Business Cards: Free is Bad

This past week, Judy attended a local conference of interpreters and translators in Vegas (a great one that featured court interpretation guru Holly Mikkelson). During most conferences and linguist get-togethers (even virtual events), we like to raffle off a few copies of our book, because we like raffles, like seeing people win, and like giving away stuff (it's also for sale here). During the last few months, we have observed a troubling trend among linguists: many don't have cards with them, have run out, or hand us a...

Advice for Beginners

Bill Clinton meeting new people at a Las Vegas charity event on October 12. Photo by J.Jenner. After years of receiving long lists of questions, both personally and through our associations, and after  answering hundreds of e-mails, we've decided to compile typical beginners'  concerns into a few posts about how to enter the profession. Remember that building a business in the languages industry...

Lessons From a Chilean Mine

Photo: CNN  ¡Viva Chile! This story has captivated us more than any other positive news in the last 20 years -- the last time we were that moved, we were in middle school in Mexico City and watched the Berlin Wall come down on a grainy TV. This time, it's different: thanks to the BBC's excellent live online coverage and underground cameras, we've been able to closely follow this incredible story -- a true triumph...

Software for Linguists: Free Online Task Manager

Our ITI guru and web guardian angel, Thomas Gruber, recently found a nifty little task management tool that you can use to track projects and tasks. It's web-based and free, so there's nothing to install. The site promises "10-second sign-up" and we just tested and verified that -- true! The interface is clean and simple, and the program easily integrates with Gmail. We are not sure it would replace a few other programs we already use, such as Translation Office (TO) 3000 and just our good old Outlook, but it's a nice free piece...

ATA Webinar Questions: Answered

Thanks to the almost 100 colleagues who attended the American Translators Association's first webinar on September 23. Judy was delighted to present a short version of her "Entrepreneurial Linguist" workshop. During the session, a lot of questions came in (which Judy couldn't see), and they were reviewed by moderators. She was able to answer a few questions during the webinar, but could not get to all of them (60 minutes...