Of rain and sunshine
The first three weeks of August, I was on "real" vacation, meaning I actually left home for the sole purpose of relaxing and not working, for the first time in…
Calendar 2024 January 1 Monday and pencil
12 months
The new year is barely a week old, and already time seems to be going by just as fast as it did last year. 2023 was incredibly packed, including with…
Secure future
An incident involving a fight, someone who wanted to help, a gun, police, and machine translation (MT) recently made the rounds on several social media platforms. And it only came…
101 things a translator needs to know – #99
Keep calm - and keep the clientNo matter how brilliant you are, at some point a client will complain about your work. How you react will determine your future with…
Content Marketing for Translators
It's summertime and for many of us, this means less work and maybe also vacation time. This free time should of course be used to relax and reload in whatever…
101 things a translator needs to know – #63
When is a door not a door?In all contexts, particularly technical texts, it is important to use the terms your readers themselves use. Even the simplest words that appear to…
White iphone 5 c on brown wooden table
101 things a translator needs to know – #6
Always reply You know the scenario. You're busy, busy, busy working on that urgent translation. Who has time to answer the phone or read emails?But remember, while clients are waiting…
Social media – help or hell?
I am currently covering the topic of marketing with my students, and in this day and age, social media is an integral part of it. Of course, for the large…
Das Kunden-Komplott
Das ist der Titel der Kolumne von Julia Herbig im MDÜ (3/2016), der Fachzeitschrift des BDÜ. Darauf gestoßen bin ich bei der Recherche für meinen Unterricht im Fach Berufskunde, und…
Diversifying is a good thing
While I tell my students to specialize in order to be successful translators (and interpreters), the recent and current crisis has made it clear that being too specialized or having…