Working as a professional linguist is a never-ending learning process.  If you are specialised in a sector which is constantly developing, such as IT, you will need to keep up with the most up-to-date vocabulary. You also need to be familiar with and implement the latest technology as required.

The language services industry is very different from what it was 10 – 20 years ago. I simply cannot imagine working as a translator without some sort of computer assisted translation software or online dictionaries. They save you a lot of time and you become more efficient. So what should you do to stay up to date? There is no secret, here is what we do: continue reading…

Let’s face it, from time to time you have a translation job that you might not really enjoy working on. It could be a financial translation (a report with very dry data) or a document with a topic not very appealing to you. So you will end up in a situation where you have to keep yourself productive throughout the day and complete the job as soon as possible. Sometimes you procrastinate and that, of course, is not  a good thing not only because you delay your task but also because it interferes with the other things. You can’t for example read a book because the fact you have that translation to work on keeps coming to your mind. So here are some tips and tricks that have been tried and tested: continue reading…

Interpreter vs translator: who’s who?

Many people call us saying they need a translator when in fact they were looking for an interpreter. Probably most people know the difference between these two jobs, but there are some who use them interchangeably, although they should not. Below we will try to have a look at what these two jobs have in common and how they are different. In a nutshell, the translator deals with the written word, while the interpreter with the spoken message. continue reading…

The Language Show 2011

As described in more details in a previous post, the Language Show is an event addressed to language teachers, translators, interpreters, linguists and anyone with a passion for languages. This year’s show took place at the National Hall, Olympia. One of the sponsors was the Chartered Institute of Linguists. Apart from the stall where linguists could find out more about this association and how to join, they also organised seminars for linguists. Michael Cunningham, member of the IoL, talked about his experience as a professional translator. More about his tips and tricks below. continue reading…

Among the team members of InboxTranslation.com, there are a lot of football lovers (we have other passions too beside translations). So, no wonder we were all shocked to hear about the horrible incident that happened last night (30 October 2011) during a match between two Romanian teams – Petrolul Ploiesti and Steaua Bucharest. continue reading…

This year’s Language Show took place between 21-23 October at the National Hall, Olympia, London. If you have missed it, you can check their website to see what seminars were available, as well as who the exhibitors were.  This post deals with a few general impressions, as I will present some of the activities in subsequent posts. continue reading…