Speakers
Session 1 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)
This session is ideal for intermediate level freelance editors, especially academic editors, editors from diverse backgrounds and those concerned about AI.
“Has your work been affected by AI?” Especially since ChatGPT stunned the world, this is a question that preoccupies many of my friends in the editing and translation worlds. “No, not at all. In fact, I’m busier,” I used to reply. But then I found myself hesitating, realising this is a real concern for language professionals. I don’t want to offer platitudes, and I don’t have a simple cure.
“What is it that differentiates me, as a human being, from a machine?” Discussions about AI always lead me back to this key question. If an editor is mainly correcting spelling and putting commas in the right place, or if a translator is merely substituting words or sentences from one language into another, then a machine could certainly be far more efficient and accurate than a human. But I know I do much more than that, and most importantly my clients know this, too.
What is it that I can do that a machine cannot? I focus on developing genuine, meaningful connections with authors, colleagues and peers to foster mutual learning, trust, rapport and solidarity. My presentation will offer advice on how we can leverage our humanness and embrace our uniqueness in every aspect of our work – marketing, networking, client communications, technical editing skills, relationships, and personal and professional development. It will feature examples from my experience with speakers of languages other than English from Asia and beyond.
I adopt this human approach in my own work with scholars around the world who are under constant pressure to publish in English, which is now regarded as the global language of academia. Despite the encroachment of AI, there is a growing market for what is often referred to as “ESL” or “EAL” editing. Scholars from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds face many practical, psychological and social challenges in getting published. I believe that editors play a crucial role in helping marginalised voices – writers whose primary language is not English at home and/or work – showcase their research to an international audience.
Editing (and translation) for me is not just a profession but a vocation, or Ikigai, as we say in Japanese. Ikigai, an ancient Japanese concept that literally means “the value of life,” has become popularised in the Western world as a way of finding meaning or purpose in life by considering what we can contribute to the world: our Ikigai lies where our talents and the needs of the world intersect. I see my own value as a human editor and translator who helps to bridge the linguistic, cultural, social and psychological gaps for those writing on the margins of the English-language publishing world. What is your Ikigai?
