The response to our presentation has been really positive, with many people wanting to learn more or see the slides again, so we decided to take our little 2 person roadshow online for the big wide world to see. We are now pleased to unveil a stripped down, re-recorded version of our presentation available at Slideshare.net. You can view the show within this post (below) or by following this link to Slideshare if you have problems hearing or viewing the embed.

“Arse, poo and widdle.” With this unholy trinity of coy expletives, Stephen Fry introduced us to the joys of Twitter earlier this month

By far the most disappointing report on Twitter that I’ve witnessed was on Newsnight yesterday evening. Apprarently Baroness Greenfield has piped up and said that communicating online is contributing to a rise in autism and is increasing the social isolation of children. Paxman had a couple of ‘experts’ on the show to discuss this. Watching this discussion felt a bit like watching the blind leading the blind, since nobody really seemed to have actually used Twitter or any other social media tool, despite professing to be experts on the matter. My favourite quote from one of them was “Children could be writing to people in another country who they’ve never met before”. Shock! Horror! Damnation! As someone who works at the global interface, I couldn’t quite understand why it would be such a terrible outcome for children to communicate with other children in different countries/cultures, provided that is done in a safe environment (remember internet parental controls?). My other half, equally bemused by the discussion, said to me “What about at school when we all had penpals abroad?”.

In reality, however, it’s not actually children who are using Twitter.  I’ll do my best to try to dispel that myth and others about Twitter here:

• Twitter is just for kids/teenagers/people under 25. Stats show that Facebook is still mostly used by the under 35s, but heavy users of Twitter are in fact more likely to be in the 25-45 age bracket. There is even a sizeable number of over 65s using it. I would (as have others) suggest that this is because the majority of Twitter users are on Twitter because they are mainly using it in connection with their work.
• Tweeters just send text messages to themselves to tell Twitter what they’re doing all day (I actually heard this description last week). Anyone who does that too much is pretty much an instant ‘unfollow’ for me – the most productive aspect of Twitter is that it helps people share news and information about their fields of interest or their occupation, with the occasional anecdote about their personal lives thrown in to show that they’re human.
• Twitter stops people from going out into the world and socialising in a normal way, and destroys peoples’ social skills. As with any new-fangled, revolutionary device, there is an initial ‘craze’ period, and a period where everyone scratches their head and worries that it signals the end of civilisation as we know it. I wasn’t alive at the time, so you’ll have to do your homework on this one, but sources tell me that people were worried about this when the telephone was invented too.

Twitter can help people build a ‘community’ of like-minded people, yes. This is a ‘community’ in the traditional sense of the word, nothing more sinister than that. That ‘community’ is a very valuable virtual water cooler for those of us who work freelance. I’m not sure how others working in open plan offices, for example, use Twitter. Perhaps they use it to reach out to virtual ‘colleagues’ beyond their immediate co-workers. That’s what it’s all about, folks. COMMUNICATION. BUT you still can’t beat socialising in person, and I’m pretty sure that most ‘normal’ Twitter users still do that. Perhaps even with someone they initially met on Twitter and found they had a lot in common with. There have always been reclusives,  and there always will be, with or without social media.

Feel free to share any other myth shockers you’ve come across, or even ones that you believe to be true.

One of the most exciting aspects of social media is how it democratises news and information – everybody has a chance to report what is happening where they are in real time, possibly making it more ‘authentic’. Do tools like Twitter make the reporting more ‘real’? Does the absence of the editorial agenda attached to a newspaper or TV channel make it more transparent? For example, the TV and newspaper footage of the Hudson river plane crash was great and everything, but Twitter was the one that really came into its own. Traditional media have more skills and equipment to draw on, but for practical reasons they just can’t match Twitter in terms of immediacy. This was something picked up on by The Guardian and the LA Times (check out the photo):

The major media outlets in New York responded quickly and on the whole they did a good job of reporting the news of the so-called “miracle on the Hudson”.

