Time to make conclusions and think about new goals for 2014

It's hard to believe that it's the end of the year! In just a few days 2014 is going to begin! So I've been thinking that I really need to do some analyzing and thinking, and planning for next year.

Overall, it was a very good year for me. Some very good things happened in my life and business:
1. I reached my target monthly income.
2. I took part in organizing the world record attempt for the longest webinar. I had a fabulous time!
3. I made some new friends and met some new clients.
4. I added a new type of service for my clients: now I can also help them with blogging. I also write articles about Russian culture and traditions.

5. The number of readers of this blog doubled! Wow. I feel honored. Thank you. You are the best!
6. I finally changed the domain name of this blog. Yay! Thank you, Google, for simplifying the process :)
7. I held 6 webinars and hosted over 15 of them.
8. Besides all these conferences and webinars, I completed over 100 translation and editing projects.
9. Together with other respected colleagues I became a co-author of the book "Diversification in the language industry" written by Nicole Y. Adams. The book is now available at Amazon.

I am very thankful for everything. Can't wait to see what the next year will bring :)

What do I want to achieve next year?
1. I want to double my income.
2. I want the number of my readers to grow at least twice.
3. I want to publish (probably self-publish) my first book. It's going to be in Russian, for Russian freelancers.
4. There's one thing I didn't do this year: I didn't become a member of any professional association. For some reason, I just forgot about it. Granted, I had a lot to do this year. But that's one of the things I really should look into in 2014.
5. Also, I almost killed myself working too much. That was one of the main reasons why I had to leave Sharp End Training and limit my other activities besides translation and editing. Now I strictly observe my work-life balance and make sure I don't work too much. I want to continue this practice of observing the good balance next year. So in order to grow my income I need to learn to work smarter, not harder.

Here are 10 most popular posts in my blog in 2013:

Thank you for all your wonderful, encouraging messages about the Top Language and Translation tweets series. The series will continue in 2014. The December list will be published in January.

Happy 2014 to you! Hope next year will bring you even more joy than 2013!

Olga

10 interesting facts about the Russian language

In my previous post I promised to follow with the interesting info about some other languages. So here are 10 facts about the Russian language which might be of interest to those who are studying it. If you would like to have this list in Russian, please contact me and I will send it to you by email. So, what do I find interesting about my native language? 1. Russian has about 500,000 words, but only 2,000-2,500 of them are used frequently. 100 most frequently used words make 20% of all written and oral speech. A high school graduate's vocabulary usually has 1,500 to 4,000 words. Those who have graduated from a higher educational institution normally have a richer vocabulary consisting of approximately 8,000 words. 2. It's compulsory for all astronauts in the international space station to learn Russian, so we can call it an international language of space :)

15 interesting facts about the English language

I prepared this list for one of my English classes. And then it dawned on me that I can share it with you, too! So here are 15 facts about the English language that I find very interesting. Hope you do, too ;) Rudyard Kipling was fired as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner. His dismissal letter said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language. This isn't a kindergarten for amateur writers." No language has more synonyms than English.

Translation Forum Russia 2017: my report

A few days ago I came back from Translation Forum Russia which took place in Ufa, Bashkortostan . My daughter Delia went with me because she never visited Ufa before (neither have I) and because of the trip to the Southern Ural mountains we planned to take after the conference with a small group of colleagues. Ufa is not considered one of the primary tourist attractions of Russia, though I am convinced now that it definitely should be. Some pictures of the city (not all of the pictures are mine, some were made by the official photographer of the conference Elena Ekaterininskaya, our company CEO Fedor Kondratovich and some other colleagues): The bee is a symbol of the region as Bashkortostan produces the best honey in Russia. We saw installations shown below in different parts of the city. There were still covered because of the cold weather, but they will be full of blooming flowers as soon as the warm weather comes. The bee as we saw it That's what it

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