| Pages in topic: [1 2 3 4 5] > | Poll: Weirdest place where you've ever worked on a translation: Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Weirdest place where you've ever worked on a translation:".
This poll was originally submitted by Alfredo Tanús
View the poll here
A forum topic will appear each time a new poll is run. For m... See more This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Weirdest place where you've ever worked on a translation:".
This poll was originally submitted by Alfredo Tanús
View the poll here
A forum topic will appear each time a new poll is run. For more information, see: http://proz.com/topic/33629 ▲ Collapse
| | | | | In a hotel room | May 9, 2007 |
Last February, I was asked to work on-site for a conference. I worked late and very early in my pj's in a hotel room in Toronto. I never had a chance to visit the city, I just worked non-stop. I was told to order whatever I wanted from the room service menu. It was exhausting, but very cool.
| | | | Claire Cox
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:55
French to English
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| At a tennis/cricket/squash match | May 9, 2007 |
Whilst supporting my sons' sporting endeavours - needs must! You do get some funny looks though....
| | | | Margreet Logmans (X) 
Netherlands
Local time: 21:55
English to Dutch
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| In the front yard, in summer | May 9, 2007 |
I really wanted to be outside, because the weather was beautiful for the first time in weeks.
All the neighbours were doing their gardening, and they were washing their cars and doing maintenance on their homes, and there I was, with my laptop and papers and phone and all. Basically, I'd moved my office to the front yard.
Working by the pool, by the way, is a usual place for me. Whenever I take my kids to their swimming lessons, I take some work with me. Usually proofreading s... See more I really wanted to be outside, because the weather was beautiful for the first time in weeks.
All the neighbours were doing their gardening, and they were washing their cars and doing maintenance on their homes, and there I was, with my laptop and papers and phone and all. Basically, I'd moved my office to the front yard.
Working by the pool, by the way, is a usual place for me. Whenever I take my kids to their swimming lessons, I take some work with me. Usually proofreading stuff, otherwise I have to bring my laptop. Looks a bit too much like I'm a workaholic, especially since these lessons are at 7 in the morning... ▲ Collapse
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But just for proof-reading one of my translations.
In fact, the beach is not a weird but a very inspiring place to work - I once wrote several parts of my diploma thesis on a beach, the only annoying factor being the wind which blew away the papers
| | | | John Cutler
Spain
Local time: 21:55
Spanish to English
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| Other - in a moving car | May 9, 2007 |
I’ve personally seen people driving and at the same time reading the newspaper, sending SMS, talking on the phone, combing their hair, fixing their make-up and several other activities. So, I don’t know if it’s really “weird” or not, but one time I had the brilliant idea of making the most of my time in the car and decided to work on a translation on my laptop while going somewhere. (My wife was driving!)
I know some people can’t read in the car without feeling sick but ... See more I’ve personally seen people driving and at the same time reading the newspaper, sending SMS, talking on the phone, combing their hair, fixing their make-up and several other activities. So, I don’t know if it’s really “weird” or not, but one time I had the brilliant idea of making the most of my time in the car and decided to work on a translation on my laptop while going somewhere. (My wife was driving!)
I know some people can’t read in the car without feeling sick but I didn’t consider myself one of them. By the time we arrived, I was three shades of green and so dizzy from looking at the computer screen that I nearly “lost my lunch”. Needless to say, that’s the last time I worked on a translation while in a moving car. I’m starting to feel a little queasy just thinking about it… ▲ Collapse
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Not really that weird, but I had my laptop and no air card so I needed to hijack someone's wireless line (I was at my in-laws' and they don't have wireless)....I walked around their back and front yard, holding my laptop out like a witching stick, trying to find an unsecured line. Near my truck I found one, so I did my work in the front seat while everyone else was visiting inside the house.
| | | | | in a dermatologist's surgery with a fellow translator | May 9, 2007 |
By a weird coincidence one of my translator friends had made an appointment with a dermatologist just before me. So instead of discussing terms over the phone, we took our files and worked them over whilst waiting. I think the other patients and the nurses thought we were mad yacking in two different languages and scribbling at the same time.
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| On a plane... | May 9, 2007 |
Offline, of course...
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This has happened a few times...
Once, my boyfriend had health problems related to his illness but that never appeared before, so he was unable to see a doctor right away because they assumed it could be anything and not necessarily related to his illness. So, I went with him to the hospital and we sat in the waiting room for about four hours. I thought I might as well work since we'll just be passively sitting there.
I also spent an entire month at the hospital with my... See more This has happened a few times...
