TRANSLATION - CARRIED FROM ONE SIDE TO THE OTHER

I thought that I would have a little fun with my friends this evening.
I just came off a translation project that covered 35 pages of French legalese and actually I had quite a bit of pleasure doing it.  The most entertaining part of the project is that I had time to make it happen and to make it appealing.
The appealing part doesn't happen much.
We translators are just like other professionals.  We have job descriptions that are sugar and spice and everything nice on the top front of the blog article.  But, at the core of the reality it is rings and dings and no time to sing.  Look at that picture and you'll see what I mean.  Anything up there about being able to read the original text as well as the old time pharmacist could read doctor scratchings on prescriptions?  How about trying to decipher blurry scanned images submitted from a country in a handwriting style that makes you wonder how many ways there are in the world to write the letter "a"?  That never gets any press...or any verbal credit.  All this is one side of the abilities that a translator has to have.  Check out the picture below and you'll get another side of the "skills wanted" sollicitation for help...
Yep, I want it yesterday.  Sorry, lady, this is today.  One hour is the best I can do for you.
"Oh, thank you. This shouldn't be too hard, it's a Power Point show that only has 30 slides.  Not too many words."
Ha, Ha, Ha,  One hour eh?  And I have to keep the formatting, right?
"Oh, yes, please."
Hey, lady, what about the fact that the there are 30% more words needed in the language that you want in the show and you want to keep the formatting.  Hmmm, and now we have been talking for 15 minutes and the clock is running.  Yikes, lady, you gotta cut me some slack.
So the translator gets friendly, no, not THAT friendly. So he gets friendly and he gets some background about the purpose of the translation, the real deadline that she has and the audience for whom it is intended. As it turns out, it is still tight on the clock, but it is doable.  So we get friendly enough that I charge her for the minimum one hour and she agrees to come back at opening time in the morning instead of insisting on the hour.
They don't teach you that in school.
The hidden talent that doesn't get any press is the ability to be laser accurate in the art of carrying the meaning from one language to the other in the shortest time possible. This is a constant part of my life.  I translate many very interesting documents from many countries, for many different reasons and in many different variations of the same language but I rarely get the opportunity to enjoy what I am reading because I have one eye on the project and one on the clock.
So, this past week I had the whole week to do the 35 pages.  The challenge was that the English had to be exactly what the French was.  But I had a week! I actually had time to read it, think about it, translate it, read the translation, go back and read the French, reread and edit the translation, compare the two side by side (thank God for computers) and take 8 hours away from it to let it "ferment" a bit in cranium juice.  Come back, sip it a little bit, add a pinch of pizazz here and there and the first thing you know, you like it and you still have two hours before the deadline.  Now, that is the kind of work that a translator just plain loves.
Too bad there isn't too much of it around.
Now you know some of what I do in my old age.

CORPORATE CULTURE AND THE TRANSLATOR

Raining cats and dogs

How do you want me to say it? 

I have choices, but I cannot read your mind and I do not know your internal culture

Several years ago I worked for some large international corporations and I had to produce legal agreements to be used between the corporation and outside interests in laguages other than English.  In one of these companies we drew up a list of conventional intra company terms [sometimes referred to as "argot"] that would not be translated into the language of the outside interest, but were to remain in the language defined by the corporate culture of the company for which I was working.  This was often the case with technical acronyms.  One of these was AQL (Aceptable Quality Level).  There were others in engineering and in accounting and in purchasing as well.

The point I want to make is that a good translator will try to identify what, if any of the terms used in a legal, or even paralegal document are to be or not to be translated according to accepted and established corporate culture.  The professional translator is aware of some of these idiosyncrasies and inquires from the client which ones they are. 

Verifying this from the outset can prevent discomfort and discontent between the client and the translator.  

INTERNET CORPORATE COOPERATION? REALLY

http://www.isotranslations.com

Across the last few months you have read a lot about Internet skulduggery and flagrant dishonesty with intent to fleece the innocent and harm the not-so-innocent.  It seemed that around every corner and behind every solicitation for "help" there was a trap. It seemed to be well nigh impossible to find a straightforward, honest, hard working community of professionals who were actually working together toward a common goal without trying to exploit one another and others with whom they came in contact.  it seemed as though there was nothing that the Internet presented that existed for the welfare of the world at large.  I kept looking.  I was bound and determined to uncover a telecommuting opportunity that was honest, professional and within the bounds of my physical and mental abilities.
Along the way I subscribed to about ten or fifteen online job search services.  Some of them were no better than the online brigands that I had learned to dodge along the way.  I even blogged about some of the experiences I had.  Once I learned a few things and I started to talk back to the con artists, they slowly but surely dropped off and now I don't get harassed any more.  Of course I have stopped the online job search services since I have found www.ISOTranslations.com
I did get the reference to this company through one of the online job services.  I wish I could remember the name of it.  "ISO" [for short], has taught me that it is possible to not only have a telecommuting job but develop working relationships at the same time.  This is something that I never expected.  I am the quintessential grouch about the "friend" on Facebook.com fallacy.  We're not friends, I don't even know you.  Get lost.  That's my attitude.
Now, at "ISO" people who are friendly, intelligent, polite and respectful all at once.  They are busy in the office, no doubt, but they are also patient. They are good at communicating what they want, what they need and in reverse, good at making sure that the people in the "field" are provided with the necessary information to do good work.  The learning curve is there, of course.  Learning how to deal with a company who operates on a schedule nine hours ahead of where I work is a challenge over and above that of getting accustomed to the work process itself.  I have begun to awaken at about 2:30 AM in order to keep myself ready for the possibility of snagging work as it comes zinging over the airwaves.  In the meantime, I do other things, but I am here for the main purpose of being the first in line for the work that I can get.  This morning, for instance, I got up a little early and when my magic box lit up, there was the "deadline manager" online with a cheery, "Hello, Paul" staring me in the eye.  Turns out she had a problem and I was involved because I had been the proof reader on the project in question.  I'm glad to report that we were able to repair it.
So, as you can tell by the name of the company, we do translations.  What you can't tell by the name of the company is that it pays the people who do the translations, proof reading and managing.  Yes, it actually pays.  On time too.  Real money.  Not huge money, but money and according to a schedule that anybody and everybody can see.  For a person like yours truly who had about 5 months of working through the moral morass of shadowy slinkers that is a big, huge relief.
Finally, do not kid yourself, it is WORK.  It is not a come-on scam.  It is deadline oriented and you do have to get used to it.  One of the things that I never imagined I would have to learn is how to relate human to human to the sources of pixelated messages.  That's a new one on me.  I'm getting better at it.  I have even caught myself spending a few moments chatting with some of translators and proof readers with whom I am joined in the accomplishing of translation projects.  So I'm learning.  That's an interesting experience at my age.