Poll: The last project I finished was:
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
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May 23, 2019

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "The last project I finished was:".

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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 06:17
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Nothing out of the ordinary for me May 23, 2019

It was an assignment from my longest-standing customer and I love working with him: for over 20 years he has been paying like clockwork the day after receiving my invoice (whatever the amount)…

 
Philippe Etienne
Philippe Etienne  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 07:17
Member
English to French
Meh May 23, 2019

I don't know what that means, but meh.

Philippe


Axelle H.
 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 07:17
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Nothing out of the ordinary May 23, 2019

A sales contract. The current job, however, is very different.

I have translated books before, and I always end up saying 'never again', until I fall for another…
I have not yet reached that point this time, but I am not quite halfway through. The book is an exciting chapter of Danish history in fact, the story of an industrialist who left school at fourteen, and, after a few years of apprenticeship, military service and employment as a fitter, set up his own workshop in his
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A sales contract. The current job, however, is very different.

I have translated books before, and I always end up saying 'never again', until I fall for another…
I have not yet reached that point this time, but I am not quite halfway through. The book is an exciting chapter of Danish history in fact, the story of an industrialist who left school at fourteen, and, after a few years of apprenticeship, military service and employment as a fitter, set up his own workshop in his father's barn... and went on, even in the 1970s, to earn three million Danish kroner in a year. By the end of the century he owned a whole group of factories with a turnover of hundreds of millions.

OK, Danish kroner er 7.46 to the Euro, but a million was still an enormous lot of money back in the 1970s. (Kroner were about 20 to the British pound in those days, but they are under ten now, especially in these Brexit times… )

It was a different world, and there is a lot of food for thought. There are young people today, who are full of ideas at age 21, but I wonder how many are stifled by demands that they sit around in school and college instead of being allowed out to get their hands on the real world.
The story ends - and I haven't read it in detail - with perspectives on the future and how to make industry more green - which in this company was already in focus way back.

OK, back to work. I have to get through at least 2000 words a day to meet the deadline, and proofreading the first section has shown me I need to do quite a bit of polishing in parts to do real justice to the source text.

It really puts some of the other work I do into perspective - sales, contracts, employment law, working environment, B2B sales, product descriptions…

I wish everyone an exciting job like that once in a while!
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Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 23:17
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Other: A boring pain in the neck May 23, 2019

It was a summary of 163 resolutions passed by a busy organization over a 20-year period.

 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 07:17
Spanish to English
+ ...
Other May 23, 2019

To me, "project" sounds a bit too grand for most of what I call "jobs". This month has been relatively quiet for me, which was good, because I've had a lot of admin, tax and other things to see about, so having fewer deadlines to comply with means I've had plenty of time to do most things.

I had one job yesterday (fewer than 1000 words) which included a bit of translation from German, which I haven't done for at least a couple of years. That made a nice change.


 
Sundar Gopalakrishnan
Sundar Gopalakrishnan
India
Local time: 11:47
English to Tamil
+ ...
"Meh" means...... May 23, 2019

Philippe Etienne wrote:

I don't know what that means, but meh.

Philippe


The word "meh" means "uninspiring", "unexceptional", "unenthusiastic", and "apathetic".

Example sentences:

1. Meh. I'm not impressed so far.

2. A lot of his movies are..... meh.

3. Everyone else I talked to was kind of meh.


Philippe Etienne
 
Aminata Diabi
Aminata Diabi  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 02:17
English to French
My last project was about agriculture May 23, 2019

A project on Cashew Nuts

 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 07:17
French to English
Sheer utter unadulterated joy, after wrenching my guts during the first draft May 23, 2019

A description of an upcoming exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. Beautiful artwork, I shall be going to see the exhibition next month with my artist daughter (and pick up the leaflets as a sample of my work).

This kind of translation is daunting, then utterly gut-wrenching during the first draft. The writer has always taken great care to produce a beautiful text, and they have to prove that they know what they're talking about too, so the structure is often very complex. Teasing the
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A description of an upcoming exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. Beautiful artwork, I shall be going to see the exhibition next month with my artist daughter (and pick up the leaflets as a sample of my work).

