Make your comment heard March 18, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.15 comments
AKA “How to write a meaningful comment”
I didn’t approve a comment the other day, because it seemed too much like self-promotion. It said “Please do read more here [link]. this will surely help all of us.” The link was a blog post on a similar topic, but in my experience comments like this end up being spam or might even contain a link to a phishing site. So I deleted the comment and wrote the author of the comment explaining why I hadn’t published it. After some confusion on my part that made me think the commenter was being impersonated by someone using their e-mail to promote their blog (which apparently wasn’t the case), I realized the person was simply trying to be helpful. However, I had already deleted the comment.
Most readers of blogs aren’t aware, but blog authors often have to weed through lots of meaningless comments written by spammers, trolls or self-promoters to find actual comments written by actual readers. This blog currently has 1,891 comments, while my blog’s spam filter has caught 21,942 spam comments from being published. That’s a lot of spam!
In my experience, there are three kinds of meaningless or “unproductive” comments
- Straightforward spam. This is usually pretty obvious, and Akismet usually does a really good job catching the most obvious spam. This can include very long posts featuring lots of swear words or porn and/or links to porn sites or comments that obviously have nothing to do with the post itself. This spam never sees the light of day, because I try to keep up with deleting this spam.
- Trolls. These are people who say inflammatory or off-topic things just to rile people up. Luckily I haven’t had too many trolls on the site, and everyone behaves themselves. I haven’t had to block anyone from commenting again, which I really appreciate. There is a big difference between trolls and critical comments. Trolls deliberately say outrageous things to bate you. Critical commenters feel strongly about what they write and do an admirable job defending their position, so I won’t delete these comments. I don’t believe in censorship, but if someone is blatantly offensive I do adhere to the theory “my blog, my rules” and won’t hesitate to delete a comment in the future.
- Self-promoters. These are commenters who don’t contribute to the conversation, but say something like “Great post!” while leaving links back to their own blog or site. Sometimes this practice can feel like spam if it happens often enough.
To ensure your comment gets published, please follow these simple rules:
- Don’t just post a quick criticism like, “I don’t agree; this isn’t my experience.” This doesn’t really engage in a conversation or offer something meaningful to other readers or commenters. Alternate viewpoints are welcome here, so please take the time to elaborate on it.
- Put your comments in context. Even though I may know who you are from interactions on online forums or previous comments, most people won’t know who you are when you’re commenting. So be sure to relate something about your background, experience, or point of view so we know where you are coming from.
- If possible offer a targeted resource. Some of the best comments point us to a very specific blog post or resource that I hadn’t seen before. The Internet is so vast it is easy to miss something or not be aware something is out there. Also, be sure to explain why you feel these resources are valuable to the readers in a sentence or two.
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I try to be clear and concise, but I’m also human. If you didn’t understand something, there’s a good chance someone else didn’t understand either. So bring it up in the comments.
- Don’t just argue. If your views differ from mine, look for common ground. I am open to new ideas. I write this blog and read other blogs to learn more. I have learned so much from my colleagues in online forums, e-mail listservs and blogs since I started out in 1995. And I love sharing the knowledge I have learned with students and other translators.
I appreciate all of you who have left comments on this blog. I think the comments are often times more valuable than the actual post itself, because it is great to hear other experiences, opinions, and suggestions from fellow translators. That said, try to add a little substance to your comments to ensure they get posted for everyone to read. Leaving meaningful comments is also a good way to draw readers to your site. I enjoy clicking on the links in the contact information you leave to discover new and interesting blogs. If you want to share a link in the comment itself, please explain why you feel the page you are linking to might be of interest to me and/or my readers. Your thoughts are encouraged and welcomed!
Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking… February 8, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings.3 comments
As Leo Babauta said in Minimalist Time Management: Keep Your Day Open (Freelanceswitch.com): “There are the super-organized among us — those who schedule every minute and stick to the plan to the letter — and then there’s the rest of us. We schedule a lot of plans, but our days don’t usually resemble the plan very much.”
I don’t know about you, but I am usually pretty organized. I keep a calendar updated on Google Calendar that syncs to my HTC G2 phone (which by the way I LOVE!). It helps me keep track of my social activities and appointments, which I can schedule while actually in the dentist’s office or business location. That said, I don’t schedule every minute of every day. I prefer to be a bit more spontaneous. I know what my goals are for that day, usually based on what deadlines I have looming over me.
