Es war wieder einmal Zeit für einen Besuch in "Barbaria" (O-Ton Max). Dank Internetanschluss (mehr darüber später) und eigener Wohnung im Haus meiner Eltern hat das Arbeiten einigermaßen nahtlos geklappt, einige meiner Kunden merkten gar nicht, dass ich mein Wirkungsfeld nach Oberbayern verlegt hatte. Es gab viele gute Gelegenheiten, "dem Volk aufs Maul zu schauen" und mich aus erster Hand über die derzeit in Deutschland brennenden Themen zu informieren.
Wie in England sind auch hier die Themen Umweltschutz, gesunde Ernährung und der Niedergang des Gesundheitswesens besonders brisant. Nach jahrzehntelanger beinahe an Überversorgung grenzender medizinischer Betreuung wird nun Schmalhans Küchenmeister und Deutschland findet sich in einer Zweiklassengesellschaft wieder, in denen Privatpatienten deutlich Vorrang eingeräumt wird.
Das ist natürlich besonders schmerzhaft, da die Krankenkassenbeiträge von 13 bis 15 Prozent des Bruttoverdiensts, die „gewöhnliche“ Kassenpatienten jeden Monat abführen müssen, sich bei Normalverdienern bereits ziemlich unangenehm bemerkbar machen. Man hat sich in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten auch sehr daran gewöhnt, dass man stets ohne längere Wartezeiten (abgesehen von der obligatorischen Stunde im Wartezimmer) Zugang zu Fachärzten erhält, die mit Ultraschallgeräten und mit eigenem Kleinlabor ausgestattet sind, so dass man für einen Großteil von Untersuchungen gar nicht erst ins Krankenhaus muss. Deswegen vermissen die meisten Auslanddeutschen das deutsche Gesundheitswesen meist stärker als Lieblingsspeisen, Kulturgut und selbst emotionale Bindungen. Was die am 16. Februar 2007 verabschiedete Gesundheitsreform mit sich bringt, ist vielen noch unklar, macht jedoch deutlich, wie sehr wir Deutschen das Reformieren lieben!
Freitag, 23. Februar 2007
Donnerstag, 15. Februar 2007
From Edinburgh to Budapest?
In November I travelled to Edinburgh for the ProZ conference which boasted over 140 participants from 22 countries. For those of you who are so securely established that you don’t need to tout for business on internet-based translators’ forums, ProZ is an internet based translators' forum where translators get webspace to market themselves, can post and discuss queries and work issues (http://www.proz.com/).
The audience was a fortuitous mix of more mature, experienced translation professionals like myself, and relative newcomers to the profession with only a few years of experience. This made for very lively conversation and evening entertainment, but more of that later. With the exception of the plenary key note and summary sessions, the conference was organised in three workshop streams, with parallel chat networking sessions for the main language groups. The program was well-rounded, with plenty of practical advice on marketing, research techniques, the use of translation memory software and other useful software tools that can improve our productivity. I particularly enjoyed the first day’s keynote address by Sarah Adams, an award-winning translator of children's literature. Her multimedia presentation was funny, informative, and highly inspiring. In most of us - as we slave away battling with annual reports, instruction manuals, patents etc. - slumbers a literary translator dying to give voice to an author who might otherwise not be accessible to millions of people. After all, most of us originally embarked on our path in pursuit of this dream, and although our creative limits and economic necessities may not ever enables us to spend four years of our working lives translating War And Peace like the very entertaining speaker Tony Briggs, it is exhilarating to spend a few hours playing with language instead of battling with file formats and trying to maximise throughput.
As a complete newcomer to ProZ - I had only joined six weeks before the conference as one of my strategies to revive my freelance career after six years as a director of Salford Translations Ltd - I was surprised, amazed, and delighted to find myself surrounded by a bunch of such vibrant, friendly people. This gathering was truly international, and although English mainly served as lingua franca, a lot of German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Dutch, etc. could be heard. To my delight, there was a sizeable German speaking contingent, and as a German translator living in the UK, the opportunity to speak my native language with my colleagues for three days alone would have been a worthwhile professional development activity. The lunch buffets were absolutely wonderful, and although the Edinburgh Thistle is not noted for its architectural beauty, on the whole the conference facilities were good, and the staff helpful and friendly.
The social program was also amazingly well organised. The evening before the conference, we all met at lovely bar/restaurant, the conference dinner & ceilidh were a big success, and the following night most of us took over a wonderful pub with live music, and we absolutely rocked. At this point I would like to state that any rumours of me pole-dancing are a misrepresentation of the facts, the Pole in question was called Jerzy, a Trados expert and a Polish to German translator.
