Jobs: Latino Online Media Job in Seattle

A good friend of ours, who works in online media in Seattle, just sent us  this job posting to us. We don't have more information but what's listed below, but it sure does look like a fantastic opportunity. This is a full-time position in gorgeous Seattle, Washington.

If you are interested, please e-mail your résumé and contact information to Greg and put "Latino Online Media Job in Seattle" in the subject line. 

Here is the job posting:

Are you a Spanish speaker with a passion for search? Are you on top of current events and popular culture? Can you turn ordinary words into short sparkling headlines? If so, then you may be the person we need.

Major search engine/media portal is looking for a Spanish language editor to join our team working on homepage as well as other projects.  In this role, you will write engaging text, crafting an editorial calendar, researching dynamic photography, and work closely with a variety of partners to ensure the highest quality experience for our customers.

You must be able to handle multiple editorial and programming responsibilities concurrently, and work well under regular deadline pressure in a constantly evolving environment. Some weekend hours are required in this position.  Also desirable:  Some knowledge of basic HTML and content management systems.

Job duties

·        Select visually appealing images and write short, engaging text that entices users to click through to great results.

·        Edit photos using advanced Photoshop techniques to enhance the image where necessary.

·        Work closely with the US homepage team and other project editors to ensure high-quality, relevant content is surfaced. 

·        Maintain an editorial calendar of events relevant to the Latino audience.

·        Edit content written by others.

·        Participate in creative editorial reviews.

·        Contribute to other projects as needed.

In this role, you need to have

·        Strong editorial experience working as an editor or writer in a daily Web publishing environment

·        Excellent writing skills including headline and caption writing with flawless spelling and grammar in Spanish

·        A strong background in online research and experience making valid evaluations of quality either as a reviewer or editor. 

·        Ability to convey features and functions in concise meaningful words

·        Thorough understanding of online editorial best practices and priorities

·        Ability to use online content management systems and web tracking and reporting tools

·        Great interpersonal skills; strong partner management experience

·        A sense of humor

And you need to be

·        Proactive, organized, easily able to multitask and comfortable making decisions in a fast-paced environment

·        Detail-oriented, with great follow-through

·        Committed to consistently delivering quality work

·        Comfortable working in a collaborative team environment or, as needs dictate, in an independent, autonomous role

Middlebury College Questions: Answered

One of our colleagues, Prof. Karin Hanta, recently contacted us to see if we would be willing to participate in an interview project in her translation studies class at prestigious liberal arts school Middlebury College in Vermont. Of course, we were happy to do so, and decided to post our answers here for the benefit of other students who might have similar questions. Here's our Q&A with Middlebury freshman Greta Olivares, who grew up bilingually -- just like we did.

Question: How did you get into translation?

Growing up bilingually, we always thought we would work with languages. When we were 12, we decided, while riding the school bus in Mexico City, that we would once own a company called "Jenner+Jenner Cross-Cultural Consulting." Turns out we own a company very similar to that now. We started translating in college.  Judy was the editor of a bilingual newspaper for high school students with a circulation of 30,000, where she translated extensively. Dagy started our European company in 2002. At the same time, Judy received an offer to run the Spanish translation department at a large travel website, and took the job to get through the first year of entrepreneurship. The job was so great that she ended up staying much longer than we both wanted, but we've finally been able to run our business full-time together since 2008. From 2002 until 2008, Dagy worked  full-time, while Judy worked on our business part-time.

Question: How did you chose your other languages (English and French)? How are you able to maintain an equal mastery over all of them?

