I’m not going to explain the ins and outs of why I’ve been so quiet for a few months (those of you that follow me, @keycheck_t9n, on Twitter might have some idea as to why) – I shall just say that it’s down to personal matters. I have, however, been watching the scene all this time and have found some things crying out for a comment. Continue reading
It seems to me that this is one of the fundamental questions that you need to be able to answer:
How to quote? How to work out your translation rates?
In this week’s post I shall try to help you out with this. Continue reading
Firstly and above all, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas / winter holiday and a great celebration of the arrival of 2012 (if that’s the calendar that you follow)! Continue reading
This is just in case you missed my recent guest post for WebTranslations, a local translation agency. In the post I discuss what to include and what not to include in your CV. My post is based on research (I looked at several dozen translation CVs), training (I attended several sessions on CV writing), consultation (I spoke to careers’ advisors at my uni) and also Marta Stelmaszak’s useful e-book. You can find my post here. Enjoy!
Are you considering studying translation? Here are some afterthoughts, which hopefully will explain why you should go for it and why you should decide against it. The final decision is, of course, up to you.
Studying – in general – is fun (and hard work). Studying translation – specifically – is not only fun (and hard work), but also can be incredibly useful and frustrating at the same time. That’s my strongest feeling, having just obtained my Master of Arts degree in Applied Translation Studies. In certain areas, getting this degree was a pleasure. In others it was painfully disappointing, frustrating and not quite what it was cracked up to be. Was it worth the effort and thousands of pounds that it cost me? Continue reading
It’s been a long time since I wrote here last. There has been something happening almost every week, but the last fortnight has seen me deprived of the internet and energy to do anything outside of my personal matters.
And since I’m embroiled mainly in personal matters, I shall discuss my personal views and revelations regarding my very own home country – Poland. Enjoy! Continue reading
In this week’s post I am going to discuss 10 basic things to do – or at least think about – when starting a translation service business. I bet there are plenty more – feel free to add them in your comments! Continue reading
Hello yet again! In this week’s post I am going to present you with another interview that I promised some time ago. My studies at the University of Leeds (which have eventually come to an end) had a fantastic bonus associated with them: I met a translator with lots of hands-on experience and whose sound advice I found very helpful throughout my studies. Similarly to my father, Anetta has been a translator for many years, but unlike him, she has specialised in subtitling all sorts of films as well as translating literary, marketing, tourism-related and financial text. Her main working language pair is English to Polish. Continue reading
As promised, I conducted an interview with a translation and localization professional that I know quite well. I wouldn’t say I know him very well, because he always surprises me with his wealth of knowledge and how he deals with things. Please meet my very own father – a successful translator for as long as I can remember, from the days when you had to boot up your Windows 3.2 from DOS (and I was climbing a door frame in order to swing off the bar at the top of it) until this day, when I have started my own family. Continue reading
Hello again, yet again it is my pleasure to write for you! Sorry to those of you who were expecting a new post within the past fortnight, I was finishing my degree and found myself hard at work. Also, I’m afraid that those of you, who were expecting to see an interview with fellow translators with lots of experience in the field, will have to wait a little longer. But not much longer, I assure you!Today I talk about the differences in those little things that make the UK British and Poland Polish. I am sure there are many, many more, but the 10 little things I mention have been bugging me for quite a while now. Now, it isn’t exactly about getting into the translation business, but it is quite common for translators to be a little more mobile than in other professions – and, what’s more important, this, I believe, is often due to personal choice to experience another place and culture rather than just having to move countries for other reasons. Continue reading
Recently I had a fantastic opportunity to talk with Marta Stelmaszak about becoming a translator and my views on the translation industry. One of the questions she asked me has stuck and I decided to expand here a little bit on my answer to it: is translation creative? I say a resounding YES. Continue reading
Hello again! A pleasure to write for you. Today I am going to discuss how to choose a name for a business, which is usually required by law for tax purposes and – hence – part of what becoming a translator involves. There is plenty of help available elsewhere online (resources 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), some (6 and 7) more relevant to translation businesses than others.
Having worked in an office on a 9-5 basis, I think the beauty of going freelance is being able to work from home. But in order to do that, I had to organise myself in such a way that would be practical, convenient and motivating me to work.
From the moment I tweeted that I got my first client, I have been asked to explain how I managed to do that. (Hello, Rebekka!) Here is the explanation.
How do I put it? I suppose a simple answer will suffice for now.
Whilst knowing two or more languages is not a good enough reason to become a translator (or a language professional of any description) on its own, I decided to come up with a little list of what made me choose this particular profession. It may not be extensive – please feel free to add your own reasons in comments - but these are those that I can think of immediately, which means that I feel fairly strongly about them:
