The Fluidity of Time, Dilbert-Style
Let’s just say that if Wally were a translator, he’d never be working for Alboum & Associates. What’s the point of a deadline if you can’t make it? We charge no rush fees. We charge no minimums. And we don’t take jobs we can’t deliver on time. (When’s the last time you heard a translation vendor tell you that?) It’s so simple … you have to wonder why no other agency can make the same claim.
A Day in the Life of a Cancelled Interpreter
My friend and colleague, Jaime, sent this along, and boy did it hit a nerve. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked why interpreters charge for cancellations. It’s because they are linguistic dynamos and unregistered nurses. (Just watch the video.)
Non Verbum e Verbo Sed Sensum Exprimere de Sensu
If you’re a translator, chances are you know what the title of this post means. If not, you probably think it’s something you’d hear at Catholic Mass. What it is, actually, is a quote by the patron saint of translators, St. Jerome, who wisely advised us to look at the deeper meaning of a text instead of just the words that comprise it. I was reminded of this quote the other day when I watched the launch of STS-135, the last trip for NASA’s Space Shuttle Program. (As a side note, I remember watching the first launch back in April …read more
Was This Transcribed Message Useful?
That’s the line at the bottom of all the Visual Voicemail messages I get from Vonage. If someone leaves me a voicemail on the office line, I get an email from their system with a transcription of the message. Today I got a call from someone I know who is not a native English speaker. Her English is, admittedly, accented, but it isn’t that hard to understand. Vonage had a really hard time with it. I now present to you the world’s most unintelligible voicemail: “Hi Sandra this is my day and you’re doing what the client just called me …read more
Working on the World While I’m Working on Myself
I don’t have time to go to the gym. With two children under 5, my days start early and end very late. If I were to go before they woke up, it would be at 5am. If I were to go after putting them to sleep and eating dinner with my husband, it would be at 10pm. Add to it the fact that I am a crazy workaholic, and, well … I just don’t have time during the week. The problem is that the pounds wait for no one. I’ve spent way too much time at my desk, munching on …read more
LunchBoxMom Profiles Sandra!
Many moons ago, I had the opportunity to work with Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss on his book, “Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero”. Together we’d plow through stacks and stacks of Spanish language newspaper and magazine articles, looking for information David could include in his book. It was a fun time, and David (who is also the author of books on Clinton, Lombardi, Gore, Vietnam, and a forthcoming book on Obama) and I did a great job of playing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. David was kind enough to cite me in his acknowledgments. What an …read more
Happy Mother’s Day
I wanted to take a moment to wish a happy mother’s day to all those women out there who balance kids, relationships, professions and personal needs and manage to come out winners… most of the time, at least. Remember that we make our world; our world doesn’t make us. Keep setting excellent examples for your kids and your peers! You are appreciated (even if they don’t tell you so).
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It’s not often that I have time during the day to sit and actually watch a video or listen to an audio of something more than two or three minutes long. Maybe I do — but I’m part of the MTV generation, and raised on quick cuts, short attention span shots, tweet it to me because I don’t have more time than that. I’ve been trying to make an effort, though, to watch one TED talk a day. TED is an excellent website, if you’ve never seen it, that challenges thinkers and doers to give the “talk of their life” …read more
Confession: I Drank the Kool-Aid
I’ve been complaining about my Blackberry Torch to my husband for a long time now. The freezing up. The useless “lock” button on the top. The crazy slow rendering of web pages. The lack of apps to make my life easier. The hold button that my cheek always pressed when I was talking to someone. The fact that Blackberries don’t sync to Google Calendar (but Google Calendar WILL sync TO the Blackberry). The fact that every time I put the darn thing down I pressed the corner of the screen and it thought I wanted to change the mobile connection …read more
Can You Guess Who Speaks Konglish?
Sorry, it’s not King Kong. Good try, though. Konglish is actually what Kim Seong-Kon, a professor of English at Seoul National University, and president of the Association of Korean University Presses, calls that odd mix of Korean and English that you can see on signs and menus when traveling all over Korea. It’s rarely proofed by a native English speaker, and often leads to some very unusual translations. Dr. Kim cites numerous examples in his article, published in today’s Korea Herald, but some of the more interesting ones he’s seen are a Korean dish called “omma son mat cheong guk …read more
