ATA SPD Podcast, An Interview with Judy and Dagmar Jenner

ATA SPD's Podcast

In episode seven, Dolores Guiñazú interviewed Judy & Dagmar Jenner, TWIN TRANSLATIONS. Judy lives in Las Vegas since she was a teenager, where she also pursued her higher education. She received her M.B.A. (summa cum laude) in Marketing from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in 2001. Judy is the past president of the Nevada Interpreters and Translators Association and currently chairs the organization’s professional development committee. In 2010, she was named one of the “Women to Watch” by the business newspaper InBusiness and was the alumna of the year for the Honors College of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is a federally certified court interpreter (Spanish), a master-level court certified Spanish interpreter (Supreme Court of Nevada), a court-registered German interpreter in Nevada, and a certified court interpreter in California. She teaches translation and interpretation at the University of California-San Diego (Extension) to online students pursuing the certificate in English/Spanish translation and interpretation studies.

Dagmar received the equivalent of a master’s degree in French and Communications from the University of Salzburg (Austria) and an undergraduate degree in Spanish and French translation and interpretation as well as a master’s degree in French and Spanish conference interpreting from the University of Vienna (Austria). She is an accredited freelance conference interpreter for the institutions of the European Union and works in the German booth (from English, Spanish, and French into German). Dagmar is the president of UNIVERSITAS Austria, the Austrian Interpreters’ and Translators’ Association. She’s an expert on the new German orthography reform and frequently gives workshops on this complex subject. In addition, Dagmar teaches consecutive interpreting (English/Spanish->German) in the master’s degree program at the University of Vienna. Dagmar lives in Vienna, Austria, and spends her summers and, oftentimes, her winters in (you guessed it!) Vegas, enjoying her twin’s company and the desert sun.

In April 2010, Judy and Dagmar published the highly anticipated book, “The Entrepreneurial Linguist: The Business-School Approach to Freelance Translation”, which has received great reviews around the world and has sold more than 4,000 copies.

In this entrepreneurial interview, Judy & Dagy share with us how the idea of their book developed, and they talk about the mindset of highly successful language entrepreneurs. They generously share their tips as well as how to move forward in an evolving and changing profession.

In the words of Judy & Dagy, “Let’s start with a small paradigm shift that will benefit us all professionally. Most of us are humanists, and as such, we don’t have much of a business background. Linguists are very much in demand in the global marketplace, we have very specific skills that are of utmost importance for any corporation that does business on a global scale. Start thinking of yourself as an essential part of the international communications chain, and price your services accordingly. Let’s collectively work on our Entrepreneurial Linguist mindset!” Human Translations, as our lovely colleague Sandy Jones stated this year, is what sets us apart from MT (machine translation) and AI (artificial intelligence).

This is the final episode of our FIRST SEASON of the ATA Spanish Division Podcast. This new 2020, let us highlight the importance of being #humantranslators. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we do, because TOGETHER, WE ALWAYS GROW. Thanks for listening!