By contrast, news was all over microblogging website Twitter within minutes. One of the early reports came from New Yorker Janis Krum who wrote: “There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.” Krum also uploaded this pic of the plane floating in the river. Krum was interviewed by MSNBC later yesterday and his pic had more than 100,000 views on TwitPic by this morning.

Yet the most immediate and compelling reports and images came from citizens. Even if you had the most rapid response system in the world, reporters were not able to teleport themselves to the scene – not to mention the fact that the on-the-ground location changed as the plane floated downstream.

If you go to Twitpic, you’ll see that the photo had 354129 views to date. Impressive.

Going back to Obama, this very same feature of social media offers the potential to bring greater transparency to politics and government. Note that within 1 minute of President Obama’s inauguration a new blog was set up on the White House website.  Go to our very own Number10.gov.uk, and look at how they’ve really pimped up their site with Flickr, YouTube and Twitter. Perhaps, in the post-inauguration euphoria, we can dare to dream that these tools will be utilised to the fullest, and that this ‘reaching out’ to the public will genuinely lead to greater transparency and public engagement in news and politics.

Looking at the website of OneHour Translation, I’m sceptical (to say the least) about their ability to turn around larger documents (projects they say they can take on include websites and presentations) within just 1 hour. To me, the best use of this type of service is for something like Twitrans, not important or lengthy documents. What do others think about this type of service?

This week, true to form, this is exactly what blogs, podcasts and newspapers have all been doing. I thought it would be nice to share with you my ten 10 list of what I’ve been reading and listening to, and learning from, in my own little office this week:

1. 2008 in photographs (these are seriously impressive)
2. An interview with Chris Durban at Speaking of Translation on how to realise your earning potential as a translator
3. On the same site, interviews with several people about how the current economic situation is affecting translators’ workloads (it’s not all bad, far from it)
4. How to say Merry Christmas around the world on Lexiophiles
5. The 5 stages of Twitter acceptance
6. Concepts of social identity in translators and speakers of multiple languages
7. Words of the Year 2008
8. One linguist’s ’syntactic pain’ over Strictly Come Dancing (for what it’s worth, the name of that program makes me want to emit a big ‘ugh’ too)
9. Health and fitness advice for Grumpy Home Workers
10. Looking back at whether I’ve played my cards right in my first year of freelancing with 9 Tips for Brand New Freelancers

I’ve found plenty of food for thought here; reasons to be pleased with my progress and things to improve on (especially, ahem, fitness) in the next 12 months, my place in my own industry of choice,  and not to mention the wider global situation in general. All that remains now is to wish the blogosphere a merry, restful and reflective festive period.

So here, finally, is my take on day 2 of The Translator as Strategic Partner Conference. This one probably will be shorter than my report on the 1st day, because my note-taking on day 2 amounted to just a few lines, partially due to being in a zombie-like stupor due to lack of sleep (trust me, after only a couple of hours sleep I am not someone you want to hang around for long) and the onset of a cold, but mostly because the second day adopted more of a ‘workshop’ style. I really liked this – I presumed it would be an uphill struggle to coax a room of over 200 sleepy delegates (who also happen to be translators – we’re not necessarily used to working in groups, nor even speaking to real people, for that matter ) brainstorm on a Sunday morning, but this actually came off pretty well. So, let’s roll out the tweets:

Day 2 of the conference and I’m sleep-starved due to too much coffee late at night and an over excited kitten. 9:10 AM Nov 23rd

I should explain this tweet. The Saturday night meal at Ciao Bella was great. OK, so they struggled a little to organise our courses, but how many restaurants could cope with a over 90 people arriving all at once? The food was fantastic, as was the wine, and the restaurant was buzzing with conversation. Naturally, the following morning (a SUNDAY, people!), when my alarm sounds at 7am I’m not thrilled about dragging my behind out of bed. Besides that, our kitten Cosmo (he’s nearly 2 years old now, but I still call him a kitten) was hyperactive as he always when his normal routine is changed, had been waking me up with a paw in my face every 30 minutes during the night.

