| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | Poll: What is your worst translation-related nightmare? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
|
|---|
| My worst translation-related nightmare… | Apr 13, 2022 |
A bunch of zombies chase me through the forest into my old school and I have to run naked through assembly and all my friends are laughing and pointing and the headteacher morphs into my mother who I have to shoot and it turns out she’s the Alien and has acid for blood which spurts out everywhere and burns through my laptop causing me to lose my work and miss a deadline and the client doesn’t believe me and I try and try to wake up but unfortunately it’s not a dream it’s totally real.... See more A bunch of zombies chase me through the forest into my old school and I have to run naked through assembly and all my friends are laughing and pointing and the headteacher morphs into my mother who I have to shoot and it turns out she’s the Alien and has acid for blood which spurts out everywhere and burns through my laptop causing me to lose my work and miss a deadline and the client doesn’t believe me and I try and try to wake up but unfortunately it’s not a dream it’s totally real.
Has happened a few times now over the years. Guess it’s just part of the freelance life. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Computer won't turn on | Apr 13, 2022 |
My nightmares are all digitally related, in the following order:
- Computer won't turn on
- No Internet
- It's time to deliver and my document disappears. This last one happened to me a couple of times back in the early days.
In my 50-plus-year career, I have failed to be paid and lost clients, but I consider those experiences glitches, not catastrophes.
| | | | | | John Fossey 
Canada
Local time: 04:33
Member (2008)
French to English
+ ...
| Vanishing client | Apr 13, 2022 |
I once did a job that was quite technical and took several weeks of work. It involved a risk analysis for a petrochemical plant in the Middle East, but the agency claimed to be in Australia. The job included multiple interactions back and forth with the client.
However, after delivery of the translation, both the agency and the petrochemical plant vanished off the face of the earth. I even went so far as to find the business located at the address I had been given for the agency in ... See more I once did a job that was quite technical and took several weeks of work. It involved a risk analysis for a petrochemical plant in the Middle East, but the agency claimed to be in Australia. The job included multiple interactions back and forth with the client.
However, after delivery of the translation, both the agency and the petrochemical plant vanished off the face of the earth. I even went so far as to find the business located at the address I had been given for the agency in Australia and phoned the business at the location, but they had never heard of the agency.
As far as I can tell, the client had conjured up a fictional agency and petrochemical plant, all in order to get a free translation. Lesson learned: do due diligence on all new clients before accepting a job!
[Edited at 2022-04-13 15:50 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
Edward Potter
Spain
Local time: 10:33
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Correct answer to the question | Apr 13, 2022 |
Ice Scream wrote:
A bunch of zombies chase me through the forest into my old school and I have to run naked through assembly and all my friends are laughing and pointing and the headteacher morphs into my mother who I have to shoot and it turns out she’s the Alien and has acid for blood which spurts out everywhere and burns through my laptop causing me to lose my work and miss a deadline and the client doesn’t believe me and I try and try to wake up but unfortunately it’s not a dream it’s totally real.
Has happened a few times now over the years. Guess it’s just part of the freelance life.
LOL! Best answer!
Also, the most accurate answer. It was supposed to be about a nightmare.
You are a good writer, Mr. Scream. Carry on.
| | | | Edward Potter
Spain
Local time: 10:33
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Another excellent answer | Apr 13, 2022 |
Nikolay Novitskiy wrote:
I drink tea when translating. I like it a so much, and... my very own worst translation nightmare was realizing that I ran out of my favourite Chinese tea blend. Right in the middle of a project! I had to go to shop and buy it, but it was late night and all the shops were closed.
I crossed the city on my bike to reach a distant Chinese shop. It was a cold winter night, and it snowed, and packs of wild dogs were hunting on occasional bypassers.
They sold me that tea blend, and I had a long journey home ahead.
Love your stuff, bud.
The best artists are the ones who can take a simple object and keep the audience entertained for an hour.
Tea? Midnight? Long bike ride? Wild dogs?
Good stuff.
| | | | Edward Potter
Spain
Local time: 10:33
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Wrong delivery / No internet - airport nightmares | Apr 13, 2022 |
My two real life "nightmares", both involving airports:
1. I had a translation due the afternoon of the day I was traveling. I was sweating bullets to get the job done before shoving things in my suitcase and grabbing a cab to the airport. Somehow I finish, attach the document, press send, make sure it went through. I then shut down my computer and sprinted out the door.
