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Poll: For what percentage of your life have you been professionally practicing translation?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
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Sep 24, 2020

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "For what percentage of your life have you been professionally practicing translation?".

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Daniela Arvizu
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
54% Sep 24, 2020

Finally a benefit of turning 50 this year: I didn’t need a calculator to work this out.

27 years... what a dinosaur.

Has a single one of my translations during this time averted a war, saved a life, been on the side of a bus, sold a million products or made a tangible difference to anything ever? I doubt it.

Have I enjoyed it? Sometimes.

Has it paid well? Yes.

I guess you can’t have it all.


Maria Simmen
Michael Harris
Natalia Pedrosa
Mariana Borio
P.L.F. Persio
Christopher Schmidt
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 11:27
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Over 50 % Sep 24, 2020

I started working at 19 while still in university, but not in translation, my translation life started part-time in my 30s and then full-time in my 40s. I’m on my late 70s now, so let’s say that over 50 % of my professional career has been dedicated to translation…

 
Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 12:27
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
More than 50% Sep 24, 2020

My first professional translation experience was in the mid 1970's as an in-house translator. My first experience as a freelancer in the translation industry was in late 2000. In fact, I am nearing my 20th anniversary as a freelancer next month. What they're saying is true, time flies when you're having fun.

P.L.F. Persio
 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 08:27
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
50% Sep 24, 2020

I worked for 20 years as business manager for five different companies, while working as a translator only part-time and only in part of these 20 years. However, I deeply regret not investing in a full-time career as a translator a lot earlier, because it is incomparably better than the other choices I tried.

Johanne Farmer
 
R. Alex Jenkins
R. Alex Jenkins  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 08:27
Member (2006)
Portuguese to English
+ ...
About a third Sep 24, 2020

I did my first paid-for translation in 2003, which was 17 years ago, and I am now 52.

Doesn't time tick by?


 
Ana Vozone
Ana Vozone  Identity Verified
Local time: 11:27
Member (2010)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Over 70% Sep 24, 2020

I finished my translation course in 1973, worked part-time as a translator until 1979, and have been freelancing full-time since then. If my arithmetic is right, I have been practicing translation for over 70% of my life ...

 
Helena Genel
Helena Genel
United States
Local time: 04:27
English to Spanish
+ ...
39% Sep 24, 2020

I feel so old now

 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 04:27
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
64.36781609195403% Sep 25, 2020

According to an online calculator.

Tom in London
Christopher Schröder
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:27
Member (2008)
Italian to English
50% Sep 25, 2020

ProZ.com Staff wrote:

"For what percentage of your life have you been professionally practicing translation?"


I'm tempted to say: for as many years as it takes to understand the correct spelling of "practising".

For the first half of my life I was an architect, a university professor, and an architectural journalist/critic, with translating as a sideline.

Now it's the other way round: in the second half of my life I am a translator, with architecture, teaching, and journalism in the background but never far away.



[Edited at 2020-09-25 09:02 GMT]


Mervyn Henderson (X)
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
The last temptation of Tom Sep 25, 2020

Tom in London wrote:
I'm tempted to say: for as many years as it takes to understand the correct spelling of "practising".


Glad you were only tempted but did not feel quite able to do so.

(Only recently you said you didn't mind Americans writing in American...)


 
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Mervyn Henderson (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 12:27
Spanish to English
+ ...
Thanks Tom Sep 25, 2020

I'd been waiting for ages for you to swing by with the practise/practice thing, as it irked me too.

But it can't be an American thing, can it? After all, nobody says "he adviced me to use an S for practise the verb and a C for practice the noun".

Oh, back to the topic - 50%. Before that I did a string of dead-end jobs, taught at various places in Spain and Ireland, and managed a go-kart track in Torrevieja for some minor Irish mafiosos. Some of you might even have had a
... See more
I'd been waiting for ages for you to swing by with the practise/practice thing, as it irked me too.

But it can't be an American thing, can it? After all, nobody says "he adviced me to use an S for practise the verb and a C for practice the noun".

Oh, back to the topic - 50%. Before that I did a string of dead-end jobs, taught at various places in Spain and Ireland, and managed a go-kart track in Torrevieja for some minor Irish mafiosos. Some of you might even have had a spin there in the mid-80s. Actually, I might have accompanied one of you to the hospital, as we had a few nasty accidents there. Some kid left his ear lobe at the track. "Keep talking to the daft git, Mervyn lad," the boss would said as we carted the accidentees away. "Give him 5,000 pesetas out of the till if you like, but don't let him start in about compensation, for God's sake."

[Edited at 2020-09-25 11:04 GMT]
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Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Well now we’re off topic and getting “RC” Sep 25, 2020

Am I the only one who thinks that talking about “practising translation” or having a “translation practice” is beyond pretentious and frankly vomit-inducing?

And anyway, I practised translation when I was at college. Now I just do it.

[Edited at 2020-09-25 11:14 GMT]


Mervyn Henderson (X)
Dan Lucas
 
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Mervyn Henderson (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 12:27
Spanish to English
+ ...
@Chris Sep 25, 2020

Right on! I thought about that too, after I thought about the -ice/-ise thing. Then I thought, better watch your step, better not say anything. I mean, doctors practise medicine, don't they, and lawyers practise law. Do accountants practise accountancy? Do consultants practise consultancy? Do firefighters practise firefighting? Do ladies and gentlemen of the night practise the oldest profession?

But no, I'm still with you there. I practised this, I got better at it, and now I just
... See more
Right on! I thought about that too, after I thought about the -ice/-ise thing. Then I thought, better watch your step, better not say anything. I mean, doctors practise medicine, don't they, and lawyers practise law. Do accountants practise accountancy? Do consultants practise consultancy? Do firefighters practise firefighting? Do ladies and gentlemen of the night practise the oldest profession?

But no, I'm still with you there. I practised this, I got better at it, and now I just do it!
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Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:27
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Practice Sep 25, 2020

Mervyn Henderson wrote:

Right on! I thought about that too, after I thought about the -ice/-ise thing. Then I thought, better watch your step, better not say anything. I mean, doctors practise medicine, don't they, and lawyers practise law. Do accountants practise accountancy? Do consultants practise consultancy? Do firefighters practise firefighting? Do ladies and gentlemen of the night practise the oldest profession?

But no, I'm still with you there. I practised this, I got better at it, and now I just do it!


Well whether you like it or not I've been practising as an architect for many years. I have my own practice. But I've also done consultancy work for other practices.

My grandmother, who had a Belfast accent, used to say things like "have you practIZED" your piano scales? Pronounced as in "analysed".


 
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Poll: For what percentage of your life have you been professionally practicing translation?






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