With a background in landscape planning and several years’ freelance experience as a copywriter, editor and desktop publisher, in 2001 Betti Moser decided to qualify as a German translator so she could work from home more often. Currently based in London, Betti talks to us about about setting up a freelance practice, finding clients and marketing yourself as a freelancer. [Read more…]
Translator identities: multiple personalities or a dynamic whole?
How important is it to you to speak another language? How is ‘being multilingual’ viewed in your country? How closely do you identify with the translation profession? These were just some of the questions asked by Floriana Badalotti, a PhD candidate from Monash University, in a session titled Considerations on the Cultural Identity of Interpreters and Translators at the 2008 AUSIT Biennial National Conference in Brisbane. [Read more…]
Using Twitter to micro-blog live
Check out Philippa Hammond’s write-up of the Translator as Strategic Partner Conference over at Blogging Translator. Philippa was micro-blogging live over the conference weekend and has used her updates as a basis for her post. A fantastic example of how to use Twitter in a professional context.
More than that though, her post contains some really useful nuggets of inspiration. Try this on for size:
Jost Zetzsche, of Toolkit fame, spoke about our age-old idealisation of the patron saint of translators, St. Jerome. We risk being constrained by this idealisation of a translator who, let’s face it, innovative as he was at the time, was born c. 347. Instead, we need to roll with the times and think about the true purpose of our texts…
Great write-up, Philippa!
First impressions: translating in the UK vs translating in Australia
The last eight months have been a real roller-coaster ride professionally speaking, as I’ve tried to settle into life on the Other Side of the World. On the one hand, despite my best efforts to stay connected virtually, at times I’ve felt isolated and demotivated without the face-to-face contact that I enjoyed with my peers in London. On the other, I’ve had a stronger sense than ever of the wealth of opportunity and choice that translation as a career can offer me – if only I could get myself focussed enough to tap into it.
Thankfully last weekend’s 2008 AUSIT Biennial National Conference in Brisbane delivered just the shot of enthusiasm I needed to top up my motivation levels. My one and only aim in attending was to gain an overview of translation in Australia. What I got was a lesson on how the oldest profession in the world is forging its place in country with needs far different to those I’d ever considered before.
Yes, this is where I live now. And yes, this is the frankly breathtaking mode of transport I used to commute to the AUSIT conference last weekend 🙂
Mobile translating at its best
This has nothing at all to do with translation. Except that, much like my profession of choice, it too is utterly, impossibly cool.
I’ve decided to divert our house-deposit fund towards this instead – a steal at US$129,000. Can’t you just see me translating away in the front passenger seat?!
HT to Bridgette over at Unclutterer for the link.
Tis the season to be conferenced
I attended the 2008 AUSIT Biennial National Conference in Brisbane this weekend, and was pleased to come away with some fantastic new contacts and a much clearer view of the role of translation in Australia. Until I have a chance to write up my notes, here’s a list of posts relating to other conference and translation-related events I’ve attended:
- Proofing, revision, editing or checking: whatever you call it, find 3 steps to help navigate these murky waters here. (Nov 2007)
- Want to know how to be a true professional? This conference session I attended discussed the transition from translation student to freelance professional, but the part about professionalism is relevant to translators at any stage of their careers. (Nov 2007)
- Read my thoughts on applying occupational standards to my translation practice, with a link to more information on the CEN 15038 quality standard for translation service providers. (Apr 2007)
- Get more letters after your name. Read about the UK’s CIOL chartered linguist status and some tips gleaned from a specially organised information session I attended, along with a rundown of the requirements for qualified member status of the ITI. (Be aware these may have changed in the intervening months. Link through to the relevant website for the most up-to-date requirements.) (Feb 2008)
- Think about expanding the language-related services you offer (Dec 2007), or read some tips I picked up from a session on building sustainable customer relationships. (Mar 2007)
- If tech’s your cup of tea, you might be interested in my write-up of an ITI Conference session on corpora (May 2007) or on building a website. (Mar 2007)
- Finally, read how throwing your career path out the window could be the best thing you’ve ever done. (Apr 2007)
And thank you to everyone who took the time to do a write-up on the recent ATA Conference. Sounds like it was a great event!
Surviving versus thriving as a translator
Corinne McKay over at Thoughts on Translation looks at some of the common features she’s identified in high-earning translators in an excellent post called Secrets of six-figure translators.
Personally, I think working for direct clients has the biggest potential impact on earnings for freelance translators, and her point about being a businessperson/translator is spot on. Direct clients certainly make the world of difference for newly established and mid-career translators as they work towards a high degree of specialisation (very likely in a completely unrelated field) and try not to starve in the process. Finding these direct clients is of course another story (and one Chris Durban is eminently able to tell, in my opinion).
On another note, I do love posts like Corinne’s that acknowledge the diversity of a group, weigh up a couple of factors from a range of sources, add some personal insights and then draw something useful from it all. Excellent stuff!
Stephen Fry on language as a fingerprint
I’ve just taken the time to properly discover Stephen Fry‘s new-look website. (I don’t know what’s taken me so long!) Here’s a snippet from a recent treatise post on language, where Fry describes some of the social, cultural and literary ingredients that have contributed to his distinctive voice. I can’t think of a better way to explain the layers of information (“linguistic strata”) that a translator sifts through and then transfers on a daily basis. [Read more…]
Project managers get in on the act
It’s not easy for a company to let their employees loose on a company blog, and most companies are too afraid of the results to give it a try. But that’s exactly what the UK-based company Web Translations seems to be doing [Read more…]
Podcasting Translators
We have translators who blog, Twitter, and social network. It was only a matter of time, but finally we have translators who podcast! [Read more…]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- …
- 26
- Next Page »