Ugliness is in the eyes of the beholder – curious political curses

 

[threatening act*]

Name calling has always been a part of politics, now more than ever. It is so human to label the opponent with some discrediting term in order to marginalize it. However, these epithets evolve like fashion, some disappearing, some reappearing and others maintaining a permanent place in our closet of curses.

Looking back over the last two hundred years, there are many political accusations that have lost their bite over time. Being accused of being a communist or a republican, not related to the American political party,  could get you in jail in many countries in the 20th century. Prior to that, being known as a royalist or a freemason created a precarious situation in parts of Europe. Today, these adjectives are anachronistic and  would be somewhat baffling to the current public.

Unfortunately, certain labels have re-entered the arena and have been thrown at rather misplaced victims. For example, the current Israeli government and its followers accuse those protesting its judicial reform bill  of being “anarchists”. This term took its modern meaning from Mikhail Bakunin in the second half of the 19^th century and was based on principled opposition to government authority at the expense of individual liberty. Some of its practitioners adopted directed action, i.e., political assassination, and became rather infamous, giving the movement a rather nefarious reputation. Having lost the war of complete individual freedom, the concept of anarchism now implies the advocating of chaos. The connection between historical anarchism and hundreds of thousands of protesters arranging and cooperating with police on a weekly basis and not harming any property is rather unclear. I strongly sense that most of the users of the word have no idea of the origin of the word, not that it matters. Clearly, anarchists are bad people because they actively disagree with what the government wants to do.

Likewise, the Russian insistence that Ukraine is fascist is rather off. Fascism, at least the German style, can be oversimplified as the use of a police state to implement an extreme and racially motivated social policy. Ukraine happens to be rather complex country in terms of ethnic roots, including ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, Poles and gypsies, to name just a few. It has a Jewish elected president, which means it is neither a police state nor openly prioritizes any ethnic group. It has never attempted to legislate racist laws, unlike a few of its neighbors, notably Poland and Hungary. Yet, Putin claims he invaded the Ukraine in order to rid of a fascist regime. As Spock would say, this is illogical, but logic is not an important issue in politics.

As politics by definition involves disagreement, people clearly need to define themselves and, more importantly, their opponents. This definition can be a curse or a matter of pride. For example, the terms liberal and conservative are thrown around freely as are right or left winger, relics of the seating arrangement during the French revolution. If someone proudly carries that title, it is not a curse but a complement: this is where I stand. After all, ugly is as ugly believes.

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Moving the stone – dealing with quiet business times

 

[millstone*]

Every freelancer has experienced them, the dead times when the phone does not ring and the only emails that you receive mention deceased distant relatives with large inheritances in very exotic countries. Ever so slowly, the feeling of failure and despair grows until even the most experienced entrepreneurs, including translators, start to have doubts. As the ebbs of business are inevitable as its flows, the only aspect that freelancers can control is their reactions to the situation. In my experience, with understanding, strength, perspective and belief, the quiet seas become an acceptable part of a long voyage.

As each business has its regular flows and unpredictable elements, freelancers can help maintain their emotional balance by analyzing the known and accepting the unknown. In practice, certain months traditionally have more or less work, generally due to holidays, with variances by country. For example, December is a great month for retail in Europe and the US but a terrible month for most other businesses as customers focus on Christmas and New Years. By contrast, December in Israel is a normal month, unlike late September through mid-October when the Tishrei holidays (Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Succot) paralyze the country. On the other hand, some slowdowns are completely mysterious. The reasons why a given month had been traditionally busy but is very slow this year are often not clear unless some even event having a major effect on a given economy has occurred, such as Corona or a hurricane. Wisdom is accepting that it is impossible to predict or understand all events and wait patiently in the meantime. Not every down period is the fault of the freelancer or avoidable.

These periods of low activity create anxiety and even depression, which can lead to lethargy and despair. It is ineffective to advise people not to worry when there are bills to pay. Instead, it is more practical to leverage this emotion and use the free time to improve market position. There are always ways to improve a business, many of which require significant time to plan and implement. These practical actions include improving or building a website, contacting customers, taking online courses, writing articles, exploring social media and investigating other avenues to expand the business. It takes a strong will to harness the negative energy and render it positive in the long term. In some cases, quiet times are not only unavoidable but also necessary to create a successful business.

