With this being my last semester, while taking 3 courses I'm also working on my Specialization paper, which consists of two translations of ~ 3000 words each (Spanish to English and English to Spanish) and a 12-page essay. Yesterday I had to go see my professor and discuss the difficulties I had with my first translation, which I would like to hand in next week. There was a "sentence" that didn't have a verb, but I had even more trouble finding a few words describing the Mapuche (a civilization from Southern Chile and Argentina) adornments.This professor has always told us that we should get the Collins S/E - E/S dictionary, with more explanations and definitions than the others, but I had bought the Oxford way before that, so I didn't feel like buying a new one only for a few small differences (or so I thought). Thing is, my professor was able to find in the Collins dictionary all the words I had trouble encountering in my Oxford one. The Thesaurus proved to be just as helpful, so by the end of our meeting I had decided to take about 130$ out of my pocket and buy the two beasts. That is, until my professor, the one who also helped me last year, when I was going through some rough times, told me that the secretary had some "Collinses" from professors who had left or had simply bought new ones. They found one and told me I didn't even have to return it: "They're here for students like you, you'll be needing it for a long time." I was and still am speechless. He said that with the money I had saved I could now buy the Thesaurus, so that's exactly what I did.
I went home with my laptop and the Collins in my backpack and the Thesaurus in a bag. By the time I got there, I had a big headache and my back was almost crumbling. Nevertheless, I was all smiles and started to look up words and compare, and now I can hardly wait to get my hands on the first translation and make the final touch-ups. With such professors, how could I not? I feel so lucky sometimes! Thank you very, very much!
6 comments:
You are very lucky indeed. And you deserve it! I'd love to read the Mapuche's text you're translating.
Of course you can, I'll give it to you once I hand in the translation.
Talking about deserving it, I've found about two typos in my text (like "world" instead of "word"), and that happens when I write in a hurry... you have no idea how much I hate it!
I've tried really hard for you not to find my stupid blog, but I knew you'd see it in tracking list :-P.
Este exact ceea ce iti doreai , sa te ocupi de traduceri , asa imi amintesc , felicitari!
Si eu traduc mult din Britannica, E. Americana si Bordas-ul francez pentru "Dictionarul meu de curtezane". InseamnÄ foarte mult sa te pasioneze studiul limbilor straine. Tu esti mai norocoasa, ai profesor. Eu sunt autodidacta si intuitiva. Da' ma descurc. Acum citesc in paralel -engleza-romana - "Portretul lui Dorian Gray". Cititul in paralel mi se pare o metoda eficienta.
Succes! :-)))
That's all fine and everything ... but what happened to the big HEADER you have on the blog ? Let me guess .. you fiddled a bit with the layout and this is the outcome ? :-)
@Nicole: Stai ca mai am, acum e vorba doar de lucrarea de specializare. Sa vedem daca merit felicitari si dupa ce termin :-S.
@Marinela: Intr-adevar, cititul in paralel ajuta mult. Cat despre noroc, stiu ca am avut mult pentru a junge aici, dar asta e ceea ce-am ales sa studiez, e singurul lucru la care ma pricep cat de cat. Multi ma sfatuiau sa nu continuu cu studiul limbilor straine, dar am preferat un domeniu care ma pasioneaza decat unul mai "banos" si cu mai mult sanse.
@Mi: Stiam eu c-o sa ma certi :-). Intr-o noapte mi-a trecut prin cap ca o poza ar arata mai bine acolo, si chiar imi place, dar parca e prea mare :-P. Si nu stiu cum s-o fac mai mica. Si da. Si prefer asa decat deloc. Si si-asa nu scriu prea mult. Si asta e :-).
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