Gut gebrüllt, Löwe! (aka The Masked Translator rocks!) August 4, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings.1 comment so far
FYI, Gut gebrüllt, Löwe basically means “Right on!” (literally: Well roared, lion)…
The Masked Translator has a fantastic post about translation agencies’ communication methods with their translators. Masked Translator then breaks down the various forms of communication, which include mass e-mails, assigning jobs to the fastest responder (so not worth anyone’s time!) and agency newsletters. If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest you immediately click on the above link. I would add that agencies need to clearly state at the top of the e-mail or in the subject line that they are sending out a mass e-mail or an e-mail inquiry without a confirmed job attached.
Two months ago one of my best friends received an e-mail from an agency that appeared to be a job request on a Friday afternoon that was due on Monday. Since she had an open P.O. with them for a related job she assumed it was a confirmed request and spent the weekend translating the job and delivered it, only to be told that the job had been assigned to someone else.
I myself fell victim to something similar over the July 4th weekend. A client (agency owner) sent me a job request on July 4th with a Tuesday deadline to my Gmail account (something I had asked him not to do several times). I had an autoresponder on my two main e-mail accounts informing my clients I was out of the office for the holiday weekend. I checked my mail Sunday night and responded (with a CC: to the specified project manager as well) that I would be happy to accept the job. The client never responded on Monday at all (not even to say they had given the job to someone else), so I proofread the job and delivered it that night. The next day I received a terse e-mail stating a PO had never been issued (literally one sentence long), so I had wasted three hours proofreading 12 pages (the translation was terrible!). I responded saying they should have written on Monday when I agreed to take the job and let me know they had assigned it to someone else. I then cut my losses and wrote them off. Needless to say I will never work with that agency again, and I assume they realize that because I haven’t heard from them since.
Scam/virus alert! August 4, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Scam alert.1 comment so far
I just received this e-mail and wanted to warn the translation blogosphere just in case one of you receives a similar e-mail. I am fairly confident (ok, more than fairly confident…) that the attachment contained a virus, so I of course deleted it without opening it. I also know no money was debited from my account, because I had just checked my account to ensure a payment had been transferred several minutes beforehand.
Subject: Lastschrift 89773505
Morgen,
Ihr Auftrag Nr. SP0511940 wurde erfullt.
Ein Betrag von 6890.87 EURO wurde abgebucht und wird in Ihrem Bankauszug als “Paypalabbuchung ” angezeigt.
Sie finden die Details zu der Rechnung im Anhang
PayPal (Europe)
S.577; r.l. & Cie, S.C.A.
98-57 Boulevard Royal
L-2001 Luxembourg
Hochachtungsvoll,
Vertretungsberechtigter: Deandre Xiong
Handelsregisternummer: R.C.S. B 194 162
Basically, the gist of the e-mail, for those of you who do not speak German, is that Order No. SP0511940 had been carried out and that they had debited €6,890.87 from my bank account as a PayPal transfer. The details of the transfer “can be found in the attached file.” I have no doubt the address and Handelsregisternummer (Commercial Register Number) are not real, so I don’t have any qualms about posting them here. I also doubt there is anyone named Deandre Xiong living in Luxembourg – or anywhere else for that matter.
The e-mail itself is suitably vague. The subject line is “Direct debit/debit memo 89773505” or something like that (I generally run screaming from translating financial texts, so don’t quote me on that). When I first saw the subject line in my Mailwasher program I thought it might be a translation request, but luckily I read the body of the e-mail as well.
I fell for this sort of thing about eight years ago when I opened an attachment that contained the “I Love You” virus, because the e-mail came from a client and sounded like it was a proofreading job (it was a variation on the first wave of the virus). I spent quite a bit of time and energy removing it, so I learned my lesson about opening attachments from unknown “clients.” If I get an e-mail with a strange subject line from a potential client I will either delete it sight unseen or reply asking them for more information about themselves. If the e-mail bounces back I know I can delete the e-mail.
I’m sure the point behind the e-mail is to make the recipient panic that money had been unjustifiably debited from their bank account and open the attachment to find out more details. A cooler head would wonder how these folks had gotten their bank information and authorization to debit the money from the account for a nebulous business transaction in the first place.
A little skepticism can go a long way in ensuring you don’t fall for scams, viruses and worms.
