Freelance translation
My new new office
May 15, 2013
The right questions to ask yourself when looking for a coworking space
My life/work imbalance
April 19, 2013
The difficulty of finding a good work/life balance when life wants to take over
The coworking adventure continues
December 18, 2012
Coworking : I'm moving on
Translating on Your Terms
August 31, 2012
The importance of drafting a good terms of services agreement for translators
Translators: is Twitter bad for your business?
April 4, 2012
My Twitter misfortune
Translators and business plans
January 10, 2012
Business plans: a useful tool to give yourself some direction in your translation career
Mox's illustrated guide to freelance translation
December 7, 2011
Mox's Illustrated Guide to Freelance Translation is out!
Hey newbie translator!
November 4, 2011
Helpful links to start a career in translation
Translation and ethics
August 23, 2011
The end of my moral dilemmas and a couple of thoughts about ethics in translation
Translators and moral dilemmas
July 28, 2011
Moral dilemma : are there translations that shouldn't be done?
Freelancers and finder's fees
July 25, 2011
Are finders' fees a good way to do business?
Translators and specialisation 2
March 31, 2011
Translation in ultra-specialised fields: deciding whether to take the project or not, and how to deal with it
My application to the Institute of Translation and Interpreting
January 28, 2011
The story of my failed application to the ITI
Freelance translators and quoting
July 13, 2010
The importance of quoting in the translation process and of listening to your prospects in order to adapt your method
Coworking and hotdesking
April 26, 2010
Coworking environments: the pros and cons of dedicated desks and hotdesking
Fanlation
January 20, 2010
Fanlation is a term that I've come across very recently, and I came across it again when I received Jost Zetzsche's Tool Kit newsletter: I had just suggested that we use a new term for the kind of crowdsourced translation...
A translator's resolutions for 2010
January 15, 2010
I thought it’d be a good idea to cast my mind back on 2009 and give myself some vague pointers objectives for 2010. 2009 was meant to be the year where I took advantage of a move to Leeds to...
Crowdsourcing and translation
October 12, 2009
Crowdsourcing is the act of using the general public to take on, generally for free, work that would normally be assigned to contractors. Some companies have decided to use crowdsourcing to translate their website, relying on thousands of volunteers to...
New translators and low rates
February 13, 2009
A new translator emailed me for advice: he has had work offers, but at very low rates (€0.02 per word). He turned them down but he's wondering whether he was wrong. My answer: if you think the rate is too...
More translators' tricky situations
January 16, 2009
Following my post advice to a translation student, a reader has asked me what I would do in the following situations: You send your translation to the client. The client is not happy. You know the translation is good, how...
Think Visibility conference
December 20, 2008
One of my new year resolutions for 2009 is to attend at least two conferences. It's something I've never done and I feel like it'd be a great opportunity to learn new things, meet people and broaden my horizons. That's...
Advice to a translation student
December 8, 2008
Last week, I did an interview with a French student doing a translation degree. She asked me what advice I would give her. I told her that she should ignore all those who’ll tell her that she’s unlikely to succeed...
The joy of coworking
December 5, 2008
Regular readers will know that I’m a big fan of coworking. I started working in a shared office after getting a bit depressed working from home and immediately fell in love with my Brighton shared office. I loved the company...
Now I've seen it all
March 14, 2008
I had heard about it, rarely, admittedly, but it had been mentioned in a couple of translators’ forums. A colleague even told me about it once, but I wouldn’t believe him (he has a tendency to embellish the truth). Then...
Goodbye Brighton, ey up Leeds!
March 3, 2008
When people ask me what I love about being a freelance translator, I always mention the freedom that I get from it. Not only being my own boss, but also the fact that I can work from absolutely anywhere in...
New* translation blogs alert!
February 19, 2008
Blogging translator Diario di un traduttore Pasión por la traducción Thoughts on translation Las palabras son pistolas cargadas Freelance translators from scratch *new to me!...
Translation and accidents
February 4, 2008
I am injured. Productivity will be down and I’m going to struggle to meet all my translation deadlines. Serious illnesses and injuries are the bane of a freelance translator’s life, as they prevent us from working and hence, from earning...
Wondering why...
