Nov 092012
 
Time management or something I am really bad at.

As much as I would like to do it better, I can’t. I tried different strategies, I read books about it, I even translated entire courses about it. Time management is not for me. As freelancers we have to share ourselves between hundreds of tasks (not exaggerating). You have projects, you have clients asking something about an older project, you have people contacting you asking about potential new projects (that sometimes never happen), you have to market yourself daily, you have accounting, you have to hunt clients to pay you, you have administration, you have a blog, you have social media, you have a project that requires a lot of research, you have websites and online profiles to maintain/update, you have glossaries to maintain, to fill in all kind of lists for the tax authority, you have some courses you’d like to attend, you have some professional books you’d like Read the rest of the article

Oct 082012
 
Freelance translators - Traveling to your source language country

As some of my readers already know, I am going to visit Cyprus for the next 2 weeks. The official language of Cyprus is Greek and Greek is my second source language. Lucky for me, I have family and friends in all countries where my source languages are spoken. Now I am going to visit my sister who just gave birth to her first baby Working during vacation Being a freelancer and in the beginning of my career, I can’t just cut off two weeks and relax. I have demanding clients and if a new (great, well paying) collaboration opportunity arises, I want to take it. I am going to visit my family with this beautiful occasion, but I will continue working (‘part-time’, if you want). Marta Stelmaszak gives great tips on how to keep working while on vacation in her article Lesson 37: Working Holidays, a.k.a Translation As The Read the rest of the article

Oct 052012
 
Q/A for translators. Things every translation buyer should know.

Q: Can one translate in a language other than his/her mother tongue? A: Yes. But the quality of the translation will be compromised, even though the translator seems to have perfect command of his/her second language. However, there are cases when translators can translate just like a native (or better). For example, a translator who lived and worked for 20-30 years in a foreign country has acquired probably that native sense of the language. Don’t fall for that though. For example, I know people who live for over 20 years in Holland and barely speak Dutch. Q: What machine translation tool (MT) do translators use mostly? A: Professional translators don’t use MT’s. Some translators use them just as another source of reference, along with dozens of other online and paper dictionaries. There are also plenty of translators who use MT’s. If you want your translation to look like the ones below, hire Read the rest of the article

Oct 042012
 
Freelance healthy lifestyle – Having a pet (a.k.a. a dog :)) that loves you

OK. You got it! I am a dog person. I talk a lot about my dog, because he is part of my family and business and he is definitely my very best friend. His name is Tommy I decided to write this after reading the post Why Freelancers Need the Sun – Both Literally and Figuratively, by Magda Papas. Freelancers (especially those who are connected to their PC or laptop 36 hours out of 24) are usually loners, working from their small office, eating at their desk, wearing their sleep pants till afternoon. This is the image of me before having a dog. My social life was close to zero, I would only leave the apartment twice a week for groceries and church and would spend the rest of the day sitting on a chair that wasn’t even that comfortable. How did my dog Tommy make things better? First of Read the rest of the article

Sep 262012
 
How much do translators charge for translating Google AdWords?

Translating AdWords ads is not easy. Besides the difficulties that come with translating advertising content (short & powerful phrases, difficult to convey in other languages), they also have a specific structure, that has to be kept the same in all languages. A Google Ad is formed from 3 translatable lines of 25, 35 & 35 characters. Most Google ads I get to translate are originally written in English, a language with many short words and endless ways of expressing the same thing. Just for comparison, the English 4 characters ‘best’ translates as ‘cel mai bun’ in Romanian (as many as 11 characters). As a matter of fact, clients don’t usually understand why I charge so much more for translating Google Ads.  They expect me to charge the same rate, even though the service provided is totally different from translation. This is also when Google pays anything from 0.01 to 90 Read the rest of the article

Sep 152012
 
10 things you need translated before going global

It was never so easy to reach and convert international customers like today. Going global comes with a lot of attractive benefits; it is a big step to take and involves a lot of planning, research and commitment. Translation should be part of all these plans, but very often it is left aside, or little time is assigned for this activity. Translation is a very meticulous and time-consuming work and if you care enough about your brand and image, you’ll have to look for a translator that understands your needs. Don’t leave it until the last moment. This will put more pressure on you and on the translator. Here are some things you’ll probably need translated (these can vary, depending on the country) and make sure you have them ready beforehand. 1.Market research documentation: You know you have to make a thorough market research. Well, everything has to be translated, questionnaires, Read the rest of the article

Sep 122012
 
The truth about my Dutch

Well I moved to Holland one year and a half ago. I started speaking Dutch only after half year of living here. Dutch was not in my list of languages to be learned and there was no sparkle between me and the weirdly sounding hghghhrghg in every word. I was always comparing my repulsion towards this language with my inexplicable love for Greek, when I was studying it. But people change. Actually they get used to new situations. I love Dutch now. Dutch is a very sexy language. Sexy is the word. It’s almost as sexy as French, almost as harsh as German, almost as funny sounding as Chinese (think tjonge jonge jonge), almost as intonational as Russian (think Doeg! or Hallo! when used to express the whole sentence “oh, my god, it’s so cheap!”, or “are you kidding me?!”). And I do my best to copy all that and Read the rest of the article

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