R.I.P. Geocities April 23, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.3 comments
From the PCWorld blog:
GeoCities, a free Web hosting service that achieved fame in the mid-90s, died Thursday at the Yahoo headquarters in Silicon Valley. GeoCities was 15 years old.
GeoCities had suffered a long and drawn-out battle with its health over the past decade. An antiquated service model and outdated technology are widely blamed for the struggle. An official cause of death, however, has yet to be determined.
GeoCities: 1995 – 2009
…
GeoCities is survived by two cousins, Angelfire and Tripod, along with an uncle, Jeeves. All three are believed to be terminally ill.
Of the 12 remaining GeoCities users, only one was available for comment. “Holy crap!” said the user, a red-faced fellow named Strong Bad. “The scroll buttons and animated GIFs on that site were unbeatable.”
The GeoCities site is expected to remain functional through midyear as a tribute to its life. Funeral arrangements are now pending.
Although I haven’t thought about GeoCities for a long time I have fond memories of trolling its sites in my days of an Internet research.
Pretty soon they’ll be making US pay THEM to translate their texts April 23, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.4 comments
I love the title of this post. It is the first thing that popped into my mind as a translation of something someone on one of my German forums wrote this morning (Vielleicht sollen wir bald noch Geld mitbringen, wenn wir was übersetzen wollen 🙂 ), and I was struck by the truth to it. The discussion was sparked by a inquiry by an agency in the UK offering EUR 0,075 per word for German and French <> English. That was the agency price, so you can only imagine what they were paying their translators – if translators were even involved at all. We all receive ridiculous offers every now and again. I myself was offered $0.02 for medical about a month ago. Needless to say I didn’t even bother replying.
But there is a kernel of truth to this flippant response. Agencies are trying to depress prices more and more to survive these economically troubled times. Where will the price dumping stop? If agencies are offering $0.01 to $0.02 there’s nowhere else to go… Will agencies soon start insisting we pay them for the privilege of translating for them? Think about it…
Hopefully things aren’t as dire as some of these discussions on listservs make it out to be. I still have plenty of work at my rates, and I know translators who have raised their rates and are still getting plenty of work. The bottom has not yet dropped out of the industry, but the bottom is dropping out for some agencies, who are becoming more and more desperate. Their quality will suffer as a result, which will (hopefully) cause them to lose clients. It will be interesting to see how things shake out by the time the economy gets better again.
Knowing when to step back and take a deep breath April 22, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings.2 comments
Business has started to pick up again (thank goodness!), and I had an Aha moment yesterday that I wanted to share with you. I got absolutely slammed with work over the past weekend. I had 27,000 words to proofread for one client and 5,000 words for another, several personal documents to translate for an individual, and a difficult AGB that I needed to finish. And then another client called begging me to accept another proofreading job (“only 300 lines”). I had initially turned them down flat-out, explaining I simply had too much to do as it was, but then the owner called and I managed to let her talk me into putting it off until Monday. Little did I know she meant Monday at noon my time, but that’s another story unto itself. Monday rolled around, and I had finished everything but the 27,000 words and the rush job. Somehow over the weekend or in the chaos of Monday morning between answering phone calls from the client every ten minutes and scrambling to make the deadline (I finally had to put my foot down and tell them in no uncertain terms to stop calling or I wouldn’t make the deadline), I somehow managed to lose the translation of the personal documents.
I needed to print the pages out yesterday to have it notarized and mail it to the client, and I could not find the file on my hard drive. I have a system that usually always works. Anything I am working on is either in the Attachments folder of my e-mail program or My Documents. Once I finish the job (and send the invoice) I zip up all the files and move them to an archive that is broken down by month and delete them from My Documents. When I get crazy busy, this sometimes has to wait until things slow down enough that I have time to do it.
I looked for the file I needed in both folders – three times! – and could not find it. I looked in my temporary folders. I started to wonder if I had possibly translated it and then forgotten to save the file in the franticness of the weekend. Talk about a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach… I couldn’t remember what I had called it, but I had a vague idea. I definitely knew that it contained the client’s last name. I initiated a search of the hard drive, searching for the client’s last name inside the file itself, and went off to make a cup of tea. As the water started boiling, it occurred to me that I had used a template of a birth certificate and that the file might have been saved in my Templates subfolder. Sure enough – it was!