Oh, and by the way, there is snow on the ground in London! 9:52 AM Nov 23rd

Yes, it’s true! On the plus side, it was a treat to wake up to see snow in our garden!

Now happening at the conference: Michael Benis on translation technology 9:54 AM Nov 23rd

Anyway, enough about my sleep issues and the weather, let’s move on to the conference itself. This began with a very comprehensive run-down of translation technology by Michael Benis. There was something for everyone here – if you didn’t already use translation memory/Computer Assisted Translation tools, then Michael told us what their purpose was and showed some screenshots to demonstrate how they work; he also touched on PDF conversion software such as Nuance Scansoft, Mindtouch.com, and Collanos Workspace. Most translators will know Michael for his expert reviews of translation tools, and really sit up and listen when he speaks on the subject, so delegates were scribbling away fiercely at this stage.

Gradually coaxing my tired grumpy self into ‘workshop’ frame of mind at the TSP conference. Great atmosphere here, I must say 11:31 AM Nov 23rd

As I mentioned before, I was grizzly, so the last thing I thought I needed was a group workshop. BUT this was just the ticket to get my brain juices flowing. The workshop was run by Ros Schwartz, on ’style’. We were given a piece of paper with a text in French (an editorial) and its literal translation into English. This was a very creative exercise, and we needed to engage our copywriting skills to have any hope of producing a translated text that was effective in its own right.

Very much enjoying style workshop run by Ros Schwartz – very creative and lots of different approaches to learn from 12:55 PM Nov 23rd

As a lone-worker, I hardly ever get the opportunity to bounce ideas off translator colleagues, and it’s easy to forget how beneficial it is to be able to pick the brains of others. I really did learn a lot from this about how best to approach ‘creative translation’ for marketing texts, for example. It’s hard to know how much licence the translator really has to adapt a client’s text for the target audience, but again, this is why it’s important to have an open dialogue with your client.

After a very impressive Caribbean lunch Jost Zetzsche from translators’ toolkit is up again to ’set priorities straight’… 2:27 PM Nov 23rd

Psst – wow the Caribbean lunch was good – and I was delighted to learn that it was provided by a firm round the corner from where I live – ‘Cummin’ Up‘; glad to have been able to pinpoint another spot to grab a bite for a weekday lunch! After that, Jost Zetzsche did another brief presentation on Machine Translation, called ‘Setting priorities straight: Us or the Machine?’ – a contentious issue!

Quote from jost: ‘how can we get back behind the wheel?’ 2:31 PM Nov 23rd

Jost said that we needed to acknowledge that progress is being made in Machine Translation; OK the results are usually extremely silly, but we need to bear in mind what clients need their translations for. It may be in future that some of us take on ‘post-editing’ of Machine Translated-text as part of our portfolio, but the important thing now is for us to regain some control over how this pans out. We need to be drivers of change, rather than the passengers. This was a point I believe is fundamental to the future of our profession (or any profession, come to that).

Next conference gig: fellow tweeter Nick Rosenthal on content management systems 2:50 PM Nov 23rd

Nick had been tweeting from the conference too, so it was great to be able to share this via my own tweets. I’m completely new to CMS (Content Management Systems), so I was intrigued by this session, entitled ‘TM is dead! Long live CMS!’. I think this is still a fairly specialist area for translators, but again, we need to embrace these things if we want to remain in the driving seat. A quote by Charles Kettering about change and progress, one of my favourites, springs to mind at this point.

