Training for Translators: Blog - Page 144 of 245

Jan 07 2014
Corinne McKay

Getting Started as a Freelance Translator: starts Monday

Happy 2014! I’ve been composing a wrap-up and looking-ahead post for 2013 and 2014, but in the meantime, the next session of my online course Getting Started as a Freelance Translator starts on Monday, January 15 and I have four spots left. It’s a four-lesson online class in which we focus on very targeted assignments: your resumé and cover letter, marketing plan, rates and billable hours sheet and online presence. In addition, we liven things up with a one-hour question and answer conference call every week (recordings provided for those who can’t attend live). The class is open to translators in any language combination, and everyone receives individualized feedback from me on every assignment. Here’s a comment from a student in the most recent session:

The course is part overview of the industry, part specialized workshops focusing on a particular aspect of the job, and in very large part individualized coaching. Neither in my undergraduate classes in education nor in some of the more practical classes I took as part of my MA in English (including the course connected to my assistantship as a writing consultant) did I ever experience one course that delivered as much precise and helpful information as this course.

Registration is $305, with a $50 discount for members of the American Translators Association. You can read more or sign up for the class (currently four spots left) on my website.

Dec 24 2013
Corinne McKay

Off-topic: fun and easy crafts you can totally make

In the Thoughts on Translation household, we try to make most of our holiday gifts. It’s fun, it’s personal, it fits with the frugal lifestyle and it keeps us occupied during the time of year when the sun goes behind the mountains at 3:30. Here are a few ideas that you can try, even in the days left before Christmas and New Year’s; I give you my permission to steal any or all of these ideas, as long as you send me a brag photo of the results!

For kids: Zombie stuffed animals
Or maybe not just for kids!

These require a minimal amount of sewing skill, and remember that the weirder a zombie looks, the better it is. These were my 11 year old’s idea, and we were pretty happy with how they turned out! Basic instructions: get some fuzzy fabric and cut a square with a rounded top. Use other colors to line the ears and make eyes, mouth, etc. Sew on the ears, eyes and mouth before you sew the two sides together, then stuff your zombie. Sew on a tail if you want (we used a feather boa off an old Halloween costume). Or make this zombie teddy bear:

For this guy, I taped two pieces of printer paper together and drew a pattern, then cut the basic shape out of brown fleece. Then do some zombie’d-out eyes, a scar, etc. The really cool element is the stomach pouch, out of which you can pull the bear’s “intestines,” which appear here as the pink tab on the right side of the abdomen. Make an oval out of black fleece and cut a narrow strip of pink fleece about a foot long. Sew one end of the pink fleece to the bear’s stomach, then sew the black oval over it to create a pouch. Have lots of fun pulling the intestines out and stuffing them back in again.

For anyone: origami cranes in a tree

I was inspired by a book on “origami bonsai,” but the origami flowers and leaves looked fairly time-consuming (but beautiful!) to make. So I hired my daughter to fold a bunch of origami cranes of different sizes, then I pruned some branchy twigs off our apple trees and hot-glued them onto some interesting rocks. Then I hot-glued the cranes to the twigs. Fun for anyone! You could do this type of project with other origami objects, or glue them to wood blocks, rocks, whatever.

For your special person: a love poem on a stone

A translator friend of mine has a fridge magnet with this poem, Recipe for happiness in Khabarovsk or Anyplace by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. I immediately loved it, and this year I’ve been on a poetry kick so I decided to make a gift for my husband from it (don’t worry, he’s too busy skiing to read my blog, so the surprise won’t be spoiled). You could do lots of things as poetry crafts, but I just printed the poem out in large font and laminated it onto an interestingly cracked marble tile that was left over from a renovation project. For the lamination, I used Mod Podge (a decoupage sealer that you can get in craft stores), but Elmer’s Glue would work in a pinch. Just use a small paint brush to apply a very thin layer of glue/podge on the surface of the tile, then lay the paper on the wet glue/podge, and paint another very thin layer over the paper. Put your tile on a plate stand for display in your house or in your loved one’s office!

Slightly woo-woo but fun: messages/poems on the rocks

Note: I’m not sure if “woo-woo” is a universally understood term. Here in Boulder we associate it with New Age kinds of things like crystal healing. Anyway: this idea is an amalgam of things I saw on Pinterest. I made a bunch of sets, and for what it’s worth, all of the recipients seemed to really like them. Here’s what you do:

Get yourself some small rocks; I purchased these “accent rocks” in the craft department at our local dollar store, so this gift literally costs less than a dollar. If you live near a beach, you could probably get nice rocks for free. If you have small and very neat handwriting, you could paint or write directly on the rocks. If, like me, you have large and messy handwriting, avail yourself of a computer printer and print out some quotes, sayings, or poem verses that you find inspiring, beautiful or just fun. Then, take your Mod Podge or Elmer’s glue, and follow the process described above for the poem-on-a-tile project. Use a *thin* layer of glue! I made a couple of sets with (short) poem verses, and couple of sets with little sayings, like “The best is yet to be,” “Laugh more,” “Be the change,” If not now, when?” etc.

Then make a card with suggested uses for the rocks: the recipient could keep them, give them to friends, or leave them in random places for strangers to find! As I mentioned, a little woo-woo but fun for the right person.

And with that, happy 2013 and have a crafty holiday season!

