word or phrase. It often represents the daily life of freelancers, sometimes a bit lost in what is commonly called the "gig economy" (or more prosaically, the precarious work economy) whose main flaw seems to be a levelling down.

Therefore, I have two answers to your question:

1. It's appropriate to speak in the present, because I am far from retiring now, and if my health holds up, I still have about ten years of work ahead of me... And in fact, I wouldn't know how to do nothing, I am too curious about everything. My main activity is that of a translator-interpreter, in the following proportions: EN/IT>FR translator (about 75%), and IT>FR interpreter (about 25%).
2. The profession I would love to pursue today is the one I am not practising: marketing trainer for those starting their career. When a young graduate enters the job market, they almost never know where to start and how to make contact with their first clients in the short term, and even less to build a viable and reliable clientele in the long term. My extensive experience only needs to be shared, but the barriers to entry into training are very high. However, it is one of the main reasons why I have returned to France (three months ago), after living more than 35 years in Italy.

Question 2: You have been the author of several websites dedicated to translation and/or marketing: Translation 2.0, Adscriptor and more recently Presse-citron. You are the sole administrator of Translation 2.0 and Adscriptor. What is the workload like for maintaining these blogs?

One must first ask "why" I decided to get involved in these blogs. In the second half of the 90s, the translation market (and many other markets) was already gradually leaving the local sphere to establish themselves on the Internet where competition is global. The problem arose immediately: how to be visible on the Internet to stand out from colleagues and competitors? The notion of "visibility" is quite peculiar and should not be confused with that of "presence." Being present on the Internet is essential but that’s not all: if you are there but no one finds you, it's as if you weren't there. End of story. Therefore, one must be visible. What has obvious implications is the fact of being found and your reputation, although the latter is a separate issue.

I was once registered on a platform famous among people in our profession: Proz.com. I realised that my visibility as a translator did not depend on me and that I had no control over the platform's choices, which decided to emphasise some things and not others.

Hence my decision to build my visibility on the Internet independently, not relying on any particular platform, but rather diversifying my presence to avoid putting all my eggs in one basket... (a strategy highly valued by investors).

From there, my first blog was published at the beginning of 2005, and I have never stopped since (although I have slowed down the pace nowadays, I am still present on social networks). It's a matter of priorities, because my blogging activity often took too much time away from my paid activities. But after a thousand posts and almost two million visitors, I can tell you that I have never regretted my initial choice, thanks to which I have had very beautiful experiences, both personally and professionally, that I would never have had otherwise.

Question 3: In the description of the service offered on your translation 2.0 page, you talk about "consultancy in linguistic content focused on web and marketing." Could you elaborate on what this service includes? How does it apply to the field of translation?

Interesting question! Initially, it is a service aimed primarily at companies that have a website and wish to adapt it into one or several languages. Generally, those in this situation do not know how to approach the problem. Their initial stance is always as follows: "I have a website in language A or B, and I want to translate it into language C or several, X, Y or Z." It's a very common approach, but it doesn't always provide results that meet expectations: translating into language L has nothing to do with writing directly in language L.

The client says, "We send you the content, it's up to you to translate it!"

My perspective as a consultant is, "Let’s discuss together the message you want to convey, and we write it directly in the language(s) needed."

Translators know full well that two speakers who speak two different languages will not use the same words to say or describe the same thing. It's the same for Internet users who conduct a search, depending on their national, linguistic or cultural market, different terms are used for the same thing: to each their own.

The approach is therefore radically different (and the impact too...), because it consists of first identifying the "keywords" used by the client's target audience in relation to their activities, and then constructing the textual content of each web page of the localised site according to the keywords. It can extend, among other things, to indexing on social networks!

Unlike the usual 'translate first, optimise later' approach, this strategy is built around search engine indexing from the outset, starting with thinking about the content, regardless of the language. This often results in commercial failure and an unprofitable expense.

That is, in broad terms, what "consultancy in web and marketing linguistic content" means.

Question 4: Speaking of marketing, where did the idea of combining marketing and branding with translation services come from? How did you acquire your knowledge, through training or by experimenting?

Yes. It was a self-taught training course, 100% on the job, and 35 years of experience in the profession (including 26 years at the head of my own agency). But as I mentioned earlier, it's useless to be present on the internet if no one sees you. In the same way, it's useless to have extensive knowledge if it cannot be shared. I have already provided several training courses in Italy (always receiving excellent feedback), both for professionals and for translation agencies, but my dream would be to do it in France, in my mother tongue.

Developing this course required a lot of introspection and months of work to formalise the fruit of my reflections. I have written a lot on this subject, I invite those who are curious to explore a bit on my Slideshare page, where they can get an idea of it.

