Fakhri Azzouz

Tag: deliberate practice

  • Late 2025 Update: My Localization Work and Key Tips for Aspiring Linguists

    Late 2025 Update: My Localization Work and Key Tips for Aspiring Linguists

    Starting from January 2025, I contributed regularly to many FOSS projects as a localization specialist.

    I translated the whole AppFlowy app into Arabic and reported many language issues on GitHub related to its documentation.

    Besides, I worked extensively on many WordPress plugins and themes. I enjoyed it and gained more hands-on experience by becoming faster and more precise.

    Main tips to build a successful career as a linguist/l10n specialist

    I already work with multiple translation companies in life sciences as a master reviewer and language validator consultant, which is considered a respectable position in the language industry. In theory, it is not that complicated to become top-rated and be a master reviewer or an LVC (language validator consultant).

    • In your free time, read books and articles about your niche as a language professional.
    • Listen to podcasts in the languages you use.
    • When expanding your knowledge in your free time, look up technical words you encounter. This is essential if you want to be efficient when you do paid work. As they say, “If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”
    • Review your work multiple times even if it takes 20–30% more time. This will help you find patterns in your common inaccuracies; as a consequence, you will do a better job in the future and become faster.
    • Write comments and take notes when working on a language project. Try to go the extra mile; I even review the English source text for typos and punctuation issues and report them to the project manager or direct client.
    • Even if some projects are financially very rewarding, but you do not have time to deliver high-quality work, do not accept the job. You will hurt your client, damage your reputation, and may even be blacklisted. Always remember that clients pay you to help them deliver great work, so you should care about their success.
    • Be responsive and answer quickly to email requests—preferably within 20 minutes. If you are out of the office, be sure to have a 4G or 5G connection on your smartphone and check email or Slack notifications.
    • Use a timer to measure how much time is needed for each type of project. Assess the complexity of potential projects by scanning the documents and seeing how many complicated words appear per page. These difficult words will require extra time to translate accurately. If you keep doing this, after a couple of years you will know with great precision the time needed for each project.

    Other possibilities for growth as a linguist

    Take your time to write a detailed LinkedIn profile and create a short video to introduce yourself, as visitors often find it easier to watch a 1–2 minute video.

    Have a professional website and email. Avoid using Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail addresses, and take your time to use online tools to build a respectable email signature.

    Avoid having a Facebook account that could hurt your reputation as a freelance translator/linguist. In fact, most recruiters do a quick internet search and check your social media profiles to get an idea about who you are.

    Finally, it is worth noting that deliberate practice is key if you want to be more efficient, gain experience, and make more money.

    I mean, when you do volunteer or paid work, always think:

    • How can I make fewer mistakes and be more accurate?
    • Are there other software tools I can use?
    • How can I grow as a faster freelancer and be more accurate?
    • How can I advance my research skills?
    • How can I find more clients?
    • Can I add another specialism?
    • Are there tools that make generating and organizing invoices faster and hassle-free? (I personally use WaveApps.)
    • In my free time, is it a good idea to learn the basics of open-source, free CAT tools like OmegaT, for example? A one- to two-hour basic training on OmegaT may land you a USD 1,000 project and help you acquire new clients with recurring projects. Moreover, keep your professional profile on your résumé, LinkedIn, or website updated with the new tools or skills you learn, as some clients will only contact you if they are sure you know OmegaT. In short, if you learned how to use OmegaT but did not update your profile, it is self-sabotage.

    Let me know if you found ideas that were helpful in this blog post, you can also share your tips with us on a comment

  • Implementing Deliberate practice for my language services

    Implementing Deliberate practice for my language services

    To achieve and maintain a high level of expertise as a translator/linguist, I am committed to deliberate practice. I have been working as a full-time freelance translator since 2014. I work with direct clients and LSPs from all over the world. Over the years I have consistently over-delivered, become a top-rated and preferred translator for various large translation agencies, and even get bonuses for completing challenging projects well and on time.

