- Are you working with English as an additional language?
- Do you feel that you understand English much better than you speak it in spontaneous conversations? (Passive vs. active language skills)
- Do you avoid going to events or turn down job-related opportunities because you know that you’ll have to present yourself or communicate solely in English
- Do you lack opportunities to speak English that aren’t directly related to your clients or colleagues in the language industry?
- Do you avoid business English courses because they are generally for employees and you think that most of the material won’t be relevant to you as a freelance translator?
- Speaking with others at conferences or networking events where you can develop your skills and make new connections.
- Making audio or video content for your website or social media platforms to share your knowledge or promote your services.
- Taking part in meetings in English with existing or potential clients.
- Introducing yourself and your business in different contexts
- Small talk – love it or hate it, it’s a skill that helps build relationships
- Your online presence – website, portfolio or social media – what works for you and where do you want to invest your energy?
- Your voice and your brand’s voice – in English
- Your ideal clients and where you’re likely to find them
- Your story and what else you bring to collaborations
- Successful meetings and making networking work for you
- Self-care, professional development, and finding community
- Asking questions, challenging conversations, and receiving feedback
- What comes next for you?
- Are working in the same industry, so it will be easy for us to find common topics that are interesting and relevant.
- Need to use spoken English for similar purposes, such as introducing themselves at events, speaking with clients, or talking about language-related topics.
- Are generally passionate about languages and who look at language from the same perspective for professional or personal reasons.
- Know that they need to have an up-to-date knowledge of language to keep their professional skill-set relevant.
- May have similar challenges in relation to speaking English because they work a lot with the written word and don’t have many opportunities to speak.
If so, my English speaking skills for freelance translators programme has been designed for people like you! You will work in a small group with me, an experienced language trainer, and two other language professionals who want to feel as confident about speaking English as they do about reading it.
What are the benefits?
When you reactivate your English and can express yourself more authentically and spontaneously, it can open up new doors and opportunities for you, both professionally and personally. Speaking English may not be part of your job, but it can bring you a whole range of benefits that are directly related to your work. These include:
>How long does the course last?
Each course runs for 10 weeks. You will learn with the same group during 10 1-hour sessions with some small optional tasks to complete in your own time.
What will we cover?
As this is a programme to develop your speaking skills, the main focus will be on talking. You will learn and gain confidence through the conversations, but I am also there as your language trainer to answer questions, help you to develop your language skills, and explore how you can best communicate your ideas authentically in English.
Towards the end of the course, there will also be time for participants to give short presentations. This is an optional exercise which gives participants the chance to speak in front of others and respond to questions spontaneously.
You’ll also learn from the translator colleagues who are working in the group alongside you.
What am I committing to?
You’ll be put into a group with two other translators and we’ll meet at the same time each week for 10 sessions. This is usually 10 consecutive weeks, but as a group we may agree to skip a week to avoid public holidays etc.
The price is £199.
The time investment is 10 hours for the live interactive sessions. As the focus is on gaining confidence in speaking, the sessions are not recorded as this can make people more inhibited to speak. There are two optional activities which you can choose to work on in your free time – one is around a piece of social media content and the other is a short presentation towards the end of the programme.
Reserve your place
I run introduction sessions so that we can get to know each other and you can meet the other participants. There is no cost for these sessions. Let me know on the form if you’d like to come along to the next one, which will be on 28th April. Yo can find the LinkedIn event here.
If you then decide to sign up for the course, payment can be made by bank transfer, credit card pament, or Paypal. If you have access t Euros, the transfer is likely to be the most cost-effective method.
I ask about your location because we have participants joining from different time zones and I schedule the sessions to accommodate this.
What are the participants saying?
Katharina said:
“I took part in Kirsty‘s “Speaking skills for freelance translators” course and found a very supportive and judgment-free zone where I could practice my professional speaking skills. While I already had a solid command of conversational English, I tended to stumble over my own words when I had to spontaneously react in English – something I did not want to happen when talking to potential clients. The group consisted of three participants which turned out to be the perfect size for each of us to get enough opportunities to speak during each lesson. The sessions focused on different topics surrounding our freelance business and while Kirsty would lead us through the conversation, she also didn’t stop the natural flow of the conversation which I found very enjoyable. When one of us made a mistake, she corrected us on the spot and gave more background info if necessary. This was a very positive and enjoyable experience and I definitely feel more comfortable now speaking English in a professional setting. So, if you want to brush up on your English speaking skills, I highly recommend giving Kirsty’s courses a”” try!”
Lou said:
“I’m really glad I booked this course with you :) After a few sessions I already feel more confident to speak English. The friendly atmosphere in the group helps to feel at ease, and your tips and corrections help me to make fewer mistakes. The topics covered are suited to the needs of a freelance translator and it’s interesting to discuss our respective practices with colleagues. Thank you for this course, it was exactly what I needed!”
