Archive for December, 2008

Disfrutar el Aprendizaje de Idiomas

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

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Aún cuando mi lengua materna no es el inglés, me siento muy orgullosa de mi habilidad de entender e interpretar este hermoso idioma y estoy muy agradecida por todos los beneficios que me ha brindado al enriquecer mi personalidad y por ende mi vida. Considero que aprender este idioma es una necesidad universal ya que ofrecer una amplia gama de ventajas en distintos niveles tales como el académico, cultural y el intelectual. Como Instructor de Idiomas siempre trato de enfatizar la importancia de aprender inglés y procuro inspirar a los participantes del curso a aprenderlo con pasión y sentirlo parte de sus vidas. Aprender otros idiomas ayuda a la gente a abrir sus mentes para adquirir una rica diversidad de información valiosa la cual es vital para estimular nuestra curiosidad racional y el intenso placer de descubrir nuevos conceptos e ideas que nos complementan como ciudadanos universales.
Hablar inglés ofrece innumerable recompensas, especialmente cuando nos conectamos al mundo a través de Internet pues hay mucho que aprender allí! También nos permite ser entendidos casi en todo lugar del planeta tanto por académicos así como el público en general. El inglés está en todas partes: la prensa internacional, programas de TV, música, deportes, programas de computación, política, ciencia, etc.
Para los hispanos aprender inglés es relativamente fácil pero no tenemos que limitarnos: podemos probar con el hebreo, japonés o árabe, entre otros, ya que aprender y disfrutarlo es un reto para la mente y el mejor estimulante para la inteligencia.
Como Traductor de Inglés – Español he disfrutado intensamente ya que el inglés me ha dado una excelente oportunidad para adquirir conocimiento en diferentes áreas. La Traducción se ha convertido en el arte que decora mi vida con sus sutilezas, matices y riqueza y no lo cambio por nada en el mundo!


Paulina Torres de Witt

www.goihata.com

Recession for translators

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

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We can see the results now but the economic slow-down started over a year; we have read about banks in crisis, credit restrictions, freezing of corporate investments, household consumption in freefall, rising unemployment in both industrialized and developing countries.
No doubt all economists agree about the situation being serious, involving wide-reaching reforms of our financial systems and resulting in a recession that will last for months, or even years as it’s becoming evident right now. Across the globe, many freelance Translators (like me!) have been forced to find other sources of income (I’m an In-Company English Trainer in the mornings!) and countless Translation agencies have closed down as a result of the recession.
The Translation world, which is almost entirely dependent on international trade, will obviously put up with the impact of the cost of such a downturn. If companies innovate less, open less branches in a foreign country and trade smaller quantities of products and services with their partners and clients abroad, there will be millions of manuals, corporate letters, advertisements that will no longer need to be translated in such circumstances, only those professionals with a strong will to remain visible in the market will obtain contracts in this diminishing market and stronger competition from colleagues ready to work for less.
I found these tips which might be useful for all of you to consider:
• Have your own web page where you present your profile and reference it carefully on Google
• Take advantage of public or professional websites such as Facebook or LinkedIn and create your profile there
• Remind your old customers that you are willing to serve them and provide satisfactory service. It is much easier to obtain a repeat order from an old satisfied customer than to obtain a new customer.
This will increase the chances of being contacted and will insert you in the global market as our markets are interwoven. We’ll survive


Paulina Torres de Witt

www.goihata.com

Alert

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

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Days ago I received a notification from a reliable source informing that even though there are respectable translation agencies on the Net there are a few which are unfortunately only fronts intended to deceive Translators and steal their work, and then they resell it getting a 100% profit while the Translators do not get paid. I really don’t know how do they do it, but it is wiser not to get involved with these dark entities. The names of the so-called firms are: ANIRARKANA and IXARASAMA and they appear as if they were operating in France.
We have to be alert in order to avoid bad professional encounters and find out about the dubious “clients” who are on the prowl in our profession. We need to be cautious and establish a business relationship based in honor and trust. One could say that it would be better to cultivate the clients that we have rather than trying to get new ones on a regular basis but this is not feasible most of the time and actually opposes the very nature of our service which is helping out anyone who needs us; we are in the service sector and we have to deal with people. When we are available we are ready to accept new clients and not only those we already know. What to do then?
Before you accept a job please check the agency using, e.g., Hall of Fame and Shame at translatorscafe, BlueBoard at proz, Untrustworthy Translation Agencies at translationdirectory, among others. As a rule of thumb, it is quite risky to accept an assignment from an agency which does not have a website, uses a web based e-mail address or does not answer a phone provided as a contact number although there may be exceptions to this rule.


Paulina Torres de Witt

www.goihata.com