    What is deliberate practice?

    It is a focused approach to skill improvement to reach a high level of expertise. In this article, I will discuss deliberate practice dedicated to language skills, without delving into my other areas of interest much.

    Goal-oriented approach to improving language and business skills

    As a freelance linguist, my job is not only translating, reviewing, editing, etc, but also doing marketing, generating invoices, networking, negotiating, and so forth. In short, language and business skills.

    Language skills and technical jargon:


    To perfect my language skills related to the language industry, I read daily e-books related to my specialties. To structure my language training, I use a habit tracker and a timer to log how many minutes I study weekly. For my specialty related to health, I log at least 500 minutes a week of reading and to a lesser extent listening to podcasts.
    The habit app I use is free of charge with no ads, you can find this app here.

    Besides, reading about my specialism (medical and life sciences) I also blog on this website and I take notes voraciously on Google Docs. I use dictionaries and thesauri for practically every word I want to understand or discover its synonyms.

    Regarding my tech and IT specialism, I use the Linux operating system, I create websites myself, and I know the basics of web development including HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP. Moreover, as I noted in a previous article, I am studying Dart/Flutter to build a mobile app.

    Regularly engaging with complex concepts related to medicine, life sciences, and software, enables me to understand advanced technical language and accurately translate and review specialized terminology.

    Nurturing business acumen

    Online visibility and presence
    Having a well-designed professional website and an active blog for my freelance business is essential for highlighting my skills and express myself. In fact, the actual website is the fifth or sixth iteration. I built this website all by myself and I remember that the first two did not look good.

    With a professional website, I also acquired a professional email “linguist@fakhriazzouz.com” for sure it looks much more serious than a Gmail, Yahoo, or live email address.

    Business development

    I look for new business opportunities and grow sales, by contacting LSPs and offering my services. I negotiate my rates and offer a unique value proposition. I have all the required data ready to be shared with new business partners for faster inboarding. I follow language industry news and trends to identify new emerging opportunities, and develop new skills or learn new tools.

    Deliberate practice for language and business

    1- Focus and attention: I do not multitask, I only monotask. I schedule specific days for each project, that is to say I dedicated specific time slot for language skills maintenance and development, and devote time for business development or other preplanned tasks. For each task I pay attention to details and ask myself actively how I can do the task faster and better. I push the limit gradually to improve continuously.

    2- Knowledge management: I always take notes, whether using Google Docs, Google Keep, or a voice recorder when on the go. More importantly I review my notes in a very regular and consistent way. I backup important data on specific dates of the year. I do weekly, monthly, and yearly review for all aspects of my business. This help me strategize and change tactics when necessary, treamline my work and manage the knowledge I am amassing by my extensive reading and training.

    3- I strategize for the long term: Deliberate practice requires sustained effort on the long run; becoming an elite expert is a marathon, not a sprint.Hence, I focus on monotasking, planning, knowledge management, extensive reading, and note-taking, without forgetting about intrinsic motivation.

    4- Health & well being
    Furthermore, a healthy life style is essential to have a healthy body and mind to be able to deliver great results. In fact, starting from May 2024 I leveled up my physical training with more intensive exercising using weight and cycling. I log my progress and work on incremental improvement to become athletic. I have good sleep hygiene and flourishing spiritual life as a Muslim.

    Conclusion

    In a never-ending quest for excellence, deliberate practice itself can be improved, as I have lately discovered that there is a science for expertise. This opens the door to a whole new path for improvement.
    In Arabic, we have a related saying by Imam Gazali قال الإمام الغزالي: «العلم إذا أعطيته كلك أعطاك بعضه وإذا أعطيته بعضك لم يعطك شيئاً فعليك أن تفني حياتك حتى تتعلم», it means that: “if you invest with all you have in knowledge you will get only some results and if you invest little you will get nothing, for this you have to dedicate your life to learn”.