One of the hardest skills to develop is perspective. It may take years to view the ups and downs of a business work with a calm spirit and quietly roll with them. I have been a translator for almost 19 years ago and no longer despair when work slows down although I still find them annoying. I now use slow times to plan trips, conduct complicated purchases (currently a sofa), spend time with family, get exercise, see doctors and plan an expansion of my services,  not to mention play computer games. I generally find it difficult to find time for these activities when I am busy. My time investment may not be immediately profitable but it will lead to greater financial success in the future and personal happiness in the present. Quiet times do not have be non-productive times if a person can approach them as part and parcel of business.

Ultimately, people choose to become entrepreneurs because they have some type of vision, however unclear it may be. They believe in their skills and ability to provide a product or service that customers will purchase. While periods of low business may be emotionally trying, they do not necessarily signify that the person and business model are deficient in any significant way. The causes of such quiet times often go far beyond the matters of the entrepreneur and may be temporary. In other words, like farmers, entrepreneurs must have faith in the future. Panicking and lowering prices or abandoning a business are not generally not healthy or effective reactions. Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves of past successes to retain the assurance that “we can do it”. Whether it is confidence, faith or stupidity, perseverance and long-term success go hand in hand, tempered by an objective analysis of the market and the flexibility to make changes. In short, successful, happy freelancers have confidence in themselves and the future regardless of current circumstances. This confidence in itself attracts customers.

A very close friend of mine, Sarah Wrench, who unfortunately died in her twenties, wrote a fantasy book in which part of the plot involved people entering a cell in a huge heavy circle with one entrance. Alone in their cells and not knowing what others were doing, they had to push until the circle turned and reached the sole exit. Freelancers, especially translators, can relate to that feeling of working in a void. Sometimes, the work flows but other times, nothing seems to happen despite all one’s best efforts. However, when entrepreneurs grasp the known and accept the unknown, overcome and reverse negative energy, gain a perspective of the business and apply it and keep their faith in themselves and remain steadfast, these times not only do pass but lead to better days.

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Poor translation – causes and solutions

 

[squash with many colors*]

Poor translation is both inevitable and avoidable. All professional translators, like every craftsperson, have a dark hidden virtual cabinet with their early translations, never to be opened on pain of unbearable embarrassment. As such, poor translation early in one’s career is not a serious issue. Unfortunately, as I and my wife repeatedly see in editing other people translations, some (not all or most, to be perfectly clear) never really improve and continue to produce unacceptable text. To define the term, poor translation is not a matter of style preference, occasional syntax issues or a minor misunderstanding of a matter. Instead, poor translation involves completely inappropriate style, generally unnatural language and little understanding of the matter in general.  The most important ways to avoid all these errors is developing knowledge awareness, using proper QA tools and insisting on sufficient time.

Discretion is the better part of valor. Simply put, regardless of the temptation, it is far wiser to avoid texts on completely unfamiliar subject matter. Translators are both more efficient and effective working within their comfort zone and far less likely to lose the customer in the long term. Especially in specialized areas such as law and medicine, a globally inaccurate translation is worth nothing to the customer. It is possible to wander into related fields but this expansion should be done carefully. Translators need to have sufficient time and seek appropriate help to ensure a reasonable product. While beginning translators often make this mistake in their search for business and a niche, too many experienced ones continue to produce such texts either due to overconfidence or a lack of direct feedback from buyers. One of the best ways to ensure that the knowledge basis is solid is ongoing education, whether from courses, videos, webinars or lectures. In this matter, you know what you know and also what you don’t know, which is just as important.

As in most matters, the 80/20 rule frequently applies in translation. Specifically, it is often necessary to invest 80% of the effort, if not time, in QA in order to produce a true professional result. Simply put, nobody wants to receive a first draft. QA can be a complicated process even with automated tools. It involves multiple layers that should include at minimum a comparison of source and target texts, a linguistic scan for spelling and grammar errors and general read through to identify literalness and illogical translations. One sign of a poor translation is when the editor asks “did the translator actually read this”. No matter how technically accurate a translation is, if it sounds like garbage and fails to reproduce the message, there is no need to pay a human translator; machine translation probably produces similar or better quality for less money and time. Thus, regardless of experience, every work of art, including translation, requires attention to the details and appropriate QA.

For this editing process to be effective, the translator needs time. Beginning translators often do not correctly assess the time required to produce the translation nor insist on it. Clearly, the actual number of days varies by individual, material, circumstances and offered rate. Yet, hurrying the process creates poor results as the QA process generally suffers. Moreover, complicated or long texts require disproportionally more time. For example, while it is possible to read a translation of a one-page notice in a few minutes and thus several times a day, the same task for a 30-page legal opinion involves multiple breaks to maintain concentration and requires several days to allow for a fresh reading of the text each time. The break time between reading, whether during or between editing sessions, is necessary to ensure proper concentration and a clear head. The customer probably does not understand the process. Therefore, the translator must insist on sufficient time to complete the project.

