| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6] > | Are you happy with what you earn? Thread poster: Marie-Hélène Hayles
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| We might learn something from Jackie Bowman | Feb 5, 2007 |
[quote]IreneN wrote:
If part-time means 6 months out of a year at $.18 and 15 days/mo - 7716 words/day. If even less... my congratulations:-)
Check out her profile. She asks for $.20 a word, $150 per hour. She's a stickler for real English, not the stuff written by people who add apostrophes everywhere. She's brimming with self-confidence and my guess is that she manages to persuade would-be clients who want the best they can get, money be damned.
With these prices she can work 4 hours a day (part time, right?) and still clear $125,000 and have a nice vacation in the sun.
| | | | | Jackie, please don't stop contributing to forums | Feb 5, 2007 |
Dear Jackie,
Please don't stop contributing to ProZ forums. We need you. I've now read your profile (I guess everyone has!) and have become a fervent admirer. You are one feisty lady. (Both my grandmothers were suffragettes).
I admire your American self-confidence and, above all, your determination not to accept ghastly English - I'm the same. Perhaps we should have a new "post" about our least-favourite items of "businessese" - not to mention the mealy-mouthed "Bl... See more Dear Jackie,
Please don't stop contributing to ProZ forums. We need you. I've now read your profile (I guess everyone has!) and have become a fervent admirer. You are one feisty lady. (Both my grandmothers were suffragettes).
I admire your American self-confidence and, above all, your determination not to accept ghastly English - I'm the same. Perhaps we should have a new "post" about our least-favourite items of "businessese" - not to mention the mealy-mouthed "Blairisms" that are rife, at least in Britain, these days - the transformation of nouns into verbs, the use of "key" as an adjective, and so on and on and on ... oops! Wer'e not supposed to be political in these columns ...
I lived and worked in America (New York City) for a few years and it changed my attitude to life and work. I no longer feel "Britishly" embarrassed by insisting on a reasonable rate of pay or demanding payment of late invoices, or presenting myself as a competent professional.
I don't need an enormous income myself, as I no longer have a mortgage to pay or children to educate (or even a dog or cat to feed), so I guess I'm lucky. I've reached that famous sunlit upland where I can please myself, but I love being a freelance translator and earn quite enough to do everything I want to do - but it is the result of a hard-working life.
Keep at it, everyone. Keep at it, Jackie.
Buena suerte,
Jenny. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I too am glad to see you around, Jackie! | Feb 5, 2007 |
I think what people took exception to in your first post was that first, you stated that you earned, part time, what seems to be at least twice the average full time salary in the US, and then you expressed incredulity that there are people out there working for 1200 euros a month.
Whether you're happy with what you earn is entirely up to you, of course, but as you yourself say in your second post, what you do is completely different (and much more stressful, I'd imagine) from what ... See more I think what people took exception to in your first post was that first, you stated that you earned, part time, what seems to be at least twice the average full time salary in the US, and then you expressed incredulity that there are people out there working for 1200 euros a month.
Whether you're happy with what you earn is entirely up to you, of course, but as you yourself say in your second post, what you do is completely different (and much more stressful, I'd imagine) from what most translators do and therefore what you earn is light years away from what most translators earn. You say yourself that you're at the upper end of the scale - it logically follows that most people earn less than you. In most cases, a lot less! In your first post you seemed to have lost sight of this.
FWIW, I don't think I'd like to be doing your job - I'm happier doing what I do now. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Irene N
United States
Local time: 03:34
English to Russian
+ ...
| For the record | Feb 5, 2007 |
[quote]Jonathan Spector wrote:
IreneN wrote:
If part-time means 6 months out of a year at $.18 and 15 days/mo - 7716 words/day. If even less... my congratulations:-)
Check out her profile.
I did. I assumed the average net since the net was in question. Also, the whole thing was not about looking into Jackie's pocket.
