| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] | When, During Your Working Years, Did You Actually Start To Work As A Translator? Thread poster: Barbara Cochran, MFA
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| | Koume
Local time: 15:51
English to Japanese
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I obtained my masters degree of T&I after graduating undergraduate course. I wanted to build an area of speciality so I worked for a marketing company for 3 years. Then I started my career as a translator. It was more than 10 years ago now.
| | | | Barbara Carrara 
Italy
Local time: 07:51
Member (2008)
English to Italian
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For the sake of clarity, having been named above, despite not having contributed to this specific thread apart from agreeing to a few posts, here's the link to a July 2020 forum thread, and a comment on style I posted then, which must have hit a nerve with BC (namesakes-in-initial-caps), MFA,
... See more For the sake of clarity, having been named above, despite not having contributed to this specific thread apart from agreeing to a few posts, here's the link to a July 2020 forum thread, and a comment on style I posted then, which must have hit a nerve with BC (namesakes-in-initial-caps), MFA,
https://www.proz.com/forum/off_topic/345337-have_you_ever_been_marginalized_because_of_your_occupational_status_as_a_translator-page2.html ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jan Truper
Germany
Local time: 07:51
Member (2016)
English to German
| school of life | Oct 21, 2020 |
Barbara Cochran, MFA wrote:
Was it your first job after secondary school or college? Did you have another job or career first that was related to translation in some way, so that it seemed to be or was a logical transition at a certain point? Please share your always interesting stories!
At the age of 22, I moved from Germany to Los Angeles, to study Electric Guitar and at some point assume my position as the rightful heir to Frank Zappa's throne as musical genius.
Unfortunately, the world was not ready.
I had to make a living, so here are some of the jobs I had:
⁃ wedding singer
⁃ guitar teacher
⁃ cabdriver
⁃ kitchen helper
⁃ buffet server
⁃ barista
⁃ waiter
⁃ catering chef
⁃ assistant restaurant manager
⁃ peddler
⁃ chauffeur/bodyguard for a dominatrix
⁃ call center employee
⁃ office assistant
⁃ commercial actor (best-paid job I ever had making 20k for a single day's work)
⁃ music producer (ranging from documentary soundtracks to porn music)
⁃ game show assistant (throwing pizza dough on contestants that gave wrong answers)
⁃ set design assistant
In pretty much all of these jobs I learned something that was valuable at some point in my later career as a translator, which I started when I moved to Berlin after about 13 years in L.A.
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| The Ultimate Get-Out | Oct 21, 2020 |
“Much of his work has idiosyncratic syntax and uses lower case spellings for poetic expression.”
So You’re The Yin To His yang, Barbara?
Sounds like he gave himself a free hand to write any old nonsense.
I also checked out the Wiki for translators:
“Most of their work has idiosyncratic syntax, and generally they write any old nonsense.”
Turns out it was Art all along.
| | | | P.L.F. Persio
Netherlands
Local time: 07:51
Member (2010)
English to Italian
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Barbara Cochran, MFA wrote:
(...) if you're a Creative Writer, esp. if you have that credential like I do, you are entitled to capitalize any word that you want to.
Think of how e.e. cummings wrote every word in his poetry that I have read, and even his name, in lower case.
There are times when I wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, thinking of myself as the female, Mediterranean answer to Shakespeare/Goethe/Tolstoy. This delusion usually lasts until I review the work I produced the day before, in which – to my utter dismay – I spot a deluge of typos, and a number of dubious style choices, worthy of Dan Brown's magnum opus.
Even then though, I wouldn't dream to capitalise every word, because it's just too much aggro. I actually think that e.e.cummings was onto something, and I'd be a disciple of his school of thought, if only I had the credential (just the one?) to style myself as a Creative Writer but, as the saying goes, Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi.
Apparently, this credential comes with a sense of humour bypass, and I really can't afford one. I say so as someone who – more often than not – couldn't recognise humour, if it punched her in the face. Neurological makeup and all that.
Self-aggrandisement is not a good look, not even on someone who might have written the next Great American Novel, let alone a Great-to-a-lesser-extent American Novel, a Meh American Novel, or – God forbid! – a Lousy American Novel.
| | | | Mervyn Henderson (X)
Spain
Local time: 07:51
Spanish to English
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| "a sense of humour bypass, and I really can't afford one" | Oct 21, 2020 |
Now there's a phrase you don't see every day. Tee-hee.
I also agree that capitalising every word is too much aggro. What a chore it must be to press Shift every time. But, as anyone will know who has worked with US periodicals and academic articles, and I'm leafing through a load of them right now as reference material, It Seems To Be The Norm Rather Than The Exception in the titles, headings and subheadings.
| | | | | Now that’s what I call living | Oct 21, 2020 |
Jan Truper wrote about life on the Sunset Strip
Sounds like you lived my dream. Apart from the not-actually-making-it-big bit.
Did you get to play on any records?
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| I meant cummings, my Dear Lady | Oct 21, 2020 |
Elizabeth Tamblin wrote: I am curious to know which name did not please Pavel: Exy or expressisverbis? My real given name? One thing I am positive sure, they were not taken from any machine translation! By the way, Pavel is a beautiful name. Paweł Hamerski wrote:
...and wit? (added when prodded by the system hating unfilled space in topic body) [Edited at 2020-10-20 21:19 GMT]
and to contribute to the topic I had studied to become a fish processing engineer (yes, really) and then sailed on fishing trawlers for 4 years all over the Atlantic doing my job, and when woman's hair pulled stronger than topsail (probably misquote) I quit and landed myself ashore doing any odd jobs like fish quality inspector in fishmonger's shop chain, lab engineer at the environmental protection institute and mining and metallurgical equipment export specialist at the foreign trade company, leaving it 20 years ago to become a full-time translator/interpreter (I passed the exam for a certified translator at the university along the way - 45 years ago).
| | | | Jan Truper
Germany
Local time: 07:51
Member (2016)
English to German
Chris S wrote:
Did you get to play on any records?
No, I didn't get further than a bunch of demo tapes, live shows and endless hours of jam sessions.
I pursued music/guitar playing more like a religion or means to self-discovery than a business, and I was pretty much a shoegazer, so looking back, "making it" was never really an option.
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