TSP As it happens: Bill Maslen on Blogging and Twitter! Benefits of social networking….go geeks! 3:09 PM Nov 23rd

Sooo happy to hear social networking tools, wikis etc mentioned at the conference…how much of it will sink in with freelance translators? 3:23 PM Nov 23rd

This was another dynamic presentation by Bill Maslen, which, to my delight briefly touched on Twitter and social networking. The presentation was called ‘Working methods: collaboration amid constant change’. He also discussed online collaboration and new working tools at our disposal. There is so much out there for us; it seems that what frustrates many people is that the tools change all the time, but to my mind this simply reflects the vastness of the worldwide web. Having so many things available is 90% a fantastic thing (10% an overwhelming thing), and we mustn’t forget that the internet empowers us to search for, select and control which tools fit us best. If you don’t work well with a tool then don’t settle for it, go out (and when I say ‘out’ I mean ‘online’) and find another one!

Major realisation from reading the slides at this conference weekend: I need to have another eye test 3:27 PM Nov 23rd

Next is Istvan Lengyel from MemoQ, with a presentation entitled ‘Getting the most out of references’. I was excited about this, as MemoQ has made such a good impression with most translators I’ve spoken to. I think this is one to watch, and I’ll certainly be looking into it myself. Unfortunately, with my tired, myopic eyes I had trouble reading most of Istvan’s presentation, so can’t report much else (sorry Istvan!) about this one. Mental note: call my optician about getting some new spectacles. After Istvan’s presentation, we moved on to another round table discussion with the speakers. This time it mainly focussed on comparing translation technology tools (we had brave representativesfrom SDL Trados and Wordfast there – NB. watch out for new developments from Wordfast). We also discussed translation clauses in company contracts which us freelancers are asked to sign. Again, the key is discussion with clients at all stages.

Closing up the conference now over a drink. Shattered but it’s been a productive weekend 6:05 PM Nov 23rd

And so, exhausted, we head to the bar for a well-deserved drink. I learned many things from the conference, especially the value of getting out there in the real world to meet people you’ve already met ‘virtually’ via social networking (for example). My live micro-blogging allowed me to keep a record of the event for my own future reference, as well as making it possible to share it with others. Instead of making endless paper notes I’ll probably be able never find again, I now have an extensive, meaningful record that I can refer back to online whenever I want to. The tweets also made it possible for me to make my report more ‘authentic’ – usually after these events people can remember things that never actually happened and as a result the write-up of the event is not quite as accurate as it could be.

Homeward bound from tsp conference…think I will be sofa-bound for rest of the evening. Signing off the live blogging now; it’s been fun! 7:51 PM Nov 23rd

By the way, check out Creative Alchemy for a guide to networking – essential pre-conference reading!

Last weekend I attended the conference ‘The Translator as Strategic Partner‘ here in London at the Camden Centre. Those following me on Twitter may have seen that I was live micro-blogging from the event throughout the weekend. I had intended to do this, as an experimental way of tracking the events and my thoughts in a more as-it-happens fashion than I would have been able to do otherwise, plus it meant  translators across the world on Twitter unable to attend could tap into the conference it virtually. The live tweeting seems to have worked fairly well (as far as it could – live tweets without links are rarely enough to supplement full text) and other tweeting translators seem to have appreciated it.

What I’ve done in this post is to paste in almost of all of my Twitter updates and use them as subheadings to structure my report summarising the main points I took away from the conference. Let’s see how this goes…and be warned that will be long!

Enjoying pre translation conference meal and networking at Betjeman Arms, St pancras, London 8:54 PM Nov 21st

The weekend really began on the Friday evening before the ‘official’ start to the conference.  Lots of delegates arrived promptly for the advance registration, not forgetting to leave enough time for a sneaky drink at the bar before heading out for a meal at the Betjeman Arms. It was great to meet so many other translators from the UK and around the world (it was an international conference), and be able to put faces to the names of people I’ve so far only met ‘virtually’ over the years. I wasn’t a huge fan of the meal itself (but thumbs up for being able to cater for such a large number of people) but the venue itself is awesome, and the company was ace.

