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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…
All work and no play? How to achieve balance between your freelance translation work and the rest of your life
By Tess Whitty Long and irregular work hours seem to be the norm among freelancers, but it does not have to be this way. In fact, I am a living testament and firm believer that it should not be this way! Many highly successful freelance translators do not work long or irregular hours. Instead, they have learned to manage their…
The story of a U.S. Intern in France
By Kimberley Hunt I’m Kimberley, currently living in Paris as an intern at a translation agency. I’m also a French translation student at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. In Paris, I translate and proofread for the company’s finance division, which means I spend a lot of time reading annual reports and frantically searching glossaries for investment fund terminology with…
15 FREE Tools for Translators (and Not Only) that You Might Not Know You Need
By Flo Bejgu Reblogged from Inbox Translation blog with permission from the author (including the images) The advancements in technology have made it possible for people of different languages, traditions and customs to come into contact. As was expected, translators and interpreters quickly became essential for society, because they are the only ones who can make conversations between foreign individuals possible. Every translator…
Take the Message and Jump!
By Christiane Nord Abstract by Jamie Hartz and Cynthia Eby A common, but dangerous, tendency in translation is to adhere too closely to the source text and miss the mark in the target culture. In this article, Dr. Christiane Nord explains the concept of “taking the message and jumping” into the target linguaculture—which is a combination of culture and language which…
Revision and its Kin
by Jonathan Hine If you have been translating professionally for a little while, a project manager (PM) has or will ask you to revise a text that someone has translated. The PM probably will not call it “revision.” This is part of our professional practice which has more misnomers than almost anything we do. What is revision? Why isn’t it…
Promoting Your Practice in 60 Seconds or Less: Mastering the Elevator Speech
By Lillian Clementi Reblogged from ATA Chronicle with permission So I’ve made it to the networking event—I’ve even remembered to bring some business cards—and I’m starting to peek out from behind the potted plant when a friendly stranger makes eye contact and asks, “So what do you do?” Or I’ve settled into my seat at a business gathering and suddenly the moderator…
Promoting Your Practice in 60 Seconds or Less: Mastering the Elevator Speech
By Lillian Clementi Reblogged from ATA Chronicle with permission So I’ve made it to the networking event—I’ve even remembered to bring some business cards—and I’m starting to peek out from behind the potted plant when a friendly stranger makes eye contact and asks, “So what do you do?” Or I’ve settled into my seat at a business gathering and suddenly the moderator…
My ATA Conference Experience
by Veronica Sardon It has been more than a year since I acted on a very unlikely hunch and reserved a room at the 2014 ATA Conference hotel in Chicago. On the face of it, it did not make a lot of sense. Almost two years into my career as a freelance translator, which I was still doing on the…
Ramadan: A month of joy, celebration and fasting
By Hicham Zerhouni For over 1.5 billion Muslims around the world, Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim Calendar, is the holiest time of year. For Muslims, it marks the month when the Quran was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH). During Ramadan Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset for 29 or 30 days, depending on the moon sighting of…
Minutes from The Savvy Newcomer Logbook
June 15, 2015. After a few months of letting The Savvy Newcomer ship fly the flags of other bloggers, the Captain and Crew had a team meeting to rediscover the world of original content. It had been a few months since they had connected as a team, and thanks to the valiant efforts of Mate Christaki, who had valiantly kept…