Organization of files on your computer is so important. I know several colleagues who constantly lose files because they don’t know where they have saved them. I am a double Virgo, so this kind of disorganization would drive me insane. I lost 15 minutes yesterday trying to find the file. Being organized is important, but so is stepping back and taking a deep breath every once in a while. If I hadn’t stepped back and made a cup of tea I might still be searching for the file…
Common misconceptions about translation April 22, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Translation Sites.3 comments
Percy Balemans (@pikorua) just published an excellent post, Common misconceptions about translation, on her blog today. It is a rehash of things we always hear from clients, colleagues and people who want to break into the business, but she includes some very good arguments and explanations to things we hear every day. My favorite is the one with the client who wants a 2500 word file back in an hour. It’s definitely worth a read. I’ve been following her on Twitter, but wasn’t aware she had a blog.
Update: I’ve changed Percy’s gender in the post due to a comment. Thanks for letting me know, Bint. Guess I should have clicked on ‘About Me.’ I had her confused with someone else I follow on Twitter. Mea culpa!
USA Today: Despite heavy recruitment CIA still short on bilingual staff April 19, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings, Translation Sites.6 comments
There is an interesting article on the USA Today website about how only “13% of CIA employees speak a foreign language nearly five years after the 9/11 Commission urged the agency to expand its ranks of bilingual operatives and analysts to help thwart future terrorist attacks.”
I found it particularly interesting to read that the CIA is using recruitment tools such as “Internet ads on YouTube and Facebook.” That is sure to be an effective way to find qualified employees to perform confidential and top secret duties (NOT!).
The article is very critical that the CIA still has not made significant progress recruiting bilingual employees eight years after 9/11. Considering the fact that President Bush ordered the CIA to boost its ranks of foreign language speakers by 50% back in 2004 this seems like an Epic Fail to me, but then again what do I know? I got fed up working for the federal government a long time ago.
TGIF: Conjunction Junction April 17, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.add a comment
Thanks to the ALTA Blog for reminding me about one of my favorite influences from my childhood, Schoolhouse Rock. They wrote about interjections in a blog post called Interjection Junction a few days ago. It made me smile and then I shared some Schoolhouse Rock videos with my nieces when I babysat them on Wednesday.
In case any of you were wondering about my path to becoming a translator, Schoolhouse Rock played a huge role in making me the grammarian I am today. Airing during Saturday morning cartoons from 1973 to 1985, Schoolhouse Rock taught my generation all about American history, grammar, and multiplication. Schoolhouse Rock aired 41 short segments featuring catchy tunes, and most of my generation passed our U.S. History tests by singing the Preamble of the Constitution to ourselves. I know because I looked around the room and almost fell out of my chair laughing when I saw everyone silently singing to themselves. To this day I can still sing “Conjunction Junction,” “Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs here,” “The Shot Heard Round the World,” “Mother Necessity,” and the classic “I’m Just a Bill” – and it was 25 years ago!
Schoolhouse Rock was conceived in 1971 when, according to the History of Schoolhouse Rock, “David McCall, chairman of big-time New York ad agency McCaffrey & McCall, noticed that his son could sing every Beatles and Stones lyric ever recorded but couldn’t handle simple multiplication tables. His solution was simple: Link math with contemporary music and the kids will breeze through school on a song.” And the rest is history. I’ll be posting some of my favorite Grammar Rock clips over the next few weeks. This one is my all-time favorite, Conjunction Junction. I hope you enjoy them!
Unethical behavior when acquiring a new customer April 16, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Marketing ideas.9 comments
There is an interesting discussion on the PT listserv this morning on one particularly questionable method of acquiring new customers, and I felt the need to share my thoughts on it with all of you. One of the colleagues on the listserv reports that one of her customers, who publishes a magazine in several languages, receives mails practically once a week in which one of the foreign language articles is copied and edited within an inch of its life (emphasis mine – what she really said is “mit viel Farbmarkierungen versehen” = with lots of colored changes/highlights, but I have a feeling that is what is being implied…) to show that the translation is not very good – but there are no concrete suggestions for improvement. They must be corrections for corrections’ sake – we are all familiar with this kind of “proofreading” (in German we call it “verschlimmbessern” – making something worse by trying to improve it). The person sending these mails simply marks up the text and then encloses a letter in which they claim that they can do a much better job translating the texts – and at a lower price. Luckily her client values her translators and tosses the letters out, but anyone would get upset if they got mail like this every week. The client made the comment today that she has only seen such “uncollegial” and unethical behavior from translators. I certainly hope that isn’t the case.