Once, my boyfriend had health problems related to his illness but that never appeared before, so he was unable to see a doctor right away because they assumed it could be anything and not necessarily related to his illness. So, I went with him to the hospital and we sat in the waiting room for about four hours. I thought I might as well work since we'll just be passively sitting there.
I also spent an entire month at the hospital with my boyfriend. He was very sick, he had surgery, transfusions, tests and whatnot. I didn't want to leave him there alone (it was a mysterious and scary hospital stay), so I spent every evening and night with him, to check up on him (he had severe anemia) and to help him (he could not use his legs) to go to the washroom, to go take a shower, to get things for him (newspaper, sudoku, laptop for watching movies, charge his iPod battery, etc.). I would only leave in the morning to go to sleep and would come right back at around five in the afternoon. That was a month I kept telling myself I was so lucky to be a freelancer and to have a laptop. Imagine living through that with a daytime job!
Hospitals are not the right setting to work in - they are too noisy. That's why after about a week of spending the day there, I switched to nights. Even though the nights are also rather noisy, at least, there are no examnations, no surgeries and no meals, so I could work then. I was very happy I could do this for my boyfriend while I was able to also keep my clients happy.
I have also worked in cafes, bars and even the park. I didn't have to, but hey, as a freelancer, we sometimes feel the need to get away from home. I also work in my yard in the summer - couple work with tanning, yay! Why not? So much more pleasant and even motivating than working in an office! I feel like I'm the lady in the SDL Trados banner. I didn't have any particular reason to buy a laptop (it was rather for having a second computer for backup and to separate my things from my boyfriend's) but now that I use it, the real advantage is mobility. I can have a life now, even if it is still a working life!
Oh, and about getting funny looks - don't we get those all the time? I think people think that we are showing off. They don't understand what we do, so for them, there is no such thing as needing to use a laptop in public. However, I have noticed that laptops are popping up all over downtown Montreal, near the universities. I feel a little less out of place in cafes there...
[Edited at 2007-05-10 13:52] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Other - In a moving car | May 9, 2007 |
I've done translating on my laptop in the car a few times while my husband was driving us to Vermont (a 5-hour trip each way).
| | | | Heidi C
Local time: 15:55
English to Spanish
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| All these weird places are really normal... | May 9, 2007 |
Or are we such workaholics that they seem normal to us????
As a mom have also done the sports match or classes...
Done the waiting room... Of dentist, doctor and vet.
done the pool (actually, I live in Puerto Rico, so when it's not too hot it's nice to sit out on the terrace instead of locked up in a room)
Done the beach, once on vacation in Acapulco, got a last minute job from some students applying to a University in the US.
Sitt... See more Or are we such workaholics that they seem normal to us????
As a mom have also done the sports match or classes...
Done the waiting room... Of dentist, doctor and vet.
done the pool (actually, I live in Puerto Rico, so when it's not too hot it's nice to sit out on the terrace instead of locked up in a room)
Done the beach, once on vacation in Acapulco, got a last minute job from some students applying to a University in the US.
Sitting on the floor at some Government office... That was the one that got the weirdest looks !!!!!
Not the moving car, because I get dizzy...
[Edited at 2007-05-09 16:17] ▲ Collapse
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Sarah Appleby (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:55
German to English
| Sitting on a kerb in a supermarket car park | May 9, 2007 |
Boiling hot sunshine and no shade, using my PocketPC, extremely inadvisable but it was only a few sentences to go with a previous project...
| | | | Julianne Rowland
United States
Local time: 15:55
Member (2006)
German to English
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| In an airport | May 9, 2007 |
Not really all that strange, either, I suppose. I was under deadline but had to attend my brother's wedding. So, worked on my laptop in the airport on the way there and back, and in the hotel room during the weekend.
| | | | | In a cement factory... | May 9, 2007 |
I guess it was the weirdest place I have ever worked on a translatiosn. I was translating some texts to be handed during the interpretation job I was commisioned.
I have also translated some texts in long distance buses or trains and, of course, during some flights.
But I would never work at the beach or in sauna because my laptop is like a nearest family for me and I guess I would rather look after its integrity than after the quality of the translated text ... See more I guess it was the weirdest place I have ever worked on a translatiosn. I was translating some texts to be handed during the interpretation job I was commisioned.
I have also translated some texts in long distance buses or trains and, of course, during some flights.
But I would never work at the beach or in sauna because my laptop is like a nearest family for me and I guess I would rather look after its integrity than after the quality of the translated text ▲ Collapse
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