Raising your game with inverse translation as CPD

Why would she put herself through it?

That’s what I asked myself as Jacqueline Lamb – a Scottish translator working from Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese and French into English – began her intriguing talk on continuing professional development via the unconventional route of inverse translation: working into a “non-native” language. Before anyone could start panicking about professional ethics, she explained that she had no intention of selling herself as a two-directional translator. No, Jacq’s aim was to up her CPD game by taking a leap into the world of out-of-English translation. Where would her journey take her? What would she learn? Being largely accustomed to navigating texts into their mother tongues, attendees were keen to find out.

First, Jacq contextualized inverse translation. It’s often seen as a niche skill, typically for subject-matter experts, those working in rare language pairs, or those lucky few who can call themselves “perfectly bilingual”.

Her journey began with a Master’s in English-to-Spanish medical translation with AulaSIC, where each of the eight modules presented its own trials: translating clinical trial protocols, medical terminology and biostatistics for medical translators were just some of them. She spoke of the discomfort – no, terror – of submitting her first Spanish translations, only to find the process immensely rewarding.

Jacq discovered that while she naturally gravitated towards the English active voice, even when translating into Spanish, her work often improved when she leaned into the passive voice to match Spanish stylistic norms. She also noticed that Spanish and other Romance languages embrace “elegant variation”, whereas English favours relentless consistency. This helped her sharpen the line between intentional variety and careless inconsistency – a skill to which all translators aspire.

One of the key takeaways was how inverse translation reshaped her approach to English texts, helping her refine her technique. By recalibrating sentence structures through this method, she often produced more polished drafts on her first pass.

But how could she turn this experience into benefits for her business? She decided to create new translation memories and populate them with examples. By transforming her discoveries into tangible tools, she ensured that her hard-won lessons didn’t go to waste.

Jacq’s CPD journey also took her into literary translation. In a delightful departure from her medical niche, she shared her work translating a passage from Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. As a native Glaswegian, it was a favourite of hers and she had met the author in person at the Catalan Book Week in 2021. The passage she chose contained a rich tapestry of slang. The colloquial term “menage” led her down a rabbit hole of translation decisions, revealing how slang can be a huge challenge for cultural and linguistic transfer.

What struck me most during Jacq’s talk was her passion for continuous learning. In her world, no translation task is wasted. Even when the work seems abstract – like wrestling with dialect in a Glaswegian novel – it can feed back into our core practice. Her talk was a testament to how stepping beyond your comfort zone, even into unfamiliar linguistic territory, can rejuvenate your professional skill set. When her course was over, she did consider a similar undertaking in French or Portuguese, but ultimately decided that she’d stick to self-guided out-of-English translations.

For those of us who have only ever translated into our native languages, Jacq offered an inspiring road map for taking our CPD to the next level. Her experiences reminded us that there’s always more to learn, and that sometimes the best way to master your craft is by looking at it from the other side.

This METM24 presentation was chronicled by Ruth Simpson.

Featured photo courtesy of MET. Slide reproduced with presenter’s permission.