💻 What I Learned From Being GaryVee’s Translator
If you are a big fan of Gary Vaynerchuk, then you must be familiar with that photo. With Gary’s signature and lines made the photo for your lock home screen.
I first knew Gary via a video clip that Facebook recommended me. I can’t remember clearly which video clip was the first one because later on I watched one after another. I encountered sort of life crisis and felt confused; his video just gave me a way out. Then I found there is another his Facebook fanpage in Chinese. I was so excited because though I can fully understand English, Chinese is my mother tongue and it is a faster way.
After watching few video clips, I found some typos, maybe because of the difference of traditional and simplified Chinese. And I felt like helping out to translate more video. Therefore, I sent a private message on Facebook, asked to be a volunteer, and here began the journey.
Know yourself -> Advantage
In order to succeed, the first step is to understand yourself: what you are good at, what you had better stay away from. Gary has tons of content on various platform: Facebook, Medium, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Podcasts. He got a LOT of content to be translated. In the beginning, I was going to try video subtitle translation. But recalling my learning process and work experiences, I have always been good at translating articles. I do it faster and more effectively. I am not telling that I don’t dare to make new try. I told the content manager since my advantage is on translating articles. It is more effective for both of us. If I have extra time, I can do video too.
Love ❤️ -> Confidence
I was an English literature major in college with a diploma in Chinese and English translation and interpretation. Technically, translation is what I am good at. And since my third year in college, I have been working for The News Lens in Taiwan. Last year, they signed contracts with TIME.com so I started to do TIME and FORTUNE’s translation.
During the process, it is actually painful since the topic I am in charge of, military, gun violence, racism, etc, sometimes includes difficult vocabulary and long sentences with complicated grammar. I learned a lot but sometimes I also received the comments from the editor-in-chief saying that she thought I could do better, asking me to improve the quality.
Translating Gary’s Medium articles is not that painful. Each of these two articles below took me less than 1.5 hour.
I am not saying his article is easy. Reading the content, you can find that they are actually quit LONG. But how can I do it so fast?
Because I love the content, I love the way he thinks. I can’t wait to share with people these contents. I want them to know all these things.
The speed, finishing the translation within 1.5 hour, also increased my confidence. It empowered me a lot. When you actually love something, when you are doing what you love to do, it gains your confidence.
Switch
After five-year translator experiences, I have established my own translation style. When translating columns from TIME and FORTUNE, I do it in a more formal way.
But if I do it the same way when translating Gary’s content, it will be a big mistake. I have to watch his video, observe the way he talks, figure out the way he thinks, and intimate the way he produces his content. You have to “swich” so that people won’t feel weird when reading these articles. They want contents from “REAL” Gary and I have to make it.
Authenticity
As he mentioned in the book Crushing It!, authenticity is one of the essential things in your life, your career. You have to let people to see the true YOU. I remembered he said that maybe you get to know him from various channels and sometimes it seems that there is contradiction. But no, I can tell you when I translate his articles, read his book Crushing It, watch his video, and listen to his podcasts, he is all the same. He realized what he said by himself. And if a man with so much content can make it, we can too.
Though it just started not long ago, I have got to know myself better via “documenting” down all the process. I expect to learn more and contribute more in the future, and when I write all these things down, I am sure I can see myself growing through this. That will be a journey full of happiness and fulfillment.
Want to read other pieces on culture and travel observation written by me in English? Check this one out: How A “Good Boy” Turned out Threatening A Shooting At School in the US
