As the year draws to a close, I’ve taken a moment to assess my progress as a professional RUS>ENG translator.
Highlights
- Nearly 300,000 words translated.
- As of 12/29/2011, among 10,463 RUS>ENG translators registered on ProZ.com, I rank 8th in RUS>ENG KudoZ points earned the last 3 months (and 22nd for the past 12 months).
- I’ve picked up 25 new clients from around the world.
- I acquired Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 to support native editing of Adobe file formats.
- I’ve interacted with Russians each week as volunteer English teacher at the Redmond Russian Community Center.
- I love translating from Russian to English!
Lessons learned
- SDL Trados 2009 is buggy software.
- A freelancer’s best clients are the ones that contact him or her—as opposed to those that respond to spam.
- Your target language should be your native language.
- In the world of translation, “proofreading” is very often code for “I ran the source text through Google Translate and now I want to pay you less”.
Looking forward to 2012
I look forward to building on these achievements in the coming year! In 2012, I expect to:
- add another 40 agencies and customers to my clientele
- translate at least 400,000 words
- be ranked in the top 10 for KudoZ points earned in 2012
I express my gratitude to all who have helped make this year a success. Thanks to my clients and fellow translators!
