ProZ.com Blog

As any other aspect of our lives, our jobs have been re-shaped by this “new reality”. As language professionals we are used to perform remote work, but for interpreters reality is –or was– different.

The latest ProZ.com podcast episode features Dr. Jonathan Downie's conversation with with ProZ.com head of training Paul Urwin around topical issues for interpreters.

Join ProZ.com/TV for the second day of a free live event on October 1 to celebrate International Translation Day. ITD 2020 streams live through ProZ.com and its social media platforms starting at 9:55 GMT on Thursday.

Join ProZ.com/TV for a free live event September 30 and October 1 to celebrate International Translation Day. ITD 2020 streams live through ProZ.com and its social media platforms starting at 9:20 GMT on Wednesday.

ProZ.com head of training Paul Urwin has created a series of episodes to discuss topics for translators and interpreters. The episodes will appear as part of the Facebook group Translators & Interpreters (ProZ.com). The audio recording is very short (hence the name!), with the idea that it leads straight into a discussion in the comments. Transcripts from the first two episodes are included here.

The first thing that strikes you about Elena Romero is how relaxed she is. Not to mention her easy-going and fluent English. Surely it can’t all be because she spent two years in London in her early 20s? But dig a little deeper and you see why: Elena spends her life travelling, much of it in English. Having left the narrow confines of her small town in the Canaries (ironically enough, a destination coveted by most of the world), she has roamed extensively – in Europe and SE Asia in particular, and counts Bali among her favourite places of all.

Ask Yassine El Bouknify what he enjoys about being a freelance translator and he responds without hesitation: the chance to work with other professionals and clients; the mobility bundled up with the job, and the ability to choose who he works for. In short, being his own boss. Just two years into his career, he’s obviously understood what makes freelance life tick. 

Jobs posted by business members will now also appear on Facebook via the new ProZ.com Translation Jobs page. All members of the language community are invited to like or follow the page to receive updates.

Presently, all jobs with the COVID-19 tag are appearing there. Soon, this offer will be extended to all business members.

Join ProZ.com/TV for free access to the online Freelancer Success Summit April 7-9th, organized specifically to help you through this critical period. There is no pre-registration required and is available for all site users at ProZ.com.

By now, the entire world knows that the current Covid-19 outbreak has --and will continue to have--  an enormous impact on freelance financial lives. However, language professionals who usually work on-site --interpreters, project managers, teachers-- don't necessarily have to live off savings during the current quarantine. ProZ.com has a few tricks up its sleeve to make money starting this weekend and while at home, and supplement your income during these uncertain times.

Throw open the window and the air is spiced with the aroma of freshly fried Ta’amya (the Egyptian Falafel) and Ful (fava beans stewed in tomato sauce), overlaid with less attractive but equally persistent topnotes of household rubbish, in both the poorest and the richest districts of Cairo.

The streets are clogged with honking traffic, inching its way through the noisy, boisterous city. At times it feels the only way to escape and gulp in mouthfuls of fresh air is to head down to the majestic Nile.

It's against this background, in the upmarket middle-class district of Nasr City, that 29 year-old Norhan Mahmoud plies her trade as a translator and interpreter between Arabic and English.

Last night, the film Parasite became the first non-English language movie to win Best Picture at the Oscars. It won 4 awards in total. The wins resulted in plenty of screen time in front of a worldwide audience for interpreter Sharon Choi. But does she have a profile at ProZ.com?

Carlos Rocha de la Rosa is an expert Spanish interpreter/translator who resides in the Dominican Republic. He has been a top performing interpreter for on-demand interpreting assignments via ProZ.com's partnership with Boostlingo. As part of the interpreter network, he receives payments from the ProZ*Pay platform.

He took a few minutes to answer some questions, and show us the ultimate remote interpreter home office.

Looking for a translator within a platform with over a million users can be difficult, and standing out from the crowd can be seen as an impossible task. However, there are a few things you can do to increase your possibilities to meet new clients within ProZ.com that do not take too much time or effort.

We all define success in different ways. Do you consider yourself successful? Are you proud or happy about where you are right now in your career? Of professional objectives you have reached? Would you be willing to share with others how you got there? 

A new site area, "Freelancer success stories", is now available under the "Member activities" menu.