Therefore, translators can avoid poor translation by studying and focusing on texts in their base knowledge zone. They must understand and conduct proper QA to ensure a professional result. They also must negotiate viable deadlines and avoid overloading. While it is natural for a new translator to produce less than wonderful results, there is no excuse for an experienced one to produce a poor translation, one that is of little value to the customer. Live and learn.

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The good, the bad and the ugly – sales lessons of a sofa search binge

 

[sofa*]

Many years ago, à l’époque as the French say, I worked in sales for a variety of products and services. I cannot say that I was greatly successful but the experience prepared me for my current occupations, translation and teaching. Thus, I am familiar with and appreciate the art of selling. Last week, my wife and I went to Check Post, a commercial area on the edge of Haifa in northern Israel, to find a new sofa that would be compatible with our sensitive lower backs. We entered and surveyed at least ten stores. While the results are inconclusive at this point and it was an exhausting experience, the day was interesting in terms of observing the various techniques and levels of skills of the salespeople working in these stores. The range reflected the title of the Sergio Leone classic, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Actually, any entrepreneur selling services or good can benefit from the lessons derived from such an experience.

On the bright side, two of the salespeople were artists in terms of approach and touch. They greeted us quietly at the door but waited a few minutes before asking us if we needed any help. They then asked us questions about our actual needs and directed us to the relevant sofas. After ascertaining the negative issues, they proposed solutions, whether an alternative sofa or an adjustment that could be made to improve the comfort of that item. They gave us time to reflect on the matter and gave us their card when we left. They recognized that buying furniture is too expensive and important a matter to be decided impulsively. In short, they understood the buying process and facilitated it. If we don’t find anything else, we may go back to them and purchase from one of them.

Alas, far too many salespeople simply had no idea how to sell. They not only ignored our presence at the door but afterwards also. Their only help was to tell us to sit down on the sofas. Often, they did not even ask us what our requirements were. They made no effort to identify the issues or try to solve them. Our departure was as unimportant to them as our arrival. In short, it was almost online shopping but without the convenience.

A few salespeople employed anti-selling techniques in terms of aggressiveness, insensitivity to others and hypersensitivity to themselves. They attacked us at the door, not allowing us to get an impression of the place. They then asked us a pro forma question about what type of sofa we wanted, neither listening to our answer nor even considering that a patient may have different priorities. Having failed to identity our needs, they insisted that we try every sofa, taking offense when we said that we know that which would be uncomfortable. (Believe me after a few stores, you have a strong idea of what does not work.). They almost tried to prevent us from leaving and acted insulted when we failed to buy anything.  It was ugly.

These lessons are relevant regardless of what a person sells or in which framework. Measured attention and careful identification of customer needs are vital to success as they allow the seller to tailor the solution to the customer. Impersonal, poor or mechanical service make the customer work too hard, which is not conductive for closing. Aggressive, one-sided and rude service causes customers to walk or log out even if they want to purchase a product. In the world of sales, Clint Eastwood finds the treasure, not Lee Van Cleef.

[Clint Eastwood]

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Picture credit - Pixabay

On seizing opportunity -the sometimes long and windy road to success

 

[path through mouintains*]

Warren Buffett is famous for emphasizing the importance of seeking and seizing opportunities. For service, providers, the best opportunities occur when the potential buyer has already decided to seek the services or products a business has to offer. Under those circumstances, the customer will properly consider any reasonable offer. However, despite the increased probability, there is no guarantee of an immediate deal. Curiously, the lack of immediate success does not necessarily mean failure as the act of making an offer often creates its momentum, which leads to later, sometimes unforeseen opportunities as I recently experienced.

The best opportunities for service providers is when potential customers publicize their needs for a specific service whether in a forum or service hub or other source. At this point, if the matter is relevant in terms of material and rate,  the provider merely needs to send an initial contact either with a full proposal or a request for more details. The customer has an interest to examine each proposal but generally has several options if the notice was public. For example, when an individual or business posts a request for translation on proz.com or a Facebook forum, unless the subject matter or deadline is extreme, a large number of freelancers may respond. These responses vary in relevance and skill, with the certain providers having an advantage in attaining the job due to their professional background, price and/or communication skills. Clearly, better proposals have a higher chance of winning but there is no guarantee of success as the provider knows neither the level of competition nor the mindset of the customer. These service requests are easiest way to market as the customers themselves opened the door.