I just survived a two-week dry spell of work. I had a small job here or there, but nothing really juicy to keep me at the computer. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I couldn’t believe how unmotivated I became. E-mails were postponed, blog posts remained unwritten, housework fell by the wayside. I did a lot of reading and caught up with numerous television shows. And I got the stomach flu just as work started coming back in (figures, right?)…
I eased back into work with a proofreading job and now have a couple translation jobs on my desk. I knew the dry spell wouldn’t last. It never does. I have learned to embrace the slow spells, and I have a financial cushion so I don’t lose sleep wondering how to pay bills with no money coming in.
Coming out of the stomach flu also gave me the energy to clean the apartment and clear my mind. I am not proud of my laziness. I knew it was well-deserved, but I decided to try implementing a time management system. After a brief search I think I might have found what I need.
Mr. Babauta’s rules for Minimalist Time Management are:
1. Don’t schedule appointments
I have realized that an appointment in the middle of the day can really eat up most of the day. My massage at 1 today bled into grocery shopping for an hour (after being sick for the last 4 days my refrigerator was BARE). I got home at 3:30 and hadn’t translated more than a couple hundred words. Luckily I am at my best in the evening…
My father prefers to schedule his appointments in the morning, leaving the rest of the day free. I won’t go so far as stop scheduling appointments, but I will try to be a bit more judicious and not fill up my week with one appointment every day. I will try to schedule most appointments that are near each other for the same day and just take the afternoon or whole day off.
2. Know what you want to accomplish today
Mr. Babauta suggests focusing on three things that you want to accomplish that day. For me that was translate about 2000-2500 words, get a massage and grocery shop. Mission accomplished.
3. Focus on one thing at a time.
Since I am such a multi-tasker this will be a hard one. The multi-tasker in me would have filed this blog post as a draft and gone back to translating, but I know it will be better to just publish it and then go back to focusing on translating the survey. Mr. Babauta claims “… single-tasking is not only more productive, it’s more relaxing as well.” I’ll let you know how that works…
4. Note tasks as they come up, to consider for later.
He suggests noting tasks that come up on a sheet of paper or a small notebook and then get back to the task you were working on. Sounds pretty simple. I will start trying this tomorrow.
Hey, it can’t be worse than what I’ve been doing, right? I have also occasionally adhered to the Flylady system, which can be a pretty good one. She recommends setting a timer for 15-20 minutes at a time as well as cleaning your house through small daily tasks (if any of you are living in chaos you might want to check her out…). If any of you have a time management system you would like to share, please share it in the comments.
Are you a whiner or a winner? January 19, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings.13 comments
WordCount had a great post back in December entitled As a freelancer, are you a whiner or a winner? that has me frequently reflecting back on it in my dealings with clients or while reading translation listservs. She offers a very good example of a winning football team in Oregon and how they won the championship through hard work, grit and determination. She then equated the story with being a freelancer, and it really hit home because it is true in our profession as well.
Too often I hang out with writers – in person or virtually, on writer message boards and forums – who spend a lot of time complaining about how hard they have it. This editor isn’t returning their emails. That one took months to get a story back. This assignment only pays 50 cents a word. The industry is changing, the markets they used to work for aren’t there anymore and there’s nothing to replace them.
To which I say: suck it up.
Nobody forced you into this profession, and nobody’s making you stay.
Times are tough, but complaining isn’t the answer.
The answer is hard work, commitment, creativity – and attitude.
This is very true in our industry as well. It seems as if people are constantly complaining about “The Recession” or thinking that the sky is falling (or prices – same difference). It is this self-perpetuating negativity that keeps bringing a lot of people down. They spend their time thinking negative thoughts and thinking this behavior is normal. Since reading this article I realized I could either listen to the whiners or ignore all the negative talk and keep plugging away and being successful.
I support myself translating full-time, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am having a slow week at the moment, but I am relishing having a little time off to recuperate. Back in December when this post came out I had five translation jobs on my desk, and I had just turned down a proofreading job due to the next-day deadline. I have enough work to keep me busy most every day, and I have worked very, very hard to get here.
