28 October 20153 February 2023 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

Selección de recursos para nuevos traductores

Today’s guest post has been written by Yolanda Gómez on behalf of the translation agency she works for, Okodia.

La entrada de hoy la ha escrito Yolanda Gómez de parte de la agencia de traducción para la cual trabaja, Okodia.

Traducción e Interpretación, Periodismo, Medicina, Química, Derecho… Cuando un estudiante finaliza su carrera universitaria y accede al mercado laboral, necesita contar con una serie de recursos, de herramientas útiles para empezar a aprender su oficio “de verdad”. Como decía uno de mis profesores favoritos, un profesional no nace, sino que se hace. Es decir: estudiar una carrera te enseña los fundamentos teóricos de la materia que te interesa, pero a la hora de la verdad necesitas que tus colegas de oficio te orienten, te apoyen y te acompañen en esos primeros pasos en el mundo profesional real.

21 October 201511 February 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

5 Lessons I Learned While Writing A Book About Interpreting

For the past few months, I have been working on a draft of my first book, Being a Successful Interpreter: Adding Value and Delivering Excellence. It has been an amazing and sometimes nerve-wracking process that has taught me far more than just writing. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that I learned as much from the process of writing the book as I did from researching the content. Here are my top five lessons.

29 September 201515 April 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

What a difference an MA makes: the MAATS at Leeds

I graduated from Leeds’ Centre for Translation Studies in 2012, having taken the MAATS (MA in Applied Translation Studies) Masters.

I was somewhat atypical in my cohort as I had already completed a year working as an intern translator in a small (or pocket-sized) agency in Castres, Southern France. As such I was already well accustomed to translating huge amounts of text, translating to deadlines, and working on my own as well as with editors and proofreaders. I continued to work freelance as a translator for my former employer throughout my Masters, which did help me to keep some perspective on my studies.

Since graduating with my MA in hand, I have gone on to work at Google, more freelancing, and am currently an Account Manager at Wordbank, a London-based marketing translation agency. I think the fact of having a Masters helped me win these roles (and keep them!) for sure. But has what I learned at Leeds made any difference? Here are some great things about the MAATS course at Leeds (they also offer interpreting, audiovisual translation, and PGDips which I am not able to comment on, really).

21 September 201511 May 2020 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

My Tailored Sitting/Standing Desk Set-up

Today’s guest post has been written by Allison Klein who I first connected with on Facebook and later had the pleasure of meeting IRL last October at the MET 2014 conference. Enjoy!

First of all, I would like to say how thrilled and honored I was to have been asked by Nikki to write a guest post for her blog. This idea came about after I had posted something on social media about my quest to find the ‘perfect’ sitting-standing desk and chair earlier this year, and Nikki suggested I blog about it, and here we are.

The Why

This type of set-up is something I have actually been thinking about for a couple years now, between all the attention in the media about how a sedentary lifestyle, such as the one translators and many other professionals lead these days, can cause a range of health problems down the line.

22 August 20152 May 2022 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

DipTrans: the Real Costs and Returns

This is a guest post by Gwenydd Jones.

This article will give you an idea of what getting the CIOL Diploma in Translation (DipTrans) from the Chartered Institute of Linguists cost me and the return I’ve enjoyed on my investment. It’ll help you anticipate what your own costs and returns might be if you sign up for the DipTrans exam in January to get this postgraduate qualification (the sign-up deadline is 30 September, with extension to 7 October).

31 July 201527 April 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

When should we apply extra charges to translation projects?

For some, the answer is obvious. For others, it’s not that easy. I personally think that it is a case-by-case decision, depending not only on you, but also on the client and on the specific project. Let’s try to analyse this sensitive issue.

People usually believe that extra charges should apply for overtime hours, rush deliveries or complex jobs. I don’t think these concepts mean the same thing to each of us. Let’s explore these three points.

28 July 201515 April 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

My European Master in Specialized Translation

The METS is a unique MA programme offering a distinct set of professionalization modules in different fields of specialization. Students spend two semesters abroad at two different partner universities of the METS consortium.

When I applied for this Master, I had analysed the different modules each school offered and I chose KU Leuven (Antwerp) because it was specialized in Translation Technologies and ISIT (Paris) for its Communication module.

4 July 201515 April 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

Review of the Bath MA in Interpreting and Translating

My master’s journey kicked off with an interview day at the University of Bath. First up were two interviews with a tutor, one for each language pair, which involved performing a sight translation – something I managed to embellish with a grand total of 19 “erms” according to one of my interviewers. The afternoon consisted of a short written translation exam. Despite my verbal sluggishness that morning, the experience was relatively relaxed and the only downside was the mammoth train journey from Durham to Bath. For anyone in a similar position, the university is able to offer accommodation on campus at reduced rates.

21 June 201515 April 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

An Overview of the Master’s in Translation (and Interpreting) at Westminster University (Part Two)

Welcome to the second half of our guest post on Nikki’s blog, My Words for a Change! For those of you who didn’t read last week, Nikki kindly invited the Deep End bloggers (Claire Harmer, Katharine Mears, Felicity Pearce, Paula Pitkethly and Sandra Young) to write a guest blog post on our experiences at Westminster University. Please read on to find out more, and take a look at last week’s post!

10 June 201515 April 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

An Overview of the Master’s in Translation (and Interpreting) at Westminster University (Part One)

Nikki kindly invited Claire Harmer, Katharine Mears, Felicity Pearce, Paula Pitkethly and Sandra Young to write a guest blog post on our experiences at Westminster University. Since we studied there in 2010-2011, in this post we have tried to indicate any major changes that have taken place on the course, but if you would like further information about the current programmes on offer, please visit the Westminster University website or contact Alexa Alfer, the university’s Translation Studies Programme Director (A.Alfer01@westminster.ac.uk).

Each of us have taken a specific aspect of the course to expand on, hoping to give anyone thinking about taking the plunge into the world of translation and interpreting an insight into the programme and the lecturers, to see if Westminster offers the right course for them.