Year in Review in Translation
December is usually a hectic month in translation: last-minute requests, January project planning, invoices and lots of tea!
This year, it is even more manic because I came back home to spend most of the month with my parents in Sabadell.
Although I try to keep my normal routine and habits, I can’t avoid stopping for a while to see what mum is preparing for lunch or talk to dad about his cycling (he is 73, but he still goes out on his bike 2-3 times a week).
Now that I am about to finish and enjoy my Christmas break, I think it’s a good time to do a year-in-review post. Besides, 2021 has been a very special year, as I celebrated my fifth anniversary as a freelance translator with my translation boutique Prêt-à-translate.
Learning to live with the pandemic
The pandemic remains with us and many industries are still suffering. The translation industry is no different.
Unfortunately, some of my clients in tourism could not cope and have sadly closed for good.
Others had to pivot or completely redesign their translation strategy, resulting in fewer jobs or no jobs at all.
Thankfully, I managed to balance the loss of tourism translations by gaining in other industries.
Fintech and health care, new fields of work
My main field of work is IT localization, but I started diversifying some years ago and now I do a lot of translations for e-commerce, marketing, fashion and sports brands, to name but a few.
This year I did more translations for fintech companies. Mostly IT translations of their apps and some content translations for blogs, websites and help documents.
I have always done translations for the healthcare industry, primarily medical software and general information for patients – it was even more prominent in 2021.
I also had the chance to work as a project manager (and eventual translator) on a very demanding project for a pharma company. This included 9 languages (and two more coming next year) – challenging but rewarding at the same time.
Translation can take me to all sorts of interesting subjects, one in particular this year was about bowel diseases and went across several formats (websites, podcasts and videos) and instructions on how to use medical devices. I did a course on translation for medical devices a while back and it was nice to practice what I have learned!
Fashion and beauty. Translation is in style!
It’s not all about software localization at Prêt-à-translate. I work for a translation agency in France with lots of clients in the fashion and beauty industries. I love these jobs! They sometimes allow for more creativity and take me out of my routine.
After a while without hearing from them, their projects returned in 2021. It’s always a pleasure to work on these translations, they range from product descriptions for e-commerce to website content, internal information for stores employees to subtitles for social media videos about the new collections.
Sports fashion is another field I usually work in. These jobs, which involve more transcreation than just translation, can be very challenging. But it feels great when you see your translations in stores!
Digital marketing, much more than translations for social media
I did a Master’s degree in Digital Marketing and e-commerce a few years ago to learn more about this industry and apply it to the marketing translations I was doing.
Besides doing translations for content marketing, this year I worked a bit more on SEO localization, including keywords localization and content optimization.
I’m still learning, but I’m lucky to work with clients who trust my judgement and help me improve my experience in this field.
Translations for a good cause
One of the most special projects I’ve worked on this year was the translation of a short tale called , (Butterflies, music and peace), published by Music for Peace, a non-profit based in Genoa.
Originally written in Italian, the comic version of this book has been translated into English, French and Spanish. And I had the honour of being the Spanish translator.
The association will distribute these books to the schools in the network they support, helping locally and internationally.
Thank you very much to Creative Words 🙏 for allowing me to work on this beautiful project.
If you want to learn more about Music for Peace, visit their website https://musicforpeace.it/.
For more information on the project (and to buy the book), please visit their Facebook page.
Working with wonderful people, the best of 2021
All of these fantastic projects are a result of the people I have met over the years and I could not end this post without thanking them for trusting me or helping me reach my goals.
Patricia, Mireia and Letícia, thank you for always thinking of me when you see a translation opportunity or for introducing me to people who have become clients.
Virginia, in 2020 you showed me the secrets of LinkedIn to improve my business. I’m still putting into practice what I learned! Thanks to you, I met people like Ileana, Sarah, Virginia, Alex and many other fantastic translators with whom I shared great moments in 2021 and who are, above all, beautiful people.
Kim, Amel, Anja, Sarah, thank you for helping me offer an extraordinary service to my clients.
Kelsey, Aysel, Saskia, Meritxell, thank you for making things so easy!
Juan, Antonio, Fátima, thank you for respecting my profession and being so good prescriptors.
Amalia, María, thank you for your help when I can’t find the right words!
Dario, thank you for taking the sting out of creating content, proofreading my posts (including this one), and for our funny and positive conversations!
You all make Prêt-à-translate.
Here’s to you and a fantastic 2022 for all!
