English speakers are increasingly punctuating their speech with ‘um’ rather than ‘er’, according to socio-linguists at Edinburgh University. So why the shift?
In the historic struggle between the ummers and the errers, the ummers are getting the upper hand. A study of speech patterns by socio-linguists at Edinburgh University has found that English speakers increasingly tend to use “um” rather than “er” as the filler of choice.
According to a study carried out by Lancaster University and Cambridge University Press, some once-popular English words are fading from use. “Marvellous”, “fetch” and “pussy cat” are all words which have fallen from favour, while the new-fangled “awesome”, “internet” and “treadmill” are on the up. The previously oft-used “cheerio” has been replaced with “see you later”, and “Walkman” has been overtaken by “smartphone”.
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1) If you know a foreign language, you can be a translator
2) Translating is easy
3) Computers can now do translations
4) Having a professional translation is not crucial
Source: translatorbase.com
THE FACTS
You find a potential client. You send them your CV and they love it. They ask you to do a test translation. When you receive their test, you think “Piece of cake.” You do the translation using the best of your knowledge and send it back to the client. You’re abso-freaking-lutely that your test is perfect and that you’ll get a pass.
THE PROBLEM
Instead, you receive an email from the potential client, who regrets to tell you that you failed. How’s that possible? How did your perfect test end up in their Trash folder? Angry and frustrated as you are, you ask them to send you their reviewer’s corrections. And they do.
THE HEART ATTACK
When you open the revised file, you see that their reviewer has corrected your translation based on an imaginary grammar! In other words, the reviewer has fallen into the pit of common grammar errors and traps.
What do you do? D
o you correct the reviewer’s corrections? It’s sad to realize that a non-professional translator managed to sell his inadequate proofreading services to your potential client and that now you are the one who failed:-(
This has happened three times so far in my 16-year career. Of course I did correct the reviewer’s corrections, by inserting comments with explanations, arguments and references to the appropriate grammar rules. I had to prove that the reviewer was wrong. And I did it!
THE RESULT
At the end, the potential client apologized for this misunderstanding, terminated their co-operation with their reviewer and asked me to sign their NDA.
A win-win situation, if you are the lucky one to receive your file back from the reviewer. We all know that clients hardly give you feedback about your test piece:(
But it’s worth trying!
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