[Edited at 2007-02-05 18:58]
[Edited at 2007-02-05 20:34]
This is much closer to what I really think.
Daddy, why are these people hungry? - Because they don't have any bread. - Really? Why don't they go and buy pastries in the bakery?
Obviously, the same cloud mass obscures both top and bottom views of the Olympus.
More money to everyone. No kidding.
Irene
[Edited at 2007-02-05 21:18]
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| A bit off topic: Jackie Bowman Fan Club | Feb 5, 2007 |
Jackie, your gift for writing is simply amazing!, so I would like to echo what others have requested: please visit us more often! Your style is extremely funny (my idea of funny), yet so elegant and intelligent/witty (my idea of intelligent/witty).
As to having stepped on other people's toes for saying that you earn sooooo much, well, like Irene more or less already suggested, with you it is never easy to separate fact from fiction, no matter how much you make it sound "true." And I... See more Jackie, your gift for writing is simply amazing!, so I would like to echo what others have requested: please visit us more often! Your style is extremely funny (my idea of funny), yet so elegant and intelligent/witty (my idea of intelligent/witty).
As to having stepped on other people's toes for saying that you earn sooooo much, well, like Irene more or less already suggested, with you it is never easy to separate fact from fiction, no matter how much you make it sound "true." And I say this, like most of us, simply based on your profile ("BILLS"???? 100$ bills or 1000$ bills?), which really does not sound/look very "real" (my idea of real) (Btw, whose picture have you got now in your profile? Another actress?)
So I hope you at least understand why some of us may find some of your comments a bit ...err... unbelievable, even if they are actually true or simply aimed at "stirring/challenging people's ideas/minds".
But again, as I once declared in another thread, Jackie Bowman rocks! (whether you really are a woman, a man or just a virtual "persona"...)
Muchos saludos,
Ivette
P.S.: Will you tell us one day the titles of some of the books you have written, newspaper/magazine columns to which you contribute or film scripts you have written? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Patrice 
United States
Local time: 01:34
Member
French to English
+ ...
| I thought I must be a loser... | Feb 5, 2007 |
...when I read Jackie Bowman's comments. Then I looked at her profile. Jackie, very enjoyable, your joke on all of the translators out there who take the Proz site seriously. I laughed at your cutline ("your deadline is unimportant) and at your conditions for accepting assignments (percentage of employees with combovers etc). Enjoyed your keywords. Had a good laugh. I don't know why you bother, though.
| | | | | I know you don't know ... | Feb 5, 2007 |
Patricia Struyk wrote:
I laughed at your cutline ("your deadline is unimportant) and at your conditions for accepting assignments (percentage of employees with combovers etc). Enjoyed your keywords. Had a good laugh. I don't know why you bother, though.
... but all best wishes to you anyway.
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Between those who are in awe of you and put you on a bit of a pedestal and those who remain aghast at some of your comments, you must be having a ball!
Hope you won't be offended with my saying you strike me as "normal with a good dose of NYC chutzpah" (oh, darn, is that a word I am not allowed to use?). It's a compliment. Reading you is refreshing and takes me back to my NY days.
Keep crackin' that verbal whip (where were you on the contest debate??? On vacation?? Or... See more Between those who are in awe of you and put you on a bit of a pedestal and those who remain aghast at some of your comments, you must be having a ball!
Hope you won't be offended with my saying you strike me as "normal with a good dose of NYC chutzpah" (oh, darn, is that a word I am not allowed to use?). It's a compliment. Reading you is refreshing and takes me back to my NY days.
Keep crackin' that verbal whip (where were you on the contest debate??? On vacation?? Or maybe your post got scrapped as I know a few others that were...). You're the closest thing to Andy Rooney I've come across in a long time, and I have always wanted his job....