January 23, 2008
... it’s been quiet around here lately? Here’s the reason why: Yes, that’s me. Well, not really. But I am going skiing for a few days, which has meant that I have had to work extra hard since the beginning...
Visual online dictionaries
November 30, 2007
Transblawg and Language Hat both mention an interesting new resource: the Merriam-Webster visual dictionary online. A similar tool exists in French: the Dictionnaire visuel. It's actually bilingual (English and French), which is very handy. What really tickled me is that...
Nine factors to consider when determining your price
October 5, 2007
I discovered Freelance Switch via Lifehacker and was immediately very impressed by the range of resources and information available. I thought it’d be great to translate some of their articles into French; why should only English speakers have access to...
Back to work
October 1, 2007
I'm back from my holiday. Whilst I trawl through my emails and post, here is one of my favourite moments of last week. Best cup of tea from the top of Yr Wyddfa (aka Snowdon)...
Wanted: German-English translator/editor/reviewer
August 24, 2007
This job offer for a German-English translator/editor/reviewer interested me because it seems to offer what a lot of people are looking for in these days of long commutes: a salaried job which allows you to work from home. It seems...
Volume discounts on large translation projects
August 1, 2007
A reader sent me an email asking me several questions, including the following: Do all translators give volume discounts for big projects? I can see several reasons why a translator might be tempted to offer a discount on her work....
From our lips to your ears
July 25, 2007
From our lips to your ears is a project aiming at sharing interpreters’ stories about their work in a new book. Exciting! Interpreters can submit a story until December 3, 2007. You can also check out the From our...
Translation and specialisation
July 20, 2007
A fellow translator posted an interesting question regarding specialisations on one of the lists I belong to. He had been asked whether he had experience in radiotherapy translations and could undertake a job on this subject. His dilemma was that...
Translation or localisation or what?
July 15, 2007
Just imagine: it’s Friday night, a couple of friends have just turned up unexpectedly for dinner, armed with two bottles of wine, one red, one white, from the same winemaker. Delighted, you have a look at the notes on...
Volunteering and translators
July 10, 2007
I think Marie’s idea of doing volunteer work is very good, whether you’re starting out or not, and I thought I’d add a few organisations to the ones that she mentions (Online UN volunteering services and Translators without Borders). Oxfam...
Translation and proofreading
May 2, 2007
I often receive emails from readers asking me about translation and being a freelance translator. I thought that I would share some of them, along with my responses, as they might be of interest to other people. Antonia asked me...
Bad, bad translator
May 1, 2007
Thank you Laurence for sending me an article about what happens when translators get facetious. Sarkozy, in fact, said "I invite the French people to rally behind me". Bad, bad translator (awful sentence as well, tut tut), and I...
Proofreading machine translation
February 22, 2007
I have just received an email starting like this: Dear translator, We are looking for translators with experience in UE and official institutions texts for an EU tender. This job consists on the proofreading of UE text generated by machine...
The state of the translation industry
January 16, 2007
So is the translation industry booming or in crisis? Thanks to Babelport news and Hang-VLS ----------------- UPDATE I've just realised that Danilo Nogueira's article dates back to 2002. Oops. The Time article is, however, recent....
Brushing up my Spanish
December 20, 2006
I’m off on Saturday to spend two weeks in Cuba. In anticipation of this trip, I’ve been trying to resurrect my moribund Spanish. This hasn’t been as straightforward as I had hoped. Ideally, I wanted to take a course with...
What does it take to be a freelance translator?
December 1, 2006
My friend Paul recommended Karyn Greenstreet’s website to me. It contains lots of resources and articles on freelancing, including one called Are you cut out to be your own boss?, in which she gives a list of desired personality traits...
A beginner's guide to freelancing
November 8, 2006
There is very little help out there for fledgling freelancers. When I decided to take the plunge, I went to a couple of seminars, but they were only about taxes and accounts, and I didn’t understand any of it. For...
Céline’s 10 Tricky Situations Translators Might Find Themselves In and How To Get Out of Them
October 11, 2006
Being a freelance translator isn't just about having the ability to take language from one culture and turn it into another. As I allude to elsewhere in this blog, there are aspects of this career which require negotiation skills and...
