‘Giving Tuesday’ year-end donation drive: thank you all who donated! Reply

From December 1st until December 3rd, ProZ.com, Dutch translator and copywriter Pieter Beens and the rest of the ProZ.com community joined forces in a ‘Giving Tuesday’ year-end donation drive and collected over $1,800 USD to be donated to Books For Africa, Concern Worldwide and SOS Children’s Villages. In turn, ProZ.com matched dollar for dollar the collected amount and over $3,600 USD will now benefit these three non-profit organizations.

Funds were collected through ProZ.com membership sales, training purchases, as well as from direct donations, and the translator community also shared their translated version of a very famous quote by Mother Teresa:

Click here to see translated versions or suggest your own.

Special thanks go to…

• Pieter Beens for proposing this initiative and spreading the word.
• ProZ.com professional trainers Claudia Brauer, Anneta Vysotskaya, Konstantin Kisin and Samuel Sebastian Holden Bramah for donating their time and knowledge.
• ProZ.com users and members who donated through membership and training, or by making a direct donation.
• ProZ.com users and members who proposed their translation of Mother Teresa’s quote.
• Everyone who helped to spread the word!

Thank you all who joined ProZ.com’s 2015 celebration of Giving Tuesday!

---

How did you celebrate Giving Tuesday? Share below.

Guest post: The importance of translators for charities 2

This is a guest post by Pieter Beens in promotion of ProZ.com’s ‘Giving Tuesday’ year-end donation drive. To find out more about this initiative and learn how to contribute, visit the drive’s main page: http://www.proz.com/pages/drive

---

#GivingTuesday is an international phenomenon to raise funds for a host of charities. In the spirit of this event, ProZ.com is hosting the #ProZcomDrive, a special campaign to raise funds for three non-profit organizations: SOS Children’s Villages, Concern Worldwide, and Books For Africa. All proceeds from the ProZ.com ‘Giving Tuesday’ year-end donation drive will benefit these programs to help families in need, raise funds for emergency response programs, and support literacy initiatives.

Although fundraising within the translation community is a major aspect of the campaign, there is much more to say about the importance of translators for charities. In this article I will mention a few.

Translators often do not associate themselves with charities professionally. Of course many of us are involved in volunteer jobs, varying from caregiving to supporting political parties, but there are few translators and translation agencies that continuously support charities for free.

That is nothing to blame translators and agencies for: supporting charities is not the most obvious choice when it comes to sponsoring or even to corporate sustainable development. At the same time many charities do not ask translators and agencies to help them out with translations for free. One initiative to connect charities and translators for free translations is Translators Without Borders.

Translators can play an important role for charities. First of all, they can offer free translations (also outside Translators Without Borders), so charities can do their lovely jobs and reach their goals with a minimum of resources. However, free translations should not be the main objective for charities when collaborating with translators. Indeed, translators can offer much more than just financial help.

Language professionals, and in particular native translators who live in the countries where charities are active, have actual knowledge of the country and culture of the language in which they translate. They can be the “eyes and ears” of the charities they work for, and know how these organizations can be most successful in reaching their goals. At the same time, they can inform charities about local developments, and even point out new goals and locations where their efforts are needed.

Translators can also contribute their commercial knowledge to these organizations to help them better deliver on their mission. For example, they can share best practices in reaching out to the public or in translating different types of texts. They can help educate charities as to how they can be successful in motivating volunteers or raising funds. Translators can also apply their knowledge from particular areas of specialization, like healthcare or technology, in translating texts for non-profit organizations as well.

A final important role of translators in the non-profit sector is the role of networker. Charities often do not know where to find the right translators for a particular language or where to go in a certain country to get help, subsidies or support. Language professionals can guide them to local authorities or centers that can help the charities to realize their goals.

The #ProZcomDrive

All proceeds donated by the translation community from December 1st to December 3rd as part of ProZ.com’s ‘Giving Tuesday’ year-end donation drive will benefit SOS Children’s Villages, Concern Worldwide, and Books For Africa. In turn, Pieter Beens is also donating 10% of his income for the entire month of December to a fourth initiative: Project Jedidja, a project to fight illiteracy and discrimination among disabled children in Guinea Bissau.

Learn more about Project Jedidja here: http://veldwerkers.kimon.nl/jedidja

---

Are you considering donating translations to charities? Read Pieter Beens’ tips at http://www.vertaalt.nu/blog/tips-for-translators-when-supporting-charities/

Let’s join forces in a ‘Giving Tuesday’ year-end donation drive 1

Giving Tuesday is here!

