TGIF: The Importance of Being Bilingual August 15, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.add a comment
It’s Friday! Here is a fun little video on the importance of being bilingual. Enjoy – and enjoy your weekend!
Everybody’s working for the weekend… August 15, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.1 comment so far
I finished my 11,000 word translation shortly after midnight last night, so after finishing up some administrative tasks (like e-mail, sending invoices, paying bills, and setting the autoresponder for my e-mail) I am taking the rest of the day off. My dog was so neglected this week that she woke me up at 4 AM two nights ago just to play and was really clingy yesterday when we took some time off to visit the neighbor across the street and raid her garden (mmmm… fresh tomatoes!). If time allows I will head to the dog park with her later today.
When I get busy I tend to let the housework slide. My place looks like a bomb hit it, so I am spending the afternoon doing laundry, washing the floors, dusting, running errands and grocery shopping (I ran out of soy milk three days ago and literally have nothing but beer, wine, two lemons, condiments and a bag of shredded cheese in my refrigerator). It is so important to balance work and free time, and this is something many freelancers forget. I took the time to have a facial, attend an identity theft presentation at the local recreation center, get my car serviced, and go out to dinner last night in the midst of all the craziness this week. I even made a point of watering my drooping plants and doing two sinkfuls of dishes yesterday. Yet somehow the more mundane, time-consuming housework gets ignored.
This weekend is the local Donauschwaben club’s Sommer Oktoberfest, and I will be spending tonight and Saturday night there with my German Meetup group. I hope you have a great weekend planned as well!
Wordreference adds new Oxford dictionaries August 15, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Tools.3 comments
WordReference is a fun little site that offers free online translation dictionaries as well as tools/plug-ins/gadgets that offer easier access to the dictionaries. The most popular dictionaries are the Spanish Dictionary, French Dictionary and the Italian Dictionary. It also has a language forum for those pesky grammar questions for people who are too lazy/don’t want to look it up in the Chicago Manual of Style, the Associated Press’s Stylebook, Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, etc.
WordReference has just announced that it has added new Oxford dictionaries to its web site. Five dictionaries are available for free:
* English-Spanish
* English-French
* English-Italian
* English-German
* English Russian
Each of the Oxford dictionaries has around 100,000 words and phrases with over 200,000 translations.
For frequent WordReference users, four larger versions of the same dictionaries (except for Russian) are available on the site by subscription.
Is it worth it to expand? August 14, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices.1 comment so far
Sarah Dillon’s blog post, The Royal We: Why Small is the New Big, made me stop and think today in the midst of translating my 11,000 word marketing survey (ok, think about something other than mobile phones 🙂 ). She writes about whether translators market themselves as “we” or “I” and lists various reasons why translators might not necessarily decide to use the royal “we” when marketing themselves. Count me as an “I.”
With my workload, I could certainly branch out and hire on other translators to help (and I sometimes do), but the risk is high that I would be unhappy with the quality of an unknown translator. One of my colleagues was recently burned when she subcontracted a job and the subcontractor left her in the lurch, leaving early for the weekend and delivering a sub-par and incomplete translation. She spent the night fuming and translating the document for delivery to the client the next day. I only work with translators I know are responsible and professional, but everyone can have a bad day. At least if I screw up I only have myself to blame.
I was offered a translation agency two years ago – for free. The owner knew I was responsible and diligent and wanted his agency to go to someone who would run it properly. This was a tough decision for me, and I debated for several weeks, talking to several agency owners I knew and weighing the pros and cons. In the end I decided I would miss translating too much, so I decided not to do it.
I have never regretted that decision. I for one prefer to be an I. It’s safer, and I can control the quality of my work better than if I were to work with others.
Experimental German treatment August 13, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.add a comment
Check out today’s Speed Bump by Dave Coverly. Enjoy!
