This week we’re featuring Marina Khonina, an early Gengo translator and current member of our Translator Operations team. Before joining Gengo, Marina spent 12 years as a freelance translator and interpreter based in Europe and Central Asia. Today, she puts her love of translation and tech to use overseeing translation quality and Gengo’s team of Senior Translators (STs).

Tell us about your background as a translator and interpreter.

I grew up bilingual, speaking Russian from birth and learning English in my early teens, so requests to help translate or interpret started coming fairly early. My first official assignment was interpreting for medical doctors at a mobile humanitarian clinic in rural Kazakhstan. The thrill of seeing people from two different parts of the world understand each other through me as an intermediary had me hooked from day one.

Conference interpreting, with all the pressure of delivering in real time, has always been my favorite. In recent years that’s what I ended up focusing on the most. As a simultaneous interpreter, I had the chance to work alongside some amazing colleagues from the world over. Some other highlights included serving on an editorial team for a major dictionary and working with scholars to translate academic manuscripts and do multilingual research. I have a feeling I’ll return to academia at some point in the future.

I learned about Gengo soon after it launched in 2009 from someone I followed on Twitter and became a translator. I was a graduate student at the time, and doing a few quick translations in between classes and teaching helped me maintain my skills. In early 2010, I became an ST while still working as a conference interpreter with international organizations in Istanbul. Interacting with translators around the world was a welcome change from my high-intensity day-to-day interpreter work, and soon thereafter I made the leap to working full-time in Japan.

I’ve been in Tokyo for almost a year now. Working at a startup is sometimes as intense as being in an interpreter’s booth (if not more!), but the experience is certainly worth it.

Where have you lived?

I was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan when it was still part of the Soviet Union. Later I spent some time (including two years of college) in the American Midwest. In my mid-twenties, my work as an interpreter took me to Kyrgyzstan, where I worked with international organizations while studying sociology.

Before moving to Tokyo, I spent five years in Istanbul, Turkey—a breathtakingly beautiful city which is also perfect for exploring the Balkans and the Middle East.

Tokyo is certainly very different from the places I lived in before. What strikes me most about this city is just how livable it is. Another great discovery was the food. The linguist in me is also happy to explore the Japanese language.

What do you do for Translator Operations at Gengo?

I joined Gengo to coordinate its diverse and globally-dispersed team of STs, who are industry professionals helping us select translators from thousands of candidates and check the quality of their work.

I was fortunate to be involved in testing and refining the first tools that Gengo developed for quality checking, and my focus has more recently shifted to translation quality at Gengo. We face a unique challenge: quantifying something traditionally deemed subjective—quality—and doing that at scale. I feel very proud and privileged to be part of this initiative, and to have the amazing support of our 60+ ST team!

What’s your favorite thing about speaking foreign languages?

One of the best things about speaking foreign languages is meeting people, but I’m personally most fascinated by written language. Apart from speaking Russian and English, I’ve also dabbled in French, Ancient Greek and Turkish and am currently studying Japanese. The most frustrating thing about learning Japanese is that no matter how hard I study, I’m still essentially illiterate because the gap between the written and the spoken language is so great.

Describe your office setup or workspace. What is the view like? What kind of scenery do you look at every day?

After enjoying a wide variety of sceneries as a freelancer (interpreter booths, commuter boats, secluded island gardens), I now look out onto a busy, open layout office in the center of Tokyo. It’s exciting to work alongside a dynamic team, and being able to chat with our engineers or integrations specialists is unparallelled! When I have to do focus work, I can usually be found on the couch in the corner of the office.

Just outside the window, I can see the JR train line to Shibuya Station and the busy Tokyo cityscape.

Based on your specific cultural expertise, what are the best books or movies you would recommend to others?

For me, the ultimate book on language learning is How I Learn Languages by Kató Lomb. This Hungarian polyglot was a truly impressive character: after receiving a degree in chemistry, she found herself jobless amid the economic crisis in Europe in 1930s and taught herself English so that she could work as a language tutor. That started her on a lifelong adventure in language learning: she mastered a wide variety of languages, and made a name for herself as a translator. She was also one of the first simultaneous interpreters, which further endeared her to me.

Kató Lomb’s book on language learning is not widely known in the English-speaking world. Its Russian translation enjoyed a much wider popularity, especially as I was growing up. Her story inspired me to pursue a career in languages.

What is your favorite “translator’s snack” for while you work?

Coffee—usually, an iced Americano with an extra espresso shot. I’m the mayor of the local Starbucks on Foursquare, and that mayorship isn’t going away anytime soon!

What online productivity tool saves you the most time?

AText, which is a text expander. Even though I no longer translate, a lot of my work is text-based, and using a text expander for repetitive tasks is a lifesaver. I use it with nearly everything outside of personal correspondence with our community, which I prefer writing personally.

Another tool I use is Evernote, where I store all my files, ideas, tasks and communications. I ended up creating two accounts, one for work and one for personal things. Both are Premium for unlimited storage and real-time syncing. Being able to snap a picture of a whiteboard and have Evernote recognize my Byzantine handwriting is a definite plus!

I also use Zapier automations to feed all my Google Drive docs and starred emails into Evernote. (I think it’s clear that I’m a tech junkie!)

Finally, if you had to give advice to Gengo translators, what are the best ways to relax and stay sane as a translator? What is your top tip for those who are just starting out?

When I was just starting out as a freelance translator, I asked a senior colleague what I needed to do to become a good translator. Her response was puzzling. Nothing on books or tools—just translate… and then translate some more.

I now realize that it was the best advice one could give a fledgling translator. Practice makes perfect, and no amount of technology or dictionaries (though these sure can help save you time!) can replace that.

There’s one more thing I’d add to my colleague’s advice: seek feedback. When you’re just starting out, even constructive criticism is hard to take, but it’s the most useful learning tool you’ll ever have. Try to remember that feedback isn’t a critique of you or your abilities; try to to view it instead as an opportunity to see your work through a fellow professional’s eyes.

That said, trust your instincts, and, in the words of Rita Mae Brown which guide me to this day, never hope more than you work.

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