Early-bird registration is now open!
Join us for the 2026 SENSE Professional Development Day
on Saturday 31 October 2026 in Ede, Netherlands.



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Find someone to write, edit, proofread, index, interpret, report, subtitle, train, transcribe, translate, or teach English.



Browse our events calendar for upcoming webinars, workshops, professional development days and informal get-togethers.



Living in the Netherlands? Doing language work? Working in English?

Join the society for English-language professionals in the Netherlands!

What is SENSE, and what does SENSE do?

SENSE is a society for English-language professionals based in the Netherlands. We are a community of language workers who work from or into English, with a connection to the Netherlands.

Attend informal get-togethers

SENSE regularly hosts meetings (SIGs) for members based on region or special interest. These meetings can be in person or online.

Forum for members only

SENSE's web forum is where members can post questions, give answers, and chat with other members. There is also a jobs category where jobs are posted from potential clients who visited the SENSE website.

Get a mentor to guide you

SENSE has a mentoring programme whereby experienced SENSE members can help inexperienced members for a small fee (subsidized by SENSE).

Event calendar / agenda

Never miss an event! Discover upcoming webinars, workshops and social events on the SENSE Calender, or browse through the ones that you have missed.

Contact other members easily

SENSE members are encouraged to make contact with other members. That is what being in a society is all about. All SENSE members can search for or browse the list of current SENSE members.

Read our regular blog

SENSE members and guest authors post meeting reports and interesting articles on the SENSE Blog. It also represents an opportunity to budding copywriters to get their name on screen.

Guidelines for student texts

SENSE has prepared its own "Guidelines for Proofreading Student Texts" and a "Form to Confirm Proofreading Services". Download them free of charge.

Best practices

The Dutch Convenant explains what freelance translators and translation agencies in the Netherlands typically consider good practice in their dealings with each other. Visit sense-online.nl/dutch-covenant.

Navigating Across Worlds and Languages: The Craft of Translating Speculative Fiction

Authors of the fantastic create a world for their readers to step into, mapping out its borders with touchstones from familiar tales, or exploring less well-known territory drawn from the depths of their imagination. Translating these works of fiction demands an approach that does justice to their worldbuilding. We’ll explore this topic by looking at Tolkien, Murakami, Le Guin, Gaiman, Sapkowski and more.

About the speaker:
Joy Phillips (she/her). Professional translator, author’s editor and copywriter with an MA in English literature and linguistics. An inveterate bookaholic who has lived more than half her life over 9 000 km from where she was born, Joy is fascinated by language, food, coffee and speculative fiction. Currently based in the Netherlands, she has spent the past 25+ years helping fiction writers, researchers, companies, NGOs and government agencies convey their concepts to a broader international audience. An earlier version of this talk was presented at the Once and Future Fantasies Conference (July 2022) at the University of Glasgow.