| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: Do you have a habit of biting your nails while translating? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you have a habit of biting your nails while translating?".
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I’ve never been a nail biter (as a very young girl I used to pick at dry skin around my cuticles until the day I got a nasty infection). When I started translating some 40 years ago I was a heavy smoker and I used to say that it helped me think better and find the right word (poor me!), the fact is that I stopped smoking in 1985 and I’m still thinking and translating…
P.S. How is it possible to translate and bite your nails at the same time, don't you need both hands to type?<... See more I’ve never been a nail biter (as a very young girl I used to pick at dry skin around my cuticles until the day I got a nasty infection). When I started translating some 40 years ago I was a heavy smoker and I used to say that it helped me think better and find the right word (poor me!), the fact is that I stopped smoking in 1985 and I’m still thinking and translating…
P.S. How is it possible to translate and bite your nails at the same time, don't you need both hands to type?
[Edited at 2019-04-05 08:31 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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However I was a "light" nail biter, not the type who ends up with nails half their original size.
But even this horrible-tasting nail varnish in my youth wouldn't make me stop.
Anyway, I decided to stop when I was 26 following a triggering event. I invested in proper nail cutters and scissors instead.
Twenty-five years later, I just find this habit disgusting, revulsing, immature and yuk. And quitting is in fact much easier than quitting smoking.
Philippe... See more However I was a "light" nail biter, not the type who ends up with nails half their original size.
But even this horrible-tasting nail varnish in my youth wouldn't make me stop.
Anyway, I decided to stop when I was 26 following a triggering event. I invested in proper nail cutters and scissors instead.
Twenty-five years later, I just find this habit disgusting, revulsing, immature and yuk. And quitting is in fact much easier than quitting smoking.
Philippe
EDIT: I realise I didn't read the question. I started translating after I stopped biting my nails.
[Edited at 2019-04-05 11:08 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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I only bite other people’s.
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| I need both hands for typing | Apr 5, 2019 |
I do actually bite my nails, but not while I'm working because I need both hands to type. When I have a lot of work and need to work extra hours is when I actually have nicer nails, because I don't have time to bite them and they can grow a bit
| | | | Marjolein Snippe 
Netherlands
Local time: 19:01
Member (2012)
English to Dutch
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I tend to pick at my lips when I am stressed or absent-minded. Not so much when translating as I need both hands for typing, but quite often when I am thinking. I try not to do so in company but can't seem to get myself to quit entirely.
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 19:01
Spanish to English
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I bit my nails compulsively until I was in my 30s, when I just stopped for no apparent reason. My daughter was heading down the same route, but her mother managed to get her to stop by paying her for each full fingernail she let grow.
In my teens I also developed a pathological fear of the dentist's drill and would do anything, even having my teeth pulled out, rather than have a filling. However, that also disappeared in my 30s and I now have no qualms whatsoever about visiting the ... See more I bit my nails compulsively until I was in my 30s, when I just stopped for no apparent reason. My daughter was heading down the same route, but her mother managed to get her to stop by paying her for each full fingernail she let grow.
In my teens I also developed a pathological fear of the dentist's drill and would do anything, even having my teeth pulled out, rather than have a filling. However, that also disappeared in my 30s and I now have no qualms whatsoever about visiting the dentist. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 19:01
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
My fingers remain on the keyboard all the time.
I used to bite my nails until I was fifteen. Fortunately, I then started to hate the looks of them and quit immediately, never going back to that bad habit.
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Let apart smoking, I use to twist and knot my hair when I pause thinking about a possible sentence.
| | | | Julio Madrid
Mexico
Local time: 10:01
Member (2018)
English to Spanish
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| No, but I have a habit of... | Apr 5, 2019 |
... talking to myself while translating. Also biting my lips while typing or thinking and when not talking to myself... Maybe it's just my inner interpreter trying to take over my outter translator. I wonder what Freud would theorize about this... 🤔
[Edited at 2019-04-05 13:40 GMT]
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 14:01
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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| Yes, and several others | Apr 5, 2019 |
I have several distractions while working: smoking, coffee, biting nails, playing around with toothpicks, matches, etc. Some sort of hyperactivity, I guess.
| | | | R. Alex Jenkins
Brazil
Local time: 14:01
Member (2006)
Portuguese to English
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Gitte Hovedskov (X)
Denmark
Local time: 19:01
English to Danish
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| Good translator's humour | Apr 5, 2019 |
Chris S wrote:
I only bite other people’s.
Hahahaha... I've missed this!!
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I guess I can't be considered to be one of Sigmund Freud's "oral personalities"!
| | | | | I would, but... | Apr 5, 2019 |
After having a crown on one of my teeth, I find I can't get the right bite anymore. Very frustrating.
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