Cheers,
Patricia ▲ Collapse
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| You mean ... you mean? | Feb 6, 2007 |
Patricia Struyk wrote:
...when I read Jackie Bowman's comments. Then I looked at her profile. Jackie, very enjoyable, your joke on all of the translators out there who take the Proz site seriously. I laughed at your cutline ("your deadline is unimportant) and at your conditions for accepting assignments (percentage of employees with combovers etc). Enjoyed your keywords. Had a good laugh. I don't know why you bother, though.
Oh Patricia,
Do you mean to tell me Jackie Bowman isn't real? This is a fearful blow - I was so happy organising her wedding to Giovanni. And that's just me. Heaven knows how he'll feel.
It's like discovering the truth about Santa Claus.
(Exit left, abashed).
Jenny
| | | | | 1000 dollars a minute, VIP rate | Feb 8, 2007 |
Dear Lowly other people,
I agree with that Jackie Bowman, because I also earn lots of money. People pay me just to smile at them.
Something I share with Jackie is working with important people, yes, you guessed it, those speedy types in government, none of us ever fall asleep at work, because everything is so snip snap happy and important, you don't know what excitement is until you have sat in some office ten or twenty floors up in the air, all day long, in my case hal... See more Dear Lowly other people,
I agree with that Jackie Bowman, because I also earn lots of money. People pay me just to smile at them.
Something I share with Jackie is working with important people, yes, you guessed it, those speedy types in government, none of us ever fall asleep at work, because everything is so snip snap happy and important, you don't know what excitement is until you have sat in some office ten or twenty floors up in the air, all day long, in my case half a day.
We go for it, none of us have dreadlocks, but man, we do work it, sure, we can't even keep up with ourselves most of the time, that's why I earn a lot on the side, for smiling at those sweating over those punctuation marks.
I'm also paid to frown and look angry, in this way I only have to show attitude and the rest takes care of itself.
That's why we get it all done right away, nothing is worked out afterwards, nothing is done at home, my travelling expenses are a hundred thousand a month, people exclaim down long halls in Paris, Milan and New York, ''Wowaweewa, there comes that translator guy, watch it, his words will kill you on the spot, he's a tough guy, he used to exterminate Russians!''
No, we do not hire any interpreters or record things, we do it all right there in the moment, it's like being in a journalist's office in a Hollywood film, millions of those typewriters hammering away, we even talk like those folk did too, and we wear those armbands and sunshade things instead of sunglasses because, well, we forget where we are and do not know what time it is, we are too busy, at least four hours a day we are as moths to a flame, there's no holding us back, that's all we need to do our work of course, anymore than that would lead to acute heart attacks.
We don't spend any time ranting on about who had the best dinner, whether it was a five or ten course culinary extravaganza with or without champagne, in fact, we are so busy in those few hours - with all of us translator types running in and out flinging mind-bendingly and intelligent words at each other, as if it might save us from the lions in a Roman arena full of back-stabbing contestants desperate to save themselves from certain death - that we foam at the mouth in between sentences.
Also, I might add, I am just like Jackie, I have not lost a single hair on my loaf of bread, simply because I'm cool, I'm ninety but look thirty, I used to be a rasta just like Jackie is, and like her, I started translating at the age of ten, yet, mostly my rate of pay is determined by my attitude, the one where I don't take no faeces from nobody man and avoid swearing, except when my mother encourages me to.
At my rate of pay, I would prefer to work just a half day a week but the others are too snail-like and so I work for the sake of it and I don't mind telling you, I work hard, not for me, but for all the starving kids in the world and the other people who are just too dumb to earn a living, that's why I choose to take a half day's pay and donate the rest to the needy.
I still earn ten billion dollars each six months and that's without any extra jobs like prostitution, but, am I happy, am I heck, I'm grossly underpaid.
Yours down to earth
Guy in a grey suit and brown shoes ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I bow down before you, oh mighty one! | Feb 9, 2007 |
| | | | | working with direct clients | May 6, 2007 |
Jackie Bowman wrote:
In fiscal year 2006, from translation, I earned less (net) than US$ 125,000. I only translate part-time, and if I didn’t spend most of my time working in another field, FY 2006 would have been bad news for me. As a point of principle I never, ever, translate for agencies.