After an entire year networking, expanding your business, improving your work and having fun, you now have the opportunity to give something back: whether it be through donations, fundraising, volunteering your time and expertise, or simply by calling others to support a particular cause or initiative.

At the end of October this year, one ProZ.com staff member was approached by Pieter Beens, a Dutch translator and copywriter, as well as a ProZ.com member since 2011, with the idea of a charity campaign to be promoted among ProZ.com community members. The result? A ‘Giving Tuesday’ year-end donation drive that starts today, Tuesday, December 1st, and will run until Thursday, December 3rd:

Help spread the word on social media using the hashtags #GivingTuesday and #ProZcomDrive.

Join this #GivingTuesday movement and support the following non-profit organizations:

Books For Africa collects, sorts, ships, and distributes books to students of all ages in Africa. They remain the largest shipper of donated text and library books to the African continent, shipping over 34 million books to 49 different countries since 1988.

Concern Worldwide implements emergency response programs primarily in the world’s poorest countries, has been a leader in health and nutrition issues, and has been on the forefront of helping communities develop resilience to high-impact climate extremes.

SOS Children’s Villages works to prevent family breakdown and care for children who have lost parental care, or who risk losing it. They work with communities, partners and states to ensure that the rights of all children, in every society, are respected and fulfilled.

---

ProZ.com will match, dollar for dollar, the first $10,000 USD donated to these charities.

---

Make an impact. Join this drive →

Special thanks go to Pieter Beens for the initiative, to ProZ.com professional trainers Claudia Brauer, Konstantin Kisin, Samuel Sebastian Holden Bramah and Anneta Vysotskaya for donating their time and knowledge in support of this drive, and to the members of the translation community who join ProZ.com and Pieter Beens in this #ProZcomDrive!

---

Do you have any other plans for #GivingTuesday? Share below.

Maja Popęda and the contemporary world: challenges and opportunities Reply

Maja Popęda, conference organizer

Maja Popęda is a full-time freelance translator and this year’s ProZ.com Polish conference organizer, ProZ.com regional conference in Kalisz: “Translator and interpreter in the contemporary world: challenges and opportunities”.

Maja has been part of the ProZ.com community since 2010 and joined the Certified PRO Network in 2014 with her top working language pair: English to Polish.

As a conference attendee herself –she has attended nine ProZ.com conferences so far– Maja knows that industry events represent an excellent opportunity to learn, network with colleagues and potential clients and have fun, and her conference promises precisely that!

The conference

The conference will take place at the Kalisz City Hall, one of the most impressive baroque buildings in Poland.

Kalisz City Hall.

On this great scenery, Maja managed to set up a great conference program with two session tracks covering a wide range of topics of interest to both translators and interpreters (and those studying to become translators or interpreters!) , including CAT tools, interpreting, DTP, sworn translation, online freelancing and more… To view a full version of the conference program, click here.

And around the conference, she is also organizing a city tour for Friday afternoon, a pre-conference dinner and a post-conference meal for everyone interested (conference attendees, friends, spouses, kids, etc.). Click here to see details.

To learn more about the conference (venue, comments, accommodation, sponsors, prices and discounts), visit the official conference page.

---

Thank you, Maja, for joining ProZ.com’s amazing group of conference organizers and good luck on your first conference!

Would you like to organize a conference in your city? Let us know »

Jeden miesiąc do polskiej, regionalnej konferencji ProZ.com 2015: „Tłumacz pisemny i ustny we współczesnym świecie: wyzwania i możliwości” Reply

The ProZ.com regional conference in Kalisz is just 4 weeks away. Translators, interpreters, students, sponsors and organizers are getting ready to learn, network and exchange experiences in the oldest city in Poland: Kalisz.

Conference information in English »

---

Regionalna konferencja ProZ.com w Kaliszu odbędzie się już za 4 tygodnie. Tłumacze, studenci, sponsorzy i organizatorzy przygotowują się do wspólnej nauki i wymiany doświadczeń w najstarszym mieście w Polsce – Kaliszu.

