Image courtesy of bluebay at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

3

Continuous Globalization from Startups to Enterprises. Lingoport, Inc. webinar

3-5

Languaging Diversity 2016. University of Macerata. Macerata, Italy.

12

Northern California Translators Association (NCTA). Workshop: Trados Studio for Intermediate Users– San Francisco, CA USA

11-12

The Translation and Localization Conference 2016. Localize.pl, TexteM. Warsaw, Poland

CHIA 16th Annual Education Conference. California Healthcare Interpreting Association
Long Beach, California USA

Interpreter and Translators Congress. Joint initiative. Hilversum, Netherlands

13

Game Jams, Hackathons and Game Creation Events. Global Game Jam, Inc. Berkeley, California USA

14-18

11th Medical English Seminar (SAM). Société francaise des traducteurs (SFT).  Lyon, France

14-27

LocJAM. GLOC, IGDA Loc Sig. worldwide

15

TAUS Roundtable. TAUS. Vienna, Austria

17

Unicode workshop. The International Multilingual User Group (IMUG). San Jose, California USA

19

NOTIS Workshop. Mexican Civil Procedure & “Hilando muy fino con el lenguaje jurídico”. Northwest Translators and Interpreters Society (NOTIS). Seattle, WA USA

20

Memsource User Meetup. Memsource. New York, New York USA

NOTIS Workshop. Dissecting French Contracts. Northwest Translators and Interpreters Society (NOTIS). Seattle, WA

NOTIS Workshop. Dissecting French Contracts. Northwest Translators and Interpreters Society (NOTIS). Seattle, WA

20-23

GALA 2016. Globalization and Localization Association (GALA). New York, New York USA

think! Interpreting. Globalization and Localization Association, InterpretAmerica. New York, New York USA

28-29

International Translation Conference. Translation and Interpreting Institute. Doha, Qatar

31-April 2

ATISA VIII. American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association. Monterey, California USA

14

Evaluating Localization Providers: Results from a GALA Community Project
Globalization and Localization Association. Webinar.

21

Simultaneous Interpretation for Virtual Meetings The International Multilingual User Group (IMUG). San Jose, California USA

21-22

International Symposium: Bilingual Videoconferencing in Legal Settings. Criminal Justice Programme of the European Union. Paris, France.

22-23

Translation and Modernism: Twentieth-Century Crises and Traumas. University of Warwick. Coventry, UK.

27

Using Your Languages: Interpreting and Translation. University of Bath. Bath, UK

28

How does Modern Machine Translation Work? Globalization and Localization Association. Webinar

As we mentioned in our previous post, time management is a challenge faced by all freelance translators. Procrastination and distraction are the enemies of efficiency and productivity, but there are a number of ways that results-driven translators can increase productivity and still indulge themselves in checking social media and surfing the web.

One of the most popular is the Pomodoro Technique®, which was invented by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s and became the darling of business managers in the 1990s.

The concept is simple: you break down a large task or series of tasks into easily doable timed bursts of 25 minutes of concentrated effort followed with a short break to prevent burnout and boost creativity. Although the inventor developed his system using a mechanical tomato-shaped timer (hence its name “pomodoro”, Italian for “tomato”) and a pencil and paper, modern technology has taken it a step further with a myriad of apps ranging from simple electronic versions of the original concept to highly complex systems that allow the length of work and rest periods to be adjusted, track users’ productivity by task, time and day of the week and even “reward” users as their productivity increases.

Over the next month, we’ll be testing the following three Android apps to find out more about their features and discover whether they are as effective as their reputation says.

Scheduler: Pomodoro Timer

Designed by Yaroslav Shevchuk, this system not only offers all the usual Pomodoro features, it also lets you create a task list, color-code your tasks and reorganize them. Highly customizable, it lets you set times for work and long and short breaks, choose display colors and alarms, offers statistics on work periods and results and displays a list of accomplished tasks. It’s also completely free and without ads.

Tomatina – Pomodor Timer

Produced by libtronics apps, this relatively simple system lets you configure your pomodoros and short and long breaks, offers vibration and sound on events along with statistics about your pomodoros that lets you measure your progress and compare it with past levels of productivity. It’s free of charge.

Pomodoro Challenge Timer

Produced by AXFN, this sytem features a Socialist realism esthetic that reveals the no-coddling attitude behind it: maximum productivity based on working harder, period. It tracks your productivity over days and weeks – including holidays and weekends – and you’ll earn or lose ranks based on your performance (you start out as an “unrepentant slacker”). It doesn’t offer to-do lists, and it doesn’t give you the option to interrupt a pomodoro. The basic version is free of charge.

One of the benefits of working as a freelance translator is that you’re able to set your own schedule, but this can also be a drawback if you tend to procrastinate instead of tackling a job and organizing yourself to get it done by the deadline. In fact, procrastination – far from being the cause of deadline anxiety – is often a response to it. The reason is that challenging tasks (and translation is a challenging task) have both negative (e.g., fear that the project is too challenging) and positive (the sense of reward when you finish the project) psychological aspects. When the negative aspect outweighs the positive, we tend to procrastinate, which increases our anxiety as the deadline draws ever nearer, while we continue to make no progress. Even though no one likes to put a deadline on their creative process, deadlines are not only inevitable, but can actually be a motivating factor.

It’s all a matter of attitude, and that’s where the Pomodoro method comes in. Invented by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s as a personal system to get more studying done, the method came to the attention of business managers in the 1990s. The Pomodoro Technique® is a time management method that helps you transform time into a valuable ally by breaking down a large task or series of tasks into short, timed intervals. You become more productive because you accomplish the tasks that you set for yourself in timed bursts of concentrated effort – which boost productivity – rewarded with short breaks – which prevent burnout and distraction and refresh creativity – while at the same time allowing you to record your increasing productivity over time.

