Only Human Translators
May 27, 2019 |
Hope for the future I went to this year’s ITI Conference in Sheffield hoping to meet friends and colleagues but not sure quite what else to expect. Many would now have us believe that the big translators’ organisations have sold out to the agencies and the...
Apr 30, 2019 |
Discussion, not drama I co-run a Facebook group for translators, which I have mentioned once or twice before in this blog. Standing Up began when members of Andrew Morris’s Standing Out group rebelled against his plan to charge them for forming part of what they...
Mar 26, 2019 |
Making it, not faking it In the last couple of weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about a subject I’ve touched on once or twice before in this blog (here, for example, and here too): success. I’ve been thinking about it for several reasons. On one...
Feb 26, 2019 |
Moving further from the agency fold I had another one of those messages last week. It came in e-mail form from an agency I’ve worked with for some years; an agency I’ve always respected and admired as one that paid reasonable rates without making...
Jan 29, 2019 |
Increases are up to you Probably because it’s a New Year, there’s been a lot written recently about raising rates. I’ve even seen it said that it’s impossible to increase them for existing clients. So, having just raised mine for a large group...
Dec 27, 2018 |
An idea whose time has come Usually at the end of December I look back at the old year and forward to the new, and for 2018 one theme stands out above all: cooperation. Over the past 12 months it has come in various forms. I’ve worked on big projects with other...
Dec 3, 2018 |
Client events offer a way in One of the most commonly asked questions in translators’ groups and forums is “How do I go about getting direct clients?”. In fact, there are probably as many ways of doing this there are potential clients to find, but I...
Oct 22, 2018 |
Getting the best from a conference When I went to my first MET meeting four years ago in El Escorial, it was like walking into a mine full of shining gold. Although I’d been translating for a good many years, much of that time I’d been working in almost...
Sep 24, 2018 |
Taming my inner lone wolf I never was much of a team-worker – or even a team player. Even when I was young, my sister and I couldn’t do anything together. Arguments always broke out because she wouldn’t play “properly” (in other words, my...
Aug 15, 2018 |
British, European or Spanish? In the aftermath of the Brexit vote, I wrote a blog post declaring myself no longer British. I was ready to do whatever it took to maintain my position as a European, even if it meant becoming Spanish, which, due to the country’s...
"Simon is a highly professional translator who I can recommend unreservedly. I've worked with him several times, always with exceptional results. He has also shown himelf to be a person capable of adapting to the demands of projects, even when they change at short notice."