TGIF: Eddie Izzard on Being Bilingual August 1, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.add a comment
It’s Friday! Time for another video. This is a clip from comedian and actor Eddie Izzard’s Dress to Kill stand-up act. For those of you who are not familiar with Eddie Izzard, he is an Emmy-winning English stand-up comedian and actor who is currently starring in The Riches (on American cable channel FX) with Minnie Driver. As Wikipedia reports, “Izzard’s style is heavily influenced by Monty Python, especially in his use of a stream-of-consciousness delivery that jumps between topics as he free-associates onstage. He does not generally work from a script, due to his dyslexia.” His comedy style is expressed in rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime. Despite the fact that some of his humor goes straight over the heads of the American audience it is still brilliant. This particular clip talks about the differences between British and American English.
And since I was just raving about American moviemakers, here is Izzard’s take on British vs. U.S. movies.
Hollywood gets lost in translation – Groan! August 1, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in German culture, Random musings, Translation Sites.3 comments
USA Today has an interesting article about how Hollywood is taking “a more active role in translating its [movie] titles to make sure ‘global launches’ go well.” Hollywood gets lost in translation examines the practice of titling movies for foreign audiences and cites several interesting examples. The author explains “Titles are often tweaked to sound better in the local language, or to provide a hint of the plot to audiences who might be skeptical of what is, to them, a foreign film.” It claims that “translations used to be left to foreign film distributors, with dubious results.” It is an interesting article that will hopefully educate USA Today’s ADHD-afflicted readership that there are other countries and cultures beyond our borders (dare to dream!).
I used to love trying to guess the American title of a movie or TV show when I lived in Germany and always enjoy researching the alternate titles on The Internet Movie Database when I come upon a movie or TV show title in a translation. For instance, the “Die Hard” movies are called Stirb langsam (Die Slowly) in German. “Die Hard 2” is Stirb Langsam 2 – Die Harder, “Die Hard: With a Vengeance” became Stirb Langsam – Jetzt erst recht (Die Slowly – Now more than ever), and “Live Free or Die Hard” has the imaginative title Stirb Langsam 4.0. And, yes, I needed to know this for a computer game.
It’s about time Hollywood started recognizing that they aren’t just making movies for American audiences. Now if only we could get them to stop including gratuitous shots of the American flag or other unnecessary shows of patriotism. Don’t get me wrong; I am as patriotic as the next person. However, after six years in Germany that kind of stuff really makes me shudder because instead of experiencing a swelling of pride or whatever the filmmakers expect us to react with I immediately wonder how non-Americans will react. Most Germans I know generally roll their eyes or make a comment. I had the same reaction at the Cleveland Indians’ game this past Sunday. Instead of belting out “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the Seventh Inning Stretch they started us off singing “God Bless America” (the ACLU would have had a field day…) and I sheepishly looked over at the Japanese guy sitting two seats over from me to see how he was reacting to it. OK, how did I get off-topic again…
I’m honored… July 31, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in German culture, Random musings, Translation Sites.add a comment
About Translation reported that my humble blog has been named one of the “Top 100 Language Blogs” by LexioPhiles. Considering the fact that I’ve only been doing this since May 30th, I’m frankly floored and honored to be included among such blogs as yndigo (34), About Translation (42), Translation Blog (52), Blogging Translator (53), and Thoughts On Translation (100). I came in at number 69, which makes me chuckle since I was born in the Summer of ’69. I enjoy reading these blogs very much and have discovered a couple new ones on the list to follow as well.
One of my latest finds (which isn’t on the list) is Nothing for Ungood, which Margaret Marks’ Transblawg (which should have also been considered – I’ve been reading Transblawg for years now) talked about yesterday. I wasted a good half hour of my day yesterday reading Nothing for Ungood’s hilarious insights on Germany and the German culture.
Getting excited for the ATA Conference in Orlando July 31, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Marketing ideas, Random musings, Translation Sites.add a comment
I received the preliminary program for the ATA conference in the mail today and immediately went online and registered. I have attended the conference every year since I moved back to the U.S. in 2001, but I frankly wasn’t too excited about the conference this year and had considered not attending. However, as one of the members of the GLD conference planning committee, I got excited to attend Thea Dohler’s presentations on time management (to be presented in German). Then, to top it all off, the conference organizers asked Corinne McKay and me to present our preconference seminar on “How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator” again. Plus, Jost Zetzsche’s presentation “Translation Technology’s Ring of Power: One Tool to Rule Them All…and in the Darkness Bind Them” attracts me from the name alone! Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend Corinne’s presentation “Blogging: How and Why,” because I’ll be presenting the Orientation for First-Time Conference Attendees. I had planned on enjoying a lot of downtime during the conference, but a glance at the program tells me I will indeed be attending a session during almost every time slot. I am most excited about the Independent Contractor sessions this year. There are some fabulous sessions and speakers on the schedule like Jonathan Hine, Chris Durban and Ted Wozniak. I’m also really intrigued by Orestes Martinez’s Social Networking: How to Practice One of the Most Effective Marketing Tools Today. Guess I’ll have to plan on staying an extra day to enjoy Epcot and the Magic Kingdom.