At this point in history, internet connection at the airport was practically non-existent. I simply... See more My two real life "nightmares", both involving airports:
1. I had a translation due the afternoon of the day I was traveling. I was sweating bullets to get the job done before shoving things in my suitcase and grabbing a cab to the airport. Somehow I finish, attach the document, press send, make sure it went through. I then shut down my computer and sprinted out the door.
At this point in history, internet connection at the airport was practically non-existent. I simply turned off my phone and enjoyed my trip. Several hours later, after reaching my destination, I fired up my laptop, turned on my cell phone, and to my horror find out that my client had been desperately trying to reach me.
I HAD SENT THEM THE WRONG FILE.
I sent them their source file back instead of my translation. Somebody give me a gun with a bullet in it.
2. Never go through Lisbon when you have to use the Internet.
They had thousands upon thousands of people in the place, with obviously negligent bandwidth. Their data provider also couldn't come through.
I had a three hour layover window and needed to deliver an important translation. I used three different devices, tried paying the airport internet service, nothing seemed to work. I boarded my plane in shame with my head down and had an unpleasant flight thinking how I failed my client.
Several hours later I turned on my cell phone and laptop to discover:
MY FILE SAFELY GOT SENT TO MY CLIENT.
A stroke of luck. Somehow I barely got just enough connection in the Lisbon airport to get the thing sent.
But I stand by my words: avoid the Lisbon airport (and TAP Airlines) at all costs. I've had nothing but grief in that place and from that company.
All the best. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kevin Fulton
United States
Local time: 04:33
German to English
| CAT tool problems | Apr 14, 2022 |
The vast majority of my nightmare situations have been my own fault – sending an unfinished draft instead of the final version, delivering a file in which the fonts in the last half of the document had been changed in the CAT tool to Greek letters (still don't understand that one). But I found out about these after delivery.
However, there was one incident that had me sweating bullets ...
Long ago before WiFi access was ubiquitous and every laptop was WiFi capable, I was wor... See more The vast majority of my nightmare situations have been my own fault – sending an unfinished draft instead of the final version, delivering a file in which the fonts in the last half of the document had been changed in the CAT tool to Greek letters (still don't understand that one). But I found out about these after delivery.
However, there was one incident that had me sweating bullets ...
Long ago before WiFi access was ubiquitous and every laptop was WiFi capable, I was working on a project with (fortunately) an adequate deadline. I had to travel, so when I was half finished, I copied what I thought were all the relevant CAT files to my (Windows 2000) laptop. Unfortunately I was unaware that the work file had various additional components (index, etc.) in addition to the TM and term base. I spent a day flying to my destination and getting settled, planning to complete the project on the road and find a copy shop where I could transmit the finished document. When I opened the project the following morning, I was presented with a series of error messages indicating that for various reasons (relating to the missing auxiliary files) I couldn't open the project. I reloaded the original file and discovered that the TM worked, so I was able to retranslate what I had completed so far as well as finish the rest of the translation by the end of the day. My computer had an internal modem for landline communication, but no WiFi card or even an Ethernet connector (normally I did all my work on a PC). A nearby cafe advertised internet access, but I found that a WiFi card and an Ethernet cable were required to plug into their bank of connections. There was no copy shop nearby. By this time I was in full panic mode, as I didn't have $100 for an adapter and the deadline for the project was early the following morning. I eventually found a computer shop outside the town that let me use a WiFi adapter and an Ethernet cable so I could hook up to the internet and deliver the file.
Lesson learned – know the software thoroughly and don't try to work remotely without the proper equipment. ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
| I thought of a one more... | Apr 14, 2022 |
Delivering an earlier draft of the translation and not the final version. I think this happened once, and I rescued the situation in time. But I'm always afraid that I might be delivering the wrong version.
Also, it would be embarrassing to deliver a job to the wrong client, but so far that hasn't happened either.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 10:33
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| CAT tool glitches and bugs. | Apr 14, 2022 |
Random CAT tool bugs would be on the top of the list that waste so much time and extend the translation process endlessly.
| | | | | The dreaded printed dictionary bug | Apr 15, 2022 |
My worst fear is a reoccurrence of the dreaded printed dictionary bug. It is very rare, fortunately, but if not detected early and actively suppressed, once it arrives on a bookshelf it can ruin it within days.
The problem, of course, is that it is difficult to notice early, when it can still be cured: the first symptoms are the gradual disappearance of serifs from books printed in Times New Roman or Garamond. At this stage the bug is easily cured with just basic measures: put the... See more My worst fear is a reoccurrence of the dreaded printed dictionary bug. It is very rare, fortunately, but if not detected early and actively suppressed, once it arrives on a bookshelf it can ruin it within days.
