Loyalty is defined by vocabulary.com as being devoted and faithful to something or someone. If you are loyal, you remain true and reliable.
Loyal originated from loial, an Old French word that roughly translates to legal. But in context, if the loyalty is rendered only because the law requires it, then it is not true loyalty. Loyalty should not be given because of a contract. It should come from the heart.
María Lucila Galetto
María Lucila Galetto or Luci is an English-Spanish translator who hails from Buenos Aires. She started working as a translator at Day Translations, Inc. in 2007, the year when Day Translations started its operations. In fact, she is the very first translator that the company hired, and she has been working for Day Translations ever since.
Luci is proud to be a translator at Day Translations, as we are proud of having her, who has proven her loyalty to us. Her loyalty is commendable, because as a freelance translator, she has the option to accept work from other translation companies or even accept translation projects from individual clients, but she did not jump at this option.
This blog is about Luci, our loyal translator, who has been with us for 12 years. We want to show her that we reciprocate her steadfast dedication to the company, because we also want to remain loyal to our translators.
Lucila’s story
María Lucila Galetto is a graduate of Literary and Scientific English-Spanish Translation from the Universidad del Salvador in Argentina. She held several jobs since her graduation in 1999.
She first worked as an assistant to the president of a company for two years before moving to another company to work as a secretary and HR assistant. Most of her previous work experiences in her native country had something to do with secretarial work, project management, sales and customer service.
When she went on her maternity leave while working for an NGO, she decided that she wanted to stop working full time because her focus shifted. She wanted to be a full time mother to her child so she could provide better care for her baby.
At the back of her mind, she was already toying with the idea of being a translator. After all, it was her degree in college and she wanted to make full use of it. But translator jobs in Buenos Aires were difficult to come by then and now.
After giving birth to her daughter, she started searching online for a home-based job. It was a propitious sign when she found and answered an ad from Day Translations, Inc., which is based in the United States.
Luci said that it was her first time to apply to a job online. And she absolutely loves the fact that she secured a job that would allow her to stay at home to take care of her daughter and provide her with a steady income. She said she enjoyed and loved her job from day one.
Mr. Sean Hopwood, the President and CEO of Day Translations and a project manager interviewed Luci. For Luci, it was love at first sight. She was assigned English-Spanish translation projects immediately. She also worked like a part-time assistant to Mr. Hopwood, since the company was just starting and did not have a full complement of staff. Luci helped respond to client queries, looked for translators and interpreters, and recommended places where the company could advertise its services. The additional tasks made her feel a part of Day Translations. She was very happy that she was able to do so many things while staying at home.
Specializations
Luci’s personal interests are (vegan) food, health and medicine. However, as a translator, she says that she does not have any specialization. She works on various types of translation projects, including:
- Advertising and public relations
- General business and commerce
- HR materials such as policies and manuals
- E-commerce and Internet-related materials
- Education
- General religious materials
- Social services
- Travel and tourism
- General medicine (websites, papers, forms)
- Health and nutrition
Life as a translator
Although Luci said that she has not done any training of late, she is updated in the developments and trends in the translation industry. She stressed during her interview that she did not accept any translation assignments except from Day Translations.
Working as a translator, Luci said that she has not encountered many problems and she does not have any experience of doing translation in real time. The problems she sometimes encounters have to do with word choices. She said that at times she had to explain her word choices. Some clients find it difficult to understand why she had to make particular choices, although such occasions were rare.
She has not encountered any ethical dilemmas, which is good. Although every precaution is taken to ensure that the translation work is near perfect, she admits that there are instances when she made mistakes. She advises that if it is the translator’s mistake, it is best to admit it and ensure that the mistake is corrected, after apologizing for the error and thanking the person who pointed it out.
Like most professional translators, Luci does research before she starts the actual translation work. She uses dictionaries and past terminology databases. For additional clarification, she calls the project managers since they are in contact with the clients.
Luci further added that it is essential for a translator to have a very clear understanding of the source text and research is vital in producing high quality translation. Although Day Translations has proofreaders, Luci shares that it is important to proofread your work at least twice. She advises that proofreading should not be done right after finishing the translation.
Life as a working mother
Luci is able to balance her life as a stay-at-home parent and freelance translator. She wakes up quite early each day. Her husband holds a full time job so Luci is the one who takes their daughter to school. From school she goes to the gym and runs errands afterward.
She usually gets back home between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon. She connects with Day Translations project managers to check if there are assignments for her. She does house work while waiting for assignments. When she receives an assignment, she works on it uninterrupted for about two to three hours before taking a short break. She goes back to her current project and work on it again until it is finished.
Observations through the years
Since she started working as an English-Spanish translator in 2007, Luci has seen the development and success of Day Translations, Inc. and the translation industry itself.
We can say that Luci grew with Day Translations, as she joined the company since it started. When she began working for the company, she believes that the company had only had one project manager. Today, several project managers work at Day Translations. She recalled that she was working under Your Spanish Translation, which is a subsidiary of Day Translations. From one office in 2007, Day Translations now has several offices within the United States and other cities around the world.
She also noticed the changes made to the corporate website. She pointed out that the company is very active in social media platforms. However, she also feels that there is too much competition in the industry today.
Loyalty to Day Translations, Inc.
In her interview, Luci was asked to compare Day Translations to other translation companies. She said that she couldn’t make a comparison since she only knows about Day Translations. She has not worked with any other company. But she proudly points out that the staff members of Day Translations stand out for being very kind and she enjoys working with the project managers, who she said are very patient and helpful. And she fully appreciates the timely payment of fees she receives from the company.
She encourages translators to join Day Translations, which she believes is a fun company to work with. With a happy environment, there is very low employee turnover.
On a personal note, she said that working with Day Translations, Inc. has given her plenty of valuable opportunities. She’s able to be with her child every day, watch her grow and share her daughter’s important moments. It gives her the freedom to enjoy some personal time and indulge in the things that she loves doing.
Working as freelance translator and getting good money for it, she’s able to work and travel at the same time. It gave her the chance to visit her parents and save money for their own home. Recently, she traveled to Europe with her husband and their daughter, and enjoyed some family bonding time with her brother who’s living in Dublin.
Luci is happy being an English-Spanish translator, but she thinks that Chinese seems like an interesting language to learn. She said that she took some French and Portuguese classes in the past.
We reciprocate Luci’s loyalty to us by remaining loyal to her as well. We hope that our work relationship with her will continue long-term.
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Day Translations, Inc. is a professional translation company, offering full suite of language services. If you need translation services, give us a call at 1-800-969-6853 or send us an email at Contact us anytime. We are open 24 hours a day, each day of the year.