Notes from the TEFL Graveyard

Here is my second package of carefully hewed nuggets of potential aid to the budding translator, many of which may fall into the category "bleeding obvious". I've numbered them 1 to 5 again as I can't seem to make the list start at 6. In fact, I've numbered them 1 to 6, as I remembered another one at the end that I hadn't bargained for: Don't miss deadlines . This may seem obvious enough to make you wretch, but it is amazing how many translators apparently fail to follow this one simple rule . To help me not to forget files, I immediately save them in a folder named after the month and year, inside of which I have another folder for each client I work for, and then inside those folders I make a folder for each day that I have a file due. I can thereby see at a glance what I have to do, and I also keep an Excel spreadsheet with a list of upcoming jobs . Keep to deadlines if you want them to keep coming back for more. Learn how to search the Internet effici...

" Wardy ," people bleat, " how did you take a step sideways into translation, then? " In answer to this question, I have put together a hotch potch of ten translation tips , in no particular order of utility, which may help a budding linguist escape the TEFL control room before things start to malfunction and they get their eyebrows singed off in the ensuing catastrophic blast. I am assuming, of course, that you have sufficient fluency in your foreign language o f choice before you begin, that you love writing and that you have no problem in spending time exhausting every avenue towards finding the meaning of obscure terminology. Join proz.com . You can become a member of this site for free initially (as I did), but to access the really useful features it pays to take out an annual subscription . A kind of marketplace for freelance translators, you can check out the Blue Board for comments made by fellow translators on potential outsourcers (for example, if they...

Some months ago, I was hurrying to the high street to make some urgent purchases when I was accosted by a waif in a state of great peturbation . He proceeded to recount to me a tragic tale of how his lorry had been hijacked by armed ruffians while making a delivery to a nearby factory. "Why, that's abomnable, my man!" I cried, "We must summon the beadle forthwith!" As I strode out towards the Police Station, a shabby building that periodically bursts into flames as incarcerated delinquents make incendiary protests as to their innocence, I became aware of the poor fellow trotting along beside me, gibbering excitedly . "I've already informed the Police," he snapped, "and they're useless. It isn't worth even going there again." "Well, what are we to do then?" I enquired. "I need to get a bus to Campinas," he said, a city that lies a good two hours away by road. " Do you happen to have any money to help m...

Endless autumn: Waiting for the Waiting To cease.