Tuesday, April 3, 2012

12 The joy of working for individuals

Joy of working for individuals
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 Based on an idea by Heike Kurtz. Heike is an English and French to German translator specialized in business and international trade.

12 comments:

  1. El Bosque de las MariposasApril 3, 2012 at 12:46 PM

    No. 3 is the most frequent in my case!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 3, 2012 at 1:05 PM

    #3 reminds me of a usual conversation I have:

    Stranger: "so, in which languages do you work?"
    Me: "Well... English, German, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese" (with a face of false modesty)
    Stranger: "Meh. Do you know Sanskrit? Ohh, such a beautiful language. Can you translate Sanskrit?!?"
    Me: "... nope." (thinking 'hey, I'm fluent in SIX languages! you can barely speak ONE)
    Stranger: "ooh, that's too bad. BRB"
    Me: Forever alone.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Heike KurtzApril 3, 2012 at 1:23 PM

    There's another classic I forgot to mention: "I have a complicated homework assignment in a foreign language I am supposed to learn by myself - could you please help me with that?"

    ReplyDelete
  4. TaruApril 3, 2012 at 4:22 PM

    I was able to anticipate that I'd meet a lot of people like no. 1 when I became a translator. What I wasn't expecting were the number twos and my favourite: the people who want me to translate a text "but only the most important bits of it" and then assume both summarizing AND translating the text would be easier (read: cheaper) than just translating it.

    PS. I hated summarizing texts already in high school and haven't learned to love it to date. That makes me so much more eager to take on the job...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Maldito FrikiApril 3, 2012 at 5:50 PM

    #1 and #3 and the amazing... "I have to read this huge book in English in less than a week, If only it was in Spanish! Why don't you translate it for me [and for free]?"

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  6. AnonymousApril 3, 2012 at 6:36 PM

    I have had them all

    ReplyDelete
  7. UnknownApril 3, 2012 at 11:30 PM

    worse clients are family! I have experienced all three cases, and all of them were relatives...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sussex Coast Talking NewsApril 4, 2012 at 5:59 PM

    I had a neighbour (hardly knew him) who knocked on my door one evening with a 20 page contract. He was quite taken aback when I quoted him the price. He really thought I'd do it for him for free.

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  9. Sussex Coast Talking NewsApril 4, 2012 at 6:01 PM

    To add to Taru's comment about summarising "just translate the important bits". How do they expect me to know which bits are important?

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  10. AnonymousApril 6, 2012 at 12:11 PM

    ...by using your Translator Sense, ofc!
    It's like the Spider Sense, but more special :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. KimpatsuApril 8, 2012 at 2:52 PM

    Individual 3 is my family.
    Just sayin'...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Christiane BürkleinApril 19, 2012 at 10:53 PM

    So true, especially #1 here in Italy...

    ReplyDelete

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