We are happy to showcase our winner, Olia Cotey! Check out her photos and the four runner-ups, who have shared their beautiful #MotaWord themed photos #FromWhereIWork.
Blog
MotaWord Social Media Contest 2018 Winners!
Maximizing Your Earnings on MotaWord
As a freelance translator With MotaWord, it has never been easier to make money on your own time, and on your own terms.
Nielsen
Nielsen uses MotaWord’s fast, multilingual translation service to translate their market research results, e.g. consumer questionnaire responses.
The Professional Translation of Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales
Hans Christian Andersen is a Danish writer, most famous for his fairy tales for children.
Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain Incorporated is the global leader for storage and information management services.
Les Echos Solutions
A subsidiary of the LVMH Group, Les Echos Solutions supports the creation, the management and the development of companies with a wide range of services.
Global Shakespeare: Translating Iambic Pentameter
Arguably the most thought-provoking English literary phenomenon, William Shakespeare has not only single-handedly redefined the English language, but has been professionally translated with great difficulty and skill in many languages. Our article discusses the difficulties in translating Iambic pentameter.
A Little History of Ernst Gombrich’s Translation
Published for the first time in German in 1936, A Little History of the World was written at age 26 by E.H. Gombrich.
Brand Ambassadors for MotaWord
We have recently launched on the WeWork Services store and we are looking for Brand Ambassadors within different WeWork locations to get the word out.
Fortuna Sittard
MotaWord is the official translation partner of Fortuna Sittard and is trusted with the translation of their corporate and marketing content.
Trading 212
Trading 212 is a London fintech company democratizing the financial markets with free, smart and easy to use apps, enabling anyone to trade equities, currencies, commodities and more.
New Translator Dashboard
Learn more about MotaWord’s new Translator Dashboard. See the new functions and let us know what you think.
The World Needs Better Professional English Translators to Localize Jules Verne
Redeeming A Mistranslated Jules Verne
MotaWord’s First Annual Social Media Contest
We are recognizing our professional translators this summer. With the start of July comes the start of #MotaWord’s very First Annual Social Media Contest for Translators!
A Rebel Translator in a Biblical Era: St. Jerome
A Rebel Translator in a Biblical Era, St. Jerome was responsible for the most famous and successfully used translation of the Christian Bible into Latin. Renowned for his intellect and translation skill, he became a pioneer of biblical translation.
Who Translated Winnie Mandela?
While Winnie was translating Nelson's revolutionary voice to the public, who was translating Winnie?
The Most Professionally Translated Author in the World
Agatha Christie is an English literary icon. Exploring her work as translated into Icelandic, Italian, Arabic and French (among many others), her stories have an unparalleled influence on the global translation community.
Julia Evelina Smith: The First And Only Woman To Translate The Bible
A self-published professional translator and American women’s suffrage activist.
Translating Feminism with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian born essayist and novelist living in New York. She has been wildly successful in changing the literary canon in Europe and North America.
Constance Garnett: The Imperfect Pioneer of Russian Translation
If you’ve ever picked up an English translation of any classic Russian novel, chances are it is a copy that has once passed through the hands of Constance Garnett.
The Graphic Translation of Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi’s first book, Persepolis, is an autobiographical graphic novel about the author’s experience as a young girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Translating the Universe with Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking is a famous English physicist and celebrity personality.
A Duel for Magical Realism: Translating Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a renowned Colombian fiction writer and the pioneer of magical realism.
The Little Prince - Still unique through translation
During the 75+ years since its original publication, translators have attempted to ‘tame’ Antoine de Saint Exupery’s The Little Prince, turning a French novella into a literary phenomenon.
A love for translation - Ursula K. Le Guin
She is a novelist, poet, translator and transliterator known most notably for her science fiction novels and transliteration of The Tao Te Ching.
Translating into English - Sabahattin Ali
Madonna in a Fur Coat, written by Turkish satirist Sabahattin Ali, has waited 75 years since it was first published to be translated into English.
Translating “Origin” by Dan Brown
With the debut of his newest novel, Origin, Dan Brown continues to support his professional translators, working tirelessly to make sure the tone of his work gets translated accurately.
Thoughts on Translation - Jacques Derrida
"Famous Translators" is a MotaWord segment showcasing notable professional translated works and famous translators from history to the present.
MotaWord offers Accurate, Fast, Affordable Translation Services to WeWork Members
Translation services in 80 world languages, now available at the WeWork Services Store.
MotaWord in Paris; Paris in the Olympics
As part of our incubation via the FTT program, MotaWord is involved in the Hacking of Hotel de Ville event sponsored by the Mayor's office of Paris in support of their bid for the 2024 Olympics.
MotaWord Translator Certificate
We care deeply about our translators’ feedback, so we gladly obliged and instituted the MotaWord Translator Certificate program.