Cinema classics
October 4, 2006
This weekend I mentioned that I had never seen Grease, and next thing I knew, I was plonked in front of a television with a glass of wine and crisps and ordered to enjoy myself. It’s a film that had...
New links
September 29, 2006
Hands up if you’ve posted a comment that didn’t appear! This site changed host between yesterday and today and there were a few hitches (or so I hear; it all magically happened while I was sleeping last night. Who says...
The most deceased news
September 21, 2006
I've never lambasted automatic translation, because it's too easy. This little gem, found while doing a search on "manufacturability" (how do you translate that??), really made me laugh, though, so I thought I'd share it with you: "Les plus défuntes...
The price of localisation
September 11, 2006
Thanks Paul for sending me an article on the localisation process by Kirsten Giovanis, Managing Director of KJInternational. Translators are only a cog in the system and it is interesting to read about the whole process. I was particularly interested...
Wanted: French localisation issue specialist (translator)
August 3, 2006
Early last year some of you may remember that I posted a job advert for a Spanish-English translator. I’m proud to say that the perfect candidate was found through Naked Translations and I’m hoping that this may happen again. This...
Why I love working in an office #4
May 12, 2006
Because whenever something weird and wonderful is going on in Brighton, it's just around the corner from work. Today and tomorrow, all sorts of strange creatures will be roaming the streets of Brighton. More! More! I. Must. Not. Leave. My....
Guest blogger: Self-employed? Are you paying too much tax?
March 31, 2006
By Teresa Noon If you have been trading for a while you may not have considered how you are currently set up. It may be that you have set up as a sole trader as it seemed like the easiest...
Guest blogger: Recruiting Translators – how Lingo24 Translation Services does it
February 24, 2006
By Christian Arno Lingo24 is always keen to add talented translators to its books, and encourages professionals from all backgrounds to apply through its online application form. As an established translation company, we already have some 900 carefully vetted freelance...
Guest blogger: Why I'm going to give translation up
January 27, 2006
By Jim Clennell I became a translator more by accident than design. Having blundered through a succession of ill-fated jobs after my arrival in France in 1991, by late 1997 I realised that enough was enough and I would have...
First language attrition
January 11, 2006
Today's entry on first language attrition has been posted on omniglot.com. I felt very honoured when Simon asked me to contribute to his site, because I think omniglot.com is one of the most amazing language sites around. I particularly love...
Break
December 16, 2005
Deadlines met, lights out, shop's closed. I'll see you all in 2006, have a great holiday!...
A day in the life of a translator
December 9, 2005
Apologies to everyone who has written to me lately and is still waiting for an answer; things have been very hectic here at Naked Translations Headquarters, as they always are before Christmas. One e-mail kept my attention, however, because it...
How I failed NaNoWriMo
December 5, 2005
In answer to Jean, who asked in the comments how I did at NaNoWriMo: I got to 21,186 words, ran out of steam and ideas, and couldn’t resist our gorgeous winter sunsets. So instead of staying in front of my...
Why I love working in an office #3
November 28, 2005
My very first office party!...
Unpaid tests
November 23, 2005
I never, ever do unpaid tests. Well. Maybe sometimes. The problem, as I see it, is that there are unpaid tests and there are unpaid tests, and each of them has to be considered separately. When I first started off,...
National Novel Writing Month
November 1, 2005
When I was growing up, I was forever writing little stories, and at school, my favourite class for French; essays, far from being a chore for me, were an opportunity to play with language, which I always loved, and exercise...
Why I love working in an office #2
October 17, 2005
So close, yet so far
September 8, 2005
Yesterday I received this email, sent from the "contact céline" page on this website. "Dear Celine I work in the International Development Department at the University of X. We are undertaking an evaluation of aid, and we are looking for...
Quiet times
August 16, 2005
It feels ironic to be writing about how to use quiet periods to make sure they don't stretch for too long when I've been turning work down almost daily in the last three weeks (hence the lack of regular posts...
Institute of Linguists Chartered status – frequently asked questions
August 5, 2005
Henry Pavlovich, director of the IoL, answers questions. From The Linguist, August-September (44,4) How it affects the IoL 1. What is the effect of the Charter on the existing Institute of Linguists (IoL)? The Chartered IoL would be a new...
