| A témához tartozó oldalak: < [1 2] | Poll: What best describes translation for you? Téma indítója: ProZ.com Staff
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Hi.
To all those who believe that the question and the options are weird, I agree! I can't even remember when I sent this poll to be approved by ProZ. Maybe 2 or 3 years ago? Also, the answers have been totally modified and written in a strange way. Extra information was added. The wording makes the poll confusing, and I'm not responsible for this. Apologies!
| | | | Thayenga 
Németország
Local time: 21:39
Tag (2009 óta)
angol - német
+ ...
| It's a number of things. | Apr 7 |
It's a passion and a way to generate income. Consequently, I do care about the income it brings me, but only to a certain degree. This doesn't mean that I would accept underpaid jobs, though.
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazília
Local time: 16:39
Tag (2014 óta)
angol - portugál
+ ...
| It's the best choice, for sure | Apr 8 |
I've tried three different careers in my life, two of which in-house and one as a freelancer. It took me 20 years to find out that working in a company only makes someone else rich, and all your career dreams are pure illusion.
It took me 4 years to learn that teaching is a pleasure, but only for students who really wish to learn.
But it took me only a few months to find out how being a freelance translator is incomparably better than any other choices, and to regret the previous 2... See more I've tried three different careers in my life, two of which in-house and one as a freelancer. It took me 20 years to find out that working in a company only makes someone else rich, and all your career dreams are pure illusion.
It took me 4 years to learn that teaching is a pleasure, but only for students who really wish to learn.
But it took me only a few months to find out how being a freelance translator is incomparably better than any other choices, and to regret the previous 20 years, when I insisted on a traditional career instead of becoming a full-time translator.
Better late than never. But I can guarantee you no one in this planet will take me back to an in-house job... ever.
[Edited at 2021-04-08 01:57 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Let's separate definitions | Apr 8 |
Passion, a word flung around so much that its effect is now highly numbing, would be something you would do without being paid. Would you be doing translation if you weren't being paid?
I had to laugh as someone said it is drudgery, sometimes that it my feeling too. However, translation has paid my bills and more since graduating, but it is very much a job for me which I am very good at, and I certainly would not be translating novels in my spare time as a hobby. I would have done t... See more Passion, a word flung around so much that its effect is now highly numbing, would be something you would do without being paid. Would you be doing translation if you weren't being paid?
I had to laugh as someone said it is drudgery, sometimes that it my feeling too. However, translation has paid my bills and more since graduating, but it is very much a job for me which I am very good at, and I certainly would not be translating novels in my spare time as a hobby. I would have done this 20 years ago, not now.
A passion is something that is an essential part of one's being; without it, you would shrink a little and not be as resplendent as before. I am "passionate" about languages, human communication and connectedness, not about translation. I assume that people who have stated that translation is a passion feel similarly. Indeed, I am shifting my current income sources to one day reduce the amount of translation I do, then maybe I could focus on the beauty of learning another language again.
Happy translating passionately,
Paul ▲ Collapse
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Chris S
Egyesült Királyság
svéd - angol
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Gerard Barry wrote:
Mind-numbing drudgery... sorry but that's how I feel.
Lol.
Some days, I agree. I just think of the money.
Other days, I disagree. The text is interesting and I relish the challenge of improving it.
I agree with Paul about the passion thing. Passion is best reserved for hobbies and shagging.
I’m very good at translating (modest too) and freelancing has its advantages, but it’s not something I would choose if I had my time again. I would much rather do something useful, like curing illnesses or inventing stuff.
The solitary nature of the job has also become pretty unbearable during all the lockdowns. I would prefer the camaraderie of stacking shelves in a supermarket, but I can’t afford the financial hit just yet.
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Surprisingly I have to agree, again, with Gerard, but hopefully I don't have to explain away the first word in this sentence again.
Passion, as Chris says, can be safely reserved for mountain biking and ironing boarding.
I used to have a passion for it, I know I did, but now that everyone and their dog can translate, even though it often ends up much like what their dog does on pavements, barrowloads of turd to be polished up a little, I now mostly trudge through the dr... See more Surprisingly I have to agree, again, with Gerard, but hopefully I don't have to explain away the first word in this sentence again.
Passion, as Chris says, can be safely reserved for mountain biking and ironing boarding.
I used to have a passion for it, I know I did, but now that everyone and their dog can translate, even though it often ends up much like what their dog does on pavements, barrowloads of turd to be polished up a little, I now mostly trudge through the drudgery too.
The other day I did 55K, but I was only paid for 20K, because 35K had been "translated" (I use the term lightly). They said (afterwards, not before): "We'll pay you whatever you want for the extra work, because after all, you had to look through all of it to make it all A-OK."