Dec 18 2013
Corinne McKay

The work/life balance: a new Speaking of Translation podcast

Last night, Eve Bodeux and I hosted a Speaking of Translation conference call entitled “The freelance juggling act: balancing work, family and the rest of life.” We had the pleasure of interviewing three freelancers: Andy Bell (Scandinavian translator and dad of 3), Marianne Reiner (English to French translator and mom of 2) and Karen Tkaczyk (French to English translator and mom of 3), all of whom have thriving businesses, young families and significant non-work interests and commitments. We asked them three main questions: how they combat the fear of losing clients or not earning enough money if they take time off, how they set boundaries with their families and the outside world so that they can get enough work done, and what their tips and goals are for a better work/life balance in 2014. It was a very informative and enjoyable hour, and we’ve created a podcast recording of it. Here you go:

Click the audio player link to listen online

Right-click the link below to download the MP3.
Chrome/Firefox: Choose “Save Link As”
Internet Explorer: Choose “Save target as”
Safari: Choose “Download Linked File”
Work/Life Balance

And if you’d like to listen to more Speaking of Translation podcasts (international payment methods, finding direct clients through industry conferences, and more!), hop on over to our recordings page. Thanks to Karen, Marianne and Andy for taking the time to talk to us!

Dec 16 2013
Corinne McKay

Your end of year bonus

One of my golden rules of freelancing is “Be the best boss/employer you’ve ever had.” Those of us who worked in the salaried world before going freelance are familiar with both sides of this coin: an employer can enhance your quality of life, and an employer can make your life a waking nightmare. As a solopreneur, you get to pick which of those employers you want to emulate.

Hopefully, you’ve had a good year work-wise. If you reached most of your freelance goals, it’s time to think about your end of year bonus, and I’ve got some ideas for you. Let’s focus on a bonus that will improve your quality of life. Such as:

Redesign your office. Get the clutter out; paint it a color you love; get a new desk or workspace; buy some plants. This doesn’t have to be super expensive. Hit Craigslist or a thrift store! Depending on your budget, pay someone to do some or all of this for you. Or give yourself a day off from translating and do it yourself.
Outsource your most-hated office task. Two years ago, I decided that I had categorically, undeniably had it with doing my payroll taxes myself. So my end of year bonus was to hire my accountant’s bookkeeper to do them for me. It’s not the sexiest gift ever, but in terms of quality of life improvements, it was a huge winner!
Rent yourself an office. This was on my “I’ve had it with…” list a year ago. I seem to have “had it” with a lot of things lately, although I assure you I’m actually a very happy person! But I had officially had it with being home alone all day, with very little separation between work and home. Enter a desk at a co-working office, which has very tangibly changed my life for the better. Completely worth every cent of the $4,000 it cost me for the year.
Give yourself a new hobby or skill. Having crossed two “had it” items off my list in the past two years, this year I focused on something totally different. I’m a lapsed piano and recorder player, and for a few years I’ve been searching for a new instrument to play. Our house is small so a loud instrument might cause family discord (scratch the trumpet, tuba, etc.) and we don’t have space for a large instrument (scratch the piano, harp, etc.). My daughter plays classical guitar and I’ve always really loved early music. A few months ago, we went to a lute concert sponsored by the guitar studio at the university where my daughter takes lessons and (call me weird…) the lute really enchanted me! Lute is a niche instrument and it took me a while to find a combination of a lute and a teacher, but I’m very excited about my 2013 end of year bonus. Here it is:

Side note: no, this lute is not broken! Until we saw this concert, I never knew that lutes have a 90-degree bend in the neck. Between the bend and the shape of the body (kind of like a watermelon cut in half), the case is not much smaller than a harp, but it’s certainly a beautiful instrument!

This also brings up a couple of tangential topics:

I would never have persevered with my lute ambitions were it not for a friend who I met in our local translators association. She’s a Dutch translator and avid early musician (recorder) who knew exactly where to point me in my search for a lute and a teacher. She also encouraged me that it was totally possible to learn a new instrument over 40. Yet another benefit of being active in your local association! Also, I find that after translating for a whole day, I love the work but I’m just so tired of words. I might listen to a podcast instead of reading, but sometimes it’s just too many words. Music is a totally different neurological activity, and even when I’m really tired of translating…or maybe especially when I’m really tired of translating, music really does the trick! If you feel the same, think about a completely word-free bonus for yourself, whether it’s something sporty, musical or artistic.

Other ideas for good end of year bonuses???

Dec 11 2013
Corinne McKay

Upcoming Speaking of Translation call

On Monday, December 16 at 9 PM New York time (note: evening! unlike our usual time slot), Eve Bodeux and I will be hosting our next Speaking of Translation conference call. This month’s topic is “The freelance juggling act: balancing work, family and the rest of life,” and we’ve got an all-star panel of multitasking translators to address this multi-faceted topic. You can listen to the live call for free, and the podcast version will follow. Here are the details:

In this roundtable discussion, we’ll explore how to maintain your sanity while running a thriving business, raising a family, pursuing non-work interests and contributing to the profession. Our panelists for the discussion are Scandinavian to English translator Andy Bell, English to French translator Marianne Reiner and French to English translator Karen Tkaczyk, with Speaking of Translation hosts Eve Bodeux and Corinne McKay moderating. All of our panelists run full-time freelance businesses while raising families and remaining active in translation industry activities. All of them have significant non-work interests as well (sports, sideline businesses, church, community volunteering); we invited them because they strike us as people who do it all, but don’t seem stressed out or frazzled. Wondering how they do it? We’ll get their tips on how to find a work/life balance that keeps you happy, keeps money in the bank and lets you live the kind of life that you want.

To listen to the live call (free, other than any phone charges from your provider): At the call time, dial 209-647-1600 (+1 may be required outside the US). Then enter access code 178865 and press pound (#). If you live outside the US or pay by the minute for long distance, the least expensive option is probably to use Skype or Google Voice to dial in.