As an undergraduate I had an Advanced Composition teacher who belittled my German skills, and I had to work hard for the Bs and Cs I earned when I was used to getting As and Bs in everything else. I studied abroad the next year to improve my language skills and graduated from college cum laude with a double major in German and Russian. In grad school I had a teacher accuse me of cheating on an interpreting assignment when that wasn’t the case. I graduated anyway, and he later apologized to me. I also constantly felt that my German wasn’t as good as the other students, so I moved to Germany after I graduated to improve my language skills. After those six years in Germany I have an excellent grasp on the language AND the culture. When I was an intern in Germany the owner of the agency told me I couldn’t translate because I had made two errors in translations that were way beyond my abilities (texts on steel processing and making paper). He did not consider the 40+ other translations that I had translated before that without a single complaint and with nothing but praise. I stayed in Germany and proved him wrong, supporting myself as a freelancer for five more years (and have never again accepted a translation that was beyond my abilities). When I moved back to the United States I had to market myself and worked very hard by sending out resumes and networking, attending conferences, participating in listservs, writing articles for my local and national translation associations, and presenting at ATA conferences. If I had listened to all those people who kept telling me I wasn’t good enough I wouldn’t be where I am today – a single woman who supports herself as a freelance translator. I don’t need to have a second job to pay the rent. I am successful doing something that I love.
I get really tired of hearing people complain on listservs about the ATA, about clients who don’t pay on time, about agencies and their deadlines, about prices, about their colleagues, etc. Life is what YOU make of it. So the next time you find yourself wanting to complain ask yourself “Are you a whiner or a winner?” and act like a winner. I promise it will be self-fulfilling.
Bloggers to watch in 2011 January 6, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings, Translation Sites.19 comments
Maybe it’s just the mood I’m in, but the December 21st post on the GTS Blog about the T&I bloggers to watch irritated me to no end. The list of bloggers only included one person (Jost) whom I consider to be a freelancer and he doesn’t have a blog per se – he writes an e-mail newsletter (albeit a very good one) and runs translatorstraining.com. Everyone else was an agency owner, represented a company that I feel does not have freelancers’ best interests at heart (yeah, Common Sense Advisory, I’m looking at you…), or represented the MT industry, ProZ.com or Google Translate. Seriously?!?!
So here are the translation industry bloggers who *I* feel are worth following if you are a freelance translator (in alphabetical order since they are all equally good):
1. Alex Eames – Alex Eames is the founder of translatortips.com (which I have long considered to be an invaluable resource), the author of How to Earn $80,000+ per year as a Freelance Translator, and the editor of tranfree. Since he is one of the best translation self-marketers out there, his blog posts are well worth reading.
2. Céline Graciet of Naked Translations – Céline is a freelance English to French translator who blogs in both languages (quite the feat considering I often don’t have time to blog in ONE language). Some of her most recent posts address marketing, the importance of maintaining your language skills with a concrete example from her life, and fax to e-mail systems. She doesn’t post often, but when she does it is always interesting. She is also an interesting and personable person to follow on Twitter.
3. Corinne McKay of Thoughts on Translation – Corinne always has something interesting and insightful to say about the translation industry and her tips are invaluable to translators who are new to the field and old hats alike. She is a freelance French to English translator specializing in legal and international development.
4. Judy and Dagmar Jenner of Twin Translations (Translation Times) – If you want to be successful as a translator you must think like a businessperson. Judy and Dagmar offer some invaluable tips on being an entrepreneur. Judy and Dagy translate English<->Spanish, English<->German, German<->Spanish, and French into German, English, and Spanish.
5. Kevin Lossner of Translation Tribulations – Kevin is a freelance German to English translator and a MemoQ guru. His blog features MemoQ tricks and tips, translation technology as well as insight into marketing, workflow optimization, etc. His rants on ProZ.com censorship are worth their weight in gold and are always a fun read.
6. Michael Wahlster of Translate This! – A freelance English to German translator, Michael always has a very interesting take on technology and the translation industry. He is also one of the early adapters of technology and I always value his insights.
7. Mox’s Blog – Alejandro Moreno-Ramos is a freelance English & French to (European) Spanish translator. His cartoons depicting the life of a freelance translator are inspired by real-life examples and are a huge hit among translators.
