Translation Industry Featured in Wall Street Journal Online

This morning, we were very excited to see that the Wall Street Journal's online edition had published a short profile about the translation and interpretation industry that has been several months in the making. Judy, who is profiled in the article, gave an in-depth interview to the WSJ, and while some of the information she discussed -- professional development, translator associations, difference between working for direct clients or agencies -- were not addressed, we are still very happy that our industry is getting some much-needed coverage. You can read the full article here. Thanks to our friends at GALA, the Globalization and Localization Association, who made this article with the WSJ happen and recommended Judy to be featured in the article. Unfortunately, GALA did not get mentioned in the article.

This makes two high-profile translation articles in a month: remember Abigail Dahlberg's front-page Los Angeles times piece?


13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Judy:

Congratulations! Nice article.
Keep up your great work. It benefits us all.
Thank you.

Marianne Reiner

Lynn on December 8, 2009 at 7:15 PM said...

Congrtulations! What wonderful exposure, both for the industry and for Twin Translations! Kudos to you both for being bold entrepreneurs, and for sharing your expertise so well.

Judy Jenner and Dagmar Jenner on December 8, 2009 at 7:59 PM said...

@Marianne: thanks so much for your sweet comment. We agree: more exposure should be good for all of us.

@Lynn: thanks, girl! We are all about sharing what we know...

Thomas Gruber on December 9, 2009 at 3:53 AM said...

You're also on Digg: Working as a Translator or Interpreter - WSJ.com: http://digg.com/d31CJ2H?t

Abigail Dahlberg on December 9, 2009 at 7:15 AM said...

Congratulations, Judy! It's great to see our industry getting such great, high-profile attention.

Kevin Lossner on December 9, 2009 at 7:45 AM said...

Good article. GALA was indeed mentioned by the WSJ: "Full-time staff at language-services firms earn from $40,000 to $60,000, according to a recent survey from the Globalization and Localization Association, a language-services trade group."

It's nice to see some reasonably accurate press coverage on our profession for a change. The figures for interpreter's rates seem rather on the low side, however.

Judy Jenner and Dagmar Jenner on December 9, 2009 at 9:38 AM said...

@Thomas: thanks so much for adding it to Digg!

@Abigail: agreed, the coverage is wonderful; even though we liked your article much better -- was more in-depth.

@Kevin: you are right. We phrased that incorrectly. GALA gets mentioned very briefly. We were expecting a major focus on GALA, as they pitched this to the WSJ and put dozens of hours into it. This article has been almost three months in the making, and it was quite complex to make it happen. We'd been hoping that the nice folks who initiated it would get more space.

Fernando Cuñado on December 9, 2009 at 2:27 PM said...

Well done Twins! Good job!
Good for U, good for us, and good for our industry.

Translation industry is gaining momentum in the media and you are doing a great job to show how good professionals work. Thank you.

Now you are in Facebook, too.

Fernando Cuñado on December 9, 2009 at 3:45 PM said...

Well done Twins! Good job!
Good for U, good for us, and good for our industry. Translation industry is gaining momentum in the media and you are doing a great job to show how good professionals work. Thank you.
Now you are in Facebook, too.

Lisa Davey said...

Congratulations Judy and Dagmar on the prestigious exposure!

Guillermo Matías on December 10, 2009 at 4:10 AM said...

Congrats, Judy. I'm glad you people make two, three times more money up there than we do in Latin America.

Keep up the good job.

Judy Jenner and Dagmar Jenner on December 10, 2009 at 9:12 AM said...

@Fernando: thanks a lot for posting this on FB; we appreciate it! Yes, the more coverage our profession gets, the better, even if it's not as in-depth as we'd like, but we are not complaining!

@Lisa: thanks so much!

@Guillermo: thanks for your note. We understand that our rates are not typical at all -- we actually didn't think the WSJ would publish our rates, but they are public on our website. We've fought very very hard during the last 7 years to raise the rates for the entire profession, even if it means foregoing work to set an example in the marketplace that translation cannot be bought for cheap. We achieve those prices because we don't work for agencies, but we have put thousands of hours into client acquisition. Of course, our inboxes are not full every morning with jobs by agencies. We have to find them first, and it's a bit scary at times, especially in this economy. Still, we want to set an example for high prices, and our hope is that every linguist on the planet is compensated fairly for what they are: highly specialized professionals. Even if that means going without work a week or so because the projects that come across our desk are paid too low.

Guillermo Matías on December 14, 2009 at 2:17 PM said...

Thanks for clarifying on that point, I appreciated it a lot.

Join the conversation! Commenting is a great way to become part of the translation and interpretation community. Your comments don’t have to be overly academic to get published. We usually publish all comments that aren't spam, self-promotional or offensive to others. Agreeing or not agreeing with the issue at hand and stating why is a good way to start. Social media is all about interaction, so don’t limit yourself to reading and start commenting! We very much look forward to your comments and insight. Let's learn from each other and continue these important conversations.

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