Yet, even if the potential customer does not accept the proposal, the freelancer, including translators, editors and writers, may eventually gain a client. Occasionally, the initial provider fails to provide a suitable product or any prodcut at all. Sometimes, the customer is highly impressed with the skills of the service provider but already had awarded that job. However, when another opportunity arises, the customer, often agencies in the case of translation, contact that service provider. The additional opportunity may in the same week or even in the next year. The key point is that the freelancer made a positive impression without even being aware of that fact. The initial proposal eventually bears fruit.

To demonstrate, in the last few weeks, I have gained a new customer and also conducted a paid webinar. Neither was expected but both were results of taking the initiative. In the first case, I had submitted a proposal for a translation in response to a notice in a forum but never received any response, an extremely common pattern in the translation industry. Out of the blue, that same agency contacted last week and requested a quote for another translation, which was immediately accepted. My first bid, unknown to me, had created the opportunity to begin collaboration with that agency. On a more surprising note, I submitted a proposal for a lecture on plain English for legal writing at the American Translators Association conference a year ago. The organizers did not accept the proposal as it receives far more proposals than it has lecture hours. However, to my joy, I just gave that lecture in teh form of a paid webinar. The administrators chose it among the unaccepted proposals. In other words, if I had not submitted that proposal, they would not have contacted me.

To succeed in the long term, freelancers must seek opportunities. Therefore, it is advisable to apply for every relevant project on condition the service provider has the skills to properly complete it.  That technique involves consistent and significant effort. Even under the best circumstances, it does not guarantee immediate success. Still, the fruit of that effort often only arises long after the initial proposal in ways that are unforeseen. The way to success is often rather long and windy.

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People gathering – similar but different

 

[herd of zebras*]

One of the most interesting aspects of visiting a zoo is the observation of how apparently similar species behave so differently. For example, the closest genetic relatives of homo sapiens are chimpanzees and bonobo apes. Regardless of their common heritage, their means of social communication are opposite with chimpanzees often using pseudo and real violence to resolve conflicts while bonobo apes generally having sex to defuse tensions. Likewise, when visiting and especially living in a different culture, it is fascinating to see how others handle social situations. Some examples are the use of alcohol as a social lubricant, family get-togethers and weddings.

[grapes on the vine]

Alcohol is the starter fluid for conversation in many cultures. In the United States, the host greeting guests at the door sometimes even asks “do you want a beer” before saying hello. In many northern Europe countries, no party is complete without beer, vodka or the local liver poison. In France, the wine is the local version of English weather in terms of conversation. Picking a bad wine is almost as serious a faux pas as wearing mismatched colors. Curiously, in Israel, at least until recently, alcohol was not only marginal for social contact but even unnecessary. The younger generation clearly drinks more but still does not require alcohol to have fun, at least if the revelers were born in the country. In Muslim countries, alcohol is even forbidden. So, fermentation and distillation are clearly linked with sociability in some but not all societies.

[family of elephants]

The concept of family encapsules many forms. In some places, notably much of the United States, the family is the nuclear group, with the children leaving home and often even the same city forever once they become adults. Thus, many families only see each other on holidays. In other places, families including multiple generations live with or near each other and share each other’s tables on a regular basis. In Israel, a small country, in many Jewish homes, the extended family dines together every Friday or Saturday. In Arab houses, the children may actually live in the same house on a different floor with household expenses shared by all residents. I suppose this closeness is a blessing for older people but can be a curse for the daughters-in-law, who have to tolerate the domination of the mother-in-law. Clearly, the importance of family togetherness varies from culture to culture.

[wedding table]

Weddings are the ultimate social gathering, combining multiple and occasionally contradictory purposes. Weddings are to celebrate a marriage, balance accounts and make social statements. As such, the size of a wedding and choice of guests is a complex matter. In England or the United States, a wedding with 200 guests is a large affair, appropriate for major public and financial families. By contrast, 200 guests in Israel is sign of a low budget or corona as it would require limiting the list to absolutely closest family and a few friends, not a diplomatic act. In at least one culture, the hosts actually open the envelopes in front of the guests and announce the amount of the gift, a sort of financial transparency.  On a personal note, as it was the 2^nd round for my wife and I, we had no social debts and chose to celebrate with an “intimate” dinner with 20 people at a restaurant. Each culture has its own “correct” way to celebrate a marriage, with small changes are fashions come and go.

