Translating matters

Location, Location, Location Or how to create REALationships AND nurture your target language For the first two years working as a freelance translator, my company was based in the UK and I was translating exclusively from French into English, mainly for customers in the aerospace sector. Previous to this, I worked as an in-house translator for several years in Toulouse, France (the headquarters of Airbus, hence my specialisation). Although in Toulouse I worked alongside other English speakers, one of the aspects I noticed about spending a vast amount of time speaking a source (foreign) language or even speaking your target language with other people who master both languages as well as you do, is the effect on the quality of your target language (the language you translate into, namely your native language, or mother tongue). By quality, I do not mean that you suddenly start to make grammatical errors or use the wrong terminology. However, over time, it becomes increas...

I have been translating exclusively from French to English professionally since 2011 and, luckily, have rarely been short of work, for which I am eternally grateful. In part, this is due to the fact that I specialise in the field of aerospace and engineering, where there is no shortage of texts to be translated. However, with seven years of experience translating a large quantity of these very technical, but now very familiar documents, I recently reached a point in my career where I no longer felt challenged. Feeling like I am learning something new is very important for me in terms of job satisfaction. Variety is the spice of life, as they say! Therefore, I decided that something needed to change. I needed to push myself outside of my comfort zone. Further to completing my MA (in 2011), I had been learning Spanish rather sporadically. I have a lot of Hispanic friends and I have taken Spanish lessons on and off. Although I was able to express myself fairly well in the la...

As we approach the end of 2017, I thought I would spare some time to tell you about a new chapter in my life as a freelance translator. I absolutely love travelling, but being self-employed, I am cautious about taking too much unpaid time off work. THEN, I came across the idea of working as a digital nomad and decided to give it a go. This idea appealed to me as it provides the opportunity to keep running a business, but from any location in the world. As most of our work is sent via email, this lifestyle is completely feasible for freelance translators. What can I say? I haven’t looked back since! I chose to start with a stint in Barcelona for three months – and with recent current affairs, what a time to be here! Arriving in the city was half the fun! I packed my computer and some clothes into my car, then went on a road trip through France, visiting some friends on the way. I arrived here in mid-September. The first few weeks were quite a challenge, working fro...

I recently celebrated one year as a freelance translator (hurrah!). During the first six months or so, I worked almost exclusively with agency customers (for whom I completed an application process). Recently, I have also been working with some direct customers (who I mainly found through contacts and recommendations). My work flow has gradually become very healthy (by mid-February, I already had orders taking me through to the end of March). I even find myself regularly having to turn down work with my agency customers due to a lack of availability. However, I decided that as my company is maturing, so should my online presence. There are two main reasons for this: 1. To have a more professional image, 2. To attract more customers searching for the services I provide, by being more visible on the web. With this in mind, I recently took the following steps: In addition to this blog, I already have a (very basic) website, which I plan to develop over the...

Firstly I’d like to wish my fellow translators a belated happy new year, and apologise for my absence from the blogosphere these past few months - the end of 2015 was very busy for me, with plenty of work coming in after the summer period.  As this blog is dedicated to sharing my experiences as a (relative) new-comer to the world of freelancing, here are some of the things I have been up to over the past few months and the lessons I have learnt. Hopefully these lessons may be of use to other translators who are new to freelancing. Continuing Professional Development When you work for yourself, it is easy to get comfortable when the jobs start coming in and you are invoicing a decent amount every month. However, in my opinion, it is important to keep learning and add new strings to your bow! Personally, I find that sitting at a desk all day translating can sometimes be a little solitary, so I decided to invest in my company (and myself) by attending training organised b...

I have now been working as a freelance translator for over 5 months. Recently I started working with my first direct client and I intend to start marketing to more direct clients from now on. However, as a newcomer to freelancing (after more than 3 years working as an in-house translator), my first few months have mostly been spent working with agencies. The advantage to working with agencies is that they find the work for you. This is great for generating an initial regular income. You can then build your translation businesses on this base. The main disadvantage to working with agencies is that, as for any industry when you are working through an intermediary, the agency will take their cut. This means that your rates for agencies will usually be lower than your rates for direct clients. I have been very lucky in finding agencies that treat me well and provide me with plenty of work in my specialist areas (aerospace and engineering). I have also been able to gain...

Test Translations - Yes or No? As a relative newcomer to the world of freelance translation (having previously worked as an in-house translator for several years), I find myself increasingly using social media to keep on top of current trends in my industry. I particularly like the “Things Translators Never Say” group on facebook. Although it takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to the issues freelance translators and interpreters face on a daily basis, it does provide valuable insight into industry practices that are/are not acceptable. I would certainly recommend this group to other new freelancers, as there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of common issues, with real-life solutions from experienced people in the profession. One subject that seems to crop up fairly regularly in online translation fora is whether or not to complete test translations . Some freelance translators are willing to, whilst others vehemently oppose these tests in principle. Personally, I do not have...