Jenia Laszlo
15
What is balance, anyway?
Filed under: Project management | Tags: | May 15th, 2010
“This is out of control, I need more balance” – this has been a recurring theme for the past – let’s take a guess here – seventeen years or so.
Yes, more balance and control – give me some, please. Yet, when faced with the task of defining what balance or control really is – asked by my mentors, friends, or myself – I am suddenly short of words.
What is balance and what does it really mean?
Is it taking off the list all the tasks that were due for today, and knowing that I will have enough hours in my day tomorrow to complete tomorrow’s tasks? Or is it knowing that the lists don’t matter really as much as the actual things I am working on?
Is it going to bed at 11pm? Or at 1am, if that’s what it takes to fit a trip to the rock climbing gym into while getting all the day job work done?
Is it taking a nap on a Saturday afternoon? Or is it getting enough sleep so that there is no need to crash on afternoons?
Feeling on top of my job? Or knowing that in the midst of stress and chaos, personal creative and physical challenges are still the first things that need to happen in the morning, no matter what? (And knowing that setting up priorities in that way is something that helps everything else happen with more ease.)
I have a lot of question marks and not a lot of full stops and explanation points, I am afraid. I am open to ideas, suggestions and new vantage view points. What is balance for you?
5
Sur le pont d’Avignon
Filed under: Languages | Tags: | May 5th, 2010
March saw me do a fun trip across Europe – to Aix-en-Provence in France, then to Minsk in Belarus, and then to Budapest in Hungary, before I headed back home to Houston.
From Aix-en-Provence (which was lovely, thank you) we did a day trip to Avignon – the old seat of the papal power and the home of the famous pont d’Avignon. The bridge’s official name is Pont Saint-Bénezet. (Apparently it did not make for a good rhyme.)
The best part (apart from being in Avignon on a gorgeous, warm, sunny Sunday): a photo, video and audio installation dedicated to the popular song in the bridge’s honor. Sur le pont d’Avignon has been sung in languages ranging from German to Polish and to tunes from barocco to swing!
After coming back to US and suffering from a serious Euro- and franconostalgia, I dug deep into YouTube. Here are the lyrics to the addictive tune:
Sur le pont d’Avignon
L’on y danse, l’on y danse
Sur le pont d’Avignon
L’on y danse tous en rond
Les beaux messieurs font comm’ ça
Et puis encore comm’ çaSur le pont d’Avignon
L’on y danse, l’on y danse
Sur le pont d’Avignon
L’on y danse tous en rond
Les bell’ dames font comm’ ça
Et puis encore comm’ ça
Jean Sablon – an adorable version from the 30s (40s?) with a very young and upbeat feel.
Mireille Mathieu – featuring a collage of historical and contemporary photos and seriously charming German lyrics: Auf der Brücke ist musique…
And the winner, Jean Sablon’s hot swing version which is seriously retro and has awesome footage of pre-war Paris. Unfortunately, this awesome video is non-embeddable, so you just need to take my word for it and click here for 3 minutes of bliss. Seriously, it’s gorgeous.
Now, having had this dose of awesomeness, I am going to do my one-minute commute: boot up my work laptop and plug into the matrix. Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday!
3
Translator’s email tip: how to make your project manager love you
Filed under: Localization | Tags: translator tips | May 3rd, 2010
Dear translators of the world, you might seriously want to consider setting you out-of-office email for the hours when you are not working.
About a month ago, at 4.50pm on a Friday, I landed an urgent translation project that had to be turned around by Monday morning. It was just one sentence, but it had to be translated into 38 languages. And the world was just going into the Easter weekend, meaning that most of translators would be based in countries where Monday (and in some cases, Tuesday as well) would be a day off.
In addition to the challenge of starting a project on a Friday evening…
Now, I could search my database of translators, send out a bunch of emails and hope for the best – that on Monday, all 38 translators would have diligently responded and I just needed to compile the translations into one file and deliver them. (I could not email multiple translators per language, because then I might have ended up paying several times for the same translation.)
However, I had to assume that many translators would not necessarily check their email and respond during the weekend. And not hearing back during the weekend could mean that either they were going to checking their emails on Mondays, or maybe not.
There were some translators I felt really, really grateful for.
The people who responded by the time I checked my email on Saturday morning and either accepted the job or actually delivered the translations.
My second favorite group of translators?
The people who set up their email autoresponders.
This meant that I knew, within seconds, that I could strike them off my list and keep looking for resources. And I was really grateful to them for setting up very clear expectations about their availability. And I actually remembered their names, and because of their professionalism in communications, I would want to work with them again (when it’s not over the Easter weekend!)
Delivering accurate translation on time = very valuable.
Communication and setting up right expectations = priceless.
Do you use your out-of-office email often? What are your tips for effective email communication?
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