Our clients' success is our success: Tiny Bop
We have just gotten an announcement of a new product from our client, Tiny Bop. We are thrilled to be a part of their great work! In their own words: "We're excited to present Tinybop Schools"
We Are Hiring! MotaWord Communications Associate
MotaWord is hiring and we would like to tap into our polyglot translator community...
MotaWord raises $500K from Strategic Partner in France
MotaWord raised $500K from a strategic partner in France at $10M valuation and will be hiring business development professionals with this round of financing.
Speak to Global Customers in Their Own Language
“If I’m selling to you, I speak your language. If I’m buying, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen!” (then you must speak German)
MotaWord Grabber
MotaWord announces the release of its Google Chrome extension tool for professionally translating any webpage into 73 languages, 20x faster and 60% cheaper than competition.
MotaWord Google Drive Integration
We heard that many of them use Google Docs and MotaWord together but they have to pass through downloading their files in other formats to upload them back on our platform.
What is in a style guide?
A style guide - one of the most important documents for consistent translations - is an important tool for understanding the expectations of our clients.
Appointment of Business Development Director - France
MotaWord, the world’s fastest human translation platform today announced the appointment of Mr. Kerem Onen as Business Development Director for France.
MotaWord is a Winner of the NYC - Paris Business Exchange Competition
New York City's Economic Development Corporation announced Thursday the winners of its NYC-Paris Business Exchange competition.
Translate a business card into Chinese
It makes a lot of sense to have your business card translated into a language that does not have the Latin alphabet but in the case of China (and Japan) it goes beyond that.
Proud to be Made in NY
MotaWord has been approved to receive the “Made In NY" Mark of Distinction and to be included on the Digital.NYC “Made In NY” startup collection.
MotaWord Wordpress Plugin
MotaWord - the world’s fastest human translation platform announced today the release of their new WordPress plugin for translating websites into 70 languages.
MotaWord helps Coach Backstage reach music lovers in 80 countries & 6 languages
Coach Backstage is a microsite that houses an emerging artist chart with the ability to play artist music.
Meet with us at DM Exco 2015 | Cologne, Germany
Our focus on developing technologies and innovations for translation needs of our clients enables them to focus on only one thing - their message.
Happy 4th from MotaWord
Eleven score, a dozen and seven years ago (don't worry the math is correct) our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
MotaWord heads to Collision in Las Vegas
MotaWord attended Collision Conference in Las Vegas, joining hundreds of startups, innovators, and investors from across the world.
New Translation API Announced by MotaWord
Cloud-based, collaborative human translation platform MotaWord has announced the launch of its new Translation API.
The Case for Localization
With the changing demographics of the internet, providing service across languages has become essential, and MotaWord makes this feasible for companies with even limited localization budgets.
A Step Ahead - MotaWord in Riyadh
Last month MotaWord attended "A Step Ahead" in Riyadh - the largest women-targeted job fair in the Middle East
MotaWord Supported Languages
MotaWord provides translation service in over 70 languages and also cross translation between them. We keep on adding new languages as the need arise.
MotaWord Introduction Video
Our short video explains why MotaWord is the best option for accessing high-quality and fast translation service in 70 languages globally.
TQS (Translator Quality Score)
We completed the first 2 months of testing with our Translation Quality Score (TQS) and have enough data about our findings, what we achieved and why it is important for our platform. Time to share with our colleagues...
New Project Notifications via Twitter
MotaWord now provides new project notifications via tweets. This allows translators with Twitter accounts to be appraised of projects faster and not wait for e-mail circulation.
Welcome to MotaWord CRM
MotaWord CRM is the ultimate tool in your sales arsenal. You can learn what Leads - Contacts - Accounts and Opportunities are by reading this short article.
Single Proofreader Model (more details)
As previously mentioned, MotaWord has successfully transitioned into the Single Proofreader Model (SPM).
But what exactly is this Single Proofreader Model?
Welcome to the MotaWord office
This week we invited translators to our office to mingle over refreshments and talk more about developments in both the translation industry and MotaWord.
Given our industry, the conversation ultimately turned to questions from these translators about more of the details on how MotaWord works (as you can see in the photo above, our Lead Russian Translator Dmitrii was the life of the party).
The fact that translators had questions about MotaWord is not surprising, given some of the mantras that are on the walls in our office.
The Single Proofreader Model
Unbeknownst to many, MotaWord is in its 10th month of existence. During that time we have provided over 4 million words of translation, over 600 thousand words of post-editing and a few manual projects - all of this in over 40 languages.
We have learned a lot from this experience.
We started MotaWord with the vision of providing a collaborative platform that would give translators with down time between their regular translation work the opportunity to participate in projects as much or as little as they like, without the hassles of deadlines, invoicing, or word counts.
Our ultimate aim is the same - provide our vetted and trusted translators with a constant stream of jobs that they can always count on.
