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… in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes Ben Franklin, in a letter written in 1789 How can we prepare to get through the storms of life? My mother-in-law, my husband and my mom died in the last six years. While I was deeply saddened by this, I still had to take care of most administrative issues for them and keep looking to the future. I wanted to have work and clients after this was over. As freelancers, our clients disappear when we disappear. How did I keep clients through these crises? Years…
I’d like to say I’m fascinated by every aspect of my work as a freelance translator, but it wouldn’t be an honest statement. The translation part of the job is easy to love, but the administration and paperwork? Not so much. Still, we all know we need the paperwork to help us keep track of clients and jobs, bill appropriately,…
This post was originally published on KGH Interpretation. It is reposted with permission. In 2022 I facilitated a session of the Language Access Café at the NCIHC Annual Membership Meeting and was asked to speak about interpreter self-care. Prior to the meeting, I decided to do an informal survey of medical interpreters asking them some questions about their mental health. I…
Hot Tip for Translation Students Coming from an ex-student now freelance translator, who’s facepalming because she didn’t start this habit while doing university assignments. Are you ready? Keep Track of Your Translation Time What exactly do I mean by that? Make a spreadsheet with the following columns: project name, language pair, word count, difficulty, preparation, translation, proofreading, and total time.…
The Savvy Newcomer team has been taking stock of the past year and finding that one key priority for many freelance translators and interpreters has been diversification. Offering multiple services in different sectors or to different clients can help steady us when storms come. Diversification can help us hedge against hard times. With this in mind, we’ve invited a series…
This post is a reblog, originally published at Tip of the Tongue. It is republished with permission of the author. Many freelancers, including translators, hold two jobs, one salaried with regular hours and one as an independent. The benefits of such a dual existence are clear. However, the relative load is asymmetric and variable, creating stress not only in terms…
It has to be admitted that the translation marketplace in 2023 is a strange thing to experience. I sometimes imagine that it’s getting stranger by the moment, but I realize that the overreactions to the latest technology and the threats posed by artificial intelligence have to be understood from the perspective of a short history of market upheavals over the…
All translators know that research is one of the key parts of the translation process, but not everyone knows that there are some simple ways of making your Google searches more effective. Below is a list of some Google search tips and strategies that are particularly useful for translators. If you didn’t already know about them, try them out! You…
In about a week, ATA’s annual conference will begin, this year in sunny Miami, Florida. As always, attendees will have to choose how to split their time among networking opportunities, social activities, job-hunting, and educational sessions. With so many options and so little time, how do you choose? You could just wander the halls and drop in on any session…
Less than two weeks remain until ATA’s 64th Annual Conference (ATA64) in Miami! Attending the ATA conference is a fantastic opportunity to connect with industry professionals, gain valuable insights, and broaden your horizons in the world of translation and interpretation. To help you make the most of this event, we’ve compiled a list of eight blog posts from the Savvy…
This post was originally published on That Interpreter Blog. It is reposted with permission. When I started this blog in 2012, I was thinking of applying to graduate school, and a friend told me that I should start to develop an online presence to give myself an edge over other applicants. He told me an easy way to do that…