I face the distrust of universities to which I have offered my services (mistrust largely due to economic reasons), or the entry barriers set by already established organisations, which do not look kindly on someone wanting to compete with them on their territory.

However, I do not throw in the towel. I am writing a book on one hand and sharpening my skills on the other, without limiting myself to translators and interpreters. Specificities of each profession aside, there remains a large portion of common ground whose basics I master sufficiently to provide quality training to all freelancers.

It is within my skill set, as we would say today.

Question 5: You are the director of your own translation agency in Rome. Could you tell us what difficulties you have faced? In your opinion, what is key for standing out in such a competitive sector?

I founded my agency in Rome in February 1989 and closed it in 2015, after 26 years of good and loyal service! And when the business was going very well, I wanted a change, I was already contemplating my return to France. However, I needed time to prepare the transition: you don't leave a country where you've lived more than half your life overnight. My idea would be to create opportunities in France for my son's future, opening up a horizon beyond Italian borders.

To return to your question, the problems I encountered can be summarised in one point: the enormous difficulties in finding competent and serious people.

I will not tire of repeating this: in 2018, universities teach how to translate but still does not train translators. Translating or knowing how to translate does not make you a translator. The nuance is enormous. Inspired by the pragmatism of the tax office, a translator is someone who makes a living from their profession. Who works with dignity as much as possible.

However, just because a translation agency receives a CV that a young university graduate sends out left and right, does not mean that it will not treat them as an experienced professional. The real profession is learned through experience and not at school. Therefore, this is the first difficulty: finding specialised professionals.

It's very simple to stand out (!), you just need to know what you do better than others. And that explains why the client will choose you, and not your neighbour. It's paradoxical but one does not stand out in quality or prices.

As for quality, in a market where all players supposedly offer quality, how would you differentiate yourself from others by offering the same promise? Quality is therefore no longer a selection factor but something taken for granted, clients expect no less from you.

Regarding prices, you will always find cheaper ones somewhere on the Internet, apparently for the same services. It is therefore up to you to lead the client to play on your home turf, and not the other way around. When a client tells me that the only thing they expect from me is to be the cheapest translator, I automatically point them toward the competition. They will find someone cheaper elsewhere, please go ahead. Until they learn at their own expense that paying very little for a translation will always be too expensive considering the disaster they will have caused, among other things in terms of image and reputation...

To conclude with a concrete example, that of my company, in 1989, when I looked at the yellow pages dedicated to translation, almost all agencies offered services in all languages, in all fields.

I limited myself to what I did best: my own language. Not all languages, but just one, with this slogan: "Quality French!"

Do you think that I have confined myself? My success, which has lasted since then, is proof that I made the right choice.

Question 6: You have created an English-French terminology search engine called Translation's 2.0. Can you explain how this came about?

This process dates back to the early days of the Web, back then, bookmarks were collected... When you found an interesting database, you added it to your favourites. There were even specific platforms for that, now disappeared, though I can't remember their names.

When I discovered that Google offered the possibility of creating a custom search engine, I took advantage of it to gather all these links, because selecting sources of information helps reduce noise in the results.

Results become even more interesting if you integrate search syntax into your searches. Just make the same request in my multilingual terminology search engine and in Google to compare the differences.

Feel free to try it, let me know what you think.

Question 7: I have noticed a recurring theme on your blog 2.0, machine translation. I would like to know what you think about the future of translators and interpreters.

You've touched on a sensitive topic here. Since 2006, I have been closely interested in the incredible achievements of Google, among other fields, in machine translation, and I have written a lot on the subject.

Not to mention the extraordinary discovery of a pioneer in this field, Italian inventorFederico Pucci created the first "mechanical translator" of modern times, who wrote a dozen works on his invention for over 30 years (from 1930 to 1960).

It's interesting to know that the principles of statistical machine translation we know today (as well as the pre and post-editing phases) were already laid out 70 years ago (!). However, from the end of the Second World War until the early 2000s, and despite billions of dollars, roubles and francs spent on research in Russia, the United States, France and other countries, very few concrete—and relevant—results had been achieved.

Until Google came along!

Which popularised machine translation to make it a mass "consumer product." And a free one at that.

Google, revolutionary in this field, but on the threshold of a new revolution even more powerful than that of the 2000s. With the rise of artificial intelligence and neural search engines, we will talk about it again.

Many things can change, but I am utterly convinced that translators and interpreters still have a bright future ahead of them.... as long as they are able to invent and reinvent their profession.

I no longer remember who said, "Don't look for more work, create it"

The conclusion fits into this formula, forged by the needs of my training:

1 translator = 1 market.

Your market, not your colleagues'. It's up to you to create because, by creating your own market, each one creates their own future.

This is coming from someone who has been making a living from their profession for 35 years!