7 May 202213 May 2022 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

Overview of UCSD Extended Studies’ Professional Certificate in Translating & Interpreting (Spanish/English)

This is a guest post by Kelly Jones.

I grew up bilingual and bicultural and I’ve always been fascinated by the skills of translators and interpreters. Heck, I have been (sort of) translating and interpreting in casual and personal settings ever since I can remember! It was a huge part of my childhood to connect my family with my friends, my mom and dad to everyday life, and my dad’s clients with the community. However, it wasn’t until recently that I realized the positive impact my bilingual skills can have on others and how much this positively impacted me.

22 December 202122 December 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

How to Give Translators the Recognition They Deserve

This is a guest post by Julija Savić, resident wordsmith at Zingword

It’s been stated thousands of times — translators and interpreters are the backbone of global business, science, and collaboration. However, they still often go unnoticed by the public. Unlike other industries, professional translation services mostly go on behind the scenes of a process (be it in business, publishing, filmmaking…) and as such they are often hidden from the public gaze. Even though society consumes translated content regularly, from literature classes in school to online articles we scroll through daily, people in many countries aren’t really aware of how much translators affect their lives — except when it comes to public uproar over mistranslations, as we’ve seen time and time again.

20 October 20219 November 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

‘Useful Links & Resources for Translators & Interpreters’ Update – October 2021

The Useful Links & Resources for Translators & Interpreters are five sections detailed on five separate pages with all kinds of links to help you work smarter. They form one of the main categories in a larger part of my site called Links, Tips & Resources, which I’ve added to and reorganised since I last did an update back in January to (hopefully) make it easier for you to find the information you need.

The Links, Tips & Resources now include Abbreviations, Acronyms & Initialisms, the Bite-sized Tips series, Downloadable Files and lots more. Do check out what’s on offer.

Meanwhile, let’s look at what’s new in Useful Links & Resources and go backwards through the five sections for a change (all the headings are clickable).

24 August 202125 August 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

How Twitter Punished Me for Getting Hacked

My Twitter account was hacked on Monday, 26 July. I tried to recover it by changing the password, but the hacker was too quick for me and changed the email address and phone number so I was locked out. I immediately reported the hack to Twitter Support and naively thought I’d get back control of my account within a couple of days or so.

6 July 20218 July 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

Fees or Rates? A Discussion on Translation Prices

This post is a summary of a discussion on fees and rates during a hosted Group Translation Chats (GTC) session It was moderated by Robin Humphrey who kindly gave me his notes to use a basis for this post.

Many newcomers to the profession can find it hard to know what to charge, especially as MA courses often don’t pay much attention to business aspects. Hopefully this post will bring some clarity to the fees and rates discussion and help translators feel confident when speaking about the cost of their work.

Broadly speaking, fee is used to describe an individual service, and rate the price or cost of something per piece (per character, word, 1000 words, page, hour, for example).

The difference between fees and rates matters because we’re running businesses. Some think translation is not a “real business”, that it’s not “real work” and anyone can do it, especially if they have access to the internet. But this is a wrong assumption and although our job requires skill, training and time, we’re not generally overpriced. We offer a professional service and should charge accordingly.

22 May 202124 May 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

Purchase Orders – 2021 Update

Just over a year ago, I revisited the purchase order I first shared with you in 2015 because I’d divided it into four to cover the four different services I currently provide: translation; revision; editing; and localisation.

I’m now back again with another update.

After talking to colleagues recently about pricing, negotiating and deadlines, I realised I needed to add a couple of lines to my purchase orders.

19 May 202110 June 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

Review of MA Translation Studies at Cardiff University

It is safe to say that I decided to devote my work fully to translation somewhat later than I should have done. But, as the saying goes, better late than never! That said, if I had decided to pursue studies earlier, I would not have gained the wealth of experiences that I am now able to include in my translation toolkit!

I studied BA(Hons) at the University of Bristol in the nineties and followed with a PGCE in Secondary Education. I aimed to become a language teacher, but life took me into hospitality management and, later, into project management and logistics in the European bespoke furniture industry.

I loved the challenges of both careers, but when my youngest son was due to start school in 2018, I knew I wanted to get back to work but that I wanted to work from home. After a serendipitous visit from a school friend, a Switzerland-based freelance translator, I had a lightbulb moment. Languages and informal translation, even interpreting, had always been a part of my work, probably the part I enjoyed most. I wanted languages and, specifically, translation to be the focus of my work, not incidental to it.

19 April 20217 July 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

CPD: What is it? Why should I do it? Which should I do?

Members of translation and interpreting associations will know that a lot of emphasis is placed on CPD (continuing professional development). The ITI (Institute of Translation and Interpreting), which I’m a member of, recommends we log 30 hours of CPD every membership year (in my case from May to April) and issues a certificate when the record is complete.

Given that ongoing training is so important, we discussed our future CPD plans in a hosted session of the Group Translation Chats (GTC), moderated by Jenny Zonneveld, back in February. This is a summary of what we talked about containing many links to CPD you might like to try.

3 April 20217 July 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

Teamwork: the pros and cons of being a lone wolf or a pack animal

From the outside looking in, most translators probably seem lone wolves, happily working at their desks all day with hardly any social contact. In fact, many freelancers highlight being their own boss and making all the decisions as one of the main reasons why they pursued a self-employed career.

But the reality can be quite different, even if you don’t work in an agency’s office. Because translators are increasingly realising the benefits of working together on projects and sharing their knowledge.

In the Group Translation Chats (GTC) session in January, hosted by Ellen Singer, we talked about the pros and cons of teamwork and how and when we can work better together.

26 January 202125 August 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

‘Useful Links & Resources for Translators & Interpreters’ Update – January 2021

Hi everyone! If you’ve never heard of my Useful Links & Resources for Translators & Interpreters pages before, please read the previous update (April 2020) as it explains how I divided all the links into five major sections with their own categories.

I update these pages on a regular basis when I either come across links to add or delete those that no longer work after running the broken link checker. This post doesn’t include everything new since last time, just a few of the highlights.

You can read about some of my favourite useful links here.