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cimoreneHey, today I remembered that I totally forgot to tell anybody about the funniest part of the disastrous board meeting last week at which low blood sugar, no air conditioning, and injustice nearly led me into a meltdown!
Obviously, by the time I made it home, yelling 'AAARRRGG' had erased the lighter side of proceedings from my memory!
However. The funniest part of the board meeting, and also the surrealest, came when the board members were checking an online event announcement I'd created and fixing the grammar of the Swedish and Finnish versions of the text. Then they moved on to the English version of the text, and while I watched in bemusement and struggled increasingly not to laugh out loud, proceeded to collectively "fix" my English text so that it was a more literal and word-for-word translation of the Swedish original.
Aside from the fact that any native speaker is a sufficient authority to produce a better and more natural text translation into their native language, provided they understand the original, which is theoretically something some Boomers who haven't studied language or linguistics might not know, these guys all literally examined my resumé together before deciding to hire me, so they all know I've done professional translation!
I don't have any emotional investment in the text, which they quickly made into a grammatically correct but weird-sounding blurb like you often get from Scandinavian-language speakers without enough natural English practice. So when my neatnik boss glanced at me as an afterthought, quirked her eyebrows and asked if it was okay, I just shrugged and said "It's not wrong".
Obviously, by the time I made it home, yelling 'AAARRRGG' had erased the lighter side of proceedings from my memory!
However. The funniest part of the board meeting, and also the surrealest, came when the board members were checking an online event announcement I'd created and fixing the grammar of the Swedish and Finnish versions of the text. Then they moved on to the English version of the text, and while I watched in bemusement and struggled increasingly not to laugh out loud, proceeded to collectively "fix" my English text so that it was a more literal and word-for-word translation of the Swedish original.
Aside from the fact that any native speaker is a sufficient authority to produce a better and more natural text translation into their native language, provided they understand the original, which is theoretically something some Boomers who haven't studied language or linguistics might not know, these guys all literally examined my resumé together before deciding to hire me, so they all know I've done professional translation!
I don't have any emotional investment in the text, which they quickly made into a grammatically correct but weird-sounding blurb like you often get from Scandinavian-language speakers without enough natural English practice. So when my neatnik boss glanced at me as an afterthought, quirked her eyebrows and asked if it was okay, I just shrugged and said "It's not wrong".
(no subject)
Date: 16 Aug 2023 09:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 16 Aug 2023 12:51 pm (UTC)People get weirdly invested in these things. When I had a secretarial job right out of college, back in the 80s, I had a supervisor who had Strong Feelings about the use of commas. I dutifully and cheerfully Did It Her Way.
She wanted to argue with me about it and Prove She Was Right. I didn't care if she was right or not; she was the boss and I did it her way. I had no preference. But she wanted me to agree that her way the Perfect and Correct. So weird.
You definitely know more about translation than they do, (plus you are a very good writer!!!) but some people are impervious.
(no subject)
Date: 16 Aug 2023 01:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 16 Aug 2023 02:40 pm (UTC)