TGIF: Israeli take on American airport security January 22, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.5 comments
This clip made me laugh so hard that I wanted to share it with you all. Thanks so much to Rina Ne’eman for tweeting it the other day! Enjoy!
NAJIT Seeking Volunteer Interpreters and Translators for the Haiti Relief Effort January 20, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Translation.1 comment so far
From a NAJIT press release:
Volunteer Interpreters and Translators needed for the Haiti Relief Effort
By now we are all painfully aware of the situation in Haiti following the devastating earthquake last week. The National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators and the American Red Cross are seeking Haitian Creole and French interpreters and translators to assist in this time of great need.
Interpreters are needed for two types of assignments either at the American Red Cross Headquarters in Washington DC (immediate need) or on the hospital ship USNS Comfort off the coast of Haiti (anticipated future need).
Immediate Need
The American Red Cross wishes to identify and recruit a Haitian Creole and French interpreter and translator to work at its National Headquarters Office in Washington for periods of between one to three weeks. The volunteer will support the International Services Department (ISD) in response to the earthquake in Haiti by sharing information with Haitian Creole speakers in the United States, translating documents from various ISD offices and/or American Red Cross chapters around the country, may be called upon to record messages in Haitian Creole or respond to inquiries from Haitian Creole speakers by telephone or in writing. The qualifications for this assignment are below:
VOLUNTEER POSITION DESCRIPTION
International Services Department/ International Humanitarian Law and Chapter Support
Location: 2025 E Street NW; 3rd Floor; Washington, DC 20006
Position Title: Haitian Creole Translator/Interpreter
Purpose: Support International Services Department (ISD) in response to the earthquake in Haiti by sharing information with Haitian Creole speakers in the United States. The writer will translate documents from various ISD offices and/or American Red Cross chapters across the country. May be called upon to record messages in Haitian Creole or to respond to inquiries from Haitian Creole speakers by telephone or in writing.
Key Responsibilities:
* Willingness to support Red Cross Mission
* Translate written information into Haitian Creole
* Respond to inquiries from Haitian Creole speakers
Qualifications:
* At least three (3) years of demonstrated experience as a professional translator and/or interpreter
* Excellent writing, good interpersonal and some cross-cultural communication skills and experience.
* Advanced use of Microsoft Office for word processing.
Training:
* Orientation to American Red Cross
Reports to or Partners with:
* ISD/ International Communications Department
Length of Appointment
* Open
Time Commitment:
* 20 – 40 hours a week — flexible
Anticipated Future Need
Last week a request was sent out for the recruitment for interpreters for the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship that is scheduled to arrive in Haiti Tuesday night January 20 and will remain docked off the coast. Thanks to the American Red Cross chapter network, that need was filled quickly. NAJIT and the American Red Cross anticipate there will be a continued need for interpreters for the USNS Comfort over the weeks and months to come. Currently, the projection is that USNS Comfort will be deployed on this mission for 6-12 months.
At this time, in an effort to anticipate the ongoing and future need for interpreters, NAJIT and the American Red Cross are standing ready by identifying available volunteers for the next possible 30 day rotations. Volunteers will remain on the ship throughout the duration of the assignment and will not deploy to the mainland of Haiti.
Both assignments are on a volunteer basis and the American Red Cross will cover all travel expenses.
Because of the special American Red Cross and NAJIT partnership and our joint collaboration in recent years during major disaster response operations, NAJIT has been asked to coordinate the recruitment of interpreters for the Red Cross Haiti Relief Effort. NAJIT continues to serve as the direct link between interpreters and the Red Cross emergency response. In order to participate in the Haiti Relief Effort, interpreters must either be members of NAJIT or members of one of NAJIT’s organizational or institutional members.
We know that many interpreters and translators want to help in this time of great need, either by volunteering or making donations. Please be as generous with your time and resources as you can be. Thank you.
Please send all responses to christina@najit.org or phone 202-293-0342 for further information.
Déjà Vu drops its prices January 20, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Tools, Translation.add a comment
One of my colleagues sent the following e-mail to the GLD list this morning. I thought it interesting enough to share it with you all. Since so many people have been unhappy with the latest version of SDL Trados I think it is smart that other translation environment tool manufacturers are reaching out to attract new customers. I myself am thinking about WordFast, but this is definitely a tempting offer…
Atril has announced a significant decrease in price for two versions of DVX:
Déjà Vu Standard: EUR 250 (down ca. 50%)
Déjà Vu Professional EUR 660 (down ca. 30%)Fully functional evaluation version available for 30 day test period @ http://www.atril.com
Haiti relief efforts could use help of interpreters and translators January 14, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.36 comments
Please note: I am just a freelance German-English translator with a blog. I am not looking for volunteers or organizing a team of volunteers!! The organizations specified below are. Please contact them directly.