Learning the Pomodoro technique takes only minutes, and using it couldn’t be easier. All you really need is a timer, a pencil and a piece of paper. In fact, the technique’s name of Pomodoro (which means “tomato” in Italian) comes from the fact that the inventor used a tomato-shaped mechanical timer, but any kind of timer will do.

Here’s the method:

1. Choose a task (or series of tasks) to be accomplished.
2. Set the Pomodoro (your timer, and the name of the timed work unit) to 25 minutes.
3. Focus on the task(s) and work without interruption until the Pomodoro rings, then put a check on your piece of paper.
4. Take a short – e.g. – five-minute, break.
5. Every four Pomodoros, take a longer break (e.g., 15 minutes to 25 minutes, or whatever you need to clear your mind and refresh your creativity).

Repeat throughout your workday. It’s important to note that each Pomodoro is an indivisible work unit. This is the key to the system: if you become distracted from your task for whatever reason (a phone call or email and so on), you must either end the Pomodoro then and there or postpone the distraction until the Pomodoro is finished.

It will come as no surprise that, when it comes to the Pomodoro method, “there’s an app for that”. In our next article, we’ll introduce some of the more popular apps that can help any translator to reduce procrastination and burnout, manage distractions, and increase their productivity and sense of accomplishment.

The EF English Proficiency Index is a yearly report card on the English proficiency level of adults across the globe produced by EF, a private education company. Because it is based on the scores of online tests (during 2014, for this report) taken by 910,000 adult and 70 countries, it does not reflect the entire population of the country.

Though the average level of adult English proficiency has risen, surprisingly, not all countries are improving and some are even getting worse. The research also indicates that higher English language proficiency correlates with higher income and a better quality of life. With just a few exceptions, women have stronger English language skills than men in all countries surveyed.

The results, by region:

Middle East and North Africa

The downward trend in English language proficiency was seen in the Middle East and North Africa. The United Arab Emirates – perhaps because of the large multinational workforce – Yemen and Morocco scored highest in the region, with Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Libya at the bottom of the ranking. Only the UAE earned a “low” score (50.87); the rest earned a “very low”, with Libya trailing with a score of 37.86.

Asia

The level of English language proficiency in Asia varies widely from very high proficiency to very low proficiency. Singapore (61.08), Malaysia and India have the region’s highest proficiency scores. Former British colonies, these countries have a long tradition of using English, especially in higher education institutions. Though China’s trend continues to be positive (49.41), it fell 10 places compared to last year partly due to the addition of three countries, but also because seven Latin American countries have shown more improvement than China. Thailand, Mongolia and Cambodia (39.15) scored the lowest.

Europe

While the level of English language proficiency in Europe also varies from very high to very low, with only four exceptions – France, Russia (both low), Turkey and Azerbaijan (both very low) – proficiency scores vary from moderate to very high, with the Nordic countries of Sweden (70.94), Netherlands and Denmark at the top of the list, hardly surprising, given their strong investment in education and the similarity between the structures of their languages and that of English. France is the only country in Western Europe to score very low in English language proficiency. Not only is it behind in comparison to its geographical neighbors, it also ranks below the less-developed countries Indonesia, Ukraine and Peru. The report mentioned a possible “cultural version” to English as the cause. Turkey is the only European country to fall in the ranking since the 2012 report.

Latin America

While the overall adult English proficiency level is still low, Latin America has shown slow improvement over the last eight years, chiefly among young people. Argentina (60.26) is the only Latin American country to score in the “high proficiency” range, and it is followed by Dominican Republic and Peru, while Colombia, Venezuela and El Salvador (45.52) are at the bottom of the ranking.

4

OPORTUNIDADES DE PERFECCIONAMIENTO EN EL EXTERIOR, Charla gratuita. Colegio de Traductores Públicos de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

5

Literatura y traducción. Charla gratuita. Colegio de Traductores Públicos de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

4-7

56th ATA Conference. American Translators Association. Miami, Florida USA

5

Help & Localization Conference. Write2Users Helsingør, Denmark

1st Croatian Translation Forum. Croatian Association of Translation Agencies. Zagreb, Croatia

Introduction of CAT tools based on SDL Trados Studio 2015 (in Polish), webinar.

9

Adaptación de traducciones para doblaje. Colegio de Traductores Públicos de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

10-12

cworld 2015 – tekom. Stuttgart, Germany

12-14

Hellenic Language and Terminology. Hellenic Society for Terminology. Athens, Greece

14

Northern California Translators Association (NCTA). Workshop: Trados Studio 2015 for beginners. San Francisco, California, USA

Conferenza italiana di ProZ.com a Maranello, Modena. Maranello, Modena, Italy

16
How social media can enhance your freelance translation business, webinar.

19-20

Nordic Translation Industry Forum Anne-Marie Colliander Lind, Cecilia Enbäck. Reykjavik, Iceland

19

The Global Content Experience. The International Multilingual User Group (IMUG). San Jose, California USA

20

Congrès 2015 de l’OTTIAQ. Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec. Montreal, Quebec, Canada

20-21

InDialog: Community Interpreting In Dialogue With Technology. ICWE GmbH. Berlin, Germany

26

25th JTF Translation Festival. Japan Translation Federation. Tokyo, Japan

26-27

Translating and the Computer 37. AsLing. London, UK