Your professional translator

Happy New Year, my dear readers! If I say that 2020 was a rollercoaster, it won't be a surprise. But there were quite a few good things that I am grateful for.  1. In February, my daughter went on a school trip to Germany. The journey went very well, the kids saw Berlin and Dresden and visited a national park near Dresden. They loved it.  2. We started renovating our apartment — that's a big job that will continue in 2021. So far everything is going well.  3. I had enough translation and editing work all throughout the year. There was a little break in March and April, but things went back to normal pretty fast.  4. In May 2020, the LinguaContact translation school had its second conference. We had to move it online and make some alterations in the program, but everything went very well. Our third conference is going to be online as well. It is scheduled for 21-22 May . It is aimed primarily at Russian speaking translators and interpreters, just like the previous t...

How are you, my dear readers? Hope you are doing well. I haven't been posting anything here for quite some time, but I've been thinking about reviving this blog. And today it occurred to me that I can write here about any important work related events. I do a lot of things online, so it's time to actually speak about them :-) I have recently recorded my first marketing translation analysis (as part of my ongoing efforts to make a full-scale online course on marketing translation). Here it is. Hope you'll find it interesting (note: it is in Russian): Since last year, I have also been a member of the Translation Teachers Association. A couple weeks ago I was invited to speak about methods of effective online teaching. The webinar was also in Russian. Hope it will be interesting for those of you who speak Russian and teach online. Wishing you all the very best! Talk soon.

Happy New Year and merry Christmas, my dear readers! 10 years seems like an awfully long time. Yet it seems like it was yesterday. 10 years ago my daughter was 2 years old and I was frantically searching for some kind of work I could do while still staying at home with my child. 10 years ago I made up my mind to become a freelancer. I was scared, yet I knew it was the right thing for me. Today, I am managing translation CPD courses and working as a freelance marketing translator and editor in my favourite fields: education, tourism, and everything connected with pet foods. I feel real joy because I love what I am doing. I am truly blessed. I've had different times in my freelance life. Some were good, others not so good. But when I look back I see an exciting story unfolding. I can't wait to see what my life will be like 10 years from now. Some great things that happened in 2017: It was probably my best year financially so far. I was able to regularly donate some...

Fist of all, I am amazed at how popular my previous post became. There have been over 5000 views of it already. It has never happened to any of my posts before, which tells me that the article really struck the chord with my colleagues. We need to be honest and open about mistakes we make! That's how we can learn from one another! Thanks for all your comments here and in social networks. Your opinion and your experience matter! One of my readers asked to render an account of the ways to remedy those mistakes . I think it's a great idea, and, besides my experience, I am also going to use the experience of my colleagues, shared publicly in their blogs or in comments to the previous post.

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." Sir Winston Churchill Image granted by my colleague and friend Magda Phili If Sir Winston Churchill was right, then I should be very successful. We all make tons of mistakes. And I am not an exception. My mistakes nowadays may not be as big as they were at the beginning of my freelance career, but I still make them and do my best to learn from them. I also watch others make mistakes and I do my best to learn from them, too. So here's the list of major mistakes in freelance business I made since 2007. Hope it helps other colleagues to learn and grow. And you are welcome to share the mistakes you made, so we can all learn from one another!

Image source At least once in our professional life, all of us translators – beginning or experienced – have dealt with the translation of Portable Document Format (PDF) files. That being the case, there is no need stating the hard times we must have had handling such files, especially when it came with deciding how to process them and reflecting on ways and means to effectively render the target document in both a convenient and presentable way. Following the steps outlined below can prevent us much headache and help us to get out of trouble.

If yes, we are inviting you to take part in the longest webinar of your life ! It’s going to take place on the 25 th and 26 th of June . Yes, it’s this coming Tuesday and Wednesday! It may sound like an absolutely crazy initiative of Sharp End Training, but we really want to break the previous Guinness record, and in order to do that we need to make it last for 36 hours and 1 minute! So, since we got this chance to hold this important and FREE training session we thought the best thing would be to divide the 36 hours into 1 hour sections. And can you imagine the number of people who became as passionate as we are? Fabulous speakers signed up in an extremely short time to fill those 36 hours . And look what people have signed up! They are kings and queens of virtual work, marketing and freelance business. And of course translators are on board! You have a chance to learn from Konstantina Drakou , Sarah Colombo , Marta Chereshnovska , Lucy Brooks , Joy Mo , and yours truly ...

