A little bit about my background
I am a full-time freelance German→English translator. I am also the current president of the Northeast Ohio Translators Association, an active member of the American Translators Association, and an adjunct faculty member of Kent State University’s Institute for Applied Linguistics as well as a former contract linguist for the FBI.
I graduated with a double major in German and Russian from Bowling Green State University in 1992 (spent my junior year abroad in Salzburg, Austria from 1989-1990 – these photos were taken in Berlin in February 1990) and received my M.A. in German translation from Kent State University in 1995. I lived and worked in Bonn, Germany as a freelance translator and Internet researcher for six years before relocating to the U.S. (Cleveland, Ohio) in 2001.
I now work from home and am frequently overwhelmed with translation work (hence the title of this blog). Most of my work involves translating large marketing/advertising surveys and medical and IT or computer-related texts, but I also enjoy translating tourism and government-related texts. Surprisingly, I have also been translating lots of contracts lately.
I love traveling and try to visit a new city in Europe every time I go there to visit friends and clients. Next on the list are Venice and Dresden. My all-time favorite European city (besides Bonn) is Prague, followed closely by Florence and Finale Ligure on the Italian Riviera. My favorite cities in the U.S. are New Orleans, New York City, San Francisco, and Niagara Falls.
When not at the computer, I enjoy reading (especially mysteries), catching up on television shows, doing water aerobics, dining out with my Meetup.com Dining Out group, organizing events for my German language Meetup.com group, and doting on my West Highland White Terrier, Lily. Our frequent walks and trips to the dog park break up the monotony of my day.
My office hours are 10 AM to 7 PM and then 11 PM to whenever the heck I feel like going to bed (usually 1 or 2 AM), with liberal breaks scattered in between for water aerobics, dinner out with friends, running errands, or Law & Order marathons. I’m a night owl, which explains the moon in the heading.
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Welcome to the blogosphere Jill!
I look forward to reading your stuff.
I’ve been reading through your recent entries, it’s fantastic stuff!! You have a new enthusiastic subscriber
Thanks, Benny! I’m having an absolute ball doing this. I used to send my inane thoughts to the ATA German Language Division listserv. This gives me an outlet that offers people a choice whether or not to read my comments on things. Welcome!
Hi Jill, I’m really enjoying your posts! And it’s always great to see more translators throwing themselves on the mercy of the blogosphere
Looking forward to reading more thoughts. Sarah
Hey you! Thought of you this morning on my drive in to work. I was stuck in a major traffic jam and my car almost overheated. I was sitting there in August heat in Florida with my heater cranked up to full, remembering the time we drove to Tampa in Grandma’s van (which I had just inherited) and had to do the same thing.
Sorry I’ve been so crappy about keeping in touch. You around this weekend? I’ll give you a call. Give Lily a kiss for me, and love to ALL the family.
Jill, I really love your style. You’re living proof that great translators are also (or should be) great writers
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Your link is on Translator Power’s list of Great Translators’ blogs! I’m sure our readers will learn a lot from your experience, while enjoying your beautiful writing style.
Thanks a lot for being such a good person.
Hi Jill,
I posted a comment about your great list of tools, but it must have ended up in your spam queue as it contained some links.
Hi Jill,
As always, a pleasure reading your content.
I wonder if you will be interested in publishing guest posts.
We had written an interesting one – A freelance translator recession survival kit.
Jill: I don’t have your email address anymore or I would have sent this to you privately. I wrote a blog post about people who use more than 1 Twitter account and included a comment that you’d left on my original blog post on the subject. In case you want to see it, here’s the link.
When One Twitter Account Isn’t Enough
http://bit.ly/pYcJ
Thanks,
Michelle Rafter
WordCount: Freelancing in the Digital Age
Hi, thanks for adding us on the blogroll. I was unaware or I would have written sooner.
I have some connections to Ohio through my father.
Have a great 1st of May
Just discovered your blog, and as a fellow ‘overworked’ translator(English/German/French/Danish to Dutch in more or less the same fields as you), I recognized a lot in the posts I’ve read so far. I will certainly be following you blog – it’s inspiring!
Hi from Brazil,
I’ve just discovered your blog through the post on working from home jobs. Great to know. I am a translator myself, mainly from English to (Brazilian) Portuguese.
Cheers!
Jill,
I just discovered your wit and humor for translators and beyond. I’m in both categories.
Thanks,
John Duffy
Hi there, a very interesting background and a very interesting blog!
I, too, miss Germany. I did French and German at Leeds Uni, spent time at Universite Lille III before spending my year abroad in Maintal, Hessen. A fantastic year which convinced me I wanted to work in Germany after I’d graduated. I was lucky and got a job in Frankfurt/Main and spent 10 extremely happy years there.
I, too, miss Germany. Oh, I see I’ve already said that!
Not just the Volks- and Wein-feste, of which there is an abundance, as you know. The Dippemesse in Frankfurt, for example.
The Weihnachtsmarkte and yes, I do like the food!!!
I’m going back there at the end of next month and am excited about it already and have started making a shopping list already!
Good luck with your translation work and do keep us informed. It makes for good reading as well as giving you a well-deserved break!