| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | Off topic: You know you're a translator when.... Thread poster: Frances Leggett
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Claire Cox
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:27
French to English
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[quote]Stanislaw Czech wrote:
Vera Schoen wrote:
"34- You measure your daily life in translations... (e.g. "When I get this translation done, I'll have dinner" or "Three more paragraphs and I can take a shower)"
Me too - and I'm even worse now both my sons are off at university. Even the dog has given up on getting her dinner/walk on time - she just looks at me sceptically and curls up on her beanbag until I actually show signs of movement!
Oh and when people assume that just because you speak 3/4 languages, you must surely be able to speak others too - I know your website says French and German but I just thought you could translate this Spanish conversation for me? Huh?!!
Claire
[Edited at 2010-12-21 23:52 GMT]
| | | | Stefano Papaleo 
Italy
Local time: 11:27
Member (2005)
English to Italian
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| Weird people... | Dec 22, 2010 |
sokolniki wrote:
.. instead of focusing on the movie plot, you catch yourself doing simultaneous translation 'cause this is the only mode your brain can function in - or did somebody say that already?
True! Or if the film is dubbed or subtitled you try to spot translation/dubbing errors all the time... and if there's none you ponder if you would have come up with a better solution for that particular passage or idiom or whatever...
... or in those theaters where they show the movie both in the dubbed and original language, you're the only one asking for the headphones and people look at you wondering if you're impaired, a foreigner or any strange creature from another planet!
| | | | Stefano Papaleo
Italy
Local time: 11:27
Member (2005)
English to Italian
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| A few more for the road... | Dec 22, 2010 |
- When you can't help reading ALL the product labels in ALL languages on any product... from beer cans to the latest electronic gizmo
- When you are the only one left who REALLY reads the instruction manual... just to see if it's one you translated or - if it is not - if they got it right!
- When you are one of the few people left on Earth who still know how to use a dictionary... and know what 'alphabetical order' actually means
- When you'd kill just to be able to hear what ... See more - When you can't help reading ALL the product labels in ALL languages on any product... from beer cans to the latest electronic gizmo
- When you are the only one left who REALLY reads the instruction manual... just to see if it's one you translated or - if it is not - if they got it right!
- When you are one of the few people left on Earth who still know how to use a dictionary... and know what 'alphabetical order' actually means
- When you'd kill just to be able to hear what that foreign person is REALLY saying on TV instead of hearing the damn translation!
- When you're the only one laughing out loud or making funny facess on the dance floor because you DO understand what the song is saying... while people think you're just high or had a drink too many
Maybe we should collect them all, form a team, write a book and make some REAL money... but wait... only translators would buy it and translators aren't rich so... but again... translators LOVE buying books on translation so... LOL!))
[Edited at 2010-12-22 17:37 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | When you price things... | Dec 22, 2010 |
not in euros, or dollars, or pounds, but in words or hours.
"This new xxxx costs 7,000 words / 4 hours"
"My utilities bill was 8,000 words in January. I need to buy power-saving bulbs"
[Editado a las 2010-12-22 10:53 GMT]
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Stefano Papaleo wrote:
- When you wake up in the midle of the night sweating and screaming like crazy just beacuse you've just realized the translation you sent has ONE typo
and yes, I can relate to that. Even with forum posts!
| | | | LEXpert
United States
Local time: 04:27
Member (2008)
Croatian to English
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| A couple more of my own... | Dec 22, 2010 |
Brilliant At least half of them apply to me. Just counted the number of tabs I have open and it was an even 12!
A couple more of my own:
xx Half of your vacation photos show you with your notebook working on a translation.
xx Every time you're stuck in line or in traffic, you become increasingly agitated as you start to count how many words/$$$ you could have translated while some fool was wasting your tim... See more Brilliant At least half of them apply to me. Just counted the number of tabs I have open and it was an even 12!
A couple more of my own:
xx Half of your vacation photos show you with your notebook working on a translation.
xx Every time you're stuck in line or in traffic, you become increasingly agitated as you start to count how many words/$$$ you could have translated while some fool was wasting your time ▲ Collapse
| | | | Oliver Walter
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:27
German to English
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Several of them apply to me including no. 31 which, however, also applies to some other translators: e.g. in this thread: "When you are one of the few people left on Earth who still knows how to use a dictionary" (Does a translator think there are (grammatically speaking) a few people who knows how to use a dictionary?)
