This blog post features 5 creators of online content for translators across different social media platforms. These resources will be useful both for translators who are only starting their path in the language industry and already established professionals.

https://www.viktoriiahoriachko.com/blog/creators-of-content-for-translators

I’ve often received questions about translation agencies, how to find the good ones, how to apply to them, and how to work with them. That is what I’m covering in this episode. In the search to find a steady stream of clients, sometimes working with a translation agency can be your best bet, at least at the beginning of your career.

Listen to the podcast here

With many organizations expanding their reach and going global, the role of translation is becoming increasingly important. Businesses need effective multilingual communication with their partners, employees and customers across cultural borders if they are to succeed in international markets.

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En Pantuflas (Spanish for ‘in slippers’) is a weekly Spanish language podcast that aims to shine a light on the translation and interpreting profession. En Pantuflas is hosted by two Argentinian ladies Marina and Paola, both experienced translators themselves. Every week, they chat with language professionals from all over the world who work in many different fields.

In the newest episode of En Pantuflas entitled ‘Terminología sin fronteras‘, Marina and Paola talked to TermCoord’s Head of Unit Rodolfo Maslias. Among other things, they talked about the European Parliament’s terminology work, the IATE database, and of course, the Terminology without Borders project.

You can tune in to the episode here.

In this episode of The Filter Koffee Podcast, noted Bengali author and activist Taslima Nasreen is joined by translator Arunava Sinha; they discuss their individual creative processes.

Listen to the episode here.

Being a freelance translator is both rewarding and challenging, and one of the challenges is managing our time so that we don ot end up working around the clock or getting burned out. If we are constantly working, we also do not have time to market our services to “better” clients either. At last year’s American Translators Association’s annual conference, I attended a presentation on Time Management for Translators, co-presented by David Rumsey and Corinne McKay and in this episode I am discussing time management tips with David Rumsey. Continue reading.

In this episode we talk about the mindset of freelance linguists and how this can hinder our success. If you feel that you’re always working and never getting ahead, having to fight machine translation and price pressure, then you might have a mindset that works against your success. I am interviewing Jennifer Nielsen, a Spanish to English translator who has given talks and webinars on the topic of mindset.

Listen to the podcast episode here.

In this episode we talk about managing cash flow. This is an important topic, especially considering the Covid-19 pandemic and the effects on the global economy. Cash flow can also be tricky in general since we sometimes, or often, do not have a regular or even income. Cash flow is the amount of money moving into and out of a business. Having positive cash flow, meaning more money coming in than moving out, is vital if you want to have a stable business and peace of mind. In this episode I interview a fellow translation consultant, Moira Monney. She is the host of the Marketing Success Summit in 2019 and the Financial Success summit in 2020 for translators.

Find the episode here.

The current crisis (Covid-19 pandemic) means that offline networking won’t be possible for a long time to come still. Many, if not everyone is turning to online networking to grow their professional relationships and turn them into new businesses, especially on Linkedin. This is not the time to be invisible online. As translators we can work remotely, and with clients from all over the world, so let’s take advantage of that. In this episode, I am interviewing a freelance translator and marketing expert who has given many talks and training on inbound marketing and LinkedIn.

Listen to the podcast here.

Today on The PEN Pod, we spoke Iranian writer and translator Ali Araghi. He is the author of the novel The Immortals of Tehran and the founding editor of the online literary journal PARAGRAPHITI. Currently, Ali is a PhD student in comparative literature at Washington University in St. Louis, and alongside his second novel, he’s also working on Persian, Translated, a database of Persian literature translated into English. We spoke with Ali about how he’s dealing with the uncertainty of this moment, the process of writing The Immortals of Tehran, and the comforts that translation can provide, especially during a time when the world feels especially closed off.

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In this episode we talk about raising our rates, especially raising our rates without scaring away clients. The translation industry is filled with price pressure and the threat of machine translation these days. Is it still possible to raise our rates then? I believe so, and so does my guest.

Martina Russo back to the podcast. She is an Italian and Swiss Italian professional translator, business owner, outdoor enthusiast and world citizen. She recently talked on the Financial Success summit in January about how to raise our rates without scaring away our clients and I thought that was an important topic to share with you.

Listen to this podcast here.

Language lessons [by Caroline Crampton]. A new true crime podcast caught my eye this week: The Nobody Zone, which is a co-production between Ireland’s RTÉ and Denmark’s Third Ear. It covers the alleged crimes of Irishman Kieran Patrick Kelly on the London Underground between 1953 and 1983. But it wasn’t the content of this six-part series that piqued my interest, but rather the fact that the show is being released simultaneously in five different languages: English, Danish, Spanish, German, and Irish.

