| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: Have you ever lost your inner peace because of a project? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Have you ever lost your inner peace because of a project?".
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| | | | Jack Doughty 
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:04
Russian to English
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In memoriam
I had to translate an accident report about an aircraft engine fitter who went too close to a running jet engine, was sucked in and scattered in little pieces for up to 100 m behind it. I was once an engine fitter myself, perhaps that was why I found it disturbing.
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More within the framelwork of employment positions. I've worked in protection and indemnity mutual shipping insurance, that's almost anything except for the hull. In my case that meant cargo and personal injury claims on board commercial and passenger vessels (also freight, demurrage and defence, but I wasn't involved in that). I've also worked in civil litigation where it is difficult to avoid some fairly dramatic situations. In both positions, I was employed for my combined legal and linguisti... See more More within the framelwork of employment positions. I've worked in protection and indemnity mutual shipping insurance, that's almost anything except for the hull. In my case that meant cargo and personal injury claims on board commercial and passenger vessels (also freight, demurrage and defence, but I wasn't involved in that). I've also worked in civil litigation where it is difficult to avoid some fairly dramatic situations. In both positions, I was employed for my combined legal and linguistic skills, so to that extent, yes, sometimes, within the context of my work which invovled translating, some cases can be quite harrowing.
[Edited at 2016-09-01 15:49 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Odile Breuvart
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:04
Member
English to French
+ ...
| Wow that's spiritual! | Sep 1, 2016 |
I don't think any work, translation work in particular, can be done without a bit of losing it at odd times.
I love my inner peace, but it appears mostly outside of work, a necessary balance to get this mad job going.
Actually, it's quite a quiet world here, I even get to sing when tiredness sets in.
Thanks for the lovely thought.
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EvaVer (X)
Local time: 13:04
Czech to French
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| What inner peace? | Sep 1, 2016 |
I have never had one.
| | | | Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 07:04
English to Spanish
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| Close to home | Sep 1, 2016 |
Jack Doughty wrote:
I had to translate an accident report about an aircraft engine fitter who went too close to a running jet engine, was sucked in and scattered in little pieces for up to 100 m behind it. I was once an engine fitter myself, perhaps that was why I found it disturbing.
That must have been an intense experience, Jack.
| | | | Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 07:04
English to Spanish
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| Define “inner peace” | Sep 1, 2016 |
Concepts like inner peace can be ambiguous at best and open to all sorts of interpretation, from religiosity to philosophy and everything in between.
The question assumes that inner peace (a sense of tranquility?) is lost and remains unrecovered because of a particular translation project.
For the sake of argument, let's consider that this sense of peace or security or personal balance is forever shattered in an individual. For that to happen, the translation pro... See more Concepts like inner peace can be ambiguous at best and open to all sorts of interpretation, from religiosity to philosophy and everything in between.
The question assumes that inner peace (a sense of tranquility?) is lost and remains unrecovered because of a particular translation project.
For the sake of argument, let's consider that this sense of peace or security or personal balance is forever shattered in an individual. For that to happen, the translation project (the text or documents being translated, naturally) would have to be so massively traumatic that the individual would need behavioral therapy or some sort of psychological help to continue.
Having said that, this scenario would strike any reasonable person as ridiculously extreme. There are so many assumptions and variables in it that a cogent discussion is out of the question.
Next.
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| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 13:04
Spanish to English
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The first thing that sprang to mind was a quasi-humorous comment, along the lines of "even a misused apostrophe can give me the screaming hab-dabs"...
However, Jack's more sombre revelation reminds me of the time I translated a medical report free of charge for a friend - the results were very negative, melanoma with metastasis in a young teenage girl, and I felt increasingly sad the nearer I got to the end. My "inner peace" was severely dented on that occasion. There must be others... See more The first thing that sprang to mind was a quasi-humorous comment, along the lines of "even a misused apostrophe can give me the screaming hab-dabs"...
However, Jack's more sombre revelation reminds me of the time I translated a medical report free of charge for a friend - the results were very negative, melanoma with metastasis in a young teenage girl, and I felt increasingly sad the nearer I got to the end. My "inner peace" was severely dented on that occasion. There must be others, but I probably tend to forget them ASAP, otherwise I'd end up in a veritable slough of despond.
