| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | Off topic: You know you're a translator when.... Thread poster: Frances Leggett
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Maria Arzayus 
United States
Local time: 06:52
English to Spanish
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| It's all true! and more... | Dec 23, 2010 |
Hello everyone
This is a brilliant what... forum? So amusing I have been reading and enjoying all of your comments and agree with you. I've been there done that and continue doing.
When watching a film with subtitles... I frequently have internal dialogs 'that's not right', mmm 'better this term' or 'better to say that' - sometimes there are such BIG errors.
Also when reading or writing anyth... See more Hello everyone
This is a brilliant what... forum? So amusing I have been reading and enjoying all of your comments and agree with you. I've been there done that and continue doing.
When watching a film with subtitles... I frequently have internal dialogs 'that's not right', mmm 'better this term' or 'better to say that' - sometimes there are such BIG errors.
Also when reading or writing anything, I frequently catch myself wanting to change it, improve it, make it better in some way. Even when I have written/translated something, the point comes when I say to myself: 'Stop!', its enough, it can go now, unless I am sick to death of it, particularly with the 30 page translations of very dense material.
Oh yes, and the one: 'One more paragraph', or 'until the end of the page', before I... go to sleep, rest, go out, have my dinner, speaking of which...
And what about getting into the brain, the though stream, the heart of the person who wrote that piece, that article, that document to really understand what he/she is trying to say. It is not so much the words but what they want to say.
I use to think (still do) that words were like precious garments, the dress we choose to contain and dress our ideas in, our thoughts, feelings. I love words, and I think they are powerful. We create with our ideas, feelings, thoughts and words. That is why they need to be used carefully, responsibly, lovingly... writing something well is a work of art, something that has a good content. And so it is with translation, because we kind of re-write into the other language what the author is trying to communicate, while doing our best to keep intact the original meaning.
And when the article, the document is badly written, when it doesn't have a logical meaning or sequence, or is just badly written... how many times have you tried to imagine, work out what he/she is trying to say? Of course if it is really unclear specially in something very technical we ask. Meanwhile in the wee hours of the morning... or night...
I think we all do a brilliant job by always trying to be better, to do better, to find the perfect word, the perfect sentence that expresses that meaning, that thought. Also by facilitating good understanding and communication between the world's people.
I just love my work as a translator and that is why I do it!
Merry Xmas and Feliz Navidad to all of you ▲ Collapse
| | | | | When ........ | Dec 25, 2010 |
you're posting on Proz on Christmas Day...
| | | | juvera
Local time: 14:52
English to Hungarian
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Susanna Garcia wrote:
you're posting on Proz on Christmas Day...
What else?
Also:
When you jot down the source and target word count and source and target character count after each job finished in the vain hope that one day you will have time to make meaningful comparisons out of the collected data; and carry on doing it for years, reasoning that “never mind, more data will give better results!
| | | | | There's a load off . . . | Dec 28, 2010 |
38- It takes you at least 10 minutes to look up just one word in the dictionary, because you find at least 10 other interesting words before the one you need.
I am so relieved to find out that I'm not the only one who does that.
SaludoZ!!
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| Something I always do... | Dec 28, 2010 |
You always look for the translator's name in any book you read - even if you're reading it in the original language.
Please tell me I'm not the only translator doing this!
| | | | Michal Glowacki
Poland
Local time: 15:52
Member (2010)
English to Polish
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| Ah! You know you're a translator when... | Jan 17, 2011 |
...after reading someones post on the forum, you start writing an angry response about his/her errors in punctuation, syntax, style, grammar and word choice rather then an actual answer to their question.
...after reading a book that has been translated into your language, you actually know what the sentences were in the original on the basis of translation choices and errors present (EXACTLY).
...when you're on a first-name basis with the TV people after those endless ... See more ...after reading someones post on the forum, you start writing an angry response about his/her errors in punctuation, syntax, style, grammar and word choice rather then an actual answer to their question.
...after reading a book that has been translated into your language, you actually know what the sentences were in the original on the basis of translation choices and errors present (EXACTLY).
...when you're on a first-name basis with the TV people after those endless emails about how many mistakes their translators made in the programmes this week.
...when it actually iritates you that someone doesn't know the differences between using CAT tools and MT. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Michal Glowacki
Poland
Local time: 15:52
Member (2010)
English to Polish
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| I do the same | Jan 17, 2011 |
Mirella Soffio wrote:
You always look for the translator's name in any book you read - even if you're reading it in the original language.
Please tell me I'm not the only translator doing this!
No, no..I do the same. Just in case someone I know translated it
| | | | Giles Watson
Italy
Local time: 15:52
Italian to English
In memoriam | Don't set your sights too high | Jan 17, 2011 |
Michal Glowacki wrote:
...when it actually iritates you that someone doesn't know the differences between using CAT tools and MT.
I'm grateful when non-linguists can tell a translator from an interpreter!
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LEXpert
United States
Local time: 08:52
Member (2008)
Croatian to English
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| Translators and their nightmares | Jan 17, 2011 |
You know you're a translator when...
