Asking Questions: A Client's Perspective

Last year, we wrote a blog post about the sometimes challenging issue of knowing when it is appropriate to ask the client for clarification regarding any issue that arises during a translation project. Many new translators are quite afraid of asking the client, and prefer to ask questions on industry forums and listservs, which can be helpful.  Ask and you might get the answer. However, many times, the client...

Friday Challenge: Advertising Translations

As seen at the Athens airport. This past week, we spent a glorious week in Greece with Judy's hubby and our dear translator friends Catherine Christaki and Christos Floros (more on that fantastic vacation in a future post) and we saw a lot of clumsy attempts at English -- think menus, flyers, ads, etc.  We oftentimes ask Keith, our resident native English speaker (and a funny, sarcastic attorney with a very...

Video of the Week: Are Translators a Waste of Space?

Many thanks to the Norwegian Association of Literary Translators for creating this gem. It's only a few minutes long, and it's not what you think it is. Watch one of the most clever videos we have seen all year! In case you want to share it, here's the direct link to the YouTube vid...

Business Cards: The Next Level

Very clever format. During the fantastic V Conferência Brasileira de Tradutores do ProZ in Recife, Brazil, last month, Judy had the opportunity to spend some time and share some drinks with Portuguese translator Elenice Barbosa de Araujo. We'd both had the chance to meet her back in 2010 at the ATA Conference in Denver, Colorado, and we remember being very impressed by her creative business cards, which were...

How Not to Treat Your Customers

We really enjoy learning from other businesses -- or learning what not to do . We think it's important to occasionally look outside our own profession for customer service inspiration or marketing ideas, and once in a while, we get treated the way we wouldn't want to get treated, and we make a mental note. Here's a recent conversation (slightly changed to protect the innocent) that Judy had with a pest control company....

Job in Las Vegas: Hispanic Marketing

At a networking event  a few weeks ago, a colleague mentioned to us that her agency was looking for an Hispanic marketing expert to join her team. We volunteered to post this here in case this is just what you've been looking for! While this is not a translation position, it's in a closely related field, and it looks quite interesting. Please note that the job is located in Las Vegas, NV. BRAINtrust is a cleverly...