This kind of translation is daunting, then utterly gut-wrenching during the first draft. The writer has always taken great care to produce a beautiful text, and they have to prove that they know what they're talking about too, so the structure is often very complex. Teasing the meaning out, and making sure I've understood all the references, hunting down photos of the works of art, can be really tough, especially on a Monday morning! Then I start checking and things start to fall in place. The joy starts with the final check when I start to see that I've cracked it. By the time I deliver, I'm beyond joyful, I'm euphoric.

Now I'm on public transport and cycle lanes, so it's completely different, more mundane so there won't be any euphoria, but I'm learning a fair bit and it's for a good cause, and variety is the spice of translation for me!
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Elizabeth Tamblin
Julio Madrid
 
Hege Jakobsen Lepri
Hege Jakobsen Lepri  Identity Verified
Norway
Local time: 07:17
Member (2002)
English to Norwegian
+ ...
Once every two months i do something really exciting that teaches me something new May 23, 2019

...the rest of the time it's just work.

 
Priscila Wilke
Priscila Wilke  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 02:17
English to Spanish
+ ...
Recording during the night is a joy... May 24, 2019

Because it was quite an interesting situation. It turns out I moved to another state, and one of the clients that had me doing VO needed to record other lines their client had updated to their preference.
In short, rather than travelling over 500 miles just one way, my husband and I took the leap of faith by offering remote recordings. My husband is just starting on his business and in the mid of the chaos of organizing the new place, setting up his studio, having a 1-year-old baby who is
... See more
Because it was quite an interesting situation. It turns out I moved to another state, and one of the clients that had me doing VO needed to record other lines their client had updated to their preference.
In short, rather than travelling over 500 miles just one way, my husband and I took the leap of faith by offering remote recordings. My husband is just starting on his business and in the mid of the chaos of organizing the new place, setting up his studio, having a 1-year-old baby who is so curious about everything, we did it and it turned out greater than we expected. Don't get me wrong, I love travelling, but our client took our offer to save costs.

I usually edit other's translations, but this one, the voice-over project was great. Now it has opened to us more opportunities that we do not regret a bit. Life has surprises.
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Jasmina Towers
Jasmina Towers  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:17
Member (2000)
Italian to English
Nothing out of the ordinary May 26, 2019

An article about Lake Garda, to be published in a free periodical in Italy.
Nothing out of the ordinary, I translate the articles quarterly, they've nice and straightforward, I enjoy doing them.


 
Robert Rietvelt
Robert Rietvelt  Identity Verified
Local time: 07:17
Member (2006)
Spanish to Dutch
+ ...
@ Proz - Who cares! Jun 2, 2019

Dear Proz,

As a senior translator I am really flabbergasted about this question. Who cares about the last project I finished? What is going on here?

In college (long time ago) we asked each other questions like: 'Do you like the Beatles' (yes, yes, I told you I was senior, but not that senior ). If you said 'yes', the asker would say 'I don't', and vice versa. A discussion for the sake of discussion, in
... See more
Dear Proz,

As a senior translator I am really flabbergasted about this question. Who cares about the last project I finished? What is going on here?

In college (long time ago) we asked each other questions like: 'Do you like the Beatles' (yes, yes, I told you I was senior, but not that senior ). If you said 'yes', the asker would say 'I don't', and vice versa. A discussion for the sake of discussion, in short, moving air. I fail to see the significance of this thread. Don't you have better things to do, or...., what is going on here?

My question is where do you use our free gathered information for? You call it yourself a poll!

Could you please explain before I find out that my/our information is (ab)used (again) for corprate interests?

[Edited at 2019-06-02 23:39 GMT]

[Edited at 2019-06-02 23:40 GMT]

[Edited at 2019-06-02 23:41 GMT]

[Edited at 2019-06-02 23:44 GMT]
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Poll: The last project I finished was:






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