Early start. I’ll now be live tweeting from the translator as a strategic partner conference this weekend. Stay tuned! 9:07 AM Nov 22nd

OK, so we get going early on the first morning to help with registration and welcome people on their arrival at the conference. I’m not accustomed to such early starts (6.30am) on a Saturday but I was really excited about the speakers on the agenda. Today we were due to hear from such distinguished translation professionals as Michael Benis (the organiser), Ros Schwartz, Bill Maslen, Cate Avery, Jay Kettle Williams, Jost Zetzsche and Nick Rosenthal.

Welcome address by Michael Benis: being quality driven rather than cost driven 10:14 AM Nov 22nd

Michael starts off by setting the theme of the conference, the subheading of which is ‘a workshop conference for a changing industry’.  The following two quotes basically sum it up:

Quote: “for a communications industry, the translation industry doesn’t communicate very well”. We have a problem guys 10:16 AM Nov 22nd

Quote: “the client cares about their business objectives and bottom line” 10:18 AM Nov 22nd

In short, the translation industry needs to roll with the punches and adapt to clients’ needs in order to survive. As shy, retiring translators we often undersell ourselves, and, in Michael’s words ‘effective cross-cultural communication requires a strategic partner’. What else do offer?

Next up: Ros Schwartz on client relations 10:33 AM Nov 22nd

I was really excited about this session, the title of which was ‘Client relations: Why and how to be proactive’. Ros, who works mainly in creative and literary translation, argued that in translation nowadays fidelity to the original is simply not enough. It has to be more than that; it goes without saying that clients expect us to be reliable, meet our deadlines and stay faithful to the original message of their texts, but what will really make a difference to the ‘bottom line’ (see above) is that their translated texts are fit for purpose. This was a crucial point, since cultural differences usually mean that what would be acceptable for one target audience would not make an impact on that of another cultural/linguistic community.

Copywriting skills and how they add value to your profile as a translator and what you offer to clients 11:02 AM Nov 22nd

Moreover, as translators we are also writers (this was echoed by several speakers at the conference during the weekend), and we can hone these skills in order to add value to what we offer. We can positively seek feedback from our clients to see where we can help them reach their business objectives, such as bringing our copywriting skills into play (Ros also provided a list of writing courses).

Working together as specialists to produce a project: be a problem solver 11:03 AM Nov 22nd

Ros went on to argue that clients have articulated and unarticulated needs from their translators – they may not even realise what they really need from their translations and it is our job to make that our business. As strategic partners and language specialists we are able to identify and highlight blind spots for our clients.

It’s all about communication, guys. Truly excellent talk by ros schwartz 11:25 AM Nov 22nd

All in all a really thought-provoking session. Ros was obviously coming from the perspective of a translator who mainly works with direct clients, but the crucial points should be applicable to those who work with translation companies as well. Highly recommended.

Bill Maslen encourages us to seek out feedback – ask to see the final product that goes to the client 12:34 PM Nov 22nd

Bill Maslen (of the Word Gym) was up next, with a session (intriguingly) entitled ‘Strategic partnerships: principles and solutions, triumphs and tragedies’. Bill used a chart he had clearly put a lot of thought into that very neatly illustrated his point, and demonstrated the buy-in from the top-level guys in companies throughout the product development process, i.e. right at the end, when the translation is commissioned, the buy-in from the top bods is almost zero. What does this tell us?

…seeing the final product will help you understand your client’s needs and the sort of copy they’re looking for for their target market 12:36 PM Nov 22nd

This session followed on very nicely from the one before, again commenting that in terms of the perceived value of what we do, translation really suffers from a brand image problem. To improve this we need to get more involved, and really understand our clients’ needs better. We need to demonstrate how we analyse the texts and the overall process. What’s to stop us asking for a brief?

Interestingly, Bill encouraged us to ask to see the final product that is sent on to the end client. I personally haven’t ever done this, as it’s often slightly more difficult to have a two-way dialogue with translation companies, rather than direct clients, but it’s a very good idea, and something I would like to try.

