Integration: An Unstoppable Force
Countries are rarely monolingual, and not only due to the effects of globalization on cross-border movement. Nearly every country of the world counts at least one, and often many native languages among those spoken within its borders. Nonetheless, each area maintains one dominant, modern-day language that is used for government, commerce, industry, education, etc. While […]
Organizing Your Time As a Freelance Translator – Part 2
Continuing with our last post which looks at ways to manage your time effectively as a freelance translator, we’re including some more tips to maximize your time efficiency. The following items are designed to help freelancers with task management. Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net Task management can be a tricky thing, and begins with organization. […]
Organizing Your Time as a Freelance Translator – Part 1
Freelancing as a translator or in any other industry requires an expert level of time management. Many people mistakenly believe this means figuring out how to make themselves work as much as possible within a given day or week — which is really just figuring out how to fight procrastination, or how to make yourself […]
Meaning of «la migra»
Following the last post on US Border Patrols, we’re taking a look at a term widely used in immigration contexts – La Migra. The term is more often heard in states along the border with Mexico than any other region of the U.S., although it can be heard just about anywhere that Spanish slang is […]
U.S. Border Patrol to Refuse Interpretation Assistance Requests from Other Law Enforcement Agents
Image courtesy of: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Towards the end of November 2012, an impactful memo was released to little media attention by the Deputy Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, David V. Aguilar. The memo simply stated that Border Patrol agents would no longer respond to requests for language assistance (e.g. Spanish […]
Linguistic Diversity in the U.S.
Diversity in North America has essentially been on the upward trend since the continent was first colonized. It’s natural, then, that the region’s linguistic diversity would be increasing as well. But while linguistic diversity in the U.S. in particular has undeniably been rising in recent decades, according to a report by the Census Bureau, these […]
Language Professionals and Students: So Many Careers, So Little Time
The claim that speaking one or more foreign languages increases your job marketability has almost become cliché in recent years. However, in an ever-globalizing world, it is truer than ever. For those who attain fluency in one or more languages beyond their native language, translation is an obvious option, with a variety of directions to […]
When you should turn down a translation project
It may sound counterintuitive, or even just scary, but there comes a point in every freelancer’s career when they have to – or should – turn down a job. Far from being a bad thing, it is a necessary part of freelancing that will ultimately be better for your career and the clients that you […]
The Risks of not Providing Safety Information in Workers’ Languages
It is no surprise that Hispanics entering the US with limited or no English abilities often end up working in factories across the country. With a limited capacity for communication in English comes a limited set of options for work. Yet factories can be some of the most dangerous places to work in any country, […]
Branching Out: The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Work
Translators work in a variety of contexts, whether independently as freelancers, with an agency, or as a manager and/or editor within their own agency. The career trajectory that some choose to pursue, after entering the industry under the wing of an agency, is to branch out on their own as a freelancer. Armed with the […]
