The Blonde Interpreter – Part 4
I must say that the start of my career as a freelance interpreter is a bit of a blur. I know I emailed as many of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting’s corporate members as I could, having ...
[JIF2024] The Full Client Journey (and how to speak to them at each stage)
Julia Poger
Julia Poger is a business, conference and diplomatic interpreter fluent in English, Russian and French. With over 30 years of experience working with governments, NGOs, corporation...
[JIF2024] Stress Management and Expert Performance
Chris Guichot de Fortis
"Chris Guichot de Fortis, (A-EN, B-FR, C-ES) M.A. (Cantab); PDLS (Bath); BACI; AIIC, has had an eclectic career. He began as a professional tennis player, then became a...
[JIF2024] Retour Self-training for Japanese>English Interpreters: Useful Strategies and Exercises
Sophie Llewellyn Smith
Sophie Llewellyn Smith is a conference interpreter and trainer specialising in retour training. Her training activities include webinars, group classes for consecutive ...
[JIF2024] Machine Interpreting: Is it worth it?
Professor Robin Setton
Robin Setton is a conference interpreter (AIIC 1983-2020, freelance and staff), researcher, trainer, translator and author of dual French and British nationality, workin...
The Blonde Interpreter – Part 3
Bath is a beautiful city, of which I fear I saw too little during my year on the MA Interpreting and Translation course at the University of Bath. My days began with a trek up the hill from the unive...
The Blonde Interpreter – Part 2
My second opportunity to go to Japan came in the fourth year of my undergraduate studies. Unlike the term in Japan in the first year, spending a year in Japan between the third and fourth years of th...
The Blonde Interpreter – Part 1
I’m a celebrity. At least, that is, according to my old Sunday school teacher, my drama teacher, my Dad’s financial adviser, or anyone from the village where I grew up. The reason for my sudden fame?...
[JIF2023] How Can Interpreters Respond to the Rise of the Machines?
Jonathan Downie
Dr Jonathan Downie is a consultant church and conference interpreter and interpreting researcher. His second book "Interpreters vs Machines: Can interpreters survive in an AI-d...
[JIF2023] Between Composition and Translation
Photo: Tadayuki Minamoto
Gregory Khezrnejat
Author, literary researcher. Ph.D., Japanese literature (Doshisha University, 2017). Currently serving as associate professor at the Hosei University...
[Webinar] Solo Simultaneous Interpreting – Traditions, Research and New Challenges
Udo Jorg
Udo Jorg, a German national, trained as a conference interpreter at the University of Vienna, Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and the University of Bradford. He carried out resear...
[JITF2022] Parallels between Music and Interpretation Practice and Performance
Laura Burian
Laura Burian is a Professor of Chinese/ English interpretation and Dean of the Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation, and Language Education (GSTILE) at the Middlebury In...
[JITF2022] The Balance Between Services and Remuneration for Professional Interpreters
Seth A. Reames
After taking a year off from his U.S. college education at the age of 19 and learning professionally at a translation company in Japan, Seth Reames returned and obtained his und...
[JITF2022] YOU GOT THIS!
Ewandro Magalhaes
Ewandro Magalhaes is a writer, former United Nations staff and a conference interpreter. He is also a TED author, a professor and a former Chief Interpreter in the UN system....
[JITF2022] How Should Interpreters Defend Their Interests When Doing RSI
Tony Rosado
For over 30 years, Tony has worked as conference interpreter for many highprofile events and clients, including the U.S. Department of State as an independent contractor; major rad...
Japanese-English Subtitling Workshop #1
The Japan Association of Conference Interpreters collaborated with Rikkyo University to provide a special workshop (internship program from Nov. 2021 to Jan. 2022) on Japanese-English subtitling, tau...
[JITF2021] Exploring the Philosophy of Sign Language Interpreting in light of the Wishes of the Deaf and the Theory and Practice of Sign Language Interpreting
Norio Kawane
My first step toward becoming a sign language interpreter was the 20-hour Sign Language Volunteer Training Course held for the first time in Chiba Prefecture in 1971 (the fiscal y...
[JITF2021] Entertainment Interpreters in the Field – To Promote Films More
Yoshiko Okura
Mainly works as an English-Japanese interpreter in the entertainment industry for movies and TV dramas, as well as a translator of advertisements. After graduating from universit...
[JITF2021] Consecutive Interpreting – Memory and Note-taking
Andrew Gillies
Andy Gillies has been a freelance conference interpreter since 1996 and works from French, German and Polish into English at a number of International Institutions as well as fo...
[JITF2021] Note-taking Techniques: Why do I need those?
Debra Russell
Debra is a Canadian certified interpreter, educator and researcher. As the previous David Peikoff Chair of Deaf Studies, at the University of Alberta, her research interests incl...
[JITF2021] Interpreting Services Price Quotes for the New Normal
Judy Jenner
Judy Jenner is a Spanish and German business and legal translator and federally court-certified Spanish interpreter and conference interpreter in Las Vegas. She has an MBA in marke...
[JITF2021] Sound Choices for RSI – How To Create Your Ideal Audio Setup
Naomi Bowman
Naomi Bowman is CEO of DS-Interpretation, Inc., a US-based conference interpreting services company that will be celebrating its 50th year in business in 2022. The company has bee...
[JITF2021] The Skills Of An Actor In Interpreting
Matthew Perret
Matthew Perret has been writing and performing drama and comedy since childhood, first appearing in a one-man-show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe aged 19. He studied languages...
USA Freelancing without a Parachute #6 – Exciting, Yet Hazy Future
I. Prologue
It was pure white. The kind of white that seemed inconceivable for a human face. On it, there were swirls of red in every direction. As the Kabuki actor Nakamura Hashigo continued to r...
USA Freelancing without a Parachute #5 – Interpreting Word for Word
Antipasto (Before the Meal)
For me, part of the allure of becoming an interpreter was the opportunity to help bridge the gap. It is very fulfilling to be able to give two people or groups of peopl...
USA Freelancing without a Parachute #4 – Freefall
Jump on the count of three. One...
Life is funny. Hard to predict. Just when you think you have it all figured out, something comes your way that you weren’t expecting.
You see, the first week ...
USA Freelancing without a Parachute #3 – Please Fasten your Seat Belts
START YOUR ENGINES
What happens when you have trained for years to be a conference interpreter, but the job that falls in your lap is all about technical translation? In a word, panic!!
And wha...
USA Freelancing without a Parachute #2 – Around the world in 80+ Days
ON YOUR MARK
The branches whipped into the car furiously knocking my elderly friends off their seats. The brake’s harsh squeal was matched only by the piercing horn, alerting onlookers to step asi...
USA Freelancing without a Parachute #1 – Unpredictable Beginnings
Overture
It seems to me that big changes often happen in your life when you least expect it. For me, it was when I arrived at the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). I was ...
[JITF2020] Finding Your Place in the Premium Market
Chris Durban
Chris Durban is a US-born freelance translator based in Paris, where she translates business texts from French into English for demanding clients. She translates every day and enj...