{"id":46357,"date":"2016-09-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gengo.com\/uncategorized\/hall-fame-karen\/"},"modified":"2019-10-23T18:54:17","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T09:54:17","slug":"hall-fame-karen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gengo.com\/community\/hall-fame-karen\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall of fame: Karen"},"content":{"rendered":"A dedicated English to Portuguese-Brazilian translator, Karen earned a spot in our growing list of Wordsmiths this year. Her passion for music and the English language greatly influenced her location independent career in translation. She reminds fellow translators that aside from being competent and passionate, what would help you stand out from the rest is going the extra mile and doing more than what customers expect of you. \u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nWhat languages do you speak and what are your experiences with learning them?<\/b>\r\n\r\nI\u2019m a native speaker of Brazilian Portuguese, and I can also speak English, Spanish and a bit of German. I was quite the precocious child \u2013 by the age of 3, I could already read and write, by 4 years old, I decided that I wanted to learn English, and nagged my father until he enrolled me in an English language course. <\/span>\r\n\r\nMusic played a huge role in my learning journey right from the start. Michael Jackson\u2019s \u201cBlack or White\u201d music video made me so eager to learn English back then, for I always wanted to sing along and understand what my favorite bands sang. Passion is probably the best motivation you can have when you\u2019re learning anything! I actively studied English even when I wasn\u2019t in school.<\/span>\r\n\r\nAs for Spanish, it was a school requirement and my father also taught me a lot. I\u2019ve also studied German by myself, with resources like books, dictionaries, websites (<\/span>Duolingo<\/span><\/a> is my favorite), helpful native speakers, and music, of course. I\u2019m a huge fan of German metal bands such as Rammstein, Oomph! and Eisbrecher, and thanks to them, I wanted to learn the language.<\/span>\r\n\r\nWhat are your favorite translation tools?<\/b>\r\n\r\nMy favorite CAT tool is <\/span>OmegaT<\/span><\/a>. I also like online dictionaries such as <\/span>Linguee<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>Urban Dictionary<\/span><\/a> is more useful than you might believe it is. Specifically for English to Brazilian Portuguese translators, the <\/span>Tecla SAP<\/span><\/a> website is also an invaluable resource.<\/span>\r\n\r\nWhat are your tips to become a Wordsmith?<\/b>\r\n\r\nWhat helped me to become a Wordsmith was not only doing a good job, or being online often, but most of all, going the extra mile to help the customers.<\/span>\r\n\r\nBeing a preferred translator helps me access more jobs before anyone else, and I became one because I\u2019d usually do more than what\u2019s expected of me. For example, I made a small glossary that could help the customer and other translators keep the content translated consistently, and I gave them marketing tips and advice on promoting their products here in my country.\r\n<\/span>\r\nSince I started doing these, my workload skyrocketed, I\u2019ve been able to make a living solely from working for Gengo, then eventually became a Wordsmith. So if you\u2019re aiming to be a Hall of famer, being competent, passionate and helpful can make you stand out and reap better rewards for your efforts.<\/span>\r\n\r\nWant to become a Gengo translator?<\/strong>\r\n\r\n