alexpgp | Epiphanies...

The other day, a client sends me a document to translate, with the instruction that I should add the translations beneath the corresponding source text, i.e., turn the document into a bilingual document.

It's a straightforward, if unusual, request, since 90% of the document is in a table, but at first it played merry hell with my typical approach to translation, which involves the use of translation memory, which "devours" the source text piecemeal as you go through the document, reducing it to segments of hidden text embedded within a structure imposed by the translation memory software.

At first, I was stumped as to how I could preserve the source text, with the most likely solution being to translate the text in file A, and then intermingle the source text in the original file with the text in file A to create the deliverable. I dismissed that as too labor-intensive, as I don't know of any clean way of "merging" two tables so that the result is a single table where each cell contains the contents of the original two.

Then, I thought, perhaps I'd just write a macro that duplicated the source text in each cell and marked the "original" text in such a way (double strikethrough) that my translation memory program would ignore it.

Word threw one of its "gee, but Something Bad™ happened and I have to close now, sorry" errors in the middle of that, whereupon a clean and elegant solution struck me squarely between the running lights: translate the original file the way I normally do, except that when the time comes to "clean up" the file, just go in and get rid of the translation memory program's markup (i.e., make hidden text unhidden, and a couple of cosmetic changes).

The result was quite acceptable.

* * *I've been reading a lot of Jeffrey Gitomer's stuff lately. The principal reason is: it makes sense.

No, let me put it another way: Some of the things I've been doing have been a kind of intuitive grasping at the principles that Gitomer lays out in his books. Case in point: my run of presentations at ATA conferences over the past few years.

One of the ideas that piqued my interest was this: when arranging for a referral from a customer, set up a meeting where not only does the customer refers someone to you, but you refer someone to the customer as well.

Now, understand this: Gitomer is writing for an audience of sales people. And although I am not, per se, a salesman, in a very fundamental sense, the fact that I am a freelancer means that I am very much a salesman. (It can probably be argued that hourly workers are sales people, too, but the argument would be more complex, and few people would be swayed.)

The fact that I run a "one-man shop," where I am the CEO and chief bottle-washer is the result of having a pretty good track record with established customers, and being able to satisfy customers who call on me "over the transom," as it were. The fact is, however, that I'd like to leverage my skills and knowledge, and acquire some direct clients (as opposed to acquiring more agency clients who act as intermediaries between me and someone else), not that there's anything wrong with agencies, except for the fact that they are intermediaries.

Anyway, it turns out this idea of Gitomer's is something I've been thinking about for a long time (which only serves to reinforce my... positive attitude towards his stuff), and at first glance (the best) it's pretty exciting. I just hope I can maintain my enthusiasm.

In other news, today was a completely horrid day for translation. I shall have to employ the full spectrum of physically improbable metaphors (shoulder to the wheel, nose to the grindstone, et al.) to get the job moving again, tomorrow.

Cheers...