PS: On a lighter note, sometimes I find myself having to Google the expressions I use in my normal everyday conversations, to make sure that they are OK. This was one:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-scr1.htm
[Edited at 2016-09-01 16:23 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 12:04
Member (2007)
English
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| Professional life can be harrowing | Sep 1, 2016 |
Mario Chavez wrote:
Concepts like inner peace can be ambiguous at best and open to all sorts of interpretation, from religiosity to philosophy and everything in between.
The question assumes that inner peace (a sense of tranquility?) is lost and remains unrecovered because of a particular translation project.
I have no time for such concepts, but I have had some harrowing experiences.
My first-ever English student lost two of her three daughters, one of them very severely handicapped, when her husband drugged them and doused the car in petrol before getting in himself and setting fire to it. She was having lessons to take a more active part in conferences about mental handicap and I knew her daughters well. That ws a seriously bad start to a career. Also, a pregnant student lost her baby; one male student kept bursting into tears, and another vile individual fell asleep on one occasion, clearly having smoked something very heavy the night before, and on another wanted to discuss the live video of a hostage beheading that he had been watching. I "sacked" that one. These experiences do mark you.
In hospital interpreting, I had to force back tears while passing on news that there was no hope for a loved one.
My marketing and tourism translation projects seem "comfortingly boring" in comparison.
[Edited at 2016-09-01 19:12 GMT]
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 08:04
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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| A few times, yes | Sep 1, 2016 |
Usually due to the stupidity of a client or of a reviser. Undue corrections in my work is what spoils my inner peace. I am very thankful for due corrections. But when something I translate correctly is modified for something wrong or not as good, I usually reply with "this translation is no longer my responsibility. I will make no further revisions and will not respond to the client if the undue changes I refused are maintained."
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 12:04
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| Professional life can be harrowing | Sep 1, 2016 |
Mario Chavez wrote:
Concepts like inner peace can be ambiguous at best and open to all sorts of interpretation, from religiosity to philosophy and everything in between.
The question assumes that inner peace (a sense of tranquility?) is lost and remains unrecovered because of a particular translation project.
I have no time for such concepts, but I have had some harrowing experiences.
My first-ever English student lost two of her three daughters, one of them very severely handicapped, when her husband drugged them and doused the car in petrol before getting in himself and setting fire to it. She was having lessons to take a more active part in conferences about mental handicap and I knew her daughters well. That ws a seriously bad start to a career. Also, a pregnant student lost her baby; one male student kept bursting into tears, and another vile individual fell asleep on one occasion, clearly having smoked something very heavy the night before, and on another wanted to discuss the live video of a hostage beheading that he had been watching. I "sacked" that one. These experiences do mark you.
In hospital interpreting, I had to force back tears while passing on news that there was no hope for a loved one.
And when proofreading a novel about child sexual abuse within the family, it was clear that the author (my client) was writing from personal experience.
My marketing and tourism translation projects seem "comfortingly boring" in comparison.
| | | | Katrin Bosse (X)
Germany
Local time: 13:04
Dutch to German
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| I am with Sheila on this one | Sep 2, 2016 |
Sheila Wilson wrote:
I have no time for such concepts, but I have had some harrowing experiences.
These experiences do mark you.
I once translated a story that hit much too close to home. It was the story of Danielle, one of the worst ever cases of child neglect in the US. I cried troughout. To this day, I have flashbacks, especially when I look at my happy, carefree daughter, roughly the same age as Dani. The incomprehensibility of how a mother could treat her own child in such a way for years and years simply floors me. It made me appreciate mental health and stability and the efforts of child care organisations even more than before.
[Bearbeitet am 2016-09-02 05:08 GMT]
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The content doesn't disturb me, but sometimes the way the texts are written drives me crazy.
| | | | Tania McConaghy
Sweden
Local time: 13:04
Member (2009)
Swedish to English
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| Vicarious trauma | Sep 2, 2016 |
Vicarious trauma can affect translators and interpreters.
I work with medical texts and it isn't just beer and skittles.
In my experience it's not always easy to predict which texts will have an effect on me.
| | | | Michael Harris
Germany
Local time: 13:04
Member (2006)
German to English
not really, or I cannot recall any
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