The problem, of course, is that it is difficult to notice early, when it can still be cured: the first symptoms are the gradual disappearance of serifs from books printed in Times New Roman or Garamond. At this stage the bug is easily cured with just basic measures: put the dictionary in an oven at 200°F for 15 minutes, and all is well. Next symptom is letters slowly disappearing from the acknowledgment and preface sections. Still very curable at this stage (30 minutes in the oven at 220°F), but extremely hard to detect, as nobody in their right mind ever reads acknowledgments, and few read prefaces.
Past this stage, the symptoms worsen at an increasingly rapid page: first the lower case "g" is replaced by the number "9, then the upper case "B" is replaced by the number 8, and then both lower-case and upper case "o and O" turn into the digit "0". At this point the cure is more drastic (fumigation for a whole day, followed by an further six hours in an UV oven), but although the lesions can no longer be reversed, the dictionary is still mostly readable.
Past that point, however, the printed dictionary bug disease progresses rapidly and always fatally: all remaining letters swiftly turn into decimal digits, then the decimal digits in their turn into binary "1s" and "0s"... and at that point, unless you burn your whole library, the bug is ready to spread to electronic devices and (in very rare instances) even to our retinas and then to our brains. ▲ Collapse
| | | | |
|
|
|
Paul Lambert
Sweden
Local time: 10:33
Member (2006)
Swedish to English
+ ...
The worst nightmare is when clients contact me in the middle of my translation work to tell me that they have since made changes to the original and that I should incorporate those changes into my translation. They expect this all at no extra charge, of course. This has happened a few times.
The worse case resembled the following: "Hi Paul, I noticed that I need to make some changes in the text. I am sending you a new original"...
-- then I change accordingly...
<... See more The worst nightmare is when clients contact me in the middle of my translation work to tell me that they have since made changes to the original and that I should incorporate those changes into my translation. They expect this all at no extra charge, of course. This has happened a few times.
The worse case resembled the following: "Hi Paul, I noticed that I need to make some changes in the text. I am sending you a new original"...
-- then I change accordingly...
But then the client calls back to say, "Ah, wait just a few more changes. I won't send a new file. Just make a note that Section 13 of the document should be deleted, and then can you go through and adjust all references made in the text to Sections greater than 13 and subtract 1? Oh, except for those parts that refer to the old document that contained Section 13. And frankly, I should get a bit of discount since you no longer need to translate Section 13 (long after I have already done Section 13)."
And to top it off, the discussion ends with, "Just keep working at it. I will call back if I need any more changes." ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jan Truper
Germany
Local time: 10:33
Member (2016)
English to German
Paul Lambert wrote:
The worst nightmare is when clients contact me in the middle of my translation work to tell me that they have since made changes to the original and that I should incorporate those changes into my translation. They expect this all at no extra charge, of course. This has happened a few times.
...
And to top it off, the discussion ends with, "Just keep working at it. I will call back if I need any more changes."
You could use a CAT tool's analysis to figure out the extent of any source text changes, omissions or additions coming your way, and then charge accordingly.
| | | | Dércio Bene
Mozambique
Local time: 10:33
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| Hard Disk Drive failure | Apr 15, 2022 |
Just reading some of the comments in the forum is enough to make my heart go fast.
This once I joined a translation project that required some urgency and my laptop started freezing constantly, apparently my hard disk drive was failing. I got really stressed out. Fortunately, I managed to buy a new one very quickly off the black market and had only a couple of hours to install windows, install office and install Trados so I could get going with my translation. To make matters worse in the ... See more Just reading some of the comments in the forum is enough to make my heart go fast.
This once I joined a translation project that required some urgency and my laptop started freezing constantly, apparently my hard disk drive was failing. I got really stressed out. Fortunately, I managed to buy a new one very quickly off the black market and had only a couple of hours to install windows, install office and install Trados so I could get going with my translation. To make matters worse in the middle of all of this chaos, the client contacts me asking how the progress is going. My response was a simple "it's going, it will be complete before the deadline", and indeed it was. I pulled an all-nighter, worked myself off and finished everything about 2 hours before the deadline.
Now I understand the necessity of having at least two laptops or a laptop and an expensive tablet that can serve to do these types of tasks. You live and learn I suppose ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Poll: What is your worst translation-related nightmare? | Trados Studio 2022 Freelance | The leading translation software used by over 270,000 translators.
Designed with your feedback in mind, Trados Studio 2022 delivers an unrivalled, powerful desktop
and cloud solution, empowering you to work in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
More info » |
| | Wordfast Pro | Translation Memory Software for Any Platform
Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users!
Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value
Buy now! » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