Busier than a one-armed wallpaper hanger August 13, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Marketing ideas, Random musings.1 comment so far
Man, I don’t know about you, but business here has been exploding lately. I am translating two large projects for one of my favorite clients (5,000 words due Wednesday and 11,000 words due Thursday – both easy surveys, so doable in that time frame). I had to turn down a rush job today for one of my other favorite clients who was willing to pay double my normal word rate if I could have 3700 words done by tomorrow (he’s asked me to clear my calendar for Friday just in case he can’t find anyone). The client forgot the document and needed it today (Tuesday), so they are a little desperate to get it translated. I was hoping to take it easy today after turning in a really technical legal/telecommunications contract yesterday, but my plans quickly went awry and it snowballed from there. And it sure isn’t easy working with a sinus headache that makes you nauseous…
I’ve been trying to fight the onslaught of work off as best I can so that I can at least enjoy a little bit of the summer, but it is hard to say no to some of my clients, especially when everyone else is off enjoying themselves on vacation. It’s tough being single with no one to travel with. I just signed up for a singles cruise group on Meetup.com, so hopefully that will change and I’ll be asea soon.
I know I’ve complained about it before, but it isn’t easy saying no to your two best clients. And it’s tough when they both come to you with work at the same time. That’s why you haven’t heard from me much in the last few days. Hopefully things will start calming down again once school starts and no one is on vacation anymore. If you are a newcomer, now is definitely the time to send your resume to new agencies. Strike while the iron is hot!
Germany in the news – and not in a good way August 12, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in German culture, Random musings.add a comment
Four people were killed in a German ice cream parlor in Russelheim today. That is just sad. It seems as if Germany is catching up with America in senseless killing and random shootings. If you ask me, German ice cream parlors stand for all that is good in the world. There is nothing quite like a German Eisbecher (ice cream sundae), a wonderful concoction of ice cream, fruit, chocolate, and (if you are lucky) alcohol. The German ice cream parlors have taken creative ice cream concoctions to a new level. This is exemplified by a simple Spaghettieis, which looks like a plate of spaghetti in which vanilla ice cream is pressed through a modified spaetzle maker to make it look like spaghetti, placed over whipped cream and topped with strawberry sauce (to simulate tomato sauce) and either coconut flakes, grated almonds, or white chocolate shavings to represent parmesan cheese. Or the After Eight Becher with vanilla and peppermint ice cream topped with whipped cream, mint liquor, and After Eight mints. Nothing beats the fancy ice cream sundaes that combine fruit, alcohol and ice cream. To see how wonderful these creations can be, click here. Yum. Anyway, the shootings southwest of Frankfurt have shocked the country. CNN intimates that it may be related to a shooting blamed on an organized crime syndicate based in the southern Italian region of Calabria. This may not be such a stretch since most ice cream parlors in Germany are seasonal and run by Italians.
And then there is the Rockefeller wannabe calling himself “Clark Rockefeller” who kidnapped his daughter, is a “person of interest” in the disappearance of a California couple, and may be a missing German man who left Germany as a teenager and broke off contact with his family 20 years ago. Authorities are fairly confident that “Rockefeller” may in fact be Christian Gerhartsreiter, who was an exchange student in Connecticut in 1980 under the name Christian Gerhart Reiter when he was 17. I have been following this case closely, because he reminds me of someone in Germany I used to know. Absolutely crazy.
I guess Americans don’t have a lock on weird and disturbing crimes…
Random musings about the 2008 Summer Olympics’ Opening Ceremony August 9, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.add a comment
Wow, that was absolutely breathtaking. To be honest, I was apathetic about the Olympics this year, but I love watching the Parade of Nations and Opening Ceremony. So I ordered a pizza and watched the Opening Ceremony tonight, even if it was time-delayed for the American public. I’m inspired to watch the Games now. I think my sleep pattern is going to be really off for the next three weeks…
I learned about two new countries in this year’s 204-country Parade of Nations. I am a total geography nut, but I can honestly say I have never heard of Tuvalu, a Polynesian island nation in the Pacific Ocean, and Comoros, an island nation in the Indian Ocean. As the Parade went on I kept wondering if I had somehow missed Germany. It was the 198th country to parade in. Italy and Austria made me laugh with their exuberance. Many of the poorer nations with small delegations really made me choke up. I can’t imagine some of the trials and tribulations the athletes endured to make it to compete in China. It’s really inspiring. The American flag bearer, Lopez Lomong, a Sudanese refugee and one of the “Lost Boys of Sudan,” epitomizes that struggle, as did little Lin Hao, the nine-year-old earthquake survivor who saved two of his fellow classmates from the rubble and proudly led out the Chinese team with Chinese flag bearer and NBA basketball star Yao Ming.