You've woken up in a cold sweat absolutely convinced that, somehow, you've COMPLETELY forgotten about a project due that morning--indeed, you haven't even started because it slipped your mind. Then it slowly dawns upon you that it was just a bad dream, there is no project, and you haven't actually forgotten anything.
| | | | allp
Poland
Local time: 15:52
English to Polish
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37- You keep 12 web pages open at the same time while you're working.
only 12? At the moment, I've got 25 and it's just the fixed set, I haven't really started working yet.
So, for me, there's 37a: If a web browser doesn't have the option of saving and reopening the session, you have no use for it.
39- Context is your "modus operandi/vivendi".
Absolutely...
| | | | | What a pleasant shock to find this | Sep 18, 2012 |
I've been scrabbling away for years trying to make a living out of a small talent for languages. It's been so much fun reading the lists that ring so true.
My additions -
When you see the end of your verbal translation career just ahead because everyone is now so hard to hear. (They do it on purpose, talking with a kind of lock-jaw, from another room, while you're in the toilet.)
When you're pissed because you've got your audience laughing at your jokes... See more I've been scrabbling away for years trying to make a living out of a small talent for languages. It's been so much fun reading the lists that ring so true.
My additions -
When you see the end of your verbal translation career just ahead because everyone is now so hard to hear. (They do it on purpose, talking with a kind of lock-jaw, from another room, while you're in the toilet.)
When you're pissed because you've got your audience laughing at your jokes in your fourth language, but no one seems to recognize what a true linguistic feat that is.
When you can barely contain yourself because your idiot boss has told the Americans at the table that "cabrito" means lamb.
When you start conversation with random strangers always listening for vocab you might need on a project. (And, lose your mind with excitement when you hear a triple negative.)
When you honestly believe that a major failure of all educational systems everywhere is the lack of basic skills in communication, including stopping talking long enough to let the translator get a word in edgewise.
When you tired of explaining that you are not a walking dictionary and spend time thinking of distracting responses to the demand for, "How do you say...".
When you mentally beg the forgiveness of your teachers because you know disgusting curses in 8 languages.
When you realize that working in Spanish means learning 16 versions, but working in French pure pleasure.
When you realize that almost all conflict is the result of cultural dissonance, but that schools will continue to teach "Cinco de Mayo" and crepes. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sitiens (X)
Sweden
Local time: 15:52
English to Swedish
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- When you wake up in the midle of the night sweating and screaming like crazy just beacuse you've just realized the translation you sent has ONE typo
THIS! So much this.
I don't know if this has been added, but:
You know you're a translator when...
* You read texts and you start to translate them incorrectly in your head, just for laughs. Extra points for homonyms!
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| When you can't remember the author's name... | Nov 9, 2012 |
Mirella Soffio wrote:
You always look for the translator's name in any book you read - even if you're reading it in the original language.
Please tell me I'm not the only translator doing this!
When you're looking for a book in a bookshop, but can't find it, because you can only remember the translator's name, not the author's...
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25- Drawing trees is the worst thing that can ever happen to you, because it no longer means pencils, branches and leaves, but subject, tense phrase and wh- movement.
Yeah, drawing pears and apples on syntax trees was our favourite pastime...that was the only way to handle them without going mad...
And my addition:
You know you're a translator when...
During a concert at which a singer is rambling about world peace, instead of listening to them... See more 25- Drawing trees is the worst thing that can ever happen to you, because it no longer means pencils, branches and leaves, but subject, tense phrase and wh- movement.
Yeah, drawing pears and apples on syntax trees was our favourite pastime...that was the only way to handle them without going mad...
And my addition:
You know you're a translator when...
During a concert at which a singer is rambling about world peace, instead of listening to them, you check the translation on the screen for errors
Cheers
Kate
[Edited at 2012-11-21 09:53 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nicole Coesel
Netherlands
Local time: 15:52
Member (2012)
English to Dutch
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| I love and dread this thread | Feb 15, 2013 |
Hi all,
Reading this thread has been most amusing, yet confrontational. Do I wake up in the middle of the night screaming over a possible typo in an already-sent document? YES, I do. Does it matter how busy you are when a request from a regular customer just so happens to fall into your lap? I don't think so! Am I frantic during those moments when I don't have an assignment ... it simply feels like being unemployed. Yet within hours some e-mail will come around proposing new perspec... See more Hi all,
Reading this thread has been most amusing, yet confrontational. Do I wake up in the middle of the night screaming over a possible typo in an already-sent document? YES, I do. Does it matter how busy you are when a request from a regular customer just so happens to fall into your lap? I don't think so! Am I frantic during those moments when I don't have an assignment ... it simply feels like being unemployed. Yet within hours some e-mail will come around proposing new perspectives ...
Is there anyone out there who recognizes this??
Would love to hear your replies, be it here or bet ir more personal.
Make the best of it, and be the best that you can be. With that you WILL succeed.
Take care,
Nicole. ▲ Collapse
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