Lieselotte said:
“Thank you, Kirsty! I really enjoyed this course and meeting with other translators, working on our conversation skills. I would recommend your programme to anyone who wants to get more confident about speaking English.”
Frequently asked questions
Why did I create a course specifically for translators?
When you’re building a group, it helps to have something that brings the participants together.
You could have a group of colleagues from the same team, a group of people at the same language level, or a group of people who want to work on a specific skill.
My idea with the English language course for translators is to bring together a group of people who:
I build the groups based on availability and language level.
Why do people sign up for the programme if they already have a successful career as a freelance translator?
Sometimes it takes a lot for someone who works with languages to admit that they want to participate in a language course! Especially if it’s someone who’s studied English in the past or who has no trouble understanding information in English.
But that’s not what my course is about…
I work with people who are confident when it comes to understanding English, but they find it challenging when they have to speak spontaneously.
🚪 Maybe they have declined or closed the door to opportunities that could be really interesting or useful because those opportunities would have involved some kind of speaking activities such as speaking at a conference or a networking event in English.
🎙They would like to create content in English to promote their services or to share their knowledge. This may be ok in writing, but not in videos, on podcasts, or live.
🤝 They would like to have more conversations with direct clients or colleagues, but this is more of a challenge when it involves spontaneous conversations.
These are some of the people who would benefit from my 10-part speaking skills course for freelance translators.
Is this programme mainly aimed at new translators?
The programme is aimed at anyone who is a freelance translator, who doesn’t have English as a first language, and who is looking for opportunities to improve their speaking skills. Not their language skills … these are usually at a high standard already. But understanding a language and speaking it spontaneously are two different skills. If you haven’t had the opportunity to do much of the latter recently, it may not come as easily as it did in the past.
I can say that in the four groups so far, I haven’t had new or inexperienced translators signing up. The participants have been people with a lot of experience as translators, but, in most cases, whose circumstances are changing. They want to do new things, or they want to feel more confident about using English in new situations. Often this means approaching English-speaking clients directly, offering additional services that will somehow involve speaking English, being more visible online or at events, or starting new projects.
The programme provides a relaxed and friendly environment in which to explore relevant topics and discuss them with me, an experienced English trainer, and 2 or 3 other freelance translators.
So if you have been thinking about the course, but you’ve been reluctant to find out more because you already have many years of experience in your field, don’t let this stop you! You’ll probably find yourself in a group of others who are in the same situation!
If I take part, will you tag me on social media?
No 😁
It’s a group programme, so if you sign up, the other participants in your group will know that you took part. But nobody else needs to know unless you want them too.
You may have seen me tagging various people in relation to the course because they agreed to make videos with me about it, posted a review on LinkedIn or wrote comments on LinkedIn that I wanted to share with others.
But this is because they opted to do so. There are a number of other people who have done the course and who have not been tagged anywhere!
I know that some people don’t want to tell others that they asked for support with speaking English and I understand that. Personal training and development don’t need to be a public announcement.
To be honest, I believe we all need help sometimes. Having support with public speaking in an additional language is no reflection on your ability to translate out of that language. In fact, many of my customers have a lot of experience working with English in some way.
But I want to be clear that nobody is tagged online in relation to completing the course unless they specifically say that they are happy with that. That applies to all of my language training programmes.
Does everyone in the group do the same kind of translation work?
The simple answer is: no!
Each time that I’ve run this programme, we’ve had different language pairs, different translation subject materials, and even different continents! Most of the people who’ve completed the course were experienced translators – though this isn’t a prerequisite and newcomers to the industry are also welcome.
Despite the differences in target language and the types of text that they work on day-to-day, as we got to know each other over the 10-week period, it was lovely to discover just how much the participants had in common. This helped them to relax, talk more openly, and find common ground or shared experiences to talk about.
If you haven’t actually spoken English for a while, the words may not come as quickly as they once did. The programme is for people who understand the value of reactivating their spoken English in a friendly group with support from a language trainer, rather than launching themselves into the next client meeting or speaking engagement with little or no chance for spontaneous speaking.
“Does everyone in the group have the same source language?
No! I don’t think we’ve ever had that situation in a group. So far it’s been a combination of people working into German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and one or two others that are less common so I won’t add them here. But the point is, this part doesn’t matter and in fact, looking at different markets, different specialisations or different language/business challenges gives us extra things to talk about! At the same time, as we discovered in the last group when everyone told their language story, there were many similarities and situations to which most people could relate.
That’s one of the advantages of doing a programme that was written for a very specific group of people – you find you have a lot in common and this helps to bring the group together. It also means you don’t waste time on topics or concepts that have nothing to do with your day-to-day work!
If you want to find out more about the course, all the information is here: https://englishwithkirsty.com/english-speaking-skills-for-freelance-translators/
or you can arrange a chat with me to see what you need and whether the course would be right for you.”””
Let me know if you have any questions and if this is something that interests you, I look forward to meeting you soon.