As a Cleveland native I also was very proud to see LeBron James walking with the American team. He really is an inspiration to the city and people of Cleveland. He puts his money where his mouth is and sponsors numerous events for the underprivileged. And his son goes to preschool with my niece, which I think is pretty cool.
The artistry of the Opening Ceremony was amazing. However, they skipped a hundred years of their history when they skipped any mention of China’s Maoist history (not that that is a surprise…). The mass of performers was overwhelming. Thousands of dancers and performers painted moving pictures of the invention of paper, the printing press, and the Great Wall. The LED screen and all the pageantry was so cool, as was the idea of having the athletes walk over paint to commemorate the Games. I can’t even imagine how amazing it must have been to be there and watch such impressive fireworks. Sarah Brightman singing in Chinese was also very cool.
But the ultimate moment was when Olympic gymnast Li Ning ran through the air around the stadium to light the Olympic Torch. My heart stopped when it appeared as if one of the wires had broke, but they were merely adjusting him for his run. Very impressive. It gave me goose bumps! This is going to be a tough Opening Ceremony to top!
TGIF: Bill Maher interprets rap into the white vernacular August 8, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.add a comment
This clip is absolutely hilarious, especially if you are familiar with the songs he is interpreting – but it is still funny even if you aren’t, because you can kind of imagine what the song actually says. If you are easily offended you might not want to watch it, but I promise this is absolutely worth watching!
Found on ProZ.com August 8, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings.4 comments
It wouldn’t surprise me if they actually had some takers (who are not professionals), but at this price and the deadline I’d rather work at Borders for $7.00 an hour… I’ve translated it in parentheses for those of you who don’t read German.
SUPER EILIG!!! Ãœbersetzung im Bereich Mobiltelefonie TRADOS!! (SUPER URGENT!!! Translation in the field of wireless communications TRADOS!! – why use one exclamation point when you can use two or three…)
Liebe Kollegen (Dear Colleagues),
wir wurden hängen gelassen und brauchen nun dringendst Hilfe bei der Ãœbersetzung verschiedener Dateien – manche im PDF Format, manche in Word. Einige Tausend Worte zu vergeben – Abgabe MORGEN. (freely translated: the translator we hired backed out/got sick/had a computer problem/wised up to the poor pay… and urgently need help translating numerous documents – some in PDF, some in Word. We need to place several thousand words – due date: TOMORROW)Am liebsten wären uns Kollegen, die PDF-Dokumente konvertieren können!! (We prefer translators who can convert PDF files)
TM bereits vorhanden, wird mitgeliefert. (We already have the TM, we will send it to you with the files.)
Lieferungen müssen im bilingualen Format erfolgen, da wir hier noch Korrekturlesen. (We need you to deliver bilingual files, since we still have to proofread on this end.)
Bitte angeben, wie viele Worte bis morgen geschafft werden können! (Please let us know how many words you can translate by tomorrow!)
Wiederholungen und 100% matches werden nicht bezahlt. (We will not pay you for repetitions and 100% matches.)Bezahlung: (Payment: )
Zahlung erfolgt innerhalb 45 Tagen nach Erhalt der Rechnung per Banküberweisung, Scheck oder Moneybookers. Bei Scheckzahlungen und Bankkonten außerhalb der EU übernimmt der Empfänger die Gebühren. (Payment will be made within 45 days after receiving the invoice via bank transfer, check or Moneybookers. The recipient will assume any bank charges for checks and bank accounts outside the EU.)Source format:
PDF, PPT, Word
Delivery format:
bilinguale Dateien (bilingual files)Volume and pricing:
0.060 EUR per word
Payment method: Other
Payment 45 days after date of invoice.
What a deal, huh? I’m sure you are all going to run to ProZ right now to find the listing and spend all day Friday and into the night working at these conditions. Sorry. The quoting deadline has already expired (5 PM GMT). I wonder if they found someone. I swear some agencies are so clueless…
