Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters

Nubbin


Corinne McKay

Because I don't talk enough as it is…

I was recently interviewed for two posts on fellow bloggers’ websites; I’m sharing these links not for self-promotional purposes, but in case any readers have an interest in the topics that the interviews cover:

The home-based work gurus over at Rat Race Rebellion (Don’t you love that name? Their main site is here)  interviewed me about the basics of starting a home-based translation business. RRR has a subscription-based weekly bulletin of home-based jobs, and they also work in interesting areas such as training military spouses to launch and run home-based businesses that can move with them as their spouses change locations. This isn’t a link exchange, I just think that the RRR folks and their programs are very interesting!

Freelance technology and business writer/blogger Michelle V. Rafter interviewed me about self-publishing using print-on-demand, and the interview focuses on the process of publishing my book How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator. Michelle and I had been virtual friends up until now; I started reading her blog a number of months ago, then we connected on LinkedIn, so it was a lot of fun to have an hour on the phone with her!


Corinne McKay

The elusive Mr. Driver's License

This one will probably make the rounds as fast as the Welsh roadsign/autoresponder, but today’s post on Language Log has a wonderful and humorous warning about the dangers of monolingualism. The BBC News reports that Irish police have been frantically hunting for one “Prawo Jazdy,” a Polish man who had, according to the police, accumulated more than 50 driving violations while giving a different home address each time. Except… Prawo Jazdy isn’t even a person’s name, but rather the words “Driver’s License” in Polish, which appear in bold text at the top of the license itself (you can see a photo of this on the BBC site). With Poles currently representing Ireland’s largest immigrant population, the slippery Mr. Jazdy has been showing up all over the country…and as the BBC article points out, “Irish police officers should now know at least two words of Polish.”


Corinne McKay

Link: a great post on e-mail security issues

I apologize for all of these nubbins; there’s just too much going on on the web today! If you have any interest in computer security issues, make sure to read Michael Wahlster’s post Secrets on a Postcard, in which he argues (quite persuasively!) that sending confidential documents by standard (unsecure) e-mail is a major security risk for translators and clients alike. I was amazed to read that in over 10 years of offering to send confidential documents by encrypted e-mail, Michael has never had a client take him up on the offer. Check out his post for the full story!


Corinne McKay

Word clouds of inaugural addresses

Thanks to reader Dierk Seeburg for sending the link to these word clouds that compare Obama’s inaugural speech to those of Bush, Clinton, Reagan and Lincoln. If you haven’t checked out Wordle, it’s a very cool language/art/geek tool that generates a word cloud that gives greater importance to frequently used words in your text. In the inaugural address word clouds, Obama’s most prominent words are “nation” and “new,” Bush’s standalone star word is “freedom,” Clinton’s are “new” and “century,” Reagan’s, by far, is “government,” and Lincoln’s two addresses highlighted “constitution,” “union,” “government,” “people” and “war.” These are worth a look on your coffee break!


Corinne McKay

Is LinkedIn useful for translators?

Update to this post: Make sure to read the comments for some excellent tips on how to use LinkedIn effectively.

This is just a brief request for input: is LinkedIn useful for translators? I set up a LinkedIn profile last year, around the time I started expanding my base of direct clients. Since then I’ve fleshed out my profile to include this blog, and it’s been fun and interesting to connect with other translators through the site and its groups that I’ve joined. However, I’ve never received a contact from a prospective client via LinkedIn, nor have I seen any translation jobs (regardless of the language) posted on LinkedIn’s job boards. This makes me wonder if I need to use the site in a different way, or if LinkedIn is not the right online gathering place for translators?