Musings from an Underemployed Translator July 29, 2023
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings, Uncategorized.3 comments
I’m thinking about renaming this blog Musings from an Underemployed Translator. Machine translation, artificial intelligence, and T&I industry mergers and acquisitions have left me with no work. The rose-colored predictions forecasted highly specialized translators would not be affected, but I am not the only translator at the top of my specialization who has noticed a huge drop in work. Two experts who have actually written dictionaries in their field are also reporting an alarming drop in work. Can it be blamed entirely on MT and AI? Has COVID played a role – or the weak German economy? It’s hard to say. But the fact remains that I am revising my resume and looking for work. I will not be attending the ATA conference this year, because I haven’t had any income in three months.
I have been fighting this for as long as I can. I have marketed my butt off for several years. I started pushing my specialization (medical translation). I thought medical would be a good choice because of data privacy and HIPAA. Turns out many clients don’t care. I started a “second job” as a Zoom producer, but there aren’t a lot of classes offered in the summer months. I picked up a new skill this year when I attended a two-week course to learn old German script at the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in June. I can now read and transcribe the fancy Kurrent and Gothic writing from the 1700s and 1800s. The course was a blast, and I went from not even knowing if the document I brought with me was written in German to being able to sight read it toward the end of the second week. And I transcribed 44 lines of text in 45 minutes with only a few mistakes for our “final.” I sent out an email to my clients informing them of my new skill and got a one-off, 1-page job from one of them. But then, once again, crickets…
The fact remains that I need to earn money to pay rent and bills and buy food for my cat and me. If you are or know of an agency or direct client who could use my services, please send me an email. If you have ever learned or benefited from this blog, feel free to Buy Me a Coffee as a thank you. In the meantime, I will continue to look for a job and if it isn’t in the T&I industry, this blog will go away. It’s been a good run!
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday March 16, 2022
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Uncategorized.add a comment
TGIF: He’s the Hero we all need! April 7, 2017
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds4RlD35Mpc
For more information: click here.
TGIF: Best Christmas ad of the year December 9, 2016
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF, Uncategorized.add a comment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6jdakVLl6c
Good deal on ABBYY FineReader12 November 28, 2016
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Tech tips, Tools, Uncategorized.3 comments
ABBYY is offering its latest version of FineReader 12 for $99/65 EUR instead of $169.99/130 EUR. The offer is valid until December 4, 2016.
You can order it here:
https://www.abbyy.com/en-us/finereader/professional/
To buy in euros:
<https://store.abbyyeu.com/c/shop/ml=DE/curr=EUR/?cntr=DE&ID=FR12PEE&PROMO=CYBERWEEK2016MAIL&APX=BFCWMAIL16DE&clps=1&utm_source=NL_CYBERWEEK_NOV16_DE&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BLACKFRIDAY2016> (this is the link for German, but you can find it in your language by going to the ABBYY site, “Selecting your Region” in the upper-right corner and clicking on Individuals and then FineReader 12).
TGIF: Disney princesses singing in their original language February 19, 2016
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF, Uncategorized.add a comment
This features a couple of clips of what Disney Princesses sound like singing their songs in their native or original language with a before and after in English. Elsa from Frozen is Norwegian, Ariel from The Little Mermaid is Danish, Jasmine from Aladdin is Arabic, Mulan is Chinese (Mandarin), and Rapunzel from Tangled is German.
An office idea for those with limited space February 1, 2016
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I saw this photo this morning on my Facebook feed and have to say I am fairly taken with the idea. It hangs old doors from the ceiling to create a closed corner. I love the look and the feel of this. I already have an office with a door, but this might be an option for those of you who do not.
RIP Chris Irwin June 5, 2015
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Uncategorized.2 comments
I am devastated to hear the news this morning that Chris Irwin (aka Textklick:
http://www.proz.com/profile/19251) died of a stroke over the weekend. I hadn’t conversed with him recently, but I considered him a friend. He was also kind and cheerful in the comments and tweets we exchanged. He donated when I walked in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for breast cancer research in honor of his wife, who was under treatment at the time. He was a dear, dear man and his loss is great here in our little online world. If you would like to offer your condolences to his family you can do it here.
A great way to start the morning December 11, 2014
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Uncategorized.2 comments
This video was shared on one of my listservs this morning. A great way to start the day. This might be fun to do at next year’s ATA Conference? Hat tip to Pharrel Williams and our colleagues in Vienna.
Musings from an overworked translator 