 Hello everyone. So today I wanted to talk to you about an article I just came across and it has to do with Something that I was asked about recently. So recently I was asked as a comment on one of the videos About the NAATI not II I guess I actually I don't know how you pronounce that it stands for What does it stand for the National Accreditation Authority for translators and interpreters and NAATI and this is for Australia basically It's an association for translators and interpreters in Australia and I was asked if it was worth joining one of these organizations and so I gave my two cents and basically said my conclusion was that unless You are guaranteed a job or you are asked about it Repeatedly that it probably isn't worth it Let me go through this quickly Basically if you live in Australia and you think you're going to work with say government entities or other select local companies Organizations, you know who say that they want someone who's certified by NAATI or not II then then yes that it might be worth it because you are basically guaranteed a job after that or You notice that it does open a lot of doors But if that's not the case then the fact is it's a big world out there and if you're a translator you're you're Targeting people from two different countries at least if you translate from English into French Then you have and you're in Australia you have Australia and but you also have France not to mention you have all these other places that speak at least English So if you know you can be targeting people who need translations in New Zealand or obviously the United States and You know and the UK and you know any place that speaks English Canada, whatever so you Basically, it's a big world out there So to put in a lot of effort and cost into getting accredited by the NAATI Might not be such a good idea if you're targeting law firms in the US They've never heard of this NAATI if you're targeting organizations in Europe. They've also never heard of it It doesn't mean anything to them. You know if you say I'm accredited by this company They're like well accreditation sounds good. I guess but that's literally all they're gonna know about it, right? So I don't think it's necessarily worth it Obviously if it's convenient for you to take and you don't mind the cost in the effort sure go ahead but otherwise I generally say that Unless you're guaranteed a job after or you repeatedly asked about it like more than once someone has asked if you are certified by that particular Organization then it's not worth taking by the way these organizations exist everywhere And the states is the ATA, but the UK has its own version pretty much every country has its own version for their own set of languages so But that's the problem, right because when you're dealing with Clientele they can be from another country and if they're not in the translation world chances are they don't even know Most people in the US have never heard of the ATA or they don't know that it stands for American Translator Association Because they're not in the translation world, right? and if I'm dealing with a law firm or Somebody who makes websites. They don't know what it is. And so they don't really care about it I also have a Something I mean this might affect how I feel about it But when I was in Taiwan when I when I got there shortly after I got there have to have this official document translated because I was living there and So I needed to find someone who was accredited by a state organization to translate it So I found this girl who who was able to do it I already worked with some translators who were local, but they weren't accredited by the state So I couldn't use them, but I did find this girl who was able to translate it and then she sent it back But I noticed right when she sent it back that it seemed kind of sloppy Just I mean just with the formatting the way she then it looked sloppy So I sent it actually to one of my translators I was like can you look over this and tell me what you think and my translator Well back said you cannot send this to the you know you have to change it and she showed me where to make the changes basically and and Gave it to me correctly So I sent it back to the one that I had paid you know to the accredited one the one who's accredited by the state and she's like Oh, yeah, you need to make those changes So as it's a good thing I'd sent it to have it looked over by someone else But all that goes to show you that just because they're accredited by one of these organizations or by the state does not necessarily mean that They're the best translator So that's how I feel about it Anyway, this article I read is that after around after I think 40 years this NAATI in Australia Is going to be it's going to change the way it works and it's going to be replaced starting next year. I think in Yeah, January 18th, so basically early next year and So what do I think about it? Well, my point of view hasn't changed once again, whether it's worth it or not to take it I do know there's some changes that they mentioned here First of all, there's not it won't be a permanent accreditation. I think this is good I think accreditation should not be permanent and it should have to be renewed. I know a lot of Like the more important professions already require this if you're a doctor You can't just go to med school and then that's it because you have to constantly be updating and I think It will happen more and more and more more industries if you will that you need to keep educating yourself just to keep up Let's face it if you graduated more than I don't know three years ago a lot if not most of what you learned is already out of date and because We live in a fast-paced world and we're discovering new things. We're discovering new ways to do things and so we need to keep up and and so I do think it's