TGIF: Deaf Karaoke Live – The Ultimate Version July 11, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.add a comment
This is one of my favorite videos — stand up comic David Armand performing his sign language interpretation of Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn. I think it’s pretty hilarious and hope you enjoy it. I offer you the original version as well as the “ultimate version” here.
Twitter saga ends in jailed translator going free July 10, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings, Translation Sites.2 comments
According to CNN.com, a one-word blog post from a cell phone to the social networking site Twitter helped to free an American student from an Egyptian jail, but it took the signatures and support of “thousands of activists” — and three additional months! — to get his translator out. James Karl Buck, 29, a graduate student from the University of California in Berkeley, was working on a photography project for his master’s thesis by photographing anti-government protests over low wages and rising food prices in April. “His translator, Mohammed Maree,” (I think they mean interpreter 🙂 ) is a 23-year-old Egyptian veterinary student in Mahalla, Egypt. The two met, and Maree “offered to help Buck.” That seems a little strange to me. Did they meet in a bar and Maree offered to help him out of the goodness of his heart? Most likely he was expecting to be compensated for his work, but that is never mentioned in the article. Or was he also a fellow civil activist working with him who felt just as strongly about the protests?
Anyway, they were detained during one of the demonstrations. En route to the police station, Buck sent a message via Twitter, and his school hired an attorney and was able to get him released within a day. But Maree remained in jail for nearly three months. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time! “Maree’s family was worried about when, if ever, he would be freed. After reports of alleged torture in prison, relatives feared for his life.”
The Americans were — and still are, apparently — outraged. Shades of the kid who got caned in Shanghai all over again. Sorry, but if you are in a foreign country you need to abide by its rules – this includes not taking photographs of or participating in anti-government demonstrations.
CNN quotes Buck as saying “he hopes to visit his translator in Egypt as soon as possible and meet his family so he can apologize to them and tell them about the impact Maree has made.” He should apologize, but it was also Maree’s choice to help him. If I were Buck, I’d pay him for the three months the poor kid was in jail and stay home before he makes things worse. Foreign governments do not, nor should they, abide by American laws. I hope he learned that very valuable lesson. Too bad no one else seems to think of that aspect.
“Quick question” July 9, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.add a comment
I had three e-mails named “Quick question” in my inbox this morning. I’m just as guilty of this as the next person, since I often fire off a “quick question” to a colleague if I need some help – generally through the Skype chat interface. But receiving three e-mails from three different people (one a client, one a colleague with a German handwriting question, and one a colleague in a different language pair asking a question about PayPal) has really made me think about how we formulate subject lines. I’ve already complained about clients who don’t even use a subject line, but “Quick question” doesn’t offer much insight about the subject matter of the e-mail either. I’m certainly going to think twice the next time I want to send someone a “quick question.”
Favorite tools: WorkPace July 8, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings, Tools.1 comment so far
If you are anything like me, you are passionate about translation and can become fixated on what is displayed on your computer screen, forgetting everything around you. I can work for several hours without taking a break and have been known to forget to eat or even move. I first heard about WorkPace® (or a program very similar to it) when I lived in Germany in the late 1990s. I kept telling myself I should download it, but never got around to it. I have always been concerned about ergonomics (as demonstrated by my ergonomic German keyboard with integrated touchpad, which no one but me enjoys working on. I love it so much I moved both keyboards—work and home—with me when I relocated back to the U.S. in 2001), so I eventually got around to downloading the 1-month trial version. I bought a license before the trial was even up.
WorkPace® is a breaks and exercise software tool proven to help prevent, and aid recovery from, Repetitive Strain Injury (also known as RSI, OOS and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome). The software provides an integrated health and safety solution for computer users, with break, stretch and exercise reminders, ergonomic training, monitoring of discomfort levels, and statistics on computer use. In short, it is a holistic tool that rocks.
