My name is Molly Yurick. I’m a Spanish to English subtitler and translator, and I live in San Diego, California. My journey into the field is a long one! I was born and raised in Minnesota and went to Spanish Immersion Elementary School in my hometown. Strangely enough, in all my studies as a language student, neither translation nor interpreting were ever mentioned as possible careers for my future. When I was halfway through my double major in Spanish and Global Studies at the University of Minnesota, I found out my university offered a Certificate in Interpreting that I could easily complete alongside my degree. I quickly applied and got started on my certificate in my third year of college. Meanwhile, I started to work part time as a freelance medical and social work interpreter for an agency in the Twin Cities and immediately loved it.

But, as much as I loved interpreting in Minnesota, I wanted to spend some time living in a Spanish-speaking country to take my language skills to the next level. I moved to Spain in 2009 to work as an English teaching assistant for the Spanish Ministry of Education. In 2011, I was looking for a change, and started to play around with the idea of translating. I worked part time as a translator for almost three years with financial support from my job at the Ministry of Education before going full time.

I worked as a full-time, freelance translator specialized in tourism and travel until the pandemic hit in 2020. My work essentially disappeared, and that’s when I took a subtitling course to learn how to subtitle. I fell in love with subtitling, and I’d say about 90% of my work is related to audiovisual translation now. I’ve subtitled numerous titles for a wide array of streaming platforms, but the most popular ones I subtitled for Netflix include season 5 of Money Heist and season 1 of Berlin.

I have my office hours, which are from 8:00 to 16:00, Monday to Friday. I start my day by checking my email and move onto paid projects. If I don’t have any paid work, I’ll focus on unpaid tasks like marketing, updating my website, or doing accounting. I know a lot of translators who have set days or schedules for these unpaid tasks, but I find I’m most productive doing them when I don’t have paid work. The key for me is: I will fill my office hours with work, no matter paid or unpaid! This keeps me motivated.

One of the things I value most as a freelancer is flexibility. If I want to take Monday off for some reason, I’ll work Saturday or Sunday instead. I also often use my flexibility to travel without taking vacation, or while visiting family and friends in Minnesota or Spain.

I have built community through volunteering at the American Translators Association and attending their conferences. I have colleagues I can refer work to or ask questions of when I need help. These relationships are essential in a freelance career. Freelancing can be quite lonely, and it’s important to have people to lean on.

When I’m not working I enjoy traveling, doing yoga, exercising, watching TV series, and reading on the beach.

And finally: Freelancing isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s a real challenge. You have to wear a lot of hats and be disciplined yet kind to yourself. All this said, it’s worth it. I love being my own boss, making my own schedule, and living life on my own terms. Plus, I find subtitling to be so much fun!

Molly Yurick

Subtitler, translator

The writer is a freelance subtitler and translator living in San Diego, California. She specializes in Spanish language and has also worked in language teaching and interpreting before falling for subtitling. As a part of her portfolio, she also offers other translation and consultation services.

Website: www.yuricktranslations.com

Instagram: yuricktranslations

• LinkedIn

Artikkeli TATW: Molly from California, US julkaistiin ensimmäisen kerran Kääntäjämestarin kirja.

I am an Estonian translator living in Tallinn. Growing up in Estonia, I learned a lot of languages at school, and I excelled at them. After finishing high school, I decided to move abroad to Vancouver, Canada, where I completed my degree at the University of British Columbia, majoring in Classical Studies and minoring in Sociology. I wasn’t quite sure what to do after university, but amid the pandemic, I thought it would be great to put my language skills to use, and I started working remotely as a junior translator for a translation agency. I quickly became fond of it: it was a job that always kept challenging me, and even though I spent all my time at a computer, no day looked the same, as I was able to try my hand at different texts ranging from memos and e-mails to legal contracts to marketing materials. Thus, I decided to do a master’s in Translation at the University of Tartu while working as a freelance translator. These days, I enjoy working on large projects, which means that I take on a lot of website projects. On top of that, I also translate shorter marketing and legal texts, and I have started offering copywriting.

I have to say that all my days are different. However, they usually start similarly: after a good breakfast, I open my laptop while sipping on my coffee and reply to any e-mails. On the occasion that I have calls with clients, I tend to schedule them for the morning. This is also when I do any admin work and/or marketing, which mainly consists of posting or commenting on LinkedIn. The afternoon is usually spent on client work, whether that is translation, editing, or copywriting. Since I usually have at least one ongoing long project, I try to make sure I’m working daily on it, but also leave time for other smaller projects.

Beyond friends and family who are very supportive of my career, I’ve always felt that it is necessary to have a community of colleagues with whom I can collaborate and share ideas. I am part of the #TeamTranslator community, where we discuss both our wins and losses daily on a Slack group. I attend translation conferences a few times a year, which always give me new ideas and viewpoints and serve as an opportunity to meet wonderful people. I am also a member of the Nordic Editors and Translators organisation (NEaT) and the Mediterranean Editors and Translators association (MET).

I enjoy spending time with my family and friends. Although I am a city girl and enjoy the buzz of Tallinn, I equally love spending time outdoors whenever possible: going on hikes and swimming in the summer and skiing in the winter. Since I don’t have to be at a certain location for work, I also get to travel quite often.

Margret Rand

Freelance translator

The writer is a freelance translator who studied in Canada and Estonia. She is an active member in several communities for language professionals. She is based in Tallinn, Estonia, but enjoys working from different places, thanks to the independent nature of her work.

Website: https://www.margretrand.com

• LinkedIn

Artikkeli TATW: Margret from Estonia julkaistiin ensimmäisen kerran Kääntäjämestarin kirja.