Dear Project Manager, July 31, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings, Translation Sites.1 comment so far
Your e-mail this morning irritated me on several levels. I took the easy way out and simply told you I couldn’t accept the job and named two reasons (one being that I am busy with work from your German office, which is true). Here are the other reasons…
First of all, you attached a 4 MB file for a job that only contained about 500 words and should “only take 1 hour to review.” Secondly, you sent the e-mail to three separate e-mail addresses, two of which were incorrect and haven’t been used in several years (one for at least seven years now). I received two of the three e-mails – and had to download and manually delete both 4 MB attachments. And lastly (but I’m sure you personally were not aware of it), your agency has not yet paid my last two invoices, despite numerous e-mail reminders on my end and lame apologies on your end for the one that is now 30 days overdue (although I did mention this reason in my response as well). I hope you are able to find someone to accept your job. You certainly can’t count me anymore.
Cuil apparently no threat to Google July 29, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Tools.1 comment so far
Well, the initial verdicts are in and they are tepid at best. As Time Magazine reports in Why Cuil is No Threat to Google, “the new site poses little immediate threat to industry leader Google, or even its nearest competitors, Yahoo and Microsoft, in either relevance or breadth of results it delivers.” Interest in the new search engine crashed the server on Monday, but “even when it was working, the results were fair, at best.” Hopefully Cuil will survive because I really like the idea of a search engine not storing data on its users and the queries they make, but they will definitely have to do a better job at providing relevant search results. I use Google because it delivers accurate search results and saves me a lot of time. It looks like I will be continuing to do so.
Announcing a new search engine: Cuil July 28, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings, Tools.6 comments
There’s a new search engine that is about to give Google a run for its money. Cuil (pronounced “Cool”), which was developed by husband-and-wife team Tom Costello and Anna Patterson, a search-engine researcher from Stanford University and a former Google employee, aims to rank the relevance of search results by content analysis rather than by popularity. Google, on the other hand, treats Web links as popular votes in weighing Web page relevance for a given query.
The founders of Cuil boast that it indexes 120 billion Web pages, “three times more than any other search engine.” Google, in response, announced on Monday that it now indexes 1 trillion URLs, though not all of them lead to unique Web pages. Says Patterson, “Our team approaches search differently. By leveraging our expertise in search architecture and relevance methods, we’ve built a more efficient yet richer search engine from the ground up. The Internet has grown and we think it’s time search did, too.”
Most importantly, Cuil promises privacy. “There’s a separation between search and surveillance. Whereas Google records information about its users and their searches to improve the user experience and to deliver more relevant search results and ads, Cuil remembers nothing.”
It still has a few bugs to iron out, but I’m confident they will be able to do so soon. Now we just have to see if it can go up against the 800,000 lb. gorilla and survive. I know I for one plan on giving it a try tomorrow. ..
Be sure to always carry business cards with you July 28, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Marketing ideas.2 comments
As freelancers, we never know where our next potential job is going to come from. You also never know who you will meet or where you are going to run into a potential client. Therefore it is really important to carry a few business cards with you at all times. I know this, and yet I unfortunately was reminded of this lesson the hard way. I recently ran out of business cards, but have been so busy with work that I hadn’t had time to order more. It had completely slipped my mind.
Last Friday I attended a Murder Mystery dinner in downtown Cleveland with my Meetup.com Dining Out group. The gentleman sitting next to me at dinner was a patent attorney who had lived in Germany for three years while serving in the Army. Needless to say, he sometimes needs a translator. Imagine my embarrassment of not having any business cards in my wallet to give to him. I had to write my name, phone number and e-mail address on a slip of paper. I of course got his business card and immediately followed up via e-mail, but I certainly did not make the best impression I could have.
Learn from my mistake and carry business cards with you at all times. Excuse me while I run out to Kinko’s to drop off the file for my business cards…
Musings from an overworked translator 