Ahead of next week’s American Translators Association conference, many U.S.-based translators are printing résumés, putting the finishing touches on presentations, searching the closet for presentable outfits and dreading the inevitable rooms full of strangers at this sizable event. At the same time, every successful translator has to admit that ours is a business that depends [...]
Archive for October, 2008
Networking for introverts
Posted in Freelancing on October 31, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Speaking of Translation: a new podcast
Posted in Announcements, Links on October 28, 2008 | 11 Comments »
A few months ago, my colleague and friend Eve Bodeux (of Adventure Translators and Bodeux International) had the idea to start a podcast focusing on translation and the translation industry. Eve asked me to co-host the podcast with her, and we’re excited to present the first episode of Speaking of Translation, which may be the [...]
Online tutorials for OpenOffice.org
Posted in Technology on October 22, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Last night I was at a Colorado Translators Association event at which the presenter (the ever-popular editing consultant Alice Levine), mentioned an online tutorial for the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word. This made me realize that there must be similar websites for OpenOffice.org. Here are a few that I’ve found: A really comprehensive resource [...]
Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique for your toolbar
Posted in Technology on October 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In the “small but mighty developments” department, the FR<>EN translator’s friend, the Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique now offers a search box for your browser toolbar. It works in Firefox 2.0 or IE 7.0, and you have to select whether you want to add the FR>EN or the EN>FR box. And while you’re on the site, you [...]
Choosing a pricing currency
Posted in Money on October 20, 2008 | 6 Comments »
For translators who work with clients outside their home base countries, choosing a pricing currency can be an important business issue. For the past year or so, pricing in euros (or if you’re European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, pricing in “euro”) has seemed attractive for those of us based in the U.S. When the [...]
Volunteering your translation services
Posted in Freelancing on October 15, 2008 | 12 Comments »
Many beginning translators would like to volunteer their services in order to gain some experience before applying to translation companies and/or direct clients. This is a great idea because it benefits both the translator and the client, and pro bono projects are often less stressful than projects for a paying client; for example the pro [...]
Upcoming session of “Getting Started as a Freelance Translator”
Posted in Announcements on October 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
For about the past three years, I have been teaching a six-week online course, called “Getting Started as a Freelance Translator,” for people who are already bilingual but want to learn how to run a successful freelance translation business. We cover topics such as writing a translation-targeted resumé and cover letter, finding and keeping well-paying [...]
Link: So you want to be a literary translator
Posted in Links on October 13, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Masked Translator has a very insightful and much-needed post for people who want to become literary translators. We’ve all heard the discouraging advice (literary translation doesn’t pay, Americans don’t read literature much less literature in translation, publishers don’t want to use newbies, etc.), but MT gives some very helpful and concrete tips on how to [...]
Can we make a collective resolution?
Posted in Freelancing, Nubbin on October 10, 2008 | 10 Comments »
As the Dow falls below 8,000 for the first time in over five years, Iceland faces the prospect of national bankruptcy and many Americans can’t sell their homes for what they owe on the mortgage, I think it’s time for freelance translators to make a collective resolution. So far (I force myself to preface any [...]
Nobel may open up new translation opportunities
Posted in Translation industry news on October 9, 2008 | 4 Comments »
It’s an exciting day for lovers of French literature everywhere. Today in Sweden, French author Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first French-language author to do so since Claude Simon in 1985 (Gao Xingjian, a French citizen who writes in Chinese, won in 2000). Le Clézio has [...]
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