good before the way it is now is that if you get accreditation if you Even if you got it 40 years ago, then that's it. You're accredited and that's it obviously an accreditation 40 years ago means very little to To someone who's hiring and they'd rather see what you've been doing in the meantime So I do agree with that point However, they also hit and they always hint at these in various countries at some point in time that they might make it obligatory So if you want to be called a translator in Australia that you might have to be part of this I don't agree with this as you can probably tell and you know One reason is the experience I had in Taiwan basically that you have someone who's accredited and isn't any good So I don't necessarily think that it's good. I also think it's just a barrier to entry that people put up I know for instance in Florida here in the States in Florida if you want to become a hairdresser You have to get accredited by the state of Florida to become a hairdresser you know to cut hair and this is only because a group of people who already are hairdressers decided to come together and Lobby their state into making an accreditation to so that hairdressers could be accredited and It's just a barrier to entry just means that they'll get less competition because fewer people will be able to become hairdressers I don't think obviously if it's for something important like you know being a pilot say then yeah Of course, it's important to be accredited and to you know as I have as many accreditation as you can to be a doctor And all that that's why I have to jump through so many hoops, but to be a hairdresser really So so I mean yeah, so what's the solution? Obviously we as translators need to be held accountable. We can't just Be picking translators here and there and we don't know if they're any good So how do we find the best way to do that? Now I've mentioned this before as well for me The best way has always been through ratings and referrals these websites translators cafe pros comm up work All basically all these websites. They have their own ratings and referrals So if you want to look up a translator you can see their willingness to work again Or you know how many stars they have next to them or whatever it might be or just written recommendations These are always very good And I do feel because they come from all different types of people different sources So it's a lot better than just having it from one source one state exam that you took 15 years ago and You know which basically tells us nothing about you And so I do think that these ratings and referrals are the way to go ahead if the state wants to get involved or not I mean, I don't know. I think they'll just complicate the matter But if they do want to get involved, I think that's something they should incorporate into it You know and say well if we have a lot of satisfied customers Then that should you know if you want to work for the state and get accredited Then if you do work for the state for this department that department everything and they're happy with your job Then they should be able to give you ratings and referrals that you can then use again I don't know how they would go about it and chances are they make it very bureaucratic. I don't know But I do think ratings and referrals are the best way to see if someone's good or not And I think you as a translator if you are a translator should concentrate on getting these ratings and referrals as quickly as possible Because they'll help you in the future with jobs once again NAATI Nati however you want to call it is Changing the way it works. I don't necessarily think if you're not already accredited then I don't think it should affect you all that much because I Don't particularly see any reason to to get accredited but you know keep it in mind and other accreditation authorities might be doing the same things or similar things but as long as they don't Change the law and say you can only call yourself a translator if you're accredited then we should be fine By the way another problem with that is say that Australia decides Okay, if you want to call yourself a translator here in Australia, you have to be accredited by them Well, what's going to happen? What's going to happen is that a lot fewer trend Australians will be able to become translators But the same number of Americans, Brits, New Zealanders and everything will still be able to and they're going to take a lot of the jobs That Australians could because you're going to have fewer translators in Australia It's going to cost more for Australians to get this accreditation especially if they have to give it every year so that that means their costs for translation are probably going to step up and And in the meantime other people can can do everything they want So a lot of Australians actually what they might end up doing is Not take accreditation and just stop marketing towards clients in Australia and just market towards clients Abroad because with the web you can do that just as easily and that way they don't need to get accredited anyway, so I think it could be a mess if they make this obligatory but Still something to keep up with to keep in mind. Those are just my two senses kind of a rant about accreditation authorities in general So, let me know if you disagree. Maybe you do. I know a lot of people I know people can have very strong opinions about this one or the other so let me know if you do disagree and the reasons you do disagree and I'm always happy to hear about them and And you feel free to leave a comment If you like this video, please click like and don't forget to subscribe because you can get more videos talking about freelance translation about translation general about freelancing Right to your computer desktop or laptop or phone or iPad or whatever you use Okay, thanks. Bye