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ATA’s 67th Annual Conference takes place October 28-31, 2026, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, and those four days will fly by. The attendees who get the most out of the conference are rarely the ones with the best luck; they’re the ones who did a little homework before boarding the plane. Here are nine things you can do ahead of time so you arrive ready to learn, connect, and enjoy yourself. 1. Order paper business cards now Yes, still. Paper cards remain the fastest way to close a conversation gracefully in a noisy hallway. Order them early enough so…
This post originally appeared on Multilingual and it is republished with permission. As a senior localization manager, I spend a lot of time finding and hiring translators for my client’s projects. Over the past 15 years, I’ve discovered that the translators who consistently deliver the highest quality adhere to certain helpful and professional business practices. Whether you hire translators or…
Pursuing the Translation Dream: Promoter of the Profession
Since we last visited ATA’s Self-Evaluation Questionnaire for Translators we hope you’ve had a chance to practice the items we discussed in section 4, “Professional Demeanor.” It can be a challenge to develop a professional mindset and apply it to all your business interactions, but we’re confident that you’ve done so skillfully. Now that you’ve mastered what to know before…
This post originally appeared on LinkedIn and it is republished with permission. In the translation industry two pricing techniques seem to dominate: cost plus and competitive pricing. Before looking deeper into these and other pricing techniques, it is important to remember that price is one of the P’s described by Philip Kotler as the fundamental elements of every marketing mix.…
I often get requests for my rates from organizations that are trying to build a database of individual translation or interpreting service providers. An individual provider is a person who does their own work, also known as an interpreter or translator. Keep in mind that prime contractors (large language companies) can’t provide services without a sufficient number of subcontractors (individual…
This post originally appeared on SBO blog and it is republished with permission. I’ve been networking regularly for about eight years now, gradually increasing the frequency from once a month to at least once a week, sometimes more. As I eased into the rhythm of networking and kept seeing familiar faces (Singapore is really darn small), things got a little…
“Translations? Is that a thing?” In 2016 I started a BA in Translations. It was a new, exciting experience for me, being able to study something that I had decided to do in high school, but had to put off for two years because, you know, life. However, with my decision to become a translator—and eventually working as one—came a…
This post originally appeared on Anja Jones Translation blog and it is republished with permission. Translating marketing texts can be a tricky thing. We need to relay the information from the source text and make sure it sounds beautiful in the target language at the same time. Here are our top 5 tips for good copywriting that also apply…
As professional translators and interpreters, we are always striving to provide high-quality services to our clients, be that translation, interpretation, revision work, etc. Yet what does high-quality work look like as a language professional? How can it be measured and how do we know if we are providing quality work? Drs. Geoffrey Koby and Isabel Lacruz tackled this massive subject…
COVID-19 has changed the way we connect. For public health reasons, networking events are no longer taking place in person. Since February 2020, people around the world have been recasting their connections. What used to be in person is now done remotely if possible. What are we noticing? I have been attending meetings with my local Chamber of Commerce, which…
This post originally appeared on Translating is an Art blog and it is republished with permission. I find that a lot of people only use CAT tools for repetitive texts. And that is of course what they were originally developed for. Modern CAT tools, however, have so many other useful features that it’s worth considering using them for non-repetitive texts…