After a distinctly un-Italian Italian buffet lunch we move on to a translator-client joint presentation. Nice to see a united front 2:12 PM Nov 22nd

This session was with Cate Avery, a patent translator, and one of her clients. This wasn’t a format I’d seen before at a conference, and I liked it. Cate explained the process involved in patent translations with a good dose of amusing anecdotes, and she and her client discussed what it is that makes Cate a good supplier to them.

Update: What does a client look for above all? ‘Reliability’ ‘cost effectiveness’ ‘intelligent approach’ and ‘good working relationship’ 2:27 PM Nov 22nd

These were the words of Cate’s client on what they look for in their translation suppiers. In short, ‘reliability’, ‘cost effectiveness’, and ‘good working relationship’ shouldn’t be anything new, but ‘intelligent approach’ wasn’t something I’d heard before. To me it goes without saying that translators should have an ‘intelligent approach’ to their work, but perhaps this needs to be demonsrated more clearly in how we approach our clients and in our marketing campaigns.

Paraphrased quote from Jay kettle Williams: ‘the days when we can call ourselves a translator, full stop, are gone’. 3:00 PM Nov 22nd

I don’t think I was the only one amazed by Jay Kettle Williams’ superb oratory skills. He presented a very entertaining and lively session called ‘It’s not what you want to give the client, it’s what the client needs’. This may have been a controversial way of looking at things for many translators, but it continued the theme already established earlier in the day. An true expert on linguistics, Jay calls translators the ‘code-breakers’ for their clients; highlighting the fact that we often do so much more than simply ‘translate’ A to B.

Now speaking: Jost Zetzsche on idealised notions of translators. He asks ‘does quality spell u-s-a-b-i-l-i-t-y?’ 4:20 PM Nov 22nd

Jost Zetzsche, of Toolkit fame, spoke about our age-old idealisation of the patron saint of translators, St. Jerome. We risk being constrained by this idealisation of a translator who, let’s face it, innovative as he was at the time, was born c. 347. Instead, we need to roll with the times and think about the true purpose of our texts – I empathised with this, and it returned to the discussion around a text’s fitness for purpose again. Oh, and Jost also briefly introduced us to his cute little mascot Jeromobot.

Closing up the ‘official conference’ part of day 1. Q&A discussion, prize draw, and then much needed drinks and dinner! 5:27 PM Nov 22nd

The first day of the conference ended at around 5.30pm, following a comprehensive Q&A session with the panel speakers which dealt with issues such as ROI from marketing campaigns, ‘educating’ project managers who don’t like translators with ‘queries’, where agencies can find good translators, reference documents and translation tests (one panellist expressed the view that receivied wisdom tells us that quality translators will not offer to do free tests for clients – hadn’t thought of it that way).

A particular quote I remember from this part of the day was that ‘nobody is going to read your texts as carefully as a translator’ (I can’t remember who it was, unfortunately). How true that is.

An enjoyable evening’s networking was spent with 91 other delegates at Ciao Bella in Bloomsbury. My report on day 2 of the confernce will follow next week…

In Obama’s victory speech he said that the unsung heroes are his campaign managers and his strategist. Just look at how they tapped into communication tools that no candidate has ever bothered with before, such as Facebook right from the early days of the campaign, to creating his very own online community at MyBarackObama, to the point where Obama’s internet following was a self-driven vehicle.

For example, Obama (or one of Obama’s assistants) was tweeting on Twitter, with no less than 119,730 followers. Everytime he was speaking at a rally, a little link would be posted to allow his followers to watch it in realtime. By engaging with new forms of media, Obama has succeeded in reaching out to a new generation of voters, showing that he is a man of the world, for the world. He realises the amazing potential of social media and is able to use it as a means of getting his message across and cultivate a grassroots following through it.

For those of us who were unable to vote, how amazing it was to live through an historic event like this and, thanks to the internet and social media, to be able to feel like you’re really part of it. No matter who you supported in the campaign, after Obama’s victory, we must all agree that the internet’s ability to unite people and allow them to share experiences and interact should not be underestimated. Just look at some of reactions of people around the world, which we are now able to see for ourselves.