The languages chose us. English was the third language that was being taught in our school, the German School Alexander von Humboldt in Mexico City, and we were lucky enough to spend many summers in the US when we were teenagers. In additon, our mom has a graduate degree in English literature, and our dad did a lot of business in the US, so English was a natural fit. As for French, when Dagy decided to pursue a degree in languages, she wanted to challenge herself and chose to add a fourth language. She spent a semester in Tours, France, and makes frequent trips to France to keep her language skills current. Judy does not speak a word of French (well, maybe two or three). We keep our language skill fresh by traveling and reading extensively. Travel is probably our main business expense, and we immersed ourselves in the Spanish language again last year by working from South America (Chile and Argentina) for more than a month. Dagy spends at least a month in the US every  year working on her American idioms, and Judy speaks German during her annual trips to Austria. When we speak to each other, we mainly speak Spanish, but mix in some German and English -- sometimes in the same sentence. It's our twin language! We read at least 50 books a year in our three (or four) languages, listen to satellite radio in all our languages and speak our languages as much as we can. Judy lives in the American Southwest, so she speaks a lot of Spanish during the normal course of her day. And for the record: while Dagy's French is very good, it's not at the same level as her other three languages. 

Question: What is a normal translation process for you?

We both acquire clients at roughly the same rate and tackle every translation project as a team. We have a pretty well-developed five-step quality assurance process, and we don't deliver any project, even if it's just a paragraph, without having put it through the QA process. We communicate well throughout the translation process and have many lively discussions about tricky linguistic issues. 

Question: Do you find that one is better for one part of the translation process it and the other is better for another part?

While we are identical twins, there are a few differences. Dagy is the better researcher and has more patience with terminology lists. Judy is better at client acquisition, since she's more outgoing and truly enjoys meeting with people. Dagy is better at writing short e-mails to clients and is a master at managing our client relationships. Dagy is also better at looking out for our business interests, while Judy has a tendency to say "yes" to more things. Dagy is the faster translator, and Judy has a bit more patience when it comes to dealing with challenging customers, which are few and far in between.

Question: Which of the services that you offer do you enjoy the most?

Whew, you had to ask a difficult question. We are translators at heart, but we are really enjoying interpreting -- conference interpreting for Dagy and court and escort interpreting for Judy. We also have a lot of fun with our copywriting projects, and we really love the fact that no day is ever the same.

Iraqi Interpreters: Petition

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 petition to get protection for Iraqi interpreters who are receiving death threats for their role in the conflict. The Americans have largely left, but their interpreters are in a very vulnerable position. At this point, we are still mulling over this issue, but wanted to share the details with our colleagues around the world. 

We had been taught that war-time interpreters, who risk their lives to do their jobs, wear masks to keep their identities a secret and to protect their lives after the conflict is over. Apparently, this wasn't done in Iraq. We'd love to learn more about why that happened, but have not been able to find more information. Allegedly, the US had promised visas (so-called "Special Immigrant Visas") to Iraqi interpreters (and other contractors) who are experiencing ongoing serious threat because of their collaboration with the American government. The reality now is that interpreters have to wait for years to get their visas processed while their lives are in danger. There are many things wrong with this equation, but this is a very complex issue, and clearly, we don't know enough. Many people risk their lives in war zones, and we presume these brave interpreters did so voluntarily, and if they were promised immigrant visas, then the US should certainly follow through on that promise. It appears that the process is taking much longer than expected, which is really turning into a life/death issue for  many interpreters. Linda has started a petition that you may sign here if you are so inclined. Linda has no connection to the world of T&I -- she is just passionate about this particular issue and is working very hard to spread the word. Have a look at her blog here. 

The Los Angeles Times has published an article about the struggles Iraqi interpreters face. You can read it here. In addition, Human Rights First wrote about this last year. 

So you think you had a tough day interpreting in court or at a challenging conference? Take it with a grain of salt: at least you are not receiving death threats.

We'd love to hear your thoughts, dear colleagues!

Jobs: Senior Spanish Content Editor

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 working with content management systems, then this six-month position might be a fit for you. It can either be in New York City or Miami.

We have no connection to the poster of this position -- actually, the company name is hidden -- but we heard about this position from a friend of Judy's and wanted to share it with our readers. For more information, please click here. 

Call for Proposals: ATA Annual Conference

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 if you have something interesting to share, don't be intimidated -- the conference is fantastic and it's a great opportunity to increase recognition in the industry. With the exception of pre-conference seminars, speakers do not get compensated for their presentations, but the main speaker of each session (you can present as a group if you would like) will receive $100 off their conference registration.

The deadline to submit the very short proposal is March 12. Click here to submit your proposal. See you in San Diego?