WorkPace® monitors your keystrokes and offers break reminders that include stretches and exercises you can do in front of your computer to “reinvigorate your body and mind.” The more intensely you work, the more “microbreaks” (8-second pauses in your typing) will be displayed. However, you can change the settings to fit your needs. For example, you can turn it off if you decide you need to concentrate. It took a while to adjust to these microbreaks and especially the breaks. I eventually turned the microbreaks off completely, but still try to adhere to the breaks. Otherwise the program will chastise me and display a “frownie face” in the toolbar.
The first day I used the program I was under a lot of stress to get a legal translation of the German Cosmetics Ordinance finished, but I complied with most of the breaks and found my stress level wasn’t as high as it could have been. I never realized how badly I need to stretch and am reminded each time I perform a stretch and hear my back crack or feel the muscle stretch and loosen.
It is available in two editions, Personal and Professional. WorkPace Personal is designed for individual users, so it is perfect for the translator sitting in his or her home office. WorkPace currently supports English, Dutch, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian and Portuguese (Note: All languages supported are automatically included with each software product. When you download and install the product, all languages are then available. Each user can choose their own language preferences from the Preferences / Language menu in WorkPace). The license for WorkPace Personal costs $49.00.
Summer’s bliss July 6, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.add a comment
The July Fourth weekend is always the highlight of the summer. Summer is reaching its peak, and the days become more languid. It is the payoff for living through months of winter’s snow, sleet and gray skies here in Northeast Ohio.
I have worked through several holiday weekends, and I swore I would not do it this past weekend. Unfortunately, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry… My favorite customer, who I only say no to if I am completely overwhelmed, contacted me at 5 PM on Friday with a 10,000 word marketing survey job due Wednesday at 2 PM. As a freelance translator, the most important skill you need to develop is time management, so I budgeted how much I needed to get done over the weekend to make the deadline and then threw myself into enjoying the holiday.
I took Thursday afternoon and all day Friday off to spend with my family and my nieces. Celebrating the holidays through the eyes of a three- and (almost) five-year-old made it all the more special. After my afternoon massage on Thursday to work out the tension from the quality management job, I drove to Medina to attend their July 4th Festival and watch the fireworks. I also treated my nieces to their first taste of cotton candy. The next day my parents joined us to play in the backyard, blow bubbles, and enjoy a cook-out.
I translated about 10 pages out of 47 pages throughout the day on Saturday, in addition to preparing a summer picnic at Blossom Music Center to enjoy the Cleveland Orchestra performing Orff’s Carmina Burana, Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor, and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with my German Meetup group. The evening was capped off with breathtaking fireworks, including three encore finales. The men blowing off the fireworks certainly had a sense of humor.
Today I am doing some much-needed housecleaning and plan to translate another 10 pages. However, I also plan on sitting under the umbrella on my balcony with a cool drink and a good book. I hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend as well.
A little levity: Photobombers of the Day July 2, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.1 comment so far
My favorite blog (which shall remain nameless because it is not at all translation-related and is written by a total curmudgeon who regularly uses colorful language) made my day today by posting a link to Photobombers of the Day. Photobombers are people who deliberately try to ruin your photos while you’re taking them. I’m completely stressed out trying to finish a quality management handbook that is taking waaaaay too long to finish (it was due at 9 am today and it’s 4 pm now and I still have 1,500 words to go – luckily my client is really understanding and I’m keeping them apprised of the status as I go), so I really needed the levity to lighten my day. Hope your day is going better! I’m taking tomorrow off for a super-long July 4th weekend, so if I don’t post anything tomorrow have a Happy Fourth!
