Post #12 - Would you talk to me?

Before starting the conversations with my guests, I contacted a couple of friends of mine who have experience recording podcasts. They gave me some advice and tips on which software to use and how to record good quality interviews. Since I don’t own a professional microphone, I had to record the calls on my laptop using what I had available in it.

The first thing to do was to run some tests. I did this with a colleague who helped me check if the sound of the calls was good and if I could record the talks properly. Once all the tests were successfully done, I moved forward with the first real interview.

My first guest was native German translator, writer and marketing savvy Arnhild Schmidt. We talked about everything related to language and the fashion industry as well as discussed the differences and similarities we have in our native languages. The conversation was extremely fluid and I barely had to look at the questions I had prepared in advance. I found the chat we had extremely interesting, surprising and innovative. Not only was I able to get her insights and her point of view about the main topic of the podcast but I was also able to discover that German and Turkish have been melting for years. In contrast to the Spanish situation, English terminology is treated as a natural part of the German language.

After Arnhild, I interviewed Chiara Vannini. She is a native Italian translator and transcreator. We currently work together for Vestiaire Collective and we come across the same issues in terms of translation and transcreation daily. Chiara has a solid background as a translator for the fashion and luxury industry and she is an expert in her language. That’s why I wanted to touch more linguistic topics with her than anything else. Probably, what surprised me the most about this conversation was how little presence there is of English in the Italian fashion industry and how, if needed, they use French terminology instead. Neither of us could provide a proper explanation to this event, but we agreed that it might have something to do with the fashion heritage both languages and cultures share.

My third guest was Victor Cantero. Victor and I have been friends for over 7 years now and we both studied Translation and Interpreting back in Seville. The main reason why I wanted to talk to him was because we have the exact same background in terms of education and, therefore, I thought it was a great exercise to check if we both agreed or not on the questions and topics of the conversation. I truly enjoyed this conversation with him because it was funny, natural, fluid and extremely interesting. Professionally speaking, his career path has always been focused on PR and copywriting and, due to his expertise and experience, I thought he could add valuable information and insights to the podcast series.

Post #11 - Use your language wisely

Although I truly believe I can communicate, I have never done a podcast before. Therefore, I was quite worried I was going to go quiet, nervous or lost while talking to my guests. The epicentre of the series was the language of fashion and the main goal was to find out the similarities and differences between different languages as well as learning about experiences, opinions and knowledge from other experts in the field.

In order to make the conversation more fluid, I outlined a few questions I would like to cover in the first few episodes of the podcast:

1. Is the abuse of foreign language a thing in your language? Would you say this is an issue for the industry? Focus on the fashion language.

2. Have you ever thought about the abuse of foreign language before?

3. How do you cope with terminology that is difficult or almost impossible to localise in your language?

4. Have you ever come across some words in a foreign language which you have not been able to translate into the meta language?

5. Do you think the abuse of foreign language is an issue in all languages or not?

6. How do you feel about using foreign terminology instead of their equivalents in your language?

7. Speaking of fashion, do you think the overuse of foreign terminology is a trend or is it here to stay?

8. Do you always find a solution in your language when you have to localise foreign content?

9. Do you feel language is progressing by using foreign terminology or the other way around?

10. If you do not understand English, would you feel comfortable reading a Spanish fashion magazine full of english terms?

11. As a content specialist, how important do you think the message can be for the audience? Do you think it is crucial for a campaign to have the proper message on it?

12. From 1 to 10, how important do you think language is for a fashion campaign to perform properly?

Although I had the questions prepared, I don’t plan to ask them one by one since I want No More Loaned Language - The Podcast series to be a natural conversation between experts rather than a cold and prepared interview. Instead, I would use these questions as a personal guide to orchestrate the episodes.

Post #10 - No More Loaned Language - The Podcast series

Before the Major Project module officially started, I already set personal deadlines for sections and documents to be ready. In my manifesto, I would outline the project and the reasoning behind it as well as its projection into the future.

Regarding the podcast, I shortlisted the people I wanted to invite for the first few episodes and I decided I was going to only focus on fashion and language as the main topic of the series. Since this podcast was not only an extension but also the final part of an ongoing project that started when I enrolled this MA, it could only have one title: No More Loaned Language - The Podcast series.

Once all of the above was decided, I sent over an official invitation via email to the first four guests and set up the calls with them upon acceptance. Even though I won’t be able to get more than three episodes for submission, I expect to continue with this series once I finish my MA. These are the six first guests that I would like to invite to my podcast. Bear in mind that they are not in order of appearance:

1. Víctor Cantero: Fellow Spanish translator with experience in fashion content creation.

2. Chiara Vannini: Native Italian translator with a wide experience in the field of fashion and luxury as a translator and transcreator.

3. Arhnild Schmidt: Native German translator and content specialist in the fashion field.

4. Raquel Calvo: Native Spanish translator specialised in the fashion and luxury field.

5. Sophie MacCormack: Originally from the UK, she is the Marketing Manager for NOE (North of Europe and UK) at Vestiaire Collective.

6. Seb Law: Native English fashion copywriter.

7. Sarah Jobert: French fashion editor.

At first I thought I’d invite all the translators to the same episode so we could discuss the issues we’ve come across while translating fashion content. However, after giving it some thought I realised the podcast would be much richer if I reserved an entire episode for each of them to get different perspectives, opinions and thoughts that will allow me and the audience to contrast information and learn much more.