12:16 Apr 28, 2011 

Now we just about know everything there is to know on this one:) Enjoy your day! Saludos!

11:55 Apr 28, 2011 

OK, thanks, I get it... never saw this "voters for reclassification" message before so honestly didn't know what it meant. Apparently, all questions I've posted to date have been - without question - pro-level.

Yes, this one was indeed non-pro, as it turns out - about as non-pro as you could get, in fact. I appreciate you acknowledging that I wasn't to know this when I posted it, however.

And yes, with "even the most basic Catalan" one would almost certainly know "una mica."

The thing is, I don't have - and don't claim to have - what I would consider basic knowledge of Catalan. As I explained, my Catalan translating is confined to a very narrow context with PM support.

I'm not sure about other fields, but in medicine, this can work just fine because of all the Latin- and Greek-rooted terminology - plus, there are many true cognates, and you develop the other "basics" (e.g., right, left) and specific glossary you need over time.

In my experience with agencies in Spain, if you translate medical records from Barcelona, you're expected to deal with the Catalan that is *always* encountered in them... goes with the territory / job. Thanks again.

10:31 Apr 28, 2011 

This is a bit like watching a tennis match:)

09:35 Apr 28, 2011 

The issue is not whether *you* are a pro, but whether your question is pro. I am not questioning your pro status; I'm questioning the pro status of your question. Just because you ask a non-pro question doesn't make you a non-pro. I've submitted non-pro questions myself too for languages I don't work with. If it had been in Russian I'd still consider this a "non-pro" question.

When you submit a question, you are asked to say whether it is pro ("a question that is suitable for professional translators")
or non-pro ("a question that can be answered by any bilingual person without the aid of a dictionary"). It seems pretty clear to me that anyone with even the most basic Catalan would know what "una mica" means. You weren't to know this when you submitted the question, so I'm not accusing you of deliberately trying to get this in the wrong category, but now you know what the word means, surely it's obvious that this is a non-pro question?

If this stays as a pro question, then can someone give me an example of a non-pro question?

00:09 Apr 28, 2011 

Timothy, my PRO certification is in ES>EN. The fact that I don't know how to translate a word in Catalan is irrelevant and not a basis for questioning my PRO status. (Please see my other Discussion post explaining the reason for my question in the first place.)

Had it been a Russian word I encountered in a Spanish document and for which I posted a question, would you have voted me non-PRO for that? Your judgment here is based on the affinity between Spanish and Catalan, but that is beside the point...

23:44 Apr 27, 2011 

Point well taken, Timothy... please allow me to explain the situation from which my question arose:

1) Yes, what I have is sprinklings of Catalan in otherwise all-Spanish medical records from Barcelona.
2) These records are from a clinical trial I've been working with for over 1 year - same hospitals, same doctors, etc., so I've developed a fairly extensive glossary of the Catalan terms that come up in this context. You know how docs are... they say the same things over and over. I also have project managers who help me with the Catalan when I need it - and I do not hesitate to ask! I refuse records when they are almost entirely Catalan.
3) So my Catalan translating is in this VERY NARROW and FAMILIAR context with a good glossary developed over 1 year. (In general, I would do as you suggest and tell the client...) Once in a while I encounter a little word I haven't seen before. Interestingly enough, I could not find this little word in the several Catalan dictionaries I have!
4) The ONLY reason I posted this question was because I knew my PM was out of the office and the job was due later that night. So I turned to my friends at ProZ...

22:58 Apr 27, 2011 

My vote for "non-pro" is based on the fact you've said you know how to translate "coaptació" but you're looking for the translation of "una mica". If somebody asked for the translation of "poco" as a Spanish-English question I'm sure you'd agree that it's a non-pro question.

21:50 Apr 25, 2011 

Assuming this is just a small portion in Catalan in a Spanish text, tell your client you can't translate the Catalan parts. If the entire text is in Catalan, you should reject the job. Although Catalan is very similar to Spanish, there are many pitfalls if you don't at least have a basic grasp of the language, which I assume is your case if you don't understand "mica". For instance, you will probably think Catalan past tenses are future tenses if you've not studied any Catalan.