In summary, I must say that I am looking forward to the next ProZ conference which will take place in Budapest from 28th April to 1st May 2007 (http://www.proz.com/conference/10 ). I have met a number of colleagues who I hope will become very firm friends. On a more pecuniary note, attending the conference enabled me to make contact with a number of potential collaborators and work providers, and with colleagues whose specialist knowledge might just help me out in a difficult job. In my experience, attending conferences and workshops is one of the best ways a translator can invest in himself/herself and his/her business.
The audience was a fortuitous mix of more mature, experienced translation professionals like myself, and relative newcomers to the profession with only a few years of experience. This made for very lively conversation and evening entertainment, but more of that later. With the exception of the plenary key note and summary sessions, the conference was organised in three workshop streams, with parallel chat networking sessions for the main language groups. The program was well-rounded, with plenty of practical advice on marketing, research techniques, the use of translation memory software and other useful software tools that can improve our productivity. I particularly enjoyed the first day’s keynote address by Sarah Adams, an award-winning translator of children's literature. Her multimedia presentation was funny, informative, and highly inspiring. In most of us - as we slave away battling with annual reports, instruction manuals, patents etc. - slumbers a literary translator dying to give voice to an author who might otherwise not be accessible to millions of people. After all, most of us originally embarked on our path in pursuit of this dream, and although our creative limits and economic necessities may not ever enables us to spend four years of our working lives translating War And Peace like the very entertaining speaker Tony Briggs, it is exhilarating to spend a few hours playing with language instead of battling with file formats and trying to maximise throughput.
As a complete newcomer to ProZ - I had only joined six weeks before the conference as one of my strategies to revive my freelance career after six years as a director of Salford Translations Ltd - I was surprised, amazed, and delighted to find myself surrounded by a bunch of such vibrant, friendly people. This gathering was truly international, and although English mainly served as lingua franca, a lot of German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Dutch, etc. could be heard. To my delight, there was a sizeable German speaking contingent, and as a German translator living in the UK, the opportunity to speak my native language with my colleagues for three days alone would have been a worthwhile professional development activity. The lunch buffets were absolutely wonderful, and although the Edinburgh Thistle is not noted for its architectural beauty, on the whole the conference facilities were good, and the staff helpful and friendly.
The social program was also amazingly well organised. The evening before the conference, we all met at lovely bar/restaurant, the conference dinner & ceilidh were a big success, and the following night most of us took over a wonderful pub with live music, and we absolutely rocked. At this point I would like to state that any rumours of me pole-dancing are a misrepresentation of the facts, the Pole in question was called Jerzy, a Trados expert and a Polish to German translator.
In summary, I must say that I am looking forward to the next ProZ conference which will take place in Budapest from 28th April to 1st May 2007 (http://www.proz.com/conference/10 ). I have met a number of colleagues who I hope will become very firm friends. On a more pecuniary note, attending the conference enabled me to make contact with a number of potential collaborators and work providers, and with colleagues whose specialist knowledge might just help me out in a difficult job. In my experience, attending conferences and workshops is one of the best ways a translator can invest in himself/herself and his/her business.
Getting started oder Aller Anfang ist schwer
Our esteemed IT translation guru Nick Rosenthal (visit his blog at http://www.salftrans.co.uk/blog/oversetter.htm ) has talked me into this, unter dem Motto "Blogging can every".
What do I want to share? I'm a member of a number of translators' groups and networks, and I am constantly thrilled and amazed at the amount of information and resources the internet has made accessible. It has completely revolutionised the way we research terminology and subject knowledge. So I want to share which sites and resources are worth a visit and/or investment, and which are not.
I also want to share my knowledge and experience of conferences and events, and will let you know where I've been, why, and whether I would recommend it.
As you can gather from my profile, I read a lot. So sometimes I will talk about books, articles, linguistic challenges, or other things that have caught my attention.
I hope what I have to share will be interesting to many of my friends and colleagues. It might be helpful, save you time, or perhaps just amuse you. Some of the postings will be in English, some in German. Some will be about the intricacies of having a foot in both camps, and many of you will know what I'm talking about.
Please come and visit occasionally, and share your thoughts, wit & wisdom.
What do I want to share? I'm a member of a number of translators' groups and networks, and I am constantly thrilled and amazed at the amount of information and resources the internet has made accessible. It has completely revolutionised the way we research terminology and subject knowledge. So I want to share which sites and resources are worth a visit and/or investment, and which are not.
I also want to share my knowledge and experience of conferences and events, and will let you know where I've been, why, and whether I would recommend it.
As you can gather from my profile, I read a lot. So sometimes I will talk about books, articles, linguistic challenges, or other things that have caught my attention.
I hope what I have to share will be interesting to many of my friends and colleagues. It might be helpful, save you time, or perhaps just amuse you. Some of the postings will be in English, some in German. Some will be about the intricacies of having a foot in both camps, and many of you will know what I'm talking about.
Please come and visit occasionally, and share your thoughts, wit & wisdom.
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