Oliver
[Edited at 2010-12-22 14:41 GMT]
| | | | JH Trads
United States
Local time: 05:27
Member (2007)
English to French
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| flush with words | Dec 22, 2010 |
specialized glossaries are stacked so high in the toilet that you almost forget you went there to have a bowel movement in the first place
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Stefano Papaleo
Italy
Local time: 11:27
Member (2005)
English to Italian
+ ...
Oliver Walter wrote:
Several of them apply to me including no. 31 which, however, also applies to some other translators: e.g. in this thread: "When you are one of the few people left on Earth who still knows how to use a dictionary" (Does a translator think there are (grammatically speaking) a few people who knows how to use a dictionary?)
Oliver
[Edited at 2010-12-22 14:41 GMT]
Just noticed... you are SO right! Sorry about that!
[Edited at 2010-12-22 17:37 GMT]
| | | | Germaine
Canada
Local time: 05:27
English to French
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when you survive asking your best friend: "Quoi? Il n'est pas mort, lui?" for forgetting that you already watched her favorite TV series in the original version...
when you rush to read and compare The Gazette, the NY Times and the Globe & Mail with La Presse, Commerce and Le Devoir in the hope of being able to get a good understanding of the ins and outs of that new financial scheme and built a valid glossary before the client ask for the translation you will have to deliver... yes... See more when you survive asking your best friend: "Quoi? Il n'est pas mort, lui?" for forgetting that you already watched her favorite TV series in the original version...
when you rush to read and compare The Gazette, the NY Times and the Globe & Mail with La Presse, Commerce and Le Devoir in the hope of being able to get a good understanding of the ins and outs of that new financial scheme and built a valid glossary before the client ask for the translation you will have to deliver... yesterday. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jessica Noyes
United States
Local time: 05:27
Member
Spanish to English
+ ...
- When you are driving: You loudly practice intepreting from radio programs in your source languages and...
and.... better yet...
- When someone else is driving: you plug your laptop into a converter (your favorite birthday gift!) that powers it from the cigarette lighter, and happily translate all the way to your destination
| | | | Avin Kesuma
Local time: 16:27
English to Indonesian
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"4- You admit you suck at maths."
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Susanna Martoni
Italy
Local time: 11:27
Member (2009)
Spanish to Italian
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| And more: Formatting written texts | Dec 23, 2010 |
Brilliant!
And when someone writes down some notes to be read (a 10-item list containing some main concepts) in this kind of format:
Steps 1-2-3-4-5 and steps 6-7-8-9-10 with a space between them for no specific reasons (but the only unforgivable error is: dividing the first block from the second block).
Everybody understands, of course nobody notices that BUT I have to absolutely ask:
"Does this kind of text format mean that between the first five points an... See more Brilliant!
And when someone writes down some notes to be read (a 10-item list containing some main concepts) in this kind of format:
Steps 1-2-3-4-5 and steps 6-7-8-9-10 with a space between them for no specific reasons (but the only unforgivable error is: dividing the first block from the second block).
Everybody understands, of course nobody notices that BUT I have to absolutely ask:
"Does this kind of text format mean that between the first five points and the second block of observations there is a difference?"
Shall we have to consider things in a different way? I mean, between the first and second block of concepts there seem to be a separation so...
oh please!
[Modificato alle 2010-12-23 09:57 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | While watching a movie on TV... | Dec 23, 2010 |
sokolniki wrote:
.. instead of focusing on the movie plot, you catch yourself doing simultaneous translation 'cause this is the only mode your brain can function in - or did somebody say that already?
- If the movie is dubbed, you instinctively back-translate all the dialogues.
- If it's subtitled, you have time enough to watch the action, listen to the dialogue, and still read (and proofread!) the subtitles.
- If a careless operator switches off the subtitles, you continue "envisioning" them on screen until the next commercial break.
Another one: When you keep finding typos every day on your newspaper, even if it's the best one in your country.
| | | | Maéva Orsi
France
Local time: 11:27
English to French
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- you know by heart how to type French quotes, unbreakable spaces, accents on capital letters and so on only with alt ASCI codes
- you know how to type on a keyboard, be it QWERTY or AZERTY
- it is 3pm you need your tea or diet coke to avoid falling asleep
- you always say that tomorrow you will do some sport, but you won't!
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