This kind of behavior to win over a new customer is appalling. As one colleague pointed out, the method is not only unethical, but also stupid. The person sending the e-mail and trying to win over a new customer is merely showing how devious and underhanded they are and cutting off the branch they themselves are sitting on. As one other colleague so aptly pointed out, “Das Erste, was ein Vertriebsmensch lernt: Weise auf die Vorzüge Deines Produkts / Deiner Dienstleistung hin, aber rede nie schlecht über Mitbewerber” (The first thing a salesperson learns is to point out the advantages of your product / your services, but never talk bad about your competitors). I couldn’t have said it better myself.
This is different from seeing a badly translated website or sign and making fun of it. Let’s face it, there are a lot of badly translated texts out there, and some clients probably used their secretaries who speak the other language to translate them – or thought they could do the jobs themselves because they studied in the U.S. for a year ten years ago. You can tell when a translation has been written by a professional and by an amateur. There’s nothing wrong with correcting these texts to make the company realize they need to use professionals in order to come across as professional. But tooting your own horn and making corrections for corrections’ sake in the process to try to win over a new customer is not a good way to go.
When you are marketing yourself to new customers, please try not to use this method. Point out the advantages of working with you without making their existing translators look bad. There is a huge difference. Besides, the client and translator might have a really good, long-standing relationship, and it could blow up in your face.
Bilingual briefing at the White House a historic first April 14, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.3 comments
Everyone said Barack Obama would be embracing languages, but I don’t think anyone ever expected it would happen so soon. When the White House announced it was loosening restrictions on travel and money transfers to Cuba Monday afternoon, the news was delivered in Spanish and English – a historic first. After White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs read a statement about the changes to reporters, he stepped aside while Dan Restrepo, Special Assistant to the President and a Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council, read the statement in Spanish. How cool is that? I think it showed an unprecedented amount of respect for the Spanish-speaking citizens in the U.S. Bravo, Mr. President!
illy’s tax stimulus package April 14, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, German culture.2 comments
Have you ever looked at the “possibly related posts” at the bottom of the blog posts here in WordPress? If not, you may be missing out. Some of the possibly related posts are pretty lame, but the latest one for my last post, T minus one and counting… Tax Day is almost here, was really interesting. Apparently illy, the maker of that delicious Italian coffee, is offering a special deal. According to the Slashfood post, illy is apparently “offering a deal on their brand new espresso machine. After June 30th, it will cost approximately $695. If you purchase this new machine before June 30th, you’ll just pay $150.” So if you were looking for a way to spend your tax refund check (oh, who am I kidding? none of my readers get tax refunds… I mean, if you want to buy a new coffeemaker…) you should check out the new espresso machine. The only hitch is that by buying the machine you “can enroll in their automatic coffee delivery program.”
My beverage center in my kitchen
Now, I don’t drink enough coffee to make an automatic coffee delivery program worth it. I don’t want to become addicted and get a headache if I have to go without coffee one day. I do appreciate a really good cup of coffee every other day or so. Most translators I know are huge coffee fans. We have lived in Europe, hung out in Viennese/Parisienne/(insert city here) cafes and appreciate a good cup of joe. If you are anything like me you buy imported coffee. I just finished up my illy and have cracked open my big pack of Jakobs Krönung, which should last me a while. I have a German Tupperware coffee container (see photo) that fits a 500 g pack of Jakobs Krönung perfectly. Another factor in translators’ love of coffee (and tea) is that we sometimes have to pull all-nighters to meet a deadline. This coffeemaker might be just the ticket…
T minus one and counting… Tax Day is almost here April 13, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings.2 comments
I have had my taxes finished for about a month and a half now, but I choose to wait to mail in my returns until April 15th since – like most freelancers – I always owe the government instead of getting a refund like everyone else in the world. I’ve known this day was coming and have had the money set aside (unfortunately I had to dip into my “house down payment” savings account to cover the bigger-than-expected federal tax bill and my accountant’s fee), but it still hurts to write all those checks to the U.S. Treasury, State of Ohio and local city tax office – plus my first quarter estimates. The returns are signed, the checks are written, and the envelopes have been stuffed and sealed. I’ll be mailing them out on the 15th.
I was surprised to see that business really wasn’t as bad as I thought it was in the first quarter. My revenue compared to the first quarter of 2008 is down only $200, but I think my second quarter revenue is going to be down quite a bit compared to 2008. It’s already down about $7000 compared to this time last year. This overworked translator misses being overworked!
Musings from an overworked translator 