“la parole exportée”

I love Paris in Spring, when the young and tender leaves of the trees come out, but I love Paris even more in the Summer, especially in August (soon). Of course, there are lots of tourists especially around the sights, and many coaches double-parked on the Grands Boulevards.

But there is less traffic, generally.

I had lunch near the Odeon Theater today, and took this picture that shows some familiar features: lots of bikes, still quite a few cars, a parking meter on the left (that’s a costly item!), a handful of tourists sitting on the steps, taking in the not so picturesque view of traffic, scaffolding, etc.

You can tell it’s a more relaxed time, with people standing chatting in the street. Don’t think they could do that in December…

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I’ve been following this blog, Translation-Language-Culture, for some time now, where Werner Patels describes many thoughts that I’ve also had over the years, sometimes in much stronger terms than I would ever dare to use.

Apart from the heading, I could have written a very similar post to this recent one: Moron Clients. His point is very clear, but I tend to think that this kind of mishap is often due to dangerously inexperienced young clients. I had a short-lived bad experience with an Excel file once, until I sorted out what exact problem the project manager was having with my file (there was no problem, in fact). The irony of it is that you probably couldn’t find someone who knows less about Excel than me. (I mean, about the real Excel, the spreadsheet, not the fake ‘word processing‘ Excel.) Well, as it turned out, this was not true.

Another case in point was a Powerpoint presentation that I was asked to translate. Powerpoints can be hard, because people often try to cram too much, not always well-written information in the bullet points. By the time the copy has been translated, the slide is full. I think it’s a real shame that people who need to share about their own companies, interests, findings, can make such a poor job of it.

So after sweating over that translation, I was approached by the people in charge of ‘QA’. They had some queries and I found that an editor had transformed one of the bullets that I had painfully translated so as to make it readily understandable without losing any of the meaning, into a mangled sequence of words, making it totally unintelligible, and introducing a few spelling mistakes for good measure.

I e-mailed them back within 2 seconds, telling them that since this was not my own translation, and it was very bad, there was nothing I could do for them, ‘I’m very sorry, but…’ Because they trust me, they backed off immediately and used my original translation, but that didn’t solve the problem. I shouted them down, but nothing had been learned from that experience.

I admit that I’ve almost given up on trying to educate clients. Translation is a field that few people really understand, or care about, or simply have time to care about.

Maybe I should simply use the disclaimer that Werner Patels suggests:

My advice to all translators: always keep copies of everything and, perhaps, include a clause in any agreements or contracts that you will not accept responsibility for any changes or modifications made to the document after you have delivered it.

The Tour de France will zoom past this roundabout later this afternoon, on its way to the Champs-Elysées. I went there to take pictures of the surroundings and the signs this morning. Some people were already in place, some having a late breakfast in an empty car park close by, a few cars were parked by the roadside. Nothing exciting.

The last day is not exciting, unless you are on the Champs-Elysées. In the countryside close to Paris, the peloton huddle together, as they always do on that day. What you see is a sea of bikes, a tiny yellow spot in the middle, if you’re lucky. They play safe, saving the hard work for the very last mile, on the Champs-Elysées. And this year, they are already announcing the winner’s name on the radio, as if it were a fact. Of course, they quickly add a caveat, just in case.

This particular spot is a favorite for Sunday cyclists, some of whom cycle all the way from Paris (about 15-20 kms). I was lucky with this guy. A touch of humor.

I’m getting ready to interpret at an important meeting tomorrow afternoon. I was hired only yesterday, so I spent most of today reading; it’s a blessing that in addition to my general knowledge of the subjects likely to be covered, there is an abundance of resources (the press, videos, all sorts of materials).

What’s really strange is this: the more I prepare, the less I feel prepared… And it’s always been like that, it’s part of my character, I suppose. I’d like to be able to say that the older I get, the easier it gets. But no, no hope of that ever happening

Does anyone have that feeling, in their own line of business?