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In this episode we talk about a new tool for freelance translators. I am all for efficiency and organization, but I am also quite lazy, and have struggled keeping track of my projects, number of words and how valuable different projects have been for me, how long they took etc. But now there is a tool that is super easy to use, that does all this for me, and much more. I interview the co-founder and co-creator of the tool Caroline Bries.

Important things mentioned in this episode:

• LSP.expert as a project management tool for freelance translators
• All the functions in LSP.expert – quoting, job tracking, expenses, income, reports, invoicing, outsourcing, timer and much more
• Security and support for LSP.expert

Useful links mentioned in this episode:

• LSP.expert
• Review of LSP.Expert by Silver Tongue Translations
• LSP.Experts Facebook page
• How LSP.Expert revolutionized my business – Review on The Open Mic

Listen to the interview >>

We’re in a localization and globalization market now where more words are translated every day through machine translation than what was translated in the entire human language corpus in the past.

Not only does such a massive amount of machine translation radically change the role of human translators, it also creates a whole new range of issues that impact the translation and globalization paradigm itself.

And one of the most important issues is ethics.

In an era when entire translations or at least substantial parts of them are often done by machine instead of by professional translators, what does it mean to provide “services” from an ethical perspective as far as translators and LSPs are concerned?

In this week’s episode of Globally Speaking, our hosts Renato Beninatto and M.W. Stevens discuss this very important issue that affects everyone involved in the language industry—both providers and buyers of translation services alike.

Major topics include:

• What needs to be disclosed to buyers and what doesn’t?
• Are language professionals now selling a product or a service?
• When are translators in breach of a client contract by using machine translation, and when are they not?
• Why machine translation is unlikely to ever replace the need for professionally trained translators.
• How do LSPs charge for projects in which machine translation plays a major role?

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Jack Welde helps companies make more money by speaking their customers’ language — literally. Welde is the Co-Founder and CEO of Smartling, a disruptive translation services company that uses a combination of human and machine translation to help companies enter new markets faster.

Welde says in the interview that consumers are 75 percent more likely to convert when they are being sold to in their native language — even if they are comfortable with the language they’re reading. Smartling measures the accuracy of translations with data, as well as the translations’ effectiveness in reaching new customers.

Read the interview or listen to the podcast >>

In this episode we are talking about what methods work to find translation clients in 2018. With me I have a translation company owner and translator, Sherif Abuzid, who is sharing his best tips for finding clients. These are suggestions based on his experience. Pick the ones that work for your situation, depending on experience and preference, but also depending on your location.

Important things mentioned in this episode:

• Change in how we find and contact clients during these last 10 years
• What resources for finding clients we should focus on
• How we should contact new clients
• Differences in marketing if you are a newer translator vs a more experienced one

Read more and download/listen to the podcast >>

Many clients depend upon us freelance translators, and it is important to have a plan for worst case scenarios. This year has also been a year of many natural disasters and unfortunately colleagues passing away too soon. I was very happy to see that today’s guest held a presentation on contingency and crisis planning during the last ATA conference. In this episode she is sharing all her best tips.

Important things covered in this episode:

• What contingency planning and crisis management is
• Questions to ask ourselves to plan for unforeseen events
• Things to have in place if we would get sick or pass away
• How to deal with a crisis
• How to protect our business

Read more and download/listen to the podcast >>

As language-industry professionals, we hear a lot about endangered languages and how the number of spoken languages keeps dwindling worldwide. But what about language writing systems? With roughly 6,000 languages throughout the world, there are surprisingly only about 120 to 140 written language scripts and alphabets. Many of these are disappearing as well.

What does it mean to the people who speak languages with dying writing systems? What happens when a new generation can no longer read its traditional script? And why do writing systems matter when language is essentially an oral process?

These are just some of the questions Renato Beninatto and Michael Stevens discuss with Tim Brooks on this week’s episode of Globally Speaking.

Tim is the founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project, an organization whose mission is to help preserve endangered cultures by using their writing systems to create artwork and educational materials.

His story is a fascinating one, and so are the many different ways writing can impact and preserve cultures. Topics include:

• Why writing can be viewed as a beautiful form of art.
• What are some of the languages whose writing systems are disappearing?
• Why is there a growing effort to revive traditional scripts?
• How can we help protect more writing systems from disappearing?

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On this week’s episode of Globally Speaking, Renato Beninatto speaks with Maria Paula Carvalho, a conference interpreter and translator, on a new concept called “interpretainment.”

With interpretainment, the interpreter tries to mimic the speaker’s tone and gestures, in addition to translating the content. Topics include:

• The difference between consecutive and simultaneous interpretation
• The definition of interpretainment
• Why interpretainers must surrender to the speaker’s emotions—laugh, cry, shout, dance, whatever is needed to achieve the intended impact
• How common is interpretainment in the language industry today

Listen here >>