Jessica Hagy calls this one The Suit Subsidy (aka The Pajamas Tariff):
I’m a loyal reader of Jessica’s blog and am always pleased when I see something appear that is especially relevant to freelancers!
Archives for September 2007
Responses to "So, what do you do?"
According to journalist Kathy Foley, there’s a group on Facebook where journalists post the top responses they get in social situations when they announce “I’m a journalist”. So here are the top four responses I get when I say I’m a translator:
Scenario 1: a typical “European” response
– So what language do you speak?
insert my answer
– [Pause] Oh… I know a guy speaks 7/10/17 languages fluently! He’s amazing… launches into the life story of this other amazing person I’ve never met
Scenario 2: a typical English response
– So what language do you speak?
insert my answer
– I took some French/German at school. Didn’t learn a thing, and the teacher had it in for me… launches into a story about how they’re “not able” to learn languages
Scenario 3: a typical Irish response
– So what language do you speak?
insert my answer
– Ah, so you travel all the time for work then?
I do my best to explain that it is possible to have a language job that doesn’t involve call centres or working for the EU
Scenario 4: a typical Australian response
– Ah, yes. My friend’s wife is [German/French/Japanese, etc.]. She does some translation too, you know, in the evenings every now and then – when the kids have gone to bed, of course…
I just smile and nod, about all that is usually expected of me at this point
And then there’s what I’d love to hear people say:
- So how did you progress from speaking those languages to actually translating professionally?!
- Any advice for learning languages as an adult?
- Wow, intelligent AND beautiful! Here’s a cheque for 1 million pounds, just for making my evening.
What are the typical responses you get when you say you’re a translator?
REAL life in translation :)
Have a look at this post over at Life in Translation, where blogger Mago comments on false friends and traps for unwary translators by examining the translation between French, Spanish and English of a feminine hygiene product. Excellent stuff!
Back to work bliss
Well, I’m back (and in dire need of a holiday to recover 🙂 ) It was a great few weeks, the culmination of an 18 month project I’ve been working on and I can’t quite believe it’s (almost) all over.
I led a group of 3 other adults and 16 teenagers out to Urubamba, Peru, where we worked with a fantastic charity called Kiya Survivors for 2 weeks. We planned and fundraised the whole project ourselves from scratch and as we’re all volunteers, the sense of satisfaction has been enormous. It was a LOT of work and the learning curve was very steep – I reckon I’ve easily spent an average of one working day a week on it, not including the 4 weeks unpaid leave I’ve just had 🙂 (Personally, there’s no way I could have managed it without the freedom and flexibility of being freelance – although there are those that do manage it!).
A girl’s gotta balance her “me-lance”life with something, right?!
