In our younger years, our dreams of what we’ll do when we grow up can vary wildly. Firefighter? Astronaut? Sports star? Or perhaps increasingly these days, the most common aspiration is merely to be famous…

Now picture a young Bart Roelands growing up in the southern region of the Netherlands, not far from Eindhoven, feasting on TV series featuring famous lawyers such as Perry Mason or Matlock, and planning to follow in their footsteps, valiantly convincing judges with the sheer force of their arguments. Or alternatively reading One Hercule Poirot novel after another (in English, if you please), being transfixed by David Suchet’s definitive onscreen performances, and harbouring hopes of one day being a great detective.

Andrew Morris

— by Katie Craig (Myanmar Indigenous Community Partners)

Katie Craig | MICP

All around the world, translators go to bed each night haunted by an existential question that keeps them awake into the small hours. No, nothing to do with pandemics, impending ecological doom or financial meltdown – it’s far more serious than that. At issue is how you pronounce “ProZ”.

Andrew Morris

Some translators are born into cosmopolitan, international households. Others have linguistic aptitude in their genes because of a long family history of learning and speaking foreign tongues, along with copious amounts of travel and exposure throughout their childhood and adolescence… and still others appear out of nowhere, landing like alien beings in a family with neither an interest in nor a history of languages, inexplicably showing up with the language gene. And not only that, but going on to make a living out of it.

Andrew Morris

ProZ.com and other translation workplaces have been created based on the premise that translators will be willing to cooperate if given the appropriate tools and opportunities. At ProZ.com, there are several areas where you can establish relationships with colleagues and potential clients and share experiences:

Mike Donlin

For some of us it’s the first magical encounter with an exotic culture on a childhood holiday, or an (imaginary) love affair with a faraway star singing in a foreign language, but for the young Simon Barnes, it was the quiet presence at home of his father’s French and German books that provided the first gateway to a new world. There can’t have been many shelves lined with such books in the small Leicestershire town of Market Bosworth (the scene of a defining battle in a civil war that marked England’s history), but then again his father had started out as a French and German teacher, before leaving to work for Rolls Royce.

Andrew Morris

Like a trail of breadcrumbs in a fairytale, we can trace Elke Fehling’s love for languages all the way back through the decades. Her mother, who had been an au pair, was keen for her daughters to learn to speak other languages, so she encouraged them to watch Sesame Street from a young age (in English with German subtitles, which the 4-year-old Elke couldn’t read). Along with family trips to Italy and Spain, that early exposure sowed the seeds and inspired a sense of the magical properties of foreign languages.

Andrew Morris

Crowdin, a cloud-based localization management solution that speeds up and automates localization, has integrated with the ProZ.com API and added three new apps to its store that can enhance the experience of its users. Managers and translators can benefit from these additions to search multiple glossaries, hire freelancers, and make payments. 

Mike Donlin

In celebration of 2021 coming to an end, the mini translation contest "Ilustraciones" was held during December. There were three comic stripes in Spanish, German and English for participants to choose to translate into numerous target languages during this month-long competition.

The translations are available here for users to discuss and provide feedback, and winners were selected in the following language pairs:

Julieta Llamazares

In some ways, Jonathan Downie’s journey to the prominent position he now occupies within the interpreting industry occurred against the odds. Being born on a working-class council housing estate in the West of Scotland to a father who worked on the country’s railways, and a mother who took on various jobs over the years, didn’t exactly point straight to a degree, a Master’s, a doctorate, and a career in languages, with extensive research work and the publishing of two acclaimed books along the way.

Andrew Morris

The 2021 year-end membership campaign, Stay safe, ended last week. (What? You missed it? Send me a line and we'll figure something out). After three full weeks of intense work, sixteen staff members involved, and great conversations with new and returning members, the largest community of language professionals just got bigger. Thank you, members, once again for your support!

Lucía Leszinsky

The translation contest "Stories about nature" has come to an end, and winners have been selected in the following language pairs:

Julieta Llamazares

A new year is getting started, and so are some of our new site members.  At ProZ.com, there are members who are starting out, also some who have been in the profession for a while, and even many who have a steady list of clients. What do they all have in common? They have invested in their businesses through membership as a smart strategy to be prepared for whatever tomorrow brings. So, congratulations for such a smart move, members, and welcome!

Lucía Leszinsky

The 2021 year-end membership campaign, Keep it safe, is about to end. Since it started, hundreds of users have decided to keep their income safe in 2022 no matter what the new year brings, and they are participating in the campaign prize drawings. Meet the winners of the second week:

Lucía Leszinsky

With the ProZ.com virtual fair on December 30 at 12 PM GMT fast approaching, it's time to meet more businesses and read what advice they can give to freelancers when approaching a translation agency for collaboration. 

Don't forget to register for the fair »

Rocío Tempone