Translation Times

Iraqi Interpreters: Petition

2012-01-26T16:44:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, we started following Linda Wesson of Clovis, CA on Twitter. Her tweets all centered around one thing: the difficulties of Iraqi interpreters. We are always interested in anything related to interpreters, and we requested more information from Linda. After doing some research, we feel that there are many layers to this that we haven't fully understood yet, but Linda has started a

Jobs: Senior Spanish Content Editor

2012-01-20T17:37:00.000-08:00

While this job is not in translation per se, we think it would be a great position for one of our Spanish-speaking colleagues. The job description is eerily similar to Judy's previous job at a travel website (although her position included heading the translation team), and it sounds quite interesting. If you are a native Spanish speaker, have extensive online writing experience and are a whiz at

Call for Proposals: ATA Annual Conference

2012-01-19T15:15:00.000-08:00

It seems that the fall conference season just ended, but time flies: the American Translators Association is already hard at work gearing up for the October 24 -27 conference to be held in sunny San Diego, California. We will both be there, and as usual, Judy will be submitting a proposal or two -- she's presented at the last three annual conferences. We'd love to see many first-time speakers, so

Giveaway: Another $100 in Google AdWords

2012-01-14T15:51:00.000-08:00

We recently received another free Google AdWords certificate, and as usual, it can only be used by new users, which excludes us. Hence, we are delighted to give away another one to one of our dear readers. You just have to answer one question (see below). A quick overview of Google AdWords: after signing up for a free Google account or using an existing one, you can register for the adwords

Open Thread: Tricky Editing Project

2012-01-12T12:37:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012, everyone! We wanted to share an interesting business case from our practice with our dear readers and would love to get your opinions. As usual, since we are talking about a real client, we have changed all the identifying details. A few months ago, a new client came to us with an editing project. We requested his documents to determine whether he would need proofreading, editing or

The Power of Social Media

2012-01-06T15:35:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012 to our friends and readers from around the world! We hope you had a great start into the new year. We were able to celebrate together in southern California (with our respective partners). We rang in 2012 at a laid-back Irish Pub in Thousand Oaks, CA, playing darts and thinking about how great 2011 has been. And turns out that we are off to a great start in 2012. Here's the follow-up

Happy Update: Helping a Colleague Recover

2011-12-31T08:26:00.000-08:00

This last post of the year is, without a doubt, our most personal and most important entry. It's a follow-up to our post about the donation efforts for Álvaro Degives-Más. The last 48 hours, since we posted a blog entry about our dear colleague's medical and financial troubles, has generated so much interest that we've barely been able to catch up on e-mails! We have cried a lot -- but it's

The True Spirit of Christmas: Helping a Colleague Recover

2011-12-28T22:53:00.000-08:00

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/holiday season, dear readers and colleagues. Unfortunately, one of our wonderful colleagues and friends, Álvaro Degives-Más of Reno, Nevada, did not: he suffered a heart attack on December 23. After a few days in intensive care in St. Mary's Hospital, he was discharged, but his medical bills have proven to be an almost insurmountable challenge. The

Last-Minute Holiday Gifts for Translators and Interpreters

2011-12-22T16:26:00.000-08:00

If you've had a crazy month and forgot to get presents for your favorite colleagues, then you might be panicking at this point. After all, it's December 22, so there isn't much time left. However, there's no need to give up on gifts even if it's a bit late. The following are the only items we could come up with that are directly related to our profession and require no shipping and no wrapping.

Make It Meaningful

2011-12-19T15:57:00.000-08:00

This is the season to be grateful, and indeed we are. We are also liking the many holiday cards we are receiving from family, friends, colleagues, clients and vendors from around the world. We don't want to sound ungrateful, but we wanted to bring up an important point that can turn a simple card into something meaningful as opposed to something that has no value. Let us elaborate. A few days ago

Sounds Fishy: Chinese Textile Company

2011-12-14T07:44:00.000-08:00

Our friend Jennifer Horne recently sent us this information about a fishy-sounding translation project. We are happy to post it here to share it with colleagues who might have been contacted by this particular person as well. Of course, one usually doesn't know for sure if the project is a scam until one has actually been scammed. However, this project surely is full of red flags. Does this

The Wait Is Over: Mox Illustrated Guide to Translation

2011-12-06T09:59:00.000-08:00

As of today, fans of Mox's hilarious translation and interpreting cartoons are in for a treat. Alejandro Moreno-Ramos, Mox's talented creator, released the long-awaited book of cartoons. We'd been keeping our fingers crossed that he would release it before the holidays, and here it is! We can't wait to receive our copies, and this is definitely the gift we've been looking forward to giving to

Open Thread: What Are You Grateful For?

