Do You Need a College Degree?

A few months ago, a lovely acquaintance who wants to be an interpreter, asked us whether she needed a college degree to succeed as a (court) interpreter. We hadn't really thought about this, as college is such a natural step in most professionals' lives, but the question is more than valid and merited some more thought. The answer is a bit more complicated than it seems, but basically, we'd say the answer is: yes,...

Free Software We Love: Toggl

Today's post is short and sweet, and it's about software we love that makes our lives easier. After kissing a few software frogs, we went with a dear colleague's suggestion and started using Toggl to keep track of hours worked. We charge more and more clients by the hour, and needed a simple and reliable way to keep track of our hours. Toggl does the trick. There's nothing to download and no learning curve. While...

Workshops in Europe: September

It's official! We will both be in Europe in September, as Judy will be crossing the pond to work from Vienna for a month, and she's also fitting in two recently announced workshops. Here is additional information -- we would love to see you there! At ITI London, September 2013. Picture by Dagy. Manchester, UK (North-West Translators' Network, a regional group of the ITI). On September 20, Judy will present her...

Who Wants to Go to Summer School?

Translators and interpreters are always learning and improving their skills, so there's no reason to not continue doing so during the summer -- well, there are a few reasons, but we digress. This summer, UC San Diego-Extension's Certificate for Spanish/English Translation and Interpretation program (all online), where Judy teaches, offers a variety of classes that might be of interest for both beginning and more advanced...

Record Speechpool Videos, Get a Book

Record to win! We still have several copies of one of the best T&I books currently on the market, Found in Translation by Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche (generously donated by co-author Nataly Kelly of Smartling), to give away on this blog. In our quest for ever-clever (or not) ways to give these away, we just thought of something. We would like to have this little giveaway benefit of our favorite interpreting...

UNIVERSITAS Turns 60: Time to Celebrate!

No, we are not turning 60 yet (for a while), even though our combined age certainly exceeds 60. This round birthday is all about UNIVERSITAS Austria, the Austrian Interpreters' and Translators' Association, and such a big birthday just has to be celebrated, so here's some information about the festivities that will take place in gorgeous Vienna, Austria, on September 26 and 27. We are delighted to be part of the festivities...

Song Lyrics, Translated

Happy Friday, dear readers! We recently heard about a cool translation project that's currently underway -- translating English-language lyrics of songs into other languages, which is quite a challenging undertaking. Have a look at this here.  The site currently features two very impressive videos (original recordings of the translated lyrics). The idea is to translate one famous American or British song into...