I did, did I? No, I didn't. I did accept a few hours' pay for various unrelated tweakings of the final text, but I declined to be paid for making it all "A-OK", because that would have doubled the price, at least, and I knew that wasn't going to happen. I had "looked through" all 55K, but just that, looked through it, not "looked through" it the way they meant (hours of ultra-mega-heavy correction).
As I translated, I took an occasional glance at the company's annual accounts for the previous year in English (nothing to do with me, I might add), proudly posted on their website, and came to the conclusion that if they were happy with that foul, steaming load of inaccuracies, stilted language and WTFs in a relentless massacre of the English langwidge, they would accept anything, so my rather pleasant 20K would look just fine in there.
[Edited at 2021-04-08 10:16 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Daryo
Egyesült Királyság
Local time: 20:39
szerb - angol
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Paul Adie wrote:
Passion, a word flung around so much that its effect is now highly numbing, would be something you would do without being paid. Would you be doing translation if you weren't being paid?
....
Paul
Whether you are being paid (no more than some token money or an amount you better keep for yourself, or anything in-between) or not at all is beside the point.
That has no correlation with you being passionate about what you are doing (passionate "for real", not as some form of meaningless psychobabble figure of speech) or alternatively feeling that you are being forced into drudgery.
If there is any kind of correlation to be made, I would see "being passionate about what you are doing" as being potentially a contributing factor to making more money from whatever you are passionate about, if and when you do it for money. Namely, most of the time, those paying can sense if they are paying a time-server or someone really interested in doing the best job possible.
| | | | | Differing opinions are fine | Apr 8 |
I disagree passionately... the spice of life.
Daryo wrote: Paul Adie wrote:
Passion, a word flung around so much that its effect is now highly numbing, would be something you would do without being paid. Would you be doing translation if you weren't being paid?
....
Paul Whether you are being paid (no more than some token money or an amount you better keep for yourself, or anything in-between) or not at all is beside the point. That has no correlation with you being passionate about what you are doing (passionate "for real", not as some form of meaningless psychobabble figure of speech) or alternatively feeling that you are being forced into drudgery. If there is any kind of correlation to be made, I would see "being passionate about what you are doing" as being potentially a contributing factor to making more money from whatever you are passionate about, if and when you do it for money. Namely, most of the time, those paying can sense if they are paying a time-server or someone really interested in doing the best job possible.
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neilmac wrote: I couldn't bring myself to agree with "live good". I don't mind "How are you?" -> "I'm good", but from there to "live good" is a quantum leap too far for this old boomer  Good, gooder goodest..., Nein danke!
Bad grammar exists everywhere... but here’s the way I think it’s supposed to be:
You can be a good person (adjective) who makes good money; hence you live well (adverb).
Have a nice day! 😊
| | | | | "Passion is best reserved for hobbies and shagging" | Apr 9 |
I think that's one of the funniest and most honest things I've ever read on Proz.com!
| | | | Kay Denney
Franciaország
Local time: 21:39
Tag (2018 óta)
francia - angol
Nikki Scott-Despaigne wrote:
"I'm good" for "I'm well" or "fine" but confusing adjective and verb bothers me. Maybe I'm getting old. =)
pfff! Back in the day, as an English teacher, if my students told me "I'm good" I'd answer that I wasn't their mother, and wasn't interested in how well-behaved they were, but about their state of health.
| | | | | Now I understand ... | Apr 11 |
Gerard Barry wrote:
mind-numbing ... sorry but that's how I feel.
... why you need a possibility to vent off your frustration, as an in-house translator, always busy with the same tons of bolts and nuts to be torqued in your technical documents, always confronted with the same bad source texts from your neighbour sitting next to you, who is as bored about the job as you are, or who isn`t qualified for those texts, combined with endless instructions from the bored HR person about new diversity rules to be obeyed in your company, and no way out, because freelancing is no option for you. Believe me, I went through nearly the same in the glorious times when I was an installer and service technician, working for small engineering companies, where you can be as ambitious as you want, but all the good jobs and possibilities to improve yourself are restricted, because other people have better personal relations to the inner circles of the company. Your next colleagues may already have had plans to leave the company for years, but never dared to, therefore they hate themselves for their cowardice and hate all new colleagues, who join them and are dependent on them. No one there who is on your side, because your bosses have successfully prevented all attempts of the labour unions to get a foot onto the shopfloor. Divide and conquer, and there you are, lonesome in Germany, Gerard, but you have friends, new friends on the street, who understand your frustration and who are going to plan the big purge, which will not change anything to the better, but to the worst, to much more worst you ever have gone through in your life. But anyway, that will at least end the boredom you are in, and when all your wishes come true with your Querdenkers, then you will leave my country, which you are contributing to destroy, when marching together with or behind those reactionists.
[Bearbeitet am 2021-04-11 10:35 GMT]
[Bearbeitet am 2021-04-11 12:09 GMT]
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