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Thread poster: Raf Uzar
Off topic: Are Translators Normal?

Raf Uzar
Poland
Local time: 17:45
Polish to English
TOPIC STARTER
No change Feb 9, 2010

I do hope it will change but translation has been going for a few years now and I still see no change.

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sailingshoes
Italy
Local time: 17:45
Spanish to English
Normal? Nein danke Feb 9, 2010

Come on Raf! You've seen the normal people. Don't tell me you want to be like that!

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Raf Uzar
Poland
Local time: 17:45
Polish to English
TOPIC STARTER
Not normal Feb 9, 2010

I most certainly do not want to be normal but I DO want our profession to be taken more seriously, however.

[Edited at 2010-02-09 18:43 GMT]


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Susanna Garcia  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:45
Member (2008)
Italian to English
+ ...
Are translators normal? Not to mention interpreters! Feb 10, 2010

Perhaps this should be under a different thread:
Are interpreters normal?
My son (if we're referring to our children, a fabulously talented PhD Physics student btw) says none of his friends has a mother who gets paid for swearing in court and police stations, or even knows half the words, in either Italian or English, that I do. I get home after a custody suite interview and I've had to find street words for acts or anatomical appendages as the suspect has no idea of what the police are on about, and I've undertaken court work in front of my learned this that and the other where I've used the f word more times than Gordon Ramsay. So, is this normal for a 56 year old? I neither know nor care, but I really love my work!


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Raf Uzar
Poland
Local time: 17:45
Polish to English
TOPIC STARTER
Abnormality! Feb 10, 2010

I don't think it's normal, Susanne but viva la abnormality!

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Katarzyna Terelak  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 17:45
Partial member (2006)
English to Polish
+ ...
Normal? No way! May 9, 2010

This is a great topic...

I had a neighbour (an old lady!) once who thought that I was a....prostitute (I don't go to work in the morning, I'm relatively young, she can see me sometimes during the day, I am single and I still somehow get the money for a living, so the conclusion was I had to have a 'sponsor'. But that's old ladies' way of thinking sometimes...

On the other hand, would you like to have a so called 'normal' job. As a translator, you have flexible hours, you can reject a job because you don't feel like doing this at the moment saying that 'you're busy with other jobs' (don't tell me, you've never done it!). You can have a holiday almost everytime you want to. You can do your job at night and not from 9 to 5, etc.

But, there are minuses, of course...

Kate


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Raf Uzar
Poland
Local time: 17:45
Polish to English
TOPIC STARTER
Prostitute May 9, 2010

That must be the greatest story I've heard in a long time.
Raf


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Martin Stranak  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
Local time: 16:45
English to Czech
+ ...
Normal - v - abnormal May 10, 2010

I started with translations as a university student (because the other types of part time work available just did not suffice to subsidize the wild parties) based on my previous language experience with the international trade business.

Anyway, most of the people in the dorm though I was either addicted to internet or insane but at the end of the day, the money talked.
I still have people back home stop me and worry about my actual living standard, asking whether I need a loan to stand the crisis etc. Even some of my colleagues have recently raised the inquiry, whether a translator can actually make decent living on translations. That depends, I´d say.

But let´s get back to the point. People do not understand, how I could have spent my day at caffés and sitting in the park and still pay my bills. In my opinion, doing translations at night, when the entire neighbourhood has gone quiet, and enjoying the day time outside watching people in a hurry after their duties while sipping a nice espresso or smoking a good cigar, might be strange, but hey, it´s somehow different lifestyle.

Conclusion: translators ight be a bit different, spotting omissions and errors in the menu of a popular restaurant round the corner, but they are still harmless and educated human beings


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IreneP
Greece
Local time: 18:45
English to Greek
Normal??? May 11, 2010

Of course translators are normal. As a matter of fact very, very normal.
We talk to ourselves
We talk to our pets
We have a regular working environment -> OUR HOME
We do use a dress code, it is called PAJAMAS!


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l08l
Indonesia
Local time: 22:45
English to Indonesian
+ ...
house wife and male May 11, 2010

female who stays at home > house wife
male who stays at home > houseband instead of husband? ^_^


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Veronica Lupascu  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 17:45
Member (2010)
Greek to Romanian
+ ...
I love it! May 11, 2010

this thread I mean.

Well, I am a part-time freelancer, which still has to wake up at 6-30, dreams about a perfect world without alarm clocks and waits for the afternoon to start her NORMAL life. There are several circumstances that not allow me to become a full-time freelancer at the moment, but this will happen soon and then I will be happy. Ja ja!

Ok, being an employee is not too bad sometimes, but... my boss's voice, the stress there, the impossibility to take a day off when you need it the most etc. + our new work rules (a strange caricature on the wall) that say:

rule 3: we do not accept "other people death excuses", manage your time and go to funerals after 18.00

rule 4: well, your death could be an excuse, but we request a 2 weeks prior notice for that

.....


rule 9: remember, your boss is always right, even when absent.

rule 10: if your boss is not right, go back to rule 9

So, I laughed when read them first time, but they are kinda true...

I say YES! translators are normal. It is just the majority (of employees) that makes them think differently. But translators are also smart enough to not believe what all people say.


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Veronica Lupascu  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 17:45
Member (2010)
Greek to Romanian
+ ...
work rules May 11, 2010

I found it!

http://www.grandt.com/WorkRules.jpg

[Edited at 2010-05-11 22:19 GMT]


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czarlee
Malaysia
verily May 13, 2010

Conclusion: translators might be a bit different, spotting omissions and errors in the menu of a popular restaurant round the corner, but they are still harmless and educated human beings

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TurkishEnglishTranslator.com "Бёcäטsع Լîfe's cômplicåtعd eñøugh"
Turkey
Local time: 18:45
Member (2010)
Turkish to English
+ ...
Same in Turkiye Jan 24, 2011

Same in Turkiye ( They may think you are jobless or jigolo)

[Edited at 2011-01-24 13:02 GMT]


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