Make It Meaningful

This is the season to be grateful, and indeed we are. We are also liking the many holiday cards we are receiving from family, friends, colleagues, clients and vendors from around the world. We don't want to sound ungrateful, but we wanted to bring up an important point that can turn a simple card into something meaningful as opposed to something that has no value. Let us elaborate.

A few days ago, we received two cards from two people (actually, one person and one corporation) we had never heard of. Both had just signed their names inside a pre-printed card. There was no personal note nor a hint as to our relationship to the sender. We both had no idea who the folks were, and as much as we appreciate a card, they have turned out to be meaningless. However, they could have become meaningful with a simple note along the lines of "nice meeting you at XYZ..." or "thanks for purchasing our database management software" or "nice working with you on XYZ project." We really do think it's important to take a few minutes to write a personal note on each and every holiday card. If you don't do that, it's just another piece of mail that's not meaningful. We think it's fantastic to go to the trouble of writing cards in this digital area, but let's take them to the next level and show the recipient that we have something nice to say about them. It's also an opportunity to show off your writing skills -- after all, we are linguists. With that, we are off to finish our last cards.

Happy holidays!

Sounds Fishy: Chinese Textile Company

Our friend Jennifer Horne recently sent us this information about a fishy-sounding translation project. We are happy to post it here to share it with colleagues who might have been contacted by this particular person as well.  Of course, one usually doesn't know for sure if the project is a scam until one has actually  been scammed. However, this project surely is full of red flags. 


Does this one sound familiar? If yes, does anyone know how the scam works? Is it one of those where the "client" sends you a fraudulent check? Here is the e-mail we received from Jen.

I know how you are about keeping track on scams and I wanted to share this with you in case you want to share it on your blog.

This job was for a Chinese textile company. The emails with them were very fishy. They were extremely agreeable (possibly a little too agreeable) to all of my rates, and even my travel day fee! I felt as though they were being quite pushy to get me to book the days (they said they would need me for 5 days). 

They were not cooperating with me so I can find out some basic information. I kept asking them to call me so I can ask them some questions before I send my official quote just so I know more about what I'd be getting myself into (type of event, who the other interpreter is, who THEY even are in regards to the Chinese company who is the client...) and they never called. I had no way of calling them of course.

One day I get an email from "Robin" and the next day it's from "Robert". Their email address is from a yahoo address... 

Then after typing the company name+scam I found tons of pages. Here is one.

The Wait Is Over: Mox Illustrated Guide to Translation

As of today, fans of Mox's hilarious translation and interpreting cartoons are in for a treat. Alejandro Moreno-Ramos, Mox's talented creator, released the long-awaited book of cartoons. We'd been keeping our fingers crossed that he would release it before the holidays, and here it is! We can't wait to receive our copies, and this is definitely the gift we've been looking forward to giving to friends and colleagues in the industry. Congratulations to Alejandro for finishing the book! You can easily order the book, which we bet will be a bestseller, via the website and pay by PayPal. The book features 200 cartoons, half of which have never been published before. In addition, you will find articles by well-known translation bloggers.  

Open Thread: What Are You Grateful For?

Ah, the holidays are here. Instead of being relaxed and serene, many of us are running around, stressed out about a million things we have to do. We try to buck the trend and try to not focus so much on stuff but rather on people and on the true spirit of the season -- whatever one's beliefs may be. In that spirit, our tally for items bought on Black Friday: $0. On Cyber Monday: $40 for new business cards, on sale at Vistaprint. We think it's time to focus on the essentials, and we'd rather donate to the needy than buy more things, but we digress.

So here's our question for you. We all have a lot to be thankful for, in our private lives and in our professional lives. What are you the most grateful for this holiday season? If you are grateful to have a specific person in you business life, then pick up the phone and tell them -- or send a cute card. 

For us, it's easy. We are grateful for each other. There would be no Twin Translations without both twins. We are lucky that we get to work with our best friend every day.

We'd love to hear from you! Please leave a comment if you'd like. 

Online Survey for U.S.-Based Spanish/English Translators

We were recently contacted by Dina Nicolorich, an Argentine translator who is getting her graduate degree at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. She'd kindly asked us to complete a survey that is part of the research for her thesis, and we were happy to do so (it took less than 10 minutes). In the spirit of collegial collaboration, we promised Dina that we would spread the word, so if you have a few minutes, please fill out the highly confidential (this is Germany, after all) online survey. Dina is looking for translators, translation agencies and translation buyers. Please click on the links below rather than copying and pasting into an URL, as doing so will invalidate the link. This survey studies linguists based in the U.S.