I am Erika Jareman Turner, I live in Portland, Oregon, on the U.S. West coast and have worked as a translator and project manager since 1998. I was always fascinated by languages, studied German at the University of Lund, mostly with the goal to go to Germany and get fluent, which I did.  I never wanted to be a teacher, so I just happened to get an opportunity when Sweden joined the EU, and most of the then active translators disappeared to Brussels. There was only one university offering a program for professional translators at that time, and that was not enough to support the needs of the Swedish industry, so Lund University was the first school to offer another translators’ program and I thought it sounded interesting since it offered a possibility to work with language without having to be a teacher. After completing the program I was hired by INK Sverige in Uppsala and worked there as a translator and later project manager for about 8 years, before starting to freelance.

A typical work day starts around 7 with checking email. Since most clients are in Europe, I check if there is anything urgent I need to communicate about before they go home for the day. After that I work out, run or walk with the dog and have breakfast, before starting my actual workday. The workload has varied a lot lately, so it could be anything from an hour or two, to a 10 hour day and I work with diverse subjects from Surgical Techniques for orthopedic implants to bicycle manuals, and marketing texts.

I rely a lot on the FB group Svenska översättare. It’s a great resource for discussing terminology and other translation issues.

For the last 4 years, my husband and I have been obsessed with skate skiing. We are lucky enough to live within about an hour and 20 minutes from a Nordic skiing trail system with grooming at least 3-5 days a week and have been able to ski from November through April the last few years. In the off season, we backpack, road bike and kayak.

I suppose the big question for all translators these days is whether AI will be taking over our jobs or not. I was just about to give up and change careers when I was contacted by an agency doing work for the e-commerce industry and there is a LOT of work there. Not the most stimulating kind, but more interesting than some technical stuff I have had before. Interestingly, that is exactly what we all heard at the ATA conference last fall. I thought then that I had ”missed that train” because I am not great at marketing myself, but just like I got into the translation industry sort of by accident, this opportunity also more or less landed in my lap.

Erika Jareman-Turner

Freelance translator

The writer has previously worked as a project manager and inhouse translator but enjoys freelancing nowadays. She is based in Portland, Oregon.

In the arcticle picture we can see her hiking with family in Norway (left in the picture).

• LinkedIn

Artikkeli TATW: Erika from Oregon, US julkaistiin ensimmäisen kerran Kääntäjämestarin kirja.

My name is Desiree Tigerstrand Cox, I grew up in Germany and have been living in Kalmar, Sweden, for 9 years now. I hold both German and Swedish citizenship and translate from English and Swedish into German, mainly CSR related texts and marketing. Honestly, I don’t know when I first wanted to become a translator, but probably during my teenage years when I discovered my love for languages. Back then of course I wanted to translate books, mainly because I didn’t know much about the profession. Since my diploma in 2007, I have worked as translator and translation project manager, in-house as well as remotely, and in very different sectors from gaming to financial communication. Since I started freelancing in 2017, I never looked back. The flexibility and freedom is invaluable, especially since I recently discovered that I am autistic. With the way the translation industry is evolving, I am exploring different ideas and suggestions for extending my range of services, but translation is still my first love.

There is not really a typical working day, even though I try to keep some routines around working hours and break times. As my creativity peak is during the afternoon/evening, mornings are usually for final read-throughs and admin work. After lunch, “getting things done” can end up in hyperfocus for several hours and I have no problem working late – rather than early – if it doesn’t become a habit. Same goes for weekend work: I’d rather work a bit on a weekend with no interruption and take a day off during the week instead.

Ideally, I also incorporate some movement into my day, the gym only 15 minutes away has very flexible course times and therefore comes in very handy. Or I take a lunchtime walk and listen to a podcast.

There aren’t really any colleagues near me, so personal meetings are rare. Thankfully, I have a few good friends who are always open to talk, rant or celebrate. While Facebook certainly has its issues, there are a few groups on there that are very important for me to keep up with what’s going on. I also try to check LinkedIn regularly, though I am not very good at posting myself. A very important community for me are translation conferences as I usually come home with a lot of new ideas and motivation.

While my online experience is mainly within the translation bubble, I am also a member of a local network for entrepreneurs and try to attend networking meetings offered by the local authorities. I met quite a few interesting people there, even though opportunities to work together have been rare/fell through at the last minute. But I’m not giving up!

I’ve always been an avid reader and the piles of books I want to read only grow higher. Right now, they contain mainly non-fiction on topics like autism, feminism and inclusive language. A few months ago, I decided to go to the gym more regularly and with a clear goal – fingers crossed I’ll keep it up! I love to travel and discover new places, another reason why translation conferences are so interesting. And I just started crocheting again which is really relaxing (and stops me from snacking at night!).

As I said, I realised that I am autistic recently and was allowed to present on autism and translation at the last BP conference in Kraków. Having worked with and meeting a lot of freelance translators over the years, my theory is that a lot of us might be autistic without knowing about it and therefore are having a hard time. This is why I want to raise awareness about the topic and encourage my colleagues to look into it. There is nothing wrong with us, we just need to understand what is going on. I’d be more than happy to connect with anyone who wants to discuss this.

Desiree Tigerstedt-Cox

Freelance translator

The writer was born in Germany and lives in Sweden. She works as a freelance translator and loves to connect with colleagues at conferences.

Website (work in progress)

Email

• LinkedIn

Artikkeli TATW: Desiree from Sweden julkaistiin ensimmäisen kerran Kääntäjämestarin kirja.