Vienna in December

Living room. Can you spot Junia? As our dear readers know, Dagy lives in Vienna, Austria, while Judy lives in Las Vegas, NV, USA. In spite of this formidable distance, we spend a lot of time together. This year, we've already had more than two months of twin time, and there's more to come: Dagy and her other half are going to spend the Christmas holidays in Las Vegas, which is fantastic. The only challenge: finding...

NOTIS Event in Seattle: Last Day to Sign Up

Time flies -- it's International Translation Day again this Friday! Have a great day, dear translators and interpreters around the world. Many associations are putting on events, parties and get-together to celebrate the event, and we even heard that the Florida association is going on a cruise.  Judy is happy and honored to have been invited to celebrate our big day by giving two workshops at the Northwest Translators...

Handmade Cards for International Translation Day

Back in June, Judy had the pleasure of meeting multi-talented translator Justyna Mackowska in Dublin, Ireland, where Judy gave a presentation at the Irish Translators' and Interpreters' Association. Justyna came bearing gifts: an adorable handmade card with sheep on it (Judy loves fluffy Irish sheep). Now Justyna came out with a fabulous new card in honor of International Translation Day (September 30). Have a very close...

Online T&I Courses Offered by Prestigious German University

Our dear colleague Bianca Blüchel of Germany just shared this professional development opportunity with us. The well-known Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz at Germersheim is offering  affordable online courses in both translation and interpreting this fall (classes run from October through December). These are for interpreters/translators who have German as one of their working languages (the website is entirely in German), and the line-up of classes is quite fantastic. The best part? You get to attend classes at...

Self-Exploitation, Anyone?

We recently learned about the launch of a new website. Its business model made us wonder if the industry has hit a new low. Meet London-based www.sostranslatorchat.com (we are purposely not providing a link to this site, and you will see why). They seem to find it appalling that translators, just like any other professional service providers, traditionally charge minimum fees. So they set out to change that, offering clients chat-style “translations” at no minimum charge, live and online, whether they need a few words or merely...

Fill in the Blank

Now that Judy has gone back to school for one class -- criminal law at a local college-- ten years after finishing her MBA, we thought it was time for one of those "fill in the blank" questions that seem to be so popular on university exams. We were thinking -- what does the internet (or Internet, depending on the style guide) mean to you professionally? Fill in the blank: "The Internet is ________________________________." We'd love to hear what you have to say, dear reade...

Webinar Questions Answered

Thanks to the 100 language professionals from around the world (full house!) who attended Speaking of Translation's free webinar on August 31, which Judy was delighted to present. The topic was "Choosing your clients wisely: the benefits of being selective," and we received a number of good questions at the end of the session. Unfortunately, Judy wasn't able to answer them all, but here are two more questions and two more answers for your reading pleasure. Question: Do you recommend that translators track the inquiries that...