8. No Peanuts for Translators! – No Peanuts!’ About page describes it best when they say, “No Peanuts! provides support and resources to professional translators and interpreters in demanding and receiving a living wage for their work.” No Peanuts! compiles articles from freelance translators and interpreters on low wages, low-paying jobs, and miscellaneous financial-related rants, because we all know only monkeys work for peanuts.
9. Patenttranslator aka Steve Vitek – The blog’s subheading is “Diary of a Mad Patent Translator.” I haven’t figured out the point of the embedded videos (they are songs he is listening to when he is writing the post perhaps?), but his posts are interesting even though I do not translate patents. For example, his most recent post was using Google to find a sentence that you wrote on your blog or website to see who has copied and pasted it and passed it off as their own words. He is “a freelance technical translator who specializes mostly in patents and articles from technical and medical journals…, mostly from Japanese and German, but also from French, Russian, Czech and Slovak, and a few from Polish to English.”
10. Sarah Dillon of There’s Something About Translation – Sarah is a freelance French, Spanish and German to English translator. Her blog has offered insight on what should be on a business card, refining translation skills, etc. In other words, tips on actually being a translator.
It’s too bad Chris Durban doesn’t write a blog, but we’ll just have to settle to read her Fire Ant & Worker Bee column in the Accurapid Journal and buy The Prosperous Translator, which is a compilations of the best FA&WB columns spanning the last 10 years.
There are several more bloggers who I regularly follow, like Margaret Marks of Transblawg or Abigail Dahlberg of The Greener Word, but they are very specialized to my language pair and interests.
2010 in review January 5, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.add a comment
I wasn’t planning on sharing this with you all, since I figured you probably don’t care in the least. However, I find myself reading the reviews from other blogs (like Thoughts On Translation) with interest and thought it might be fun to compare. One thing I find interesting is that most of the posts with the most hits are not about translation at all, but about German culture. Crazy. It doesn’t mean I will be changing the focus of the blog though, because I really don’t care about popularity or hits in the slightest. I have a feeling that means that a lot of translators simply don’t read blogs as much as the general public (and since there are only about 400,000 translators in the world (Source: Survey of the Canadian Translation Industry) that sounds about right). BTW, I suggest reading the linked survey. I found it to be a very interesting read, even if it was commissioned 11-12 years ago.
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 76,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 3 days for that many people to see it.
In 2010, there were 69 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 474 posts. There were 7 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 4mb.
The busiest day of the year was January 7th with 899 views. The most popular post that day was Trados just keeps drivin’ ’em away.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were Google Reader, translationtimes.blogspot.com, twitter.com, aboutranslation.blogspot.com, and thoughtsontranslation.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for walpurgisnacht, maibaum, parkstone press, musings overworked, and does google sell your information.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Trados just keeps drivin’ ’em away June 2009
27 comments
Would you pay to work for a translation agency? March 2010
46 comments and 2 Likes on WordPress.com
A little bit about my background May 2008
26 comments
Haiti relief efforts could use help of interpreters and translators January 2010
35 comments
Trying to understand the Germans… June 2008
28 comments
No recession in sight December 23, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings.3 comments
I delivered my last job before the holidays at around noon and have just returned from getting a manicure and facial. To say I am relaxed is an understatement. There’s nothing like translating 9,000 words in about three days to make you really appreciate the soothing face and arm massage. I had fully planned on turning off the computer and turning my back to the online world for a few days, but I just wanted to comment on how much work there is at the moment. Whether it is because clients are trying to get everything done before the end of the year or trying to burn off their budgets, the end clients don’t seem to have slowed down, despite the holidays. Everyone I know is busy with translation work. One of my former students even commented on Facebook this morning “Wow, there is a lot more translation work out there than there are translators available right now…” and followed it up with the comment “One agency told me that they had to turn down 6 projects from their clients yesterday due to lack of translators.” I myself turned down a 6,000 word job for Monday that I would have had to translate over the holidays, and I have several jobs waiting for me on Monday.
I hope you all enjoy the holidays or enjoy taking on all the work that those of us celebrating the holidays won’t. I’m over and out until next week. Peace!