Thanks, in advance, for helping a young colleague with her formal academic research!

1. Translators:
Click
here to answer a survey

2. Agencies:
Click
here to answer a survey

3. Buyers:
Click
here to answer a survey

Password Security: Food for Thought

Today's food for thought comes courtesy of Caitilin Walsh, the president-elect of the American Translators Association. Judy and Caitilin were recently discussing password security, and how difficult it is to keep all our passwords straight. We've written about Keepass, the free password management software that we use. It can randomly assign complex passwords (with letters and special characters) or lets you create your own. However, Caitilin, who is married to a Microsoft engineer, correctly pointed out that recent data suggests that it's easier to hack into accounts that have combinations of numbers and special characters than into accounts with four random words after another. Try it -- just choose four random words from the dictionary. We just tried this with our Mother Jones magazine and came up with defense/sense/similar/common. The image you see here came from this very funny website (visit the site for a larger image of the cartoon). Thanks for sharing, Caitilin!

Discounted Entrepreneurial Linguist Sessions

We rarely promote our own services on this blog, but since the holidays are coming up and many are looking for presents for the translator/interpreter in their lives, we wanted to share an offer we came up with for Judy's Entrepreneurial Linguist consulting sessions. Here are the details.

The regular rate for the completely customized two-hour session (in person in the Las Vegas areas or via Skype) is $300. From November 23 through December 31, 2011, we will be offering a 10% discount, so the price is now $270. Just mentioned that you saw this discount on Translation Times and we will give it to you! If a two-hour session is too much, then you might like the discounted one-hour session (regular: $150) at $135 for either yourself or someone you really love. Now for the small print: sessions must be booked and paid by December 31, 2011 (pre-payment is required), but can be redeemed for up to one year from purchase.

Happy holidays!

Spanish-Language Word of the Day

There's nothing quite like learning something new -- and as translators and interpreters, we do need to learn new things, specifically new words, on a regular basis to expand our vocabulary. We've long been addicted to "La palabra del día" (word of the day), and we know many fellow Spanish translators who also love this daily dose of wisdom.

It's a free e-mail sent by La Página del Idioma Español. The site was founded by Uruguayan journalist and Spanish-language expert Ricardo Soca. The e-mail presents one highly useful word a day and gives you a lot of interesting historical and etymological background on the term. It's a quick, fascinating read, and it makes us feel a bit smarter every day.

To sign up for free, please visit the Spanish-language link of La palabra del día.

ATA Boston 2011: Video Highlights

For those of you who did not make it to the ATA conference in Boston and for those of you who would like to relive the memories: enjoy this video, produced by the ATA!

See you in San Diego next year?

Interpreting Marketplace Study Available for Free

Many of our readers might be familiar with the Common Sense Advisory, the only research firm that studies the translation, interpreting and localization market. Every year, they produce a myriad of in-depth reports and studies about our industry. Their clients are language service providers and companies of all sizes around the world -- and naturally, not freelancers who do not have the need for formal marketing research. However, the data is highly interesting, but also a tad on the expensive side for individual translators and interpreters. That's why we were very excited to hear that Common Sense Advisory had teamed up with InterpretAmerica, a national forum for the interpreting profession run by Katharine Allen and Barry Slaughter Olsen, and had been commissioned to do the first-ever study on interpreting in the North American market. The entire 88-page report is available for free on the InterpretAmerica website. 


Here are some of the main findings as detailed by Nataly Kelly, chief research officer at Common Sense Advisory (CSA), on the CSA blog:

• Most interpreters specialize in multiple areas. The majority of interpreters reported working in diverse settings and across geographic boundaries, even though associations are divided on the basis of industry sector as well as countries, regions, and states or provinces.
• By and large, interpreters are translators. The vast majority of interpreters also do written translation work. Nearly eight out of 10 interpreters reported that they also work as translators. This does not mean that the reverse is true (that most translators are interpreters).
• Interpreters are getting older. The data reveals a clear "graying of the profession," as the majority of interpreters are now getting on in age, while smaller numbers of new recruits are entering the field.

You can download the entire study, titled "The Interpreting Marketplace: A Study of Interpreting in North America" by Nataly Kelly, Robert G. Stewart, and Vijayalaxmi Hegde here. Please remember that the Common Sense Advisory holds the copyright to the report. When citing the data, please be sure to attribute it to the source. Happy reading!