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Meet the linguist: Joseph Lambert (@jaltranslation)

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Hi everybody! First of all, belated congratulations to all my colleagues! International Translation Day this year was filled with all kinds of events, both online and offline, in different parts of the world. It is so great to belong to such a wonderful army of smart, beautiful and talented people! I wish you all a prosperous, busy, adventurous and successful year!

Another piece of good news is that my post "10 worst mistakes I made as a freelancer" won ProZ Community Choice Awards as the best post for freelance translators. Big thanks to everybody who voted for it!

 Today I'd like you to meet another special person and a great professional. Joseph Lambert is an experienced translator, whose specialty fields include sports, marketing, medical, as well as technical translation! He also runs a blog, which is a part of his website jaltranslation.com. So let's meet Joseph Lambert!



1. Joseph, could you please share a few facts about yourself that you don't normally share in your bio?


Beyond my obsession with all things translation, I’m a huge music fan. I’ve played guitar in a whole host of bands since my early teens and currently spend most of my weekends playing rock and blues in the local pubs. Aside from that, I’m also a bit of a crazy cat guy… We have four of them at home and they’ve completely taken over the house.

2. What was the best project in your career? 


That’s a tricky one. I’m a huge football fan so I always really enjoy working on articles related to football - it’s almost like cheating to be translating a text that I would happily read in my spare time anyway. I also genuinely enjoy it when one of my regular clients sends me something a little out of the ordinary. I love the process of researching a new subject area and getting familiar with the inner workings of a branch of language that I haven’t dealt with before. Hopefully the best is yet to come though…

3. What was the worst project in your career? 


Aside from projects where there have been payment issues (which probably rank high on any translator’s list of nightmare projects), one recent project that sticks out was a reasonably short but seemingly never-ending list of terms that I translated for the search feature on a company’s website. The combination of working through the night to meet a tight deadline and making painfully slow progress due to there being almost zero context to go with these individual words made for an interesting experience to say the least!

4. What do you like best about being a freelance translator and why? 


First and foremost, I love translating, so having the chance to spend my days doing something that I actually enjoy is a really big plus. I’m also a big fan of the freedom that freelancing entails.I suppose it’s quite an obvious answer but the ability to choose your own path, schedule and clients makes a big difference to me. Ultimately, the chance to tackle something new every day, constantly learn new things and be a part of a great professional community makes it ideal.

5. Why do your clients love working with you? What's unique about your services? 


Another tough one! Hopefully they love working with me because I’m always willing to go the extra mile. I understand that sometimes I may be asked to work late or through theweekend etc. but I’m always willing to do everything I can to accommodate their needs. If I can shift a few things around to complete a project with a tight deadline then I’m more than willing to do it. On the flip side, I also like to be 100% honest with clients about the feasibility of a deadline or my knowledge of a topic and they always seem grateful for that. If I’m uncomfortable with a subject then I’d rather reply promptly and say no rather than take it on and do a sub-par job. I don’t think these things are really unique in the translation world but I like to think that my flexibility, honesty and enthusiasm for what I do stand out beyond the obvious requirements such as linguistic knowledge and the ability to deliver work on time...

Joseph, thank you once again for taking part in the series! I certainly wish you best of luck in everything you do! ... And please say hi to your cats from me, I am also a cat lover :)

Olga Arakelyan
Your Professional Translator

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