[stars in the sky]

We are all human beings but somehow there are so many different ways of social expression. From a distance, they may appear similar, like the stars in the sky, but each culture is unique. Vive la difference.

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Pictures credits: pixabay

Le pur and l’impur – the issue of linguistic borrowing

 

[crispy biscuit*]

On a conceptual basis, purity and heterogeneity seem on the opposite poles. On the one hand, we have the words pure, clean, unadulterated, unpolluted and genuine. Pure-bred animals are worth more while many countries and societies have sought or are seeking racial purity as a goal. On the other hand, mixing is linked with diluted, cheap, compromised or hybrid. Mutts and immigrant societies are somehow considered less attractive and more problematic. However, the reality is that purity is an ideal that may not even be that beneficial. Pure-bread animals tend have shorter lives and suffer from more genetic diseases than mixed breeds while xenophobic societies tend to be less dynamic and flexible in the long term as compared to immigrant societies. Insistence on purity for its own sake has a high price.

Regarding this matter, the national language is an essential part of a country’s patrimoine, national treasure. Yet, like all developing entities, it has a tendency to naturally borrow from other sources as its speakers adopt foreign words and phrases. It is interesting to observe how various countries react and cope with this osmosis of alien terms. Of course, the current great colonizer is English. Whether through commercial ties or cultural emissions, people hear and adopt English terms to their own language and create a manner of expression that often disturbs significant elements of a population However, in some cases, due to either the extreme need to add terminology or a tolerant attitude, speakers welcome the newcomers to the existing lexicon. As I see it, variety, however distasteful it is at first, is the spice of life.

English, the great invader, is itself a product of sometimes violent amalgamation. It began as a gradual hybrid of Gaelic and Germanic languages but had to accept a forced marriage with French due to the Norman invasion. The steady entry of foreign terms has never stopped, especially for foreign items, including ketchup from Chinese, kangaroo from Australian aborigines and jubilee from Hebrew, to name just a few examples. Being a true mutt, English not only accepts words from completely different languages in the same dictionary but people proudly use them in the same sentence, bragging what a rich vocabulary they have. The muttier, the better, it appears.

Alas, the French, especially its national government and its intellectuals, view the matter completely differently. One of the most important natural treasures of France is the French language. It is irrelevant that French began as a local poor man’s version of Latin or that for a long time, one third of the country spoke another language, langue d’oc. The country is fully mobilized to protect its language from the anglicisme virus. The Académie Française actively scours the language for any invaders, rejecting any English word threatening the existence of a French species. The government passed the Toubon Law in 1994 to ensure that governments and consumer notices use proper French in communicating their messages. Of course, leading intellectuals cringe at the growing use of English words, often with changed meanings. Yet, they, like most French, go away for le weekend and find it un challenge de faire face à la revolution digitale, même le email. In practice, the French use foreign words when they are useful or create a “cool” effect. Pardon my French but merde alors!

By contrast, Hebrew offers little resistance. It is a language with few roots, frozen for a couple of thousand years and in dire need of modern terminology. For much of its modern existence, Hebrew was not even the mother tongue of its speakers. By the time the official Hebrew language academy finishes its deliberation on the matter, the usage is a fait accompli.  As the song goes, let it snow. It has already absorbed countless foreign words in the past, including Arabic, (al’an, hello), Persian (kiosk), Turkish (tabu, land registration) and Russian (chupchik, figamajig). English is just the latest influence. The words are sometimes distorted in pronunciation e.g., the English bowling is pronounced boweling, or meaning, e.g., American ice cream and American questions are actually soft ice cream and multiple choice, respectively, but these are minor details. Most Israelis greet them as they receive guests in Hebrew, bruchim ha baim, welcome to our house.

Of course, each culture chooses its level of formal acceptance of foreign words, especially from English with its colonialist reputation. Yet, regardless of the official attitude, the true decision makers regarding the matters are the people actually using the language. I admit that I do cringe when I hear an Israeli chef say crispy instead of the Hebrew parich. Yet, fundamentally there is nothing sacrilege in having more than one word for the same idea, each with its own evolving connotations. Colette wrote “Le pur and l’impur” showing the complexity of morals. Language is also far from a black-and-white issue. In fact, sometimes a foreign adopted child has a certain je ne sais quoi, as they say in English.

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