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| ["Retrain your mind"*] |
I have been privileged to witness and experience the most amazing period
of electronical transformation. In almost all spheres of life, the manner of
accomplishing the simplest of tasks has changed fundamentally. I was born in
1961, at the start of that revolution. For writing, I learned on a manual
typewriter and have used an electric and electronic typewriter, a Commadore 64
word processor, Basic based word processing systems (“…2s…” was the command for
double space, I still remember), Word Perfect and other local variants until
finally settling into, along with almost everybody, Word. The phone at home was a
rotary dial hand unit and evolved through touch-tone phones, dumb phones and smart
phones to phone watches. Banking used to involve tellers and cash and now is
almost entirely digital ATM’s and applications, not to mention the gradual disappearance
of paper cash. Real-time monitoring has become the norm, even in physical
fitness. Applications now tell you how many steps you have taken, calories you
have burned and heartbeats per minute. There seems to be an app for everything.
The pace of electronic-based change in our life is extraordinary.
While my age gives me an interesting historical perspective, it renders
me non-native to this technology. Specifically, I may use it, sometimes by
choice, but I do not understand it intuitively nor really embrace its use. To
explain, I use a computer for work and play, do my banking online, order
takeout food and make restaurant reservations through sites and invoice my
customers through an online service. I use MemoQ, a CAT (Computer Aided
Translation) tool, and do most of my term searches online despite my extensive
collection of dictionaries. I maintain communication with my teaching
colleagues through WhatsApp and email and can teach on Zoom. I am clearly computer
literate to a respectable degree. Still, I approach each new technological application
on a need-to-know basis, absorbing only those features that I require, with no curiosity
on what else can be done.
Not surprisingly, when I attend conferences (virtually lately) and
workshops and hear fellow translators and educators discuss technological
solutions, I am left with the feeling of inadequacy and even inferiority. These
experts show how amazingly simple it is to use a specific application or
software to speed up or automate professional tasks. They exhibit great
knowledge and joy explaining how our lives will be improved if we use these
tools. My first uncomfortable feeling is the sense of the gap between my
prehistoric or at least Bronze Age methodology and that these experts so heartily
recommend. However, I do not use age as an excuse and know that I am capable of
learning new technologies as I have done so before. What is more disturbing is my
strong internal resistance to making the jump to these more efficient tools. In
blunt terms, I generally do not want to make the effort to catch up with the
latest technology. I know that I am not “up to snuff” but am emotionally
paralyzed to take the “necessary” steps to address that issue.
This inaction leaves me with a disconcerting feeling. On the one hand, I
know that I am far more computer literate than many. In a recent questionnaire,
some 25% of translators in the American Translators Association still do not use CAT
tools. I also realize that life is not a competition, i.e., my happiness is not
based on my ranking as compared to others. On the other hand, part of me says that I should
(such an awful word) care and embrace technology with all my heart, soul and
brain and that doing so will make a better professional and person. Alas, fundamentally
human beings are rationalizing, not rational, creatures if given a choice. I am
not native to digital technology and can at best selectively use it to meet my
needs. I try to remember the words of Jacques Prévert: Je suis comme je suis; je suis fait comme ça – I am who I am; that is my nature.
In most cases, I accept my imperfections quite well but, in this case, it does
somewhat bother me but evidently not enough to motivate me to overcome that barrier.
As in James Baldwin’s book of essays Notes of a native son, albeit to much
smaller degree, I feel out a little out of place and powerless in my own
society. I am almost certain that I am not alone in this feeling but that sharing
only goes so far in compensation. I simply will continue to live and strive,
someone uncomfortably, as a non-native.
* Pictures captions allow the blind to access the Internet.
Picture credit: Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/johnhain-352999/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=743166">John Hain</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=743166">Pixabay</a>
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