“la parole exportée”

photo credit: mario_groleau

Our Canadian cousins are celebrating today the 400th anniversary of the birth (July 3, 1608) of Quebec City, founded by a Frenchman by the name of Samuel Champlain.

Champlain’s birthplace was Brouage, in Western France. As happened to many such places over the centuries, Brouage, once a thriving salt-trading port, is now an inland historic city that I visited some years ago.

Image via Wikipedia

As one of the minisites of the Quebec City website puts it:

400 years means:

146 000 days

3.5 million hours

210.4 million minutes during which millions of people have existed.

It also means 146,000 days during which thousands, then millions of people have fought to preserve their combined French and Canadian identities. Canadian French has retained some 18th-century French, but when you listen to people from Quebec, there isn’t such a big divide. The source of fun are most often straight translations from American English. I still remember a sign at Niagara Falls that made the translation of “Mind the step” look like “Take care of the step.”

One interesting piece of information I caught when listening to this program on the French national radio was that the present Quebec accent is similar to that of native French speakers of the 18th century. Now that is wonderful, and gives an idea of how languages change over time. The simple thought of Louis XIV, the Sun King, speaking like a present-day Canadian should be a lesson for those on this side of the Atlantic, who think that France has the monopoly over “good” French and that French Canadians have a funny accent!

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I hate to brag, but I like encouragement like everyone else, and this selection of quotes from e-mails that arrived in my inbox last week, really made my day…

‘…So anyway, thank you so much for all your very hard work. I thought you did a wonderful job altogether. It was a pleasure to work with you and I will be sure to keep your contact details for the next time. I’ll also pass on your details to anyone who may need help in Paris with interpreting needs.’

‘…Par ailleurs, je tiens à vous remercier de nous avoir rejoint ce 17 juin, votre prestation a été bien appréciée par nos collaborateurs anglophones.’

‘…All that stuff about translators isn’t really for you. We have been very happy with your work over the years.’

For many years now, I’ve got into the habit of keeping congratulatory comments in a corner of my office. All clients (including me) often forget to thank their service providers. These sweet messages are my insurance against rainy days, when everything seems to go badly, and a little encouragement like this is much better (even for your health) than a cocktail!

photo credit: debaird

I shouldn’t read other people’s posts. Seriously. I end up reading lots of stuff that is not directly relevant to anything I do.

Yet I find all those blogs fascinating, because they refer to things that are sometimes very different to what I can do/should do, and thus get me to think outside the box.

Like this one:

Joanna Young’s post took me to Wordle, and I started playing with it using a selection of words from my tag cloud. (It helped that I had completed all my urgent jobs!!!)

First experiment got me this:

A little bit of tweaking colors, layout, etc. and I came up with this one (strictly identical in terms of colors, font, background colors).

Mmmmm…

I’m left wondering why I find the bottom one more “acceptable,” when the top one “appeals” to me as being untidy, yet more creative?

Apparently simple things like that tell you more about yourself than all the manuals you could read on the subject. Translating is a mental and cognitive activity that requires order and method. But it also needs some creativity. Maybe that’s the explanation?

A better explanation, anyone?

Today is World Environment Day, and this post will try and identify the changes that have taken place in this office, more specifically in the last 10-15 years, that help save some of our forests.

The Paperless Revolution

As someone who has been handling paper throughout my life in various forms (books, textbooks, newspapers, dictionaries, formal paperwork…), I can tell that one of the most important changes has been the shift to a paperless, or quasi-paperless office (although you couldn’t tell, by looking at my desk!). Whereas a total paperless solution is not possible yet, huge advances have been made.

Translation projects:

I used to work on big projects that were fully paper-based, involving the processing of printed copies of documents received by post or by courier. I was lucky to be able to use PC’s at a very early stage, but for practical purposes it was necessary to print many files: not only to preserve eye sight when checking translations, but because word processing wasn’t always reliable for text and picture placement. (I’ve always worked for publication.) Likewise spellcheckers, however great, don’t catch every single mistake, and it was easier to do one last quick check on a printout. Also, with the kind of translations I specialize in, style is important and I find a printed copy easier to check. Finally, one printed copy of the translation (if not more…) had to be delivered.

Interpretation projects:

This is less obvious, but until fairly recently, I was receiving huge piles of printed documents for a 2-3 day conference, with perhaps 6-8 presentations per day, sometimes both in English and in French, printed on one side. These made for very thick and heavy envelopes sent by mail. And those collections were sent to 2, 3, 4 or more interpreters at a time…

General information:

Keeping on top of what’s going on in the world is essential for interpreters and translators. Unfortunately for the printed press, I don’t buy newspapers anymore, I now read every article on the computer. Everything is fast, easy to bookmark and retrieve if necessary, and the papers don’t end up in a pile on the floor. Del.icio.us, instead of scissors, has become my best friend.

Dictionaries and Reference:

Yes, I still use dictionaries, but I don’t buy the printed copies anymore. I don’t buy printed reference books either, or only the ones that I fall in love with.

There are other components, such as bookkeeping. Although I use a software package, and the French Government is pushing for all-electronic procedures, the required archiving of invoices, receipts, etc. is still more secure on paper for a small business like mine.

Now what?

This is not enough, of course, but it’s a step in the right direction. I do print things off the Internet, but I use much less paper nowadays, and I never throw away a sheet of paper that’s blank on one side.

What about you? In what areas do you feel you are helping the environment best?