And as a freelancer working on your own, can you handle big projects from direct clients?
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| Yes. And no. And also. | May 8, 2007 |
eva75 wrote: Jackie Bowman wrote:
In fiscal year 2006, from translation, I earned less (net) than US$ 125,000. I only translate part-time, and if I didn’t spend most of my time working in another field, FY 2006 would have been bad news for me. As a point of principle I never, ever, translate for agencies. And as a freelancer working on your own, can you handle big projects from direct clients?
How big is “big”? A 200-page book for the United Nations on poverty and human development – is that “big” in your view? If it is, then the answer to your question is “yes”.
Or is “big” a series of books for the World Bank on poverty and human development, to be delivered within two weeks? In that case, the answer to your question is “no”.
Or is “big” a 500-page manual about how to operate oil-drilling machinery, the job being processed through an agency at a rate-per-word that is in single digits? To which the answer is: “Are you kidding? What am I, an idiot?”
[Edited at 2007-05-08 16:45]
| | | | Irene N
United States
Local time: 03:34
English to Russian
+ ...
| Poverty is an excellent source of money for rich | May 9, 2007 |
Jackie Bowman wrote:
A 200-page book for the United Nations on poverty and human development... What am I, an idiot?”
Ms./Mrs. Bowman,
Have you learned anything from the books that make your dog thrive? Do you know that single-digit numbers in hard currency for a 500-pager can make a difference for 2-3 generations in one family in the countries described in those books put together by impotent and corrupt UN blabbers? Someone could make enough to ease the burden of saving them off the fat shoulders of the UN pencil-pushers. And NOONE will pay that someone a nickel more. Do you know that in many countries the choice can be - feed your children with what you can or die? Re-read those books, learn how the market works.
Making money on the subject of poverty and despising the poor... Oh so familiar.
I'm warning you - one more time you throw the word "idiot" in people's faces here and as a paying member of this community I will demand banning you. You have just hurt so many... Not me, I am well into your respected 2-digit range.
| | | | | Houston (and ProZ), I think we (and you) have a problem | May 9, 2007 |
Dear Ms/Mrs IreneN,
You said many things, and I think that none of us needs me to quote them here because they're all in the post immediately above. So let's just get straight to it ...
Dear Ms/Mrs IreneN,
Right now, I don’t have time to answer your post in full, rebutting it point-by-point. I find myself in Chontales, Nicaragua, where I am doing the pitiful amount I can do to make poor people less poor. I find myself doing that quite a lot. In fac... See more Dear Ms/Mrs IreneN,
You said many things, and I think that none of us needs me to quote them here because they're all in the post immediately above. So let's just get straight to it ...
Dear Ms/Mrs IreneN,
Right now, I don’t have time to answer your post in full, rebutting it point-by-point. I find myself in Chontales, Nicaragua, where I am doing the pitiful amount I can do to make poor people less poor. I find myself doing that quite a lot. In fact, I find that I have spent much of my adult life doing it.
But I will, I assure you, be responding to your post as soon as time allows, and as soon as I am less bewildered by your message, which has now been in the public domain on ProZ for many, many hours.
In the meantime, I implore you to proceed with your ultimatum (“one more time …”) and I implore you simply to ask, immediately, right now, that I be banned from this site. Please, please, do it. Do it now, and don’t wait for me to offend you again. “You have hurt so many,” you say to me, in an international forum, a forum that has allowed you to say that to me on an international stage. Perhaps you could contact some of the “so many” whom I have offended, and campaign for me to be banned from this site. Again, I implore you, please do it.
Since your own message, which I find deeply wounding, has been in the public domain for many hours on ProZ, I would find it extremely disheartening if some staff member of ProZ blocked this reply.
Other than that, I can assure you I will be in touch with you about your reply as soon as time allows. ▲ Collapse
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