From Haitivolunteer.org:
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD: The Red Cross looking for Kreyol-English translators to volunteer for 1 month. Must be able to get to Miami no later than Monday (tomorrow). Will be traveling and living on Navy medical ship. Contact jumaanedwilliams@gmail.com IMMEDIATELY!!! They want US citizens or Green Card holders.
Area of Expertise:
Language
Skill Needed:
Kreyol-English translator
Update: Doctors without Borders no longer needs any translation services. This blog is not set up to facilitate connections between my readers and relief groups. I am merely posting information. My language is German, so this is outside my field of expertise. Feel free to contact any of the groups listed below and post any other groups you may know about in the comments.
Numerous calls for aid are spreading around the world after Haiti’s devastating earthquake. They could use translators and interpreters to aid in the relief efforts. Many ATA members are stepping up and offering to help. Giovanna Lester sent the following e-mail to the ATA Medical Division today:
*IMIA Haiti Relief Efforts*
As many of you know, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti yesterday after 5 p.m. The news coming from Haiti is that this is a very serious earthquake and has wreaked havoc and devastation on the region. We know that millions of people in the region will be affected.
Many IMIA members and their patients have family in Haiti. Our thoughts are with them, the Haitian community and the people of Haiti. If you or your patients need information on relatives in Haiti, the US government has set up a hotline at 1-888-407-4747.
The IMIA Provider Outreach Committee is reaching out to international relief organizations to determine if there is an appropriate way or ways in which we can be most helpful as a trade association resource to the people of Haiti in their hour of greatest need. As we learn more, we will share the information on our web site. In the meantime, some of you have asked what else you can do. Please consider assisting one of the relief organizations below who are working now in Haiti. All these organizations are in dire need of medical interpreters and many of them offer lodging and a travel stipend for professionals willing to do field work. Please inquire and let us know if you are interested in doing immediate field work in Haiti.
They are not just in need of Haitian interpreters, but also primarily in need of Mandarin and Cantonese, Portuguese and French, among others, as these are primary the languages of the relief service providers.
– International Medical Corps:– Direct Relief International:– World Vision:– International Relief Teams: http://www.irteams.org/index.htm– Yéle Haiti: http://www.yele.org/– American Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/– Operation USA: http://www.opusa.org/– CARE: http://www.care.org/– Catholic Relief Services: http://crs.org/– World Food Programme: http://www.wfp.org/– World Concern: http://www.worldconcern.org/disasters/haiti-flooding.htm– Save the Children: http://www.savethechildren.org/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_logo– UNICEF USA: http://www.unicefusa.org/– Mercy Corps: http://www.mercycorps.org/– Operation Blessing International:– Shelterbox: https://alliance14.challiance.org/– Americares: http://www.americares.org/whatwedo/emergency/– Operation USA: http://www.opusa.org/– Doctors Without Borders: http://doctorswithoutborders.org/
McDonald’s coming soon to Checkpoint Charlie January 13, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in German culture, Random musings.2 comments
Expatica is reporting today that McDonald’s is planning on building a restaurant in Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie, “completing the landmark’s 20-year transformation from Cold War front line to money-making tourist hotspot.” Checkpoint Charlie was the main border crossing for foreigners between West and East Berlin. I myself had the privilege of crossing through it, although my very first border crossing was at Friedrichstraße. For the love of all that is holy and good, I think building a McDonald’s at the historic location is a TERRIBLE idea. McDonald’s symbolizes capitalism, and I understand what they are trying to do, but Checkpoint Charlie is more than just a tribute to capitalism. I would be interested to hear what some of you Berlin residents think about this idea.
As Expatica explains:
The 120-seater restaurant will be opposite the Mauermuseum dedicated to the Berlin Wall that used to divide the city, and hopes to be selling its burgers, fries and other products from mid-2010, a spokeswoman said.
The 600-square-metre (6,500-square-feet) restaurant, on the site of where Soviet and US tanks famously faced off in 1961, is a “top location,” the Bild daily cited the American fast food giant as saying.
My memories of Checkpoint Charlie have absolutely nothing to do with McDonald’s. I hope the German authorities deny the request!
