ProZ.com Blog

The ProZ.com Interpreter Network -the pool of pre-screened professional interpreters- continues to grow with new interpreters joining every day 🚀

From selling water from a truck to earning an impressive living as an interpreter is quite a journey. But then that’s true of Ivanildo Xavier’s life as a whole – an adventure that saw him travel to Bolivia, working in bars and living on the wild side, before finally returning home to settle down and build his career. 

The country where you were born and bred and spent your first 11 years implodes into civil war, with warlords running riot, and militia groups vying for domination of the capital Mogadishu. Ongoing armed conflict, insecurity, lack of state protection, and recurring humanitarian crises expose your fellow-Somali civilians to serious abuse, resulting in millions of internally displaced people, with many living unassisted and vulnerable. As a family, there aren’t that many choices open to you, if all you want is a quiet life, and a chance to educate your children.

As a freelancer, one of the most joyous parts of the month is getting paid. However, when you work for yourself, it can get a little more complicated than just cashing a monthly check. Here are our strategies for how and when to get paid as a freelancer as well as how to set payment terms.

As you know, ProZ.com works closely with Boostlingo to provide Remote Simultaneous Interpreters (RSI), and we have a whole bunch of unsung heroes who are not only providing vital input to communities and individuals in equally unsung places, but making good money from home, popping up whenever their services are needed in real time.

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.