Our unique platform allows multiple translators to simultaneously work on projects, which brings us speed and, if our translators are well versed in our platform and understand our best practices, good quality. Our array of tools (namely, the concordance search, term lists and comment tool) all assure that.
Add to that our new Translator Quality Score (TQS) that we are continually working on, and it is little wonder why we are getting even better.
But the last piece of the puzzle is a simple one: assigning a single proofreader to any project and allowing them to take their time with making sure that all is going according to plan.
MotaWord as a Tool for Translator Development
The advantages of working on MotaWord that we most frequently love to boast and reiterate are the ones that fight the most common frustrations that linguists in this industry face:
You don’t have to email us a document with your translations
You don’t have to worry about project deadlines
You don’t have to do dreary word counts
You don’t have to send us any invoices
But did you know that there is one other added benefit that you may have not realized by now? We realize that the immediate advantages of being a MotaWord translator may have led to this added benefit slipping under the radar.
What we’re talking about is that by participating in certain MotaWord projects, you will have the opportunity to be included in specializations that are unfamiliar to you.
New Developments from MotaWord R&D
Things are brewing at MotaWord’s state of the art research and development laboratory (it is Halloween, after all, so something is bound to be brewing).
Our development team has been hard at work making some useful adjustments for your Translator Dashboard.
Get To Know Us!
Last Wednesday here in New York City was quite rainy. The kind of rain that can put a damper on your mood, especially with the change of seasons.
But luckily, MotaWord’s October Translator’s Happy Hour was there to save the day! We had a fantastic time when we met up with talented translators from the New York City area at Midtown Manhattan’s Galway Pub for some drinks and great conversation.
One translator in attendance remarked, “I've been wondering how to meet translators in the area and you seem to be the answer to my prayers.”
What Do You Take Pride In?
What do you take pride in as a translator?
Is it your astuteness in filling out invoices? Your precision in tedious word counts? Being able to deal with always shrinking deadlines?
Probably not. We are certain that as a translator, what you are proud of is that very thing that you do best: being able to provide the best possible translation from one language into another - taking your time and making sure that it is perfect. It is your talent for understanding a language, the meaning of a communication and all the cultural nuances that make you better than machines (because let’s face it, machines do love tedious work and are much faster at gibberish than humans).
Don't fear a collaborative approach to translations!
Halloween is around the corner. And nothing drives this message home more than everyone’s favorite monster.
Even with his ability to love and be kind, do you know why people were frightened by the monster in Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein?
Many argue that what made the monster's appearance so frightening was from being a patchwork of a number of old body parts.
Now, you may think that multiple translators working on a document simultaneously would result in another one of Dr. Frankenstein’s creations. But on the contrary: the “Translator’s Workspace” (akin to Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory) has the tools to help you create a beautiful and consistent translation.
What Year Is It?
Imagine that you are in the year 1980 and decide to take a quick nap. But somehow, your nap ends up lasting over thirty years.
If you were to look at a translator in 2014 finishing up another one of his or her projects, you might notice that not much has changed at all: manually doing word counts, filling out invoices, and worrying about deadlines and scrambling to find where they saved their translated document.
Add to that all the issues that can arise due to translation agencies still working manually, not being able to provide clients with a transparent workflow, not having an automatic way of paying translators and often paying them late.
Considering the pace that technology has penetrated the translation industry, translators might as well still be using a feather pen and inkwell to do their work!
But they shouldn’t, and they don’t have to. That’s because MotaWord is this industry’s long overdue wake up call.
We are not just a website!
When you log onto MotaWord’s homepage, the first thing that you might notice is its clean, seamless layout with the serenity of a zen garden (okay, we may be tooting our own horn here). But like any garden, people are needed to tend to its care. MotaWord’s team works tirelessly to ensure that the platform runs smoothly for its translators.
When talking about a human translation platform, the translators are just part of the story: our team is made of real people striving to work with other real people ready to give their best translations from all over the globe.
Ode to my spellchecker (and why translation is better when it is done by people)
We are often asked why MotaWord insists on “human translation”. After all machine translation does exist and human translation is outdated, right?
The best answer we could find is a little poem we would like to share with you:
Crowdfunding and Translation
Last year, legendary Japanese game designer Keiji Inafune (best known as illustrator and co-designer of the Mega Man character) started a new project called Mighty No. 9. Inafune’s project was able to raise over $200,000; an impressive feat. But the English translation of the Mighty No. 9 project, on Kickstarter, ended up raising an astonishing $3,845,170. It was the 3rd most successful Kickstarter project by total funds pledged and over 400% of the original goal.
MotaWord May 2014 NYC Translators Happy Hour
We know that MotaWord is the fastest human translation platform. We emphasize MotaWord’s human component - as the dedicated work of our translator community is what makes our vision for collaborative translation possible.""