Program i mówcy

W jednodniowej konferencji wezmą udział wybitni mówcy, którzy poprowadzą prezentacje na następujące tematy:

• Online freelancing – wyzwania, zagrożenia i możliwości – Katarzyna Muller
• Wprowadzenie do tworzenia napisów – Anna Biernacka-Wierzbicka
• Jak prowadzić agencję tłumaczeń i unikać typowych błędów – Karina Wieszczyk
• Egzamin na tłumacza przysięgłego – Magda Sikorska
• Nowości w narzędziach CAT – Rafał Kwiatkowski
• Podstawy i wskazówki DTP w tłumaczeniach – Rafał Kwiatkowski
• Savoir-vivre dla tłumaczy ustnych – Wojciech Wiesiołek
• Techniki tłumaczenia symultanicznego i konsekutywnego – Wojciech Figiel

W celu uzyskania więcej informacji na temat każdej sesji kliknij tutaj.

Integracja

Oprócz całego dnia sesji i warsztatów uczestnicy będą mieli możliwość nawiązania kontaktów i spędzenia przyjemnie czasu, uczestnicząc w kilku wydarzeniach integracyjnych:

• 2 października – piątkowe zwiedzanie miasta

Spacer po mieście ze znanym kaliskim przewodnikiem.

 

• 2 października – przedkonferencyjny pałał

Wieczorek zapoznawczy przed konferencją.

 

• 3 października – pokonferencyjny pałał

Wieczorek pożegnalny po konferencji.

 

Więcej informacji o wydarzeniach integracyjnych na stronie.

Pakiet konferencyjny

Pakiet konferencyjny obejmuje nie tylko wstęp na wszystkie sobotnie sesje i lunch, ale również:

• 10 % zniżki na pobyt w Hotelu Calisia i Hotelu Europa.
• 20% zniżki na wstęp dla studentów i członków Certified PRO Network.

Zapisy

Na konferencji zostało jeszcze trochę miejsc. Aby zarezerwować swoje miejsce należy odwiedzić stronę konferencji i kliknąć Kup teraz obok pakietu, który pasuje do Twoich potrzeb.

Aby dowiedzieć się więcej na temat specjalnych zniżek prosimy skontaktować się z personelem poprzez centrum wsparcia.

---

Sponsorzy

 

Tekst zlokalizował na Polski Maja Popęda.

Summary of the V Conferência Brasileira de Tradutores do ProZ.com in Recife 3

Almost one week after the V Conferência Brasileira de Tradutores do ProZ.com, phrases such “Disrupt yourself now!” and “Translators of the world, unite! We are stronger together.” seem to keep echoing in participants’ minds. Nineteen speakers, twenty different sessions, two powwows, Tweets, Facebook posts, feedback comments, pictures and videos made of this conference a great success, reminding translation professionals of the importance of constant networking and professional development.

What did this event offer to ProZ.com members?

• Twenty sessions divided in two tracks.
• Two powwows, one at Restaurante Parraxaxá, specialized in Northeastern plates, and a second one at Entre Amigos Praia, a restaurant with the prefect atmosphere to be with fiends!
• Sightseeing around Recife, the Brazilian Venice.
• The chance to meet fellow translators, promote themselves among peers and learn how to get the most out of the translation profession.

As a ProZ.com staff member, I enjoyed my visit to Recife and meeting some ProZ.com Brazilian members for the first time and seeing others again. It was a great experience! Thanks Ju Chaad and Nina Cavalcanti for working tirelessly over the past year to bring this great conference to life. Also, thanks speakers for sharing your time, energy and expertise. And, above all, thank you attendees for making this event possible!

What now?

• Watch live recordings from the event »
• Tweet your experience »
• Help to translate a poem by Silvio Borges that was handed in to event attendees and share it with the entire translators community »
• Post general feedback on the event »
• Post individual session feedback »
• View and download your certificate of attendance from the “Conference participation” section of your ProZ.com profile »
• Watch and share a video summary of the event:

Hope to see you all soon at the next ProZ.com event!

Lucía

On taking a professional translator / interpreter career a step further 2

Something that cannot be said about the translation or interpretation profession is that it is a static one. Translation and interpreting –and the way these two activities are performed– have evolved throughout the years and continue to evolve, allowing language professionals to seek new challenges, inviting them to review their career plans from time to time.

Even if most language professionals feel good about what they have achieved, they may also feel compelled now and then to take their careers a step further. However, this step further may not always be that clear, and there are several options available that go beyond translation and interpreting.

One option translators and interpreters have if they feel like taking their careers a step further is the expansion of the services they offer. Expanding the list of services you offer to clients may involve learning a new language, adding a new field of expertise and even learning additional techniques such as subtitling or desktop publishing (DTP). Of course, adding a new service, like investing in anything else, means devoting time –and usually money– to getting it ready.