How not to flirt in German January 11, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, German culture.3 comments
ALTA Translation’s blog has a fun blog post this morning on How NOT to flirt in German. Although to be perfectly honest the lines don’t work in English either. If someone used them on me I would groan and roll my eyes and excuse myself. 🙂 But it’s a fun read for an otherwise blah Monday morning.
SNL Japanese game show January 9, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.1 comment so far
My friend and I were watching Saturday Night Live’s The Best of Chris Farley the other night, and I saw this skit for the very first time in which a man from America goes to Japan and ends up on a game show that he didn’t he plan to be on. I had to share it with all of you as well. It is hilarious. Probably not at all linguistically accurate, but you don’t need the language skills to appreciate it.
For those of you who don’t know him, Chris Farley was a comedian and actor who died at age 33 (way too soon if you ask me). Farley was a member of Chicago’s Second City improv group and a cast member of the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. He also starred some successful movies in the 1990s like Tommy Boy and Beverly Hills Ninja. He never failed to make me laugh.
Interesting Chinese menu January 4, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Translation.add a comment
One of my friends on Facebook (a non-linguist, I might add…) shared a very amusing menu filled with mistranslations that they discovered at Flumesday.com entitled “The Rabbit Fucks the Pot.” This is a photo of a menu from a Chinese restaurant at Chongqing’s Jiangbei Airport. This may be old news, since the post is from February 2007, but I wanted to share it with you all just in case you (like me) hadn’t seen it yet. The blogger’s commentary is almost as entertaining as the actual (mis)translations, with my favorite being:
What’s interesting is that the price to “fuck a fish head” is 10 yuan more expensive then to “fuck a spring chicken.” One would think fucking a spring chicken would cost more.
Dealing with the year-end lull December 29, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices.2 comments
Most translation agencies are closed between December 24th or December 25th and the first week of January. We don’t get too many lulls in our industry, so we have to take them when we can get them. I just finished a 2,000 word job and loved the fact that I had two days to do it. I went out to breakfast yesterday, worked from a friend’s office for a bit, and bought a desk chair to replace my broken Herman Miller chair (which will go out to the desk in the living room as soon as I take down the Christmas tree). I took advantage of the fact that my dog was at the groomer’s today and did a thorough cleaning and vacuuming of my apartment (she usually barks at the vacuum and tries to attack it, so I usually only do a cursory vacuuming when she is here). I also took a mess of old paper and newspapers to the recycling center. I feel refreshed and revitalized.
Another problem that freelancers have to contend with is the brief one or two week lull in payments in January. Some agencies pay their invoices early right now to get some tax benefits of making payments still in 2009. Not my agencies apparently. I have about $1500 in outstanding overdue invoices (and that does not count the invoices that come due next week). I received several checks yesterday with a huge pile of mail, but my mail box today was pretty empty. It seems to me as if most companies are busy doing year-end stuff, so they let the payments lapse a bit in January. It’s also pretty quiet until things start ramping up again mid-January. I spent time today sending out all my outstanding invoices to ensure they get processed before the end of the year – or first thing next year. In the meantime I have made sure I have a bit of a cushion to carry me through in case there are some lean moments next month.
I would be interested if you are experiencing a lull and how you handle things. I also hope you all have a wonderful New Year’s Eve and that 2010 is the most profitable and busiest year ever for all of us. See you all next year!
How do you handle health insurance? December 21, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings.6 comments
The Urban Muse, which is an excellent blog for freelance, self-employed writers, had a post about a month ago in which she asked her readers How do you handle health insurance. This seems to be a common question in our field as well.
As Susan so aptly puts it:
Health coverage has come up in the news a lot lately, and it’s a very touchy topic, especially for freelancers. I’m curious how other self-employed folks handle this issue. Do you take your chances and go without? Rely on a spouse or domestic partner for health coverage? Join a union and buy it through them? Perhaps your tips will be useful to another freelancer, so leave a comment and let us know.
As for me, I have a health insurance plan through Golden Rule. I recently switched to the Network Option to cut $100 a month off my monthly payment. I have a large ($2500) deductible and a health savings account that I try to pay a hundred bucks a month into until I accumulate $2500. I’m a little under halfway there at the moment. I also rarely go to the doctor, and I have yet to see a general practitioner since I moved back to the States. I also exercise regularly and try to stay healthy. That said, if I met a man with a good health insurance plan I would marry him in a heartbeat ;-).
I don’t want this to become a forum to debate health care reform. I thought it might be helpful to those just breaking into the business to see how other translators insure themselves.
Musings from an overworked translator 