It's time for another post in the series. As usual, I found tweets with most retweets and mentions with the help of the website called topsy.com. So check out these messages! I am sure you'll find something worth reading and sharing :) Language tweets: sarahditum Sarah Ditum Do you like talking? Imagine your language being disappeared – it's happening to sign language at Bristol Uni: http://t.co/2nNOERPfb

Thanks to my friend Magda for this badge! This is the third post in the series. As usual, I found tweets with most retweets and mentions with the help of the website called topsy.com. April was especially fruitful on language tweets, but translation messages were no less interesting and useful. So check them out! I am sure you'll find something worth reading and sharing :) Language tweets first: slate Slate Moist. Slacks. Crevice? Why do certain words sound so awful? http://t.co/YAnLPfFvoC #language #WordAversion

The world continues to grow smaller as the Internet has made it possible to quickly and easily communicate with people around the world. In order for these communications to be effective, it is necessary for a variety of different languages to be supported. Translation services are an area in which there is seemingly unlimited growth potential. Graduates of programs that focus on such skills will be able to work within government agencies, as freelance translators, in corporate translation capacities, as developers of translation software, and within the personal translation industry. For the individual who is interested in pursuing a translation degree, a variety of different options are available. Some colleges and universities offer professional certificates, while others offer bachelor's, master's or doctorate degrees in translation. The right program will depend on the circumstances of a particular person. For a few ideas about the options available to people who wa...

Looks like many translation professionals are starting 2013 with more or less the same goals. They want to take control of their business . They want to define their own rates, their own payment terms and deadlines. They don't want to feel like employees, but really want to be in charge of their business. It is possible for people of other professions. So why not make it possible for us, too? You can read these thoughts in Marta Stelmaszak's new post called " Lesson 50: 2013 - The Year of Translators ". And members of our LinkedIn group have expressed the same ideas. So, if you would like to make 2013 YOUR year, here's a very useful way to start it: attend our online conference in February 15th and 16th. All our speakers are professional translators AND entrepreneurs. And they are willing to share their experience with you. We will talk about blogging, branding, marketing , different aspects of networking and about some very specific skills that translators...

I think it's the first time when I decided to write proper New Year resolutions. You see, I don't normally write any resolutions. Instead, every year I write my personal letter to the Lord with some very specific requests. And then, at the end of the year I open that letter and rejoice when I see some (actually, quite a few this time!) of my prayers answered. But this time I also felt it was time to voice some decisions I've made. So, here are my resolutions: 1. I want to become a member of a professional translator association . Haven't yet decided which one. Still investigating it. But I have come to the point when I realize that I need it for my business. I used to be very skeptical about this whole issue of membership, but last year my opinion started to change. I still have doubts, but I am willing to give it a try for 1 year and see whether it will have any impact on my business and on my growth as a translation professional.

This post is meant for those people and businesses that need translation services. Before you hire a translator, please first think about your priorities concerning the translation project. What's most important for you? Often people ask for these three things: high speed, low rate and premium quality. But is it possible to get all three of them at once? Let's have a look at all these points and then you decide what's more important for you, ok?

You think speaking Italian is chic. Of course you do! I do too! But just for the record: For me vino and latte are NOT trendy words that I have incorporated into my vocabulary. They are plain items on my shopping list (I’ve always wanted to say this!!!).

I know freelancers normally hate those times when they have little or no work. Especially if they are just beginning their career. But on the other hand, living constantly in a hectic rhythm isn't good for us . Moreover, those "famine" periods can even be useful for us and our businesses! Let me show you some things that I do when I am not overloaded with work. Maybe this list will give you an idea about things you can do! And if you have something to share, please do!

Last weekend we celebrated  International Translation Day and I would like to send my best wishes to my colleagues throughout the world! Have you ever thought what would your life be like if you chose some other profession? I definitely can't imagine mine without languages. I would like to send my very best wishes to all my colleagues. There are some very specific things that I wish to you because I know you love to translate and you want translation to stay in demand for years and years. So here's the list of my wishes to you, dear translators: (actually, I wish the same things to myself, too!)

I recently read a wonderful post in Writing Happiness blog called " 10 habits of highly successful bloggers " and I thought it would be interesting to find out what successful freelance translators have in common. Also, in the past two weeks I had three interviews with experienced blogging translators, so they also gave me some food for thought. Plus I've been following a few translation blogs and my conclusions are based on what I've learned from them. But first of all, I need to share my view on success with you, because all of us define this term differently. Some people think that being successful is being in demand . Others think that success is financial security . Yet others think that being successful means being a well-known professional with a spotless reputation .

Hi everybody! First of all, thank you for reading my blog. I love to see that the number of my subscribers is growing every week. That's so inspiring! I've got some news for you. I am amazed with the way my work and business are developing. Life is getting more and more interesting and, hopefully, these changes will be good for you, too! So, here are my news:

Today I was asked by a colleague to evaluate a translation that seemed absolutely horrible to the client. As I was reading the translation and the client's remarks, it dawned on me that the client actually needed transcreation , not translation. But since the term "transcreation" is fairly new, not all clients realize that that's what they actually need when they ask for "translation". So would you like to do a little research with me about it? Let's start then :)

Recently, I've been thinking about the cultural/geographical aspect of rates. I remember my dear Twitter friend Konstantina Drakou also wrote about this issue in her blog post called " Is geography a quality factor? " I don't know why, but I regularly get messages from European translation agencies proposing me work for 0.02-0.03 EURO per word (how "generous"!) and they get really surprised when I state my actual rates. This is even more surprising for me because those companies find me through proz.com and other translation portals where my rates are clearly stated. I know that the issue of "competitive rates" is pretty important in this competition between different agencies in order to get more customers. But as a professional, I realize that I don't have to win clients only with my rates. There are far more important aspects to consider: