Hi, my name is Noella. I'm a translator, coordinator and interpreter located in Paris, France. I speak fluent Japanese and English, and of course in French which is my native language. I've lived a few months in the United States (working at Walt Disney World in Florida), and in Japan for 3 years.

 Languages and other cultures have been my passion for many years. My first trip was in the USA with my parents when I was 6 years old. I'm not a school person but a quick learner, dedicated and selftaught. I learned English when I was about 14 years old and Japanese when I was a young adult, mostly by talking to native people of both languages. Thanks to that, I learned to use those languages the way they are used in everyday aspect rather than only academically (politeness level, etc…).

My life as a freelancer

 I've been a freelance interpreter and translator since 2012, after some office work, in order to attain diversity and a large variety of challenges and making sure my schedule is never the same.

 I also have two children so balancing my family life and my job is very important. Sometimes I will spend one or two weeks in another city or country with a client, but most of the time, I work on translations from my home office. I really enjoy the fact that I'm able to visit many places (in France, Europe, or Japan) when interpreting or coordinating, but I also enjoy the quieter weeks when I can relax or work from home.

 Another benefit of freelancing is the ability to work according to my timetable: I usually work in the morning, but if one day I have an appointment or want to go to a museum for instance, I can always change my schedule. In addtion, I have a small network of interpreters or translators I trust so that when one of us has a schedule that can't fit a client we can ask each other to do the project.

 Since I work from home a lot, we were able to move outside the city to the suburbs, allowing us to get a much bigger place than in Paris, and I now have a home office which I really enjoy working from! Before that, I used to work in co-working cafes, which can also be enjoyable. You pay an hourly fee and get all the drinks and snacks you want, and everyone is there to work so it's usually not too noisy, depending on the hours of course.

Another passion of mine is…

 I am also a musician (singer songwriter), so at times when I want to work on personal projects or music, I can choose not to do translation work for that period, however, I try to be careful not to say “no” to too many jobs because with freelancing you can never be sure when the next job will be.

 I was able to connect my two passions, music and languages, for one of my projects for which I was asked to translate famous Japanese Anisongs (Anime Songs) into French and sing them. Two of my albums are actually sold online! Translating songs is one of the things I love to do and I hope there will be similar opportunities in the future.

My thoughts on Workshift

 Workshift has given me the opportunity to find clients easily and be able to work on some new projects which I have never done before. I find the website very convenient (for instance the messaging system), and the team is always kind and helpful when there is something I have trouble with or don't understand.

A few tips on how to suceed as a freelancer

 One of the advice I could give to new freelancers would be to check the deadline carefully and plan the work according to it. For instance, if I have a 5 days deadline, I will plan how many words I should translate each day, usually I'll try to do a little more if I feel like it just in case something happens. Also, always allocate some time for proofreading by yourself, and sometimes by a family member for instance.

 In the future, I hope to be able to keep on working on new projects with Workshift !