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I have a list of many interesting and complicated topics I want to write about on this blog, but I haven’t found the time to do so yet. In the meantime, you can have a rather superficial comment on a fleeting perception of mine.
I met a whole bunch of interesting translators at the conference that took place in Christchurch last weekend. It started early in the morning and you could see how many of us there were feeling out of place and put off by the early hours. You could tell we were all part of the same kin.
It feels really good to be surrounded by people who are in similar conditions as you are: many of them were foreigners, many had Kiwi partners and were complaining about Immigration, many others were missing their home countries and their families.
It was also good to be surrounded by other freelancers: people who have no uniform, are used to managing their own schedules and can work at the time of day that feels most natural to them. It was good to be surrounded by others who know how hard it is to translate the simplest of texts, how difficult it is to become a respectable translator and how merciless worldwide competition is. This profession can become isolating sometimes, so I’m working really hard to find some new translator friends (having left all uni friends in a different continent).
It was great to be surrounded by others who hate mornings and can generally get away with not dealing with them. It was wonderful to feel the support offered by those who used to be in our shoes and now, after 30 or 40 years working in the field, show us that it can be done. And to those translators who like to start their days before the sun comes up, how do you do it? Can you teach me?
Translations with AM 