ASET acquired by COMSYS July 2, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Translation Sites.add a comment
Ted Wozniak just posted this on the Payment Practices list:
HOUSTON, TX (01 July 2008 ) –COMSYS IT Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:CITP) today announced the acquisition of ASET International Services Corporation, a leading Arlington, Virginia-based provider of globalization, localization and interactive language services, including: translation, multilingual publishing, audio/video production, and simultaneous interpretation and conferencing for live events in over 140 languages. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but COMSYS expects it to be accretive to earnings in 2008.“ASET International has developed a strong practice in the globalization and localization industry, serving both the commercial and public sector, and will enable our existing globalization practice to substantially expand its reach,” commented COMSYS CEO Larry L. Enterline. “With former owners Erika Nobel Hendzel and Kevin Hendzel and their team staying with COMSYS to help us run this business, we are excited about our prospects in this sector, which is currently growing at faster rates than traditional IT staffing. ASET’s multilingual services are a great complement to our existing services in this sector and our current customers should benefit greatly.””About COMSYS IT Partners
COMSYS IT Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: CITP) is a leading IT services company with 52 offices across the U.S. and offices in Puerto Rico, Canada and the U.K. COMSYS service offerings include contingent and direct hire placement of IT professionals as well as a wide range of technical services and solutions addressing requirements across the enterprise. The COMSYS TAPFIN Process Solutions Group delivers critical management solutions across the resource spectrum from contingent workers to outsourced services.
I find this particularly interesting, because both companies are my clients. COMSYS is one of my oldest clients. They don’t send me a lot of frequent work, but I have been working with them since 2001 and have lasted through three name changes. They have always had really good payment terms (depending on the job, some jobs are paid in two weeks, some in 30 days), so hopefully this will translate to better payment terms for ASET and I will actually consider working with them (ASET) again. Time will tell…
Favorite tools: EditPlus July 1, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Tools, Translation Sites.add a comment
EditPlus is a 32-bit text editor, HTML editor and programmer tool for the Windows operating system. While it can serve as a good Notepad replacement, it also offers many powerful features for Web page authors and programmers. I particularly like the fact that it color codes the tags, so there is no confusion when you are working in an HTML or XML file. Other features include an HTML toolbar, user tools, line number, ruler, URL highlighting, auto-completion, cliptext, column selection, powerful search and replace, multiple undo/redo, spell checker, customizable keyboard shortcuts, and more.
EditPlus is shareware. You can download it and try it for 30 days. If you find it useful and decide to keep using EditPlus after the evaluation period has expired, you must buy a license. A single user license is only $35, but you can download it and try it for 30 days.
One particular feature that I think most translators will appreciate is its tag stripping feature. I am translating a highly formatted quality management manual in TagEditor at the moment. To track how many words I have translated that day, I simply copy the text from the English View tab and paste it into EditPlus. To strip the tags, I select View->HTML->Strip HTML tags. I can then copy and paste that text into Word and do a quick word count.
E-mail subject lines June 30, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Fun stuff, Random musings.1 comment so far
I was forwarded a job inquiry last week from a local temp agency looking for a German translator. The first thing I noticed was that the employee who wrote the e-mail hadn’t bothered to include a subject line (the subject line of the forwarded e-mail was: “Fwd:Â Â Â Â Â Â “). The e-mail also didn’t specify what kind of text it was, which didn’t exactly inspire me with confidence or the desire to respond to the e-mail.
In keeping with this topic, today’s Pearls Before Swine comic strip deals with e-mail subject lines. It’s definitely worth a read 🙂 . I’m going to employ this technique the next time I respond to a request that I don’t want to do. Don’t be offended if it’s you 🙂 .
A fun interview with a language lover June 30, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, Random musings.add a comment
Today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer features a short interview with Heba El-Attar, an assistant professor at Cleveland State University. The interview was featured in the PDQ section, which has a light take on arts & life, so the interview isn’t exactly “intellectual,” but it’s a fun read all the same. Ms. El-Attar speaks Arabic, French, English, Spanish and some Italian and has lived in Germany, Spain, Milwaukee and Cleveland. I particularly like her explanations of Arabic culture and the misconceptions most Americans have of Arabic.
Musings from an overworked translator 