Move the World with Words

Let’s talk about qualifications. 

As a translator, specifically one that’s ATA certified, you’re incredibly qualified. You’ve got to go through a lot to get that certification. 

But what do you do when you start to doubt those qualifications? 

When you think, “I study language, what qualifies to me to interpret medical documents? I don’t know the first thing about medicine.” 

It happens to everyone. 

That’s why we loved our interview with Victoria Bañales on the latest episode of the Move the World with Words podcast. She talked all about: 

-Attending a German school in Spain

-Her goal to live on every continent for at least 6 months

-How to deal with the imposter syndrome that comes with the job

-What Move the World with Words means to her

You can find out more about the passionate translators who Move the World With Words by subscribing to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here.

They say that poetry is the language of love. 

There are so many things that are hard to say, so they are said with poetry. 

So many writers and poets will tell you that they don’t know what they think or what they are trying to say until they write it down. 

So when we met Sharon Neeman, we knew we had stumbled on someone truly special. We got to sit down with Sharon and talk all about: 

-Her love of poetry and translating poetry

-Why she used to wake up at 3AM and work a half a day before the sun was even up

-Her promise to her spouse to cut back to 35 hours a week when she turns 70

-Why she refuses to use any CAT tools

-What Move the World with Words means to her 

You can find out more about the passionate translators who Move the World With Words by subscribing to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here.

What technology are you resisting? 

30 years ago, translators were using typewriters, and were hesitant to make the jump to computers. 

10 years ago, those same people were hesitant to utilize CAT tools. 

Now? What are translators hesitant about today? 

It’s machine translation. 

Why?

What are we so afraid of? 

Anne-Marie Colliander Lind was on the Move the World with Words podcast recently, but she has one thing that sets her apart from the rest of the guests we’ve had on. We talked all about: 

-Why technology should be embraced, not feared

-Her work as a translation consultant

-Advice she gives to companies struggling to adapt to an ever-changing world

-What Move the World with Words means to her

You can find out more about the passionate translators who Move the World With Words by subscribing to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here.

Translators should be invisible.  

Not in a “Harry Potter cloak” sort of way (though that would certainly be handy at times.) 

But in an ideal world, the translator’s work should fade into the background, and it should appear as if there was never a translator at all. 

It’s why translators truly are the unsung heroes of the world.

Because the world wouldn’t function without them.

Take our latest guest, Jill Sommer for example. She came on the show recently to talk all about:  

-Why she prefers to work until 2AM

-How she stumbled into translation as a career

-How her time as a contract linguist has shaped the way she markets herself

-Why she really does believe that good translation should make the translator seem invisible.

-What Move the World with Words means to her. 

You can find out more about the passionate translators who Move the World With Words by subscribing to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here.

As translators, we spend a lot of time sitting. 

At our desks, at coffee shops, at conferences, in the car, or on airplanes. Most of our job is sitting. 

So it should come as no surprise that a lot of us would end up with posture problems. Chronic pain in our backs, necks, shoulders, and joints. 

But what do you do if you feel like your chronic pain is keeping you from doing the work that you love?

Eva Stabenow, was a guest on the Move the World with Words podcast recently, and talked all about: 

-What she did when she realized her pain was keeping her from working

-How she found a second passion in teaching corrective Pilates

-How she’s married her two passions, translation & pilates. 

-A horror story from her early days of translating involving a 700,000 word document

-What Move the World with Words means to her

You can find out more about the passionate translators who Move the World With Words by subscribing to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here.

It all started with a pen. 

Do you still use a pen to write? 

Not a cheap, dollar-store pen, but a proper pen. 

There is a weight to the words when you use a proper pen, like a Mont Blanc, to write words on a sheet of paper. 

They mean a little more than they normally would. 

We chatted with Cristina Silva on a recent episode of the Move the World with Words podcast, and discussed: 

• How she fell in love with language
• Her response to her dad making her get a job at 15, and why she chose one in language. 
• Her first paid writing assignment for Mont Blanc
• What Move the World with Words means to her.
  

You can find out more about the passionate translators who Move the World With Words by subscribing to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here.

We’ve talked to a lot of professional translators on the Move the World with Words podcast. 

One demographic we haven’t spoken with, at least not yet, is a student. 

Someone who is studying to be a professional translator or interpreter. Someone who spends their days not working with clients, but going to class, studying, and practicing the art of translating in hopes of making it their profession. 

We sat down with a graduate student from Middlebury Institute of International Studies recently, because we wanted to hear from someone just getting started. We talked all about:

• Making the jump from Civil Engineering to translation
• What her day to day life in school is like
• What surprised her most about her move to the United States (it may not be what you think) 

You can find out more about the passionate translators who Move the World With Words by subscribing to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here.

Machines can do all sorts of incredible things. 

They can turn on your lights, set your heat, or give you directions in the car. 

But can you rely on them to translate? 

As technology continues to evolve, machine translation is becoming more and more inevitable as a service. 

Thankfully, Jennifer Mosby, along with a host of other translators, doesn’t think it’s time to panic just yet. She was recently a guest on the Move the World with Words podcast and talked all about: 

• Why she only translates TO her native language
• Some of the amazing things she’s learned over the years translating engineering documents
• Why she doesn’t think human translators are going anywhere

You can find out more about the passionate translators who Move the World With Words by subscribing to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here.

What’s that old saying? Love what you do, and you’ll never work a day in your life? Most people will tell you that that quote is misleading. Of course you can love what you do, but it’s still work, right? It depends on who you ask. Diana Biser was a guest on the Move the World with Words podcast recently, and our conversation was incredible. 

She talked to us all about: loving the work so much that she used to do it for free, why it’s challenging to read books without wanting to translate them, why she watches English movies with the Spanish subtitles, and what “Move the World with Words” means to her. 

You can find out more about the passionate translators who Move the World With Words by subscribing to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here.

Context is king. 

So often, particularly in the world of translation, translators are asked to translate without any context. Maybe they’re given a set of phrases and have to translate those. But they might not have any idea HOW these phrases are being used, or in what context. This is especially true when it comes to marketing translation. Susanne Kraetschmer is a freelance translator specializing mostly in apparel and marketing translation for some of the largest companies in the world. 

She was a guest on the podcast recently and talked all about; when she knows she’s nailed an assignment, how she keeps her German language skills fresh while living in Portland, her favorite German tv shows, and what she would change about the translation industry.

You can find out more about the passionate translators who Move the World With Words by subscribing to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here.