Nov 25, 2020 | Blog, Communication, Tips for Translators
How to Present Your Freelance Translator Resume to Small Translation Agencies – From an Agency Perspective Have you sent your freelance translator resume to numerous translation agencies but have never heard back? Are you starting out as a freelance translator and are trying to market your services to translation agencies? Would you like to work with a translation agency but find it really hard to get your foot in the door? How translation agencies process freelance translator resumes Sending out resumes to translation agencies can be daunting. You’re likely to send out a lot of applications and only receive a few replies. Translation agencies receive hundreds of applications every week and many of them don’t take the time to respond. When you finally do manage to get in touch with a vendor manager, it’s best you don’t get your hopes up. Your resume may be piled up among many others and you may not hear back with an actual job for a while. Are you wondering why? The truth is that there may be nothing wrong with your freelance translator resume, expertise, education or rates. One of the simplest reasons why you don’t hear back is that a small translation agency has scarce resources to handle vendor management. Therefore, processing your application may be at the very bottom of their list. Until they really need somebody very particular for a very specific translation job. And that could be just you! So make your freelance translator resume stand out! Whilst the purpose of this article is not to source new translators for our company LingoStar in Canada, we wanted...
Apr 14, 2020 | Blog, Language Varieties, Translation
English and Italian to French translation Thousands of books are published every day globally. English and Italian to French translation allows for the sharing of literature all around the world. We may not all speak the same language but we may have read the same books. Thanks to literary translators, books can be shared to all corners of the globe. Cyril Laumonier has been doing this job for ten years. He completed a European master’s degree in specialized translation at ISIT in Paris. ISIT is a French intercultural school that offers various pathways of study including literary translation. During the last year of his master’s degree, he accepted to translate two children’s books from English and Italian to French. This is his daily experience as a literary translator from English and Italian to French. English and Italian to French translation on a daily basis According to Laumonier, you cannot learn this job simply through university studies. You have to train your entire life. You need to read and to be curious, and to always want to learn more. Push the limits of your knowledge and your universe. So, a typical day for him starts at home since he works from home. It allows him to manage his own work day. Depending on the deadlines, he tries to work between 6 and 8 hours a day. Always with dictionaries next to him. However, the high level of attention the job requires to perform well can be tiring. Indeed, compared to audiovisual translators, he does not use new technologies like automatic translation. Nearly everything occurs between him, the text, and his...
Mar 25, 2020 | Blog, Language Varieties, Translation, Worldwide
A significant presence of French translation services in Canada In one of our previous translation posts, we addressed Translation Services in Canada and we gave 7 reasons why you should have a multilingual website, but there are even more reasons to do so if you live in Canada. As many of you know, English shares the honor to be Canada’s national language with France. This would explain why French translation services rank among LingoStar’s most frequently asked for services. The French language is present in every Canadian province. It is the second language taught at school and the second most spoken language in Canada. It is also the mother tongue of more than 7.5 million Canadians (21% of the Canadian population). The English language and its 20 million speakers (58% of the Canadian population) is the most spoken language in Canada. Vancouver, Ottawa, and Toronto are the top English-speaking cities. There are even some French festivals like the Festival du Bois for example, who celebrate the French language. The advantages of being bilingual in French and English Given the importance of the French language in Canada, it should not come as a surprise to anyone that speaking French is advantageous, especially when it comes to job opportunities. It is a common misconception that French is only spoken in Quebec when in reality “Francophones” are in every province of Canada. Take British Columbia for example. Not only is the French community growing in B.C. but it also has the fourth largest Francophone community in Canada. This helps explain the need for French translation services. Speaking both English and French allows you...
Mar 18, 2020 | Blog, Language Services, Translation, Translation News, Worldwide
COVID-19 and how LingoStar can help you with COVID-19 coronavirus translation First of all, we hope that you, your family and colleagues are safe and well during this global pandemic. As the coronavirus, also called COVID-19, keeps spreading in Canada, please refer to general information from the Canadian Government to ensure your safety. We want you to know that we are still working during this time, as many of our translators and editors traditionally work remotely from ‘home’. This is how we usually operate in the freelance translation world. Therefore, we already comply with the social distancing recommendations and minimize the infection risk among our employees and translators. We are available for any COVID-19 coronavirus translation requests. How can a translation company fight COVID-19? We understand that many businesses around the world need to update their clients, colleagues, employees, business partners, and so on. Our desire is not to profit from this crisis but help promote information. So, feel free to reach out to us with any translation needs related to the communication of COVID-19. Whether it is a translation or a voice-over, we’ll be happy to help spread your multilingual message in Spanish, French, Chinese, Italian, Korean, German, Farsi, and more. We have already been translating company memos and announcements for some of our clients in the last two weeks. Ask for help with coronavirus translations We know that your messages in these times need to reach many people fast. Therefore, we will work around the clock to make sure your translation needs are fulfilled. Our rush fees for COVID-19 related translations will be waived at this time....
Mar 2, 2020 | Blog, Communication
Effective Communication: what is it? Effective communication consists of information that is well shared. It could be verbal, non-verbal, written, etc. One considers emotions, the ability to speak, engaged listening, etc. What makes effective communication tricky? Semantic barriers. The misunderstanding between the sender and the receiver. They are due to the different meanings they give to words. People use symbols or words that can mean more than one thing. Or, also, a technical jargon. Organizational barriers. Obstacles in the flow of information. For example: among parents and children, teachers and students. And also employers and employees, etc. Emotional barriers. Lack of attention and premature evaluation. But also poor retention and distrust. Firstly, people are interested in other things and do not listen with attention. Secondly, they jump to conclusions without considering all the information. Thirdly, the brain retains just the information that could be helpful in the future and nothing more. The sender and receiver have to trust each other. If not, the communication will be meaningless. And there are also personal communication barriers… Personal barriers. Life experiences, attitudes, emotions, and behaviours. These lead to a lack of listening, attention, knowledge, and vocabulary. The receiver listens with his ears but not with his mind. He hears only what he wants to. The sender and receiver do not have the same knowledge of a specific topic. The sender uses words that are difficult to understand. We should also mention barriers related to disability. For example, how to make a visual message accessible to the visually impaired? And how to make an oral message accessible to the hard of hearing? These...
Feb 20, 2020 | Blog, English language
T-glottalization or t-glottaling? T-glottalization: the misperception of the letter /t/or T-glottaling, is when the sound of the consonant /t/ changes into a glottal stop. A glottal stop is literally the spot to take a break when you are supposed to produce a sound, in this case, the ‘t’ sound. It just stops in your throat. It’s like when you are about to say something and someone cuts you off. This pronunciation of the /t/ occurs in many varieties of English. Take an example of writ’t’en, Bri’t’ain, or impor’t’ant. Before pronouncing the /t/, there is a sudden pause and then you go for /ː(ə)n/ː(ə)nt/. To find out more about what is a glottal /t/ sound and how it is used in English, check out this informational video on glottal /t/ sound in American English. Using this video, practice your American pronunciation and speak like a native! The glottal stop or T-glottalization The glottal stop can actually replace a consonant so, for example, the letter /t/. Therefore we call it “T-glottalization”: the misperception of the /t/. Check out the pronunciation of ‘button, cotton or kitten’ and other words in the video above. Certain studies such as the one of Jeremy Obrien from UCSC Linguistics Research Center showed that the place of articulation of the letter /t/ could be confused with one of the glottal stops. The letter /t/ is part of the stop consonants which are /t/, /p/, /k/ but the /t/ is the only consonant that can get dropped for a glottal stop. It rarely happens with the /p/ and the /k/. In general, the glottal stop occurs especially on...