2011-11-29T23:19:00.000-08:00

Ah, the holidays are here. Instead of being relaxed and serene, many of us are running around, stressed out about a million things we have to do. We try to buck the trend and try to not focus so much on stuff but rather on people and on the true spirit of the season -- whatever one's beliefs may be. In that spirit, our tally for items bought on Black Friday: $0. On Cyber Monday: $40 for new

Online Survey for U.S.-Based Spanish/English Translators

2011-11-27T18:33:00.000-08:00

We were recently contacted by Dina Nicolorich, an Argentine translator who is getting her graduate degree at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. She'd kindly asked us to complete a survey that is part of the research for her thesis, and we were happy to do so (it took less than 10 minutes). In the spirit of collegial collaboration, we promised Dina that we would spread the word, so if you

Password Security: Food for Thought

2011-11-26T21:43:00.000-08:00

Today's food for thought comes courtesy of Caitilin Walsh, the president-elect of the American Translators Association. Judy and Caitilin were recently discussing password security, and how difficult it is to keep all our passwords straight. We've written about Keepass, the free password management software that we use. It can randomly assign complex passwords (with letters and special characters

Discounted Entrepreneurial Linguist Sessions

2011-11-22T14:05:00.000-08:00

We rarely promote our own services on this blog, but since the holidays are coming up and many are looking for presents for the translator/interpreter in their lives, we wanted to share an offer we came up with for Judy's Entrepreneurial Linguist consulting sessions. Here are the details. The regular rate for the completely customized two-hour session (in person in the Las Vegas areas or via

Spanish-Language Word of the Day

2011-11-21T16:05:00.000-08:00

There's nothing quite like learning something new -- and as translators and interpreters, we do need to learn new things, specifically new words, on a regular basis to expand our vocabulary. We've long been addicted to "La palabra del día" (word of the day), and we know many fellow Spanish translators who also love this daily dose of wisdom. It's a free e-mail sent by La Página del Idioma

ATA Boston 2011: Video Highlights

2011-11-16T19:47:00.000-08:00

For those of you who did not make it to the ATA conference in Boston and for those of you who would like to relive the memories: enjoy this video, produced by the ATA! See you in San Diego next year?

Interpreting Marketplace Study Available for Free

2011-11-13T16:34:00.000-08:00

Many of our readers might be familiar with the Common Sense Advisory, the only research firm that studies the translation, interpreting and localization market. Every year, they produce a myriad of in-depth reports and studies about our industry. Their clients are language service providers and companies of all sizes around the world -- and naturally, not freelancers who do not have the need for

Interpreters: Life/Death

2011-11-04T08:14:00.000-07:00

We've really enjoyed sharing this public service announcement video by TAHIT (Texas Association of Healthcare Interpreters and Translators), and many of you might have already seen it. If not, you are in for a very powerful message. Our new favorite newsletter for interpreters, Interprenaut, featured this video in last month's newsletter. Have a look at a situation when interpreters can make the

Tote Bags for Translators and Interpreters

2011-11-03T16:24:00.000-07:00

Our Twin Translations totes. A lot of great things happened to Judy during last week's American Translators Association (which she attended sans twin), but one of her favorite moments was receiving a surprise gift from fellow translator Tom Ellett. Tom, who lives in Ontario, Canada, is always full of great ideas. You might remember that he was the one who recommended graphic designer Sandra

Upcoming Workshop in Albuquerque: November 12

2011-11-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

For those of you in the American Southwest who did not have the chance to attend last week's fantastic American Translators Association 52nd Annual Conference in Boston, there are many wonderful seminars in your neck of the woods that don't include a trip across the country. We wanted to let you know about the Entrepreneurial Linguist workshop that Judy will be giving in Albuquerque, New Mexico,

ATA Conference in Boston: Where to Find Judy

2011-10-24T20:56:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that it's been a year since the two of us met up in Denver to attend the 51st Annual ATA Conference in 2010. Unfortunately, this year there won't be a twin reunion at the conference. Dagy has other commitments in Europe, and will be in the U.S. for a full month starting in early December. As our dear readers might know, Judy is all about meeting up with friends old and new

Google Adwords: Another $100 Up For Grabs

2011-10-23T19:41:00.000-07:00

We've been receiving a lot of these free Google Adwords coupons lately, and we are happy to give them away. There's no catch at all. The only thing is that whoever get it has to be a new user of Google Adwords -- which we are not. So: we are giving away a $100 certificate for Google Adwords. As usual, you have to answer a question. This one is a bit trickier. We will give the certificate to

Sounds of Nature

2011-10-18T17:21:00.000-07:00

The "light thunderstorm" theme. As always, our web guru is responsible for one of our newest obsessions: Ambient Mixer. It's a free website that lets you listen to some very relaxing sound recordings of things like rain, beach, etc. We are particularly fond of the scuba diving recording (even though it's a bit spooky), grassland and rain, rain, rain. There are also some oddball recordings to be