Apologies
July 26, 2005
A combination of enormous amounts of work and looming long weekend means that everything that's not strictly work-related will have to take second place this week (and possibly next week). Apologies to all the people who have recently contacted me...
The Chartered Institute of Linguists
July 25, 2005
From 1st September 2005, The Institute of Linguists will become the Chartered Institute of Linguists. This means that it will be able to give the status of "Chartered Linguist" to suitably qualified linguists. John Hammond, Chairman of the Council of...
Why I love working in an office #1
July 22, 2005
Paul 234 Céline 283 Because beating a fellow freelancer at Scrabble is SO much more fun than watching daytime telly when I need a break....
Decisions, decisions
July 13, 2005
I’ve been head-hunted! How exciting! I’ve been asked to apply for a position, and this is the deal: three months in the office of a local translation agency to work on the translation of a new video game; I’d be...
Course on how to get started as a freelance translator
July 11, 2005
Corinne McKay, a French to English translator, is offering an online course on how to get started as a freelance translator. She is going to cover the following topics: Is translation for you? Laying the groundwork Your clients and how...
Guest blogger: Who is responsible for a translation?
June 30, 2005
By Hans Leander I recently sent the following message, with the topic "Who is responsible for a translation?", to one of the discussion lists I frequent (text slightly adapted to this blog): I did an editing job for a customer...
SDL buys Trados
June 21, 2005
TRADOS and SDL have joined together to strengthen and better serve the globalization ecosystem - the strong relationship among all players in the translation process bound by a common technology. We will provide you with more valuable and powerful products...
Office life
May 19, 2005
So it's been a month since I moved to my new office. I can say without hesitation that it was an inspired decision; my quality of life has improved no end and my work has benefited from it. I thought...
Claiming tax relief
April 27, 2005
Remember this? Well, check this out: My office has turned into a spare bedroom, which has tax relief implications. It is quite difficult to find accurate information regarding tax relief; every time I called the Inland Revenue, I received...
Why I don't like bidding systems
April 20, 2005
I don't think many people could imagine a lawyer bidding to get a contract in reply to an ad saying, "Legal advice needed for big company, please offer your best price, no more than $5 an hour please." Yet this...
Babelport
April 6, 2005
Chris Hansel emailed me last week to let me know of Babelport, a new translation portal of which he is a co-founder. It's extremely promising, the tone is engaging and friendly and I really like the design (could it be...
I'm outta here
April 1, 2005
I've really suffered from having to stay in my office this winter. The grey weather in particular hasn’t done much to entice me out. Not only have I found it hard for the first time in five years to be...
I'm back
March 26, 2005
I'm back! One major server breakdown and a holiday meant that I haven't been able to post in the last couple of weeks. Normal service will be resumed on Monday, with this month's guest blogger entry....
Links
March 14, 2005
Too much work means that I haven't got time to blog at length at the moment. Outrageous. I'll just give you a few links that have been brought to my attention lately. I've finally updated my links page by the...
Cultural references
February 28, 2005
Do I feel French or English, and how does this impact on my work? It's a question I find difficult, because I know both cultures intimately and feel comfortable in both countries. As a matter of fact, I've lived here...
Editing issues
February 22, 2005
I really enjoy editing other people's work because I can concentrate on spotting the odd typo and grammatical mistake and improving the style of a text, which is made easier and more productive by the fact that I haven't already...
Wanted: Spanish to English translator
January 19, 2005
Submissions for this job opportunity are now closed. Many thanks to all those who expressed an interest. I had an unusual request yesterday that prompted me to consider the other side of freelance translating: how do you find the translator...
My ancestors the Gauls were scared of one thing…
January 3, 2005
… and one thing only: that the sky may fall on their heads. Well, it (almost) happened to me on new year's eve. The photo shows the ceiling of my study as it now looks; my desk is exactly...
Happy blogday!
November 11, 2004
This blog is one year old today. I started it for purely professional reasons, to offer something different to potential clients and to stand out from all the other translators' websites out there. I never thought that it would actually...
What is localisation?
