“la parole exportée”

I had a phone call this morning, a shy female voice on the other end.

She was calling upon P.’s recommendation. P. is a fellow conference interpreter with whom I worked for the first time in December.

She was looking for someone to translate a marriage contract, I could tell by the tone of her voice that there was a problem somewhere. But I am not qualified to do certified legal translations.

I had to tell her that I couldn’t help her, but I never say ‘No’ to a client, in particular to this kind of customer, without offering a replacement. She might have been in deep trouble for what I knew. So I gave her the name of another translator who is an expert in legal affairs and whom I have used for personal business.

She didn’t seem too happy with that either. The translator was too far, she didn’t want to mail the documents, she didn’t have any form of transportation, she didn’t have access to a scanner, I’m not sure she had a computer to send the documents via e-mail anyway. I gave her the name and the telephone number and told her to call and make arrangements if possible. If this failed, the other translator would surely know someone closer to her. I hope she did.

At the time, I thought this was the best solution. But I could also have instructed her to go to the town hall and ask for the name of a local translator. In every Mairie, there is a list of all expert translators, for every language. Why didn’t I do it? Because I knew a professional and I know that personal recommendations work often better with a busy professional. The reason why I recommend this professional is because she, when I urgently needed to have similar documents translated, worked fast, and very well.

I don’t know what happened in the end, but I called my fellow interpreter later on, and she is going to find out. The lady’s distress was palpable, and now I’m feeling guilty.

… than this.

But this one’s cool!

As found on StumbleUpon.

Thanks to Caroline Middlebrook’s excellent post.

Do you use business cards a lot?

I’ve never used them much, but over the years an assortment of sizes and blurb, in the classy creamy color that I love so much, have accumulated at the bottom of my purse.

After a while, each new batch ended up as note cards for shopping lists, other people’s phone numbers, etc.

In our field, business cards are a big issue among those who are starting their business, but after a while you don’t need to rely on them so much, because your clients and/or colleagues are the ones who do your own word-of-mouth marketing.

But recently, I found the topic of business cards discussed a lot in many different places, on LinkedIn, in FreelanceSwitch, etc. so I decided to re-vamp my own bland cards, if only as a test.

My new cards are to be seen here, although the view is so small that it provides only a general idea. If anyone would like to comment on them, please feel free. Color is a real novelty for me, I normally go for much more subdued, traditional business cards. But as I said, this is a test, and I liked the design, so I took the plunge.

What’s your view on business cards? Do you think that they are useful?