‘Tis the season for no work/life balance December 12, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings.3 comments
My fellow translators on Twitter are commenting how clients are throwing tons of work at them in the end-of-the-year-rush-to-get-things-done. Traffic on Twitter has been fairly light as a result. I have been pretty busy too, as is evidenced by the lack of posts in the blog recently, but (like most people) I have been trying to get holiday preparations finished while attending to my uncle’s estate (not like most people). For example, we pulled up the carpets in the house last week, but I haven’t put them on the curb for the garbage men yet. They can wait… I have my Christmas letter printed and now all I have to do is print the labels and send them out. I have my tree up and the lights are on, but I haven’t gotten around to putting the decorations on it. I threw up a few decorations on the mantle yesterday in preparation for the meeting of the NOTA Executive Board that I hosted (my first time in 8 years when I wasn’t in charge – it was wonderful!), but my apartment is a little lacking in the decoration department. I imagine that will change in the next few days, because we are getting a huge snow storm any minute now that is expected to last through Wednesday. I plan to be snow-bound, so hopefully I will get everything I need to get done finished. Is it bad that I am actually looking forward to the snow storm so that I will be forced to stay inside? I’m all stocked up with food, blankets, hot cocoa, etc.
Managing a work-life balance can be tough this time of year. How do you handle the end-of-the-year-rush and balance it with family and social obligations? It certainly isn’t easy. It is a matter of prioritizing and only doing the things that are most important to you. Do I need decorations on the tree? Not necessarily… Do I need to attend every holiday party? Not necessarily, but there are a few that I absolutely want to attend. The rest can slide. You can’t do everything and maintain some kind of healthy balance. My stress level has been off the charts lately (as I’m sure is the case with most of you too), but I am doing what I can and not kicking myself about not being able to do everything. Once you have enough work to keep you busy feel free to refer a colleague to the next client who contacts you. Do some of the end-of-the-year business stuff at the beginning of January once the holidays are over. Make sure you get out and exercise to get rid of some of that stress. Most importantly take care of yourself, because you won’t be any good to anyone if you burn out.
There’s more than one way to skin a cat… November 17, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in ATA, Random musings.25 comments
Every year at the ATA conference I get upset about how everyone talks about how ATA certification is the be all and end all of translation. It’s not. The exam is extremely difficult to pass. The folks at ATA quote a pass rate of 20%, which hasn’t changed even though ATA has now implemented a review of your credentials in order to be allowed to take the test. I would think the pass rate would go up if only qualified translators were allowed to take the exam and not just the bilingual hobbyists most translators are always complaining about. Also, some people just don’t test well.
The test itself is also flawed. I know, I know… “the graders and folks on the Certification Committee are working hard to improve the test…” blah blah blah, but the fact remains that it is still a very difficult exam to pass. I myself have failed it several times, failing by the skin of my teeth every time. One reviewer marked me off for translating “Schein” as “bill” (as in dollar bill) instead of the preferred “banknote.” Some of the “errors” were indeed true errors, but my translation style does not stick extremely closely to the source, which is what the graders prefer. I tend to translate freely when necessary. Not to mention the fact that I also use the Internet a lot to double-check terms and find synonyms. I also utilize a native German proofreader who ensures that I have not misunderstood the source text (it’s been a LONG time since that has happened, but better safe than sorry…). A handwritten test simply isn’t a good test of my skills (and my atrocious handwriting, which was flawless until computers came along, probably doesn’t help). There is also the fact that it isn’t available in all language pairs.
The fact that I have failed the test several times does not make me a bad translator. I happen to know that I am in very good company. I could name names, but I won’t (but those of you who have written me to tell me that you have joined my little club know who you are). In fact, I think the fact that I passed the FBI language battery of tests and the fact that I am frequently overworked attest to the fact that my clients do not think I am a bad translator. I have also heard from many PMs and agency owners that ATA-certified translators make just as many mistakes as non-certified translators and sometimes the quality simply isn’t there. I’m not on that end of the spectrum, so I can’t say that for a fact though. I’m merely repeating hearsay.
However, certified members are voting members in ATA. Were you aware that only 15-20% of ATA members are certified? Interesting, isn’t it? That means that 80% of ATA is NOT CERTIFIED. This also means that almost 80% of the members do not have the right to vote.
But there’s another way to ensure that you have a say in what goes on in the ATA. The ATA Board voted to simplify the process to obtain voting membership through Membership Review (also known as Peer Review) in 1999. As the ATA website states, “The new criteria… are in keeping with the ATA Bylaws that state voting members be ‘professionally engaged in translating, interpreting, or closely related work.'” I think more people who are professionally engaged in the industry should be making sure that they have a say in ATA business and who is on the ATA Board.
