I am sitting at my computer, pounding away at the keyboard, eyes glued to my translation on the screen, when bling! ‘You’ve got mail…’

… I’ve just received the weekly newsletter of Le Figaro Madame.

A wealth of extraordinary photographs of John Galliano’s Haute Couture collection for Dior. This one is only the first…

… the rest, 40 ‘must-see’ photos, are here. I do not really understand the prose or rather the poetry that goes with them, although it is written in my mother tongue. But with Haute Couture, you don’t need to understand. And in case you thought this was totally pointless, Dior’s sales figures have increased by 600% since John Galliano joined them in 1996.

For a long time, I didn’t really understand why they had to produce such incredible creations that are not meant to be worn often, if at all.

But Haute Couture is just the tip of the iceberg, or the cream of an industry. The materials are gorgeous, the work is exquisite, the result is out of this world. Many years ago, I interpreted for a group selecting the fashion that was going to be worn two years later. The glossary I compiled for that meeting included all the colors and materials that can possibly exist. I loved every minute of the meeting and I gained much more than the check I received afterwards. And I tend to take a different look at fashion now.

And as I’m typing this, I’m wearing my go-with-everything outfit: black top, black skirt, black tights and black boots. NO HAT.

Photo from Le Figaro.fr Madame.

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I am quite busy with projects at the moment, but I can stop for a minute and think about what I am doing.

What I like about this work is the many-faceted experience.

On the one hand, companies that can sell equipment worth tens, even hundreds of thousands of euros to even richer corporations.

On the other hand, international non governmental organizations that help the poor and the destitute to barely survive in terrible conditions.

I am a part, if only a tiny one, of it all.

I stepped into the garden this morning, and there they were. My first daffodils, six of them in full bloom. The snowdrops are just coming out.

They always remind me of this poem by William Wordsworth, that I learned in English class, when I was in high school. I learned it by heart and then I forgot the details. Isn’t it amazing how a great poet can express things in such a ’simple’ yet powerful way? Yet years and years later, you might not remember the exact sequence of words, and it is still sitting in a corner of your memory, forever. Needless to say, as simple as it seems to me now, I also remember how difficult I found it to memorize at the time.

I used to visit England at Easter at the time, and Easter is the time I associate them with, but now they emerge much earlier. Last year the first ones literally sprang in December… and a couple of years ago, they were here at Christmas, at the same time as (very) late roses. What happened to our world?

To be quite honest, I had to recover the good version here hence the text color.

Anyway… Enjoy, it’s weekend time!

Daffodils - a poem by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Yes, I and a few million French-speaking users, have been approached for one of the largest ever call for FREE bids, as they opened their Facebook Home Page this morning, and found this:

Unless you have a very basic knowledge in French, you’re bound to find at least 13 mistakes and typos in this short text, the rest is not even translated.

Some are already claiming victory, the group who had a petition going on for the translation of Facebook into French, is here.

Another group has been formed to advocate against the translation, find them here.

Let me open for you my bag of very mixed feelings regarding this move.

One general conclusion: the panel that came up this morning shows that someone needs to seriously take charge of translations within Facebook, someone who has a little more experience than just hitting the ‘Translate’ button on Google or wherever.

I’m sure they are not entrusting their software development, marketing, etc. to people who vaguely know how to do it. Or am I wrong? They must be hiring professionals. I am sure that Microsoft and others haven’t been pouring money into Facebook, unless they are serious about what they are doing. Maybe this is a misguided assumption on my part, but I don’t really believe so.

On the one hand, I understand the woes of those who don’t know English very well. France is a country where, unfortunately, the amount of time dedicated to teaching foreign languages is not proportional to the outcome. You can spend 7 full years in secondary education, and not be able to say more than “Hello, my name is…”. I am not exaggerating. I wrote about a couple of anecdotes in my personal blog. So since I joined Facebook in November, I have heard many complaints, and as a French speaker, and a native, I cannot just dismiss them as lazy. These people are unhappy, irritated, angry, frustrated at having to use a tool in English, to talk to their pals.

Just because I can understand and use English, and I’m not frustrated about that, doesn’t mean that I don’t understand the concerns of fellow citizens.

But that’s the emotional side of it. What about the serious, business side?

Let’s say that Facebook wants to promote the tool further, to make it more attractive to more people worldwide, to attract more funds. In his interview on ‘60 Minutes’ the other day, Mark Zuckerberg in person confirmed that they are looking to attract more advertizing funds. So let’s say they decide to localize Facebook, how are they going about it?

Has Microsoft entrusted the translation of Windows to kitchen-table translators? I don’t think so. And Microsoft are now where they are because they committed the necessary funds to the translation of their software in a full range of languages. You may like them or not, but you have to recognize that. I’m not talking about their Knowledge Base, most of which is translated automatically, but they were elegant enough to include a disclaimer that says, more or less: We are aware that this is rubbish (I’ll include the specific link once I’ve retrieved it), and you won’t be able to fix your printer if you follow these impossible-to-understand instructions, but the translation was done automatically, that’s why (my paraphrase, of course).

Further, although I recognize the frustration of non-English-speakers, there is a very marked trend for a localized French version, that will separate us from the rest, period. Don’t let those foreigners bother us with their impossible languages. Let’s stay “entre nous”. Let’s poke in French and continue to have fun (you should see the language and the style of some of the groups) among ourselves, it’s so much FUN!

Plus: Are people like me, professionals and white-collars who are members of Facebook not just for the fun of it, but also to make serious contacts, going to be forced to use a localized version of Facebook? If it is of the level that was offered this morning, I prefer to migrate to a US- or UK-based network, or even to another social network altogether, rather than being stuck with a tool that doesn’t suit me, and let’s be bold, ridicules me, my language and my professional abilities.

Don’t forget that a fair share of the expansion of Facebook in 2007 is also due to the influx of business users.

So it is not, as some responded to my comment here, a question of amateurs taking my seat as a professional and stealing my income. Amateurs are simply grasping the wrong end of the stick. They are going to be proud, and feel empowered. Good for them. They will derive absolutely no advantage of putting their brain cells into this. At the very least, they should require to be given some individual credit for their effort, translation is work, and as such should be rewarded. There is also the fact that, as with any other translation, someone has to take responsibility for the result, good or bad. By accepting to do a translation, you assume that responsibility.

As for me? This morning, I read the announcement, gloated, and hit the ‘Close’ button. I hope it won’t pop up at me ever again.

PS I’ve used the graphic from this article here. This morning I closed the window too fast and didn’t take a screen shot.