November 3, 2004
Localisation is a hot topic in the translation industry. This is the definition preferred by the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA): "Localization involves taking a product and making it linguistically and culturally appropriate to the target locale (country/region and language)...
Break
October 27, 2004
We're off to Prague for a few days, so I've closed the comments on most of my entries (I hope!) to try and deter spammers. Na shledanou!...
Payment problems
October 22, 2004
I have a client who I like working with, but I've always had to send reminders to get paid. My payment terms are 30 days from day of invoice, unless otherwise agreed. A couple of weeks ago he called to...
Meeting the clients
October 15, 2004
Yesterday I did something I had never done before: I met clients in the flesh, as well as other freelance translators (Italian, Spanish and German) who have been working for them. It is very odd to think that in four...
Nobody understands me
October 11, 2004
My sister sells tickets in a French train station and is in amost daily contact with English speakers, so she's been sent on an English course. She has a first assessment this week, during which she'll have to answer simple...
Bridging the culture gap
September 20, 2004
The Guardian published an edited version of an e-mail correspondence between an English author and the Russian translator of her book. It gives a great insight into the difficulties a translator is bound to encounter if he or she hasn't...
Translation business practices report
September 7, 2004
Back from holiday and sifting through a very full inbox, I found a link provided by Dyran from the business practices discussion group to a translation business practices report written by the World Bank. It is based on a survey...
Specialisation
August 23, 2004
Thanks a lot to Zachary for sending me the link to a NY Times article about how bad the English translation of Simone de Beauvoir's highly influencial "Le deuxième sexe" is. The article won't be available for much longer, so...
Editing and proofreading
August 11, 2004
I've been doing quite a bit of proofreading and editing recently. I like it, it trains me to better proofread my own work and it's interesting to see the work of colleagues and compare their style with mine. I've learned...
Using Google 2
July 27, 2004
And now for an illustration of how wonderfully helpful Google can be: I had to translate "cornrow" yesterday. I had absolutely no idea what it was, couldn't find it in my dictionaries and the context wasn't helpful at all. So...
Using Google
July 23, 2004
I'm currently subtitling the actors' commentary of Shaun of the Dead, the first romzom (romantic comedy with zombies) ever. It's a very funny film that I recommend, especially to zombie film fans like me who also like a good spoof....
A solitary job
June 10, 2004
Recently, my little routine has been shaken up. I've been interpreting more than usual, a friend has been destroying our bathroom (with a view to make it nicer) and I've even met colleagues from Brighton. It has been a shock...
How to become a translator
June 2, 2004
Through this website I've had quite a few emails from people wanting to become translators and asking me for advice. It's quite difficult to know what to say, because unlike most careers, there is not one way to get there....
Career development
May 14, 2004
Tonight, we're off to Barcelona for a few days. I'm very intrigued as to whether I'll be able to retrieve enough of my Spanish to communicate with the locals. I studied it for 8 years, but since I've been in...
Office health
April 8, 2004
From today I'm taking ten days off and I've vowed not to go anywhere near a computer to make sure I get a proper rest. Why? Because my back has been quite sore in the last few weeks and I...
How not to translate!
April 6, 2004
Margaret Marks over at Transblawg has found a brilliant example of what happens when translators decide to forget about the source text to speak their mind: a photo of a label with washing instructions on a computer sleeve made in...
Turning down jobs
March 26, 2004
Yesterday, I turned down a large job (roughly 75,000 words) offered by a nice, professional and reliable client who has always agreed to my rates. I agonised over it for quite a while. The subject matter was psychometric assessments, with...
It might look like a holiday, but...
January 16, 2004
Tomorrow, I’m going to France until Tuesday. This is not a holiday, and in fact, I’m taking a laptop with me, as I’m still working on that 45,000 word project, and I’m planning on working in the mornings. I’m going...
Holidays. Celebrate?
December 23, 2003
Holidays. I hate them. Ok, I don’t HATE them, but I do find them traumatic. And I know from spending way too much time on translators’ forums that I’m not alone. I think that, when you’re self-employed, however well you’re...
Why a blog?
November 11, 2003
Every day I find myself scratching my head, swivelling on my chair or pacing around with a terribly furrowed brow, wondering how on earth I can translate such and such sentence or idea. I thought it might be interesting to...