Catching up

So many things happening lately that are shaking confidence and some more with past writing in this blog. I am jolting notes and try not to expand this time. Don't expect clarity.

- Liaison interpreting is about movement. You move with clients from one setting to the other. And sail apart. As soon as you loose the movement and the port of call is a fixed location, an office, you are no longer into liaison interpreting but into in-house interpreting. And office culture heavily treads onto what you cherish first with "real" liaison interpreting, something loosely related with "freedom".

- When you are hired for interpreting and end up doing translation, are you valued down?

- Stretchworking in full action these days, but when routine is settling in, it is hard to keep motivated.

- Managing marginality as in the books is a daily challenge because you alone is nothing in front of that tsunami of corporate culture whose "unique truth" is a brutal reminder that fitting in is a totalitarian choice. I am reminded daily that "there is one world view" everywhere you go, each entity, corporate or else, having but one unique, real, correct view of things, in which yours doesn't matter. Being a prop daily is challenging personal belief on the existence of "many world view" and that the acceptance that there are "many" of these doesn't fit in actual settings. I know, this is not clear. The Yes tune that starts with "I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied, I'm on my way" is the perfect mood.

- A new position, corporate, to develop. And it is a suggestion as I am not inclined to apply for. There must be a knowledge sharing officer whose duty is to implement knowledge sharing solutions, but also (let's put it in big, big letters), ALSO see that people are sharing. Because information sharing in a setting where many interpreters and translators are moving around doesn't come naturally. Tools are no solution even with a cool name such as "Sharepoint". "Willingness to share" quickly gets dull. That sharing officer should be a full time position with the leeway of a compliance officer.

- I am back into translation for a while, even receiving a proposal from a "non-agent", or was it "direct client" the proper expression?

- The Panasonic Let's Note tiny 10 inches screen is OK. I can move around carrying it open in one hand. Only, you are not supposed to move from your desk. Office environment is the ultimate unhealthy location. The only missing stuff is screen brightness. It is simply not bright enough, and a larger screen real estate seems less enticing than a bright spot under the sun. Or in front of it.

- I am a slow learner, but a frustrated one when discovering after weeks on the job spread on desks around documents giving the big picture of the subject at stake. I know the argument I would hear if I ever were inclined to discuss things, that you have to go fishing for information that will plug the so many holes impairing the panoramic view to the whole picture. But it comes back to the matter of sharing officer. The lack of it nurtures the more natural information retention, a large part of it being not performed on purpose. But the results of on purpose information retention and passive retention are the same.

- As an individual agent, you have to keep in mind that this won't go on for ages, and that full time employees have naturally no understanding at all about what an individual agent stands for, part of it being not a part of it. But the view is Manichean, black or white, which refers back to the "single world view" matter : the expectation to fit in meaning sharing group enthusiasm is totalitarism in action.

- I noticed it already but there is no end to awe at the richness of Japanese books in the range of "for dummies", especially in the realms of science and technology. These are the "Que sais-je" with graphics and drawings choked full with all the vocabulary you can't swallow. One things books will not provide is on the job jargon, the lingua not franca used mostly by people in the professions.

- Is there a way under Windows to cross-query a whole set of MS Office documents for a word or expression without opening these?