This article in the pioneering Huffington Post discusses how in this election the internet has done more than supplement traditional media:

While discussing with a friend an election night viewing party he’s throwing, he announced there would be “televisions all over the place.” “That’s great,” I said, “but just make sure the WiFi is working.” Because this year, the laptop — along with the array of Internet-connected mobile devices — has replaced the television as the must-have election night device.

P.S. While we’re on the subject, the blogosphere is currently alive with Obama-inspired posts, even suggesting that as freelancers we can learn from the campaign in terms of how we present ourselves, such as this one over at Contract Worker.

My age group straddles Generation Y and Generation X, and I often find myself caught between these two rather different mindsets. On the one hand, I blog, and use Facebook fairly extensively, I use RSS feeds to manage information, and I share bookmarks. On the other hand, I’m still quite new to all this, only having had a Facebook account for just over a year, and a blog for roughly the same length of time. I’m still struggling with Twitter, not really fully understanding the term ‘micro-blogging’, not to mention what on earth Twitterific is. And all this on the day I find out that even the Beeb has a Twitterer (is that the term?) for my favourite breakfast radio programme, Radio 4’s Today programme.

Nonetheless, I think the important thing is that I’m willing to learn, and although I don’t fully understand some aspects of social media as much as I’d like to, I am totally wowed by the possibilities it offers. I want to be part of it, and like any good Generation Yer I am learning how to use these tools more or less instinctively.

The same cannot be said of Radio 4, though. Despite their impressive forward-thinking with Twitter, I was disappointed with how Radio 4 reported the Queen’s visit to Google this morning. They broadcast a ‘comedy’ piece called ‘The Queen’s Blog’, in which someone imitated the Queen emailing and accepting friends on Facebook (yeah, like, totally not the same as blogging). Listen again here and weep. I felt like this was a misguided send-up of social media (rather than of the Queen), and as always I look disapprovingly on those to dismiss it so readily.

Long live social media! Once I get my head round it that is…

I actually feel like I’ve been blogging for longer than just 1 year, in a good way. It’s hard to imagine how I engaged in any self-reflection or tracked what I was learning and discovering in my career before I had a blog, or read blogs; blogging is so diverse (and time-consuming) that it has ended up being a major part of my job/life.  I guess the self-reflection and learning and discovery activities happened before somehow, but being able to share them and contextualise them in the form of a a blog makes the learning and opinon-forming process a lot more tangible.

Having ideas for my blog is not difficult, I think of them all the time. What’s harder is to express them in a coherent and meaningful way so that others might be able to relate to or comment on them. I really have to discipline myself to do this. But this is another part of the learning process, and what’s great about blogging is that you can learn from other bloggers.

I’m particularly struck by the fact that my original reasons for starting a blog have held true. Rather than being self-indulgent diary writing, blogging should be a way to offer something positive, your own viewpoint on a particular topic that is important to you. This is particularly relevant in terms of your career, especially when you are freelance like me and don’t have in-house colleagues to bounce ideas off.  This was my raison d’être in my first ever post:

With this in mind, and self-consciously trying to avoid being guilty of any ‘narcissistic shrieks’, I hope to be able to use for the following purposes:

a) express and invite opinion about developments in translation and linguistics
b) recommend authoritative links on other translation bloggers‘ sites, particularly with translation students in mind.

c) learn from others’ blogs
d) raise of the profile of translating and interpreting as a career
e) most importantly: publicize my profile as a freelance translator and seek opportunities

I recently read this article on Freelance Switch about blogging that reminded me why it’s all worth it, and this one and this one on Young Go Getter.

I’ve made some good progress within these quite general objectives. In particular, I’m flattered to report that my blog was recently listed in the Top 100 Language Blogs. Here’s to a good first year, and to the next year!