Romina Navarro

How activism has changed my life and boosted my profession

As newcomers in the freelance translation landscape, we face the tricky question about where to start working. Gaining experience and finding your first clients can be challenging and sometimes disappointing. Is it good to do some kind of “internship” in an LSP company? Working for peanuts to “gain experience”? Doing voluntary work? Where? For whom? The aim of this presentation is to share my experience as a newbie, full of insecurities and challenges, and my quest for my first experiences as a translator. And also about how my contribution as a journalist, editor and translator for causes I believed in helped me improve my skills, provided me with visibility, self-assurance and… my first clients! Conscious, wisely chosen voluntary work can open the doors for many contacts around the world and help you grow both professionally and personally. Also, I propose a discussion about some do’s and don’ts about volunteering, and to share with each other tips to choose a suitable NGO or cause (for example, many of them CAN afford translators and don’t really need voluntary work).

BIOGRAPHY

An Argentine Journalist, English>Spanish translator, and copy-editor, Romina Navarro is a feminist and a secularist activist who contributes actively with human rights causes, such as freedom of expression, social justice, and gender equality, among others. Since 2012, she has been part of Global Voices, a multilingual community of journalists, bloggers, and activists from every corner of the world, starting as a volunteer translator, then as an author and – occasionally – as an editor.