Membership Review involves submitting credentials and other information to the Membership Review Committee and paying a nominal fee of $50. Translators and interpreters can either submit a copy of your translation degree and one letter of recommendation from a client or evidence of three years of experience as a translator (three letters of recommendation and copies of your tax returns). See the ATA website for more details. It is a very painless process. Candidates who successfully go through the membership review process are considered Active Members but are not certified.
So what are you waiting for? Make sure your voice is heard! ATA shouldn’t be governed by just the certified members – it should be governed by ALL the members!
Musings from the ATA Conference November 1, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in ATA, Random musings.6 comments
Yesterday was an exhausting day spent getting upset at Blue Sky Shuttle, whose driver was 25 minutes late for my scheduled 7 am pick-up and extremely rude to boot! No tip for him! My flight home was blissfully uneventful, apart from seeing Air Force One on the tarmac in Cleveland (President Obama was speaking about 4 miles from my home and the highway was lined with police officers awaiting the motorcade). I arrived home, unpacked and drove to my sister’s in time to trick or treat with my nieces. I slept 9 hours last night and feel ready to take on the world.
Photo by Jeff Sanfacon, ATA
I had a great time at the ATA Conference. I met a lot of you who told me you enjoyed reading the blog. Thanks ever so much! I love writing it. I also came up with the idea to market my services in alignment and optical character recognition conversion.
Speaking of OCR, my preconference seminar with Tuomas Kostiainen was well-received. We had 60 attendees, and I hope those of you who attended learned something. The best feedback I heard was from one of my older German colleagues, who is a known IT hater. She said “I didn’t enjoy the presentation, but I learned a lot.” LOL! That’s all we can ask.
Approximately 1500 people attended the 51st Annual ATA Conference in Denver, Colorado this year. The organizers really did a great job. The Welcome Reception and Division Open House was a fun time (although I don’t know how they expected us to use all the drink tokens in two hours. I know I didn’t…). The sessions were varied and ranged from practical (such as “Breaking into the Industry: How to Gain Experience When Employers Will Not Give You Experience Without Previous Experience” or “Ensuring Payment: Before, During, and After the Project”), serious (“Transcription and Translation of Evidence Recordings”) to whimsical (“What, Me Worry? Managing the Unmanageable Cycle of Feast or Famine”). I didn’t attend as many sessions as I wanted, because four of them were scheduled at the same time and several were scheduled when I was presenting. Luckily I ordered the eConference, so I will get a chance to check them out at my leisure.
Photo by Jeff Sanfacon, ATA
I came equipped with business cards and resumes and made sure I picked up my plastic stand from the Job Marketplace on Saturday before the Exhibit Hall closed. The days seem to just fly by at the conference. I arrived on Tuesday and left Sunday morning. One older gentleman in the shuttle yesterday remarked that he thought the conference was too long. I disagreed and told him I never want the conference to end (tip: if you think it’s too much just attend for one day or two days). I enjoy seeing old familiar faces, catching up with my friends, and meeting lots of new people. I didn’t do as much socializing in the hotel bar as I have in the past. I blame the rough year I’ve had and the jet lag. However, I did get a chance to catch up with a lot of different people in the hallways, at special events and at breakfast, lunch or dinner. The GLD “Unofficial Official Get-Together” at the Peaks Lounge was extremely memorable and offered a fantastic view of the mountains and the Denver skyline.
I also have to give kudos to the hotel, the Hyatt Regency. My roommate and I were impressed with the service. The concierges were wonderful, and the staff was extremely responsive to our every need. The hotel was conveniently located near a lot of great restaurants that offered something for every budget, and Denver’s public transportation was very convenient. After enjoying Thai and Indian food during the week we were craving Italian on Saturday night, so the concierge made a reservation for us at Venice Ristorante. The free bus whisked us away down 16th Street, and we enjoyed an absolutely lovely meal with lots of laughs and socializing. My risotto with filet mignon, mushrooms and truffle oil was delicioso!
I plan on following up with the new clients and new colleagues I met as the day goes on. I hope you all enjoyed the conference as well – and those of you who did not attend hopefully enjoyed all the work that came your way!
Musings from an overworked translator 